29 August 2003 : 17.07 I tried with Buffy.. I really did. I've watched a few episodes, but they've all been mindless pap. Predictable writing, angsty teenager Acting, etc. One of those things that everyone's into, but I just don't see the appeal. [shrug] Now, can anyone tell me why in the hell someone would write a Doctor Who/Dawson's Creek crossover? I thought that the Absolutely Fabulous/Farscape one was stupid, but there's no comparison.. 28 August 2003 : 15.30 Speaking of Farscape, I just watched the episode Twice Shy, where a strange alien creature called Talika comes aboard and sucks an emotion out of each member of the crew, and then Lister goes after it with a major, and I mean major leaflet campaign, and.. no, wait. That was Polymorph from Red Dwarf. Much the same thing, though. A chameleonic lifeform which salivates unspeakable slobber is loose aboard the ship, and the crew forms a Committee for the Liberation and Integration of Terrifying Organisms and their Rehabilitation Into Society. Or something like that. I'll photoshop D'argo into a "Give quiche a chance" t-shirt when I have a minute. I hope that it was an homage, not a blatant rip-off. I've become quite fond of Farscape, and I'd like to think that it was more original than that. 28 August 2003 : 13.20 Downloaded a music video of Peter Gabriel's Kiss That Frog. Now the song won't get out of my head. But as fan videos go, it's not bad. More from the same creator here. And more videos in general here. 27 August 2003 : 13.55 On a lighter note, I took my motorcycle boots back to the shop from which I bought them, since they didn't fit with my new pants, and ordered their replacement. They gave me too much of a credit, and the new boots are less expensive than the ones that I returned, so I actually made money on this purchase. :) [sigh] You know you're attention deficit when it takes you three weeks to finally get around to going to your doctor to renew your prescription, you put the precious prescription paper into your wallet so that it will be safe, and the next morning you find your wallet in the bottom of the washing machine. Ah well. Maybe the prescription is still readable enough that they can use it at the pharmacy. Heh, this morning, heard on the radio: "And this week's mass shooting spree in america took place in Chicago." Good thing they don't have gun control, huh? Everyone's so much safer without it. I was out the other day, and on the side of a sheltered bus stop I saw an american flag sticker that someone had put up. Someone else had tried to peel it off again, and still another person had written "BOO!" over it with bold black marker. Now, I go to drink hot chocolate. 27 August 2003 : 13.18 Perhaps I'm too sensitive. My parents had to have some trees cut down in their back yard.. five of them. They were unhealthy, their roots were breaking into the foundation and septic tank of the house, they were stealing nutrients from the rest of the trees, they were too close to each other, and they were starting to die anyway. But when I walked into the kitchen, and looked out of the back window to see all of those pieces of trunk and branch scattered across the yard, it was like looking out on the fields of slaughter littered with corpses. It made me physically ill to see what had happened, even though I knew that it had to be done. Yes, they were trees. Yes, they were sick. But they were living beings.. it's hard to put down a dog or a cat, even when you know that it has to be done. Even when you know that it's for the best. Apparently, though, my mother went through the trees to make certain that no one was living in them.. no squirrels, no birds. All of the cutting stopped at one point because one of the tree guys found a caterpillar. A little green guy just a couple of centimeters long. All of the work stopped while they relocated the little guy to a tree around the front of the house. That makes me feel better about the whole thing, but it's still horrible to think of the trees being cut down. There was a Clio award winning addy one year, ages ago, about the cutting of the rainforest. It shows a tree, there's the sound of a chainsaw, and as it cuts into the tree, it starts to bleed. I can't help but think of that whenever I see land being cleared of trees, for whatever reason. The idea of cutting down a living being.. it turns my stomach. 24 August 2003 : 12.51 Why do so many songs contain various combinations of "baby," "yeah," and "you know," whether the 80s, 90s, or today? There are so many more words in the English language alone that it seems silly to just reuse the same few over and over. " Imagine a piano keyboard, eighty-eight keys, only eighty-eight and yet, and yet, new tunes, melodies, harmonies are being composed upon hundreds of keyboards every day in Dorset alone. Our language, Tiger, our language, hundreds of thousands of available words, frillions of possible legitimate new ideas, so that I can say this sentence and be confident it has never been uttered before in the history of human communication: "Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers." One sentence, common words, but never before placed in that order. And yet, oh and yet, all of us spend our days saying the same things to each other, time after weary time, living by clichaic, learned response: "I love you", "Don't go in there", "You have no right to say that", "shut up", "I'm hungry", "that hurt", "why should I?", "it's not my fault", "help", "Marjorie is dead". You see? That surely is a thought to take out for a cream tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon. " 24 August 2003 : 12.50 Baby don't understand Why we can't just hold on To each other's hands This time might be the last I fear unless I make it all too clear I need you so Take these broken wings And learn to fly again And learn to live so free And when we hear the voices sing The book of love will open up And let us in Take these broken wings Baby I think tonight We can take what was wrong To make it right Baby it's all I know That you're half of the flesh And blood makes me whole Need you so Take these broken wings And learn to fly again And learn to live so free And when we hear the voices sing The book of love will open up And let us in Take these broken wings You got to learn to fly And learn to live so free And when we hear the voices sing Let us in Let us in Baby it's all I know That you're half of the flesh And blood makes me whole Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah so Take these broken wings And learn to fly again And learn to live so free And when we hear the voices sing The book of love will open up And let us in Take these broken wings You got to learn to fly And learn to live so free And when we hear the voices sing The book of love will open up And let us in Yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah Oooh Damned 80s-themed game soundtrack. 23 August 2003 : 13.54 Still looking at the R6 for my next bike. It's really nice in terms of look, but also for performance. From any angle, it looks like the best bet. I picked up my leather bike pants this morning. And a good thing, too. It's sunny, but it's bloody cold on the highway. Unfortunately, the boots that I bought won't fasten around my calves when I'm wearing the pants. My calves are too big as a result of carrying my weight around. So I'm going to have to take them back and exchange them for another pair of boots which does fit. Ah well. And I brought a pair of jeans with me, since I didn't think that hanging about at work wearing bike pants would be too comfortable. So I'm at work, all by myself, no one else on my floor, all comfortable with my After Eight hot chocolate and my streaming eighties music.. something hideous that Vice City has done to me. Listening to the radio in every vehicle I steal, I'm on an eighties kick. Speaking of Vice City, I stole a helicopter last night, and got chased about by the police. The game lets you steal helicopters and boats as well as land vehicles. Flying a Hunter through the city while being chased by a police copter.. it's so much fun. :) 22 August 2003 : 16.19 Went to Burger King for lunch today, since the person with whom I was having lunch wanted to go there. While we were waiting for service, there were two girls from Washington state in front of us. One of them turned to me, as the louder of the two of us, and said "So do you like living in Canada?" Being me, I said "Yes.. there's nowhere in the world I'd rather live. It's wonderful." her, touching my shoulder as if in sympathy: "I'm sorry." Wow, that's funny. americans are so fucking rude. me: "Don't be. I've lived all over the place, and there's nowhere better in the world than Canada." her: "oh.." [turning away] and then "This is my friend. She's also from Washington." me, sincerely: "I'm so sorry." Turnabout, right? :) The friend I was with said "Hey, that wasn't nice. We're supposed to be ambassadors, aren't we?" "Hey, bugger off. This is our country. They're supposed to be the ambassadors. I'd sooner that they went back home, if that's how they're going to behave. If america's so much better, I'll thank them to stay there." 22 August 2003 : 14.36 Last night, waiting for Laura, I decided to try Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It rocks. I might even go so far as to suggest that 17 R0x0R j00R 80x0R!!!!1 Ok, maybe not that far. But it's a truly excellent game. Visually, it's spectacular. Smooth graphics, fine detail, lens flares and light trails typical of 80s camera work (since it's set in the 80s), and nice little details like how the falling rain hits the camera lens. I was going to play through the story, (which I never did with GTA 3) I really was, but then I discovered that you can steal a scooter. And buzz around shooting people. And do wheelies. At one point, I had dozens of police chasing me, blocking the roads, shooting at me from a helicopter, and all I had was a scooter to avoid them. And you can steal a sportbike, too. Of course, when I got onto my bike this morning, I felt as though I should have a machine gun. Speaking of which, I had to ride in to work in the rain today. It's not very pleasant. The falling rain isn't the problem. The problem is the rain that hits the gas tank and runs down to be absorbed into my jeans. And the way the visor fogs up and prevents me from seeing. Ick. 21 August 2003 : 17.35 Purchased more Doctor Who DVDs. Yay :) Resurrection Of The Daleks and Carnival Of Monsters. Now I only have a few more to get and I'm up to date. Once I have it, a friend and I were going to take a day to watch the entire Key to Time series, which is six stories of roughly two hours each. There's a big projection TV at the theatre (not to mention a bar), so that would be a great place to do it. And I got myself a pair of motorcycle boots, finally. They're far more comfortable than I expected them to be. 21 August 2003 : 13.30 The following is used without permission, because I think it's a really good article. I hope that no one minds. You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he doesn't always lock his front door. He wears Dockers. You hardly know he's there. And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse. Allow me to introduce Canada. The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there, but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic have been building an espresso machine. Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway. And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors are authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession, as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of wasps, it's smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong. Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand. These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They don't even have a death penalty! And yet .. nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there are still crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit violent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes of Ho-Hos from convenience stores. And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month, Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north. This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite, beer-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government than liberty and independence. But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive about letting people do what they want to? Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by large, well-organized religious groups and thus has more in common with those of Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran. Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita than the United States. These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound. Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult -- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality. Most of all, they're not afraid of each other. I wonder if America will ever be that cool. Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Author: Samantha Bennett Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 Copyright: 2003 PG Publishing Contact: letters@post-gazette.com Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/ 20 August 2003 : 15.02 Taken from an email conversation: friend: please tell me that this is a joke. me: The problem with that toy is that when you want to play with it, you can't find it. That toy is perfect. They captured the blank facial expression very well. But don't the bad guys in GI Joe normally wear blue? A friend of mine was just diagnosed with ADHD. We talked about it for ages, with me describing what it was like and him relating exactly. He has a Ritalin prescription now, and he's saying all of the same things that I said when I started on the Dexedrine. How suddenly he can focus on the task in hand, how he's no longer overwhelmed by the ambient noise around him, how he's less stressed because he knows that he's finished the tasks that he needs to finish, and lots of other things. A shame that we have to fill our brains with chemicals to fit into this world around us, but at least we have that option. 13 August 2003 : 13.09 Pregnant former co-worker came in to visit today. Gah... I find pregnancy very squicky. 08 August 2003 : 15.43 When this happens, isn't the US government effectively trafficking drugs? Do you know how hard it is to describe kung fu techniques over IRC? Well, be thankful. And now, science fiction. The only fiction I find worth reading, as a genre (though Discworld is excellent). I can't believe that Dune is top of the list in books. It's dreadful. Speaking of dreadful... 06 August 2003 : 13.13 I've mentioned before that the job in which you get mail from Spider Robinson is good. But it doesn't get awesome until you receive email from William Gibson. Once again: I have an awesome job. 02 August 2003 : 12.56 Remember kids: god in his infinite compassion does not want you to go to hell, which he in his infinite mercy created. 01 August 2003 : 17.01 yay the catholic church. Fuckin' mooks. Let's see, ""god" demands that people who are in love get married, "god" makes you gay (we know that it's the way you're born), but "god" condemns you if you love and marry someone who is also gay. Feh. "society owes its continued survival to the family, which is founded on marriage." Such nonsense. These days, most people are opting not to get married. And most children don't have both of their original parents.. you go and talk to any elementary school class. But even if we accept that as true, marriage between two people of the same gender is just as valid as marriage between two people of opposite genders. The only people who argue this point base their arguments on what their god wants. Bugger their god, if (s)he's not the god of the couple people in question. The catholics are going after same-sex adoption, too. "As experience has shown, the absence of sexual complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the normal development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons." What? No.. actually, children raised by gay couples tend to be either as happy as or happier than children raised by straight couples. One example, mentioned in Deborah Blum's Sex On The Brain, is of a boy and a girl raised by a lesbian couple. The girl was perfectly normal, and hetero. The boy was also hetero, but wore a pink backpack because "no one was going to tell him which colours he could and could not wear because of his sex." That, to me, sounds like someone who is much more comfortable with being male than most boys raised by straight parents. It doesn't sound to me like he's been deprived anything. And as to the catholics' next claim that "Allowing the children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children," That's just patently ridiculous. "The Vatican says that while Catholic politicians have a moral duty to vote against the legalization of gay marriages, everyone committed to promoting and defending the common good of society should speak out against it." The common good of society. Right. And gay people aren't members of society? You know the funniest part of this, though? The vatican says that: 'While "Sacred Scripture condemns homosexual acts as a serious depravity," homosexuals must be treated with respect and sensitivity, and protected from unjust discrimination.' I'd laugh, if it weren't so unjust. I also find it funny that, when Mr. Chrétien (a catholic himself) announced that his government would support the right to same-sex marriage, Calgary's bishop henry told a Toronto paper that he migth burn in hell. Ha! Gah.. I hate simple, narrow-minded people who follow these nonsensical religions, and make people who are different from them (and the people who support them) feel like there's something wrong with them. Gay people are people, too, and if they want to be married, they have as much right as catholics. Marriage is a legal institution, with certain rights and protections, and gay people have every right to that, if they want it. Along those lines, now that it's legalised in BC (at last), two gay friends of mine have decided to get married. Yay :) I still don't see the point of marriage, but if that's what they want to do, I'm delighted that they can do it. It's about bloody time that these stupid discriminatory laws get swept away. That would be like saying that black people can't legally be married. Or white people. Or redheads. It's not like you have a choice in how you're born. 30 July 2003 : 17.10 Still looking for my next bike. I love my ZZ-R250, but I'd like something a bit bigger, faster, and most importantly, with more after-market parts. There's virtually nothing out there that I can use to modify my bike to make it unique to me, and that's very unfortunate. Looking at the bikes that I like, there are three: the new Honda CBR600RR, the Kawasaki ZX-6R, and the Yamaha YZF-R6. The most popular? The Yamaha R6, by a long way. And therefore the one with the most after-market parts is the R6. I was totally sold on the Honda, but now there are new factors to consider. There are some really, really nice aftermarket parts for this bike, and that really sways my decision. Of course, I won't be upgrading for a while yet, but when I do, that's probably the way I'll go. Unless things change between now and then in terms of what's available for which bike. 30 July 2003 : 15.00 So my show just opened on Saturday. This is the first chance that I've had to write anything about it. For those who don't know, normally a show has a bit more than a month to get ready. During this time, the cast learns its lines, movements (blocking), etc, the techs build and decorate the set, design the lighting, hang and focus the lights themselves, build the props, design and assemble the sound, and choreograph the set changes. Normally, this takes place in a theatre. This show was somewhat different. It's sketch comedy, with my brother being the writer, my friend Chris being the other member of the two person cast, and me being the single technician. Since ther was really no crew, the cast was dealing with the props, costumes, and set changes. Me, being the tech, was handling lighting design, sound, and running the actual show. The show itself was taking place in the lounge above the theatre, which has a dancefloor with a little stage.. you know the sort, where they put the band in the corner to play. Triangular stage, mostly triangular dancefloor. No bars from which to hang lights, but I was told that we were going to be receiving lighting equipment from a friend of ours from another theatre. So here's how it went: Monday- first meeting between the cast and myself. The cast isn't off-book, meaning that they don't know their lines. Not my department, and they're both very good so I wasn't worried. We discussed what I'd need to assemble for lighting, sound, etc. Most of it was pretty general, but we had a week until opening, right? Tuesday- lighting equipment was supposed to arrive at 1.30 PM. It was going to consist of a dimmer pack (which allows you to power the lights, and control the brightness), lighting board (which controls the dimmer), and two lighting trees (to which you attach lights when there are no bars). At 1.30 PM I was there. No lights. At 5.00 PM, no lights. No lights that entire day, and no communication with the person who was sending them because he was out of town. Oh boy. My brother spent the day building props, and we had a rehearsal that evening. The cast still wasn't off-book, and sound was still pretty general. Wednesday- The lighting equipment arrived, but I had to work so I couldn't be there to hang and focus. So I sent specific instructions on how it should be done. My brother had to do a comedy gig at a club, so there was no rehearsal. I spent the night making a CD of music and sounds for the show, but I didn't have a lot of the things that I needed to get it done.. the show was supposed to have a theme, but I didn't know what it would be. So I did the best with what I had. Three days to opening. Thursday- I worked until 8.00 PM, and there was a show in the theatre below us that started at that time, which means that I couldn't use any of the sounds on the CD that I had made, so we couldn't get a technical run in (where you run the show with sounds and lights). Also, the lights had been hung in more or less exactly the wrong places. My sound equipment consisted of a discman with a broken lid and no backlight, an amp with a jumpy volume control, and two speakers on the stage. On lighting: very simply, normally when lighting a show your lights are divided into two types: special and area. I was only using specials, so I'll describe them: a special is, essentially, a light which has shutters so that it can be shaped, and a focusing lens so that you can define how sharp or blurred the edge of the light will be. So you have have a small, hazy circle of light or a sharply defined rectangle of light, or whatever combination you would like. The lights that I had to work with were ancient.. the shutters didn't work for shaping the beam, and no one had the slightest clue about how to focus the beam. So I had three big, wide areas of light that spilled as much over the audience as over the stage. I wanted three distinct areas on the stage. So I spent the evening trying to relocate the lights to where they would do the most good. As quietly as possible so that I didn't disturb the show downstairs. No easy task. The boys decided to leave early that night, since I was spending my time fighting with the lights. Friday- same problem.. got to the theatre as the show downstairs was beginning, so no sound. We ran through the show, and choreographed the scene changes. We had to reorder some of the sketches, but overall it wasn't bad. The boys were almost off-book, but still struggling. Props and costumes were coming along, and the set had been built by our delightful in-house set people. My lights were still a disaster, and we hadn't had a technical run yet, never mind a dress rehearsal. The sounds kind of worked, from what we could hear when I had a chance to run them after the show downstairs ended, but there wasn't time to actually try running the show with them. Finally found out the song that they wanted to use for the theme, so I spent the whole night working on redesigning the sounds CD, editing sound files to make them all fit on the CD, be the right length, automatically fade, etc, etc. I also built a preshow music CD. Can't have the audience being seated in silence. I finally got to bed around five AM. Saturday- opening night. We still hadn't had a dress rehearsal or a tech rehearsal. Two shows downstairs.. matinee and evening. Our show opened at 11 PM. I got to the theatre around 3.30, having spent the morning in bed with a migraine and taking lots of different sorts of drugs to get rid of it. as soon as the show downstairs ended, I cranked up my new sound CD and played it through to make certain that it worked. Did the same with my preshow CD. Then I tried to set levels for the audio for the show, but without an audience full of people, it was hard to know how much sound I would lose. So I approximated the levels, and hoped for the best. Simon and Chris were out trying to find parts for their costumes and props, so there was no time for a run between shows downstairs. So no chance to test the sound with the guys. The lights were still a disaster, but I could work on that once the show downstairs started, since it wouldn't make as much noise, and I needed the time to get my sounds in order. I spent the rest of the time between shows trying to build a cue sheet to tell me which tracks to play at which volume at which time, and which lights to put up at which levels when during the show. Then, the show downstairs started, and I went to work on my lights. Over the course of the show, I managed to figure out that two of the lights had shutters and one didn't. I got the shutters fixed, after a lot of fighting, and then had to move the lights around again because the one without the shutter had to go where it would do the least harm. I also managed to figure out how to focus the lights, so I got my three distinct areas. I scrambled to rewrite my cuesheets, since the lights had all changed, and therefore invalidated all of my cues. With about an hour to opening, I tried to get a run of my cues in, to see whether they made any sense. Not that I would have had time to change them if they didn't. With no dexedrine and the distractions of Simon and Chris running lines, people setting up the bar for opening night, and the noises of the show downstairs, not to mention the stress of being so incredibly unprepared, I had a hell of a time trying to get through it. ADD is a bugger at the best of times, but moments like that make you so frustrated with yourself for not being able to focus, and the sounds are so overwhelming that you just want to hide. I ran the same six cues roughly thirteen times before I finally gave up and hid under my desk, trying to block out all of the noise. Fortunately, my brother noticed and chased everyone away for me. So with a bit of silence, I managed to get, eventually, through my cues. They were very complicated.. several cues for every sketch, with many of the sketches being just a few seconds long. So for a typical scene I would do this: fade out the music, bring up the lights, stop the CD, set the next track, reset the volume to the right level, preset the next scene according to my cue sheet, on the cue line, start the CD, fade out the light, and we're into the next scene where I do it all over again. When the sketch is as short as "The bush administration: first you get the oil, then you get the money, then you get the power" that's freaking hard. The seats were filling up with people, the preshow music was on, and I was stressed beyond belief. Opening night with no real rehearsal. With ten minutes to show, the cast and I huddled in my booth and rushed over the cues to make certain that they knew what would happen when, while I did emergency revision on my cue sheets. And then it was time to go. The result? The show was a massive success. The audience loved it, the couple of minor technical mistakes that I made weren't noticeable by anyone except me, and the boys were fine for lines and blocking. It was a great show, and the next one will be even better. 27 July 2003 : 15.45 For the last twenty-one years or so, one of the members of my family has been small, furry, and quite remarkably stupid. Someone who's been grouchy and demanding, and always there when I needed her. She's someone of whom I've been incredibly fond, and have spoilt beyond belief. She's had love and attention, which means more than anything else that I might give her. (Though she's had all of that, too) I just got a call from my father. My Tabitha cat died today. She was asleep on the deck, and everything just stopped. No distress, no suffering. Just a nice rest in the shade from which she didn't wake up. Though death is a part of life, losing family is never easy, even when you've known that it was coming for some time. She had a nice, long, easy life, surrounded by people who loved her, who looked after her properly, and made certain that she was always happy. And though I've always known that eventually she must die, I shall miss my lovely, grouchy, demanding old cat more than I can say. Goodbye, my dear little Tabitha. 25 July 2003 : 12.12 "Bruce is a Hynerian, Bruce there's a Sebacean, and Bruce here's a Delvian and is also the ship's medic. John Crichton, Bruce. John Crichton, Bruce. John Crichton, Bruce." "Is your name not Bruce?" "No, it's Crichton." "That's going to cause a little confusion. Mind if we call you Bruce to keep it clear?" 20 July 2003 : 18.27 Ow.. bugger. That's a violent headache two days in a row. Yesterday it was a migraine. Hopefully today it won't be. At least, not until after I get home, where it's safe to pass out. 20 July 2003 : 13.31 Heh heh heh.. So here comes the wave. You know what? I don't mind at all. You'd think that I'd have a problem with americans coming to Canada, but these sorts of people, the kind who are leaving america because the want the freedom that Canada offers.. they're welcome, as far as I'm concerned. When things like this happen, when people need to escape from america, whether we're talking about the slaves who came up here to escape the american way of life, or the people avoiding the draft (and who can blame them?), or anyone else who just needs to get out, they can come to Canada and find a better life. The americans that I don't like are the ones who are all Ra-Ra Yay america. Liking your country is one thing.. being unreasonably patriotic is another and if these people are willing to leave the country that they've always known because they see it for what it is, and realise that the problems, the bloody scary aspects of america today, outweigh the strengths, then good on them. I'm happy to share my home with them. "I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American and to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you if you don't watch your step. " --Matt Groening 19 July 2003 : 16.45 Watching Farscape, I've come to the following conclusion: in the Uncharted Regions there are an awful lot of Australians. There's a comic in Vancouver who talks about how in the 80s there were a lot of ninjas. Ninjas appeared on just about every television programme, whether you're talking about the A-Team, Transfomers, or MacGyver. I'm sure that Jessica Fletcher had a throwing star hidden somewhere on her person at all times. It's funny how pop-culture goes through those phases. Ninjas, aliens, vampires.. it's interesting how a fad sweeps through entertainment culture. The trick is anticipating the fad and getting in early, and then getting out before it dies. 19 July 2003 : 12.42 Story posted to Fark about men ogling women. Some of the reactions are interesting.. Of course, this is going to sound defensive since I'm male, but there's not much that I can do about that. To ask a male to not look is stupid. Either he's that sort or he's not. If he is, he can't help it. It's automatic, and it's the way males are wired. See, the male has an enormous sex drive. Humans aren't meant to be pair-bonded, being primates, so the male is wired to be constantly looking for his next mate. That's instinctive. However, the average male isn't going to be out with his girlfriend, see an attractive girl, and drop the one he's with just like that. Some will, but that's because they're swine. To say that they do it because they look isn't realistic, though. Put it this way: looking isn't the same as acting. If you're just looking, you're looking to appreciate, not because you're seriously interested. It's like appreciating anything else, whether it's the taste of a rich cup of finely blended coffee, or the colours and brush strokes of a beautiful painting. It's just that what you're admiring is a person. Who has probably worked really hard to present an appearance that will generate that kind of reaction. I'm not talking about creepy guy staring, of course. No one wants that. The major concern is the effect that looking has on the girlfriend/wife. Apparently, many a woman gets all worried that her guy is, in fact, looking for her replacement. But if he's doing that, she's not going to stop him by being possessive and saying that he can't look, is she? More likely, that's fuel to the fire, and another reason for him to be looking. Because many guys don't like to feel trapped, and someone that controlling, telling him where he can and cannot look, is going to be someone with whom he won't want to be stuck. If, on the other hand, she were to join in and point out the girls, he'd probably think twice about letting her go. And anyway, is a guy who is seriously looking before ending things with her worth keeping? I wouldn't say so. If he wants to go, demanding that he stay isn't going to make everything ok. No moral judgements on whether guys should or should not be like that, please. That's just the way that some are, and others aren't. The other thing is that women get upset, apparently, when guys get upset about them looking at other guys. Well.. yes. Some basic male psychology will tell any woman that males are just as insecure as females. Where do you think that the stereotype of the jealous boyfriend/husband comes from? It's the way they're wired. Of course, if he can look, she should be able to, as well. Since jealousy is the result of insecurity, that's something that can be worked out. After all, people come out to be looked at. You go to the beach, you go to the trendy street/club/whatever, you go anywhere at all and people are showing off what they've got. It can't be avoided, so why not make it into something that both can enjoy? Why I'm thinking so much about this I don't know.. the matter of jealousy in either direction has very rarely come up with a girlfriend of mine. I might occasionally glace in the direction of a girl as she sways past, of course, but usually I've a girlfriend who will point them out. :) "Hey, check her out. I wish I had a body like that. Look. No, seriously, look. You like that skirt? Should I get one like that?" etc etc. I suppose that it's an interest thing.. where jealousy comes from. It's a very divided field. Males have their reasons, females have theirs. As nearly as I can tell, it's all about offspring. The male wants to propagate his genes, while the female needs to look after her young. We're talking very instinctively here. So she needs to hold onto him because he's security, protection, etc, and he needs to hold onto her because she's the means for his genes to be passed on. But since he can mate with multiple females, he tends to have a higher sex drive, and more of a tendency to stray. So he's constantly looking, but gets jealous if she does the same. Which suggests the root of the harem. High sex drive and possessiveness combined. And since, at least in mammals, females outnumber males, it all makes sense. Which is why in herd and family group animals (including primates, as I recall) the dominant male mates with every female. And beats the hell out of any male who might be in a position to compete. Interestingly, in "JEALOUSY IN MEN, WOMEN NOT SO DIFFERENT" the argument is made against the idea of jealousy as a function of reproduction. Professor Lesley Rogers of the University of New England in Australia claims that jealousy has the same roots in both genders. She mentions that "... the important thing is that Harris has looked across cultures. If evolutionary psychology has any substance and jealousy is encoded in the genes then it is going to be expressed the same way in different cultures. If it isn't, as she's found, it's a spanner in the works for a unitary global explanation for jealousy," However, I think that, by looking across cultures, it strengthens the argument for jealousy as a function of reproduction. There's that harem, for example. I think what she's not taking into account with her arguments is the influence of religion on personal relationships. christianity, for example, says that sex is bad unless you're married, which is an emotional commitment (in theory). So sex without emotion is bad. And those values are so hammered into us as a society, even those of us who don't follow that religion, that they're going to influence the manner in which people respond to their instincts. Ever been happy and not known why? Ever had a bad day, though nothing's gone any more badly than normal? So why should anyone know what specifically is causing their jealousy? Further, given the manner in which many cultures push humans into a pairbonding situation, sex and emotions have become intertwined to the point where they're inseparable for most people. After all, you're only supposed to have sex with the person you love, right? So if your mate is cheating on you, it's emotional as well as sexual, and no matter how much you try, you'll have a hard time separating them. And given the influence of our current social values, emotional fidelity is considered more important than sexual fidelity (whether it is or not isn't imporant in this instance). Another paper, here, cites examples of studies (with references) that directly support the evolutionary standpoint. It does make a point that humans are a pairbonding species, though.. I'm not too certain of that, based upon what I've noted through studies, research, and observation. Comparing the behaviour of humans and their closest relatives, chimpanzees, making allowances for reasoning and cultural and religious influence, and physiological change over time, I think that you must define humans as a non-pairbonding species. If they were a pairbonding species, why would the male have such a constantly elevated drive to mate? If he's bonded to a single female, he can only mate a few times every nine months with any hope of success. So why is he still so ready to stray when his only mate is already securely pregnant? Perhaps it depends upon the definition of pairbonding, how loose the association between the two parties (taking each side's point of view into account, as well). 18 July 2003 : 15.58 Cool. Not so cool. "30 gunshot wounds in the back? Worse case of suicide I ever saw!" I'm not saying that he was killed. I'm just not ruling it out. Whether he was or not, it's pretty sad when you even feel that you have cause to suspect something like that. 17 July 2003 : 19.47 Holy mother of ass! This is a seriously cool computer case. Very similar to the one I had in mind, except that I was planning to use more wood. And a liquid cooling system with a visible reservoir. With bubbles. I had planned, also, on doing something like this to my Tiburon, but prettier. In-dash DVD deck for the display, with the system in a standard case secured in the trunk and run to the deck and input devices (in the glove compartment and the coin box) through serious extensions. Simpler installation than she did, but a better effect, I think. Probably have to move the deck down to the space presently occupied by my plush shark, though, so that I can still access the climate controls when the display is open. 17 July 2003 : 13.13 heh, now here's a surprise. People ask why I care. I mean, it's america, right? Why should I care what happens to them? The more their government, and the country itself, falls apart, the happier I should be, they say. And you know what? There's an element of truth to that. Yes, I dislike america. However, if america were to collapse, what would replace it? Would it join Canada? That would be the best situation for them. Perhaps not for us, since we'd be bringing all of that american nastiness into our nation. But then, I don't think that that would happen. Too many people are fanatically patriotic. Even though joining Canada would mean that they had access to all of the things that make us better than them- healthcare, social programs, environmental programs, etc. I don't think that they'd go for it. More likely, if america collapsed, it would be replaced by a collection of nation-states. Like so many empires before it, it would shatter into pieces, and the result would probably be better. Eventually. But in the short term, it would be chaos. Though I don't know what kind of effect that would have on the world economy. americans like to say that america carries the world economy, but I think that if america were to shatter, very few of those nation-states would be self-sufficient. They'd end up spending most of their money trying to put themselves together, establish borders, governments, food sources, etc. So most of the money would find its way back into the economy, and the rest of the countries of the world would get stronger to take up the space left by america. There'd be a bit of a disaster, since so many companies would collapse along with the country, but I think that ultimately, the collapse of the yankee empire would help us move toward globalisation. We should be a world, not a collection of countries. And there are two ways to do that.. one huge, all conquering empire, or a willing arrangement between all of the countries of the world to accept a world governing body. I think that the latter is the only way that it's going to work. That's been proved by the failure of any empire to stand for more than a few millenia. Anyway, for the moment, I'm not certain whether I want to see america collapse. We rely on them pretty heavily, as I understand it, but we'd be in a stronger position if we were dealing with a collection of small nations than with the bloated monstrosity that is america today. And if america were to collapse, it would stop being such a threat to world peace. 16 July 2003 : 17.56 Wow... this is amazing. Check out the QTVR files on the TARDIS page. Oooo... Getting all into PC case modding again, only this time I'm going to actually do something about it. I had all of these ideas last time, but never actually got around to doing anything about them. This time, I'm thinking I'll start from the ground up, building my own case. Should be good. 16 July 2003 : 12.13 Sad. Wrong. Evil. I could hear that. I didn't even know I knew that song. See, this is why I never buy used hard drives. Speaking of hard drives, I just formatted and rebuilt my primary hard drive on my main machine. What a difference.. XP was sluggish and slow, which is typical Microsoft, but since I rebuilt it, it's been blindingly fast. I'll have to do the same to my other machines. I've been watching Lexx and Farscape lately. Lexx is still more original, but Farscape does much more with the characters. Lexx does some very cool stuff in the first season, which is all I've seen. However, is it just me, or does Kai sound like The Brain? "So, what are we supposed to do now?" "The same thing we do every night, Zev. Try to take over the world!" Ok, maybe not. I find that most of the complaints that viewers have with Lexx relate to the seasons following the first four-part. Since I haven't seen those, I can't comment. But the first season is really quite good. It's different.. you can't say that about most television programmes these days. 10 July 2003 : 16.24 WOO! Someone's making a Doctor Who adventure game! I'm all over that. I hope he finishes it... In a way, I wish that the programme had never finished. Or that it could be resurrected. A regeneration. But then, that might ruin it. Times have changed, and Doctor Who wouldn't likely have the fan base that it had. If something like Farscape couldn't survive, Doctor Who, much the better programme, would likely share its fate. Either that, or it would be written to suit the current pop culture trends. Buffy, and the like. Better cancellation than that. So perhaps things are better as they are. But I still wish that there could be more actual episodes. There are audio adventures and books, good fanfiction and fan comics, but none of it is the same. Better than nothing, but not the same as bubble-wrap monsters and styrofoam sets.. all of the things that gave Doctor Who its charm. You had to suspend your disbelief, but it wasn't very hard. And Doctor Who had the best stories of anything on television, science fiction or otherwise. Speaking of Farscape, I watched the pilot for that, too. Not bad.. a little too Muppet for my tastes. And yes, I know that it was Henson. The thing is, those were the two big ones, right? Farscape and Lexx. Watching Farscape, it's just more of the same, you know? Human test pilot flung into an unfamiliar situation, pursued by a ruthless warlord bent on revenge, and fleeing from punishment for a crime he did not commit. All he's missing is a mysterious Gift, or power or something. Nothing terribly original. Even the organic ship idea isn't original. Lexx, on the other hand, has something new about it. The insect influence, largely, and the complete failure to have an actual hero. His Divine Shadow makes a wonderful badguy.. kind of like the Emperor from Star Wars, but better because he's essentially immortal. Yes, there are factors that have been reused in Lexx, as well.. there are only so many ideas, after all, but Lexx is less formula and more originality. I'd watch both, of course, but I prefer Lexx, I think. It's less My brother is looking for a bike. He's not into the sportbikes, though.. he wants something a little more old-fashioned. Cafe racer sort of thing. 10 July 2003 : 12.21 america is at war with Oceania. It has always been at war with Oceania. It's scary, but Orwell does appear to have been something of a prophet.. the patriot act, the feeding of blatant lies to the populace, and that populace's blind following of the government, it's very 1984. If you haven't read 1984, do read it. It's one of those books that's very important. I read it in high school. I hated it. But in the years since, I've seen parallels between 1984 and a number of other parts of the real world. Of course, it's not just america. 1984 can apply to organised religion, too, but at the moment, religion isn't the threat that the bush government is. american politicians are now saying that the war was never about new weapons. Even though we still have news stories by american government mouthpieces that say that it was about new weapons. Even though people remember speeches made that say that it was about new weapons. Even though the whole point was that america had sources that said that Iraq had new weapons. But now, expecting everyone to forget that, the american government is pushing a new story. Now that the rest of the world has been proved right, now that it's become clear that america was wrong in its invasion. And the people will probably believe it. Not all of them. Probably not even most of them. Even most of the sheep will have to stop and think about this. And some will realise how their government has lied to them. How it's cultivated their support, and used it to promote its own agenda. But many will believe the new story. Many will be glad that Rumsfeld and his ilk are telling them what to think, so that they don't have to use their brains. They will not only accept the story, they will believe the story. america is at war with Eurasia. It has always been at war with Eurasia. 09 July 2003 : 16.00 So I'm thinking I'd like to get back into Japanese and Mandarin. I used to be pretty fluent in both, and I'd like to be again. However, I can't find a school that's specifically established for teaching non-English languages to English speakers in Vancouver. So it looks like I'll need to go back to school. The nearby college, in this case, since it's the most convenient for me to reach, and right on the SkyTrain route. Only two problems: scheduling.. I'll have to make it work around my work schedule. Night classes would be best, but I don't know how available that will be. I'll have to go and find out. Last I heard, my freaky, psycho ex was going there. Taking teaching courses, of all things. Still, it's a big school.. I just decided this today, but it works out neatly because I happen to have just (finally) got back into contact with a friend who works at this college. Hopefully she won't think that this is why I contacted her after so long. Maybe I just won't mention it. I was supposed to have lunch with that friend today, but she had to cancel. Bugger. So anyway, I need to look at entrance requirements, scheduling, costs, etc. The school offers both Mandarin and Japanese, which is very convenient. Still looking at 600cc bikes. But now I'm torn.. the Kawasaki ZX-6R has been my favourite. Until yesterday, when I met the Honda CBR600RR. The ZX-6R is still a gorgeous bike.. I really like the look. And I've been really impressed with Kawasaki's performance in my experiences so far. But then, that Honda is really something to look at.. I love how the pipe disappears under the seat. I really like all of the vents and things. Essentially, it looks more futuristic, I suppose, than the Kawasaki. But I really prefer the Kawasaki's instrument panel. And I'm not a big Honda fan. However, looking at the two of them, the Honda is really the one that grabs my attention. At the moment. 09 July 2003 : 14.23 Helped a friend move into her new place on Monday. Bloody hell she has a lot of stairs. And the heaviest furniture I've ever encountered. What's the point of making a couch weigh as much as a car? While we were there, we noticed that her new place was being explored by ants. Just a few little black guys.. nothing worrying, but she wants a way to get rid of them. The other guy who was there helping her move in suggested bleach. What a horrible thing to think. When I moved into my first basement suite, I discovered that I was sharing it with a colony of ants. They hadn't been visible when I first moved in, but once they discovered that I had supplies, I found them in my sugar, any dishes left out awaiting washing.. everwhere. Obviously not a good thing, but anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm not about to hurt a living being just for being who he/she is. The ants were just looking for food.. who can blame them for that? So what could I do? Fortunately, ants are very efficient. They're the Germans of the insect world. So when they find a source of food, they set up a highway directly to it, with one lane heading out and one coming back carrying the food. I followed them from my kitchen to a tiny hole in my wall, and determined that that was the point at which they were entering the house. Bleach indeed. I went out and bought some Kool-Aid. Strawberry, since it has the strongest scent, and I mixed it with twice the normal amount of sugar, and left it in my refrigerator. Using an eyedropper, I put a few drops on the tile outside the hole from which the ants were coming, which was fortunately in my bathroom. As soon as they discovered it, they surrounded it completely and started collecting it to take back. So I knew that they liked it, but there was still a line of them heading to the kitchen. I thought that this was likely because they required a certain amount of food to be brought in, and there wasn't enough space around the Kool-Aid to place enough collectors. So I chased the ants away, and put some more down, increasing the outside edge of the little pool. Almost immediately the line disappeared. After all, why go all the way to the kitchen when there's an easier (already dissolved) supply of sugar right at your door? No more ants anywhere in the house after that, ever, as long as I kept their Kool-Aid supply refilled. They were happy, I was happy, and no one had to die. It's so easy to make compromises like that.. why do people insist on killing when they don't have to? 09 July 2003 : 12.49 Oh, I feel the pain... Well, I felt the pain when I was trying to be a web designer full time. See, it doesn't matter how good you are (and people tell me I'm good [shrug] I'm never happy with the result) if there's no demand. These days, just about everyone seems to have a web site. Combine that with the fact that people, even companies seem so often content with mediocre work, and that with the advent of things like FrontPage, anyone can be a web designer, and the market for dedicated web designers seems to have dried completely up. You can design as well, but that seems to be it. At least, in my experience. Which is limited, I grant you. I was talking to dear Jez last night about Daleks. Unfortunately, you get me talking about something I like and I won't shut up. No, but see, there's a reason. I was reading fanfiction, some of which was pretty good. And then I had to watch a bit of Remembrance Of The Daleks, which I was watching when Jez arrived. So I was in full Dalek mode, and she got in the way. :) Anyway, we were talking about the radio controlled Daleks that Production Enterprise offers. Which got me wondering how difficult it would be to build a full sized radio controlled Dalek. And then, I started wondering about making an animated Dalek that essentially shouted, flashed, and moved its various bits when triggered by a motion sensor. Unfortunately, like all good ideas, it's been done. More elaborately than I would like, however. I'd make my Dalek an exact replica, with a random playlist of voice files, dome lights that react to the sound, and an animated dome and eyepiece. And stick the motion sensor between the gun and manipulator arm, so that when people pass the Dalek reacts. And radio control over the gun, manipulator, and movement would be good, too. The Imperial Dalek colour scheme and details, I think, are the coolest. Though the Resurrection/Renegade colour scheme is very cool, too. How awesome would that be? You walk past the Dalek and its domelights flash as it shouts "STAY WHERE YOU ARE! DO NOT MOVE!" Of course, I also need a radio controlled K-9. I wonder whether I should try writing a Doctor Who story myself. god knows I know the characters. 06 July 2003 : 15.24 After much encouragement, I finally downloaded and watched the first episode of Lexx. Or, as it's called by the non-fans, Sexx. It's not bad. Always hard to tell from the pilot, of course, but it has potential to be pretty good. So I'll probably go out and rent some more episodes to watch, when I have time. Also downloaded the pilot of Farscape, but I haven't had time to watch that yet. I'll see it when I see it. Someone's making an Akira bike. Woo! So, a while ago, I decided that I was just going to watch a few minutes of the Transformers movie. Just because I was in that sort of mood, and I felt like watching the Prime/Megatron battle. You know how you're just sometimes in the mood for something like that? A certain song, a particular flavour of cookie? Well anyway, next thing I knew it was the end of the movie and I was late leaving home. Which makes you think.. the movie is childish, yes, being a kids' movie. But it's also totally filled with action.. it never lets go from the first moment, and even though the plot is simple, they still manage to get it across while keeping the action going. Which make it a pretty good movie, actually. It's entertaining, and keeps your attention. That said, it's hard not to take the mickey when there's so much wrong with the plot and the characters. If you know the movie, read this.. it's stupid. :) Kup: "This reminds me of the battle on Alpha 9. The Petro-rabbits were... Grimlock, get off my fucking leg!" 05 July 2003 : 11.26 Not that I'd ever even heard of Traci Lords before I read that story, of course. Funny how people seem to feel the need to qualify things like that, isn't it? "Oh, I don't watch poooorn. Ew!" Feh. Most people enjoy it, and if they don't, it's usually for some sort of externally imposed reason, such as religious morality that tells them that sex is wrong or evil or sinful. Or some such rubbish. Other people feel that porn objectifies women. I've already gone on about that, a while ago, but suffice it to say that porn is just sex. No one cares whether porn stars are nice people when they're watching. They're not watching personalities. Porn is the indulgence of the sex drive. Nothing more, and nothing less. No one worries about objectifying their waiter at a restaurant. Or objectifying Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. So what's the big deal? Sometimes, objectifying is good. Let matters be simple, for a change. Besides, it's not like porn only objectifies women, is it? You think they go into detailed examinations of the male pornstars personalities? No.. they're more objectified than the women because they're there for one thing and one thing only. And it's not their brains. [shrug] Whatever. It's not like it has any effect on me one way or the other, is it? I just find it irritating when people express strong opinions without stopping to think about them first. Land of the free, huh? Land of the people who don't know their own frigging history. Sometimes, I think that I should put a disclaimer on here saying that I know that not all americans are stupid, obnoxious sheep. But then, the ones who aren't already know that I don't mean them, don't they? 04 July 2003 : 19.30 In other news, wow.. Traci Lords actually looks kinda cute in this picture. I've always thought that she was too pouty to be appealing. The story is about how america is starting to get the hang of sex, it seems, with an acceptance of porn. As much as some people are trying to push their morality on the general populace, most are realising that sex isn't such an evil thing after all. And porn is just sex on camera, so what's the fuss? I've never understood why people who like sex (which most people do) have such a problem with it being distributed on video. It's not like it hurts anyone. 04 July 2003 : 12.03 How cool is this? Of course, we're all going that way, and it's just a matter of time until all of Vancouver is wirelessly connected. We've already got FatPort in a number of places, and a number of high-bandwidth wireless networks spanning the city. Right now, wireless Internet access through the cel. network is pretty pricey, I believe, but it will get better. And then there's 3G... I can't wait. The technologies are slowly merging. It's amazing to see how far they've come. Having worked in the digital wireless industry, I was hit with all kinds of details about where the technology has been, and where it's going. Think of it.. first, we had telephones. Then, we had telephones that you could carry with you. That's more of a significant thing than you think, because instead of calling places, you're now calling people. Before, it was "call me at home" or "call me at work." Now, it's "call me." I'm never without my phone, I'm always in touch, whether I'm at home or at work or on the Skytrain or in my car. Then we went digital, and wireless handsets went from being phones to being communicators. Not just voice any longer, now you can send text messages, email, pictures, video clips, sounds, all from your handset (depending upon the handset, of course). Now it's going further. Already we're seeing PDAs and personal phones being combined into complete personal management devices, with dayplanners, communications of all types, basic Internet access.. you name it. Anything your iPAQ can do, your phone can do. And more. But it gets better. With 3G, you'll have high speed Internet access directly to your handheld device. So you can videoconference, download, upload, sync, backup, etc etc. The idea, as they presented it when I was working in that field, was that everything will be connected. So not just wireless digital networks, but Bluetooth, as well. Which is already out. So your PDA will be a total solution. In the video that they showed us, a guy rents a car, puts his PDA/phone on the dash, and tells it (via voice.. a little unwieldy at the moment) where he'd like to go. Acting like a GPS by triangulating between cells, the PDA navigates him to his destination using voice prompts. In another scene, a woman sees a dress in the window of a closed shop. She accesses the shop's inventory through her PDA, makes the purchase by transferring funds from her bank account, and arranges to have the dress delivered to her hotel when the shop opens. All of it seems rather farfetched, but it's really not. The technology already exists. It just hasn't been implemented in this manner. Fido's wireless communications network in Canada allows banking from your handset- I do it now. A PDA can already be used as a GPS using a satellite receiver. Bluetooth wireless communication between machines, video conferencing.. it's all available now. It's just not in a single package yet. Put it all together, though, and you've got 3G. It's going to be so cool. :) And just think, with a handheld computer with broadband wireless Internet access to sites like H2G2.com, the idea of the Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy becomes a reality. That's got to be worth something. Personally, I can't wait for the wearable computers to become commonplace. Take all of that a step further, and make the PDA less of an inconvenience. My mother's big problem with her Zire is that she has to get it out in order to use it. It's inconvenient, and a hassle because she has to carry it around with her, dig about to get it out of her purse when she needs it, worry about battery life, etc. That's where the wearable computers come into it. Suppose that your PDA were always there, where you needed it. You were always wired for audio feed, video feed, wireless Internet access and communications.. everything you wanted right there when you wanted it, accessible with a gesture or a word. No messing about getting out your PDA, dialing numbers, learning Graffiti. The trouble is that no one wants to wear a computer. It makes you a geek, largely because you still have to look like a borg to have a decent system at the moment, what with the wires and things. It's getting better, though, and a lot of recent developments are improving the situation. For example, the computer designs at Ideo. And those are pretty old.. they've been out since 1999. Since then, Bluetooth technology has become more widespread, processors and storage systems have become smaller, etc. So picture one of those systems using several 1 GB Compact Flash cards as a hard drive, which means it's small, with no moving parts, so no noise. Using Bluetooth to integrate the input/output devices with the base unit, which means no wires. You could probably (I'm not certain about the details) power the input devices the same way as the Seiko Kinetic Watch, so no batteries, either. Make the display a normal pair of glasses with LCD lenses, instead of that monocle, though. Think how convenient that would be. More importantly, think of the online gaming that could be had. :) The point, I think, of wearable computers is that they have to be convenient. Not just to use, but to wear. If you have to think about it, it's not convenient. Back in the early days of cellular service, when a phone was something that you had to cart around in a bag, not many people wanted one. As they got smaller, they became more popular. Now, if someone says that they don't have a personal phone, they're usually trying to make some sort of point about how they don't like technology. The rest of us couldn't be without them. I don't know what I'd do without my Fido. Or my iPaq, for that matter. So we're being swept that way, whether we like it or not. There are very few people I know who don't have a phone, and even fewer who don't have a home computer. And many of the people I know have PDAs. The wearable computer is the next step. It just needs to be unobtrusive enough that people are willing to wear it. And as for the people who are trying to make some sort of point about technology, trying to hold back the tidal wave by themselves, most of the people who don't have personal phones say that it's because they don't like the idea of constantly being reachable. That's what the power button is for. Or call-display. 03 July 2003 : 18.44 My friend Mikiko just returned from Japan, where she was visiting her family. She said that it was a bit of a culture shock going back there. The crowds were too much for her.. very claustrophobic after she'd spent so much time in BC. Particularly on the train. Also, everything was very expensive. But something that I hadn't expected her to say was that she was surprised at how everyone looks the same. That is, almost all of the faces she saw every day were Japanese. In Vancouver, there are so many different racial types and mixes that most people don't even notice. And after being here for a while, she said that she missed that diversity in Japan. Which just reinforces her desire to remain here. :) I really admire her. She's a very brave girl. She left not just her country but her entire culture to come here to go to school. She barely spoke English when she got here, had to live on her savings, and didn't know anyone including her host family. And yet she's managed to make a life for herself. She's learnt English very well, she's no longer hesitant when she speaks, and no one really has any trouble understanding what she says (though her accent is still a little broad). She has a job, and she's working toward citizenship because she plans to stay. Leaving everything behind.. wow. I mean, when I came here, I didn't really leave anything. Oh, I left my country, certainly, and that was my home, but if you think about it, the differences between Canada and Britain are pretty small. Certainly when compared to the differences between western and eastern cultures. And Japan and Canada couldn't be more opposite in so many ways. She said that, in Japan, people don't touch. Well, not very much. She's never hugged either of her parents. Whereas here, every time I see her she gets a huge hug, and the same from all of her other friends in the theatre (I don't know about the ones outside the theatre). It's odd, though, because they have less personal space than we do. I mean, it's not really odd, given the population.. you don't really have enough space to mark much as your own, and that's probably why they don't touch. But it's interesting that our borders, as it were, are as sharply defined as theirs, and yet we choose to cross them quite frequently. Many of us, anyway. So we stand a respectful distance apart when we talk, but we shake hands with complete strangers when we meet. Funny how looking at another culture can turn your perceptions so inward, isn't it? Japanese people, at least the older ones, don't seem to show much emotion. I watched a program once where a trainer was teaching Japanese business people to interact with westerners in a more western manner. They had to learn to shake hands and smile. They had to put a pencil between their teeth to teach them how to smile in a manner that would seem friendly to western people. I'm not making fun of them. Not at all. Not having that behaviour is a function of their culture, and making fun of them for not knowing how to smile like a westerner would be like making fun of a western person for not automatically knowing how to use chopsticks. But it was interesting to see people having to learn behaviour that we take for granted here. Ever take a language class? You know how they pair you off and you have to have conversations to practice saying hello, etc? They were doing all of that, learning to shake hands, and smile warmly. "Warm" isn't really a term that you associate with Japanese business people, normally. Perhaps that's a stereotype, but it's also true. I knew that it would be a culture shock for me to go to Japan, but I suppose I never really thought about how much of a shock it would be for someone to go back there after adapting to life somewhere so different. Hearing her observations of Japan is very interesting, particularly to me because I would like to visit there some time soon. It's difficult for someone who knows Japan to explain it to a foreigner. I don't know how I would attempt to describe Canada to a Japanese person. Where would I start? What would be important to mention? I still have no idea why so many tourists come here. But now that she's been here for so long, she has an insight into what it's like for a stranger to visit Japan, while still having that grasp of the culture that a foreigner is never likely to attain. I should time my trip there to coincide with her next visit home. She's said that she hopes that she's there when I go, but now that she's planning to stay here, that seems a bit unlikely. But if I were to go with her, she could show me around, as she wants to, and I'd have a kind of buffer zone. I plan to do everything I can to learn about customs and manners there (I've already started), but there's always that chance that I'll do or say something wrong. It would be helpful to have a friend who could interject with "Don't mind him. He's Canadian." 03 July 2003 : 16.07 I've been drafted to work tech for a show at my mother's theatre. Far out.. I haven't been a techie in so long it's not funny. I'm really looking forward to it. I was in an IRC channel a while ago, and there were two people there who had each just discovered that the other was pagan. And immediately they started saying "merry meet" at each other, and things like that. And then one of them had to leave, and the other said "merry part, and may we merry meet again." ... When you join, do you get to learn the secret handshake, too? Is there a pagan treefort with "NO GURL'S ALLOUD!" outside? "merry part." Honestly! The rituals and spirits and things that go into religions in general are silly enough without adding special greetings that make you sound like a complete twonk. Scientology's little custom dictionary makes them a laughing stock, and if it works for them, it can work for you, too. I've got your "merry part" right here. Wow.. that was out of character. So you want to talk apex predator? If what washed ashore in Chile really was a giant squid, it's seriously at the top of the food chain. In the mood for a laugh? Go and check out the C.A.P. guy's review of Spirited Away. But don't do it until you've seen the movie.. it gives too much away, and it's such a good movie that that would be tragic. Still with the Shonen Knife. This time the song stuck in my head is Sushi Bar. It's