And by TRUE, I mean FALSE

2007-01-03T23:40:00.000-06:00

Here's the Simpsons clip from which this blog derives its name*

* In German

It's been a long time...

2007-01-03T22:39:00.000-06:00

Is anyone still listening? I mean, aside from the bots...

My 3.5-year-old Canon Powershot A70 has been increasingly wonky of late. Weird purple blurred images showing up - both on the LCD screen and in images taken while the LCD is showing this effect.

I spent some time looking at new digital cameras and decided if I was going to buy a new camera, it would be a Canon Powershot A630 (available for around $350 at Don's Photo). As I was pouring over the stats and reviews, I googled "canon digital error" or something like that and learned of the "E18" error that plagued a lot of the Powershot cameras of my vintage. I've never had it, but as I was stumbling from link to link I found out that there's an inherent problem with the CCD's on a huge range of digital cameras from that era (including my A70).

Bottom line: I'm eligible for a free repair. That's nice, because the camera takes decent photos and has lots of user-controllable settings to play with (sometimes I actually get it right). And who wants to spend $300+ every few years for a camera? Aren't cameras supposed to last? I still have my dad's Pentax K-1000 from the 70's. My mom used her Canon SureShot for about 15 years before I bought her a digital for her birthday. So, a free fix - here's to a couple more years before I have to drop $300!

Marburg

2005-05-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

Marburg is related to Ebola somehow. Apparently it's ravaging Angola at the moment and things aren't going very well. Bigwig at Silflay Hraka is doing a good job of staying on top of any news that trickles out of the area. He does a little editorializing to boot...

Silflay Hraka: Marburg

Victor Davis Hanson on the War on Terror National Review Online

2005-04-24T21:57:00.000-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson on the War on Terror National Review Online: "Winning the War"

The Australian Mark Steyn

2005-04-14T15:33:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Tim doesn't have Mark's presence in print columns, nor Mark's hideously busy Web site design sense. But he is one Aussie I wouldn't mind tiliting a few mugs with. Actually I would drink beer with any Aussie...except maybe that girl I met in New Orleans who looked like Paul McCartney. It wouldn't have been so bad if my buddy hadn't pointed that awkward fact out to her. Anyway, that would be a little uncomfortable, I'd imagine. Oh, and the singer from Midnight Oil sounds like a bit of a tool as well - he'd probably drone on about the environment or some shit...not beer talk, buddy.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Aussie Second Coming. Tim Blair on sheikhs...

The Collapse of the EU

2005-04-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

Interesting post at Ankle Biting Pundits (via Instapundit). The comments are fairly good, too. Mr. Green's been to Europe - maybe he can shed some light.

Seat Projection

2005-04-14T14:48:00.000-05:00

Here's an Excel Spreadsheet built by Don at All Things Canadian. Pop in regional poll numbers and calculate how that might translate into seats across the country.

Via bound by gravity.

Ahenakew and Nelson

2005-04-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

Our old friend Raskolnikov is back - if you've never read his stuff before, he's an aboriginal from Winnipeg who doesn't exactly toe the Louis Stevenson line. Check it out...as Glenn Reynolds might say: Ouch...

Ahenakew and Nelson:

Via The Shotgun

101-280: Everybody Knows - 4: Clip and Save!

2005-04-10T23:26:00.000-05:00

101-280: Everybody Knows - 4: Clip and Save!

Nice roundup of the front pages of various Canadian newspapers the day after Gomery lifted the ban. I quite like the Winnipeg Sun's choice...

I like Justice!

2005-04-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

I've always been in favour of justice...here's more proof:

You scored as Justice (Fairness).

Your life is guided by the concept of Fair Justice: Everyone, yourself included, should be rewarded and punished according to the help or harm they cause.

"He who does not punish evil commands it to be done."
--Leonardo da Vinci

“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.”
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

Justice (Fairness)

75%

Kantianism

70%

Strong Egoism

70%

Hedonism

65%

Existentialism

60%

Utilitarianism

55%

Apathy

40%

Nihilism

20%

Divine Command

20%

Take the quiz yourself at: http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=13060

The Famous "Sushi Pants" story

2005-04-08T23:09:00.000-05:00

I've only been this hammered a couple of times. It's not something you want to do a whole lot. I wish I'd had the old portable breathalyzer when I was younger. It would have made for some good stories. I did blow in the breathalyzer at The Pyramid way back when - I had about 12 beers and blew a 0.08...not too shabby. I can also assure you I didn't take a cab home that night either...

"The Famous 'Sushi Pants' story"

Publication Ban Lifted

2005-04-07T15:24:00.000-05:00

Looks like Gomery has decided to partially lift the publication ban - the only parts still covered by the ban are those directly related to Brault's upcoming criminal fraud case. But you all probably knew that anyway.

More at:

Captain's Quarters
CTV
CBC - kinda burying the lede if you just see the headline, eh? "Donations to Liberals led to sponsorship work: Brault" - ok, then...no big deal.

GMonkey

2005-04-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

Looks like the dream of a monkey army might be slipping away...

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/node/7482

On the other hand, with global warming, there should be lots of new territory opening up in previously frigid climates. Of course, with some DNA samples and gene sequencing, we should be able to recreate any species that manages to fumble its way into the dustbin of natural selection in the near future...we might also want to gengineer in some kind of gene that allows the "Horton Plains slender loris" to survive on food other than ripe guavaberries, or whatever ultra-niche food it eats.

If only capitalism and rule of law were a little more prevalent in Africa, the people wouldn't be forced to go "bushmeat hunting" so much as "Safewaymeat buying." But hey, all cultures are equal. Seacrest out!

Own Goal

2005-04-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

"OWN GOAL"

If you're not reading Tim Blair on a regular basis, well, I understand - he's all the way in Australia and - wait...this is the Internet. You should check it out. I'd suggest skipping all the stuff about Aussie politics, but a lot of it is damn funny. For example, if you do a Google search for the phrase "Baldy McRich"...

You may safely skip the posts on cricket, however.

Penny Arcade - Liar's Day

2005-04-03T00:29:00.000-06:00

Hey - these are good ideas...
Penny Arcade - Liar's Day

TheStar.com - Canada maintained ties despite torture revelation

2005-04-01T19:31:00.000-06:00

TheStar.com - Canada maintained ties despite torture revelation

More "soft power" diplomacy I guess. Hope Lloyd is enjoying this...

Blogging, etc...

2005-03-29T22:19:00.000-06:00

"Blog like never before," indeed...

Actually I have been blogging, just not here. Please visit Random Truths at Bloglines.

The Bloglines setup has worked much better for me, so that's why I'm using it, despite its shortcomings (no nice looking templates, no real customization at all, no comments, weak post-entry UI).

I've been using an RSS aggregator for some time - Sharpreader was my original choice. The problem was I read blogs from various computers spread across the planet and it was difficult to keep different copies of Sharpreader synched. I always had a somewhat different list of blogs depending on where I was sitting. Also, I'd sift through a lot of posts I'd already seen, so there was hassle involved in just finding the point where I'd left off.

Bloglines solved all that. No matter where I am, I can pick up where I left off, and if I add a blog at home, for example, it shows up at work (not that I read blogs while I'm at work, of course...this is a purely hypothetical example).

Bloglines makes it easy to blog posts you're viewing. I'm more of a 'linker' than a 'thinker' anyway, so it's a good fit.

However, now that I'm using Firefox, I can probably find some cool Blogspot plugin that will allow me to merge Bloglines ease-of-use posting with the robust feature set of Blogger. And when that happens, I will truly blog like a man on fire (which is to say, not much, due to the fire and all).

Excuses, excuses...

2005-01-21T01:35:00.000-06:00

Just to catch up on the last couple of months:

Both my children and my wife celebrated their birthdays.
If's and But's WERE candies and nuts, so we all had a Merry Christmas.
I've had at least 4 colds and was on some antibiotics for a week (at which point I experienced a full week of good health).
I quit smoking again (the September quit didn't last more than a week or so). I'm currently on day 14. It's going very well so far...
Canada won the World Juniors - I caught an exhibition game at the new MTS Centre in Winnipeg. Man, Sidney Crosby is something...
I ate nothing but the aforementioned candies and nuts between December 24 and January 4.
I discovered I've been running a bit of a deficit over the last year. By "a bit" I mean "ridiculous" - like NDP-government ridiculous.
Tsunami in Asia kills hundreds of thousands...world falls all over itself to help. UN coordinates.

"Excuses, excuses..." my junior high geography teacher used to say whenever one of his students would blame his lack of sharp pencils, hockey tournaments, illness, or grandparent's death for not being able to complete an assignment on time. Well, I have no excuses to offer for being off the blog for so long. Actually I do, but they're lame, so I won't bother. Be assured: now that I'm back, I'm going to blog like never before. I'm just making that up. Good day, sir!

Advertising McCrap

2005-01-21T01:10:00.000-06:00

Whoa...uh...Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc.

Canadiancomment has a post that sums it up about crappy advertising:

Jarrod should be in about as many commercials as Robert Blake, he has that kind of effect on people.
...
The only team of ad gurus that are worse than the Subway gang, are the morons from McCains who thought it would be a good idea to bring back the little kid who eats fries and doesn't talk.

Amen! I've long despised McCains' ads - anything they're selling, the ads are guaranteed to be godawful. And as for Jarrod, well, to say "this whole Jarrod thing has been getting old now for about two years" is a gross understatement.

Although, as you can see from this ad by Volkswagon, there is some good work being done in the field of advertising. Now that we've free associated our way from Jarrod to McCains hell to good car ads, well, I can't let things go without a link to the Dancing Citroen...why it's dancing on the roof of a parking garage in Vancouver is beyond me.

All this thanks to canadiancomment.

Quality

2004-11-25T23:51:00.000-06:00

I've been visiting canadiancomment quite a bit lately. If you haven't been there yet, check it out. Bob and Dana post pretty frequently (unlike some other blogs I can think of) and I invariably find something worth reading. It's a heady mix of interesting links and trenchant commentary - and that's about the highest praise I can give a blog.

And I couldn't mention canadiancomment without mentioning my other favorite Canadian blogs:

Snap-Crackle-Zinc

2004-11-25T23:08:00.000-06:00

I tried to post here a few days ago, but something was messed up with Blogger and it never happened. You sure didn't miss much - just a bitchfest about my health. Speaking of which...

I felt like I was coming down with a cold the other day. Lileks is continually praising the wonders of zinc on the Bleat, so I grabbed some zinc/vitamin C losanges. It seems to have done the trick. I'll keep this in mind, since I've had (as you may know) 132 colds since July of this year.

In other health news, I finally broke down and went to the chiropracter this morning after triggering another back spasm yesterday evening and having a terrible, sleepless night full of pain. I injured my back originally about a week ago and have been enduring some degree of pain ever since. Chiropractic is a weird combination of science and pseudo-science. Manipulating the spine can truly help relieve pain and correct a problem. But some of the methods chiropracters use are just bunk. All this rubbish about needing to see a chiro every month for "maintenance," for example. "Subluxations" of the spine causing virtually all health problems is another notion that reeks of junk science. Why don't we try magnets and crystals while we're at it. That being said, chiropracters know the back and spine pretty well. After a few snap-crackle-pop minutes on the table, and a couple of hours of ice, my back feels pretty good. I'm going back tomorrow for a follow-up, but I think this may have solved the problem. Or perhaps Dr. Knuckles snapped my spine on the table and I died, but I'm one of those 6th Sense ghosts who doesn't realize they're dead...hard to say.

That didn't take long!

2004-11-10T23:37:00.000-06:00

Wow...I put Arafat's picture up on the site and less than 24 hours later he's dead.

Let this be a warning to all who oppose me!

Rummy!

2004-11-09T23:42:00.000-06:00

From Monday's Press Briefing by U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld:

[...]
With that, we'll take your questions.

SEC. RUMSFELD: Charlie?

Q Mr. Secretary, you said that much still needs to be done here at the Pentagon. And as, I guess, the chief architect and champion of transformation, there has been a lot of speculation about your future here. And realizing that you serve at the pleasure of the president, sir, I wonder if you hope and plan to stay on here at the Pentagon and move transformation further down the road and see the Iraq problem through. Would you plan to stay on, sir, for at least a year, say? Or do you hope to stay on?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Charlie. (Laughter.) The president has spoken on this issue. He went to Camp David. He's thinking about his administration for the future. I've met with him two or three times on totally different subjects since the election, but that's not a subject that's come up. And needless to say, either one of us would discuss it with the other before discussing it with you. (Laughter.)

Q Well, would you -- you said --

SEC. RUMSFELD: As much respect as we have for you.
[...]

Heh...

When will it end?

2004-11-09T22:55:00.000-06:00

I wonder if something like this is taking place in France as I write this...

From the Voodoo Lounge.

Wiki-wiki-wiki

2004-11-08T01:27:00.000-06:00

Wikipedia...it's not just fun to say. The U.S. Presidential Election 2004 page is a wealth of information. Even better are the links at the bottom to every other U.S. Presidential election. Who carried California in 1912, you ask? Why, Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party (aka the "Bull Moose" party), of course. The maps accompanying most of the historical election pages are great - you can see that North Dakota had 5 electoral votes in 1912...more than Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah or Wyoming. ND was only one EV behind Florida (6) back then...it boggles the mind.

That wasn't so bad now, was it?

2004-11-05T01:23:00.000-06:00

Earlier this year I called Bush to win the presidency and carry 49 states (Kerry winning Massachusetts and D.C.). I didn't have a blog back then, but I can put you in touch with some people who heard my outrageous prediction and can vouch for me.

Anyway, it wasn't 49 states. But Bush won. As they say, "it's all over but the crying" - and there certainly is some crying.

Protein Wisdom has a nice roundup of Democratic vitriol. There's worse stuff than that out there if you're interested. And don't miss Belmont Club's look at the fun and games...

You might also like to see how the vote broke down by county.

I'm not sure what to make of this. I mean, I agree - but I can't believe it's a Democrat who wrote it (at least, not a Democrat who voted for Kerry).

This turned into a bit of a link roundup...and this is just what I stumbled across in the last hour or so. I'm never going to finish reading the Internet, dammit.

It's green and it folds

2004-10-27T22:15:00.000-05:00

Glenn Reynolds has turned Instapundit over to guest bloggers this week. They're doing a pretty good job. Of course they're not Glenn Reynolds, but that's not necessarily a bad thing (I like nanotech as much as the next guy, but I can live without it for a week or two - but ask me again in 40 years whether I can live without it).

Megan McArdle, who runs Asymmetrical Information under the irony-free pseudonym "Jane Galt," is fond of using the phrase "it's green and it folds," in reference to money. Well, she's used it twice today. I don't know if it's a pathological condition.

In other news: BUSH GIVES "THE FINGER!" That video clip is about 10 years old and pretty amusing. I'd like to see him pull that at the UN sometime...

Also: Lileks today is worth your time:

Imagine FDR running a war with a press composed of cynical snickerers who derided the president as a rich old cripple who thought the best way to defeat Tojo was a war in North Africa and preached defeat every day through the hard slog of the Pacific theater. Imagine running a war with an entertainment industry that declined to make a single movie about the conflict - why, imagine a "Casablanca" where Rick and Sam argue about whether America started it all because they didn’t support the League of Nations.

That is all.

Are you lacking convictions, or full of passionate intensity?

2004-10-23T01:40:00.000-05:00

When did Belmont Club turn into a poetry blog? Or did I just not notice the poetry before? Whatever the case, Belmont Club is worth checking out regularly...and not just for the poetry.

The Second Coming - W. B. Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

An Atlas Shrugged Moment...

2004-10-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

In this case, the role of Hank Reardon is being played by a Catholic Bishop, oddly enough...

The Money(tm) Quote:

"I got the impression that he expected me to cave in, profess my guilt and do public penance and I refused," said Henry, who added that the bureaucrat said he was going to write a report to his superior about Henry.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Licia_Corbella/2004/10/21/678342.html

Thanks to Polspy: this entry pretty much sums up all the BS that's been happening in Canada over the last month (at least all the BS that's caught the attention of the Canadian Right blogosphere).

Greatest...movie...ever

2004-10-18T11:18:00.000-05:00

I couldn't quite get a read on what Reg thought of it, but for my part, I thought Team America: World Police may be the finest film ever made. America...f*ck yeah! I noticed that the laughs were uproarious during the parts ridiculing the over-the-top Bruckheimer style rah-rah USA! USA! stuff, but a stunned hush fell over the crowd when Michael Moore and Sean Penn were mocked. Well, this is Canada and St. Michael sits at the right hand of God. I thought the whole thing was funny from beginning to end...as Reg pointed out, "You just never tire of hearing marionettes say 'f*ck'!" No, I don't.

Also speaking of the greatest: How 'bout CBC's Greatest Canadian http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/?

Apparently a local radio host made the list, but CBC has declined to include him. From the Shotgun:

"Update: Hal Anderson of Winnipeg's Power 97 got out the vote and made the list. A CBC talking head sneered that this is an example of the failure of direct democracy. The sneer was right but only because the CBC chose to say no more about Mr. Anderson despite people having voted for him. A failure of democracy indeed. At least Mr. Dressup (an American) made the list."

We should really get my "smoking hole in the ground" plan for the CBC rolling...

There was a lot of good stuff posted over the weekend at the Shotgun...another CBC story about MotherCorp's hypocracy...Nova Scotia's vote to "continue on their path of economic self-destruction." Check it out if you've got a few minutes.

Google Desktop

2004-10-16T18:46:00.000-05:00

It's pretty cool. Searches local Outlook/Outlook Express emails, text files, visited HTML pages and the typical Word/Powerpoint/Excel trinity. You can turn off whatever you don't want it to index...for example, say for some reason you didn't want your HTML history indexed, you can tell Google to ignore it.

http://www.desktop.google.com/

Thanks: Canadians are Smug.

I've got nothing against Chinese folks, but...

2004-10-16T18:04:00.000-05:00

...what exactly do you think would normally follow that "but?" If someone were to start off a sentence like that in a conversation with me, I'd instinctively cringe for the derogatory conclusion. You wouldn't finish off with "boy are they making strides in their economy," or "I hope they follow through with their moon-landing plan." No, a more logical ending would be something like "they sure are short," or perhaps "they sure are short, except for Yao Ming."

So when John Kerry says:

"I'll never give a veto to any country over our security. But . . ."

"I believe in being strong and resolute and determined. And I will hunt down and kill the terrorists, wherever they are. But . . ."

"I have nothing but respect for the British, Tony Blair, and for what they've been willing to do. But . . ."

"I couldn't agree more that the Iraqis want to be free and that they could be free. But . . ."

I agree with some of what he's saying, but not all of it...

(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the fodder)

Hiatus

2004-10-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted in a few days...9 to be exact. Here's what happened:

Last Wednesday night I started coming down with another cold. What's that? My 10th since Labour Day? Anyway, this was like all the other colds rolled into one, plus a touch of flu-like aches and pains. I wasn't particularly hungry either, but I wasn't nauseaous. Thursday I just lay around the house. Friday, I dragged myself into work to pull Communications' ass out of the fire (again) in the morning and went home at lunch to sleep all afternoon. Saturday I loaded up the family for a trip to the lake - Thanksgiving weekend is shutdown time. I spent Sunday enjoying the weather and getting a start on the shutdown procedure. We went for dinner at the Landing at West Hawk - very nice Thanksgiving spread there (I had a steak sandwich - I'm not much of a turkey fan). Monday, the shutdown began in earnest. I kicked the rest of the family out so I could work in peace and got everything winched, drained and winterized. Tuesday, I didn't feel like blogging. Sorry. Yesterday I felt like blogging but I kept it to email (I'll repost the links here so if you're ever looking for that list of bizarre sex laws, you'll have a quick reference).

Anyway, I'm back for at least a post today. As always, gird your whatevers...

Linking, not thinking

2004-10-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

It's been kinda quiet here for the last few days. I'm sure that's concerning all 0 of you closely following developments on this blog. Well, the drought has ended...behold:

Paul Wells on the nature of news (more specifically, speculation reported as news).

Fred Reed on the decline of education and the new dark ages. (Thanks to Trudeaupia).

Finally, a review of "Team America: World Police" - the best synthesis of Trey Parker and Matt Stone Southpark zeitgeist with Thunderbirds-style marionettes you'll see this fall. (Thanks to Kate McMillan at the Shotgun).

Maybe I should have broken this up into three posts. You know, pad the stats a little?

Death to the CRTC!

2004-10-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

This could definitely put the CRTC out of business. Can't happen soon enough!

Via Canadians are Smug and Colby Cosh.

Aw hell...

2004-09-30T01:25:00.000-05:00

Well, the National Post just can't seem to keep a good thing going. One day it's defiantly using the word "terrorist" when talking about...uh...terrorists. The next, it's letting Colby Cosh go...

I think Colby won all our hearts with this story. If you're too damn busy to read it, at least read the closing line:

When the world was young, and the government took 20% of your paycheque and gave you services that worked, you might be willing to remain what economists call "rationally ignorant" about the details. Now maybe 40% of that cheque vanishes, your mother's coughing blood in the hallway of the nearest ER, and your country has no army. And here comes the guy from the CBC telling you that his expense account should be a state secret. No sale, comrade.

Fit to Print

2004-09-29T18:33:00.000-05:00

Can I ask a question?

What the hell does the press think it's doing?

Hat tip: Allah

Allah points out that this is set against the background portrayed in "Unholy Alliance" - that the Left has made common cause with radical Islam.

Is it a Web Comic ye be needin'?

2004-09-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

Look no further: Penny Arcade.

PA covers the world of video games for virtually all platforms (PC, Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, GBA, etc.). If you're not into the games, you'll be surprised at how funny...this...all...can...be. Well, it's not all video games - I enjoyed their take on spyware, for example.

Gabe & Tycho organized a bit of a charity toy drive around last Christmas and wound up scoring "almost $200,000 in toys and cash," from Penny Arcade readers. The booty was donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital, I believe. Some people think this is grandstanding. Well, here...read the post. Is that a joke? I mean, I'm as cynical as the next guy, but come on...

Stalincare

2004-09-28T13:02:00.000-05:00

The Freeway To Serfdom is one of my regular stops. It's the hip, young face of libertarianism! Proprietor Jay Jardine's favourite topics include Canada's sorry socialized medicine system (Stalincare) and the CBC (see: Memo to the Castro Bootlicking Corporation for an example of his excellent work in this area).

Today's message goes out to Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman. Apparently an evil American for-profit company called "Life Line" is running mobile testing clinics. For $200 they'll whip out some doppler radar ultrasound machine to have a look at the state of your clogged arteries. Well, according to Mr. Smitherman, this will not stand! Read up. Is this what Canada's about? The answer is: yes.

A9

2004-09-28T01:06:00.000-05:00

So Amazon.com is getting into the search engine portal business with a9.com

I've always been impressed with Amazon. Their site sets the standard for online shopping. I'm sticking with the Google toolbar at home, but I've switched my work PC over to the A9 toolbar. I'll report my experiences with A9 here in the coming days. Stay tuned...

Unfortunate Whale Speared by Cruise Ship

2004-09-28T01:02:00.000-05:00

Damn "U.S. cruise ship!" Actually, I think it's registered in the Bahamas...

I used the Blog This button from the Google toolbar to enter this post. Interesting. Not sure if I can use it without going back to edit things, but I like the idea.

Smoking

2004-09-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

It seems the more I quit, the less the withdrawal bothers me. The last time I quit, I used Nicorette to handle the cravings - there was quite an ad blitz for the stuff last winter/spring and a friend of mine had successfully quit using it, so I gave it a shot. It worked as well as cold-turkey. I can't say if it's any better. I'm going cold turkey right now and I'm not running after my wife with knives or even losing my temper that much. Ironically, the fact that I don't find quitting that difficult is one of the things that leads me back to smoking. "Well, I'll just quit again. No problem!" The problem is deciding to quit, not the actual quitting.

Tomorrow will be the true test. Work always provides unique stresses, and I have smoking friends there. The slippery-slope back to addiction always starts at work. One after lunch leads to one at every break leads to me buying a pack.

Lost...

2004-09-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

I don't watch a whole lot of network TV, but Lost looks pretty interesting right off the hop. I'm morbidly attracted to anything with a plane crash scene. If you saw the premiere of Lost, right at the beginning when the plane has crashed but one of the engines is still running - that sound gave me the creeps. Anyway, it'll be on my list of shows I attempt to catch this year.

Steyn

2004-09-25T17:55:00.000-05:00

Mark Steyn is always worth reading:

Given his frequent boasts that he knows how to reach out to America's allies, it's remarkable how often he feels the need to insult them: Britain, Australia, and now free Iraq. But, because this pampered cipher has floundered for 18 months to find any rationale for his candidacy other than his indestructible belief in his own indispensability, Kerry finds himself a month before the election with no platform to run on other than American defeat.

Read the whole thing

You might just want to visit his site and read everything...

In General...

2004-09-25T17:14:00.000-05:00

Ah, the numbers may be sequential, but the thoughts may be a random mess.

1) I'm quitting smoking, again. I've tried this before and I'm just generally messed-up for the first 48-72 hours after I quit. Just like the sad cycle of international response to genocide, I have my own stages of quitting: (1) 72 hours of physical adjustment (2) mellowing out (there, that wasn't so bad, was it?) (3) "just one smoke" (4) constant borrowing of cigarettes from friends (5) buying my own pack (at which point, I'm officially a smoker again).

2) I saw "Shaun of the Dead" last night. You should see this movie.

3) I have another cold - my third since July. It came on fast, so hopefully it will run its course and be gone just as quick. Colds these days seem to pack more punch than they used to: is it my aging immune system or a sign of coming viral apocalypse?

4) Ray Bradbury's short story, "A Sound of Thunder" is apparently the basis of an upcoming movie with the same name. The trailer looks good up until about halfway through, when apparently it departs from the original story and strikes off in a bold new Hollywoodish direction...Read the original story and check out the trailer and you'll see what I mean.

You may recognize the main theme of "A Sound of Thunder" from the Simpsons episode where Homer has that wacky time-traveling toaster.

The United Nations

2004-09-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

From "Another Triumph for the U.N." by David Brooks in today's New York Times:

Every time there is an ongoing atrocity, we watch the world community go through the same series of stages: (1) shock and concern (2) gathering resolve (3) fruitless negotiation (4) pathetic inaction (5) shame and humiliation (6) steadfast vows to never let this happen again.

The "never again" always comes. But still, we have all agreed, this sad cycle is better than having some impromptu coalition of nations actually go in "unilaterally" and do something. That would lack legitimacy! Strain alliances! Menace international law! Threaten the multilateral ideal!

Via Instapundit

FahrenHYPE 9/11

2004-09-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

Apparently there are now some questions being raised as to the validity of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. First Rather, now this? What's the world coming to? Well, check out the trailer.

Thanks to Instapundit -> JunkYardBlog

A Thorough Fisking

2004-09-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

Here's an example of a thorough "fisking." One day, perhaps I'll fisk something on these very pages.

Praise Allah for the link.

Obligatory Rathergate Posting

2004-09-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

I suppose I should mention Ra^thergate. Or "Danron" if you prefer. Well, here are my thoughts:

I'm beginning to feel some fatigue over this story. I don't know how Glenn Reynolds, et al, can keep it up. I'm not sure if this has helped or hurt either candidate - keeping John Kerry out of Americans' faces for a couple of weeks certainly isn't going to hurt him, and Bush looked pretty good back in his TANG days.

A catchy name to sum up a story really helps: "Danron" and "Ra^thergate" sure beat the pants off of "That-thing-with-Dan-Rather-and-those-fake-memos-about-Bush's-National-Guard-service." I guess that's Marketing 101, eh?

Some of the anti-Bush folks are deriding the "blogger triumphalism" that the right wing blogs are feeling about this whole thing. Gloating's never cool, but in this case, I fall in with the folks who beleive we're seeing something important happening here.

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true." - Demosthenes. In this case, what an entire news organization wishes, but that shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone. Blogs have long been pointing out that the media often have the storyline predetermined and will ignore inconvenient facts that don't fit with whatever they've got in mind (and emphasize facts that support their story). And of course, Demosthenes made his case almost 2,400 years ago...

I'm sure I'll be revisting this topic soon. You might enjoy this from Bryan Curtis at Slate [via Instapundit]

That's just great...

2004-09-21T16:53:00.000-05:00

So, I start this blog in the wee hours of Monday morning.

Dateline: Tuesday

That seals it! Pass the Prozac, Celexa, Wellbutrin...whatever you got. I'm not picky.

The President of the United States of America

2004-09-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

I've always found US politics much more interesting than Canadian politics. Not that we don't have our interesting political intrigues here in Canada...

It's hard to keep up with all the latest polls and national polls don't always mean a whole lot since the US's electoral college makes voting results in individual states more important.

tripias.com's State by State 2004 offers a compendium of state by state polls across the US, organized into a nice red and blue map to show you the predicted picture if the election were held today ("today" being the day the individual polls were taken). As of this writing it's predicting a Bush victory (331 to 207 electoral college votes - 270 are needed to win).

If you want to try out some scenarios, check out Opinion Journal's Electoral College Calculator. There are a few pre-defined historical scenarios: 1984's battle between Republican incumbent Ronald Reagan and Minnesota's Democratic candidade Walter Mondale. Electoral whup-ass! Ouch...

Awful dark in here...

2004-09-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

Back when the Web was relatively new, I whipped up a couple of sites for personal use. I tried to apply some consistency to the pages - something that was sorely lacking on many sites at the time. Using frames was one of the questionable design decisions I made. Other than that, I think they'd stand up today as examples of fairly good design compared against the other sites of the time.

One 'rule' of Web design came to me from Web Pages that Suck - sites with a black background and colour scheme are pretentious. So I'm not sure why I chose the black theme here. I think it's going to change soon. Not because it's prententious - more because it's depressing. I can see a lot of angry screeds with this grey-text-on-black-background theme. And that's not what I'm about, is it?

Just a Note...

2004-09-20T02:03:00.000-05:00

The site url is "random-numbers.blogspot.com" but there won't be a whole lot in the way of numerics or mathematics here.

The name of the site is "And by TRUE, I mean FALSE," which is a quote from a Simpsons episode:

"Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is: No."

Finally

2004-09-20T01:50:00.000-05:00

Well, today's been a hell of a day.

Apparently I can't VPN to get my work email from home. I'm not sure what's wrong with work Webmail, but count me pissed-off.

So I drive down to the office at Midnight. Apparently I'm no longer allowed to log in at 12:14am on a Monday morning. Hmmm...I must have missed that memo. Well, that's only 45 minutes wasted driving around in the middle of the night.

Back at home in the dark, I make my way silently to the bedroom to tell my wife I'm back from the office. BOOM! I snap off about half my big toenail on a Goddamn suitcase my wife left in the middle of the hallway to "remind" me to take it downstairs.

Now I'm running around the house swearing. My toe's bleeding like a stuck pig. I can't do the work I need to have done for tomorrow ("Well maybe you should've thought about starting before midnight on Monday." Yeah, yeah, stfu). Seems like as good a time as any to set up a blog...

And by TRUE, I mean FALSE

And by TRUE, I mean FALSE

It's been a long time...

Marburg

Victor Davis Hanson on the War on Terror National Review Online

The Australian Mark Steyn

The Collapse of the EU

Seat Projection

Ahenakew and Nelson

101-280: Everybody Knows - 4: Clip and Save!

I like Justice!

The Famous "Sushi Pants" story

Publication Ban Lifted

GMonkey

Own Goal

Penny Arcade - Liar's Day

TheStar.com - Canada maintained ties despite torture revelation

Blogging, etc...

Excuses, excuses...

Advertising McCrap

Quality

Snap-Crackle-Zinc

That didn't take long!

Rummy!

When will it end?

Wiki-wiki-wiki

That wasn't so bad now, was it?

It's green and it folds

Are you lacking convictions, or full of passionate intensity?

An Atlas Shrugged Moment...

Greatest...movie...ever

Google Desktop

I've got nothing against Chinese folks, but...

Hiatus

Linking, not thinking

Death to the CRTC!

Aw hell...

Fit to Print

Is it a Web Comic ye be needin'?

Stalincare

A9

Unfortunate Whale Speared by Cruise Ship

Smoking

Lost...

Steyn

In General...

The United Nations

Blogroll Revisited

FahrenHYPE 9/11

A Thorough Fisking

Blogroll

Obligatory Rathergate Posting

That's just great...

The President of the United States of America

Awful dark in here...

Just a Note...

Finally