Wow – 5 years ago I started this little blog. Such a very different life I live now – 2.75 children, wonderful dog, beloved wife (well, she was there at the start of things too). A very different, and very full life.
Looking at the use of the site I see that I’m very popular with Google and Bing – their spiders come by quite frequently causing me to erect robot-patrolled fences around certain areas to stop them from chewing up my bandwidth. But real live people just aren’t discovering my wit, wisdom, and general humour.
I’ve asked myself recently why I blog, why I tweet – it takes time and I’m not sure I want to continue spending time on it. I came up with a few good answers (honestly!). However all the reasons could be achieved with less time invested. I don’t think anyone actually reads these posts – so essentially I’m posting to myself. Which makes this post somewhat … weird.
I’m leaving off blogging and communicating via static pages in general. I’ve avoided FaceBook and MySpace, Geocities and all that ilk. I think the Internet has its purpose, but I do not think it is OK to have its main purpose to be self reflection and time sinking.
So I plan to re-examine the use of this domain. I look back at 5 years of posts and smile as it is a good chronicle of some parts of my life. This will be my 364th post here – there has to be some value in there somewhere, right? But I’m ending things with you today – we may revisit our relationship soon enough, but first I need to make things officially over.
So goodbye, farewell, enjoy your freedom. I plan to enjoy mine.
I received a Continuing Studies catalogue from SFU the other day. I glanced through it and was dumbstruck by an advertisement on page 35.
SFU Advertisement
Seriously? Did anyone even look at the picture before putting it in the ad? Are they trying to ensure that no women join their programs? Why would they choose a picture of a women who looks uncertain, or slightly confused? Why put two men laughing, looking in her direction? Two Caucasian men – one of who (to me at least) seems to be laughing at someone else’s expense? They were even so good at choosing images that it looks like the man in the white shirt’s hand is the hand in front of the lady presenting. It’s almost as though someone actually put some thought and effort into this train wreck.
Could anyone look at this image combination and say “Hey – good stuff! SFU students have fun and have interactive classes.” Obviously someone at SFU did …
I’ve emailed the Continuing Studies program and the alumni association – as an alumni myself, I find this unacceptable.
I recently attended a brief workshop on environmental issues and systems thinking. There I was introduced to two labels that really resonated for me: labels for problems we’re facing in this world. Things I know are wrong, but haven’t been able to put into words easily. These ideas captured some of those scattered thoughts.
Tragedy of the Commons
Shifting the Burden
I know what a Launch Party is. This video advertisement for Windows 7 makes it all sound so creepy though. And who are the writers of this stuff? And the poor actors – they’re so rife with stereotypes that are trying not to be stereotypes that I can’t imagine how many takes it took to get some of those lines out.
The whole thing feels so terribly manufactured – could anyone possibly think it is a good ad? Which makes me wonder who they’re targetting for this. Which then makes me wonder if this is simply a viral marketing effort, a more sureptitious means of getting the word out than a simple ad.
Whatever the case, I won’t be holding or attending a Windows 7 Release Party. Sorry.
The Hacker gets a $33,000.00 fine and the employee who opened an attachment from a yahoo account on her perdiatric cardiac surgery department’s computer gets what? And seriously, pesonal medical data is worth what nowadays?
Pretty much every detail of this story shocks me.
Depeche Mode’s latest album Sounds of the Universe has me in its grips. I haven’t been overly fond of many of their albums since Violator (like many of their fans I suspect) but I liked Dave Gahan’s solo album Paper Monster and some of their stuff. So I gave this album a try, ignoring the tepid reviews.
Man is it a return to form! Love the vocal performances, love the retro sounds, love the lyrics (for the most part). In many ways this surpasses Violator (you can’t beat an album a gloomy high school student loved as he was coming of age, so I just don’t try anymore).
The first 4 tracks are powerful, tight, and totally enjoyable. If you liked Violator you should listen to this album – it is fabulous.
Lead single is “Wrong” – listen to Gahan getting behind the lyrics. The video is disturbing on its own, but DM has always been an interesting band to watch videos from. If you want to listen but don’t like that video, here’s the song set to some in-studio footage.
Second favorite song is “Fragile Tension”, you can see Dave singing a bit of it in this web clip. It totally harkens back to earlier DM, and combines a spine-tingling Gahan voice harmony with rising sequencers. Just awesome on headphones.
Only 1 dud in the bunch, but then I’ve never been a huge fan of the sappy side of DM. Second to last song goes too far down Gore’s path of troubadour style and I’m not lovin’ in yet. I might be alone in that though.
Anyhow, it’s my current obsession. I’ve owned it for weeks now and it is all I’m playing – I haven’t been this engrossed in an album for a long, long time.
Canadians have until Sept 13 to voice their opinion on Copyright Reform. If you’re not sure what to say, check out this wizard that provides a form letter – simply put your info down and they handle the emails and letters for you. You can even edit the form letter – a personal touch always warms the cockles of those politicians, right?
The issues at stake are quite important – a vital part of the Canadian legislation is being revamped to ressemble the US’s take on copyright. You know, the one that actually changed it laws so Disney’s material wouldn’t become public domain (and thus free for anyone to use). The one where it is illegal to circumvent any technoligical barrier in a product? You know those DVDs that just never seem to play – you can peer suspiciously at its “technological barrier” if you want, feel free.
The US’s state of copyright is a mess – let’s just do something different, shall we? Let’s ask why we have copyrights and then make the laws work towards those goals, rather than the goals of the mega corporations with the deep pockets (admittedly less deep now that digital music/movie sales are becoming mainstream).
I’m very wary of technology in Marley’s toys – I think there is plenty of time for learning how to use technology. Later. First come some basic person-type things like self-esteem, social interaction, and compassion. Anyhow who argues that kids today need technology to stay with the curve aren’t grasping that kids adopt technology much faster than their parents did when learning it. I am certain marley’s going to be able to text faster than I can type at some point in the future, but why rush there? Patience, as always, is the right way to go.
Here’s an article discussing the issue. Technology companies are marketing to 3 year olds (or more accurately their weak-willed paranoid parents) – the cigarette companies paved the way and pointed out that brand loyalty starts early. Why would Leap Frog be any different than Marlboro, for example? They’re not sleeping on those mounds of money because they feel good about your child’s exposure to electronic and articfial intelligence. There’s big money in toddlers today, don’t kid yourself (pun intended).
