How do musicians compare to 7/11 clerks?

My pictures are back online. Thanks Matt.

Is this for real? Where do I sign up?

Can I just restate how disgusted I am at the US actions in Afghanistan? Without defending the Taliban or bin Laden, but according to international law/relations/common sense, the Taliban did not do anything wrong in the handling of this incident. Just imagine, what would the US do, if, say, Palestine accused one of their citizens of terrorism without any solid evidence, and demanded that the US hand him/her over. Not much. You can't just bully people into submission, which is exactly what the US is doing. In order to uphold the rights and freedoms we cling to so dearly, we have act and abide by them. This set of double standards, in human rights, in privacy rights, and in freedom of speech set by the USA is rather appalling. And this precedence, allowed by the UN, will carry forward uncountable reprecussions in international relations in the future. Stronger countries could dominate over weaker ones with the excuse of fighting terrorism and ending terrorist threats, when they themselves are the real terrorists for terrorizing the innocent. It's already happening.

The bathroom wall at work shakes when you open the door. This is not a new observation, it always shook.

bb[^b]{2}, that is the question.

So just to prove how much of a nerd I am, when I got back from the Bomber last night, half drunk and unable to finish my Gino's pizza, what's the first thing I do? Check my email. Then I looked at other people's weblogs, hoping they had updated them, and then went to bed. I think I need a change in lifestyle.

Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
That is what I'd really like to be-e-ee,
'Cause if I were an Oscar Meyer weiner,
Then everybody would be in love with me.

It seems that everyday I go on a search of other people's weblogs to see if they have anything to say. Is it true that my life is so boring, I have to live through someone else's problems and concerns?

I think this blog is a little too public to really write about my personal feelings. This was what I was afraid of, but I'll try my best not to put judgement on my thoughts when I'm writing them down.

It seems that I've gotten a lot of people hooked on finding this "better than Google" page. There are somethings I'd like to comment on. Some people have mentioned that different subdomains of a site have different rankings on Alexa. This sort of makes sense, because if I use yahoo as a search page, I may not use my.yahoo as a portal. There are a lot of sites out there that keep rankings for what they call web properties, which is the networks of sites owned by, say microsoft (MSN, MSNBC, microsoft, etc. ) or AOL ( aol, time-warner, cnn, etc.), but as far as I know, alexa ranks the individual webpages and any subdomains separately; so it gives a good judgement on how popular a particular site is. But we (collectively) still haven't found anything better than Google yet.

List of sites I've tried: microsoft, msn, yahoo, altavista, ebay, amazon, icq, cnn, time, ibm, sun, aol, geocities, slashdot, alexa, hotmail, cnet, playboy, penthouse, hustler, zdnet, bbc, maxim, more I can't think of ...

Maybe someone should make a post to slashdot, or pay the $10 000 for their list.

He can see them having dinner, holding hands, watching a movie... but he's got nothing.

I'm on a quest, but Matt has beaten me to posting my mission. But I really need help this time. I just can't figure it out. What website, and single website that is, not some property or network of sites owned by the same monolithe, is more popular than google?

"Ma'am, we've gotten a report that you have anti-American material," the male agent said... read more

I know I've made some reference about the US being like Big Brother before, but this is just too good. It reminds me of stories from the Cultural Revolution in China, when the neighbours spied on neighbours, and children rattled on their parents. What happed to the freedoms and rights that America is trying so hard to "protect"?

I don't know why people call it fast-tracking. Four years in highschool is by no means fast. And as far as I know, Ontario is the only province that has students taking 5 years in highschool regularly. Maybe we should call the 5 year stream slow-tracking. I'm glad Mike Harris decided to change things.

I don't know if this is against link etiquette, but I have added Brad to my list of blogs without asking for permission. I do work with him, so it's not like I don't know who he is. Maybe someone should start a links etiquette page.

The website is finally back online.

I went to see Harry Potter yesterday with Trina. It was a good movie, but not really a supplement for the book. If anything, I would say the book was a supplement for the movie. There are just so many things in a novel that you can't fit into 2 hours. The sets however, were pretty amazing. I do see a parallel between Harry Potter and Star Wars. I remember some critic somewhere commented on how the Quidditch match was like the speeder scene in Return of the Jedi (tm). I can also draw parallels between the witches and wizards and the Jedi knights, as well as Voldemort and the evil emperor. Even the music in the movie had a lot of the floating and strong themes in Star Wars (they are both by John Williams after all).

On Friday night, I saw the Spy Game. Okay movie. The only thing I don't like about movies is how unreal the people are (maybe that's why I like Survivor). They always have answers for everything, and can always plan for events ahead of time. I wish I could do that.

I just saw The Animal, with Colleen Haskell as Rianna. Seeing her just reminded me of how radiant she looks. Even on the first Survivor, she was the one girl that everyone was talking about. This brings me to another point about stars and celebrities. We, the general populance, seem to be infatuated with them. Their triumphs and failures, their favourite colour and worst fears. We can become so involved in their lives, whether it be through a movie, or watching shows like E! or Entertainment Tonight, but they have no idea that we even exist. It's like we are a crowd in bondage serving a monolithic corporation known as the entertainment industry when they pretend it's the other way around.

Maybe I'm just lame.

I think many people are too paranoid these days. They think their lives are so tough, when in fact, it's themselves who are making it tough. Sure, I overthink situations sometimes, and get all worried about possible scenarios that could occur. But let's get real here. We have it pretty good. It doesn't matter how stressful the job is, or how relationships are inherently difficult, or even how we never seem to have enough money. The fact is, we have food on our tables, we have people who somewhat care about us no matter how unlikely that may seem, and we always scrounge together enough change to go out and have a drink from time to time. So here is my manifesto:

I __insert name here__ will not worry about everything that could be, might be, or have a potential of happening. Instead, I will go home tonight, cook myself a satisfying dinner, grab a cold one from the fridge, and watch at least __insert favourite number modulo 5 + 1__ hour(s) of entertaining television just because I can. I will not worry about school, or work, or relationships, or friendships, or pets, or __ insert anything that would normally occupy mind__. I will have a good sleep tonight, and leave all my stress until tomorrow, at which time I will repeat this manifesto.

There, now wasn't that easy?

People should realise how badly they sing, and not try to show off in public places.

Trying out a new look, let me know what you think. Or better yet, use the comments function below.

According to an article from the BBC,

"US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tells CBS news he would prefer Osama Bin Laden was killed rather than taken alive."

No matter, since bin Laden has been rumoured to be telling his followers to shoot him if he becomes surrounded by US troops. And now that the Northern Alliance has been gaining ground, they'll want to control Afghanistan. Let's just hope that the US can actually do something right this time around, and set up a stable government rather than just abandoning the country like last time.

In other news, Matt has just informed me that the server will be down tomorrow starting from 10:30 due to upgrades, and will be up whenever they're done. This probably won't affect me that much considering the amount of people who visit this site is minimal.

Am I callipygous? Probably not. But Nurse Duckett sure is.

I have just been pondering how bad my long term memory is. I recall nearly nothing from my childhood (like before 8 or 9) except minute tidbits of random events. I can't even remember any of the kids' or teachers' names from school. I usually have no recollection of questions from past exams which everyone seems to remember. My parents often tell me stories that I have no idea existed. I am somewhat disturbed by this. I don't know if it's my mind trying to block out those memories, or if my brain is simply becoming too full with extraneous knowledge that it has ran out of memory (just like a computer's harddisk). Maybe I need to reformat my brain and reinstall. And yes, I am a nerd.

Just did some shuffling around of files, and changed the main page.

The US is now accusing Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria and Lybia of having biological warfare programs. I don't see how they can say that other country's programs are threatening when the US themselves have refused inspections proposed by the member countries who signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

"We have to get away from the ethos that knowledge is good, knowledge should be publicly available, that information will liberate us," said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan. "Information will kill us in the techno-terrorist age, and I think it's nuts to put that stuff on Web sites."

found in an article from the LA Times about how the US government is ordering libraries to destroy public data on dams, nuclear reactors, etc...

Does anyone else fell like we're living in 1984, with the government destroying public data, limiting public access, and installing CCTV in public places? Big brother, it's not just a show anymore. And to think that Orwell wrote it to satire communism.

This article from znet encapsulates a lot of how I feel about this War on Terror..

Just came back from a 3 1/2 hour bike ride along the hydro-line trails. Now I'm getting ready to go out and see Twelfth Night. But dinner first at the Mongolian. I should really be going to bed considering I went to bed at 4:30 last night.

Following Brad's lead, I've also added a picture to the mirror project.

Just got back from the New Pornographers concert. Am I ever tired, but instead of going to bed, I'm sitting here updating, now that's dedication.

The first opening act had some good tunes, but the singer lacked some vocal depth and confidence. In my opinion, his singing sucked. He also broke a string on his guitar, and then proceeded to play with 4 strings. I admire him for his effort, but that's about it.

The second opener was entertaining, but their music philosophy was basically screaming into the mic. They also switched the singing between 3-4 guys, which made for an interesting combination. I really liked their "soul" interpretation, nearing on comedic.

The main act played some good songs, like "Letter from an Occupant", and "Mass Romantic". I particularly enjoyed one song called "When I was a Baby". I didn't know most of the songs they played, but they were enjoyable nonetheless. And sticking with the switch up of the singing, they shared it between the lead guitarist, the girl who otherwise just played the tamborine, and the drummer. I think the drummer was pretty drunk. As a matter of fact, I think most of them were pretty drunk.

Am I a blogaholic?

Apparently not, 48/100 means that I'm a casual weblogger. I only blog when I have nothing better to do, which is not very often. There's nothing wrong with that. But if I'd post a little more often, I'd make my readers very happy.

Well, I'm off to TO to see the New Pornographers (whoever they are).

Word of the day:
bytesexual [bi:t`sek'shu-*l] adj. Said of hardware, denotes willingness to compute or pass data in either big-endian or little-endian format

Quote of the (yester)day:
"My socks don't match my shirt" -- Kristy

Some concern has been raised over Matt's post (it was also mentioned by Benny), and I would just like to make it clear here once and for all. The party at OUR place on Saturday was not Ming's party, it was a collective effort from ALL my roommates and myself, to whom I am grateful for.

Yet another quote from an article by Rick Salutin, who is apparently my favourite Globe and Mail columnist:

"I suspect this sense of being appalled by wars cannot be sustained in an era that has not lived through the experiences. But how desensitized to wanton death is it necessary for our contemporaries to become? I'm thinking of the endless flow of cheap wisdom about how "inevitable" civilian casualties are in war. "

How often do you see CNN blame the civilian casualties on American soldiers?

Today is the opening of Harry Potter. Unfortunately, I won't be seeing it tonight. I'm not even sure I'll see it this weekend. The main reason is because I can't find someone who wants to go with me, and I cannot go by myself (yes, I'm scared). So if you or you know someone who would like to go anytime this weekend or thereafter except for tonight, then let me know.

Just added some commenting capabilities to the blog. Try it, I dare you.

the somber sky reflects my somber mood

I think the blog is a good place to vent, because in my mind, no one really reads this, even though it's most likely not true. So I'm a little down today. Apparently my supervisor only gave me a good on my midterm evaluation. I have to take more initiative he says. Which brings me to wonder, what is initiative? Is it initiative if I go ask questions as soon as something breaks? Is it initiative if I don't ask any questions and try to fix things myself? A balance of the two? Is it initiative if I tell someone that we should scrap a project, or if I say nothing? I should probably be like Matt and censor things like these, but I'm too lazy.

I've been shot. That's what the sticker says anyways. I got a flu shot today, and man did it sting. No, not really. I didn't even feel the needle go in, and was playing foos later on without any trouble.

So I guess I should say something about the party we had on Saturday, since I think I failed to mention it the previous two days. We had a lot of people over, it was pretty full for the size of our house. At some parts I wasn't overly impressed, like when people started to pile their coats into my room when there was an obvious open corner in the living room (just because I have the hallway room doesn't mean it's a public room); or when Drew, Robin and Kevin left without warning to discuss "issues"; or when people started to draw on the wall that I spent so long making (I'll be sure to have some before and after pictures). But all in all, it was alright. I didn't get drunk though. I think my performance the night before might have had some effect, and I was pretty much sober by the time I hit the sack. Sunday morning brought sunshine and an Angie's breakfast. Good times...

I think it's time for me to write my two cents again. Of course, it's a little related to this war, but I'll try not to get political, whatever that means. My thinking is this: you can't try to help people too much.

Why?

Well, first of all, as soon as you "help" some people, others get the shaft and suffer. When the US helped Kuwait fend off Iraq, the whole world (well, except Iraq) was in accordance. But after the war, the sanctions are still there, and now it's Iraq's turn to suffer. And it's not the high ranking officials who initiated the attack, or the businessmen who drive around in Benz' and Ferrari's, it's the poor and needy who are starving to death.

Second point, we can't help everyone, and even if we could, it probably won't turn out too well. Sure there are those who say that if we use a little less and gave a little more, then everyone in the world would be living in nice apartments ... Maybe in More's Utopia, but it doesn't work in this world. What would happen if we gave more money to developing countries where the infant mortality rate is 50%? Babies stop dying, but the parents don't stop having them, and now we have double the babies to support. And the more money we give, the more they crave, and eventually one side of the equation would break. Helping people isn't bad, but we have to know how to do it, and throwing money at the poor won't cut it.

Lastly, when we help, we tend to play god. Just look at the medical process (I know I shouldn't bash that, since I probably won't be here without it). But ever since the dawn of Man, we have tried to prolong our lives. Sometimes we achieve medical breakthroughs, and now we can probably clone a person. But we also have drug-resistant super bacteri, the AIDS epidemic, and too many rabbits in Australia. What ever happened to survival of the fittest?

So all of my points are a little depressing, and might upset some people. They might say I'm a shallow person who looks after only mine own interests. Well let me just pose one more question. Why do we "help" people? Isn't it to get that satisfaction in our hearts? Isn't it for the ability to say that I "helped" somebody today by giving up a fraction of my income that I'll probably spend on drinking anyways? But isn't that the same thing as looking after your own interests? So you can feel better about yourself? With all this helping going around, I still don't think we're any better than the ones we're trying to help. Sure we have laws and governments, electricity and microwaves, air conditioning and hot water, and computers and the internet, but are we any more happy, or more moral, or more righteous than the "less fortunate"? It took America 5000 dead people and 2 skyscrapers to feel the pain that some go through everyday, and they still don't get it. They are still trying to help the "good" overturn the "evil" (typical god-mentality). Well, it was just a little more than 10 short years ago that they were helping the Taliban overturn the USSR. If this is the kind of helping that my money goes toward, I'd rather drink.

C++ == pain_in_the_ass( Ming )

A thread on Metafilter on Sept 11, 2001. It's chilling to see how people reacted to the events.

Interesting article on the study of the possible results of the Florida recount.

Put in a couple of poetry and random stuff.

I'm not wearing a poppy this year. Not because I didn't have one (I'm pretty sure I still have one from couple of years back), nor was I too cheap to get another one. Neither do I have anything against the veterans. But things have changed.

Our country used to fight for our freedom and our friends' freedom. We used to go into battle against enemies we can see and feel and sense. I used to be proud of what we stand for.

In recent years, peacekeeping has been Canada's main military involvement. But in my feeble mind, peacekeepers are simply a militaristic mean to keep "peace" in a hostile place by pointing guns at both sides.

Now, we seem to be fighting against the very rights and freedoms we fought for 60 years ago. Canada's anti-terrorism bill (C-36) gives police more powers to secretly monitor "suspects" and search their houses without a warrant, all without a sunset clause (yet). This goes against our fundamental right to privacy. Personally, I don't like knowing that my phone or email conversations could be secretly, and legally logged by some person I've never met. And this war, even though Canada isn't participating as much in, shouldn't really be called a war at all. The US and Britain is attacking people who can't even fight back. They haven't killed anyone that they wanted to. All they've really done is angered the world's Muslim population, and made them subject to persecution and racist remarks.

To me, Remembrance Day is a day to remember the horrors of war so we shall never have to face it again. And we can't do that when we're inflicting horror on innocent people just to weed out some criminals. Millions of people are now homeless, living in a place they cannot call their homes. World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars, then there was WWII, and Viet-Nam, Korea, Gulf War, and now this, and that's only the one's we've been in. When will people realize the significance of remembrance and peace, and forget their differences all together?

Had a rough night last night.

Pictures are up now.

Just went to Mel's Diner for lunch. I haven't been there in a long time, but Mel never disappoints.

This should be a good weekend. Drew and Benny are both coming down to the Loo (ed. note: loo means washroom over in England). My roommates and I are also planning a little get together with some friends at our place. Fortunately, I'm not stoic about the events in question. In fact, I am very excited that it's finally the weekend again. I've been waiting for this day for a week.

I wanted to use stoic today. I didn't really know what it meant, so I looked it up, and it means:

"one who is seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain"

But I still can't formulate a sentence, maybe it'll come to me later.

I just had a conversation about why most of my posters are crooked. My philosophy is, when I actually try to make things appear straight, and they're a little off, people criticize me for that little bit of unstraightness. But when you actively try to make them slanted, then the critics really have nothing to say.

Finished! I have finished my photo project -- my scrapbook (the electronic one still doesn't work). I thought it would take me way longer, but once I got the correct photo corners, things just started to come together nicely.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to defend MusicCity agains the RIAA.

Some deep thoughts on music by Benny. And I agree. Sure these boy and girl bands are made up by huge record companies, sure they don't write their own music, and sure they might be drug addicts or alcoholics. But look at the Hollywood entertainment industry. How many actors and actresses actually write the script, or direct their own film? Most people who do, don't get into it until after they've been successful in the industry for quite a long time. The fact is, people want to see teenagers in skimpy clothing dancing on the stage singing catchy tunes. I myself like to sing along with songs I listen to, and if they're too weird, or too hard to sing to, then it turns me away from them. Some might say I'm shallow and superficial. But what is image? Isn't it just a veneer of what we want to be, and not who we really are underneath? People are so fake these days anyways, that those who bash Britney or the Backstreet Boys are probably just looking for the attention that they no longer have when they listened to the New Kids or MC Hammer.

See the resemblance?

Note to self, add stats to the dislike list.

Last night I had a dream about how I came up with a good idea, and started a company. I realized I had that dream this morning when I was washing my cup, becaused I remembered something like that happening, and I don't have a company, so it must have been a dream. Too bad I don't remember what my idea was, but I do recall that it was a good one.

I was just reminded of how much stats classes suck. Good thing there's only one lab left.

"Think of them [Al Qaeda] more as a sect or cult than as Nazi Germany. So the good news is: It doesn't have to be the Third World War unless "our" side treats it that way and creates a self-fulfilling scenario ... The bad news? Some people seem to think it makes more sense to have a Third World War "

- another article from the Globe and Mail

The teaser trailer for Star Wars II, Attack of the Clones is out.

So we're building a castle out of water bottle caps at work. It's been going on for several weeks now, and we're getting there. You wouldn't believe how many bottle caps are needed (we have roughly 650 right now). Now I wish I had a digital camera, then I can post regular updates.

I don't think I'm ever going to finish. My photo organization project from my trip that is. I just got a good scrap book last week (a sketch book actually, but I can put pictures in it instead of drawing pictures in it). But putting my 300+ selected pictures (from over 400) in there with the little stickey corner things is going to take forever.

I just got this email from a friend. I don't think it really applies to me. Maybe because I'm a little depressed, maybe it's true.

Maybe I should stop updating my blog when I'm intoximacated (note to self: turn computer off before going out to bar).

The David Usher concert was a pretty good time. We got in around 8:30, waited around for a bit, and the opener came on. It was some unknown band. Sometime through the first song, I realized something: when the bass is louder than the lead singer's mike, we can't hear what she's singing. The tunes were pretty good, but the lack of the ability to listen to the lyrics was a downer (maybe that's the way they wanted it).
Then, shortly after 10 or so, David Usher came on (or maybe I should say it's Moist playing under the name of David Usher). Then played a bunch of tunes from the new album, and some older songs too. This time, the mike was louder than the accompaniments, which was great. The band seemed to have a lot of energy, and the vibe was felt. An unexpected song was played during the first encore (Hash pipe), with a faster tempo, which raised a loud cheer from the crowd. Speaking of the crowd, it wasn't that big, which was a little surprising. But I guess that since they played with Econoline Crush at Fed a couple of days earlier, it does make a little sense. Rounding out the night was an acoustic Gasoline. I love the guitar work, and the singing was alright too.

Afterwards, we proceeded to the Bomber, and stood outside (it was cooooold). Good times. Now's it's bed time...

Tomorrow, or tonight rather, it's David Usher at Fed.

We went to Patty Flaherty's tonight since it's Christine's birthday. I didn't really know many of the people there, except for the usual Seagram crowd. It was a pretty good time though, had some Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale, some Irish Coffee, and Guiness. We did see an old guy being kicked out of the bar. Apparently he was causing a ruckus with the band and such. The bouncers (one of whom was Nick) took him out the back, and we saw it since the room we were in had a window (a big one at that, and it still says Kingsbridge Crossings) that faced the back parking lot. The guy just laid on the ground for a good minute before he finally go up on his own power. I kinda felt sorry for him, seeing how he was old, and drunk, and none of his friends (if he had any there) were outside with him. It's exactly what I would NOT like to be when I'm 40. Later we saw him outside trying to get his jacket on, but he had the wrong arm in the wrong sleeve. I don't know how people could get like that. I mean, it's fine and dandy for a bunch of university students to go get drunk and make a fool out of themselves, but for an old man to do that, and get kicked out of a bar, with no one around to pick him up from the ground. It just seems so sad.

"It is rare to find learned men who are clean, do not stink and have a sense of humour."

- Gottfried Whilhem Leibniz

An infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters would eventually conclude that it's raining once again outside.

"More teams of special forces are preparing to enter Afghanistan ... to train anti-Taliban fighters" - article at cbc

If I recall correctly, the last time they trained someone in Afghanistan, it was against the USSR, and his name was Osama bin Laden. So much for learning from your mistakes.

Apparently I am only 32% GEEK

I could always count on Peanuts.

What a poor showing, our stats midterm was brutal. With a class average of 29/50 (or 58% for those not mathematically inclined), and a overall average of somewhere around 29.5, I'm pretty happy with my mark. I mean, when the highest mark out of 250 students was 45 (90%), that's gotta say something about either the exam, or the way it's marked. What amuses me is that, apparently they didn't have a set of standard answers before they marked the midterms, and are just making them now so we, the students, can learn from our mistakes. But without a standard answer, the markers/profs marking each question was basically making judgment calls without something to judge against.

This is bullshit.

So the bunch of us are all hyped last night to go to the Bomber (I even managed to drag Kristy out).

We arrive around 9:30, should be early by any means. We walk in the doors of the SLC, and walk into the common area, and the line up is around two posts. Someone suggested going to Weaver's after about a 30 minute wait, but we decided to stick it out a little longer.

After another hour, we're finally near the door to Ground Zero. Amazingly, it's practically empty in Ground Zero as far as I could see. But this is where the motion stopped. We were standing there, huddled in a mass of pissed off university students, the tension is high, everyone is feeling a little claustrophobic, but the bouncers were not letting anyone in. No explanation was given to the student in line, we can see the empty room in front of us, and the music pumping inside, but all we could do was stand there and wait.

After a seeming eternity (or half an hour), we finally gave up. We have not moved an inch, more and more people were pushing against us, the line up behind us seemed to be shorter but a lot wider, and we were sick of waiting. So we trekked out, like little sea turtles making their way into the ocean, from the sea of people, walked outside, and headed for Weaver's. Outside, we saw an ambulance and a campus police car. It might have accounted for the wait, but we didn't stay to find out.

Weaver's was a good time. We played some pool, listened to some live music (open mike on Wednesdays), drank some pitchers of beer, ate some delicious wings, and had a girl steal candy from our table.

The point of this story? I am sick an tired of waiting in line for hours at a university pub that we help fund through our tuition, when it's not even full inside. If something is happening inside that is preventing them from letting in people, they should at least send out someone and explain to the people waiting outside. The management should be reprimanded for making an artificial line up, and us students should get what we paid for - a campus pub that we can actually get into - without waiting for hours on end.

I think I might follow Nat and Matt's lead and write a letter.