The New Music

Looking for new music? I found a great online application called Pandora, created by the Music Genome Project.

The Music Genome Project's goal is "to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level". The project team is "a collection of musicians and music-loving technologists" who have "listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time".

Pandora allows you to leverage this musical analysis to discover new music based on your likes and dislikes. It's extremely simple to use, just enter the names of artists and songs that you like, and the engine plays music that is "genetically" similar to your selections. You can set up a free account and share your "station" with friends.

I created a station the other day, and it's already given me some great suggestions.

Groove Salad

I was having some friends over for a get together the other night and wanted some ambient grooves to spin in the background. I hit up the usual locations for such audio delights: LAUNCHcast, Digitally Imported, and SHOUTcast and finally settled on a SHOUTcast channel called Groove Salad.

Groove Salad describes itself as "a nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves" and that's pretty darn accurate. Once I started listening, I couldn't switch the channel. It rocked, and I was hooked! Smooth grooves with a bit of an electronic vibe; just what I was looking for. It's actually a channel on SomaFM: Listener-Supported, Commercial Free Internet Radio, but is also available via SHOUTcast.

If you're in to electronica or are just looking for some aural stimulation that won't overpower your conversation or focus then check 'em out. Highly recommended!

Congrats!

Congratulations to my little sister who achieved a 74% on her pre-national exam for the Canadian Association of Medical Radiation Technologists! The range of marks for the exam was 65-77% with an average of 71%.

That's an unbelievably exceptional score! I'm so proud of you! All that working and studying has totally paid off! People will be very lucky to have you caring for them during such a trying time. I have a feeling the doors are going to begin opening for you very soon. :)

For those who don't know, the CAMRT exam is 8 hours long (yes, 8 hours!) with an hour break for lunch. Crazy!

Off to a Great Start

The Futsal season is off to a great start. In our first match we narrowly missed a win against a team from Third Division outdoor (they tied it with 30 seconds remaining). While it was a learning experience with everyone working hard to adjust to the new ball, new rules, and new players on the squad, we were very satisfied with the point.

The second match was a vast improvement. The new players settled in and the team worked together much better. We dominated the play and came away with three points against a formidable opponent from Second Division outdoor.

Our Coach summed the start up best in a post-game e-mail:

"That was a great effort last night. You're going to gain some respect from these higher division teams.

You guys are really enjoying this new game. The defence and mid-field were solid, the strikers created more then enough scoring opportunities and scored when they had to. You look like you were all having a blast.

Keep up the good work and believe in yourself and the team. The best is yet to come."

I agree!

Gullible Canucks

I don't know what's worse: the government bribing Canadians with their own money, or the fact that the vast majority of Canadians will fall for it. It's ironic that the Liberals are doing all this bribing in an attempt to win an election forced by their previous attempts to bribe Quebeckers.

Timely Healthcare Shouldn't Be Illegal

Canadians should thank Dr. Mark Godley for having the courage to do what the Canadian government hasn't: provide important diagnostic and surgical services to patients in a timely fashion. I can tell you by personal experience that there is nothing scarier and more stressful than waiting to find out the cause of one's health troubles. Heath Minister Tim Sale expects sick, stressed, and worried Manitobans to wait over four months for diagnostic imaging procedures. That is disheartening in and of itself, however in light of the fact that treatment usually can't begin until those diagnostic procedures have been completed, it is even more apalling.

The public argument between Dr. Godley and Mr. Sale highlights the outrageous logic surrounding health care in this country. Consider this, if your car breaks down, you can take it immediately to a mechanic who will assess the problem and fix it. If your health breaks down, you have to wait months to be diagnosed, and more months and even YEARS to receive treatment. If your mechanic takes too long with your car, or doesn't provide good service, then you take it somewhere else. However, you can't do anything if the health care system takes too long, or doesn't provide good service. In fact, it is against the law to spend your own money to fix your own body. You can spend your money to fix your car, or your house, but not your own health.

Now, most people would blame the government for the poor state of Canadian health care. That blame is misplaced. It is Canadians themselves who are to blame, not some politician in Ottawa or some Administrator at the Health Authority, but ordinary Canadians. Those very same Canadians who complain about health care. Why? Ever heard of "you get what you ask for"? Every time someone mentions improving the Canadian health care system it is Canadians who shut down the conversation with such idiodic statemens as "You CAN'T change health care, it's TOO IMPORTANT" and the still popular "I don't want an American system". Canadians constantly berate the Americans for their lack of global and geographical knowledge, yet when it comes to health care Canadians believe there are only two systems in the ENTIRE world: Canada's and the American's.

So the next time you're sitting in a waiting room for 3 hours, or you're told it'll be two years to see a specialist, or your doctor tells you that you're only allowed one question per appointment, and you're looking for someone to blame and get angry at, take a look in the mirror. See that person looking back at you? THAT'S who is to blame for crappy Canadian health care.

(Know what really makes me laugh? Canadians will get furious if they have to wait more than a couple of minutes for their hamburger or to checkout at the grocery store, but they'll wait months and years for health care AND DEFEND THE SYSTEM!)

Contract News

Exciting news on the soccer front. I've signed with a new team for the 2005-2006 indoor season. It's a win-win situation for both parties as they have been in pursuit of my services for the last two years and I have scouted them as a transfer possibility on a number of occasions. After a successful 2005 campaign they're looking to round out their squad with some quality players and work towards promotion in 2006. If the roster signing "meeting" is any indication it's going to be a fun season this winter, win or lose. (And I'm really looking forward to soccer being fun again.)

In addition to the new team, it will also be a new game. The Manitoba Major Soccer League has created a new Futsal league at the brand new Skylight Complex in East St. Paul. The league will use the standard FIFA Futsal rules with a few modifications.

The basic differences are:

• No boards
• Smaller ball (size 4)
• Low-bounce ball
• Some other minor rules changes related to stopping and starting of play

Should be a blast!

Keane-O

So after Manchester United dropped 3 points against lowly Middlesbrough not too long ago Roy Keane fired a barrage of criticism at his teammates. What I found interesting was the reaction from some of the players, like Ruud Van Nistelrooy for example:

"It's good to have people here who say what they feel because they care about the club, and it's important that we keep doing that. With criticism like that, as a player you can either be angry or you can think about it and see whether it is true or not. If you can then take something good out of it, then it can only help us. That's what I try to do."

The reaction is interesting because Keane's criticism came after a single loss (albeit to a very beatable team). Imagine what the criticism would be like after a losing season!