Beef

2003.05.28

My friend Chris claims that he's not going to eat beef anymore, seemingly out of fear of Mad Cow disease.

It's so disappointing.

People who are full fledged vegetarians are at least making a moral stand against eating animals. I can respect that, so long as they don't badger me, saying I should be a vegetarian too, or saying that they're somehow a better person. Chris won't stop eating chicken, or maybe even pork. He has no problem with killing animals for food, just as I have no problem with it. He's stopped eating beef solely because of fear.

Seriously, not eating beef for fear of Mad Cow is like not flying Heli-Jet because you're afraid a terrorist is going to blow up the helicopter on it's way to Victoria. The odds of either happening are probably about the same, and in both cases people who fear these things are textbook cases of the most mentally weak humans on the planet.

Nights

2003.05.27

I always find it difficult to make daily posts when I'm on the night shift. I certainly don't want to turn on my computer when I get home at 1:15 am, and it's tough to do it at 10:00 or so in the morning.

So, it'll be slow for the next week.

Things

2003.05.26

Every once and a while I try and organize all of the things in my general living space. Every time I do this I'm amazed at the amount of junk that even a 21 year old has managed to amass. I guess it's why people end up with boxes and boxes of stuff in their attics when they reach the end of their lives.

This isn't true with everyone of course. Some people aren't pack rats, but I get the impression that they're in the minority. After all, it's not the objects themselves which we cherish, but the memories they bring back.

Keeping the various things of our lives is like having an interactive photo album. It's one thing to have a picture of a childhood toy, but it's entirely different if you can pick up the toy and play with it again. Of course, there's also another reason why you should try and keep a lot of this stuff; the old universal rule. As soon as you throw it out, you'll be needing it within two weeks.

It never fails.

Enterforaprize

2003.05.22

Last night's season finale of Enterprise takes a reasonably good premise and actually manages to make it boring. Earth is attacked by an alien race, who fire a weapon at the planet which carves a massive scar from Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people. Now seven million people seems a little low considering what's being destroyed, but I suppose one could assume that the population hasn't made a comeback after WW3 yet. In any case, no big deal.

Interesting idea, even if it's an obvious 9/11 rip-off. The humans in Enterprise seem to react to the news in much the same way as the humans today reacted to 9/11. The first thing Archer and a good deal of the crew want to do is track down the aliens responsible and kick some ass. Somehow, between 2153 (Enterprise) and 2380 (TNG), Humans stop thinking this way. Picard's first reaction to an event like this would never be to "kick some alien ass", he would want to understand why it had happened. He would want to find a peaceful solution. How does this fundamental shift in Human thought process take place?

I have a good feeling that Enterprise will never try and answer this question, or any of the other really interesting ones. It would be hard for people to believe at this point that the Federation gets its start in the five years the show might have left. That in only five years Humans can change their ways. It seems more and more likely that the end of the series will involve a climactic battle, centered around a time device, that when "triggered", resets the timeline and erases the Temporal Cold War from history all together, along with the events of the entire series. The last scene of the last episode will be Archer in the shower, just before the Enterprise is due to launch.

It's a cool idea, but it's also a cop-out, and it's hardly original. My good friend Chris has some thoughts on Enterprise as well, which are worth reading. It's a sad day for the winning team.

Mad Cows

2003.05.21

So there's Mad Cow Disease in Alberta. Shit! I must admit I was never really very educated about what exactly the disease is or does, since it was always a "European" problem. No so anymore. One cow in Alberta has been confirmed to have the illness, so it and its entire herd are to be slaughtered. Good precaution I'd say.

With the US already banning imports of Canadian beef, the conspiracy theorist in me just can't resist a good theory. Softwood lumber, SARS, and now Mad Cow. Isn't it interesting that all of these things damage Canada and benefit the US during a period when the Canadian economy is the envy of the planet and the US' is in the tank? Did Toronto really warrant a WHO travel advisory?

Hmmmm. The gears turn. That they do.

Proportions

2003.05.20

I don't know what it is about me, but I can't stand bad proportions. Whether it's a piece of art or a person's body, bad proportions just rub me the wrong way. If I see someone on the street who's got short legs, eyes that are either too close together or too far apart, or who's head is too big, they may as well be clutching a big huge cigarette.

I guess it's just genetic programming. People or things that have incorrect proportions tend to have something wrong with them on a very basic level. It's simply the way nature works, and there's no way around it. I remember seeing a guy on the bus once who's head looked about fifty percent too small. There's an obvious curiosity about things like that, but at the same time you can feel something deep inside telling you to avoid the small headed man.

At least he didn't have a long neck ;)

Reloaded

2003.05.16

I'm still not sure what to make of The Matrix: Reloaded. I know I liked it, but I'm not sure how much. It's a very strange film I think, much more so than the first one. Speaking of which, Reloaded is not better than the first movie. I can say that much.

Still, it's very good. I think I'll try and see it again before making up my mind.

Matrix

2003.05.14

I'm going to see The Matrix: Reloaded tonight. I have no doubt that it's going to be amazing. I loved the first movie, so I hope it lives up to all the expectations and hype, if that's even possible. The good news is that despite the popularity of The Matrix, it doesn't have as much to live up to as Star Wars: Episode I, or Episode II, for that matter, did. It can't possibly fail as miserably as them.

Besides, the Wachowski brothers don't seem to be complete morons, unlike a certain "film maker" who's name will not be mentioned.

*cough* George Lucas *cough*

New remix.

Never Canadian Alliance

2003.05.12

MP Tells Gays to "shut up" about marriage

As much as I disagree with the Liberals here in Canada, it's things like this which make it impossible for me to vote Alliance. Any political party that bases itself on "traditional family values" has no place deciding equal rights issues, because their personal moral etiquette will always butt heads with the law and the Charter of Rights.

This backwards thinking nothing of a woman has permanently barred me from voting Alliance by saying just one thing: "Glory be to God to live in Canada, marriage is between Man and Woman."

Maybe we could ship her off to Iran? I hear they like to have religiously motivated politicians over there.

Bye Bye, Dan

2003.05.09

Well I hate to say it, but Dan Cloutier has got to go. Four goals on sixteen shots just isn't acceptable in the playoffs, especially when two of the goals are so obviously his fault. I could have stopped the shot on the 3rd Wild goal.

I really thought Dan had turned a corner after his meltdown last year, and while he didn't miss any shots from the other side of centre this time around, the effect was just as devastating. Obviously other members of the team are to blame as well, but it's just not possible to side step the Cloutier issue this time. Stopping three out of every four shots might mean something in Tyke hockey, but it sure isn't worth much during the NHL playoffs.

It's so depressing.

Wild 5, Canucks 1

2003.05.08

I'm too depressed to post today.

Say What?

2003.05.07

US Puts Baathists Back in Key Government Jobs

I'd like to maintain a certain degree of faith in American war planners and postwar builders, given the success of the campaign to date, but this sounds fishy even to me. I understand the logic of it, since these people know Iraq and know the systems. In this case however, it seems like "public service" experience is something that shouldn't be wanted. I mean seriously, reinstating the Baathist Minister of Education?

The Baathist/Nazi analogy is correct. Members of the Nazi party knew how Germany worked after WW2, but we didn't put them back in power because of it. If I were a lowly Iraqi citizen, a Shiite even, I would imagine that seeing the same government minder back at work under the Americans wouldn't fill me with confidence about American intentions. Non-Baath party members may not know how the plumbing system works, or the electrical grid, but they also weren't part of a brutally sadistic regime.

Get These People a Story

2003.05.06

CNN is desperately reaching out and trying to sink its claws into America's next big story. As soon as the war was over, viewers were treated to hours upon hours of coverage of "The Peterson Case". I haven't watched the network in a couple of weeks, so I'm not sure what they're doing now.

CNN is a little scary because it just doesn't seem normal for them to cover dozens of stories in a newscast like most of the other news organizations do. I suppose it could be said of any television network which airs news all day, but CNN seems especially good at focusing on one story at a time, for days on end. Everyone is interviewed. "Experts" are trotted out to describe each and every possible outcome. People watch.

It must be hard for CNN news anchors, who's job it is to not only report the news, but talk about it constantly. There can never be any dead air. If they aren't talking, they'd better be listening to someone talk. All the while they've got off camera crews yapping away into the earpiece, telling them what to do. No thanks.

Man, that was some rambling if I ever saw any. Ugh! The Canucks suck!

Dangerous Thinking

2003.05.05

In One Senator's View, No Right to Privacy

I have a huge issue with people who try to impose their own moral standard through the use of law. Now I'm obviously not talking about killing people, or stealing. No one has the right to do that. I'm talking about the people who think that only certain types of families are acceptable, only certain types of sex, only certain types of faith. It's people like this asshole Senator who give America a bad name. He's walking a very thin line between thinking like a Westerner and thinking like a Taliban.

The really horrible thing in this particular case is that this Senator isn't only saying that he personally disagrees with what some people do in their homes, but that they shouldn't even have the right to do so in the first place. He's actually got the gall to suggest that an individual's right to privacy isn't protected by the Constitution of the United States of America. It sounds to me like Mr. Santorum needs to go back to kindergarten and pass USA 101.

New remix today.

Unusual

2003.05.02

Senators say NASA's $15.5 Billion budget request too low

It sure is unusual for the government to suggest giving more money to any of its organizations, but in this case, it's very nice to hear. It still doesn't solve the fundamental problems from which NASA suffers however. It's going to take a lot more than money to do that.

NASA is an organization of managers. NASA basically administers a plethora of private, contracting companies, who are the ones doing all of the real work. Private companies build the ships, the rockets, the satellites. Private companies design most of the technical systems. NASA itself doesn't really work on the space program the way it used to, it only manages the program.

Is this the best way to run Humanity's top space agency? It's a tough call. Just ask yourself, when was the last time you were excited about the work NASA is doing? It was kinda cool when they fixed Hubble. The International Space Station is kinda cool too. You know what's really cool though? Walking on the Moon is cool. Sending Humans to Mars is cool. Telescope repair doesn't motivate school children to learn math or physics, or to study engineering. Even if those kids never get the chance to walk on Mars, would they consider it a waste? Would they have still pushed themselves to try and reach their dreams knowing the most they could look forward to would be a glorified construction worker? Is that the kind of motivation we can put a price tag on?

Maybe the reason kids aren't becoming aeronautical engineers or rocket scientists anymore is because those guys don't do anything exciting anymore. Sooner or later, when the 40-50 year old population of our aeronautics and space workforce retires or dies, we're going to have a huge gap.

Does anyone else find it pathetic that I'm more excited about China's first manned launch than I am about seeing the Shuttle back in service?

Tax Sucks!

2003.05.01

Finally got my income taxes done this week, with one day to spare! Giving money to the government sucks, especially when it's a lot of money at once. I suppose I have to do my part to hold the fabric of society together, but it's still quite annoying.

Oh well, I suppose having no money for a couple of months won't be too horrible. Of course, I still have to pay for Canucks' playoff tickets, which will get more and more expensive since we're GOING TO THE FINALS BABY!!! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO CANUCKS GO!!!! GO CANUCKS GO!!!! GO CANUCKS GO!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!