"To know, and not to act, is not to know." -- Wang Yang Ming, Chinese General, 880 A.D.
2003 Archive
2004 Archive
"To know, and not to act, is not to know." -- Wang Yang Ming, Chinese General, 880 A.D.
Email
2003 Archive
2004 Archive
| Jan 20 | It's About That Time Time for me to archive the year that was and do up another design concept for coreytamas.com. Should be available in the next few days, so be sure to check back. |
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| Jan 20 | The Hulk Doesn't Make Sense To Me I was just waching The Hulk tonight (a movie I actually liked) and there's a scene in it where the big green protagonist tosses a guy through a window. Actually, he tosses the couch the guy is on through the window, and the guy goes with it. Shortly thereafter, he pushes the guy through the porch railing with his foot. Moments later, he uses the guy's unconscious body as a cricket bat to smack two other guys down later. Oddly enough, the guy doesn't die. In fact, later on he's feeling pretty good. Kind of like his old self. Ok. He has some bandages and a cast, but still. This is the part I don't understand, because I'm trying to picture how I'd feel after being thrown through a window or pushed through a railing or used as a cricket bat. I'm thinking death and, if not death, traction. If not traction, I'm picturing a whole lot of chiropractic care. See what I'm saying here? Like, for instance, one time I was going down a flight of stairs and I misjudged how many steps there were and I tried to step down one more step when there wasn't one. My foot sort of slammed into the floor and my entire back got screwed up by that to the point where I needed to take some pain medication and spend a few visits at the chirpractor's to get myself back in shape. This bad guy in the movie was picked up by the leg and used as a bat with which to hit other bad guys. Yet I was out of commission because I thought there was just one more step. I'd make a terrible bad guy, given my pantywaist's constitution. One reason I like The Hulk, though, is because I got a laugh out of watching a giant hulk poodle bite The Hulk on the peñor. That was funny. He hollers like... well... like me when I missed that last step. |
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| Jan 19 | Colin Comes Through Again Paris Hilton Is Even Dumber Than You Thought. Quote: When asked if she knew the last name of a companion on the night in question: "It's like a weird Greek name. Like Douglas." Hoo boy. Thanks, Colin! |
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| Jan 19 |  DoraThis is my daughter, Dora, wearing her "serious face". No, really. That was the face she made when I told her to make a nice, serious face. You should have seen what she was doing before I insisted on the serious face. |
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| Jan 18 | A Little Blurb About My Other Favorite Show Arrested Development is actually canceled. It's not just a bad dream. |
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| Jan 18 | A Little Blurb About My Favorite TV Show From Penny Arcade: Battlestar Galactica equals f**k yes. When I heard that not only did Cylons look like people now, but that they had done away with Muffit - the most enduring robear symbol of our age - I directed all further inquiries to the hand. I was wrong, wrong, a thousand times wrong. People have been wrong about things in the past, but their folly never endured so, tainting the line of man. |
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| Jan 18 | ClickBoink Just say it out loud, as one word: "ClickBoink". If you have to wait until there's no-one else around because you're embarrassed, that's fine. Just make sure you say it. Indulge me. Then, try saying this: "ClickBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBoink". That's eleven "Buhs". Count it on your fingers. Say it right out loud. Now that I've had you do this, you understand what it is I love about the new Intel Macs. When I saw iTunes being launched on an Intel iMac (1.67 GHz) when I was in San Francisco, it was nearly instantaneous. By the time your finger leaves the button, it's launched. If it were a sound, it'd be "ClickBoink". Click being the depressing of the mouse button, and Boink being the appearance of iTunes, fully launched, right in front of your eyes. On my Mac, which is a 1.67 GHz laptop, I don't get that. I click, the icon bounces in the dock, THEN it launches. You don't get "ClickBoink". You get "ClickBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBuhBoink". I don't realize that you could just get "ClickBoink", but apparently the Intel chip makes that possible. I can show you benchmarks, system specs and timedemos of the new Intel Mac's performance, but that's one layer removed from really understanding how it feels to see the thing in action. Just say "ClickBoink". Then you'll get it. |
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| Jan 18 | iGameTastic I was interviewed on iGame Radio yesterday. Now don't get me wrong; it's not exactly CNN, but it was an interesting show. It was all about Macworld San Francisco and the advent of the new Intel Macintoshes and (for some reason) my view on the whole thing. iGame Radio host Omaha Sternberg interviewed me at 9 AM before I had to catch a plane, and it really makes me seem... how can I say it? Dull. Dull and listless. When I'm sleepy I: a) Have a very monotone voice, b) Repeat myself a lot, c) Am not very smart. Be prepared. Assuming you actually would like to listen, go to iGame Radio. There are two ways to listen to this (and both of them suck). Sucky way #1: The interview will actually play on the front page when you arrive there. The good thing about this is that it's easy, but the bad thing is that you have to wait for about 48 minutes before my interview begins. Worse still, there's no time counter, so you can't tell where you're at in terms of when things start. If you want, you can move the little slider to about here. Another tip (I know this works on Macs... not sure about Windows) is that you can hold down shift and click the volume control and get this, which allows you to increase the volume more than you're "supposed" to. This will help with the sucky audio quality mentioned below. Sucky way #2: You can subscribe to the podcast using the instructions on the page, and you'll download the MP3s to iTunes (you can select which ones you want to download an which ones you don't). This makes things a little more hassle than it has to be, but when you're done listening you can just unsubscribe and erase whatever files you don't want. If you do this, you'll be able to advance the show to 48:30, where the interview actually starts. Regarding sound quality: Sound "really" sucks until about 51:30, and then it just "merely" sucks. Sound goes from "merely'' sucks to "not-too-bad" sucks at 58:12. Sound goes back from "not-too-bad" sucks to "really" sucks at 1:12:30. Then, just for larfs, it goes back to "not-too-bad" sucks at 1:13:17. It all goes well until 1:27:55, when the interview ends. P.S. Omaha makes one small mistake in that she says I'm going home. I only wish that had been the case. Sigh. My soul needed to be in my own bed about 48 hours before I actually was. Bleh. |
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| Jan 17 |  Happy Birthday, Terry!34 years old today. My brother Terry is just a few years younger than I am. Like me, he's getting used to that no-man's-land between youth and middle-age, which brings along a little baldness, a little greyness, a little extra padding in the middle and a few wrinkles around the edges. Also like me, he's getting used to some of the gifts this age brings... expecially parenthood. At first I started a long description of what kind of man Terry is; how he's so remarkably intelligent, wise, mature, easy-going and dignified. I did scribble out a couple of paragraphs about that sort of thing, but it didn't ring through with the spirit of what he's really like. I want those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing him to be able to feel a little of what I feel about this amazing person. Instead, I will paint you a picture in a different way. Terry is like still water... such as a lake. Deep, constant, tranquil. You go to it, you leave it, you return. Sometimes you forget about it. Sometimes you're immersed in it. Always it is there, always it is strong and real, and when you need something simple and reliable to remind you that the world really is a place of beauty as much as it is a place of confusion and frustration, you sit by its edge and are lost in its even, smooth surface. I feel sorry for the people in the world who don't get to meet Terry. I'm lucky to have spent the last 34 years being a brother to the kind of man the world needs more of. Happy Birthday, bro. |
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| Jan 17 |  Sprint Can Go DieIt's not that I'm against productivity or working some extra hours, but this giant ad in the airport astonished me by proposing the worst idea of all time. |
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| Jan 17 | Who Needs TV... When you have Sarah Brown? Not sure how to target specific posts, so click here and check out "Bryan Byrne Is Funny". This post isn't actually by Sarah Brown, but... just click it. You'll see. Text is sorta not-safe-for-work, if you care about that kind of thing. |
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| Jan 15 | Starstruck I saw James Gandolfini in the San Francisco airport today. |
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| Jan 15 | Just Kill Me San Francisco is a little cool... a tiny bit breezy. Nothing seriously cool. I can go outside in a light jacket. Or even less. It rained a bit yesterday, but all is good now. I was feeling pretty good, when I realized I am on my way home to Ottawa soon, so I thought I'd check the Ottawa weather online. Then I saw this. Apparently it feels like -30 with the wind chill... and once again, I hate my life. |
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| Jan 15 |  Hello What?Here's me at the San Rio store in San Francisco, and they had these Hello Kitty Fender Squire guitars. I had to try one out and, in doing so, gave Peter Cohen the opportunity to take a photo that made me look like a big sissyboy. What's worse is, it must not bother me too much because I don't seem to have a problem with showing everyone on my blog. |
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| Jan 14 | Huh?
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| Jan 13 |  The Macworld That WasThe show isn't quite over yet, but we're coming around the bend. MVP? Peter Cohen. Reliably being both my go-to guy when I needed a few minutes of tranquility and sanity, and also the man-with-the-plan when it was time to party. Peter, you were the wind beneath my wings this week. |
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| Jan 9 | Woof This is probably the funniest thing I've seen in months. |
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| Jan 8 | Open Letter To The Pussycat Dolls You wouldn't say that if you actually met my girlfriend. |
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| Jan 7 | They Got Me With The Easiest Trick In The Book According to the book they have full of room service dishes, the Ramada Inn describes this particular appetizer as "Grilled Asparagus, Goat Cheese Vinaigrette, Chive Oil". Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I normally don't use room service, but here I am in San Francisco waiting for Macworld to start... hungry, bored, etc. I decided that I would splurge this one time, as the appetizer is $12. Expensive, yes, but I've been watching my money pretty carefully since I got here. I feel like it's a justifiable treat to myself. Well, the thing gets here and it's $19. They add tax of $1.50, which sucks but is understandable. Then there's the $3.00 "We're Delivering It To Your Room Fee, And We Charge $1.50 For Every Minute Spent Traveling To The Second Floor". Finally, there's the $2.50 gratuity, which is added onto the bill because they're just so darned certain that you'll feel like paying them an additional ~20% tip for the absolutely astonishing feat of rolling a cart to your hotel door. What amazes me is that the guy who brought it to me stood there as if I were going to slip him another couple bucks for a job well done. When all was said and done and I'd been slapped with a $19 price tag, I lifted the cover off the plate and looked down at a plate containing nine lukewarm stalks of asparagus swimming in what looks like melted cream cheese and some green dye. For the record, no; it wasn't all that tasty. They got me. Fair and square. |
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| Jan 7 | If I Could Marry A Song... It'd be "Trigger Hippie" by Morcheeba. |
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| Jan 6 | Problem It's very hard for me to stick to any kind of diet when I'm in San Francisco, and I leave to go there tomorrow. I will likely be resetting the Pepsimeter a couple times. |
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| Jan 1 | History There's a quote I heard once on the radio: "Young people tend to only learn enough about history to disdain it". For the past few years, I've been searching for the source. It's one I want to know (so if you have it, please email me). You see, I find it particularly relevant when pop culture gives a glance to religion and its history. People are quick to point out that wars get started because of religion; persecution, prejudice and strife profliferate in the name of religion. It's true; a cursory glance at history makes that pretty clear. The part that people sometimes forget is that great things also happen in the name of religion. It is because of Islam that we have hospitals and universities, for it was Muslims who came up with the idea to better seek knowledge and care for the sick... as Muhammed told them to. It was Muslims who, in the year 1000, made it possible to write a cheque in Spain and cash it in India. It was because of them that we have long divisions and stopped using Roman numerals. Thanks to Islam, there were streetlights in Baghdad in the same era, and while most of Christendom was illiterate, there was a street in that city where over 100 bookstores were open. It is because of religion that we had the rennaisance. People argue that these things would have happened anyhow in the fullness of time, and that religious inspiration bore no responsibility for motivating people to accomplish great things. On the other hand, they give no weight to the idea that wars would happen as well, or that cruelty abounds regardless of religious affiliation (or lack thereof). In their cursory survey of history, they see that religion causes problems, and all solutions pop out of thin air without source or inspiration. I find this extremely naive and a difficult subject to discuss because, as it's been said, a lot of people only learn enough about history to disdain it. |
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| Jan 1 | Best Quote Today Got this from nj.com on the subject of movies coming in 2006: We hasten to say we've seen very few of these new movies already, and hesitate to offer any sort of early thumbs-up or thumbs-down now, based on a couple of trailers and a sentence or two of synopsis. After all, you can't judge a book by its cover, or a movie by its title. Although, faced with something like "Untitled Will Ferrell NASCAR Project," penciled in for August, we sort of think we can. |
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| Jan 1 | Well. Now I Know. I have this sweater that I really like. I took it out of the pile of clothing on the bed and threw it on today, and it felt all nice and comfy as usual, which was nice. Thing is, I looked down and there was this weird, dull reddish kinda of spot on on it. Well, the day went by and I didn't give it a lot of thought (as I was just hanging out in the house I didn' feel the need to tend to it immediately). Then, later, I made myself a big bowl of pasta and sauce and sat down at my computer to watch a downloaded episode of Supernatural (good TV show). A few minues go by and I look down. There's a spot on my sweater next to the other spot. It's a wet spot next to the dry one and just a slightly brighter color, glistening in the light of the table lamp. |
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| The Final Hours Of Dec 31 | Dear2005: You Had Your Chance To Impress Me, And This Is What You Did With It? Oh, 2005. You had so much potential. You came out of the gate looking like you were really going to wow me... but you didn't. You just sat there and let everyone walk all over you. You didn't even try to fight back. Now with half an hour left to go before you are out of my life permanently, I want to say thank you for what you did for me... as little as it was. Even so, my hopes for 2006, your successor, are that it will accomplish much more than you. In the mean time, as you go off to wherever it is that old years go, please accept my best wishes for your retirement. Do not, however, think of yourself as having earned the right to brag to the other retired years about what an improvement you made in my life... because I ended up with a lot on my plate that you, 2005, didn't offer a lot of help with. No hard feelings, but... there's the door. |
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| Dec 31 | Coke Machines: Apropos Of Nothing This was something I read on Fark.com in the comments section from a guy who calls himself "vending machine guy". Vending machine guy here. I can tell you that Coca-Cola is a frustrating company to deal with. Many of their bottles don't fit in their own machines. This results in jammed columns (or the bottles slip forward away from the switch that tells the computer there are bottles present). When this happens, the readout says "Sold Out" even though there's product in there. Customers think you're slacking. There are probably 250 Coke product column jams for every 1 Pepsi. That's because the Pepsi bottles are designed intelligently. Coke bill acceptors are the worst, "eating" bills more often than any others I've dealt with. It takes a long time to get replacement parts from Coke. I still have a machine on my route with a dead bulb even though I ordered its replacement in late October. It's in the best account of our entire operation! I've never had to wait for a Pepsi bulb. |
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| Dec 31 | Thank You, VH1, For Taking A Dump On My Idea Of An Artistic Icon Public Enemy. You've heard me talk about them. You know I love them. In fact, to me, they've always represented what's good and right about rap music; from the message to the musicianship, Public Enemy has always been the standard for me. Well, this brings me to the subject of Flavor Flav; the side-man and "court jester" of sorts to Public Enemy's massive personality on the mic, Chuck D. In my mind, Flav's goofball antics (some of which really defined rap style; if "Yeah boyeeeee" could be copywritten, Flav would have cashed a lot more checks) always had an air of irony to them... he was less like a clown and more like Batman's Joker; you wanna laugh, but you don't. Or you do laugh, but you don't want to. Either way, he was part of what made Public Enemy great. He was part of the sound, part of the message of social rebuilding and big part of the energy, diffusing Chuck D's too-serious-to-swallow-without-a-chaser aura. Ok, this morning I dialed up Yahoo and saw this. Oh, sweet merciful God, no. Flavor Flav has been made into the axis of a reality TV show geared to find him a mate. Could anything possibly be more odious? "Yeah boyeeeee" has now been reduced to a modern-day "Whatchyoo talkin' about, Willis?" as this aging rap icon works overtime to line the pockets of VH1's corporate moguls, essentially pouring a bucket of white-out on PE's anti-corporation cornerstones like "Shut It Down". Between commercials for Diet Coke and Lexus, Flav will shed his counter-culture, rap-without-fear-or-compromise legacy and dance around his mansion and pool with half-naked hootchies under the guise of finding "True Love". He's now a walking, talking version of Fear Factor except, in this case, Flav himself is the object of horror, and won't it be wacky to see how the ladies react to it? There's a darker side to the joke; Flav is a convicted spouse-abuser. Though I love Public Enemy, I will never condone that... and I find the effort to make a big, carefrree party out of finding Flav a girlfriend tasteless given this ugly stain on his history. So thanks, VH1, for playing a part in my gradual but oh-so-steady dissolving of faith that there's something in rap music which counters the product-placement deluge of nobodies like Fifty Cent (who's keepin' it so real he has 17 product mentions in seven songs). Thank you for boiling rap down to being nothing more than just another commodity. More than anything else... thank you, Flavor Flav, for showing the world that (as many suspected) Chuck was the one with the backbone to stand up to corporate America. Also, I'd like to say that I don't think "macadocious" is a word. I intend to write to Yahoo about it. |
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| Dec 28 | Canada There are two things which, to me, speak a subtle but very penetrating volume of meaning about what it is to be Canadian; not the "rah rah rah" Canadian, where your self-conscious obsession with lack of culture makes you grab onto anything you can to hold it up and say "LOOK! THIS IS MINE!". I'm talking about the real feeling of being Canadian... the thing you can't put words to but, to those of us who grew up here, can transport us to a place and time and wordless emotion which communicates how it feels to be from this country. This. And this. |
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| Dec 28 | The Worst Idea In The History Of Bad Ideas Eating chocolate icing straight out of the can seems like a really good idea. It's a small, condensed repository of flavor with nowhere to go but your mouth. Sit down, grab a butter knife, watch Home Movies, and shovel it into your face. The first few knife-fulls are like heaven, but if you keep eating you're basically signing your own death warrant. It's been about an hour and, God, do I feel bad. Yechhhhh. |
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| Dec 26 | Death Of A Charater Actor Vincent Schiavelli died today in Sicily. He was no superstar, but I've been watching him since I was a kid (first time I think I saw him in a role was W.K.R.P. in Cincinatti). Take a look at his photo, read the article, and think about him for a moment before he starts to fade from your memory. BTW, I had to restart my Pepsi counter. Yes, I fell off the wagon. |
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| Dec 15 | Television Theory My theory is: If you have cable service, there is no time of the day or night when you are not be able to either watch Star Trek, CSI, or one of their spinoffs (Star Trek: TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, CSI Miami, CSI New York). If I ever find myself looking for a good Masters' thesis, I may put this to the test. |
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| Dec 13 | Seeing This Was The One Thing Which Kept My Day From Being Total And Utter Cack Color photo of kids falling asleep on a bed during a square dance, circa 1940's |
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| Dec 9 | Pepsi It's a drink that includes a massive amount of caffeine. Caffeine, incidentally, totally screws up your sleep. Most people know that it can keep you awake, but they don't realize how much it affects you while you're sleeping; it prevents you from really sleeping properly and, therefore, you feel extremely tired pretty much all the time (and, as such, your urge for caffeine intake increases). It's loaded with sugar. Sugar has an amazing depressive power on your system. A lot of people believe sugar makes you high and keeps you high. That's partly true; it gets you high for a short time and then drops you quickly. I, personally, have noticed a link between sugar and my allergies as well (the more I consume, the worse they get). I have heard that there is so much sugar in Pepsi that it requires an additional chemical in its composition just to keep the sugar dissolved, otherwise it'd be like sludge. I don't know if that's actually true, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's also carbonated. I recently learned that carbonated drinks turn into acid once they're in your body. Addiction. Pepsi, like all sugary, caffeinated drinks, is addictive. In other words, you have to keep drinking it or you feel like crap. I think Pepsi is tasty. I'll give you that. Even so, it makes my breath smell bad. I'm not sure why this is, but after I drink enough Pepsi it's like my gums go all nasty or something and I have to brush my teeth, like, twenty times. I don't drink alcohol. I don't use any drugs unless prescribed by a doctor. I'm not a junkie in the sense that I'm going to end up in jail for possession or for driving while under the influence. What I do know is that I keep trying to stop drinking Pepsi and failing. I have sleep problems, and I don't know if the caffeine and sugar are the source, but they can't be helping. I don't believe my teeth like being washed with Pepsi. I certainly don't like gaining weight from it. I also have a mild skin problem that seems to have something to do with the Pepsi as well. I keep quitting and I keep getting back on it again and it's mainly because I don't really take quitting Pepsi all that seriously. I mean, when you have to stop smoking crack, you gotta stop. There's no grey area there. With Pepsi it's just a little different; no one is going to look at you and say "Man, put that sh*t down. You got your whole life ahead of you". Yet knowing that my Dad (an avid Pepsi drinker) had two heart attacks and now has diabetes makes me feel somewhat sober. Seeing movies like Super Size Me gives me pause to rethink what I'm putting in my body; I keep remembering the scene where this whale of a man was talking about how he basically drank what most people would consider to be two pailfulls of Pepsi a day... only to end up in the hospital, having gone blind from a diabetic somethingorother, and needing his stomach stapled and... yeeeesh. With relatively little fanfare and relatively little hoorah, I've started a counter near the top of this page which keeps track of how many days I've gone without Pepsi. We're now at 1. let's see how it goes... |
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| Dec 8 | AIM IM with Andy Osier. 4:25 PM Andy Osier: hey Corey Tamas: Howdy Andy Osier: what exactly is on your girlfriend's finger? Andy Osier: on your blog Corey Tamas: A hair elastic Andy Osier: ahh, my mind is a scary place Corey Tamas: What did you think it was? Andy Osier: (answer censored -C.) Corey Tamas: It's a big one. You're very kind. |
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| Dec 6 | ... If you try to chase two rabbits, you end up losing them both. |
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| Dec 5 | When The Girls Leave When my two daughters leave to go back to their mom's home after spending several days at mine, the entire apartment becomes a different place. I work my way slowly and laboriously through the towering junkpile of dirty dishes that accumulates from neverending banquets of yogurt, salad, cake, jello, cereal, pancakes, porridge, chicken, milk, juice, and hot chocolate. Blankets get dutifully folded and left waiting for the return of their mistresses, like pets waiting motionlessly at the door for an owner to get home. The detritus of water-logged toys from around the edge of the bathtub get gingerly wiped and returned to the basket they're kept in. Papers with half-finished line drawings in colored marker and pencil crayon are neatly stacked in a drawer where I keep those things. Surfaces which are sticky beg for a good wipe, and I give it to them. I get to drink coffee leisurely and in silence as I calmly surf the web or assemble a neat list of what I need to do with my day. A roaring quiet fills every corner and it seems that no matter how focusedly I stride from room to room doing important things, I can't seem to fill the apartment with life all on my own. I'm now able to do my laundry, pay my bills, finish my assignments and set my own pace as I wish... but it comes at the cost of having sweet, wonderful, joyous, uncomplicated life tucked right in the folds of my most private existence. The best I can do is just try to fill the hours until I can have it back because when my life is about nothing but me it is no longer worth living. |
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| Dec 5 | The Flick Filosopher On "The Polar Express" "...It is also generally not recommended that a happy holiday flick feature an all-hands-on-deck North Pole sendoff for Santa on Christmas Eve that more resembles a Nuremberg rally than a Macy's parade." A fantastic review that nailed exactly what it was that I didn't like about this movie, even though I couldn't articulate it beforehand. |
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| Nov 30 | The Best Email I Ever Got (Name and bad words edited) Subject Line: Happy To KnowI got it over six months ago from someone I've never met nor heard of, but I keep it to read whenever I need a little pick-me-up. |
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| Nov 26 | A Little Favor For Your Old Pal Corey I have a cousin named Pieter who is a huge hockey fan. He's trying to score season tickets for the Hamilton Ontario Bulldogs, and the contest he's entered in order to do so is a sort of "Survivor" themed competition. He needs votes in order to make this happen and he's actually a really nice guy... so he deserves to win. If you would help me by heading over there and putting a vote in for him, I'd sure be happy. Here's how you do it: 1. Go to The Hamilton Bulldogs website. 2. Click the "Survivor" link (looks like this). 3. My cousin is Pieter K (misspelled as "Peter"). Lower left corner. Click his pic, listen to his 30 second blurb about why he should win (or skip it if you prefer) and vote for him. Hey, I know it's ballot-stuffing, but it's just some hockey tickets. Consider it a favor. And I owe you one. Or Pieter does. Either way. |
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| Nov 26 | Have You Ever? Have you ever hurt someone's feelings without trying to? If yes, please proceed to the next question. Has that person been someone you really care about? If yes, please proceed to the next question. Do you want to make your relationship with them better, but you ended up making things way worse? If yes, please proceed to the next question. Have you ever felt terrible about it? If yes, welcome to my experience of Saturday, November 26, 2005. |
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| Nov 25 | We're Back I had to do without my computer and my car for a while over the last few weeks. I may decide to write an overwrought description of the withdrawals. Depends how much I want to subject you to the stories of crack-addict-like behavior that occurred when I couldn't check my email or drive to Starbuck's. In other news, I was just reading about how Paris Hilton believed Santa Claus was real until she was 17. |
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| Nov 8 | Home Movies To explain your questions about what's in my "current obsession" panel (above): Here's the answer. In case you're wondering what it is, it's a cartoon series about an 8 year old kid with a video camera named Brendon Small. Picture David Spade without the confidence or smooth manner, and that's Brendon. The dialogue is just too damn good to be true. I can't stop laughing. |
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| Nov 8 | Hallowe'en Story Here's a story I forgot to mention last week: I was out with the kids on Hallo'ween taking them from house to house (like you do) and staying back by the sidewalk, resplendant in my clown makeup, as the kids went around and collected candy. Dora, dressed as a brilliant white little kitty cat (with Ruth as a cute little witch) found herself face to face with an old woman handing out candies. She was probably in her late eighties. In fact, I know she was. She was 87. How do I know this? Because as soon as Dora saw her, she said (at the top of her voice) "Boy! You sure are one old lady! How old are you??" She persisted over and over until the old woman finally confessed that she was 87. Dora was suitably astonished and made a huge "HOLY CRAP" sound. I wanted to explain to her that some people might not want to be asked so directly about their age, but aborted that plan because I was too busy clamping my hand over my mouth to keep myself from being heard as I laughed uncontrollably. Just to punctuate this amusing tale, here are pics of the kids in their costumes.    |
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| Nov 1 | Guess what? I'm A Hallowe'enie I kept writing and re-writing an explanation for what you're going to see in these photos, but everything just sort of takes the wind out of the sails. Here's the brief story: - Went back to Almonte last night to go trick-or-treating with my kids - Had a little extra time, so I stopped at Wal-Mart to see if I could find them interesting gifts - There weren't any good gifts, but there were some cheap costumes and props. - I stopped at Starbuck's rest room for ten minutes and engaged in the transformation, documented below. - Shut up       |
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| Oct 30 | The Latest I'm feeling better, in general, but I've been rather sick for a while. Thanks everyone for My home finally looks like a home. My work has been heavy lately, but it's definitely moving forward. My kids are adorable and sweet. My girlfriend Lori is just as wonderful as she's always been. Not much to report... I just don't like letting the blog get too stale. |
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| Oct 24 | Super Soldiers From Fark: US military attempting to create an army of super-human soldiers who will be more intelligent and deadly thanks to a microchip implanted in their brains Can I just ask: Has there ever been a science fiction movie made in which an attempt to create an army of super-human soldiers didn't end in countless normal people getting blown to kingdom come? |
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| Oct 24 | Punk Rock I'm not a guy who likes to be crabby... especially about music. If you like a certain kind of music then there isn't a single person in the entire world who should attempt to tell you that you're not supposed to. Simple as that. I just want to say something, however, about today's idea of "Punk Rock". Again, I'm not trying to dish on people or make them feel like somehow they don't measure up. I just want to take a moment and comment on how today's definition of "Punk Rock" is so much different than the punk rock of, say, 1976. Punk Rock came at a time when disco had overtaken the airwaves and cocaine-based, empty, party music became the de-facto norm of pop culture. Punk came along plying something of the same role that twelve-tone-row did in the early twentieth century: To shake things up, to break patterns and, ultimately, to burn out like a Roman Candle after having woken everyone out of their slumber. It was not life-affirming, it was not meant to sell, it was no party music. Its intent was to create a sort of musical score for the doom of a generation without hope. It's arguable what the greatest Punk quote of the short-lived era might have been, but to me it's Johnny Rotten's "Get pissed/Destroy", not as much sung as it was barfed up in The Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen". The record industry wanted nothing to do with Punk Rock and, if it weren't for the flooding of cash which came from the pockets of a bitter generation who identified with punk's nihilistic message, it would have never seen any sort of commercial presence. It wasn't meant to. Early Punk was meant to eat itself in its own ugliness. Take Punk icons such as Sid Vicious, who was brought into the Sex Pistols despite being unable to actually play an instrument; he was given the job because the rest of the band liked the style with which he gave a chain-whipping to a reporter. During his two-year stint as a Sex Pistol, he was known for hitting fans in the audience over the head with a Fender Precision bass (which, if you know the instrument, could easily bust your head open). In ending his heroine-soaked tenure, he killed his junkie girlfriend and then himself. According to Rolling Stone, "it was a pathetic, punky footnote". I don't advocate this sort of Punk lifestyle as a philosophy, but I'm trying to make the point that Punk wasn't cute, fun or sellable. It was meant to break with the past, bury the sixties, destroy the reign of disco and then eat itself. It was ugly, it was angry, it was without hope and joy. Parents were terrified their children might take to Punk Rock. Schools wanted to see it gone for good. That's what Punk is. It's meant to be the bitterest, ugliest pill and - in its purest form - it cannot sustain itself. Does that sound like MTV sweethearts Avril Lavigne, Sum 41, Blink 182, Lit? Each good-looking, fun-time rock act piping up "I kissed a girl" lyrics with instruments in tune and verse-chorus-verse posturing steps forth with a smile, selling T shirts, posters and enjoying slicker-than-thou websites. Never shall they utter the F-bomb on television, never will they tell the youth of 2005 to fall on their own knives because there's no point. Hell, Avril Lavigne, in a cheeky display of "nyah nyah"-ism, dropped her pants enough to show an inch of buttcrack with "MMVA" (Much Music Video Awards) written across the upper half of her bum. If there's any symbol of "new Punk" to me, this would be it; where she chastely revealed a finger's-width of crack in the interests of shilling Canada's biggest music TV corporation, the punks of years past would have never made such a censorship-delimited display of corporate-kowtowing. Even today Johnny Rotten is probably the most un-interviewable man on the face of the Earth; he belligerently shows such contempt for MTV while being interviewed by MTV that they can rarely get ten consecutive seconds of his time before he storms out in a spiky rage. I don't expect to see him using the top 1/10th of his butt as a corporate billboard in the near future. I have nothing against Avril. I have nothing against most of the modern Punk acts. I love the music and I welcome the positive, if lightweight message of the genre. I just have trouble with hearing that this is "Punk" because, if it were, it would have eaten itself long before now. |
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| Oct 23 | This Weekend My two girls were here this weekend. It was their first time in the new apartment, and they love it here. They didn't even want to go out, they liked it so much. They loved their bedroom. They loved the living room. They loved the yard. Everything just delighted them. Ruth came to me several times and would give me spontaneous hugs and tell her how happy she was to be here. If I had one fear about moving here, it was that my girls wouldn't be happy... but my fears were laid to rest when they came in the door. Throughout the weekend, both Ruth and Dora spontaneously told me they love Gatineau. If my own custom-designed heaven were to become a reality, it most certainly would include this small thing: That my girls are happy in my home. |
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| Oct 19 | Still Sick Different kind of sick, but still sick. What kind of sick? You don't wanna know. |
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| Oct 19 | Nine Seconds When I listen to Weak And Powerless by A Perfect Circle, there are nine seconds of the song that I take particular notice of. They occur from 0:54 to 1:03. Whenever I hear that little section (especially when it's through a nice big speaker system) I always stop and say to myself "That's the way I want my own music to sound". |
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| Oct 19 | Separation Anxiety Sometimes I like to weigh myself. I think we all do, right? Anyhow, I went into the bathroom today and stood on the scale and, somehow, I'd managed to gain about 7 pounds. This kind of troubled me. I realize that I could gain or lose over time, but a 7 pounds leap is... downright strange. Had I porked out on something that put all that fat on me and I hadn't realized? It was pretty disturbing, actually, because while I wasn't exactly expecting to see my ideal weight for my height, 7 pounds is a lot to gain in a short time. I checked the scale. Seems to be working right. This was really bothering me. Then something dawned on me; I was still holding my laptop computer without realizing it. If I put it down, maybe I would like the results the scale showed me a little better. |
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| Oct 18 | Ever Just "Had It"? Who am I kiddiing? I know you have. Who hasn't? Today is my day for "had it"... and "had it", I have. It all piles up. I keep taking the high road to the best of my ability, but... I'm going to put this post on hold. I'm about to say some stuff I know I'll look at tomorrow and say "That wasn't very clear thinkin', mister"... and I embarrass myself enough as it is. Don't you think? |
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| Oct 18 | Oh, And Another Thing I'm sick. I can't deny it anymore. I want to deny it. I like to pretend it's not real, but it's real. I've actually been nursing this one for about two weeks, and it finally won last night. I have now switched my psychological approach from "No, this isn't happening" to "This will be over by tomorrow morning". Here's hoping. |
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| Oct 18 | Non Sequitur I think I just broke my finger. |
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| Oct 15 |  Bald Is BeautifulI've never really been extremely comfortable about my rapidly thinning hair. When I was a younger man, I had quite a long mane of locks to boast... but, as age and testosterone set in, a lot more forehead started to appear and it was something of an identity shift for me. Lori recently explained to me that she loves the size that I am (dispelling my worries about being too fat), the grey in my hair (dispelling my worries about looking too old) and – miracle of miracles – that she loves my receding hairline. Now, when I look in the mirror, I like it as well. Sometimes you just have to hear that you're ok as you are. Next job: To get Lori to tell me she likes acne. |
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| Oct 13 | Review Of The New Place Needs to be cleaned more often. No-one really comes to visit. Can't get any TV reception. I rarely go outside. Not enough room for all my stuff. In short: Just like my old place!! |
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| Oct 13 |  JonathonThough I've mentioned Jonny before in this blog, I've never really given him his full due (as he frequently reminds me). Jon has been my friend and a shoulder to lean on for about 12 years now. We don't see each other very often but, instead, our connections tend to work the same way that Batman responds to the Bat Signal; once in a while I throw up the notice to let him know I want to see him and I wait until he shows up. The only thing is that, instead of flashing a giant black bat on the clouds, I usually just open up MSN and simply message him one word: "Girl?" See, Jon is pretty darn gay... which has relatively little impact on our friendship but, for what it's worth, it's important back-story if you want to read his blog (incidentally; Jon has no concern with making his blog family-friendly in the way that I do, so click at your own risk). Anyhow, this is a little toast to Jon, wo has passively-aggressively made it known that he wants a nice chunk of real-estate on my blog and, therefore, can onl be appeased by letting it be knowing what a great friend he's been to me. When I'm feeling bad, he's one of the first people I get on the phone to have dinner with so I can spill my guts. When I'm feeling like having some fun he's the first person I call to get me out of the house to have good times. When I feel like wasting a couple hours having a chat, he's the first guy I dial up to while away an hour or two. Jon's main weak point is that he wasn't impressed with the Vietnamese lunch we shared a few weeks ago. That's a serious strike against him. Otherwise? He's been true blue and my life is better to have him in it. Who knows when I'll see him next. Could be days, could be months, you never know with Jon. What I do know is that I just feel better looking at that photo of him because... come on. It's cute. It should be on a tshirt. |
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| Oct 11 | Japanese Screens Because Lori's desk is next to the living room area, I'm going to build a Japanese screen to separate the space, thus giving her a little sense of being isolated from the rest of the room (at least to some degree). Now, it's time for me to talk with the man who knows all about wood, joints, saws and braces. My brother. I'll keep you up to date. |
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| Oct 10 | One Very Long, Very Enjoyable, Very Much Overdue Phone Conversation With Lori Sometimes a guy just plain needs to talk to his love for a couple hours in a row. |
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| Oct 9 | Just Another Meme 1. Name someone with the same birthday as you? Kylie Minogue. 2. Where was your first kiss? Grade 8. Michelle Fletcher. Worst. Kiss. Ever. 3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else's property? Never. I don't even remember lightly vandalizing someone's property. 4. Have you ever hit anyone of the opposite sex? Nope. 5. Have you ever sung in front of a large amount of people? Yeah. Once upon a time I even thought it might be a career. 6. What's the first thing you notice about the preferred sex? The first thing I notice is that they're not as pretty as Lori is. 7. What really turns you on? In another person? None of your business. I would like to note that I find it interesting that this question takes pains to specify "in another person", as if to make sure that we don't muddy the waters with how much I turn myself on. 8. What do you order from Starbucks? Depends on the day. Right now I'm loving the venti vanilla bean frappuccino with the afagado shot with caramel sauce thingie. 9. What is your biggest mistake? Something so heinous that I don't feel like saying it here. 10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? Don't we all? 11. Say something random about yourself. Sometimes when I scratch my collarbone in the right place, it makes my tongue itch. I have no idea why. 12. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? I've been told that I look like Bruce Willis, Michael Hutchins and Kurt Browning... all depending on the period of my life I've been in. 13. Do you still watch kiddy movies or tv shows? I got two kiddies, so I indulge frequently. Having said that, I will see every Pixar movie in the theater whether I have kids with me or not. 14. Did you have braces? Nope. I've always had pretty darn good teeth. 15. Are you comfortable with your height? Yeah, I think it's about perfect. 16. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you? That's also none of your business. 17. When do you know it's love? When the other person gives you the inspiration to be the person you always hoped you were. 18. Do you speak any other languages? Yes. American Sign Language. 19. Have you ever been to a tanning salon? Yep. 20. What magazines do you read? Nothing regular. I like GQ and Men's Health. 21. Have you ever ridden in a limo? Several times, but... not a single one of those times was ever special in any way. 22. Has anyone you were really close to passed away? Yes. Good friend killed himself a few years ago. 23. Do you watch mtv? Only when I can't find a cheese grater to rub my head with. 24. What's something that really annoys you? Usually nothing annoys me more than myself. 25. What's something you really like? I love eating pho tai across the table from Lori or... even better... sitting next to her. 26. Do you like Michael Jackson? No. Never have. 27. Can you dance? I've been told that I can. I wonder. 28. What's the latest you have ever stayed up? Oh, please. That's measured in days... not hours. 29. Have you ever been rushed by a ambulance into the emergency room? According to my mom, they rushed me to a hospital once when I was very small. Apparently I drank some bleach, thinking it was Pepsi. Yes, I'm aware of how that throws open the doors for lots of jokes. Keep them to yourself. 30. Do you actually read these when other people fill them out? Depends on the person. You just know some of them are going to be awesome. |
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| Oct 8 |  Okay, You Can Stop NowWith regard to that haircut I mentioned... everyone is sending me links to the Flowbee. Alright, alright... uncle, already. |
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| Oct 6 | Desperate Cry For Help I need a haircut. Bad. Can anyone help me out? Let me know. |
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| Oct 4 | Me At 6 mos., Dad At 20 yrs., and Our Seizure-Inducing Drapery/Wallaper in 1969 |
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| Oct 4 | Phone To those of you who might be trying to phone me... I am obviously not answering my phone. This is because the fellows who helped me move and pack up some of my things at the old home put the phones somewhere, and I can't find them. I'm looking. Honest. Well, not looking that hard... |
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| Oct 4 | I Could Totally Write Sex In The City HBO's long-running series, Sex In The City. Ever heard of it? Well. I could write it. I could. Don't believe me? Well, basically it works like this: Three over-30 women from New York. Every week each one meets a guy. At first the guy seems cool. Later, one incident happens which closes the book on that guy forever. The fourth woman, Carrie, stays in a pointless relationship with a man who has no actual name. Every week she must "realize" something before the end of the episode which will have no lasting impact whatsoever on the relationship itself. Every four shows, Kim Cattrell shows a nipple. Please contact me directly via email so I can tell you where to send the check. |
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| Oct 3 | A Letter To The Town Of Almonte, Ontario... Where I Lived For Roughly 8 Years Or So Dear Almonte, I'll always remember the first time I laid eyes on you. It wasn't exactly love at first sight, but after we spent long enough in each others' arms we grew on one other. We had some good times, a few laughs and - sure - it came to mean something. Once upon a time I even thought I'd never leave you. Yeah, it got serious for me, baby... but that was then. This is now. The romance has been gone for a while, though; you grew one way, I grew another. That's how it is sometimes in this crazy world, baby... and now I know you're no good for me. You may still be easy on the eyes and you may still remind me of the good times, but we're just two ships that passed in the night. That's all. So yeah, you broke my heart, but I'm moving on. We had some grins. We had some laughs. Now it's time to say Sayonara. Try to forget me, baby, the way I'm trying to forget you. Ciao, Corey |
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| Oct 1 | A Question About Battlestar Galactica Colonel Tye: Is he ever right about anything? |
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| Sept 30 | Things We Believe When We're Children When I was about 6 or 7 I believed that the world existed entirely, at one time, in black and white. I believed this because some movies were in black and white. I began to piece the bits together a little at a time... I realized that the change to color in the world happened sometime in the 30's or 40's, but I couldn't come up with a decent theory on what happened. When I finally asked my mom one day "What happened to make the world change from black and white to color?" she explained that it wasn't the world that was black and white, but the film movies were made on. I have never since felt like a bigger dumbass than I did at that moment. |
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| Sept 28 | T-Minus 3 Days I move to Gatineau on Saturday. I just have to say that I really like my new place. The kids have a nice bedroom and a back yard and a sledding hill nearby and a beach about 5 minutes away. There's a huge bedroom and the kind of kitchen I really like. I also really like hardwood floors, and it has those. There's even a great little spot for Lori's desk if she decides she wants it there. |
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| Sept 26 | Ironic, Considering The Last Post I Made It's a bad night. I feel awful. Everything has been going wrong. I feel terrible. Does anyone ever just get what they want? |
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| Sept 26 | Oscar Wilde "Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow." ~Oscar Wilde |
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| Sept 26 |  Not That I'm Overly SurprisedThe only time... and I mean the only time my Mac ever crashes, hangs or does anything really weird is when certain applications or programs, and only those applications and programs are used. No others. Just a small collection of very specific software causes problems. What do all those programs have in common? They're made by Microsoft. |
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| Sept 25 | I think... am I?... I think I'm... yeah... yeah, I think I am... no, wait... yeah, no doubt about it... it's for sure.... I'm getting a cold. |
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| Sept 22 |  RuthMom got the kids some bhindis and after taking a bunch of photos I managed to score this really nice one of Ruth. Isn't she beautiful? I don't think bhindis are supposed to go on your nose, though. |
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| Sept 22 | Lori Not everyone who reads this blog knows her, or knows her well. All they know is that she's occupied the "I'm Way Into" slot on my "Obsessions Bar" at the top of the page for many, many months now. Lori, surprisingly, doesn't read my blog that much. I suppose she has so much access to me in real-time that she doesn't really feel the need. Can't say I blame her. The first thing that most people notice about Lori is that she's pretty. Very pretty. She also has a sweet, positive personality which makes her even more of a dish. People everywhere we go notice her and many comment. Sometimes people want to shake my hand and tell me how lucky I am to have such a lovely woman on my arm. Sometimes people just tell her she's pretty (there's one restaurant we go to where the waitresses tell her how beautiful she is... every single time). Some are a little less polite and/or dignified about it and need a punch in the head. Anyhow, everyone knows how gorgeous Lori is. Even my grandmother said "She has quite a nice figure, doesn't she?" My grandmother, for crying out loud. Anyhow, I can't help but consider the fact that those who notice her beauty don't usually get the chance (or won't take the time) to get to know her better. It's a shame, too, because the best parts of what Lori has to offer aren't things you can just see at a glance. For instance, what isn't easily apparent is that she is a very fine writer; witty and deft and uses her expansive vocabulary to create engaging and interesting prose and poetry. Though I noticed her (amazing) looks early on, I really was caught by her ability to communicate and be funny. God, is she funny.
Lori is also a very private woman. Though she makes everyone feel as if they are her best friend, few people actually get to know her... the real her. She is extremely thoughtful and, therefore, is often very quiet. She observes. She processes and remembers. Being around her is like a walk through the forest; unless you are gentle and you watch carefully, you might miss everything that's worth seeing and hearing. |
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| Sept 21 | One For The Books Last night I had this dream which was like the all-star dream for me; I remembered all of it, which is also weird... but weirdest of all was the way it included a positively packed all-star cast of people and icons from my personal life. Present in a single dream were: - My sweet girlfriend, Lori - My good friend Duncan - Duncan's living room - Duncan's kids - My dad - My friend Brett's dad, David Smith - My mom - A Baha'i youth conference - A kitten - My high school - A mall which exists in Toronto but I forget the name of - Starbuck's - A venti triple decaf no-fat extra hot latte which I also asked for to be "grainy". I have no idea what "grainy" means, but I think it was my brain trying to come up with a longer drink name. |
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| Sept 18 | It's Finally Happened I was just reading Pitch Fork Media's list of top ten albums for the 2000-2004, and I don't believe I've heard a single track from a single one of the entries. |
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| Sept 18 | Battlestar Galactica Ok, I really feel like I owe it to you all to discuss this here. I'll get right to the punchline: Watch this show. Go rent the Miniseries, then rent Season One, then use Bit Torrent to download Season Two. I'm talking to all you people who enjoy good stories, good characters and good concepts. Let me get a little more into the details of this show. Just as a precursor, yeah... I did used to watch the old show in the late 70's. And I loved it. I adored it. I lived for it. Then, maybe a year ago, I downloaded a few episodes from that old show to watch again and maybe catch a bit of the magic for old time's sake. Well, I nearly hurled, it was so bad. I realized that, yes, there are some shows which an 8 year old mind can forgive that a 36 year old mind simply can't. What a piece of derivative, cheapass, rip-off, shoddy, puddle-deep trash. Horrible. Just horrible. There I sat, watching in disgust as another sacred memory from my childhood caved completely in, caught fire and blew away in the wind. The new BSG isn't like that. I promise. The story is that a parallel "humanity" living in a far-away system is attacked by Cylons - an artificial race which humanity itself created - and nearly wiped out. Taking the last of their heavy battleships and whatever remaining human transports that could be gathered up, they set out to find a mythical place called "Earth". As you can tell, the plot of the original and the new series are virtually identical, but they both play out so very differently. Top-flight actors like Edward James Olmos and Mary MacDonnell make the scripts believable and, my favorite part, the CG really brings the whole thing to life. I just love it. One important note is that you really must watch it sequentially; the developments (particularly between Seasons 1 and 2) are huge and jumping ahead is a big no-no. Start with the mini-series (which is really just a two-hour-or-so movie that you can rent from most video stores). Oddly enough, the mini-series is actually the weakest part of the whole affair; while not exactly bad (especially by the standards of the original show), it's uneven. It sets the stage for the rest of the series, however, and one watch-through is painless, I promise. The first season is now on DVD and you can rent it. If you are intrepid enough, you can also download it from the usual places where people download stuff. Don't know where that would be? Here... first grab Bit Torrent (and read up on how it works. It's simple), and then do some searching on Isohunt, Torrent Reactor, Torrent Spy, and The Pirate Bay. You'll find all the torrents you want there. As for Season one, it's a masterpiece. Great stories, great pacing, great development, great characters... believable and yet also fantastic. There's not a bad episode in the bunch. Using your newfound Bit Torrent skills, grab the first 9 episodes of season two (at present there are only 9, as the season's not done yet). Season one was amazing, but season two tears the doors off of season one. So, look... if you like Sci Fi and want to see something gritty and fresh and expertly created, this is my recommendation. |
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| Sept 16 |  Here's Where I Am Moving ToI don't feel like giving the exact address away but, thanks to Google Maps, you can get a good look at my new home! |
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| Sept 16 | "I Get Knocked Down, But I Get Up Again..." There is nothing I can think of, from the Von Trapp Family Singers all the way to Britney "Can I Get That In Large Bills?" Spears that irritates me more than having Chumbawamba's "Tub Thumpin'" stuck in my head. I am about ten minutes away from drilling through my own skull just to let the song out. Please, God, make it stop. |
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| Sept 14 | Another Mushy Email This is another email from Lori that I didn't publish earlier for you. If you're not up for mushiness, you may want to look the other way. You may wonder why I'm posting this here; mainly it's to give Kirsten fodder to use when she's making fun of me. Anyhow, I just told Lori she'd given me my first smile in a long time: You just gave me my first smile in a very long time, too. Thank you for that -- all it took was knowing you were smiling. I love you so much! I have to sign off but will try to get back on later. You are my love. |
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| Sept 14 | F***ing Windows Here comes a very long rant about Windows and some responses to it. This first bit is written by my buddy Steve, who is far from a neophyte in the world of computing Also, I'm trying to edit out bad language, so that should explain the appearance of stars in the middle of words. :) Honest to f***, I can't see how anybody can use this crap and get anything done. I didn't expect to like Windows when I built this PC, but the number of things it does that leave me absolutely dumbstruck steadily grows. Currently I'm grappling with a crasher that just defies all logic. About two times out of three when I boot the machine, it makes it to the login screen, or possibly to the desktop. Then, sitting there untouched, thirty seconds or so will go by and then it will quietly blue-screen and reboot. Wow. I get a flash of white text on the blue screen, maybe 1/60 of a second (nowhere near enough to read what it says), and then it reboots. IF it comes back up, I get a dialog box informing me "Windows has recovered from a serious error." Wow, you think? It asks me to click "report" and I usually do, whereafter it opens a browser window and says it has no idea what's wrong, but invites me to fill out some customer satisfaction surveys for Microsoft. So I did something wrong building my PC, you think? Loose RAM? Bad cable somewhere? Motherboard flaw? Well, all I can say is this: I have Red Hat Fedora Core 4 running on another partition, which is doing just fine on the same hardware, no problems at all, and I'm working on a Linux From Scratch build on another drive which is also chugging along flawlessly. No problems USEEING TEH LOONIX. Same hardware. OK, so whatever, windows is h0rked, right? So reinstall. I expected to be doing a lot of that anyway and I'm sure as hell not keeping anything important on this machine. Yesterday I went to do that, booted my XP machine ready to wipe the Windows partition and start over... only to find that XP won't install unless it also gets to wipe out my Linux From Scratch hard drive too and put an XP partition on it. Becuase f***ing Windows thinks it owns the entire universe, I suppose, and it can't imagine not having the right to shit itself all over any device it sees. Why, after all, would you ever run anything other than Windows? So in order to fix my busted install I'm going to have to yank that drive out (or disconnect the cables at least), reinstall windows, and then reconnect the drive. And for all I know, that's the thing that's making XP shit the bed in the first place. I am a Mac and Linux user. Windows will always be alien to me, even if I have to work with and support it. I can't imagine why anyone who needed to do any kind of computing and have it be remotely reliable would use it. This was my response. I respect what Steve has to say, so I'm not challenging him... just adding to an already sound argument: What helped me to understand Windows as an operating system was a very simple shift in my thinking which addressed pretty much every single concern I've ever had with it: Windows purpose has nothing to do with being a useful operating system. People constantly talk about Windows as if it's flawed, but it's really not. The reason it's perceived as flawed is because it's evaluated as an operating system; stability, speed, functionality, security, ease-of-use, all of these things in which Windows falls short are often held against it as if those who created Windows somehow failed in implementing key checkbox features. Nothing could be further from the truth, but to see that one must be absolutely clear on why Windows exists and what purpose it is intended to serve: Windows is created to make money for Microsoft. That's it, that's all. All of those operating system checkbox features are only important to the extent that they make more money for Microsoft. If that over-arching goal is not going to be abundantly met, then the lesser goal is irrelevant. Apple (who I have a love/hate relationship with, so don't call me a "fanboy", thanks) has a different approach: Their belief is that if they make the best damned operating system in the world that it will bring money into their coffers. I, personally, find this somewhat naive; the world in general doesn't care about X11 or AFP or open-source Darwin, etc. etc. Only certain kinds of consumers to. I don't know if Apple has ever sat down and said "We spend more money on implementing X11 than we make from people who buy OSX because they need it". Apple may not even care. Mark my words, however; Microsoft has done this and continues to do it. So the end result is this: Microsoft strikes the balance between making a profit and creating an operating system which does what you need. Windows, for all its security problems and shortcomings (which are countless), hits the sweet spot thanks to marketing and advertising and general "bullsh**" propaganda which makes Windows users think they're getting a top-flight operating system experience. It's true that if Windows was any worse that profits would taper off, but what most people don't realize is that if Windows was any better that profits would also taper off, as the diminishing returns for investment start kicking in when they *really* dedicate themselves to making it secure, stable, or whatever else they're currently lacking. Instead, the cycle of upgrades, tech support, patches and new releases is predicated on the assumption that Windows bugs you enough that there will be a reason to leave the familiar behind and move on to the next product Microsoft wants you to buy... but in the mean time it's good enough that you won't go through the inconvenience of "Switching" to a Mac or taking the intellectual plunge into *nix. The Microsoft empire is completely founded on this principle. Many of the brightest minds in the world are brought into the Microsoft fold. Obviously, they know how to make an operating system which works. The question isn't "Why don't they fix Windows?"... the question is "Why should they?". See, they've already got your money and will continue to get it; how will fixing Windows serve that end any better than it already does? |
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| Sept 13 | That Mysterious Third Thing You might remember that on August 31st I told you about a third thing which means a lot to me but probably little or nothing to you. Well... here it is: I'm moving. New digs. I take occupancy on October 1. Gory details to follow, and that's a promise. |
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| Sept 12 | Me == Honey, Darling, Sweetheart I haven't said much about Lori in a while, have I? She's still lovely, still Oregonian, still my adorable girlfriend. I just got some very lovely and tender "romance" email from her last night. Another quick note to say... I love you, I love you, I love you. You are always in my heart and on my mind.How adorable is that? Right now she needs your prayers, by the way. Life treats her as it does the rest of us: Ironically and without warning. Keep a warm, kind thought for her, please. |
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| Sept 10 | The Challenge Of Dora My youngest daughter's name is Dora. If you follow this blog then you already know a fair amount about her. She is a very interesting kid in so many ways, but there's one thing I know about her that makes her extremely unusual. The only way I can think of to describe it is to say that she just doesn't care about material things. She has an interest in something else entirely, which I'll get to in a minute. I started noticing over the last few years about how Dora behaves when she's getting gifts on birthdays and other occasions; she's always grateful, always excited, but she tends to forget her gifts very quickly and move on. Where her sister will receive, for instance, a stuffed animal and will pet and cuddle it for hours or days to follow. Dora doesn't do this; she loves it for about three minutes, and then it's on to something else. I sometimes wonder about the people who give her gifts and if they feel insulted by the way she just walks away from those sweetly wrapped toys and stuffies. Not that I care that much, mind you. No, Dora is one of (if not the only) person I know who truly has no interest in material things. I never thought that I would ever meet someone who really has that quality. I keep thinking it must be my imagination, but when I ask her what kind of thing she'd like to own, she can only dream up fantastical things like a pony that can sing Happy Birthday and has wheels for hooves (true story). Dora is not a person who has no wants, however; Dora wants you...your time, your attention, your ear, your affection, your company. She wants you. She wants to talk with you, she wants to show you what she's interested in, she wants to sit next to you while you're doing what you're doing and ask you about it, she wants to snuggle and hug, she wants to be close. She reminds me a bit of a puppy if you've ever had one then you'll know how they follow you from room to room without fail, just because they can't stand being separated from you for any time whatsoever. It makes Dora more work. You can't just give her a stack of toys and tell her to play while you go flip through an Ikea catalogue or chat on the phone. You can't ply her with Disney movies while you surf the web or read a magazine. No, Dora won't fall for that. Ruth is somewhat more self-sustaining and likes her alone time, during which she will engage things that interest her; books, toys, whatever. Dora isn't like that. The worst torment for her is to be alone with no one to chatter with, no one to play with, no one to talk with. Sometimes that's Ruth's idea of heaven, but for Dora there's really nothing she wants less. It's a lot more work to be Dora's caregiver for this reason, but it lends a special sweetness to the experience of being her parent. |
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| Sept 10 | Just Kinda Makes You Wanna Cry On the subject of Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing damage to New Orleans: Click here for more. "What didn't go right?'" –President Bush, as quoted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown "because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right" in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005 "We've got a lot of rebuilding to do ... The good news is — and it's hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house — he's lost his entire house — there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch." (Laughter) —President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 |
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| Sept 10 | I Hate September I've come to realize – and accept – that I really dislike this entire month. Always have. |
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| Sept 10 | All That You Are This song resonates with me a lot, which is kind of funny because it's really just a garden-variety pop song. Maybe sometime I'll jot down some reasons why this close to perfectly describes so much that goes on in my little strange world. If I said it, I meant it I'm not really demented I'm just saying it's been said again and again Not that I'm all that grounded I'm already dumbfounded I'm a liar believe me, baby Well it's all that you are You're just one shining star Well that's all that you are Maybe everything's changed And maybe I stayed the same What does it matter to me now, anyway If I ever regret it If I'm ever repentant Karma sings and we'll dance the dance, baby |
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| Sept 10 | Holy Fuck. Yeah, that's right. I said it. I dropped an F Bomb on you. Despite my ongoing attempts to not say it, I just said it. Why? Well, let's start with this: If you haven't read my August 21 entry yet, entitled "The Day I Became A Man", and it's companion entry, "Before You Ask". Go ahead. Go read it. You'll need to if you want to understand the rest of what I'm writing below. Now that you've read it, look what I got in my email in-box just a few minutes ago (and it's edited in such a way so the stuff that's none of your business is missing): From: "KIRSTEN GUNDLACK" <****@hotmail.com> To: jwcorey@gmail.com Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005 00:44:17 -0400 Subject: I came over and made you show me your Millennium Falcon... ...because that day in the mall, I really wanted to ask you to take it out of the box and show it to me. But I couldn't, because it would have been a big hassle for you and my friends wouldn't have been interested. Later on, though, I rode my bike to your house and we got it out and I opened all the hatches and tried out the sounds and was grateful that somebody as smart as you liked Star Wars as much as I did. So I was Googling my brother's name (note: Christian), because he is an ultramarathoner of modest disposition who lives in London, and sometimes it's the only way to find out that he's been winning races. Imagine my surprise when I saw my name, and found your blog, and read the sweetest story about that day in the mall, and then I read it all. The whole kaboodle, the last two years and change, and it was a hell of a read, a terrific read. I write, but I don't have that level of honesty in my writing. Yet. By honesty I don't merely mean being candid about what's going on outside and in; there's a level where the writer sees things, really looks, clear-eyed and cold at them, and so can draw them vividly for the reader, even if they're painful or bitter-tasting or trivial. You have that thing that I aspire to, and I'm so glad that you write. And it's times like this that I am more deeply in love with the Internet than ever. You look wonderful in the pictures (although I skipped the pimple and your earlobe - I'll take your word for it). Your mum looks great too - just the way I remember her. She was infinitely cooler than the other fourth-line moms (note: "4th line" is the rural route we lived on).(I don't know if you noticed the sad state of our farmhouse on your last drive-by, but all the barns, paths and gardens are long gone.) My mum and stepfather now live in Kingston, but my dad is still in Milton, as are Laelar and Erin (note: her sisters). Christian, as I said, is in London, by his reckoning a good city for runners. Your daughters sound delightful! I'm sorry that they have to go to school. Every year at this time I phone my eldest niece (Erin's daughter Emily, aged 10) to give her my sympathies. The knot in my stomach has mostly gone away now that the first week is over, and I'm happy to report that I did not reflexively buy a new pencil case. So here's the where and what of it: I am living in ***** (note: none of your business). I got married a little over a year ago, and my husband Daniel has a stage combat school here (www.rapierwit.com). I do most of the computer-related and joe jobs around the place, and Daniel does all the sexy fight-related stuff. (I'd be the pen. He'd be the sword. And yes, the site needs updating.) Right now I'm also trying to finish a novelizaton of a screenplay for a filmmaker friend of ours. ***** (note: more stuff that's none of your business). So I was writing, trying to plug script holes the size of Paris Hilton's hoo-ha, and I got stuck and frustrated, and began googling compulsively. This would be where you came in. Of course, there's been quite a bit that's happened up to this point. Gripping family drama. International travel. Pet deaths. A parade's worth of loves, losses, cars, furniture, apartments, houseplants, hairstyles, computers...I suppose that eras can be measured in thousands of different types of increments. I was living in Tokyo from '94 to '99, so I tend to divide things into B.J. and A.J. I am still getting used to this whole marriage thing. I suppose that I didn't really picture myself married, and I keep thinking that next year will be the year that I do the big Thailand backpacking trip, and have to remind myself that things are different now. We are going to Mexico with Daniel's family over Christmas, and judging from the pix of the resort it will be a far cry from the trips I'm accustomed to. Daniel's family is not so much into backpacking. They have trouble coming to grips with pet hair on furniture, fer Chrissake. But I digress. Actually, digression is what I do best. Guess what I'm being tested for! And guess what drug I'm on! Jeez, maybe it was, like, a whole thing with the kids in our enrichment class. Nah, not Peter Stabins. No way. Jody Klymak, though...now, he had the right kind of manic energy...(note: yeah, those were some of my childhood buddies) So I'll stop here, because I (being the presumptuous type) am assuming that we shall engage in some form of real interaction again in the future, and we wouldn't want to have nothing to talk about. (Not bloody likely, but just in case...) Like many folks, I can be phoned ***** (note: like I'm going to publish her phone number). Or I can be e'd back at this address, which I reckon is an easy one for you. Oh - where does Tamas come from? Last coincidence of the day: I finished Diane Ackerman's A Natural History of the Senses last night, and that was the first time I'd encountered the term synesthesia; tonight I followed one of your links to Sarah Brown's blog, and, lo and behold, she mentions it on her site. (She was jazzed because her new cell phone numbers were really great colours.) Wacky. So let's communicate! The time has come again! Kirsten P.S. Samurai Jack is on. How much do you love it? P.P.S. Just heard one of my favourite South Park quotes: "Wow, dude! I feel so much better about being Jewish now that I know Mel Gibson is just a whacko douchebag!" A bientot! |
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| Sept 7 | Gibran "My soul preached to me and instructed me to drink the wine that cannot be pressed and cannot be poured from cups that hands can lift or lips can touch. Ere my soul preached to me, my thirst was like a dim spark hidden under the ashes that can be extinguished by a swallow of water. But now my longing has become my cup, my affections my wine, and my loneliness my intoxication; yet, in this unquenchable thirst there is eternal joy." -Kahlil Gibran |
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| Sept 7 |  Dora & Ruth Go To SchoolI didn't exactly love school when I was a kid, so every year when the end of August and the beginning of September roll around, I get a bit melancholy. Even though my September generally looks a lot like my August (which looks a lot like my July, which looks a lot like my June, etc), I get that sense of loss that I used to get when summer was nearly over. It's just "phantom pain" now, but I still have this powerful urge to shut my eyes and ears and pretend that if I act like I don't notice it's back-to-school time then it won't be. Dora and Ruth are really quite ready to go back to school. Their skin is ruddy with sun-browning and lake water and all of the things that summer marks a kid with. They've played and swam and romped and done their summer routine. They're both ready to move on and get their heads back into the game. I haven't the heart to tell them that getting back to school might be harder for them as they get older. Why ruin it by saying something like that now? Ruth started Grade 3 yesterday and Dora is starting Senior Kindergarten today (French Immersion, no less). Dora has a new teacher, though Ruth has the same one from last year. Same school. Same basic routines. Same dreary details to sort out about whether the kids go to my house on certain days or their mothers on other days. That part is rather tiresome, to be honest. Still, we work things out and figure our plans and everything seems to go on as it's supposed to.  I told Ruth today that I still think of her as the little brown baby that laid across my lap while I typed on the computer at night, bouncing her gently up and down so she would stay asleep. Hearing that meant as much to her today as hearing that sort of thing meant to me back when I was eight years old. I should have known that's how it was going to work out. In fact, while I was trying to bare my heart to her at that moment, she actually tried to bite my nose. Like, with her teeth. Yeah, so I think I'm on my own with that one... just as my poor mother was back in 1977.Now I give a little thought to those feelings my mom was going through as I brushed her off and burst out the screen door in my running shoes and little jean jacket. Right now I'm going through the same thing. |
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| Sept 7 | "Which Tarot Card Are You?" Meme
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| Sept 6 | From Fark.com "Major oil pipeline on East Coast is now operating at 100 percent capacity, meaning oil companies will have to think of some creative new thing to blame for increasing prices." Here's the link. Gas prices have been a sore spot for me over the last few days (since the spike). My sympathy and feeling for the victims of Katrina is not lessened by it, but I am very unimpressed... not only with the effect of this matter on me, personally, but I fear for the economy. Also, I don't want to pay $20 for a quarter tank of gas. Does that make me a bad person? |
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| Sept 6 | Haiku For A Piece Of Black Fluff On My Living Room Floor Stumbled upon you Mistook you for a spider Time to change my pants |
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| Sept 6 | Wild Things "I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself." D.H.Lawrence (1885 - 1930) |
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| Sept 5 | It Appears I Am Out Of Allergy Medicine This is going to be one very long night. |
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| Sept 5 | A Little Trick There's this thing I do sometimes, and I'm going to do it now. It's a trick where I decide to stop being sad. It sounds pretty silly, just saying it like that, but at times it can be quite helpful. Like right now. Here I go. One, two three... And done. |
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| Sept 3 | Coming Down From The High I had a very successful trip, and now I think I have the blues. I'm really feeling that "why bother?" feeling right now. Don't trust anything I say until it wears off. |
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| Aug 31 | Two Things Which Mean Little To You But A Lot To Me First, I am experiencing something I don't believe I've had in years: A regular sleep schedule. I go to bed relatively early and I wake up relatively early feeling refreshed and awake. That's new for me. It's new enough that I had to post it here, despite the fact that most of you are probably just reading in hopes that I'll post more about snot rolling out of my face. The other thing is that I'm going on a road trip to visit some people and do some soul-searching while I'm at it. I haven't been on a road trip in a long, long time and it's going to be amazingly good for me. I leave tomorrow. There's one more thing which counts as "Means Little To You But A Lot To Me", and it's big. Really big. I have to tell a few specific people before I can announce it here, but it's big enough that it's probably going to change some of the pictures which appear in the "Obsession Bar" above. Wish me luck. |
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| Aug 29 | For Colin (Transcribed from AIM) Corey: Have you written anything in your blog in the last 24 months? Colin: no. I have no real appeal for me either. I prefer to read yours. Corey: Any requests for upcoming entries? Colin: you haven't had a disgusting ailment in a while. Corey: Oh, I have one now. Corey: The allergies. Corey: I woke myself up last night with the sensation of snot rolling out of my face and onto the pillow. Colin: there's the type of visceral detail you don't get in most blogs. I missed it. Corey: I'll post that. Colin: thx |
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| Aug 29 | Stoned I was at the bank this morning. While there, I took notice of the usual assortment of customers and staff milling about. Most of the teller staff were older women; the type that wear neat polyester suits with modest brooches on the lapel and sensible flat soes. Their hair is cut short-ish and their makeup is not intended to entice so much as it is to conceal. I have nothing against women of that generation; I'm just making an observation. I was waiting at the counter for someone to pay attention to me when a couple women came in who were obviously "regulars", and the older, polyester-wearing women on staff greeted by name the older, polyester-wearing women who just walked through the door. There was a quick exchange of "Hi" and "How are you this fine day?" and "How goes the battle?" and I'm sure you can guess the rest. What made me stop and take notice was when a woman behind the counter asked one of the women who had just come in about her husband, and the customer explained that he was well and had gone to the Rolling Stones concert in Ottawa last night (they played here to one of the biggest crowds any show in Ottawa has ever enjoyed). From behind the counter a few women gathered at the wicket for a gab, and they asked how Mick Jagger was. It turns out that he was very spry and he put on "quite a little show", and great it was that it didn't go too late... and everyone nodded in agreement. See, for me it was something of a mind-bender because I'm used to fans of rock music looking a certain way... like this, this, this or even this. I don't usually expect this. I realized that The Rolling Stones will be, to my children, what Lawrence Welk was to me. And I'm ok with that because, you know what? That's kinda what they are to me as well. |
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| Aug 29 | Blogs Did you know that I actively maintain five blogs, each on a different aspect of my life that I want to write about (this is one of them)? I'm not surprised if you didn't know that. At the moment only Lori has access to all five. If you can find all of them then you're an exceptionally resourceful person, because I haven't made them easy to find. I don't know why it is that people get off on saying "I know something you don't know and I'm not going to tell you", but I sure know that I find it a real knee-slapper. |
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| Aug 29 | Abject Misery If you look here and scroll to Sept 2 and then you look here and scroll to August 23, you will be able to predict what I'm about to say. It's allergy season. I try to deny it, but I keep waking myself up by sneezing my head off. It's really unpleasant. |
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| Aug 28 | Pepsi The Evil Dark Elixir has made a return in my life. Proud of that? No, I'm not... but I have a plan. I'll let you know if it works. If it doesn't, we'll pretend I never said anything about a plan. Got it? |
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| Aug 28 | That's My Mom On The Right She so crazy! |
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| Aug 27 | Sad Lisa She hangs her head and cries in my shirt She must be hurt very badly Tell me what's making you sadly Open your door, don't hide in the dark You're lost in the dark, you can trust me 'Cause you know that's how it must be Lisa, Lisa Sad Lisa, Lisa Her eyes like windows trickling rain Upon her pain getting deeper Though my love wants to relieve her She walks alone from wall to wall Lost in a hall, she can't hear me Though I know she likes to be near me Lisa, Lisa Sad Lisa, Lisa She sits in a corner by the door There must be more I can tell her If she really wants me to help her I'll do what I can to show her the way And maybe someday I will free her Though I know no one can see her Lisa, Lisa Sad Lisa, Lisa |
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| Aug 25 | Thought I had a thought today while driving. I realized that life, and the quality thereof, largely comes down to this one thing. It can be described in many ways, but at the moment it came into my head I thought of it thusly: Unless you have something you would die for, you haven't really understood what it is to live. Sounds like a cliché, doesn't it? Nonetheless, I realized that it's true; unless there's something that means more to you than your own life your entire existence will be a non-stop circuit of self-interest and grounded motions which utterly fail to transcend in any meaningful way. And who wants that? |
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| Aug 23 | Sorry, But No. Here's the setup: Today I was listening to CBC radio. There was a show about creative sentencing the American judicial system. To be more specific, it was about judges who would substitute the usual diet of prison time, fines and community service with punishments that more closely fit the crime. For instance, a thief might have to stand in a public place wearing a sandwich board saying "I AM A THIEF AND THIS IS MY PUNISHMENT" on it or a belligerent kid who disturbs the peace by booming hip-hop from his truck being made to listen to Wayne Newton for hours on end. I have to admit that there's a certain poetry to it, but I'll side-step my own pontification about that so I can get down to the point I have in mind. One judge sentenced a fellow with repeated DUI offenses to a week in jail and then ordered him to put a bumper sticker on his car. That sticker says "DRUNK DRIVING: YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT" and then, in small letters, something like "This sticker is posted in compliance with a ruling from the judicial system" or something stuffy like that. Apparently the small print isn't visible unless you're quite close. The judge in question said that he was trying to raise awareness and that he felt if people knew how much cash they could lose for getting stung on DUI that they might think again. Then, interestingly enough, a quick interview was conducted with the guy who had to post the sticker on his car. The interviewer asked him how it felt to have to do do it and whether he considered displaying the sticker to be worse than prison. He said that prison was bad enough, but that the sticker was far worse and that he didn't agree with the idea behind it, saying that it's a shame-based punishment and that it violated his first amendment rights. In other words, he was saying that if he had bumper stickers all over his car and the judge ordered him, as a punishment, to cover one of them up that his right to say what he wanted would be violated and that having to post the sticker on his car was exactly the same thing and, therefore, unconstitutional - as he was being forced to say something that he wouldn't say otherwise. He was quite strident about it, as if he was reporting on the bad conditions of a POW camp or some sort of secret oppression squirrelled away from the eyes of the world by an evil corporation. He was quite clear about the fact that the punishment was far, far out of bounds. Ok. That was the setup. Here's my reaction: Somebody needs to shut up. Dear guy-who-drinks-and-drives: You could have spent many months (or more) in prison for a repeat DUI offense but, instead, you spent a week in prison and had to slap a sticker in your car. Boo hoo. Let me get my violin. As for the matter of constitutional rights, I barely know where to start on that argument. I believe that your research about constitutional rights should have been expanded to cover the part where it's a violation of a person's constitutional rights to drive your radial tires over their head because you're a stupid alcoholic who doesn't know enough not to get stinking drunk like a 17 year old, let alone put your keys in your pocket and take a taxi. I think your love of Jägermeister isn't just reason to take away someone else's ability to speak freely by, well... killing them. Now, backing up a step or two, I'd like to also add that the first amendment was created in order to protect peoples' right to speak freely about the government without facing incarceration. It was not created in order to protect you from using eight inches of bumper for advocating that people not drink themselves stupid and then drive a car. I get really offended when I hear people spout off about how the first amendement apparently is supposed to protect their right to wear a T-Shirt that says "Moustache Rides: Free". As a Canadian, the whole "free speech" issue doesn't resonate with me in the same way it might for an American citizen, but I still have to say: Shame on those of you who cry "free speech" so you can do something you know you shouldn't be doing. Getting back to the topic on hand... I do believe to a certain extent in the machinations of karma, and I think that a person who trades a whole lot of jail time for a bumper sticker after having repeatedly committed a crime which could kill innocent people has not yet learned his lesson... and I hope when he finally learns it he doesn't have to ruin someone else's life to do so. |
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| Aug 23 | Box Of Puke I bought some large mailing boxes from the local post office for me to pack things in and, as you can probably guess for yourself, send somewhere by mail. They all smell like vomit. It's disgusting. |
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| Aug 21 | Before You Ask I haven't seen Kirsten in roughly 17 years and I have no idea where she is, what she's doing or what her phone number might be. Don't ask. |
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| Aug 21 | The Day I Became A Man I played with toys for a lot longer than most kids did. Fo |
