The Mix - April 28 @ 7:30 p.m.

Tired of paying outrageous prices for crappy drinks and cookie cutter music at loud nightclubs packed with Abercrombie & Fitch wannabes? Get in The Mix!

Something to Celebrate!

Date	Time	Description
Good Friday (4/14/2006)	9:15 and 11:15 a.m.	A drama-enhanced morning pondering the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.
Saturday (4/15/2006)	6:15 p.m.	Special "coffee-house" Easter service with FREE coffee and desserts!
Sunday (4/16/2006)	9:15 and 11:15 a.m.	Arts-enhanced, creative worship service pondering the power of what Christ did on Easter Sunday some 2000 years ago.

Fibs

National Poetry Month as well as Math Awareness Month, and an enterprising screenwriter has combined the two with something he calls "Fibs": poems based on the Fibonacci Sequence. Though interesting, Fibs are not new. Here's one of the best Fib's, from a great compilation.

UPDATE: I forgot the link to the guy's blog!

Back Home

By the way, in case it wasn't obvious, we're back home now. The trip back was a bit more exciting than the trip there. Due to weather we were stuck in the airport all day as our flight kept getting delayed. The airport was PACKED with cranky, frustrated people, but far from getting us down, instead it allowed us to explore and share some quality time, at least as much as possible in the world's busiest airport.

Here are some more photos from the trip.

	At the pub down the street after seeing Iraqtile Dysfunction at Second City. (Second City was awesome!)
	Waiting for the Subway.
	Riding the subway.
	At Joe's Sports Bar watching the Duke game. (They have big screen televisions everywhere!)
	Joe's Sports Bar was packed!
	So packed, they have a vending machine for ear plugs!
	Standing in front of Wrigley Field.
	Standing in front of Sue, the world's largest, most complete, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex skelaton, at the Field Museum. She measures 42 feet long, 13 feet tall, and weighed 7 tons when alive. She's named after Susan Hendrickson, the fossil hunter who discovered her.
	Inside the Egyptian tomb, part of the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit at the Field Museum. Those are the actual blocks (and actual hieroglyphics) from the tomb in Egypt in the background.
	The lobby of the Fisher Building, where we stayed. Behind the plaque is the Consierge desk. We had floorplan B1 on the 13th floor (yes, there's a floor labelled 13). The 19th floor had a lounge/games room with a foosball table, a bar, a pool table, a fireplace, couches, and a big screen TV. Sweet!
	Time to leave!

That's all for now, I'll have more photos up in the next couple of days.

May 2, 2006

Cool Illusion!

Check out this interesting video illusion that our pastor showed in church the other day.

QuickTime video

"This demonstrates the immense power of top-down knowledge which will actually counter signals bottom-up from the senses, and force an extraordinary illusion in which the sensory information of the present is cancelled by immense knowledge derived from the past"
-- Richard Gregory

Quotes Stuck In My Head

I've had a couple of quotes stuck in my head lately.

The first is from Robert Spritz in The Weatherman:

"Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. 'Easy' doesn't enter into grown-up life, to get anything of value, you have to sacrifice."

The second is an exchange between Jerry and George in episode 113 of Seinfeld (The Maestro):

JERRY: Get this, he [The Maestro] tells me there are no houses to rent anywhere in Tuscany.
GEORGE: You're renting a house in Tuscany?
JERRY: No.
GEORGE: So what do you care?

Psalm 23:4

Swimmin' with da fishes

Went to the Shedd Aquarium today.

	Dolphins performing in the Oceanarium show.
	Penguins chillin' on the rocks.
	More of the dolphin performance.
	My girlfriend smooching a turtle.
	My girlfriend and I in front of the aquarium, with the Chicago skyline in the background.

More Photos

Posted some more photos on my Flickr page this morning. (It's too much work to post them on the blog too, so you'll just have to look at them there)

Just a Few Photos

Below are some photos from the first few days. All the photos from Chicago can be viewed on my Chicago tag Flickr page.

	Me with one of the Blue Men after the Blue Man Group show. The blue mark on my face was put there by the Blue Man after they took me up on stage from out of the audience to "participate" in the show.
	Me, my girlfriend, and my friend at the Green Mill jazz lounge.
	My girlfriend and I in front of the Cloud Gate at Millennium Park.
	A sign on one of the streets in Chicago.

We're here!

We're in the Windy City now and it's fantastic! The flight was quick, about 1.5 hours, and the first couple of days have been hectic! There's a lot to see and do I don't know how we're going to fit it all in to 10 days. Yesterday we walked around Millenium Park and shopped on the Magnificent Mile, where I got a jacket and three shirts for $115 (regular over $250!). In the evening we went to the Green Mill jazz lounge, one of Al Capone's former speakeasys, then Ginger's Ale House where we had a few pints and watched the Newcastle match.

To say that Chicago is Winnipeg only slightly larger is a huge understatement! Winnipeggers like to delude themselves into thinking that their city is just as good as cities like Chicago (and Toronto!) but once you actually leave the confines of the perimeter highway there's no denying that Winnipeg has grossly missed it's potential. Anyway, more on that later. We've got a big day today. We're going to see the Blue Man Group in the afternoon, then doing more shopping on the Magnificent Mile, and finally closing the day off with an invite only Oscar party at Orso restaurant!

(I've taken a bunch of pictures already, but I forgot the cable to download them from the camera. My friend said he should have one that fits at the office so I'll post some pics as soon as I find one.)

Oh What a Season!

Due to my trip to The Windy City this Friday I played my last Futsal game of the season Tuesday. With a short bench (only one sub!), people playing out of position, and numerous key players missing we almost managed a draw. If it weren't for a heartbreaking lucky bounce with 10 seconds left in the game we would have stolen a point against difficult odds. No matter though, it was a fun game that was well played and served as a fitting end to the season. I don't know what the future holds but I was proud and honoured to be a part of this team. They're a well run, talented, and fun group of guys and should do very well in the upcoming outdoor season. I can honestly say that this Futsal season was the most fun I've had playing soccer since my youth.

I think the following situation sums the atmosphere on this team perfectly: When I told the coaching staff that I had been invited to tryout for another outdoor squad, instead of berating me and sending an email to the manager of the other team saying how poor a player I was they congratulated me, wished me luck, and told me that I would always have a place on their team. Now THAT'S a quality organization.

Here's hoping the snow melts soon!

Who's the real enemy: Esso or Celine Dion?

You think gas prices are inflated? The next time you're filling up at the pump think about the Private Copying Levy. As Michael Geist points out in his blog, the Private Copying Levy in Canada can increase the cost of blank media by as much as 333%! That means an $18 pack of CDs can cost almost $60. (And that's BEFORE taxes!)

What's worse is "while songwriters and music publishers are eligible regardless of nationality, only Canadian recording artists and record companies may receive payments". So even though people are burning quality bands like Tool, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or the Rolling Stones, the revenue from the purchase of that blank media is helping Canada produce more Celine Dion, Alanis, and Simple Plan.

Perhaps the worst part of the entire scheme is the implied guilt. The levy is paid by manufacturers and importers of the media, and passed on to consumers in the price. So the assumptions is if you're buying blank media, then you must be pirating Canadian music so you should pay a fine immediately. So even honest, law abiding citizens who buy media for backing up business or personal data or authoring home DVD's or photo CD's are paying the fines. While I don't agree with the RIAA lawsuits in the United States either, at least they are supposed to prove you actually committed a crime before they can hit you with a fine!

Almost there!

Four days to go!

That's MY train!

If you've been watching the olympics then you've probably seen the Bombardier commercials: some Canadian tourist notices a train or plane made by Bombardier and gets excited. Then the announcer says "Thousands of Canadians are behind Bombardier, and proud of it."

That's only half the truth though. The announcer should say "Thousands of Canadians are forced to support Bombardier financially, and don't even know it." Or maybe more accurately, "Thousands of Canadians are bent over in front of Bombardier and getting..." well, you can complete the sentence yourself.

CBC's The National ran a story this evening about hundreds of Bombardier jets sitting idle in a field in Arizona. Guess who owns those jets? You do. That's right, you, your neighbour, your co-workers, every Canadian taxpayer owns a piece of those jets rusting in the desert. Here's how it works. Bombardier builds a bunch of jets that nobody wants to buy. Export Development Canada, a Federal Crown Corporation, takes billions of Canadians' tax dollars and loans it to foreign companies whom the regular banks consider "high risk" with the condition that the companies use the money to purchase the aforementioned jets from Bombardier. Now, those high risk companies have defaulted on those loans and EDC is stuck with the planes. Since EDC isn't an airline, the planes sit in the desert and collect dust.

As if that loan/bribe scenario wasn't enough, the government still routinely coughs up billions of dollars in direct subsidies to Bombardier (because they still can't seem turn a profit, even with a bribed customer base) with the excuse that the company "provides jobs". Who are they kidding? I mean come on, if the government's going to do that, then skip the middle man, give the billions directly to the workers, and send them home to be productive already!

Yes, our roads are terrible, our military is an international joke, our taxes are outrageously high, and people die waiting for health care, but still the government finds it more important to use your money to buy airplanes that don't fly.

More Cartoon Rioting

More riots have erupted over controversial and offensive cartoons.

Fighting fire with fire

The Freakonomics blog has a link to an Israeli anti-semetic cartoon contest created in response to the psychopatic Muslim protests. Now excuse me while I go watch Curb Your Enthusiasm...

Special thanks to Cutie for giving me the link ;)

This just in...

In the spirit of Duck and Cover, Air Canada has banned pictures of Muslims with hats resembling bombs on all flights and in their lounges. Real Muslims with real bombs still allowed.

Getting Excited!

Less than two weeks to go!

Another Added Bonus

I found out today not only does my employer have a great benefits package, but I don't have to pay any premiums. I guess that stands to reason since they're an insurance company. ;) So the only non-government deduction on my paycheque is 75 cents for the social fund. Sweet!

Steyn hits the nail on the head (again)

Another great commentary on lunatic Muslims by Mark Steyn

No Thanks

Please don't thank me for my reaction to the cartoons. I fully support them and the cartoonists who drew them. I'd print millions of them and drop them from the sky if I could. I would post them on every telephone pole and in every paper and magazine in the country.

It's perfectly acceptable to Muslims for a Mohammed to blow up a real building, but draw him with a bomb and it's blasphemy. Now a Pakistani cleric has offered a $1-million US bounty for the murder of the cartoonist. And we're supposed to be rational with these people??? I don't think so. I've lost all respect for Islam.

Bizarro Islam

So I've been thinking about this whole cartoon holy war going on and after watching the media reports I had to ask myself: Am I the only one on this planet who thinks Muslims are overreacting? The media keeps treating the Muslim reaction as a normal response to being offended. Many columnists, reporters, and letter writers have asked "wouldn't you feel the same if someone offended your God?" Sure, I might feel the same, but I wouldn't act the same. And that's what differentiates Islam from other religions. Jews don't burn flags and bomb shopping malls everytime someone denies the holocaust and Hindus don't fly planes into buildings everytime someone in the West eats a hamburger. Instead, other religions work within the system and express their outrage within the boundaries of the rule of law.

In light of the flag burnings, murders, embassy vandalism, and calls for mass destruction it's getting more and more difficult to defend Islam. After September 11, western Muslim leaders kept telling everyone that the perpetrators of the attacks were not representative of Islam, but mislead extremists. After watching the cartoon violence I don't think that explanation holds. I see millions of Muslims burning flags, shooting AK-47's, and calling for the the murder of westerners on a nightly basis. It's not a handful of people doing this, it's millions. In fact, it's only a handful of Muslims saying the violence isn't right. On the news you see a few million Muslims in a blood frenzy and then some lone cleric from Toronto saying violence isn't the answer.

The Islamic world has become a bizarro world where the moderates are the extremists.

UPDATE: Muslims are insane psychopathic.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Winnipeg Free Press, Page B2, Column 5 :)

More on the Cartoon In-toon-fatah

Here's another great commentary on the cartoon fiasco.

Canada's (Spineless) Response

I was going to write a criticism of Foreign Minister Peter McKay's statement on the cartoon fiasco, then I read Ezra Levant's commentary and figured, why duplicate?

Freedom of speech... just watch what you say draw

The following letter to the editor appeared in The Winnipeg Free Press on February 8, 2006:

The protests against controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad have spread across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. It is the satirical intent of the cartoonists, and the association of the prophet with terrorism, that is indeed very offensive to all Muslims alike. Many in Arab media describe it as a modern crusade. They speak of a campaign to distort and discredit Islam. America's war on terror is still largely perceived in several Muslim countries as a war on Islam -- a perception reinforced by the fact that it is happening exclusively in Muslim countries; namely Iraq and Afghanistan.

The controversy appears to pit Western traditions of free speech against a tenet of Islam that says images of the prophet are strictly forbidden. In the final analysis, the right to freedom of expression by no means implies the right to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory and offend religious beliefs.

My response:

The author does not understand the right to freedom of expression when he says it "by no means implies the right to insult or to be gratuitously inflammatory and offend religious beliefs." Actually, that is exactly what the right to freedom of expression implies and is designed to protect.

It is easy to protect or defend expression that one agrees with. Nobody requests censorship of expression they support. It is only offensive expression that provokes calls for censorship and supression. Freedom of expression is freedom of ALL expression, not of specific expression as determined by select individuals or groups. The foundation of such a right is the recognition that the best way to combat incorrect, inaccurate, or inflammatory ideas is with facts, data, and better ideas, not the heavy-handedness of censorship. Opponents of expression resort to censorship when they are unable, or unwilling, to effectively contradict the offensive material intellectually.

As for the association of The Prophet with terrorism, the responsibility for that impression rests solely with those who fly planes into buildings, behead hostages, murder innocent civilians, and preach death and destruction in His name, not a cartoon in a newspaper.

In memoria illorum quisnam mortuus: Cineri gloria sera est

Coyne's Coming!

Andrew Coyne, National Affairs columnist for the National Post will be in Winnipeg on February 27, 2006! He's speaking at a luncheon put on by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy titled "The New Conservative Government: Threat or Menace?" and will discuss "what the Tories will do, what they should do, and how to tell the difference".

I have bean reading and watching¹ Mr. Coyne since the National Post's inception in 1998. His blog is both enlightening and entertaining. He's an extremely intelligent man and should be one of the best speakers the Frontier Centre has had. Definitely worth the price of admission!

__________
1. In addition to writing for many newspapers Mr. Coyne also appears periodically on the CBC's The National.

I ruv roo!

I have the bestest, wonderfulest, supportivest, caringest, beautifulest, lovingest, awesomest girlfriend in the whole wide world, and I love her totally and completely! kthnx. :)

Conquering Canada?

"Allah is stirring up a generation who will fear nothing but him. A generation who will fear nothing and do everything to see Allah's dominion established in this generation. Allah is seeking a voice of righteousness and of justice who will come forth from the emerging generation and reclaim the righteous foundations of our nation. Allah is baptising a generation with a holy burning passion to see the idols of unrighteousness fall in our land and to see the altars of righteousness established again. He is looking for a generation who will walk in the ways of our righteous fathers who founded this nation for one purpose. They were sent with a vision, they were sent with a mandate, to see the kingdom of Allah and and all his glory dwell in a nation.

Through Muhammad, Allah took back all authority and because of that we now are baptized with a kingly annointing of authority to stand on the Earth and execute his dominion and to see the kingdom of Allah come on Earth as it is in heaven. Allah has given us a revelation that we need to possess and conquer. Allah is going to be sending us into all the places of influence in our nation. He's going to be sending us into the arts to stand there in a place of authority. He's raising up ones that he's going to send into the political realm and they're going to stand as a voice of righteousness. He's raising up ones who are going to stand in the education system, in the justice system, and in the medical system, and they're going to stand in a kingly annointing to tear down those things that exhalt unrighteousness and to reestablish righteousness."

Osama bin Laden released another message last week, but that's not where the above quote is from, though it easily could have been. The quote is from an interview with Faytene Kryskow, author of Stand on Guard and member of Motivated Young People for a Strong Canada (MyCanada), a religious group that targets youth in Canada. I simply substituted "Allah" for "God".

In the interview Ms. Kryskow rambles on for over ten minutes about how God spoke to her and told her that the youth in Canada have been chosen to rise up, destroy the insitutions of unrighteousness, and impose heaven on Earth.

Her words are similar to those frequently used by Islamic fundamentalists who wish to impose Sharia (Islamic Law) on all nations. Such Islamic zealots often call for the destruction of institutions they see as unrighteous such as banks, government buildings, democratic institutions, courts, and even large cities. Their tone and vocabulary are also very similar to that of Ms. Kryskow, and like MyCanada they target impressionable youth looking for a cause to fight for. To illustrate my point, here's a line by line comparison of Ms. Kryskow's comments with those of a well known Islamic fundamentalist:

Faytene Kryskow	Osama bin Laden
"God is stirring up a generation who will fear nothing but him. A generation who will fear nothing and do everything to see God's dominion established in this generation. He is seeking a voice of righteousness and of justice who will come forth from the emerging generation and reclaim the righteous foundations of our nation. He is baptising a generation with a holy burning passion to see the idols of unrighteousness fall in our land and to see the altars of righteousness established again. He is looking for a generation who will walk in the ways of our righteous fathers who founded this nation for one purpose. They were sent with a vision, they were sent with a mandate, to see the kingdom of God and and all his glory dwell in a nation."	"O you who believe fear God, by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden as He should be feared. Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always, and die not except as Muslims with complete submission to God."1
"Through Jesus, God took back all authority and because of that we now are baptized with a kingly annointing of authority to stand on the Earth and execute his dominion and to see the kingdom of God come on Earth as it is in heaven. God has given us a revelation that we need to possess and conquer."	"We also stress to honest Muslims that they should move, incite, and mobilize the [Islamic] nation, amid such grave events and hot atmosphere so as to liberate themselves from those unjust and renegade ruling regimes. They should also do so to establish the rule of God on earth."2
"We are coming together with one voice, with one heart, and one mind. It's through the voice that there's going to be a preparation. I believe He's looking for a voice in this day that will speak a message of truth, and justice, and righteousness, that will prepare the way to see His dominion and His kingdom established in a generation, and a culture, and a nation."	"Muslims must prepare all the possible might to repel the enemy on the military, economic, missionary, and all other areas. It is crucial for us to be patient and to cooperate in righteousness and piety and to raise awareness to the fact that the highest priority, after faith is to repel the incursive enemy which corrupts the religion and the world, and nothing deserves a higher priority after faith, as the scholars have declared, for this cause, it is crucial to overlook many of the issues of bickering in order to unite our ranks so that we can repel the greater Kufr. All must move giving life to the words of the Most High: "Indeed this, your community, is one community, and I am your Lord, so worship me" and that they should not be like those whom Allah has described with His words: "Indeed those who have divided their religion and became schisms, you are not of them in any way." It is essential to volunteer and not to bicker, and the Muslim should not belittle righteousness in any way."3

Now, I don't forsee Ms. Kryskow instructing Christian youth to fly planes into buildings anytime soon, however it is precisely this type of religious zealotry that leads to such things. Remember the Crusades? Inquisitions? Slavery? All justified by religion. The perpetrators of these events all claimed to be justified by God and/or the Bible.

As we have seen in many Muslim nations (not to metion England), theocracy doesn't work. It leads to oppression, rights infringements, and atrocities. Of course, being a libertarian I support, and defend, the right of all individuals and organizations to voice their opinions. However, that support hinges on the optimistic hope that common sense will triumph over religious fanaticism in the marketplace of ideas. I would hope that Christians who hear Ms. Kryskow's speech would have immediate concerns regarding not only the words and tone, but the professed goal: a Christian theocracy in Canada. Unfortunately, my experience does not seem to support that hope. I find that most Christians switch off their critical reasoning once a messenger has identified themself as a Christian. Also, Christians seem to love freedom only when it suits them. I don't think you'd find many Christians advocating for a Muslim theocracy, or Sikh laws, or Hindu prayer and Buddhist creation in schools.

Jesus never ran for public office. He didn't come to "possess and conquer". He never sought to overthrow the judiciary or impose Biblical law. He came to love, and to save. Just as He allowed people of all religions, all opinions, and all walks of life to approach him and be saved, so should we embrace all religions, all opinions, and all walks of life. It is not our place to judge, nor is it our place to "establish his dominion". God made man free. Truly free. There was no coercion or imposition. Man could choose God, or not. A truly Biblical nation should most certainly be built on that basic principle.

NOTE: Blind following is not unique to religion.

Church Signs

I found a neat website that generates custom church signs (thanks Greg!) so I decided to make a few.

Conservative Minority

Canadians have elected a Conservative minority government. Funny, I haven't seen any sky falling yet.

Google Elections

Well, not quite, but Chris Nolan has created a great election map using Google Maps.

NOTE: Thanks to Andrew Coyne for the link.

Redepolizei

The speech police are ramping up to enforce Canada's ridiculous election information law. Because you're so stupid that seeing what's happing in Newfoundland will make you vote differently. Or maybe it's because it's easier to influence voters when you control the means of information communication.

Still Undecided?

If you're having trouble swallowing the rhetoric of the major parties, try checking out some of the lesser known parties. ;)

Some Great Coyne

Speaking of money, Andrew Coyne has posted another great column about the SCARY Conservatives.

Money Makes the World Go Round

Not sure who to vote for on Monday? Here's a simple way to decide: look at the money! The major parties can all be characterized by what they do with your money. Here's a quick summary:

Party	Fiscal Policy
NDP	Take your money and give it to your neighbour
Liberal	Take your money and give it to their friends (or Quebec)
Conservative	Farmers, students, seniors, etc:	Take your money and give you a little bit of it back
	Regular, hard-working Canadians:	Take your money
Green	Take your money and spend it on planting trees
Bloc Quebecois	Take your money and run
Communist	Eliminate money (and property)
Christian Heritage	Take your money and use it to finance domestic crusades

Encouraging Restart

The second half of the Futsal season has kicked off and the team is off to an encouraging start. Though we have yet to put up any points, our first two matches were one goal games going into the final minutes. Only after we pressed for equalizers did our opponents manage to slot away the insurance goal. Since one team was from Second division in outdoor and the other was from Premier we can count the matches as quality efforts. But the most important part? The games were fun as hell! :)

That's "Administrative Professional" to you!

Speaking of elections, I have just been elected Secretary of my Condominium Board. (The position comes with it's own holiday!) Thus begins my foray into politics. I intend to install a puppet regime immediately and have the crab apple tree cut down by next December!

Le Who?

Why is the Bloc Quebecois even in these debates? They're not a national party. I think the Constitutional Amendment Formula should be applied to debate participants. Namely that the party must have candidates running in at least two-thirds of the provinces representing 50% of the Canadian population. The Green Party is more of a national party than the Bloc for crying out loud!

Speaking of the Bloc, here's everything you need to know about Quebec. ;)

Nothing for me, as usual

The second (and final) national debate aired today across the nation. It certifiably confirmed what I already knew: there's nothing in this election for me. Why? Well, let's see.

I'm not poor, or rich. I'm not a student, or a senior. I'm not a farmer, or a factory worker, or a University researcher. I'm not a parent, or a child. I'm not a large corporation, or a small business. I'm not a transit rider, or homeless. I'm not a corrupt foreign dictatorship, or a charity. I'm not aboriginal, or an immigrant. I'm not a doomsday activist, or a well connected municipal government. And I don't live in Quebec.

So, guess where my vote will be going on January 23.

Minor Contribution

I'm semi-famous on the interweb now. :P It's nice to be able to give back to the community.

Christmas is a great time for an election!

There's been a lot of talk about this being a Christmas election. The mainstream media has been creating the impression that Canadians don't want an election right now. I think Christmas is the perfect time for an election since there's a lot of similarities between the two.

Christmas	Election
People make lists of things they want and hope they'll get them from their friends	People make lists of things they want and hope they'll get them from their friends in government
People rush around trying to visit as many stores as possible and buy as many presents as they can in the shortest amount of time	Politicians rush around trying to visit as many cities as possible and buy as many votes as they can in the shortest amount of time
People are rude, arrogant, and impolite to other shoppers, drivers, etc.	Politicians are rude, arrogant, and impolite to other politicians, parties, and sometimes voters
Radio and TV are filled with boring, repetitive Christmas movies and songs that have been played every Christmas for the last century	Radio and TV are filled with boring, repetitive political ads that have been played every election for the last century ("American" health-care anyone?)
People open their gifts Christmas Day and fake surprise and elation at receiving yet another useless reindeer sweater	People read the news after election day and fake surprise and elation at yet another useless government program (Gun Registry anyone?)
People go on a whirlwind spending spree then have heart attacks when they get the outrageously high credit card bill in January	Politicians go on a whirlwind spending spree then Canadians have heart attacks when they get the outrageously high tax bill in March
After being revived by the paramedics people realize that they didn't actually come out ahead, since for every present they got for "free" they bought one costing the same, or more, for the person that gave it to them	After being revived by the paramedics people realize that they didn't actually come out ahead, since for every handout or program they got for "free" they paid the the same, or more, for someone else's "free" handout/program
After Christmas people line up for hours and fight each other violently in an attempt to get a deal on a TV or bed that they don't really need	After the election people line up for hours and fight each other violently in an attempt to get a handout or favour from the government that they don't really need
After all the hype, hustle, bustle, and stress, people sit down the day after Boxing Day and think "Hmm, that's it? It's over?"	After all the hype, hustle, bustle, and stress, people sit down after election day and think "Hmm, that's it? It's over?"
People make all sorts of wild resolutions and promises for the new year, and then don't follow through on any of them	Politicians make all sorts of wild resolutions and promises for the next four years, and then don't follow through on any of them

First Half Complete

The first half of the Futsal season is complete and it was a grand success! There's a smorgasborg of highlights to choose from, but a few that quickly come to mind are:

• a victory over IPAC Ukraine, a Second Division team
• a narrow one-goal loss to Spitfire, a First Division team
• a draw (that should have been a win) against King's Head, a Third Division team

Not bad for a bunch of guys from Fourth Division! I can't think of any lowlights, except for maybe the last minute loss to the last place team. Rumour has it they're being relegated for the second half of the season though, so we won't have to worry about them anymore. :P

The Futsal game is fast and fun and except for some heating, seating, and leaking issues the facilities are great too.

The team is also really starting to come together. From great efforts on the pitch, to complementary pats on the back, to post-game beer bashes, this is the most fun I've had playing soccer in a long time. In fact, the games we lost were some of the most enjoyable!

The saying goes "It's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Well, I'd complement that with "If you're not having fun, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose." That is why we play sports after all: to have fun.

I can't wait for the second half of the season!

Unexpected Gifts at an Opportune Time

It must really be the Christmas season! Today my employer gave me an unsolicited 3% raise, even though I've only been with the company for five months. To top that off, they explained why it was "low" (because I've only been there five months), and asked if I had any issues with my salary. Talk about proactive!

The truly miraculous thing about though it is that just a few weeks ago I started giving away and donating money. I didn't know if I could afford it at the time, but I was just blessed with a streak of generosity and couldn't hold back. I decided that I wanted to pass the blessings I have been given on to others, and I had faith that God would support me and ensure I could afford it. And today I got proof!

The absolute best part is, now I'll have even more to give away!

"It's like, you're almost glad to have carpal tunnel"

Even though my employer gave me a fancy schmancy new ThinkPad with an extra 512MB of memory and a nice carry bag, I still do most of my work in the office at my desk. To that end, I was also provided with a docking station, monitor stand, keyboard, and mouse.

The other day I got a new Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. I was skeptical as to it's usefulness at first, but now that I've tried it, I'll never go back to a regular keyboard. This is the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used! The reverse slope takes a little while to get used to, but it feels great once you do. As the website says "the only thing you touch more often than your mouse and keyboard is your pillow". In light of that fact, I think this is a great investment, especially in the workplace. I'm actually considering buying one for home!

Inconvenient Public Transit

There have been a lot of letters to the editor regarding Winnipeg Transit and the problems it's facing with revenue and ridership. To see why I don't ride the bus, let's take a look at my daily trip to work from both a time and cost perspective.

First, the Winnipeg Transit website shows three options for getting to work. The fastest commute is 40 minutes, but that includes 12 minutes of walking (not very pleasant at -35). The other two options are 45 and 60 minutes and include 9 or 10 minutes of walking or waiting for a transfer. For the return trip, Winnipeg Transit shows four options, each between 46 and 55 minutes total time, including 14 minutes of walking and up to 5 minutes of waiting for a transfer. So, using Winnipeg Transit, my daily commute will take at least 90 minutes and include approximately 30 minutes of walking or waiting. If I take my car to work, the drive is a maximum of 30 minutes each way, with about a 5 minute walk from my car to work. However, on a good day, I can sometimes get to work in only 15 minutes. For comparison's sake though we'll assume that every day is a bad driving day. So that's 70 minutes maximum total time with only 10 minutes of walking and no waiting. That's a 20 minute time savings every day.

Now let's look at cost. A Monday to Friday bus pass is $16.65 per week, for a total of $66.60 per month plus taxes. I pay $75 per month for parking. Yes, it's more, but it's also a slight case of comparing apples to oranges since my monthly parking fee allows me to park in that spot any time, any day of the month. The Monday to Friday bus pass allows me a maximum of two rides each day, only from Monday to Friday. So, if I want to go downtown on a weekend for a hockey game, or shopping, or some other event, that cost is extra. An unlimited monthly bus pass is $71.25. That's only $3.75 cheaper.

I can hear the bus people already saying "but you have to include your gas and car insurance". Well, my life involves more than just going to and from work so I would need a car anyway. It takes almost 2 hours to grocery shop, there's no way I'm going to tack on another 90 minutes in transit time to that by taking the bus. Besides, where would I put my 20 grocery bags on the bus anyway? I'm also involved in sports which take place at different locations around the city. I'm certainly not going lug my equipment bag onto the bus and ride it for two hours across the city just to play sports. And then there's visiting family and friends, and my girlfriend who lives on the other side of the city (a two hour trip according to Winnipeg Transit!).

For $3.75 more per month I save at least 20 minutes per day going to work (and many hours going other places), don't have to walk or wait in -35 cold, and have all sorts of priceless advantages such as having my car at work for when I want (or need) to go out afterwards, and not having to sit on a crowded, hot (or cold), and noisy bus.

So I don't understand why so many people are perplexed as to why people don't take the bus. For me it's an obvious, simple decision, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done this comparison. Keep in mind also, that being a young professional with no kids it's extremely easy for me to take the bus. Could you imagine what the commute would be like for a family, or single parent that needs to take their kids to day care before work and pick them up after? It's easy to see that such a situation could add another hour or more to their trip, including more walking and waiting out in the cold (or heat).

I don't have the answers, but I understand basic economics. As long as the inconvenience of public transit continues to outweigh it's benefits, people aren't going to use it. And I certainly wouldn't blame them.

Short Ironic Rant

One day I hope there's a fire and all the people parked in the fire lane die in it.

Mandatory Firefox Extensions

A lot of clients and friends have asked me what web browser to use since they hear that Internet Explorer isn't safe. I usually suggest Opera or Firefox.

Firefox is a great product, but to really get the most out of it you have to download (and install) a lot of extensions in addition to the main browser.

On the other hand, I usually refer to Opera as "Firefox with all the best extensions built in". Opera also comes with a news reader and mail client, for those who are looking for a more complete, and integrated package.

When a client asked me this question today it got me thinking though. What would be my list of must-have Firefox extensions? Well, here's what I currently have installed:

• Adblock - Filters ads from web-pages
  
• CookieCuller - Extended cookie manager
  
• Enhanced History Manager - Flexible history management
  
• FLST - Sets focus to the last selected tab
  
• Flashblock - Replaces Flash objects with a button you can click to view them
  
• Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts in any toolbar or status bar
  
• hideBad - Hides bad things (Clears passwords, cookies, cache, etc.)
  
• LastTab - Allows tab navigation in a most recently used manner
  
• NoScript - Lets you control the execution of JavaScript
  
• Open link in - Adds more tab/window opening options to the context menu for links and images
  
• Paste and Go - Lets you paste a URL from the clipboard and directly load it (like Opera)
  
• SessionSaver - Allows you to save and manage browsing sessions
  
• Tab Mix Plus - Tabbed browsing with an added boost
  
• Tab X - Adds a close button to each of the browser tabs
  
• Unread Tabs - Marks unread tabs so you know that you haven't read them

Mmmm

The other night my girlfriend, sister, and I were going to a Christmas pot-luck party and weren't sure what to bring. Being a dessert fiend I wanted to bring something sweet so the girlfriend suggested a gingerbread house. We found a kit from Create a Treat at Wal-mart for about $10, bought some extra adornments, and put it together the evening before.

It was awesome! It was really easy (and fun!) to make, and it tasted great too! The only problem was that nobody wanted to eat it at the party because they thought it was a centerpiece, haha. But once a few of us started the damage it went pretty fast!

I think we'll make another one for ourselves, just because :)

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!

Friendship Quotes

"I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people."
-- Romans 16:17-18 (NIV)

"The man of many friends will prove himself a bad friend, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
-- Proverbs 18:24 (Amp)

"Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble."
-- Proverbs 17:17 (The Message)

"It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion."
-- Mahatma Gandhi

"One of the surest evidences of friendship that one individual can display to another is telling him gently of a fault. If any other can excel it, it is listening to such a disclosure with gratitude, and amending the error."
-- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

"Don't pity the girl with one true friend. Envy her. Pity the girl with just a thousand acquaintances."
--Katie Obenchain

"True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts."
-- Song Park

"A true friend is someone you can disagree with and still remain friends. For if not, they weren't true friends in the first place."
-- Sandy Ratliff

"A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success!"
-- Doug Larson

"Friends show their love in times of trouble..."
-- Euripides (408 B.C.)

"A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else."
-- Len Wein

"Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen."
-- Samuel Paterson

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

"One friend in a lifetime is much, two are many, three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim."
-- Henry Brooks Adams

"If you have two friends in your lifetime, you're lucky. If you have one good friend, you're more than lucky."
-- Bryon Douglas, That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton

"It can be hard to break the friendship code of secrecy and make your friend mad at you, but you must do what you feel in your heart is right."
-- Amanda Ford

"The friendship isn't worth the tears unless the friend is."
-- Kellina Filbin

Football Quotes

"I hate losing in training, I'm always arguing, having a go at everybody. I take my job very seriously."
-- Roy Keane

"Over the years a lot of great players have left United - I'm sure the same will happen to me one day."
-- Roy Keane

"Leaving a club is like leaving a woman. When you have nothing left to say, you go."
-- Eric Cantona

Errare Humanum Est, Ignoscere Divinum

Praying for Rain

Why can't we not be sober?
I just want to start this over.

Why can't we drink forever?
I just want to start things over.