:: theMediaman journal ::

:: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 ::

So of course the big Canadian news this week is obvious...

..."Double-double" has officially been added to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. However, the more I read about it, the Canadian Oxford Dictionary is more like a Canadian Encyclopedia... with entries for politicians like Paul Martin and braying animals like Northern Dancer and Izzy Asper.

In other news, the Liberals won a minority government. And I owe John a beer. Dammit. Actually, it's a really weird setup: With 308 seats up for grabs, anyone needs 155 to form a majority. However, the Liberals + NDP = 154, and the Conservitives + Bloc + the 1 former-PC-now-Independant = 154. That's probably the biggest reason that Martin is claiming that there will be no 'coallition' between parties... he doesn't want to rule anyone out. But if he votes with the Bloc, I'm staging a Coup.

In more other news, the Green party now qualifies for federal funding. By getting at least 2% of the National vote, they've earned $1.75 for every vote cast in their favour. With around 565,000 votes, they will receive just over $1 million in funding. Maybe they'll be able to pay me to do a documentary during the next federal election... which might not be too far off with the 308 seats split right down the middle.

Another interesting story is the Manitoba MP who will need Parliament rules changed to accomodate his disability. Being a quadripoligic doesn't excuse the extreme right wing views that he's got, but I have a perverse entertainment out of how he came to sit in a wheelchair. It just seems like one of the Top 5 Most Canadian ways to become crippled... When he was 23, he was driving home one night from his job as a Mining Engineer in Northern Manitoba when a moose went through his windshield.

Now, that last paragraph may indeed have been in bad taste. However, you have to agree that there are few ways more Canadian than his story to lose your arms and legs.

And one final note before I take off for Canada Day... "We're gonna see lions. Way down in Kenya"

:: Stephen 12:18 PM [+] ::

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Busy weekend, and despite all the sleep, I'm still tired.

Friday, everyone at work kicked out early. We were all going to some park up on Stouff-ville Rd. for a Livewire Picnic party. I have to say, it was one of the best Livewire events we've had yet. Lots of Frisbee, volleyball, beer and hamburgers. What more could you want?

The weather was just right (not too cold, not too hot) and the wind was just strong enough to keep the bugs away.

After the event (around 5:00) I drove down to Fairview and caught the TTC downtown. I met up with Simone, Sabrina and Rita to go see Fahrenheit 9/11. I remember that when I was reading Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men", I kept putting down the book because I was getting so upset. Likewise, there were several times during the movie, I felt like getting up and leaving the theatre... unable to handle any more.

There were a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes, but I didn't laugh at most of them. I couldn't, they would have been funnier if it wasn't real, and if the Bush's weren't getting away with all of it.

Simone's dad loves Bush because he's "a friend of the Jews". He's pretty right-wing (and to his credit, doesn't usually try to spurn me into an argument over politics), so he'll never watch this movie. But I wish he would... just to see how close Bush really is to the Saudi's.

Saturday afternoon, Pete and I drove out to Kitchener, and then further to St. Thomas where there's a dragstrip. One quarter mile of asphalt where you can push your car to the limit in order to see how fast you can cover 1320 feet.

The Vin Diesel line, "I live my life one quarter-mile at a time" became quite overused by Pete and myself. We haven't had that much fun quoting a movie since we rode on Top Gun at Canada's Wonderland eight times in a row.

It was a really sweet experience. It's like going to the Molson Indy, and then getting to take your car ON TO THE TRACK, just to see how the vehicle you commute in every day can compete against a suped-up Dodge Charger (hint - it can't).

One of the oddest experiences there was the lack of Imports. Sure, the people who drive imports don't tend to take them to the dragstrip, but I'm just not used to seeing that many domestics after spending five years in the GTA. There were a LOT of Mustangs (especially Cobras), one driver had a Ford SVT Lightning, a couple Turbo'ed Volkswagen Jettas and Golfs, some police-issue Crown Vics and another ZX2 that has had a lot of work done to it, and got a time under 16 seconds (vs. my best of 18.011). There were some really amazing cars there, but the most stunning vehicle was an ATV that was posting in the mid-to-low 16's.

I forgot my time slips at home (at work right now), so I'll have to post my full numbers later. However, with Reaction time, 60', 330', 1/8 mi. and 1/4 mi. times and speeds, I've already created an Excel file that will plot my speed curve. I'll post the graphs later.

Sunday was quieter. Simone and her roomie-to-be were looking downtown at apartments. One was just East of Parkdale (Queen and Dufferin) and the other was just West of it. We walked through the neighbourhood, and I decided that I never want to live in Parkdale... and I certainly would not want Simone living there!

Despite my earlier rant on how much Toronto has changed me, there's still a lot of irrational fears I have about "The Big City".

Maybe I'll get over those fears someday, but far more likely is that I'll move to Barrie, Kitchener, or some other non-Megacity.

:: Stephen 1:07 PM [+] ::

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I'm really not sure how much longer I can live in Toronto.

After reading a journal entry on Hwan's website about how a tame guy like him was spurned by some jackass in an SUV into a deadly car-on-car race, I started thinking about what this city can do to people. After all, I only recently posted a similar Road Warrior story on my Blog.

I figured, when I moved here to study, that I could spend about five years and then leave with some good experience under my belt. Much more than that and I might start turning mean. Well, my fifth year anniversary will be June 30.

How I sometimes get really mean, just mirrors that "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" speech/song from a few years back. You may have liked it or not, but there was one part that I always liked:

Live in New York city once, but leave before it makes you hard.

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Swap out "New York city" for "Toronto" and "Northern California" for... I don't know... maybe "Vancouver"?

When a tame guy like Hwan is cutting off Explorers, and someone like me who usually tries to be a "nice guy", flips off an H2 driver, then something is really wrong.

:: Stephen 2:36 PM [+] ::

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Well, I'm part of a select few who get to test-drive the new Gmail. The service is currently by "Invite Only", but a number of Blogger users were allowed into the Beta testing.

I didn't really have any intention of starting a Gmail account, but I figured it would be best to squat on theMediaman(at)gmail.com

Once I logged in, I found a helluva great interface. The most notable difference from other web-based email programs being the speed in which the pages load. Now, part of that may be the fact that there are relatively few users accessing the Gmail servers at any given time. However, a paired down interface certainly helps! Most web sites have been starting to leave behind even the 56k crowd in favour of bandwidth-intensive rich media only.

I remember when Alta Vista came out with Raging.com... no portal crap, just a search engine. I didn't want to know who's IPO broke records today or who won some basketball game in Atlanta, I just wanted to search.

That's the main reason I started using Google - the simple interface. I came for the quick-loading webpages, I stayed for the relevant results (you can quote me ,^_- ). The same strategy really works in the Webmail department. But don't misinterpret me by thinking Gmail's service is without bells & whistles.

One of my favourite features about Gmail is the message threading. For example: I send an email from Gmail to Andrew. He replies from outside Gmail. When I open and read his email, then my quoted text at the bottom of his email is hidden. With one click on "- Show quoted text -", the whole email expands to show the otherwise irrelevent information.

On top of that, the email that I sent to Andrew, is no less than one click away. If this game of email-tag goes back and forth several times, all of my sent and received emails are stacked one on top of another with easy, one-click access.

There's also a quick reply text field. I just punch in my response and send the email. Two steps. If I want something more complicated, I can click on another link, and another patch of hidden fields expands and I can forward, CC, change the Subject, whatever.

I've tested sending a large file to my Gmail account, and the bounced reply was that I couldn't send anything much over 10 MB in size. However, that still provides ample space to use Gmail as an alternative when transferring files from one location to another instead of FTPing or burning a CD.

Because Google is now directly competing with a significant Microsoft branch (Hotmail), suddenly all the bought-out politicians in the US are trying to put a stop to Gmail. One of the funniest arguements I saw was that Gmail would 'read your emails and provide appropriate ads to the content within'. Anyone who seriously thought that they hire dolts to read each and every email that comes through in order to customize the advertising, don't deserve to be laying down laws regarding technology.

While I don't want to cite any specific examples, I have noticed that Hotmail tailors whatever ads are currently showing to the specific text in your emails as well. Take a look the next time you're logged on... I think you'll see what I mean.

Frankly, I feel that Google's customized small column of ads on each page of my emails is far less obtrusive to my web surfing experience than Hotmail/MSN's extensive pop-up and pop-under collection... including a pop-up that I frequently get advertising MSN itself! Google has a strict policy against pop-ups, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.

The wierdest thing about Gmail is how many people want one! Naturally there's a need to squat on the best email addresses. But because of the nature of getting an account, it's a matter of supply & demand. Tell people they can't have something, and they'll want it!

Right now, you have to receive an invitation to get a Gmail account. There are a couple ways for that to happen, but the most common is for you to know someone who has a Gmail account. Every so often, that person will get an email from Gmail stating that they can invite up to three friends. What can you do with these invitations?... Well, Andrew's already claimed one (if I ever get the opportunity). Other options include swapping an invite for interesting stuffs, or selling on eBay. Neither of these methods really work very well anymore, since there are so many invites bouncing around that a Gmail invite can't even get a bid on eBay for 99 cents.

However, there have been some truly weird swaps. Does anyone really want to give up a valuable Invite to see some Trekkie act out ANY Star Trek:TNG ep?

:: Stephen 1:30 PM [+] ::

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Urg. Since starting chiropractic work on my neck, the pain has started to spread. There's no longer a constant ache, but when the pain's there, it makes itself known. It usually only happens after I miss a session (like I did on Monday), but I'm questioning how much good I'm doing for my body.

In last night's debate, Paul Martin was getting pounded time after time by all three opposing leaders. By the end of the English debate, he started tripping over his words. It's not looking good.

I have an extrodinary lack of faith that I have developed in wake of the mass long-term memory limit of six months. However, I find it inconceivable that Ontario has JUST kicked the Provincial Tories out of office by giving Dalton McGuinty a vast majority vote yet it looks like they will vote overwhelmingly for Conservative MPs. We've had nine years of Tory destruction in the province, and now they want to hand over the entire freakin' country.

And when will people shut up about the 'missing $150 million that went to Liberal supporters'? Six month's interest on the Ontario $5.6b deficit left by the Conservatives is over $150 million. Where's that money?

As much as I need to see Harper fail, I can't bring myself to vote for Martin. I've used my vote in the last Provincial and Federal elections to vote "against" the Greater Evil by voting for the Lesser.

I've been stressing to those who don't vote that it's an afront to everyone who fought and died for our freedom, to not take the time to cast your ballot. Additionally, more than half the world can't vote for their leaders at all. Imagine telling one of them that you didn't bother to vote because "you were too busy" or "were too exhausted to go out and vote". However, I've recently concluded that it would be similarly difficult to explain to someone who's fighting for the Right to Vote how I can cast a ballot for someone who I don't believe in.

Nope. My vote is going to the candidate I believe in. The platform I believe will make Canada better. And so far, the only one that has a realistic, long-term plan is the Green Party. This isn't an election where they plan to win. Like the last Provincial election, they hope to get the word out this year that they have a full platform... that they're not just a "One-Issue Party".

I don't know what will happen to this country if Brian Mulroney Stephen Harper gets his hands on it. All I can hope for is that he won't have a friend in the US for long.

:: Stephen 12:41 PM [+] ::

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The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

:: Stephen 10:56 AM [+] ::

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Mars may not be made of green cheese, but it does taste like salty french fries

:: Stephen 6:02 PM [+] ::

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Linux Enthusiast being asked about Microsoft -> "Evil, monopolistic tyrants"
Microsoft Enthusiast being asked about Macs -> "Candy-coated crap"
Mac Enthusiast being asked about Linux -> "Don't know about it, don't care"

That sums up 95% of the computer geeks that I've ever met.

:: Stephen 4:02 PM [+] ::

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Just finished watching The Matrix Reloaded on TMN. As I predicted, the movie is a lot better once my expectations have died down from "this will be the greatest sequel EVER!"

One of my biggest peeves last year was people who would say The Matrix 2 & 3 sucked while heralding the brilliance of Terminator 3. T3 was the worst movie I saw last year*. Even after repeated watchings, it still holds down my no-longer lofty expectations for the film. It sucked. I hated all the characters, and in no small part due to the actors' portrayal.

*It should be noted that I didn't see 2003's LXG until 2004.

Of course the mythology of the first Matrix was only there in token amounts for the second, but part of what made The Matrix so sweet was the innovation of the fight scenes. It's easy to claim "aww... anyone can see the computer animation in the Neo vs. Smiths fight", until you realize that the entire scene was bluescreened, digitally animated and composited... and far better than any one scene in 2002's Star Wars: Episode II.

Speaking of Lucasian "Give Me Technological Advancement Or Give Me Death", they're re-releasing a digitally enhanced version of THX 1138 with a 5.1 Surround Sound audio track, added scenes and a FUCKING CG-BACKGROUND!

I love the man, but seriously. Like Kevin Costner, Lucas died too late. The greatest the man would ever be remembered throughout history, is if he died tragically right after announcing that he would re-make the first three episodes....

...wait... that announcement came after he "fixed" Episodes 4-6...

...I don't know when the best time would have been for him to die, but I really don't think Lucas has the right to "fix" his own movies.

...how did I get here from "The Matrix Reloaded"? Sometimes these blogs are nothing but rants.

Sorry, but I hope I at least made a valid point in here, somewhere.

:: Stephen 11:15 PM [+] ::

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