June 2004

There’s not much more than I can think of, lunch-wise, that is more disappointing than opening up your sandwich container and realizing that your bread has gone mouldy. Even more troubling could be the fact that the bread you used in the mouldy sandwich is the same as the sandwich you delightfully ate yesterday.

Fortunately I had enough change to purchase a slice of pizza (Pizza to the third power actually). It’ll have to do.

I regularly read Since You Asked on Salon. Today’s question is appropriate for people in any country who disagree:

Dear Cary,

I have many right-wing relatives and friends. And I belong to a colonial reenacting group where we regularly dress up and handle guns, march in parades and reenact history. Here’s the problem: the opinions of right-wing assholes (RWAs). Now, when socializing with family or in our little club, the rule to observe is “Don’t talk about sex, religion or politics.” RWAs would be the first to assert these family values, but of course can’t help getting in little digs. Or big digs. No matter what activity you pursue, RWAs must express their opinions. “That’s one for Hillary.” “‘They’ don’t like us handling guns.” “There’s this one guy at work who’s a Muslim, but he won’t be around long if I can help it.” And “the liberals did this, did that, did this other thing.” Gay marriage, women’s rights, gun control, our eternal wars — you name it, a right-wing asshole can sneak it into any conversation and slam it. And, oh man, can they talk! Many RWAs are blue-collar and listen to Hate Radio for eight hours a day, and can (and will) gladly blather for eight hours at the drop of a hat. None of their opinions are their own, of course. They’re just parroting the talk-show hosts. And because they’re “talking sense” they assume everyone listening agrees with them. Which leads to my problem. Politically, I’m a radical. I never agree with talk-show dittoheads. But I’m also one of these rare individuals who actually listens when people talk to me. (Even talk at me, which is more common.) And as these RWAs go on (and on and on) I occasionally grunt “Uh-huh” to show I’m still listening. But muttering “Uh-huh” during these verbal barrages seems like a betrayal of my beliefs. It’s simply the wrong response. Because in English, “Uh-huh” has two meanings. One is “I’m still listening.” The other is “I agree.” How can I talk to people I disagree with politically? I do not agree with these bigoted, hateful, reactionary, simplistic, unthinking morons, but I can’t think of any other response to make. The Japanese have a word, “hai,” which only indicates, “I’m listening.” Further, I do not want to spark an argument with fools because it’s a waste of time. I believe in the old adage, “If you’re going to engage in a battle of wits, first make sure your opponent is armed.” What word can we Westerners adopt that indicates, “I’m listening, but may or may not agree”? Listening Dear Listening, Unfortunately, we don’t have a single word that says “I’m listening but I may or may not agree.” But we do have several ways of saying “Kindly take your head out of your ass,” and it seems to me we ought to start saying it. America is in political crisis. This is no time to sit quietly by. You simply have to register your dissent. We are living in one of those historic moments where you either respond authentically or you lose your soul. If your friends and relatives do not realize the depth of our peril, you owe it to them to try to make them aware of it. So how do you register your disagreement in a way that is principled, respectful and historically conscious? Maybe you start by saying something simple and straightforward such as “I respectfully disagree.” What happens next? Maybe somebody says, “You respectfully disagree with what?” Then maybe you say, “I respectfully disagree with what was just said.” “And what was that?” someone might ask, having noticed an interesting change in the noise level. Try to avoid repeating what you disagree with. Instead, ask the person who said it to please repeat it, so you can make sure you heard it correctly. If he repeats it, just the repetition may make it obvious how stupid it was. But it might be a sentiment the whole room agrees with except you. Very quickly, before things go any further, you need to lighten up a little; make it clear that you don’t want to ruin the convivial atmosphere but you genuinely believe that America is facing a political crisis, that urgent matters of history are at stake, and that it is our duty as citizens to debate the issues and be well informed. Don’t try to win them over. Just stand your ground and say you’re a liberal and you don’t agree and that’s how you see it. If you’re challenged to rebut what was said, offer instead to do some research and present your case to the group at a later date, saying that even if you don’t persuade anyone, that way you’ll all end up a little better informed. Then go home and study. Go over every detail. Learn the history of the subject. Listen to all the pundits you can stand and get to know what their arguments are. Find the factual holes in their arguments. Then, next time you meet, present your case, and ask for campaign contributions.

Sage advice I think. Now I need to get back to getting more informed.

I read about a horrible accident yesterday here. I didn’t watch the video until this morning because I was too busy yesterday at work.

I have to admit that at first I thought the video was not real because the cars colliding and hurtling through the air looked computer-generated. But if you read the news story (from Dayton, Ohio), it appears to corroborate what I saw in the video.

It’s a difficult video to watch because I know now that the pedestrian is in critical condition at the hospital. I’m surprised they survived at all.

I guess the lesson to take from this is to be extremely careful when crossing the street.

I saw this article on Boing Boing yesterday:

President Bush accidentally allowed to be interviewed by a real journalist

The President’s handlers foolishly granted a Presidential interview (requires RealPlayer, interview starts about 20:40 into the stream) to a non-White House Press Corps journalist, Carole Coleman, the Washington correspondent for RTE, the Irish public national television network. When she asked him pointed, pertinent questions, he became upset when his stock answers failed to satisfy her. An aide to the President later complained that Coleman had “overstepped the bounds of politeness.”

Coleman is a mainstream European journalist who has conducted interviews with top officials from a number of countries – her January interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell was apparently solid enough to merit posting on the State Department’s Web site. Unfortunately, it appears that Coleman failed to receive the memo informing reporters that they are supposed to treat this president with kid gloves. Instead, she confronted him as any serious journalist would a world leader. She asked tough questions about the mounting death toll in Iraq, the failure of U.S. planning, and European opposition to the invasion and occupation. And when the president offered the sort of empty and listless “answers” that satisfy the White House press corps – at one point, he mumbled, “My job is to do my job” – she tried to get him focused by asking precise follow-up questions. The president complained five times during the course of the interview about the pointed nature of Coleman’s questions and follow-ups – “Please, please, please, for a minute, OK?” the hapless Bush pleaded at one point, as he demanded his questioner go easy on him.

Mark’s note: I haven’t been able to see the video interview, but I read the White House’s transcript of the interview, and I think the description above, by John Nichols of The Capital Times, is misleading. President Bush said more than just “My job is to do my job;” he said “My job is to do my job and make the decisions that I think are important for our country and for the world.” And President Bush wasn’t asking the interviewer to “go easy on him;” he was asking her to allow him to finish answering her questions. That said, Bush’s answers weren’t satisfactory. Link Vidiot sez: The White House complained later that Coleman was disrespectful and didn’t ask the “suggested question” about what Irish PM Ahern was wearing that day. Coleman has responded to White House criticism, noting that she submitted her questions three days in advance. Andrew sez: “Since I get on with RealPlayer about as well as a house on fire, I wasn’t able to watch the link given. I have been pointed here, though; even assuming it’s been, ah, tactfully clarified by a White House aide, the transcript is still pretty atrocious – the lines you quoted are still in. The interview is also available as an MP3.

I just finished watching the video and I have to say that the reporter is pretty tough on Bush (as she should be). It’s kind of funny to see how frustrated Bush gets when the reporter tries to ask follow-up questions before he’s finished speaking. Reading the transcript does not do the interview justice. You really have to see (or hear for that matter) the flow of the interview to truly appreciate it. I doubt that the White House will be allowing an personal interview with that television station again.

I’ve hosted the video here if you wanted to see it for yourself (people have had troubles with the streaming link above).

It’s a good thing there’s the Livejournal status page:

At 5:27 am GMT on Wednesday, June 30th, A LiveJournal admin writes :

Many users are experiencing difficulty accessing the site right now, due to a flood of malicious traffic. Please note: it’s not “hackers” taking us down. If hackers were people who hotwired cars to steal them, these people are just punks slashing tires with shiny knives they didn’t even make. We’re working with a number of people to get this stopped, including the FBI. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

It’s beyond me why anyone would bother wasting their time doing this kind of tomfoolery.

It seems like a lot of families walking around downtown have triplets. On my way to Shopper’s Drug Mart, I saw three different people pushing triplet-capable strollers. I wonder why that is.

In other unrelated items, my eyes are really feeling strained today. I didn’t get a nice sleep last night and that’s probably the cause of it. Today is Marcy’s birthday and we’re having ribs and salad for dinner. I think Sally is making a cake. We might go to Baskin Robbins for dessert as well (Marcy loves the peanut butter and banana ice cream they have there). I bought Marcy a new bottle of Burberry Weekend perfume. I think she’ll be surprised.

It smells like Swiss Chalet in the office right now. It’s making me desperately crave some rotisserie chicken.

I’ve been enjoying reading the pro-Conservative blogs this morning, particularly the ones that had called for a very strong Conservative minority government win in last night’s Federal Election.

I was caught off-guard by this statement:

I think we will see that the women vote killed the Tories. They were scared by the Grits’ fearmongering.

To me that’s very reminiscent of Jacques Parizeau’s comment after the 1995 referendum that sovereignty was lost because of “money and the ethnic vote“. Perhaps Adam thinks that “womenfolk” shouldn’t be voting because they get in the way of the “man’s” party. What an idiot.

Though I’m pleased with the election results (my local candidate won), I’m still hesitant about what is going to happen in the next couple of years. Minority governments don’t last (the average is 1.5 years) and it seems the sovereignty issue has returned to Quebec (judging by Duceppe’s speech last night). The people who voted Conservative out west won’t be pleased with the results. National unity, bridging gaps and general cooperation are going to be incredibly important over the next little while.

I think the best result has been the vote count of the Green Party. They’ve qualified for federal funding and hopefully in the next election (which will be sooner rather than later), they might even get a seat.

This was one of the first elections where I didn’t watch much television coverage at all. I saw Darren Barefoot’s post early after the polls closed and checked out the live results on the Web. The CBC’s results page required manual refreshing but offered more up-to-date results. CTV and The Toronto Star’s results were built by the same company but I found that they either didn’t update (The Star) or offered incorrect results (CTV – they showed the Green Party candidate in Kitchener-Conestoga winning the seat). I remember the insanity at the returning office in 1997, fielding calls from the different polling stations and reporting the results to the national returning office in Ottawa. It’s amazing the elections run so smoothly in Canada.

Our landlord is quite terrible. Absentee doesn’t even begin to describe them. As soon as we can, we’re out of this building.

The front stairs leading into the building have become in quite the state of disrepair. They looked horrible – the tiles were falling apart, the paint had chipped off completely and it really wasn’t an attractive entrance (it shouldn’t be a surprise then that we’re not exactly “proud” of where we work).

Last week the building manager started painting the staircase. He was painting it a nice cranberry-rust colour that matched so well with the exterior of the building (tan and pink – yes we think we’re in Florida). They finished two-thirds of the staircase and then let it dry before going back the next day and completing the other part. Only they didn’t do the last part.

Today I went out for a coffee (shh!) and noticed that they had repainted the cranberry-rust part. They painted it silver. I’m not sure what kind of mistake the original colour was but silver does look a lot better.

Five more months and we should be out of here.

This blog hasn’t been in existence for too long but I’ve had a few (very few) comments so far and over the weekend I had a comment on this post.

It’s not the comment so much as the identity of the commentor that intrigues me. I’m wondering how they found this space. I haven’t advertised this blog anywhere and even though I can’t possibly imagine that it’ll be possible to keep this space private, I’m still interested in hearing how my cover was so-called “blown” so-called “this” so-called “quickly“.

Tomorrow is the one-month anniversary of this space of mine and so far I’ve managed to write almost 20,000 words and have more than 80 posts. To me that’s impressive. I’m extremely happy with the Wordpress software and I hope to continue to diversify between this blog and my other one. It never hurts to write more and if people want to read what you write then that’s pure gravy on your chicken-fried steak.

I received this email this morning:

Your account mdclemen on the following host(s) will expire on 07-25-2004:

engmail www.eng engage If you will require use of these computer accounts(s) beyond 07-25-2004 in accordance with http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocist/use98.htm please contact the computer consulting office in your faculty or department. This is an automated message – Please do not respond

My university email address has given me a lot over the years – a way to keep in touch with others, a non-web-based email address that I could safely give out, an air of legitimacy to my online persona with email coming from a university (if they only knew), a place to subscribe to mailing lists and last summer a source of a lot of pain (from one email address). Lots of emails were sent to and from this address over the 6 years that I’ve had it. I lost most of the emails in several hard drive crashes but the shared experiences are still there.

As varied as the experiences has been the software used. From Pine to Outlook to KMail to Horde to Thunderbird, I’ve used a lot of mail applications. Thunderbird is my current favourite (as I’ve mentioned before) but each of the above applications has its own benefits.

I’ll miss my old email address but it wasn’t something that I could hold onto forever. I have my alumni email address from the university and that can forward to any email address I’ll ever have.

Yet another item in the “you’re really done university” checklist can be crossed off.

I read a blog this morning that I only read for morbid curiosity’s sake. I have no connection with this person anymore though we used to be close.

I read this morning that a former roommate of this person is getting married in a month. When I read that I laughed and laughed and laughed.

To think that when this roommate started dating her (now) fiancee, the person was convinced (convinced!) that their relationship was progressing too quickly and that they would fall into a destructive spiral ending their romance. In essence, the same label that they put upon my relationship with Marcy. Now, as you might know, Marcy and I are married (happily at that) and this other relationship appears to be moving in the same direction while this person’s relationships remains stagnant (though still existent).

Perhaps it’s mean of me to laugh at the situation but I did honestly find it funny. The final disintegration began in earnest on this day and I can’t imagine what life would have been like with this person in my life today. I doubt I’d be as happy as I am. Or free.

If I lived anywhere else besides Ontario and Quebec, I’d be quite upset about the polling hours for this federal election.

I read James’ post this morning about the polling hours in Ontario being from 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM. That’s a change from the last election (even the recent provincial election) where the polls closed at 8 PM.

I then read an article on CBC News regarding polling hours across the country. Due to a recent clarification in the rules, it is now allowed to report election results from other parts of the country when the polls in your region are still open. Previously it was thought that you might be less willing to vote if the results had already been announced in other regions of the country. This applied mainly to those in the Western provinces as the polls would be open for a few hours after the ones here closed.

The CBC article says:

Elections Canada staggered the hours so that the majority of results from polls across the country are available within a few of hours of each other.

This makes sense from a logistical standpoint, particularly for the media as there won’t be long periods with no new results being reported.

Here are the polling hours across the country:

• Newfoundland and Atlantic time zones – 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM


• Eastern time zone – 9:30 AM to 9:30 PM


• Central time zone – 8:30 AM to 8:30 PM


• Mountain time zone – 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM


• Pacific time zone – 7 AM to 7 PM

The exception is of course Saskatchewan – those residents living in the Central time zone can vote between 8:30 AM and 8:30 PM while those in the Mountain time zone vote between 7:30 AM and 7:30 PM.

For us in Ontario it’s great because the polls open after most people get to work (except for me this morning) and they’re open for 4.5 hours after the normal work day (if it stops at 5 and 3.5 if it stops at 6). That’s plenty of time to vote and if you factor in the time you’re legally allowed to take off from work to vote, there’s even more opportunity. There should be no excuse for those of us in the Eastern time zone not to vote.

If you’re living in Vancouver though, polls open most likely before you even get out of bed and they’re only open at most a couple of hours after work. That doesn’t seem fair to me. Sure I get the same amount of time as someone in Vancouver, but which interval do you think is more convenient to citizens?

I guess the result of all of this is that we won’t know any good results about the election until after 10 o’clock EDT. It’s going to be interesting to follow how things shape up for our next government.

Please remember to vote though. It’s incredibly important to exercise your rights as a Canadian citizen.

Technology can be very unreliable. I’ve had problems with my computer at work before (read this story) and today I had another experience (and lost some more work). I was typing an email when Thunderbird crashed. I tried starting it again but it wouldn’t start and then the whole computer halted. I turned off the power and tried turning it on again but nothing happened. I looked at the power supply and when I turned on the machine it wouldn’t turn. The power supply was scalding to the touch.

My power supply fan had stopped working.

Fortunately since we’ve had so many power supply problems here, we always have one or two in stock as a backup. I switched power supplies and was back on my way. Now I have to retype a draft I had been writing and remake my changes to a design document I was working on.

Marcy and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last night, the late show at the local Silver City. It got out around 12:45 AM.

I had trouble sleeping; there were too many thoughts racing around my head. I felt just absolutely numb driving home. Every personal review that I’ve read has said something to the effect that “there wasn’t anything new to me discussed in the film” and to tell you the truth I find that difficult to believe.

Sure you might have known about the Bush-Saudi connection (after all, the major points discussed in the film were broadcast on CBC’s The Fifth Estate last year). Sure you probably read about Bush’s military service suspicions. Sure you knew about the Saudi flights on September 13th. Do you want a medal? This movie is not about testing how much you know and if you go around preening about how “educated” you are then you’ve missed the point.

Note: the above does not apply to any of my friends (real or Internet-based); I’ve just read some other reviews that have irked me.

This movie is certainly controversial and it’s not going to do much for uniting the general populace of the United States together on the issues. I think James has made some excellent points to that effect.

Here we are, just over 4 months away from Election Day in the U.S.. Will this movie change people’s minds? I really don’t think so. How important is this next election? Incredibly important and once I put my pictures online I’ll show you how far the Bush-Cheney campaign has gone to court voters in so-called “swing” states (my parents home state of Ohio being a very big example).

Now I said above that this movie probably won’t change your mind about the issues addressed. That’s not to say that the images shown in the film won’t affect you deeply. I’m doubtful that there would be a lot of people not moved to tears listening to the mother in Flint reading her son’s last letter home before he was shot down in his helicopter. Well ok, a lot of people besides the two thirteen year-old girls sitting behind us. The people in New York City watching the events of September 11th still haunt me. Seeing footage from Iraq haunts me. Looking at the smug expressions of the Bush Administration officials haunts me. By using archived footage almost exclusively, it lends some measure of authenticity to the facts presented though I don’t pretend to believe that the movie is entirely factual.

The next few months are going to be ugly. Shawn talks about the most recent problems with the Bush ad campaign here. The latest Bush ad is truly despicable. Make no mistake: it will be almost impossible for there to be an open and honest debate about the issues, foreign and domestic, before Election Day in November. It’s up to everyone to get as informed as possible on the issues. Don’t just read your current selection of media releases – expand your horizons and read something with the opposite viewpoint of yours. I read conservative news, blogs and writers on a daily basis because I want to know the issues and knowing the issues is more than just reading one side and making up your mind.

I’m terribly afraid of what’s going to happen over the next 5-10 years here in Canada, in the United States and around the world. What consequences will be visited upon our children and grandchildren because of our foolishness today? How could anyone possibly comprehend the complexity of our world? The people in power aren’t that much smarter than I am and that’s quite scary because even with the collective intelligence of all the people reporting to me (were I a world leader), I would find it incredibly difficult to form any kind of broad vision for the future.

In some ways this movie has made me disenchanted with politics. I’m hoping that by casting my ballot today in our own federal election, my democratic spirit can be stoked once again.

If you want to get a regular update of the situation on the ground in Iraq, I highly recommend Just Another Soldier. There used to be a blog there but the military forced the man to take it down and now updates go via a mailing list (I know, how old-fashioned). It’s worth signing up.

Seen on one of Darren Barefoot’s great link round-ups is this outstanding exhibition. It’s described as “An exhibition of Europe’s
worst interiors of 1974.” I guess for some reason 1974 was a banner year for bad interior design in Europe. Looking through the various pages I came across this kitchen:

Eurobad ‘74

How would you like to have that as your eating space? Yes that is a horse stable leading directly off of the kitchen.

The only possible runner-up in the kitchen category would have to be this one. Enjoy the beautiful fragrances of your automobile as you dine!

I was just looking through my photo gallery and came across this picture:

Kent State

For some reason it really haunts me. This picture was taken last summer at Kent State University. I was there with my parents and Marcy and we were doing a tour of where my brother was intending on going in the fall (he’ll be at the University of Waterloo this fall).

I’m not sure how old the chalk markings on the statue were but the whole are was pretty solemn. My parents were probably affected more than I was since it was in their time that the shootings took place.

It’s hard to tell, but in this picture:

Kent State

you can see a bullet hole right where the lines of the peace symbol intersect. That’s kind of scary to think that this was the place where 4 people died and was the centre of 3 days of madness and violence. It seems to peaceful today.

Aside: did you know that the girl screaming in this picture was only 14 at the time? My mom told me that last year. She was a runaway staying on the campus at the time.

Next year is the 25th anniversary of the shootings. Perhaps I might try and journey to Kent State and watch the celebrations that are bound to occur.

Edit: I should probably link to the rest of the pictures in that particular photo album.

Just read about this local development:

The campaign office of Kitchener-Conestoga Liberal candidate Lynn Myers has been vandalized. A window was smashed and a hate message was spray painted on the front of the building. Myers is clearly upset. He says he will continue to fight same sex marriage rights. Conservative candidate Frank Luella has said he does not support gay marriage and claims homosexuals can change their lifestyle. Despite the views, Luella’s campaign manager says no one should be the victim of hate messages.

It amazes me that someone would be that stupid. I was very close to that same location last night when we picked up Elle from the veterinarian’s office.

I watched an interesting documentary last night entitled Lost in La Mancha. It’s all about Terry Gilliam’s attempt at making a film version of the Don Quixote story. The documentary was originally supposed to be a “making of…” film that would be included on a DVD release but since the film was never finished, it serves as an insightful look into the ways in which a film can fail to make it past production.

The Don Quixote film (which was tentatively titled “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”) suffers from Murphy’s Law. Things that couldn’t possibly have been forseen happen and slow production down to the point where the film has to be shelved for an indefinite period of time (it is still waiting to be resumed). Insanely strong storms, back troubles, contract issues and other things plague things from the start.

If anything the film should serve as a warning for directors that making a film cannot possibly go as you plan it.

It always comes as a shock when someone at work is leaving to pursue a new path. It is especially shocking when you’ve worked with that person for a long time.

I couldn’t help but think yesterday if I’m doing the right thing with my career. I guess it’s inevitable when you hear about people acquiring new opportunities and the appeal of “something new”, “something different” from what you’re currently experiencing is very enticing.

For now I’ll stay the course because I think we’re in for some good times ahead.

If there was ever a song that makes me fall in love with music each time I hear it, it would have to be “Purrfect” by Funki Porcini. It’s from the 1996 album “Love, Pussycats & Carwrecks”.

Funki Porcini has a very interesting sound. He can be very sweet and soft and he can also be rambunctious and loud. Each has its place but I definitely prefer the softer music. This is one of those songs and combines a solitary trumpet (muted), a drum machine, keyboards and a cat purring.

It was this kind of music that first got me interested in music from Ninjatune. Somewhere along the line they lost me.

A future reminder to myself to watch Control Room whenever it starts playing here in Canada. It looks like a great movie.

As you may or may not know, I also maintain a blog on Livejournal (I’m chang8ling). Obviously I also have this blog, running Wordpress, which I’m quite happy with. Recently I’ve had a lot more posts here than on Livejournal mainly because I like the relative anonymity of this space and the features that I can’t do with a Livejournal blog, namely TrackBack. I have a feeling that more people will be reading this blog than the other one (well more people not on Livejournal that is) simply because I can easily let others know that I’m referencing what they write through a TrackBack.

So if you’re a reader of both sites (unlikely as of right now), I apologize if you see material twice. I don’t want to abandon my Livejournal account but I also want to build up a healthy archive of posts on this site too. I’m going to try and find a way to make the two blogs distinct but for now they will appear quite similar.

From BoingBoing I find this image of the new Canadian quarter:

New quarter

It’s designed (according to this new story) by an 11 year-old in British Columbia. The coin will go into circulation next Thursday (which is Canada Day) and each new Canadian citizen that receives their certificates will receive one of these coins to commemorate the event.

I kind of like the coin though admittedly it does look a little cartoony. I’m looking forward to holding one in my hand.

With Marcy away to the East, I had the apartment to myself last night. I spent most of the night watching 3 movies:

1. The Kid Stays In The Picture (2002)


2. Spirited Away (2001)


3. Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

All three were quite magnificent in their own ways.

The Kid Stays In The Picture
I had actually started watching this last week but never finished. I read the book (a cheap purchase from Casablanca Books) last November and thoroughly enjoyed it. This man seemed to live the high life and the very low life within the space of 10-15 years.

The movie was quite good. I liked how they had Evans doing the voice-over for the entire movie, even for characters that weren’t him. There were plenty of old photographs and the stylizing of the images was well-done. Having read the book beforehand though left me feeling a little empty by the end. Evans goes into far more detail in the book and the movie glosses over (to an extent) his troubles during the 1980’s. Overall though it was really a great film though it probably wouldn’t appeal to everyone.

Spirited Away
This was a pretty amazing movie. By the same director and writer as Princess Mononoke, one of my favourite movies, it’s the story of a young girl who gets trapped in the spirit world and has to fight to get her and her parents back to the real world. The animation is awesome, the music is very strong and the character development and plot are interesting. I loved how the Spirits were integrated in this film because the Spirits in Princess Mononoke were my favourite part of that movie.

I found that with the subtitles on I was able to grab more of the speech and it helped me understand the plot.

People have said that this is one of the most widely-acclaimed to ever come out of Japan. It was an excellent movie but I think I still enjoyed Princess Mononoke more. It seemed more polished and it had an air of whimsy about it that I didn’t get with Spirited Away. Perhaps that’s just because of the themes in each of the movies. At any rate, Spirited Away was still a great film to watch.

Semi-related: I wish I could find Mark’s review of this film because it’s pretty funny. Alas it is nowhere to be found.

Koyaanisqatsi
I got the trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, all directed by Geoffrey Reggio – for Christmas of last year. I’d watched Powaqqatsi (Life In Transformation) last fall but I wanted to get the other two.

Koyaanisqatsi means “Life Out Of Balance” in the Hopi language. There is no plot to speak of in this film. Rather it is a montage of different shots – natural and man-made with a beautiful Philip Glass score in the background.

This movie really makes you think and it moved me deeply. It’s simply amazing how complex humanity and human society is; there are several scenes that feature escalators, highways and train stations with the footage sped up to show the sheer numbers. It is really mindblowing.

One of the most poignant montages features row upon row of apartment buildings. At first they seem to be occupied but on closer inspection they are all abandoned. When I was watching this I couldn’t help but think – “Where is this? What happened there? Why are they destroying all of those buildings?” After the movie was finished I searched online and came up with this great site that has user commentary of the three films. It turns out that it is the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project in St. Louis and is discussed in detail on this site. I couldn’t help but feel sad and dejected that all of those buildings were sitting unused. It really made me think about the effects of urban planning from the previous generations has effected the way we live in our cities today. I know even here in Kitchener, the city council was very pro-shopping mall in the downtown core and that’s a mistake that they’re only now starting to pull away from. There’s really something about abandoned buildings that draws me in. I’d still love to go on a photo-tour of Flint, MI.

Overall this was a superb film and even though it’s more than 20 years old, I think the images that it presents and the message(s) that it conveys are definitely very relevant today. I can’t wait to watch the third film, subtitled “Life As War”.

Last night I didn’t sleep very well I must admit. I’ve become too used to have someone else in the bed.

This morning I felt very tired and almost skipped breakfast but I must keep my pledge to eat breakfast almost everyday. It’s very important and I’ve noticed that when I eat breakfast on a regular basis I have more energy in the mornings and it’s easier for me to get up. As I move further and further away from my “school days”, I need to be more concerned about how I can make my daily schedule better and healthier in the short and long terms.

These are my adult days.

I knew it was going to happen, I was just relying on people’s common sense.

I think I mentioned previously that Marcy and I put together our wedding reception invitations a couple of weeks ago. It was a big ordeal.

One of the things we considered was that the RSVP cards only contained a spot to put the number of people attending our formal tea in July. We didn’t leave a space for people to put their names. No problem, we thought. We’ve received a couple of reply cards back and people have written their name on the vellum.

We thought that if people wouldn’t write their name on the vellum then surely they’d write their return address on the envelope. Failing that, perhaps we could discern the origin of the RSVP by the postmark.

Well that whole theory came crashing to a halt this morning when I looked at the mail. One envelope with our address, no return address. Postmark is illegible. I open it up (it was sealed quite tightly) and inside is just the number 2 written nicely in blue pen. No indication of who this is.

I have a feeling we’ll have to do some educated guesswork as we get closer to the date.

Well today’s lunch was kind of interesting.

Marcy’s going to the Ottawa Valley to interview for a job position. We wanted to have lunch together because she’ll be gone until late tomorrow night.

There’s a new restaurant open downtown called the “Passions Lounge”.

Passions Lounge

It’s been painted since that picture was taken.

Since I like to give new businesses a chance, I suggested we go there. I had no idea what kind of place it would be.

We walk in to the empty restaurant and it has a very bar-like atmosphere. There’s a chef standing way at the back of the restaurant and finally a waitress comes and asks (too quietly) if we’re eating in. We take a booth and wait for menus. The waitress comes back and asks if we’re ready to order.

“Could we get some menus?” we ask.

“It’s there on your table,” she replies.

I look towards the end of the table and sure enough, tucked underneath the ledge is a plastic upright menu. The waitress disappears while we look at what’s offered here. It turns out the restaurant is Caribbean and with Marcy having a very sensitive stomach it could pose some troubles. The menu is extremely simplistic, listing items like:

• Chicken jerk


• Chicken curry


• Fried chicken

with absolutely no additional descriptions. The menu is also very small and unless you really knew your Caribbean food it’s doubtful that you would know what you’re getting. So when the waitress came back and asked if we were ready, Marcy had some questions for her as to what the dishes contained and how they were prepared because if she’s not careful she can get really ill after eating at a restaurant. The waitress had absolutely no idea what to say except things like “well it’s chicken jerk served with rice”.

We asked if the chef would come speak with us and considering how there was no one else in there it didn’t seem to be a problem. He came over and seemed even more clueless and offering vague answers like “well I use West Indian spices and you wouldn’t know them”. He seemed to act like running a restaurant was a big joke. Finally he told us that he uses garlic powder and that was all we needed to know because Marcy can’t have that.

Marcy had offered some suggestions for the menu. Nothing too outlandish, just things like “you need descriptions”. The waitress seemed to take offense at this and said that you don’t spell out what’s in the dish on a menu. Before things got any uglier we paid for my pop ($2 for a flat, no-ice Pepsi) and left.

We give them 2 weeks to live and that’s being overly generous.

We went to Bolero’s instead and I had a roast beef sandwich. That might not have been the best decision since the roasted red pepper mayonaise sauce that was on the sandwich has given me a slight headache. Oh how I wish there were some better restaurants downtown.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Michael Moore’s new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Naturally since it opens this Friday in wide release, I’m not the only one.

Stephen wonders if people are going to go:

Make no mistake; there hasn’t been this much controversy around a movie since The Passion of The Christ, and we all know what a flop that was. While of course Moore doesn’t have pastors and reverends across America standing up in their pulpits telling their congregations that if they don’t go see a particular movie, well, then they’re just gonna go to hell, he has the media telling us there’s every reason in the world to go. And not to go, of course.

You know my view – or if you don’t, welcome to the site. You should see it. If nothing else so you can argue with the facts to hand in the months ahead, because there’s nothing that annoys me more than people who argue about stuff without knowing shit about it. You should also see it because the guy’s a great filmmaker. Documentary or polemic, the fact is, he makes movies that get people talking, that might well be manipulative (like – hey! All of Hollywood) but still make you think. For better or worse. And finally, speaking personally, I think you should see it to open your eyes a bit. No, no, I’m not presuming everything Fahrenheit 9/11 will discuss will be acceptable to you – fact or not – but it’ll get you thinking about politics and politicians. And these days, those are probably people who need to get thought about a little bit more often.

Stephen’s right about one thing (among many): this film will be the hot topic for the summer and the weeks leading up to the U.S. elections in November.

Now there are plenty of other people who would argue that Michael Moore is guilty of the same thing that Stephen hates so much and that’s people who argue without having all of the facts. Granted, Michael has his own agenda to push (namely this year to get Bush out of office) and he will have a distinct slant on the facts that he presents but there’s no such thing as an unbiased documentary. Documentaries are not objective, they can’t be – they’re made by humans. If we had robots who could decide on the topic, the interviews, the shots and the music then we might have something closer to objectivity but since that doesn’t exist we have today’s documentarians.

Perhaps the most vociferous attack on Moore’s new film comes from Christopher Hitches, writer for Vanity Fair. He slams Moore in his article “Unfairenheit 9/11 – The Lies of Michael Moore” in Slate. Speaking about Moore’s stance on doing interviews about this film:

Moore has announced that he won’t even appear on TV shows where he might face hostile questioning. I notice from the New York Times of June 20 that he has pompously established a rapid response team, and a fact-checking staff, and some tough lawyers, to bulwark himself against attack. He’ll sue, Moore says, if anyone insults him or his pet. Some right-wing hack groups, I gather, are planning to bring pressure on their local movie theaters to drop the film. How dumb or thuggish do you have to be in order to counter one form of stupidity and cowardice with another? By all means go and see this terrible film, and take your friends, and if the fools in the audience strike up one cry, in favor of surrender or defeat, feel free to join in the conversation.

However, I think we can agree that the film is so flat-out phony that “fact-checking” is beside the point. And as for the scary lawyers – get a life, or maybe see me in court. But I offer this, to Moore and to his rapid response rabble. Any time, Michael my boy. Let’s redo Telluride. Any show. Any place. Any platform. Let’s see what you’re made of.

I’m not sure why Hitchens is so acidic towards Moore but he definitely does not agree with Moore’s tactics or his views in the film. I think Hitchens takes things a bit too far when he says:

If Michael Moore had had his way, Slobodan Milosevic would still be the big man in a starved and tyrannical Serbia. Bosnia and Kosovo would have been cleansed and annexed. If Michael Moore had been listened to, Afghanistan would still be under Taliban rule, and Kuwait would have remained part of Iraq.

I seriously doubt that Moore thinks that. That’s extrapolating the rhetoric beyond logic. That aside though, I did find Hitchen’s discussions on pacificism interesting, particularly when he included George Orwell’s views on pacificists (it’s not flattering).

I read Roger Ebert’s Movie Answer Man column from May 30th yesterday and it was filled with Fahrenheit 9/11 questions. People were complaining that Moore is not giving a chance for the views opposite to his to be aired in his film. Well why should he do that? Sure the weekly Presidential radio address features a rebuttal from the other party but that doesn’t mean that every political speech or film deserves a counterpoint.

Also there seems to be wild accusations that the jury of the Cannes Film Festival was prejudiced towards Moore’s film and that they gave him the Palme d’Or not because it was the most deserving film but because it was the one that fit the political views of the jurists. Ebert responds:

It is assumed that a director distinguished enough to head the Cannes jury is above such conflicts. I attended the jury’s press conference, heard all nine jurors praise the award, and got the unmistakable impression that Tarantino personally would have been equally content if the Korean revenge epic “Old Boy” had won.

I’m no longer a reader of Ebert’s reviews (I used to read them a lot but there came a point where I didn’t think they added anything and/or I felt like Ebert’s appraisal of movies was no longer in tune with mine) but his answer to this question is excellent:

You reported on the reception his film received in Cannes. Given the location, France, and the crowd, journalists, Hollywood movie types and Frenchmen mostly, what did you expect? By praising an obviously politically motivated film, are you simply being a pawn of Moore’s own political agenda?

I must decide if a movie is good or bad, despite whether I agree or disagree with its politics. I oppose the death penalty, but gave “The Life of David Gale” zero stars. “Birth of a Nation” is in my next book, The Great Movies II, even though it reeks of racism. Many film historians rank Leni Riefenstahl’s “The Triumph of the Will” as a cinematic milestone, although it glorifies the Third Reich.

It’s important to look at artistic works for their artistic merit and to do that you sometimes have to put the politics aside. I’ve watched some early Soviet cinema and it’s pretty outstanding film work but it’s blatantly propagandistic. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad film. It just means that it serves a dual role: beyond the “art for art’s sake” you have the political leanings of the work to deal with.

This ties in with my next link, the review of the movie in The Nation by Stuart Klawans. He entitles it “By Way of Deception” and he thinks this is a very important film and a great movie.

As with any good polemic–and this is an excellent one–you sit in the theater thinking of how someone else would respond, some imaginary “undecided” in a swing state, or perhaps your Uncle Max the Republican. You don’t much monitor your own reactions. But then, as you leave the movie house, you might notice that the sidewalk chatter sounds oddly muffled, the traffic looks a little blurred, as you begin to realize that your attention has not come outside with you; it’s still in the dark, struggling with the feelings that Fahrenheit 9/11 called up and didn’t resolve. Are you outraged, heartbroken, vengeful, morose, gloating, thoughtful, electrified? Moore has elicited all of these emotions and then had the nerve–the filmmaker’s nerve–to leave you to sort them out.

I think there are two bundles of messages in Fahrenheit 9/11, one political and one emotional–and while the first is about as ambiguous as a call to take up pitchforks and torches and storm the castle, the second is too complex to unsettle those in power. It works to unsettle you. It’s what makes Fahrenheit 9/11 a real movie.

I’ve watched movies and read books thinking that way – what would XXXX think if they read this book? Would they change their views if they saw this piece of footage? Of course I do this in the car too thinking about other people in their cars but that’s for another time.

I’ve felt confused after seeing films before. I’ve felt emotionally distraught and not really able to deal with the images that I’ve seen. I know I felt that way when I saw 11′09″01 – September 11. That was a difficult movie to watch because each short film, only 11 minutes long, each dealt with very complex issues and emotions. I remember how I felt on September 11th and I can vividly recall what I did. I think when I do eventually see this film that I will feel “dazed and confused” and it’ll take a little while for me to process what I’ve seen and heard. I know Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) felt that way:

It’s Monday night in the NYC and emotions are running high. Just got back home from seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 and I feel so emotionally stripped: angry, sad, depressed … the full gamut of emotions. It’s an incredible movie and Michael will win Academy Award for it. It’s a fine piece of filmmaking.

That’s one thing that I’m jealous about New Yorkers – they get to see so many films either before the rest of the country/continent and/or they get to see films that just don’t play anywhere else. I suppose that’s the benefit of being a “metropolis”.

Getting back to Stephen’s original question of whether I’m going to go see the film, the answer is yes. I just don’t know when yet.

This is a really great photoessay of commuting life in New York City (or what I would imagine is a representation of a commute). I often wonder how my life would change if I had to commute everyday to work. I’ve never had to commute very far; probably the farthest I’ve been from work was when I biked to the hospital in Hamilton for my job at the virology lab and that wasn’t even that far. How frustrated will I be with traffic if I have to deal with an hour accumulated commute each day? It’s almost a certainty that we’ll have to move somewhere where I’ll have to commute. It just depends on where that place will be. Our lives will be changing considerably over the next few months and I’m excited to see where we’ll go from here.

I just spent a few minutes and caught up with the Strong Bad emails that I’d missed over the last few weeks. I hadn’t really paid attention to the great Homestar Runner site since the wedding and it’s easy for something like that to just fall off of your daily routine’s radar. Here are the ones I’ve watched today:

1. Dangeresque 3


2. Replacement


3. Theme Park


4. Hair Cut


5. Lunch Special

The one that I laughed the most on was definitely Lunch Special. The Easter Eggs at the end cracked me up.

I’ve been accumulating quite a few pictures on my camera of late without downloading them to my computer. I probably have 10 days’ worth of pictures which may not seem like a lot but I know it’s probably around 200 pictures. I’ll probably transfer and put them live tomorrow night or Wednesday night while Marcy is away interviewing. I’m not sure if there will be any memorable pictures in the collection but I’ll post any humourous/good ones here. If you can’t wait you could always jump the gun by going here first.

Click here to find out more

I saw this great post on Chandrasutra’s blog this afternoon and couldn’t resist joining in.

It’s a campaign to stop the privatization of the CBC.

Culture is integral to our identity and experience as Canadians. For generations, The CBC has played a leading role as one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions and our only national public broadcasting body.

But in these times of corporate media monopolies, public broadcasting bodies all over the world are fighting for survival. Without a public voice, our Canadian heritage and culture will take a back seat to commercial and corporate interests. Of the four parties currently competing for leadership in the Federal Election, only two have shown real commitment to the future of Canadian public broadcasting and the CBC. Public broadcasting advocacy group “Our Public Airwaves” has created “A Stronger CBC” campaign to send a message to Canada’s political leaders that the CBC is our most important cultural institution. A Stronger CBC aims raise awareness about the dangers of privatization and the need to put increased CBC funding on the leadership agenda.

I strongly support the CBC and I think it’s something that should stay under government control. The CBC is part of the cultura fabric that ties us together. It offers amazingly (in this day and age) fair and unbiased news coverage, in-depth reports on relevant issues, fantastic cultural programs and great kids programs. It would really be a shame if the CBC was privatized because the CBC can air shows that might otherwise get censored on other corporate stations.

This person has a lot of patience going through a 250 kB Javascript file and discerning the web application we all know as GMail. As a result of this patience though comes a really cool hack that lets you link directly to the GMail compose page with a lot of optional parameters.

As the person says, the steps to riches are pretty easy:

1. Click


2. Send email


3. …


4. Profits

I’ve found so many good links off of del.icio.us’s popular feed over the last few months. It’s interesting to watch how pages appear on that list.

I feel pretty exhausted today. I didn’t get into work until 11 o’clock and that was because I didn’t get to sleep until 4:30 this morning and that was because Marcy and I were at the hospital from 11 o’clock last night until 4:15 this morning (don’t worry, everything is fine).

The weekend was productive; Marcy and I put together the wedding favours (”Tea for Two” we’re calling it). We also visited our favourite flower guys (at Apex in Mississauga) and decided what kinds of flowers we want in July. The reception still seems like it’s months away but I know that it’s less than one month now. It’ll be nice when everything is over and we can relax a little.

There is an all-candidates debate tonight for our riding. If I get off work in time I’d like to go and I know Marcy is itching to pose some questions to the candidates, the Conservative one in particular. He’s been in some hot water recently.

Asked how his party, who is running only 37 female candidates in this election, would address women’s issues in Canada, Thomas Ichim drew angry boos from the audience when he responded:

– “Well I have to be honest with you … it’s kind of like my fiancee tells me, women think different than men do. And I notice this – I mean in a domestic situation, not politically. Nothing like that.” – “Um, I have, and the party has respect for women and we encourage women in our party as much as possible. All women are encouraged to come to my campaign office and help me if they like.” Then, speculating on why other parties were more inclusive of female candidates, he said: – “I think maybe it’s because the NDP they have better candidates – better looking candidates – maybe that’s why… That’s a joke.”

It’s amazing how easily some people put their foot in their mouths.

I think I’d be scared if I saw this warning on an actual product or item:

Grey Goo

HP now has ads for nanotechnology on the backs of magazines. Is nanotechnology actually becoming more mainstream?

I now have the newest Badly Drawn Boy album and boy am I loving it. Forget what I said about there not being much good music this year. This album makes up for that.

Badly Drawn Boy

I’ve liked Badly Drawn Boy for a number of years now. Andrew introduced me to his first album, The Hour Of The Bewilderbeest in 2000. I listened to it a lot and I’ve picked up his other albums over the years – the About A Boy soundtrack and Have You Fed The Fish? from 2002. I think About A Boy is one of the best soundtracks, composed by a pop artist, that I’ve listened to. It almost made me want to see the film (almost mind you).

I was listening to last week’s Gilles Peterson Worldwide radio show yesterday and Gilles played one of the tracks from the new album, Another Devil Dies. I wasn’t even aware that there was a new album coming from BDB (fanboy’s acronym for Badly Drawn Boy) so I looked and found it with relative ease. The downside? If I wanted to buy the album locally I have to wait until July 27th.

The Badly Drawn Boy website has been redone to reflect the release of this album and although it’s a little difficult to navigate it offers some great content. Damon (the man behind the mask) discusses his thoughts about the album here and here. He says (and I had to copy the text found at those links into a text editor so that it would be easier to read):

It’s that ambitious and it connects – with songs about passing on good fortune, looking after your friends, encouraging the basic humanity in all of us, and always finding the love that makes us more than monkeys. To let the sunshine in.

I agree with his appraisal. It’s definitely an upbeat piece of music.

My favourite track has to be This Is That New Song. It’s such a sweet song. Damon says this about the track:

This Is That New Song emerges, even on first listen, as a crowning achievement. Heartfelt and moving it’s laced with the kind of of a confidence no musician has a right to have four or so years into his career.

I definitely think it is a “crowning achievement”, not only of this album but of the whole body of Damon’s work. The way the lyrics and strings blend together is really something to behold.

One of the things that I do love about Badly Drawn Boy is that he includes the lyrics to each of his songs. Here are the lyrics from this song:

And if I knew the answers

I would tell you now Just what would be the chances That I could show you how If I knew where all the tears were coming from Add up all the years that you’ve been gone This is that new song I told you about twenty years ago Do you know what true romance is And could you show me now Just what would be the chances That I could tell you how If I new where all the tears were flowing to I’d guide them to a river Where I’d swim with you down stream This is that old dream I told you about twenty years ago And could you hold me now

Simply an amazing song. I’ve been listening to it all day.

So I guess I don’t really need to say that I enjoyed this album. Even during the first listen it struck me that this sounded so similar to older Badly Drawn Boy material and yet it sounded so new at the same time. It would be easy for Damon to fall into a rut of sounding like himself but he’s decided to go in a direction while still holding onto the essence of his earlier work. I think that’s the sign of a true artist.

Marcy and I watched Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines last night. I had to fill Marcy in on the plot of the first two films before this one started because she wanted to have some general idea of what was going on.

Well the movie was about as good as I expected. As Al says:

… it’s about as depressingly bad as I could have imagined. James Cameron’s classic sci-fi couplet gets reduced to a humourless (although they tried, bless) and dull retread of scenes done better in the preceding movies.

Oh well, at least the movie provides for some funny reviews.

I should have listened to John last year:

Subject: Terminator 3

Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 00:29:46 -0700 Thinking about seeing it? Imagine the greatness that was Terminator 2, then imagine an even better movie, in every way. Now, don’t read any reviews and don’t see the Terminator 3. Ever.

Truer words have never been spoken.

I’ve been watching a lot of movies recently (particularly this month). Ed said yesterday that I’m becoming like him, watching 5 movies in a week. Perhaps that’s the case.

I’m partly ashamed to belong to a group of many Canadians.

I too do not have a family physician. Or rather I do but I haven’t seen them in more than 6 years now and I doubt I’m even on their list of patients.

On top of that, I live in one of the worst areas of the country for doctors. The number of new doctors in the Kitchener-Waterloo area is practically zero and whenever a doctor does announce that they have room for new patients there is a mad dash to stand in line for a chance to become one of the lucky ones.

Having my parents move after high school really did mess up my health provider situation. I still kept up my optometrist appointments but my dentist, doctor and orthodontist contacts slipped by the wayside. I don’t really miss my dentist but I really should go see one. Marcy insists that I need a complete physical done and she’s right, I do. The situation just seems so hopeless around this area that I give up before I even start to look. I’m afraid to go to a dentist mainly because my fear is that he’d laugh at the poor quality of my teeth. Not that that is true mind you because I take pretty good care of my teeth (minus the regular flossing).

I’m hoping that once we settle down, wherever it is that we’ll settle down, I can resume my search for a trio of healthcare providers – family doctor, dentist and optometrist right in the city I live in. That would be nice. Too often I’ve had to drive to Hamilton for the sole purpose of picking up contacts (often) or glasses (once). As nice as my doctor is I’d much rather save on the gas and have some here in town. One thing Waterloo does not lack is optometrists. Having one of the few optometry schools in Canada definitely has its benefits.

This morning Marcy and I took Elle and Pumpkin to the vet. It was their booster vaccination time, as we had went 3 weeks ago for the initial round. I’m not sure Elle liked being in the room because she was meowing quite a bit but she took the needle ok. She didn’t like the worm medicine though which is taken orally. Pumpkin took both medicines quite peacefully and she almost fell asleep (in Elle’s carrier). We asked about brushing their teeth and the vet suggested that we start now when they’re still young because once they reach the point that they’d need tooth care they’ll be too set in their ways.

Next Thursday we take Elle in to get spayed. We have to fast her the night before so to do that we’re going to have to fast both of them because I can’t think of an easy way to restrict Elle from eating Pumpkin’s food. Elle will probably be sore and grumpy with us when we pick her up Thursday afternoon. We’re going to a wedding on Saturday so depending on whether we’re coming back Saturday night or not we’ll hopefully be able to take Elle with us.

In a few months we’ll have to do the same with Pumpkin. Bob Parker would be proud.