Hal
The lights on my cable modem blink quite randomly even when the computer is off. Another weird/stupid thing is the captions under each light: power, PC-link, cable, activity, and EMAIL. It blinks when I have email? Wha? Maybe I'm too technologically advanced to understand this concept.

A new low
I actually got excited about Sars-stock. MuchMoreMusic (I refuse to link to them) promised to air the concert live on television. I was very excited, as was the rest of the country, to see the Rolling Stones perform live on TV (even though I'm not a Rolling Stones fan). But, gasp, MuchMoreMusic, being the lying scum that they are, didn't show the fucking thing. Instead they milked ratings out of the entire country, treating us all like money-rich cattle, while they filled 11 hours with nonsense interviews and other non-live-Stones footage. I guarantee MuchMoreMusic got the highest ratings in their station's history. Millions of people watched all fucking day to see the fucking Rolling Stones and got fucking interviews and fucking music videos and fucking "VJ's" standing in the fucking crowd talking to fucking screaming fucking fans. How much "live Rolling Stones" did we get to see? None! That's fucking right: none!

I hereby announce my lifelong boycott of MuchMoreMusic (not that I ever really watch the fucking channel anyway). My mom is planning to phone Cogeco tomorrow and ask them to remove the station from our package. She says she's willing to pay the same price for the package, but will cancel her entire service if they don't remove the channel. I urge anyone reading this who gets MuchMoreMusic to call their local cable distributor and ask the channel to be discontinued. If we, the people, don't do something to stop these lying fuckbags from profiting off of shit like this, it'll never stop, and will only get worse.

Fuck, I can't believe they ruined such a monumental moment in music history like this.

Edit: What others are saying about the MMMusic Sars-stock coverage:

I am so totally disappointed. I'm a stay at home mom and couldn't make it to the concert today. When I heard MMMusic would be simulcasting the concert I was thrilled. I thought it was great that my kids could experience such a tremendous event without the dangers of being there. I remember as a young teenager watching Live Aid and feeling as if I was witnessing something historic. Unfortunately if the first hour of your coverage is any indication all of us Moms at home watching have been totally let down. In the first hour you have shown only 30 seconds of actual live concert footage of Sam Roberts. The first half of the concert is particularly important as it's an opportunity for Canadian acts to reach a larger audience. Instead of supporting the theme of the day and the spirit on which this event is based you have chosen to show ancient videos. You should be ashamed of yourselves. If you had no intention of showing the concert itself at least be honest with your viewers about what to expect. Shame on you MMM!!!

i'm just thanking much music for misleading the the viewers, watching the sars event into thinking we would actually be seeing the show. this shows a lot of class, way to go.

Much more crap.... this is the last time i watch anything on this stupid channel...

Who is the dimwit in charge of programming?
This is an absolute disgrace.
It is hard to fathom how your channel could waste an opportunity like this. How difficult would it be to show the concert? Instead breathtakingly bad interviews, tired videos, insipid hosts. At least the commercials break up the banality. A truly amazing demonstration of incompetence.

MMM should be ashamed for advertising 'live coverage' of the concert. What a pile of BS. I am SO disgusted. All I have seen so far (flipping back and forth...I am NOT tuning in to watch a bunch of videos) is two performers, lots of commercials. FALSE ADVERTISING. The mayor of our city was talking about arranging a simulcast in the football arena. This was not done because MMM was having live coverage...start to finish. What a load of bovine scat. MMM-you are pissing a lot of people off. CHANGE NOW, please. Give us what was adverstised CROSS-CANADA...

what,no live coverage?i had to cancel going to the concert due to a broken toe but was relieved to hear it would be televised.yaaaaa right! how dare you(MMM)give false hope to your viewers.i as a loyal viewer will never watch your station ever again you should have let your viewers known ahead of time it would not be totally live,i say it was false advertising.you should be ashamed of yourselves!!!!

I too joined this thread just to tell you how much your coverage of this event sucks!! I am a 61 year old grandmother, who because of impending knee surgery was unable to attend - I have been sitting at home all afternoon hoping to see my nephew who is the drummer of the Tea Party playing at the most exciting event of his life and I get "dick squat". Who in the hell is in charge of putting the programming for this event together? All we've seen so far is a rehash of a bunch of old videos and so little live coverage, it's pathetic! My subscription will be cancelled tomorrow - you really blew it this time!

I think it is disgusting and appaulling that bands have set aside their differences, and revenue to make this event happen for TO and Canadians. It appears the only group of whack-offs that are capitalizing from this event is Much Music. Way to go idiots' you have just joined the ranks of CNN.... Shame on you Moses you A-hole

You Rot MMM!!!! If you wanted to be remembered for your coverage of this historic event..don't worry you will be. You'll be notoriously remembered for the worst possible coverage of an event in the history of television!!
This event marks your worst public relations nightmare and if your station's ratings don't plummet into oblivion for this colossal screw up it won't be for a lack of trying. You should be sued for false advertising and grossly misleading the Canadian public. "Live Coverage"? Videos, previously recorded interviews and an endless berrage of commercials and if we're really lucky maybe a whole 30 seconds of live performance!!! Shame on you MMM!!! What kind of moron thinks that we're remotely interested in how some girls peticure stays clean while walking through the dust?!! Your at a historic rock concert and this is the best question you people can come up with??? Quit now! You're in the wrong line of work!!! I can't wait for CBC's coverage to begin...I'm only disappointed that it will come too late to see the other great performances of the day.
I hope you get raked over the coals in tomorrows papers and tv news because you deserve it

A lot of people are complaining about the worthless coverage today, hoping someone at MuchMusic will get fired, but you have got to know this was planned. They would certainly have shown the whole thing uncut (except for commercials), had they bought the rights to. They're only showing the highlights because it's cheaper to get those rights. Showing you the show is not important to them. Showing you the commercials is the only thing that matters at any commercial television station, and if you want to get back at them, the only way you can is to not buy the products you saw advertised. Get mad all you want, write your nasty letters, but it doesn't make a bit of difference, if you go out and buy anything you saw advertised.

Tylenol
Swiss Chalet
The Gap
Molson
Colgate
Oil Of Olay
Tide
Listerine
Pampers
Cascade
Telus
Ivory
Pert
Volkswagen
Always
Nicorette
Fructis
Wal-Mart
Dairy Queen

Hey is anyone else sick of being teased by the idiot hosts on MMM who keep telling us all of the great stuff that is happening that we're not seeing? I don't care if the Stones played Karina Huber's favorite songs because I'm not seeing them, am I? I feel like I'm being gloated at. It's freaking annoying.

I've been outraged all day at this coverage. It makes me absolutely sick.

I got all these from the MuchMoreMusic message board (which I refuse to link to). There's a good 6 pages of complaints so far, and rising steadily.

Edit: Oh, and check out this poll.

Is that considered racism?
I just went out to Mike's Mart to buy a bottle of Brisk* iced tea. And on the way back, I shit you not, someone threw a lit firecracker at me, before yelling "you Arabic bastard!" I was uninjured, but suffice it to say, I spilled my drink. So what did I do? What could I do? I kept walking on my merry way, not even acknoledging the redneck as he drunkily laughed. What the fuck is wrong with this town? This town is a disease. Oh, and by the way, I'm not Arabic.

*Why does Brisk iced tea make that "phhht" noise when opened? It's not carbonated; it's iced tea! Must be that "bold new taste" escaping.

Meeting people is easy
How do people meet other people? I'm seriously asking. If you are reading this and you know the answer, for heaven's sake tell me! Most people seem to meet other people, I know this because otherwise there wouldn't be circa 6,000,000,000 people on this planet; so why is it, in actuality, impossible? I can imagine being hit by lightning twice in the same day, on a day that a meteor hits my house, driving it three miles into the ground while I miraculously survive only to look up at a blue moon before I can imagine meeting someone. Why am I even writing this? No one will even comment on it; or if they do, the answer will miraculously not apply to me because nothing applies to me and human-beings concordantly.

I'm so fucking lonely. Sexual relations is the most natural primal urge we have, and I can't ever quench it. This is much worse than the feeling you get quitting smoking, and I have no option of "starting again", nor will the feeling ever go away. I'm trapped in a prison; a fetid, sexless prison.

But no, it isn't even sex I want. I can't really explain why, but it's love or companionship I want. And for some reason it has to be with a member of the opposite sex. I just want to be with a fucking woman. Why is it so incredibly impossible? How do people do it? Should I just go out onto the street, asking out every woman I see? Should I go to a "singles bar"? Should I jump into a volcano, hoping that a gust of wind will wisk me away from my fiery doom and onto a tropical island where miraculously the same thing happened to a woman who has the exact same disposition as I? All these things seem equally probable to me, and obviously it's not in my capacity to do them.

I wish I could make what must be a hilarious rant to you longer, but I don't feel like typing anymore.

And no, I'm not sorry about using the word "miraculously" three four times in one post.

Beethoven binge
After going months without really listening to any music, I rediscovered my love of Beethoven today. "Genius" is an understatement for this guy. I can't begin to imagine being able to write music 1/1,000,000th as good as him.

I also listened to some Mozeba CDs today. I've always been disappointed with our recordings so have generally refrained from listening to them much. But today, for some reason, it seemed like I was hearing it from another perspective, an objective view. I found that it was pretty damn good. Even Mind was rather enjoyable.

Wow, I sure am becoming obsessed with music lately, eh? For 5 months I barely ever mentioned music in this weblog, and now suddenly it's all I can talk about. Maybe it means I'm getting even more comfortable with writing in this thing.

Pride
I'm by no means "patriotic". I don't like to define myself by what nation I live in, usually. But inexplicably, I find myself being proud of my country. An entry in Foldedspace.org got me thinking about things:

Much of my recent consternation is due to the current Presidential administration, of which I disapprove strongly. As I've said, I generally do not concern myself with national politics; I'm of the opinion that one President is the same as any other. Unfortunately, the current President is of an entirely different ilk. He stands against everything I believe; he seems a truly evil person. He has whipped the nation into a misguided nationalistic (not patriotic) bloodlust, and, while the people rage, he has quietly begun to whittle basic freedoms, to destroy essential programs, to steer the country toward bankruptcy. (But then most of you like him, so what do I know?)

Now, the Canadian government seems the complete opposite of this. American diplomacy seems to be "you have 48 hours to comply or we'll terminate you". You all know what I'm talking about; but how many people know at all what Canadian diplomacy entails? How do you think we have survived for 136 years with next-to-know military? Why is it that Jean Chretien has been called, arguably, the most powerful man (politically) in the world?

Canada helps people. And they don't seem to care about advertising this fact. It almost seems as if they do it just because it's the right thing to do. "What?" you must be screaming, "that's impossible." Yes, well, it is a stretch. The reason Canada does this is because it's a damn good way to gain favour with just about every nation in the world. Who's gonna bomb Canada? Exactly.

Canada sends missionaries to many countries. Not military personnel, and with no religious bias. These people aren't trying to convert people or spread propoganda. They're just helping people. And you know what? Countries appreciate things like this, believe it or not. They appreciate it even more than being constantly threatened with military armageddon.

This is just one of many things that make me proud of Canada. And yes, there are many things that make me ashamed of Canada (like the treatment of the Japanese during the 40's, and the various famed "hockey riots").

Anyway, that's my thoughts. Politics in general fail to excite me much anymore, and I do feel it's wrong to "be proud of" or indentify yourself by your nation. But I can't help but be proud when I unearth facts like these about "my" country.

Edit: Differences between the USA and Canada also include:

-Canadians say "eh?" whereas Americans say "huh?".
-Canadians say "chocolate bar" whereas Americans say "candy bar".
-Canadians say "pop" whereas Americans say "soda".
-Canadians beat the soviets in '72.

Similarities between the USA and Canada include:

-Neither of our national leaders can speak English very well.

What some are saying on the SWK petition
Dalsatch says:

c'mon give the kid a shot, he couldnt suck the movie up more than it will without him.

Brendan Brustman says:

Im a star wars fan,and i can relate!!! Help this kid get back on his feet,and to feel that his being a fan of star wars is NOTHING to be ashamed of!!!

Katarina Rondav says:

Dear Mr. Lucas, you have the money, the influence, the resources, you have EVERYTHING you can dream of... Please, consider this request and help this kid's dreams become true by treating him to what he deserves. You would become our hero if you would only hear us, your fans, and go forward with this. You know you can do this, and by acknowledging that you can help a distressed teenager by reaching out to him, you would reach an ultimate level in gaining the uttermost respect of your fans and of your audience. WILL SOMEONE FINALLY HEAR US OUT THERE IN HOLLYWOOD AND TALK TO GEORGE LUCAS?????

Paul Garnier says:

That was a great video! It was good because he had the guts to film what we do not!

All good points, I'll admit. I'm relatively torn between the two sides. I think no movie producer should ever cast someone just because 27,000 or so people signed a petition; but I'd be quite impressed with the power of the Internet if it so happened. Imagine, the power of the Internet ruining this kid's life and then fixing it again! It's the feel-good story of the summer!

Note: By the way, some of the "remixes" found on Jedimaster.net are true comic genius.

Star Wars Kid petition
All the nerds signing this petition wish that their stories of school-time woe could get them parts on Star Wars. They're living vicariously through the Star Wars Kid.

Come on, I was ridiculed, beat up, the whole shabang, in school. Where's the petition getting me on Star Wars? I'd also like to state that if the Star Wars people actually listen and get him a part, that is the day Star Wars died. Sorry, but good movie producers don't give people roles just because they were made fun of in school.

Note: I have nothing against "nerds". Indeed, I am one myself. But I'm a nerd who appreciates artistic responsibility. That does not include getting people roles in movies for stupid political reasons. You're infinitely naive if you sign that petition. In case you were wondering, the producers of Star Wars don't have to give that petition a second glance if they don't want to. Petitions are worthless. Give it up.

Performing = blogging?
The show went pretty good. The hall was too big though which made for annoying reverb.

The interesting thing, though, is that I haven't had an urge to write a weblog entry since the performance. As you faithful readers well know, my weekends are usually jam-packed with new posts, but this weekend is quite empty (only 3 posts so far). Whatever motivates me to write must be similar to what motivates me to play music. That's the only answer I can come up with.

I guess it makes sense; expressing emotions and stuff. Oh well, there'll be more posts coming today probably, if I feel like it.

The redemption of the Milford Bay Community Centre
Today Mozeba are going to perform at the Milford Bay Community Centre (the show in which I planned to smash my guitar). I have a very good feeling about this show, for reasons I can't explain. It'll be the first show we play with the inclusion of my new guitar, so there's a better-than-usual (for us) chance of being mixed properly.

The Milford Bay community centre was the site of one of our worst shows ever. It was also one of the few shows we ever actually got paid for. Is this our chance for revenge? Let's hope so.

The Dowingba revolution (self indulgent praise v2)
I am the 6th search result on Yahoo for amp settings for poor twisted me metallica.

My life is so boring that this is incredibly exciting to me.

Also, according to my referrer logs, there is word-of-mouth going around about this weblog; one of the referrals was a direct link to someone's email inbox (password protected, obviously).

I have a habit of over-exaggerating stupid little things like this to make them sound monumental.

The current Blogger drama: conclusion
Okay, the problem was that Blogger arbitrarily deleted my main template, so obviously it was having some transfer errors. Unfortunately I never foresaw such a problem so I had no backup of my template. So I was pretty much fucked, right? No. Here's how I fixed it:

I loaded this weblog in another tab (it looked the same as before because it wasn't being published since the template disappearance). I "viewed source", copied and pasted the entire HTML code of the page into the template window of Blogger. Then I put my nose to the grindstone and converted it from raw HTML into a useable template again.

And now I have, and will always have, a backup copy.

Note: My archive template is fucked because the only way I could get Blogger to notice me changing my template was to go to "choose template" and load one of their premade ones. Then saved and published. Then deleted the new Blogger template and copied/pasted my own (from my backup copy) into the window. And viola, I tricked Blogger once again. But little did I know, that "chosen" template also changed the archive template, which was otherwise fine, so I'll have to redo it from scratch. Anyway, that will happen later. I need to get away from this screen.

Edit: Archive is fixed. Archive is backed up. Let's just pretend the whole thing never happened, shall we?

Sigh
Still down.

Transfer error
For many, many hours now, Blogger has been unable to publish my weblog. Not much more to say on the subject. There'll be two or three posts that will suddenly appear (including this one) and you might be baffled as to the timestamp on it. Don't be.

Quote of the week

Why do people have to die? To make life important.

-from Six Feet Under.

Useless debate
This infinitely ongoing debate about whether or not weblogs count as "real journalism" is starting to get to me. Why compare weblogs to "real journalism"? It offends me that blogs apparently only gain appeal if they appear similar to syndicated news broadcasts. I can't stand "real" news companies anymore. All my news comes from blogs now. Sure, often the original source of the news is the syndicated companies, but at least weblog writers don't (usually) claim to be unbiased; a claim that syndicated news broadcasters feebly make.

I'm glad weblogs are "not as good" as TV.

Influence confluence
The guy to whom I gave my guitar has some kind of degree in musical composition. He has agreed to teach me and Jackson some of what he knows on the subject. And in return, we are going to teach him some of our fingerstyle guitar techniques (now that he has a classical guitar).

It's certainly good to absorb as much knowledge as possible, as long as you're ready for that knowledge. The songs Jackson and I write certainly don't coincide with what one would learn in a composition course. But that's not a bad thing, and neither of us thinks it is. But we both are interested in learning some compositional theory. This could be dangerous. The songs we write are a fragile balance of styles. It seems to me that this equilibrium could easily break.

This is the nature of influence. When knowledge becomes intuitive, there's just no way around being influenced by it. Even if you make a conscious decision to disregard the knowledge, you are still being influenced by it; sort of like "reverse psychology". I see no way around this, other than complete and utter control of your mind. An ability I certainly don't have.

I'm still going to learn about composition though. Hopefully it will either influence me to the good (complimenting my style rather than changing it); or it will have the same effect that learning about Catholicism and Mormonism has had on me (having a positive intellectual effect, but being laughable as a doctrine).

Well, how was that for an unorganized, badly composed weblog entry?

The art of the run-on sentence
Lance Arthur might just be the best writer on the Internet today. I never read his old blog until he discontinued it, but managed to fall in love with what little writing I could find left on the site. When I discovered he had started a new blog, well, I was very happy. This man has perfected the art of the run-on sentence:

...really, what is wrong with me? he's just a guy, right? just a handsome, fit, beautiful, perfect, hopefully gay guy and what's the worst that could happen? say I ask him and then he says, "You know, I'd rather walk along an asphalt street and suddenly trip and develop a blood blister that swells to cover my whole foot and then becomes infected and turns into this kind of balloon filled with pus that makes me lame and wander around the city leaking blood and pus and feeling so much pain, the sharp, horrific, soul-killing pain like being eaten alive by weasels or marmosets or some other rodentia or mammel because I'm honestly not sure what a marmoset is, I'm just using it for illustrative purposes, anyway, pain, so much pain that I am blinded by it and stumble in front of an on-coming MUNI train that hits me with such force that I am projected into the bay even though, mind you, there is no MUNI line that comes close enough to the bay that this could ever actually happen except maybe the N-Judah when it's going around the Embarcadero and even then it's not actually facing the bay so the angle would have to be this weird, like, ungodly 'how the hell did that happen' sort of thing and I would have to be hit so hard that it would be cartoonish and then I was going to add a bit about sharks eating my flesh and I flounder alive with my pus-filled foot and the blood scent is attracting them but you and I both know there are no sharks in the bay but anyway that's the scenario I picture being more preferable than simply sitting across from you at some anonymous coffee place and not, of course, Starbucks, and sharing a beverage and conversation." now that might be bad.

I mean, come on, that is gold. I wish I could write like Lance Arthur.

Note: I've wanted to mention Mr. Arthur in a post for a while now, and also wanted to flaunt my new blockquote script, so I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Testing blockquote
Just testing my brand spankin' new blockquote scripting.

This is where the quote would likely go. What I would say in it, nobody could say, unless they could tell the future, in which case, I'd pay him lots of money to tell me the winners of major sporting events so I could later bet on said events and win lots and lots of money.

And that is how it goes.

Tao of Dowingba semi-anniversary
I've been sitting at the computer for a while now just trying to think of something to post. It's not a lack of ideas, not by a long shot. It's too many ideas. I need to organize my thoughts.

As usual, I did some compulsive editing to this page while I brooded over an entry subject. It took me about an hour, but I got it to put each day's posts in a separate table. It would have been easy except, since I edit the HTML directly in my browser, I can't format it correctly, and it gets incredibly confusing to look at. Just "view source" to see what horrible HTML I've been writing.

I've been blogging for almost 6 months now, and I've gotten quite comfortable with doing it (see this post for more details); indeed, it has become quite an addiction. I've also gotten used to the idea of posting pretty much anything that interests me in my day-to-day life, without discrimination, which results in me often posting several entries a day. But lately I've been having a weird sensation. The fact is, everything worth talking about in my life is published in this journal, so when I actually talk to people, I always feel like I'm repeating myself, everything seems contrived. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, if I post something after I talk about it with people, I feel repeated and contrived while writing it in my weblog. I'm sure there's no solution to this problem but it's not like it affects my life much anyway. It's just an interesting side effect to weblogging.

Another strange phenomenon: I can't bring myself to say "blog" or "blogging" in "real life". I have trouble even saying "weblog". It just sounds so, well, geeky. These words were clearly created for, and only for, text based purposes.

I had some other thoughts about the nature of influence and how it infects your mind like a virus, but those thoughts need some in-brain editing before I post them. Probably later tonight it'll be up there. Sheesh, and I'm complaining about feeling contrived.

Judging by its cover
Currently reading: Till the End of Time by Allen Appel.

Alex seems rather normal. He jogs, teaches history, and cohabits with the thoroughly modern New York Times reporter Molly Glenn. But Alex isn't quite normal. He has a genetic predisposition to lose his place on the time line. His problem with the space-time continuum has taken him to revolutionary Russia and Custer's Last Stand. Now in Till the End of Time, he finds himself at the outer edge of American innocence--the eve of Hiroshima--and he's faced with the biggest dilemma of modern times. Given the opportunity to prevent the bombing of Japan, should he?

Alex's quest brings him in contact with some extraordinary real people: Einstein, young Jack Kennedy, Betty Grable, Wild Bill Donovan, and FDR. Back in the future, Molly researches an explosive story on Japanese biochemical warfare, unaware that the dusty clues she tracks are Alex's firsthand experiences. As past and present merge, they create a tightening knot of passion and violence that threatens to destroy Alex and Molly's life together.

Note: I'm also reading The Book of Mormon and Bhagavad Ghita (spelling?) Oh, and I'm trying to get started on reading the Oxford Dictionary again, but finding it a slow start.

Slaughter
Something bad just happened outside my house, in the wooded ravine. I went out front to have a smoke, and almost instantly, from behind the house, horrible high pitched screeching noises could be heard. From more than one source. Every once in a while a low grunt, or sigh could be heard. I got up the courage to walk closer to the sound, and from the side of the house I could see part of the ravine. I saw trees swinging violently. The screeching stopped. The trees stopped. It was over?

The screeching began again. "Holy fuck, what's going on?" I thought to myself. It's night time so I couldn't see very well. The screeching abruptly stopped again and I heard a couple more grunts. Low grunts. Couldn't be a cat, or a racoon. Had to be something bigger. I put out my cigarette and desperately ran toward the front door, thinking it must be a bear who somehow managed to stumble his/her way through the town into this little wooded oasis, and is embarking on a savage slaughter of small woodland creatures. Upon entering the house, I turned on the back deck light, in hopes I could see anything through the windows. Nothing. I juggled with the idea of going out onto the deck to get a better look. No fucking way.

The scariest part is that the low grunts sounded almost...

...human.

No, for the love of God no
I am the ninth result on Google for -teen -cock fucking monsters. Why, oh why? I am being slandered by Google.

Edit: Oh, because of this post. I need to stop looking at my search engine referral logs. But still: the ninth result? Come on!

Yet another inner-struggle
For over one and a half years, off and on, I've greatly desired to destroy my old "Tradition" guitar. Many times I've actually planned on smashing it at a show. But the one thing that kept me from doing it was the simple fact that I had no other classical guitar to fall back on. Now I have one. I had been planning to smash the Tradition at the upcoming Mozeba performance on Saturday. That, in itself, would be a great inner struggle. The Tradition harbours an immense amount of sentimental value to me. I couldn't even predict what my emotional outpour would be upon its destruction. But earlier this week I had resigned to do it. Indeed, I was even hyped to do it. I was looking forward to it.

But no, I'm not going to destroy the guitar. It is more than the sum of its parts. It's not just a chunk of wood attached to another chunk of wood attached to another chunk. It can change someone's life. It changed my life.

No, I realise I don't need the guitar anymore. There is no reason for me to keep it, and indeed, I shouldn't keep it. So I'm not going to keep it. I'm giving it away to a friend of mine at work tonight who has shown interest in learning to play classical guitar. Maybe it will change his life; or at the very least, broaden his musical horizons. Maybe he will take my example and give it away to someone else when he's finished with it. Perhaps the Tradition still has a use in this world. Who am I to make sure it doesn't?

More Blogrolling bullshit
I discovered the reason my blog wasn't working on IE. It was the damn Blogroll. I tried to be nice and link to a few people, just to show I wasn't totally selfish. You know, maybe I could pass a few visitors on to some other deserving weblogs. But, per usual, I got punished for my good deed. I don't know why the Blogroll was fucking this site on IE. I've seen other Blogger sites with Blogrolls, are they getting no IE traffic? That is so perverse it just can't be true. This also explains why my average daily visitors went from a whopping 8 down to a pitiful 2.

So anyway, I got rid of the damn thing. Site is back to normal. Now I get to start at square one again and win back all my loyal subjects.

Lenny Breau eat your heart out
I'm not a very modest person, so I don't mind telling you I'm pretty damn good at guitar. What always puzzled me though is that, while other guitar greats I've heard of like Lenny Breau and Jimi Hendrix seemed to start at a very young age (well, I'm not sure when Hendrix started playing) and they were apparently obsessed with guitar, playing 16 hours a day and other such nonesense, I didn't start until I was 12 years old, and I, for the most part, rarely practice, and yet I'm clearly pretty good at it. I always thought to myself, "man, if only I was as devoted as Lenny." Well all that has changed now.

Today all I did was play guitar. Even more than 16 hours, try 20 hours (although I didn't count.) I woke up, grabbed the guitar, and played in bed. I went downstairs and played while watching TV (I distinctly remember playing along to a Star Wars-like march during a comedy routine on The Comedy Network at one point.) When I had to go out to buy cigarettes, I considered bringing the guitar along, but thought better of it when I noticed it was raining out, not to mention that playing a classical guitar while walking is rather ludicrous. But nonetheless, I raced home and played it some more! I absolutely love this guitar. I read the "owner's manual" and found out it is handmade, even though it doesn't say so on the sound-hole sticker. All Takamine guitars are handmade apparently. That's awesome. I love how the wood has imperfections in it too. My own personal "echo effect"* sounds incredible on it, too. I wrote a great intro to a song using the "echo" to full potential.

It's not a perfect guitar though. The frets are higher off the fretboard then I'm used to, so the low (wound) strings make a scraping sound when I do vibrato. This isn't a huge problem considering I'll be using it through amplifiers and stuff alot, and also I don't generally do alot of vibrato on the low strings. (It is an absolute rule for me to do vibrato on the high strings though. It's something I learned you should always do years ago and it's burned itself into my mind.) I had a guitar once (that I only kept for a week or so) that had this scraping problem even on the high strings. I couldn't possibly keep it. Another problem is that sometimes when you hit alot of strings too hard at the same time, there's a little ringy sound coming from the bridge. I strongly suspect this problem to be the ends of the strings rubbing against something, although I've been too lazy and the problem too insevere to actually fix it.

All in all, it's a great instrument.

*The "echo effect" is a weird technique that was a mystery to me for years. I remember this from the first song I ever wrote, it was just there. A weird "echo" would occur on certain notes I'd hit, only when I'd hit them with a certain "passion". People (myself included) could only explain it by saying I had a "special touch". It wasn't until a year or so ago that I actually found out what the hell was going on. It turns out that, when the guitar is perfectly in tune, if I hit such notes that have particularly prominent harmonic brothers (like E, A, D, G, B), the resonating of the note would somehow trigger its harmonic compatriots on other strings. After deducting this, I began to write some crazy echo stuff with my new-found powers. Anyway, so that's the "echo effect". Now everyone reading this will know my secret and realise I'm not a magician when they hear it for themselves.

Quote of the week
Somebody once asked, "Could you spare some change for gas
I need to get myself away from this place"
I said, "Yep, what a concept, I could use a little fuel myself
And we could all use a little change"

-"All Star" by Smashmouth.

Intelligent life
-BLAKE7
Community Supporter
Moderator
Posts: 158
(6/9/02 9:21:33 am):
God Damn you Arabs!
You filthy animals have made such a mess out of world politics, I can't wait to crucify all of you. Women, children, you all have no hope! You better hope that the Israelis and Indians get to you before I do!
You fucking monsters; we still can't find all the body parts from the people you killed on 9/11. My Grandchildren will hunt you down!
I taught my younger son how to shoot a .357 magnum yesterday; just point it at an Arab, pull the trigger and "Kablamo".
We're not fooled anymore by you lying cocksuckers! You lie so much about peace when all you want is your filthy war. Islam can go to hell and I'll make sure that it happens!
Hey, I hope that I get to pull the switch on Moussaoui!
Enjoy your Arabian "Accidents"! Ride some more Egyptian trains, Iranian planes or Afghani buses! Filthy pig f-ckers!
Now you pissed me off! Filthy Islamic Pig shit! All you people suck and thank G-d the Jews fight you!
Blake

-From a no longer existent Blogspot blog:
Arabs. Just Arabs. There's no real distinction between them. They all mostly hate America and they all smell like ass. Horrible, horrible ass. The worst are the Palestinians. The celebrations in the street of a Palestinian town just show their complete disregard for human life. The images of little kids and adult men waving Palestinian flags and passing out candy just makes me want to vomit.
Instead, I cursed at the television screen.
These people are just animals. I'm sorry... no, I'm not sorry. They're animals, and they just don't seem to posess any kind of redeeming qualities.

-arab_teacher - 01/15/02 03:39AM:
my dear brothers & sisters & smelly pet arabs.. Iraq is next, & then its on to smellia, I mean somolia, & then to Jordan & then to syria, & then to the uae & egyppt & then iran...etc get the point, were coming after you! BE AFRAID@!@!!! Were not taking any shit from you sub human monsters. fuck islams, fuck muslims, fuck arabs.. your all worthless & weak!

-Arabs=Filthy Bastards
by Joey Six Pack • Monday June 24, 2002 at 08:13 PM
KillAMuslin@hotmail.com:
You filthy bastards of a losers!!
You fucking animals, i dont give a flying fuck about the moderate muslins, to me muslins and Arabs only cause trouble, you only exist to fuck things up for everybody! Kill a fucking muslin, and im sorry for the moderate ones but its just the way it is fuckers!
Stay clear of Israel you fucking barbaric animals or the US will fuck your shit up. But i guess Israel doesnt need US troops for nothing, they kicked the shit out of you filthy Arabs everytime you made a move at them, even when you were superior in military power (67).
Someday im gonna join some military shit and im gonna find everysingle one of you shitbags, and when i do find you...AND IM GONNA CUT YOUR FUCKING THROATS...IM GONNA DUMP ON YOUR BLEEDING FUCKING BODY YOU MOTHER FUCKERS!!
You dont fool me fuckers, you may fool this leftys grass-fuckers but you dont fool me, YOUR ONLY GOAL IS TO KILL THE JEWS!
"Kill a muslin for me" - Jesus Christ

Note: All of these were found courtesy of WackyIraqi.

Kitchen reality show
If the Inn at the Falls kitchen was the subject of a reality show, I'd watch it. It's the characters that'd be the appeal. I don't know if any other kitchen is like this one. It's quite amazing really. You'd be surprised at some of the philosophical discussions that take place. And of course there's the drama. It's like a soap opera in there. The three weeks we went without a chef or a sous chef or really anyone in charge, that's gold. That's entertainment there, folks. We went three weeks in the middle of summer, in one of the biggest (if not the biggest) tourist towns in the country, without anyone who even knew how to make a fucking order. It was constant improvisation. Trying to get by on what we had, making up new ways to cope. Ryan's (who was basically thrust into chef position) descent into madness. Here's the climax:

It was the last Saturday before the much anticipated return of Cynthia (the chef). There are weddings there every Saturday. Weddings are huge. Basically, the food went out cold, people were mad, brides were crying, Ryan was throwing things and punching walls. But we coped. Although the newly weds would have a tainted wedding forever in their memories (there's a moral dillema here, too, since they weren't warned of the fact that there was no chef). I remember three weeks earlier, I was talking to Ryan, asking him how he'd feel if he botched a wedding. He said, "I could probably handle the guilt pretty well." You see? Foreshadowing!

I had my share of memorable experiences as well, although nothing close to as heroing as Ryan. A few times I had to work horrible shifts (twice I ended up working the breakfast, lunch, and dinner rushes in one day). One day I was joking with Brent, saying, "teach me salads." Later that day it turned out I really had to learn salads. Me (having never done food preparation before in my life) and the bartender from down in the pub (equally inexperienced) had to rock our way through salads during a very busy lunch. It didn't matter that neither of us knew at all what the hell we were doing. We just did it. I've now had to do salads many times, and as a result, am much more valuable to the kitchen. It is an amazing feat to be basically moved up to the rank of "salad guy" in less than a month of employment there (it seems to usually take upwards of a year, of course that was before Cynthia took over with her "who-needs-experience" attitude).

I like working at Inn at the Falls. The actual work doesn't bother me very much at all. After an 8 hour shift I'm like, "phht, I'm not even tired." And my coworkers, our interactions, all of that, it's priceless.

Edit: Although, with Cynthia back, the demand for me to do salads has diminished, it should also be known that quite a few people are quitting in the near future. I no longer fear the ever horrifying "lay-off". Now the fear is squarely on "getting less hours" after the summer is over.

The meaning of life
Static.

Realisation
From Experiments in modern living:

People used to think that the world was flat. Pretend that you believe that the world is flat, after all, everywhere you look you can see that the land and sea are basically flat. Now a friend tells you that the Earth is round and you argue with them - look at how flat it is - and you think your friend is an idiot.

For a while I've agreed with the sentiment, "don't believe, just know," but this article opened my eyes. I didn't truly understand until I read this. I now look back at even recent things I've said to people and I regret saying them. I feel like a fool.

But I look at the alternative. If I make sure never to accept anything blindly, how will I ever have conversations with people? Opinions invariably leak into things and that's really what gives the relationship spice. I guess I have to learn to actually think things through, to have patience and humility. To accept that even things that seem so obvious and real could easily turn out to be illusions or lies. Indeed, many things I take for granted I already agree are illusions, but intellectual knowledge is not the same as intuitive knowledge. I know this now from experience (also: here, and here, and here, and here, and here, just to cite a few.)

Edit: Oh, and here's a bit more of the drama.

Excessive warning
Although I can't predict how my postings will go in the future, I feel I should warn you that over the next while (upwards of a month or two, maybe), my posts may well become almost exclusively concerned with the anguish of quitting tobacco. Basically, though, there's as much chance of my posts remaining absolutely normal, because sometimes it's easier to just not think about things. As you well know, with me it's always one extreme or the other. And as I'm sure this blog would be more interesting without the constant diatrade of "woe is me" posts, let's just hope I tend toward the "repress it until the murder-suicide" approach to quitting.

Blog on IE
I recently found out that this weblog doesn't work (for me) on Internet Explorer 6. It just doesn't load, at all. That is disturbing, to say the least.

Mozeba revamp
I am now going to begin completely revamping the Mozeba site. I am going to delete all my Blurty posts and use that account for a blogish interface, using javascript to syndicate it to my geocities account. If you check the Mozeba site regularily over the next few days, you'll be able to see the transformation for yourselves! Of course, it'll be completely uninteresting to any human being (and any dolphin, probably) but me.

Edit: New design pretty much finished. It looks a little glitchy on Mozilla, but that will soon be remedied (I won't be able to test it on any other browsers but Internet Explorer, so we'll just pretend it works flawlessly on everything else.) Oh, and that'll probably be a temporary logo in the top left corner until I find a better one.

The Internet is shit
While I agree that the Internet is shit*, I wholeheartedly disagree with this article.

I can name 20 people from my old school class who aren't in Google. I can walk into any public library, no matter how tiny and underfunded, and find facts, stories, amazing information I would never touch in a month of webcrawling. I can go into a bar and hear stories Usenet hasn't come close to in its 22 years of waffle.

I can name 20 people from my old school class who aren't in the library, so what's your point?

*The web is exactly what you make of it. If you don't care what you'll find, then you'll find shit, not to mention large credit card bills. If you actually put some effort into it, the Internet can be wonderful. Get a good browser, try looking on the second page of Google, anything. There are several billion websites out there to be found. How many books are at your local library?

Notice I didn't even mention weblogs, which are arguably the most desirable fruit of the world wide web. How many of your precious books update themselves frequently (sometimes several times a day), giving seemingly endless insight into other people's lives. There is seemingly infinite information on just about any subject you could fathom found in the "blogsphere". The universe of weblogs provides one with an avenue to take, off the beaten path, that shows the real heart of the Internet. It's the difference between going to Paris to look at the Eiffel tower and then going straight home, or turning off the main street into the backalleys, the side streets, the real city, meeting people, learning their culture, becoming Paris. And hey, you can even look at the Eiffel tower while you're there, if you really want to.

Rocking and blogrolling
I've finally added an ever popular blogroll. I'm debating whether I should use it only to list the blogs I frequent or use it to publish any old link I find interesting (like kottke.org's remaindered links.) I'll probably keep it just for my favourite blogs because, frankly, I don't see that much interesting stuff on the Internet very often.

Edit: I think I will use it to list any old link I find interesting, if for no other reason than that it would encourage me to actually go out there and find interesting things on the web. There's all that knowledge out there but it's so hard to find. Tao of Dowingba will be your one stop Internet mega err site. Hmm, I wonder if Blogrolling will automatically delete/archive old links when the list gets long, or if it will just go on forever. That may be a problem...

Edit: Hmm. It seems this service is pretty much pointless for "any old link" useage, for reasons I don't feel like getting in to. Sigh, looks like I'll be creating a second blog on blogger and using (shudder) Server Side Includes, or some such nonsense.

Edit: Actually I may just get rid of the blogroll. But since I've gone through all the annoying trouble of readying my site for a sidebar feature, I wonder what I could put there of value? Any ideas? I get an average of 8 visitors per day, surely someone must have an idea!

Edit: Okay, I've edited the blogroll so it's not just a big smelly glitch, so I'll keep it. It'll be just for listing blogs I frequent, in alphabetical order. End of story. I'm sure over the course of many years I'll have amassed a brilliant cache of interesting weblogs to list. Last edit to this post, I promise.

Censoring our way into heaven
By clicking one of those interesting Google ads at the top of my site, I stumbled upon a religious site that uses a Matrix analogy as their front page. Now the interesting part is this disclaimer found at the bottom of the page, in fine print:

For the record, those of us who put this website together are not Matrix "fans", nor do we endorse the watching of the Matrix movies in an unedited form. Some of the language, violence and immodesty are not fit for those who are "unplugged" or wanting to be. It is a bad investment into the WRONG world. Like Cypher's steak and Mouse's woman in the red dress, enticement is the objective but death is the result. The apostle John declares, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

I don't even think I have to comment on that. I know this disclaimer puzzles and disturbs me deeply. It's just stupidity.

For the record, I am not a "fan" of the above mentioned web site. I didn't even read it, personally, because I didn't want to be bombarded with relgious propoganda that uses the very thing they are against in a selfish attempt to promote their fetid website.

Double standards, gotta love 'em.

Google mysteries
This site is the first result to come up when searching for terminator 2 plot holes on Google. I can't figure out why. Any ideas? Sure, I've mentioned terminator 2, and plot holes. But surely there must be more popular sites about these things. The official terminator site doesn't even show up on the first page (if ever). I didn't even supply meta tags on this page. Any ideas?!

Edit: It's also the first to come up for terminator 1 storyline, the tenth for terminator 2 storyline, the tenth for ADO xtra crack, and the fourth for CrazyFuck Movie (which contains nothing else but porn results). I only get like 11 unique visitors a day. I mean, come on, what's going on?

Edit: I've determined the reason this site comes up when searching for ADO xtra crack. It's because in an earlier post (one that I'd rather not advertise by linking to it), I say "So without further ado..." Strange, no?

Day of threes
Today I started smoking again 3 days after quitting and 3 hours before going to see Terminator 3 for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. Whew, say that err 3 times fast. Basically I've lost all confidence in the patch. After this pack is finished I'll just quit, cold turkey. The "days without a cigarette" thing at the top of this page will be your comprehensive guide to my quitting process. I am determined to quit. You'll see. I'm considering putting a "comments" link up with that "days without a cigarette" thing so you can all "ooh" and "awe" at my will power. But I probably won't, because that would be a little too self-indulgent.

Guitars
When I was 12 years old I got the sudden urge to play guitar. I couldn't get enough of the sound of distortion. I became obsessed with the texture. I asked my parents for a guitar. For Christmas, my parents bought me a low end Samick "stratocaster" style electric guitar and a low end Samick 10-watt amplifier. I became overwhelmed at how hard it was to actually play the guitar, finding I couldn't automatically play all my favourite Metallica riffs. Soon after I got the guitar, I went to the local music store in search of the tabulature book for Metallica's "black" album, which was my favourite album at the time. They were sold out, so I bought the "...And Justice For All" tab book. It was fate. History was made. I spent endless hours in my room trying to figure out how the solos written in the book could possibly sound like they did on the CD. I came up with my own ways around techniques like "tapping" and "artificial harmonics". I came up with my own version of music theory to help me understand the songs (this theory included the term "rhyming"). I became comfortable with the guitar. The world was a blank palette. Why would I ever need anything else?

A couple years later, while I was part of a heavy-metal guitar duo (we used synthesized drums, no bass) called Discharge (we didn't realise there was already a semi-famous band with the same name at the time), I spotted another Samick electric guitar at the music shop. It was green (I always wanted a green guitar), had a humbucking pickup (makes distortion sound "heavier" and eliminates pickup "hum"), and was cheaper than my current guitar. I bought it immediately. I soon became dependant on the humbucking pickup. Single coil pickups just wouldn't do it for me anymore. It was a good deal. It seemed to stay in tune better and play better than my old guitar. I could now play hard hitting riffs with more confidence. I no longer had to worry about feedback and pickup noises. It was the perfect guitar. Why would I ever need anything else?

When I was 18 years old, long after Discharge had faded from existence (my bandmate seemed to go through the whole cycle of "fame" without actually having to become famous), I was picking up the pieces of my life. I had registered at BMLSS again (the highschool I got kicked out of oh so many years ago). I was matured. I was a better person. I was turning over a new leaf. One of the courses I signed up for was guitar class, thinking (accurately) that it would be an easy credit. But golly, I would need an acoustic guitar for that course! For Christmas, my parents bought me a semi-low end Fender acoustic guitar. It should be known that I was also in "performance class", which happened to be the period directly after guitar class. So anyway, on the first day of school, after a rather boring guitar class, I found myself playing some Metallica riffs in performance class. Curtis (who also happened to be in my guitar class) heard me. The next day in guitar class, he introduced me to Jackson, hoping I would join them in doing an acoustic version of a Metallica song for a class project. Mozeba was born. We played an acoustic version of "The Unforgiven". Got good marks. Played another metal song called "Acoustic Medley" by some obscure band. Got good marks. Decided to make our own composition, our own acoustic medley. But alas, there was a problem. Curtis became annoyingly bored of playing the parts me and Jackson wrote for him. Bye, Curtis. Jackson and I finished the song and named it "Neighbourhood Plastic". It was fate. I soon discarded all thoughts of picking up the electric guitar as I delved deeper and deeper into the world of acoustic guitar. I found the Fender acoustic held endless possibilities as I surprised myself day in and day out with the material that came out of it. Mozeba was going full throttle. Why would I ever need anything else?

In the late fall of 2001, I inexplicably became interested in playing fingerstyle guitar. I had delved a bit into it years before while learning certain "Justice" riffs, but never really thought much about it since. I decided to buy a very cheap, low end, Tradition classical guitar. I never considered taking up the instrument seriously. I just wanted to experiment a little bit with it. Sure, it was a crappy guitar, but who cares? It's not like I was going to use it much, anyway. Why would I ever need anything else?

Days after purchasing the classical, it became an integral part in the world of Mozeba. I very quickly abandoned the acoustic guitar. I became uninterested in playing it. There were so many more possibilities with the classical guitar. But now I was stuck with an incredibly crappy "main" instrument, and no money to buy a better one (having been fired from Inn at the Falls).

Two years later, I regained my position at Inn at the Falls. In the past two years, I had grown as a person. I no longer felt the need to spend my money recklessly. Indeed, I couldn't have spent my money if I wanted to. What would I buy? There's nothing I wanted. Nothing, except a new guitar. Two paycheques later, I had enough. But there was another problem. I didn't get off work until 5:00 on Friday (which was pay day). Thankfully, the banks were open late that day, but the local music shop was only open until 5:30! My only chance was to run home from work, grab the money I had stored in my house, run all the way across town to the bank, cash my cheque, run all the way back across town in time to find the right guitar, try it out thoroughly, and purchase it, all before 5:30, and I was wearing a nicotine patch that warns not to do "strenuous activity". Certainly this was an impossible task. But I did it, arriving at Precision music at 5:15, ready to drop dead right then and there. Imagine my dismay when I noticed the "business hours" sign on the door inform me that, on Friday, the store was open until 6:00!

Anyway, the point is, I bought the guitar today. A Takamine electric-classical. It even has a cut-away (so I can easily reach the higher frets). It is, by all accounts, a high-end guitar (not including guitars only celebrities and Bill Gates could afford). It stays in tune better than I ever imagined, has impossibly good intonation, sound incredible. I am now the proud owner of a "good" guitar. And it only took me eight years to acquire. Now, tell me: why would I ever need anything else?

Coma
The best comment I read in response to the guy coming out of a 19 year coma thread went something like this:

He went to sleep in 1984, woke up in "1984."

That was paraphrased. Anyway, 'twas funny.

Destroyed by politics
I used to frequent the blog known as Dean's World. But lately it seems to be just littered with constant political propoganda. Sure, I don't agree with his political views, but that's not the reason I am going to stop reading his blog. There's just so much endless political debating one can take. It seems like the site is packed with ego-high political monkeys. It really does get pathetic after a while. So Dean, since you aren't reading this, I guess I won't give you any message. Maybe I'd post something on your site if I wasn't scared of it turning into some wild debate about abortion or prohibition.

Movies
One key reason is that most of the Big Event movies have lost any glimmer of individuality. The problem isn't just that they're sequels, but that they're all bulked-up, 1950's-style B-movies, crawling with sci-fi mutants, cyborgs, military experiments gone awry, drag racing and Vargas-like pinup girls. Even "The Matrix Reloaded," for all its futuristic visual effects, was weighted down with the kind of pseudo-intellectual blather that would've been at home in Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" series of '50s sci-fi novels.
-from Los Angeles Times.

I think they are giving Matrix Reloaded too much credit comparing it to Asimov.

In other news: I was stewing in nicotine-free tobacco-free anguish tonight so I decided to take a walk. As I walked by the theater, I noticed it was almost 9:30. So I bought a ticket for Terminator 3 and went to see it. Again. I rather enjoyed it this time. Alot of the plot holes seemed to solve themselves on second viewing. And I think on my first watch, I was looking too hard for the "emotional storyline", forgetting the thing that Terminator is all about: action. The movie has really great action in it. So anyway, I no longer regret T3 being a part of the coveted Terminator series.

A good performance
Very rarely do we ever play a good gig, or, more accurately, a gig that we are satisfied with. But last night we played one, and were satisfied. And that's rare, as I stated earlier.

Blogger is an asshole
So I spent a good 20 minutes writing a heartfelt post about bipolar syndrome. But Blogger's servers happened to be not responding the minute I chose to "post & publish". So my post disappeared as it always does while it is in the "publishing" phase, but soon enough "timed out while trying to contact new.blogger.com" etc, etc. Post is gone forever. Never got posted, never got published. It is now dust in the web.

I'll continue to use Blogger, but mark my words, if that ever happens again...well I don't even know what I'll do. Actually, to tell you the truth, I'll probably start obsessively copying everything I write (at least, any "big" post) before I post, just in case. It sucks being poor on the web.

Drums: the aftermath
Eight hours ago I finally began programming the drum track to the soon-to-be-newest Mozeba song. A few minutes ago, I finished. On Friday, after work, we finally practiced, and as I predicted, we instantly started writing some incredible stuff. The new song we started to write also inspired a drum track. And let me tell you, it's pretty damn exciting. The song is quite simple, consisting of little more than two main sections. But it is bang-your-head-till-it-bleeds exciting. Even though we haven't even played the song yet, we plan to showcase it at our gig tomorrow. It should be a gig to remember.

Google ads
Wow, the ads system on Blogspot has really outdone itself. It really is text-sensitive to this weblog. At the current moment of my viewing, the ads are as follows:

Pyro T-Shirts - July 4th related apparel, t-shirts hats, gifts and safety gear.

Oxford English Dictionary - New OED 3.0 CD ROM software. Immediate ship; secure affiliate.

Of course, now I've ensured that those particular ads will remain there for a while.

Gangs of New York sucks
I am surprised Martin Scorsese made such a mindless, corny, biased movie. Most of it is a blatant lie, historically. And what was with all the reviews screaming about how it was the most violent movie they'd ever seen? Do these people watch nothing but Disney movies all day? There was maybe 6 minutes of violence, total, in that 3 hour film. These critics should watch Hard Boiled, it'd probably kill them.

T3 = T1 + T2
I was thoroughly disappointed with Terminator 3. There were some good action sequences, although most were just new versions of Terminator 1 and 2 scenes. The storyline seemed like it was just thrown together in a haste. There were dozens of those minor plot holes that drive me so mad, as well (if TX can control vehicles remotely, why can't she control the vehicle John is driving?). Arnold's character (I can never remember his "model number" in the movies), seemed too human. This last hole could possibly be explained with him being "taught" human behaviour in the future, but why was the Arnold character in Terminator 2 so ignorant of human behaviour?

All my predictions were confirmed, however, except my prediction that it would be better than T2. They answered the "fate vs choice" question, just as I thought, and "fate" won, just as I thought, because the war was postponed, just as I thought. The Arnold character is reprogrammed, just as I thought, and it is a source of the "emotional" storyline, just as I thought.

The movie was good for nostalgic purposes, seeing as I'll probably never get to see Terminator 2 (my favourite action movie of all time) in theaters, it was nice to see most of the scenes reenacted for me on the big screen. The effects were disappointing too. They weren't much better, really, than the T2 effects. They were better, just not as good as they should be in 2003. They left it open for a 4th installment, which, if they make it, should be better, seeing as they can't just rehash the same old storyline again (or can they? Finding a way to rehash it once again, would be interesting to see in and of itself).

Anyway, if you liked Terminator 1 and 2, you should still watch this movie just for nostalgic purposes. Don't make the mistake of expecting much though. The mistake I made.

Note: The technical plot holes littering the movie were especially annoying because T1 and T2 were always so good at keeping things technically logical. I also didn't like how the big government types talked about computers like they were my dad (turn on the email machine, please). I mean, it's the big secret computer defense corps, or whatever, you'd think they'd know the first thing about computers.

Canada Day
Canada is 136 years young today. I went to the fireworks show and, as always, was thoroughly impressed. Being an avid pyromaniac at heart, anything with big flashy explosions excites me. My complaint from the evening is that there were these kids somewhere in the crowd who felt we all needed to hear their commentary after each group of explosions. It was easy enough to tune them out though. All in all it was a good show, if a bit too short.

Terminator 3 doesn't seem to be playing at midnight tonight. The theater must have said it would at some point because I was so certain it would be. I am still going to go at midnight to see. The local theater here is badly run, they might have just not bothered to advertise. Maybe I'm being optimistic, because I want to see that movie the second it comes out. Terminator 2 was on TV tonight but I missed it to see the fireworks. Sigh. Will I never get my Terminator fix?

English as a second language
Sometimes when I look back at things I've written, it almost seems as though it was written by someone with English as a second language. But I assure you, English is my first language. I had some serious problems with language as a kid, but speech therapy when I was 4 or 5 years old seems to have fixed it. Or did it?

Perhaps because of the speech therapy being rooted in my mind, or perhaps because of something entirely different, I began to view English as a second language. I became obsessed with English. I studied it seriously. I even read the Oxford dictionary cover-to-cover (it was actually a very interesting read). The fact is, I stopped viewing English as "my language", and began to view it as an artifact, something separate from myself. When you view English objectively, it is actually a very fascinating language. I know quite a bit of French (enough to get by easily in Quebec), and I can tell you, French is a very dull language. The logistics of French just aren't very interesting. English, however, is a mathematical flavour explosion!

So when you're reading my blog and come across a part with particularly odd diction, don't think of me as some language dullard, think of me as a "foreigner", someone who learned English as a second language. Because basically, I did.

Note: Some of the more recent diction eccentricities can be attributed to my meat-sliced finger. The bandage is gone now, so the typos should end (but probably won't), but the pain is still there, so I will still be instinctively avoiding the use of that finger while engaging in trivial matters such as typing.