Even though I try to avoid politics on the basis of principle, I sometimes get drawn in by the cacophony of praise that Mr. Bill Whittle receives every time he writes some pro-America / pro-republican / pro-war litany on his e..e..e.. site. I’m not sure what I’m going to comment on his current piece but I can only hope that it will draw much ire from the legions of cronies who blindly follow the slop bucket of rhetoric dispensed from e..e..e… These threads often go on for days, I just hope I’m not too late. I am probably being a bit harsh really, there is some interesting perspective presented, and obviously there is a large percentage of people able to elucidate their opinions in a clear and logical (at least from their perception) manner.
In other news, I attended my dads Phd candidacy today which went very well. I would talk more about it except that I don’t think many people are interested in harmonic domain analysis of power systems elements with non-linear or repetitive switching compents (Yes that is the title). I can’t say that I understood all of what he was talking about but I take comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone… I’d say my dad’s a bit of a crazy genius, he’s sort of invented some new math involving matrices to analyze systems purely in the harmonic domain. I don’t doubt he’ll be in a signal analysis textbook someday. But enough of this for now.

There’s a general misconception that seems to be on the rise with the general public in regards to violence and video games. Let me clarify this: I believe it’s a misconception, but I have no actual proof besides some thought experiments and some violence statistics. Well, actually no links to speak of, but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that violence is in a decline over the past decade, something around 13%. That’s pretty significant if you think of them as numbers and not just a percentage. Say there were something like 10 million violent crimes in 1993, and in 2003 there were 8.7 million – 1.3 million less instances of needless pain, anger and sorrow. Yet if a kid picks up a rifle and starts picking off people in a manner that’s characteristic of a video game, suddenly video games are causing violence in children.
Something’s not right here.

Continue reading Violence and Video Games →

I love these quizilla Quiz’s…

You are Proverbs.

Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
I don’t know about this… I like to talk. I rarely find those ‘comfortable silences’ when I’m around other people, so I like to fill the quiet with chatter about this that and the other. At least it’s entertaining – most people usually tell me I think too much as opposed to talk too much which is sort of interesting. In fact, of the four flights I took to get to Ottawa (Winnipeg to Toronto, Toronto to Ottawa and vice versa) I believe in 3 of the 4 conversations (lengthy ones – the only way I can get through a flight is if I’m talking to someone) that I had I was told I think too much. I say you can never think enough.

I often get into religious debates with the different denominations of religious folk who frequent TGM, my favorite forum. You can only talk about a video game demo for so long before the conversation topic wanders, so religion and U.S. politics are frequent flashpoints of controversy. In one of the the latest debates (I didn’t chime in until the 4th page), an interesting facet of Islam was brought to my attention. Apparently the Qur’an is can be modified, or at least added to. Check it:

I don’t know what it is about being on vacation, but I really don’t want to do any writing. Maybe I am a little useless if I overindulge in the spirits and herbal treatments. I wish it were otherwise, I wish I had motivation, but right now I’m pretty happy; maybe it’s unhappiness that drives us to speak our minds.
Ok so first of all I’m getting the royal treatment. Meals that I want, activities and music that please me, the works. It’s been a very pleasant vacation so far. As it stands, I’m a little too content to be bothered to do any work whatsoever. Now before the kitty pipes up ‘what work’, I will admit that I don’t do much productive work generally speaking, but at the same time I have faith in the quality of my work. At least until the software stops working, or the program stops running.
So anyways, that’s really nothing about nothing. I think I’m going to head to bed. 😉

If, for example, you were ever bored, you might be able to pass the time very pleasantly clicking around the picture of everything. I consider this to be a form of art, as the artist clearly has taken capturing a meme to the point obsessiveness; lingering around the point of insanity.
I am currently watching Human Nature. I highly recommend anyone to watch it – it’s one of those finger pokes at society that some people should take notice of.

This will be a brief post – it’s almost 3am and I have a flight to catch tomorrow. I’ll be spending the week with my buddy sl8r and hopefully many others… We’ll see. The reason for the lateness? I started packing at 2:30am. What was I doing until 2:30am the night before I left? Writing my short story for the CBC literary awards. After much internal debate and close examination of the rules and regulations, I’ve decided that I cannot post it here as enRoute has the right of first publishing unfortunately…. So it will have to wait until some time after February. What with K5 having a fiction competition, this is a great disapointment to me… I’d really like you guys to read it. Unfortunately it cannot be. 😐
Anyways, I’ll be updating while I’m away with my adventures in the ‘most boring city in Canada’. Maybe it’s time to liven it up a bit. 😉

One of the great things I love about TGM is the forums where every one in a while brilliance emerges. My milenko brother * 99 Cent * has produced the greatest shit since sliced bread, honestly. Especially if you’re a bush basher. All of those bush backers might have a few words to say, and I’d love to hear them. The ensuing discussion is quite interesting as well, if you’re bored and looking for something to pass the time.
There are elements of evil in our society that we have become so used to that we don’t even give it second thought. It seems funny to me that christianity has so tightly held onto the belief in the fact of Jesus that they’ve forgot the teachings of God. Wasn’t he all about the 7 deadly sins? Why do people seem to forget these things, or pervert them out of some sense of owed comfort? Why don’t people ever talk about virtues? Aren’t there things we should be striving for that can make us better people? I know there’s nothing written in a stone tablet handed down from god himself but surely a collective of people can come up with some virtues that are good for the best of everybody?
The Bush’s Resume post led to an interesting discussion about the values and aspirations of the republican party as well as some derogatory discourse about the democrats. I’m all about finding the balance, so I had to post my idea of a perfect governing system:
Why is it that everyone assumes that it has to be either free enterprise democracy or marxist communism? Aren’t there benefits to both systems? Perhaps a democratic communism with information and entertainment as the main currency and not so much the big house, the SUV, the fur coat.
Everything in the world changes, new theories come about and adaptation is a strength that humanity relied on to get this far. If we start viewing the system as rigid then we lose sight of this. Remember, we invented the currency system and there’s absolutely no reason to think it’s set in stone. We can easily reinvent it. Change it. Mold it into a better purpose for humanity. But everybodie’s so fascinated with the big house, the SUV, the fur coat.

The one thing that I always enjoy at parties is the new connections you can make with people you might never have talked to under everyday circumstances. I went to a good friends birthday party tonight and I had an awesome time. Good people, good conversation, good vibe. I felt like a stranger when I arrived but a friend when I left. I told a couple of them about this site so I hope they’ll post a comment or two.

Continue reading Connections →