Down In My Cave

What's Wrong With Me?

2010-06-10T00:52:00.001-04:00

I'm not talking medically. Everything seems to be fine(though I am seeing a liver specialist for yet undiagnosed liver "problem", but the specialist seems unconcerned as nothing point to anything being serious, but I'll be monitored for the forseeable future.)

What I'm talking about is some of my habits and interests. Like watching hockey. I just finished watching the Blackhawks end their Stanley Cup drought. I've actually been watching most of the playoff games and actually enjoying the games regardless who's playing. I'm just enjoying the game itself. Now I'm not really a sports watching kind of guy, aside from the World Cup & Euro Cup, where again I generally enjoy the game itself. Even my wife's remarked on my sudden interest/enjoyment of watching NHL hockey. I don't know what it is, but it is a change in my personality, whereas before I couldn't care less who won or was playing.

The next change is my alcohol consumption. Now relax, my liver issues have nothing to do with this, as I checked with the specialist. I've gone from someone who almost never really drank, to a regular casual drinker. I really enjoy a glass of wine every so often. Also I LOVE me a good Port. But the real kicker is my beer consumption. In my 20's I didn't really enjoy beer but lately, I'm really enjoying having a beer every so often. Now when you average my overall annual alcohol consumption, it still would fall within an average of 1-2 drinks a week, so I'm not becoming an alcoholic. I just find it odd that now in my mid 30's, I've acquired this taste for a good alcoholic beverage. Again, my wife jokes it's my becoming a father that has driven me to drink but I think the real test is when my daughter becomes a teen. Then maybe I'll start downing it to deal with the stress!

This aging thing is getting weird! ;-)

BQ-1, Liberals/Conservatives/NDP-0, Or How To Make Gilles Duceppce Look Good

2010-05-21T14:58:00.003-04:00

Watch this clip below of Rex Murphy's take on the lunacy going on in Ottawa. Show me a Canadian who doesn't want to know what our MP's are spending OUR money on, and I'll show a leprechaun!

The Auditor Generals job is to audit all government business involving taxpayer money and making it public, as it should be. Hell, even she is open to being audited by an outside firm and making it public. But for some reason MP's have been getting a free ride, by having their expenses audited by an KPMG, a private firm, with no mandate to make these expenses public. The fact that these idiots could think they could sit there and say no to being publicly audited, and not be called to the carpet for it, is beyond stupid. Gilles Duceppe, being the only exception, a SEPARATIST party leader who's only goal is to get Quebec out of Canada, has more integrity than Harper, Ignatieff and Layton? What the hell is going on? Ignatieff's was even quoted in a supremely pathetic defense that "I understand what Canadians are saying -- they want accountability and transparency -- but I don't think they want us to be going through our receipts for this meal and that meal,". Wanna bet? I wanna see every goddamn receipt for every #2 pencil you expense as an MP! Oh, and I'm not just picking on the Liberals here. All parties have had some pretty weak defenses, but Iggy's took the cake!

In the end it all comes down to this simple question; what have you got to hide from Canadians? You know, the one who fund your budgets with out tax dollars. Check out what Rex has to say, and see if you don't agree.

CBC News - The National - Rex Murphy - MP Madness

Someone Still Cares!

2010-05-14T15:14:00.002-04:00

Turns out someone out there still checks out this blog regularly, I learned today. So someone actually is interested in what I have to say, even if it's pointless! ;-) And it's not even my wife! (she just ignores me in person AND online)

Anyway, to those of you(who am I kidding, it's probably just the one person!) who have just been subsisting on my Twitter posts that show up here, I promise, I'll spout more pointless opinions and rhetoric that no one really cares about, right here.

Hey, at least you can read this blog and think, "Gee, at least I'm not sad/pathetic/loser/etc., as this guy!"

;-)

Still Here?

2010-02-12T21:41:00.001-05:00

It's Not Just About Your Child(Or Why Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey Are Extremely Dangerous Idiots)

2009-04-26T16:50:00.005-04:00

Below is a news piece from Australia about the growing movement of parents not vaccinating their kids, that has already taken hold in the U.S.. These morons don't properly understand scientific research, buy into junk science and scariest of all, straight out lie and misrepresent facts to make their dangerous points. Vaccinating your children is not just about their own health, but the health of the children around you. Jenny and Jim can spout all their crap about how it can cause autism(complete and udder bullshit), but if you trust a bunch celebrities over your doctor or decades of research, you probably have bigger issues than just celebrity worship, and obviously don't have the faintest of clues that correlation DOES NOT EQUAL causation(look it up!)

Word of warning; a few scenes a hard to watch as a baby is suffering from potentially fatal whooping cough struggles for air. Just watching made my blood boil at the thought of these idiots parents "faith" in "natural' remedies, has caused this infant needless pain. She was still to young to be vaccinated herself.

What Open Mindedness Really Means...And What It Doesn't!

2009-04-02T10:43:00.002-04:00

I know it's been a while since I last posted but here I am again! Next time someone accuses me of not being open minded to supernatural examinations of things, I 'll point them to this video, which does a better job of explaining how wrong and close minded THEY really are. Everyone is entitled to their own delusions, just don't expect me to agree with yours.

New Song

2009-02-04T15:23:00.002-05:00

I've released a new song here. It's called "Last Request". It's about suicide and what a waste it is, as seen from the victim's perspective after the fact(no I still don't subscribe to life after death; I'm using artistic license). It sounds musically like a country folk song ala Blackie and The Rodeo Kings. If the link doesn't work you can listen from my Soundclick player on the right side --->.

Enjoy!

Why Microsoft Is Dying A Slow Death

2009-01-29T17:20:00.002-05:00

First Vista, now Songsmith? To be fair, it's not at this point(or now after all the mockery on the net)or ever will be a release product. Watch the video below and you'll see why. Lame doesn't even begin to describe how bad this is. Did the genius' at Microsoft really think this promo video would be seen as anything but juvenile and pathetic? Judge for yourself.

Are You Living The Good Life?

2008-12-25T15:55:00.002-05:00

As far as I'm concerned, I am.

Canada in Crisis?

2008-12-03T13:30:00.004-05:00

For everyone who always complains how boring Canadian politics can be, I give you the 40th Parliament. What an idiot Stephen Harper is. He overplayed his hand, and now is crying foul that the opposition called his bluff.

First of all, don't believe the Liberals, NDP or the Bloc that this is about the lack of the Conservatives action on the current world wide economic crisis. BULLSHIT! This is about Harper trying to kick his opponents when their down. As part of their budget statement along with freezing civil service wages and taking away their right to strike for 3 years(smooth move, morons) they would also get rid of public subsidies for political parties. Therein lies Harper's gamble. Sure it would take away money from the Tories, but their coffers are full, so they would be okay. For the other parties, in their current states, without those subsidies, their bankrupt. No real opposition, Harper would be closer to a majority in the future which he so desperately craves. On top of that, he's made the vote on the statement a confidence vote, meaning that if a majority of the House M.P.'s vote against it, the government falls. Harper figured the opposition parties wouldn't have the balls to bring the government down and risk another election. What he must have forgot, is that this is a Parliamentary democracy, in that, yes normally and election is called when a government falls, UNLESS their are enough members in the House willing to form another government, which under the British North America Act which created Canada, is allowed. Harper never counted on that as disparate as the opposition parties are,they would band together to take the Tories down AND be willing to govern together. Nothing like the threat of losing your source of funding to brings rivals together.

Now as a hail mary, Harper is asking the Governor General to "prorogue" or suspend Parliament. He brings this all on himself, and now he's asking for a timeout? Now the GG has the final word, since in our Canadian Parliamentary system, the current King or Queen of England is our actual Head of State, represented by the GG. The GG can suspend Parliament, or she can allow the vote go as planned and again decide, if she will allow the coalition to form the government or dissolve Parliament and send us back to the polls. No matter what the Tory spin doctors tell you, this is all perfectly legal and well within the bounds of the BNA.

Now if parliament is suspended, Harper is just prolonging the inevitable. He is in a minority position. Either he goes down Monday, or 6 weeks from now. Either way, his goose is cooked, and he lit the fire. Looks good on him.

Sure the opposition parties are taking advantage of the system to destroy him, but he handed them the weapons, and hey, that's politics for ya! Harper loved ruling by the sword, now he must be willing to die by it.

Couldn't Have Said Better Myself!

2008-11-13T17:59:00.002-05:00

If you disagree that gays/lesbians should be allowed to marry, think about this...(watch video)

Comes down to the "Golden Rule"; do unto others, as you would have done unto you.

Being Alive During History!

2008-11-04T22:14:00.005-05:00

Right now I am watching history being made. Barack Hussein Obama has won the U.S presidential election. In a country where race has always been, and for the foreseeable future, will always be part of the national dialogue, it is nothing short of amazing that a black man(I hate any -blank-man terms. It should really be a man or woman who HAPPENS to be -blank-)will lead the last true super power in the world. No disrespect to Hillary Clinton, but electing the U.S.'s first female president, as historic that would be, still would not come close to how monumental this is.

But Obama is more that just the U.S.'s first black president. It signals that U.S. voters(and the rest of the world, for that matter!) are FINALLY burnt out on 8 years of Republican tyranny. John McCain did absolutely everything he could to distance himself from W, but it looks like no one was buying it. You really can't be a maverick, when you voted 90% of the time with the Bush administration.

It seems unbelievable, but Obama seemed to make even the cynics believe in hope again. Hope that America can be the beacon to the rest of the world, it used to be considered. Hope that the common man will be represented in Washington, not just oil interests or Iraq contractors. Hope that maybe, just maybe, the ONLY western democracy in the world without a guarantee of universal health care, will finally take care of it's most vulnerable citizens.

Now Obama will have his work cut out for him. The honeymoon will be short and the expectations will be huge, but I'll predict that even if he only implements 50% of what he has promised, it still will put America much further ahead in the eyes of Americans and the world, than 8 years of Bush ever did.

I must also give credit to John McCain for a respectful, gracious and classy concession speech. He even held his hands up to signal the boo-ers to stop. He knows now, more than his own supporters, that it is time to put aside their differences and get on with the business that is The United States of America.

Congratulations Mr. President Elect, now the real work begins. From this Canadian, here's hoping you will make not just America a better place, the world.

Now if only Canadian elections could be this exciting and earth shattering!!

Thriller-Like You've Never Heard It!

2008-10-28T17:10:00.002-04:00

Keep in mind every sound and sound effect you hear is coming from this guys mouth, just layered over top of each other, with each mini video showing him making that sound. Absolutely incredible! How long did it take for him to do this?

François Macré - Thriller (reprise A'cappella 64 pistes)

Something On My Mind

2008-10-17T17:10:00.003-04:00

The title of this post, if you know your Canadian/Hamilton music, is a reference to a Teenage Head song of the same name. Sadly, October 15, Francis Hannah Kerr aka Frankie Venom, lead singer of Teenage Head, died of throat cancer. I've always been a Teenage Head fan, but only got to see them live once this past year at the Cashbah. It was an amazing punk rock show. Another Hamilton music legend gone. R.I.P. Frankie.

On a happier note, on the same day, my new niece was born. Katie Pauline Yurcich. Another crazy Yurcich kid to entertain us!

Saw Alice Cooper last week, and what a great show that was. Again, I've always been a fan and that was the first time I've seen him live. Vaudeville meets a horror show. The band rocked hard and the performance routines were cool, especially when Alice gets hung on stage. All the requisite classics were played(Eighteen, School's Out, etc.) as well songs from his new album, Along Came A Spider(excellent CD).

Next week, it's another rock legend show, The Who!! Can't wait.

Say He Does Exist...

2008-09-30T23:38:00.001-04:00

Who would he like more? Who would you?

Why The U.S Is Fucked!!

2008-09-27T15:58:00.003-04:00

Sadly, there are enough of these inbred idiots there to make a McCain/Palin presidency a real possibility. ~~shiver~~ This is why education, and being informed are so damn important, or you can end up like these morons.

In God We Trust, My Ass!!!

2008-09-25T23:10:00.002-04:00

Corporate Prayer

I believe in Money,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of Houses and Greed.
I believe in The Markets, Free unless teetering on failure,
which will then be saved by massive government bailout,
on the backs of the working class,
suffering under lobbyists and government corruption,
they will be crucified, robbed and homeless.
Their descent will not be ours.
On the 25th day, We rise again.
As we ascend to our mansions and are seated at boardroom tables.
We will commence again to judge the living wage and the working poor.
I believe in the Holy Dollar,
the Holy Wall Street,
the communion of deregulation,
the forgiveness of financial sins,
the resurrection of the banks,
and life long excessive living. Amen.

Corporate Pledge

I pledge allegiance to the corporations of the United States of America,
and to the self serving capitalism for which they stand:
one Nation under Greed, irrepressible,
With Liberty and Wealth for Few.

Thanks to the Information Paradox where I found this.

Catching Up

2008-09-18T13:02:00.002-04:00

Well, not much to write about lately aside from the usual news, like Apple announcing updated iPod nanos and Touch(looking to finally ugrade my 1st generation nano to the new one), the Canadian election(battle of the losers?), and the ever comical American presidential election. Also my beloved Apple TV is in need of some service. I bought it last December refurb from apple.ca/store so thankfully it's still under warranty.(all Apple refurb products carry the same warranty as any new Apple product, making them an incredible value) It seems my Apple TV won't update to the newest software release. So I tried restoring it to original factory settings, and it won't do that either. It runs perfectly fine under the current software, but the fact that it won't go "forwards or backwards" is cause for concern. So I brought in to the Apple store at Sherway Gardens as recommended by 1-800-MY-APPLE, since they couldn't diagnose it over the phone. Turns out something maybe wrong with drive so they've ordered a new part and I'm waiting for the call to bring it back in so they can swap out the drive. That's the only downside of refurb with Apple. If I had bought it new, they would've given me a new one right there on the spot, but with refurb, they have to attempt to repair ir first, since it has already been possibly repaired initially to factory spec. It doesn't really bother me, since the price reduction and warranty coverage makes up for the minor hassle it causes.

That's all for now.

Kevin Smith Is Back!!

2008-09-03T05:20:00.003-04:00

This is the trailer for Kevin Smith's new movie "Zack & Miri Make A Porno" After the shit kicking Kevin took for "Jersey Girl",(it wasn't that bad, I liked it) his first movie NOT including his trademark Jay & Silent Bob characters, he returned to his forte and rebounded with awesome "Clerks 2". Well, "Zack &..." shows off he doesn't need Jay or Bob around to be funny, just Seth Rogen will do. I can't wait 'til it's out on DVD(I don't go to movies anymore, I love my home theatre)to add to my Kevin Smith collection. Funny indeed!

Checkmate! Satire At It's Finest

2008-08-31T15:41:00.002-04:00

Speaking of checkmate, what the hell is John McCain thinking? I know, I know, I'm a Canadian, why the hell do I care about the Presidential election in the States? Because, the whole goddamn world is affected by who ever is in charge of the last superpower in the world. Is McCain(or his advisers) really that stupid to think if they have a woman as VP they will get the Hillary vote? This is their checkmate, ace in the hole, or whatever cliche you like? For christs sake, they went after Obama on his apparent inexperience, but now a 44 year old, barely one term governor, with NO federal experience, is justifiably qualified to be second in command(and possibly first;McCain IS 72 years old!)? I know the many Hillary supporters may still be bitter, but I doubt they are stupid. Besides, after watching Obama's DNC acceptance speech, which was historic in of itself, the man pretty much laid to rest why he was the best choice to lead the democrats to the White House. McCain is going to need to pull a hell of a lot more than a rabbit out of his ass to even come close to the speech Obama gave. This election is going to be better than any championship game in any sport! Let's get ready to rumble!!!

Christianity Accurately Explained

2008-08-26T07:26:00.002-04:00

Back From The Cottage

2008-08-22T14:38:00.003-04:00

Back after a nice 6 days at my sister-in-laws cottage. It's a fantastic, rustic place on quiet and quite private Camel Lake in Muskoka. We drove into Bracebridge on Tuesday for dinner at Kelsey's for my birthday(34th, by the way), but the rest of the time was spent just relaxing, taking in the view of the lake from the shore, and the living room of the place. I even heard the 2 loons that live on the lake with their famous call(made for a great intro to my acoustic rendition of The Tragically Hip's "Wheat Kings"). Here's a few pics to make you all jealous!! ;)

Maybe That's Why It's Called "The Good Book"?

2008-08-13T12:39:00.005-04:00

Check out this link here to an article about 6 very obvious sex stories in the Bible. Sure you can dress it up with fancy language, but in the end it's about good ol' fornicating! And not the "I'll smite thee down" kind, but God approved incest and other common and some disturbing yet God approved acts.

Please tell me again, how we get our morality from the Bible? And don't give me that "it's from the Old Testament, the New Testament redeems the Old..." bullshit. Christians always say the bible has the answers, NOT the New Testament...AND BOY ARE THEY RIGHT!!!

Blessed Be Oprah?

2008-08-03T17:08:00.002-04:00

You can call me lazy for not writing my own post about this, but The Information Paradox blog just did it much better, so read it here.

Oprah used to be credible as a human being, considering her background and upbringing(look it up), but she instead has become so deluded by her own ego, it's just plain disgusting. Move over L.Ron Hubbard, make room for another snake oil salesman/woman.

Sex Abuse By Clergy-Catholic Bishop Says "Get Over It!"

2008-07-16T14:30:00.004-04:00

How can anyone defend a church that allows these sadistic idiots to hold any power in their church. As quoted in this article that they keep "crankily dwelling on old wounds" with regards to the Catholic churches handling of child sexual abuse cases. Keep in mind this is the Bishop has been accused of holding up compensation claims by victims. Old wounds? This despicable excuse of a life just doesn't seem to understand the destruction that childhood sexual abuse causes. These wounds are never, NEVER, old. The loss of innocence, the abuse of trust and authority, the fact that for the rest of their lives, these victims have had the beauty and joy of sex being permanently perverted. After the actual abusers, these defenders should also die slow horrible painful deaths.

Having said this, my wife wants to have our daughter baptized, which doesn't really thrill me. The reason is so she can attend catholic school, which in this area, are better curriculum wise (save for the religious classes) than the public board. But we are in agreement that I will not mince words with my daughter about how I view the world, religion and the Catholic church especially. My daughter, will be one huge pain in the ass in religion class, because she will be taught to always ask questions and demand truthful answers, even if it's simply "I don't know", instead of bullshit like "god did it".

iPhone;Why Early Adopters In This Case Are Idiots

2008-07-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

How to Get Broke by Buying an iPhone

iPhone Fiasco

2008-07-12T19:51:00.003-04:00

What a joke the iPhone launch in Canada was. At least Rogers is consistent in their idiocy. So many suckers... I mean people in line and after the first hour, the first 2 or 3 people, still didn't have an active iPhone to use. Yes, iTunes own servers crashed, but Rogers crashed worse, because when the iTunes servers came back up, Rogers still remained down for the rest of the day. How could they not be prepared for probably the biggest cell phone launch in Canadian history?

I'm also a little pissed that so many people lined up to wait for the phone. Way to show Rogers that you won't be gouged for the latest gadget. If you know me, you know I'm a big time Apple fan ,with my iPods and my all Mac setup, so nobody wants an iPhone as bad as me. But at the rates Rogers is offering for the phone, I can't justify getting it.

I'm getting along with my Krzr, and even figured out how to sync it with my Mac's contact list and calender via Bluetooth. Hopefully in three years when this current contract is up, someone in Canada will offer the latest iPhone with a much more reasonable rate plan. Until then it's my Krzr and iPod Nano, with me wherever I go.

Sophie Update & Rogers Doesn't Want My(& Apparently A Lot Of Other Peoples)Money

2008-07-07T00:24:00.005-04:00

Well, it's been just over a week now since Sophie joined us, and we're getting used to middle of the night feedings. We've had to move to formula since my wife wasn't producing enough breast milk to keep our little hungry girl content. Three visits to the breastfeeding clinic at the hospital were of no help. The last two were with a patronizing "lactation consultant". She pretty much repeated everything the first nurse showed us(who was actually very helpful) and talked to us like we were stupid. Now the majority of the "lactation consultants" at the clinic are so pro breast feeding, they don't like to talk about the F-word, you know formula! But sometimes mommy just doesn't make enough milk. This idiot even suggested maybe my wife take some prescription medication to stimulate milk production or maybe some herbs. When we balked at both, she asked if my wife was a nurse, slightly annoyed that we'd question her "consulting". We told her we are informed people who question the idea of a pill for everything or unregulated use of herbal supplements which can be quite dangerous. I even brought up the fact that marijuana is natural so why do people get worked up about it. She didn't like that comment much. Now we are not against breast milk, but Sophie is hungry and needs to put on weight so we have been feeding her formula, and she is now more content. It's the logic about these pro breast feeding idiots I don't get; take a drug so you can make more milk, so you don't need to formula feed. Huh?? My sisters and I along with hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have been formula fed, and we seem to be ok. But you'd rather drug up mom to avoid formula? Sounds like someone needs to justify their job.

Moving on. As some of you may know, I've been pining(some would say lusting) after the iPhone since it came out last year in the U.S. I'm a 100% Mac and iPod user, so the idea of having my cell phone and iPod as one device, plus the bonus of email and web surfing is like manna from heaven. I (along with many other people out there) were willing to pay the premium in monthly service for such a kick ass phone...until Rogers, the only carrier in Canada that can carry the iPhone released their rates. Rip off would be kind, more like a raping of potential customers. Now keep in mind the iPhone can do full web surfing, not the crappy mobile kind like on other cell phones. Rogers cheapest plan is $60/mth for which you get 150 daytime minutes, unlimited evening/weekend minutes(staring at 9PM , which by my watch is night time, not evening) and the kicker, 400mb of data! even the top plan limits you to 2GB/mth. By way of comparison, on the U.S, for $70/mth you get 450 anytime minutes and unlimited data. Oh, and for all the Rogers plans, caller ID is an OPTION!! Potential Canadian iPhone customers are livid! A petition was started at ruinediphone.com, and at last count has hit about 43,000. (Link also on the left side of my blog under Check These Sites Out) Rogers has even hired an outside PR firm to help soften the blowback their getting from the net and non-Rogers owned media.

Well I renewed my Bell Mobility contract for another 3 years, keeping my great discount rate, and got a Motorola Krzr K1m instead. So it looks like I'll still have to carry around 2 things, that being my cell phone and my iPod for the next 3 years. Rogers loss. Hopefully by that time, Apple will be on the 4th or 5th generation iPhone, so it will be even better, and better data rates for it will exist.

Introducing...

2008-06-26T21:51:00.005-04:00

...my beautiful (I don't think I'm biased ;) )baby girl Sophie Justina Moniz, born June 26, 2008 at 4:14PM, weighing in at 7lbs2oz. Here are a selection of photos and a video for your enjoyment. I think I'm in love

!!

Al Gore...Hypocrite!

2008-06-18T14:47:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I lied. This is my "next post", and as I said in my previous post, it would be welcoming my first child. Well, I saw this, and just had to post this.

Some would accuse me of being a climate change denier(no longer called global warming, since more and more science is showing that parts of the earth are actually cooling). Using "their" language, I consider myself a "climate change" skeptic. The difference? A denier doesn't care what evidence there is, they just ignore it. A skeptic, keeps demanding more information. And besides, who the hell coined the term climate change? The climate is always changing!! So should we do our part to reduce our footprint on the planet? Of course!! I do my part in my house and my life(driving small cars, programmable thermostat, efficient light bulbs, etc.). Should we believe every chicken little that screams the end is nigh? Which brings me to Al Gore.

Global warming, or climate change, or whatever the next buzz phrase will be, has been a huge financial boon to Mr.Gore. The fact that he doesn't really practice what he preaches, gets ignored by most people. In this article, though he's done a bunch of "green" renovations to his estate, his energy consumption has actually gone up 10%!! You wonder, how can that be? I have a theory. It's like people who try to eat food lower in fat. They buy low fat products, and figure since it's lower in fat, they can eat more, not realizing, eating more makes it equivalent to eating the regular fat level food. I'll bet that's been the Gore, rational. "We've reducing the consumption of our appliances/electronics/lights, so we can keep them running longer." How else could you explain this?

What a hypocrite. Plus he gets tp profit handsomely from his fear mongering. Remember, consider the messenger, as well as the message.

Firefox 3 Is Here!...And Other Updates.

2008-06-17T17:31:00.007-04:00

Today is download day for Firefox 3. The folks at Mozilla are trying to get in the record books by having Firefox 3 be the most downloaded download in one day. I've been using the RC betas for the last month and a half, and I love it. If your still using Explorer(!?!) you should really try Firefox.

In other news, we're still waiting for our first child to be born. The room is just the way the wif...I mean the baby will like it(yeah, right). Seriously, the room looks fantastic. Judge for yourself.

On the Apple side of things, they have finally announced that the iPhone will be coming to Canada on July 11. My Bell Mobility contract is up in September, so I have some decisions to make. I'm sick of Bell's coverage in Burlington where I work, so between my lust for the iPhone and my hate on for Bell, I'm willing to pay more for the service features of the iPhone, as long as it's not too expensive. Hopefully I can finally just carry one device that's my music player and a cell phone, as my iPod Nano goes everywhere with me. And as a bonus it's a GPS unit, browser, video player, camera and email device!!

Since this impending bundle of joy will keep me from getting a new Mac for a long while, I maxed out my RAM on the iMac(2GB), to keep it humming away for a few more years yet. RAM is so cheap now, so it's the best performance value upgrade you can do. Tiger still works great for me so I don't foresee me moving to Leopard unless all my apps become useless on Tiger.

That's all for now. My next post will be me introducing our newest member of the family.

So Much To Love!

2008-05-25T12:17:00.003-04:00

A great Discovery Channel promo video about how big, different, crazy, scary, and just down right amazing our planet is. I couldn't agree more!

Down To Crunch Time

2008-05-12T03:42:00.003-04:00

Just over a month now before, the fruit of my and my wife's loins arrive to throw our world upside down...in a good way, of course, we hope!! Everyone keeps telling us,"get your sleep while you can.", which is incredibly reassuring.

Well the baby's room is pretty much completed with the laying down of the hardwood in there as well as the other bedroom, so we now have hardwood throughout the house(minus the basement). Thanks to my good friend Fern for all his hard work and a long day to finish it all in one shot. What a difference it makes now in those rooms. Aside from the fact that they will be much easier to keep clean, it makes the room feel larger. We're not big fans of carpet(aside from the high quality Berber we have in the basement aka my Cave), but the crap the builder installs is just plain bad. Also thanks to my Brother-in-Law, Frank for the excellent paint job. I can't paint worth a damn, as my wife constantly points out(okay, I can prime, and trim is easy enough, but give me a wall, and I will screw it up). Now we await the baby's furniture and of course, baby and the room will be set. Now about getting some sleep...zzzzz

Wow, I've Been Lazy!!

2008-04-24T20:15:00.005-04:00

Not really, just lazy with posting. I've been busy getting cars ready for spring, bringing the lawn back to life and, oh yeah, moving down in to my cave!!

Everything is cleared out of what will be from now on known as the baby's room. I still need to get the hardwood flooring in and prime and paint. Anyway, here are a few pics of the "cave". Maybe some of you will even come visit me here!!

Earth Hour...What A Joke!!

2008-03-28T13:32:00.003-04:00

That's right a stupid feel good gesture that in the end amounts to nothing!! Personally, if I'm home on Saturday March 29, 2008 at 8PM,(the wife and I will be out most of the day and into the evening) I'm lighting up the house like a Christmas tree!! Every light will be on in protest. Why? Because I try and save energy every damn day and for everyone else who really make no effort, and figure one stupid hour off lights out will show the world they care, they are deluding themselves!! Do they drive a minivan or SUV where a normal sedan or compact would suffice? Did they pay extra to have more efficient natural gas lines for a natural gas stove and natural gas dryer installed? Did they send the extra cash on a front loading washer that uses at least 25% less water than a top load? Do they wash in cold water as much as possible? Do they have and USE a programmable thermostat? Do they set their computer monitors to shut off when not in use(the biggest power sucker of the computer) instead of a screen saver?

Am I being cynical? Damn right I am! I'm no tree hugger environmentalist. I use what I need when I need, and don't feel guilty about it, whether it's when I fill my gas tank, or turn on another light. What I try to do is not use more than I really need. It's got nothing to do with being an environmentalist, it's got everything to do with being efficient and not being wasteful. Hell, my dad has been an environmentalist all his life then by their definition!! How? He grew up poor so, not wasting has been part of his life and now part of mine.

Yeah I live in the suburbs, but I try to run and efficient house. Yeah drive a nice sporty car, a turbocharged 4 cylinder, that I find gives me the same performance and fun to drive of a bigger engine. I don't apologize for it. And neither should you if you normally try and save energy as part of your daily routine. Earth Hour is just important to those who normally don't.

If You Know Me...

2008-03-10T02:13:00.001-04:00

...then you know I'm a boob man!! This video spoof is just up my alley.

A Few Musings

2008-03-03T12:22:00.003-05:00

Well another great Canadian musician has been silenced. A couple weeks ago we lost a little known but incredibly influential folk singer/songwriter Wille P. Bennett, and now the amazing Jeff Healey. I remember when I first heard him. He absolutely rocked! Then I discovered he was blind!! He was unbelievable to watch play in his videos. Unfortunately I never had the privilege to see him play live. The only thing I can say is that my guitars are gently weeping:( (He covered the Beatles/George Harrison "While My Guitar Gently Weeps beautifully. So well indeed, that George saw fit to sing background on Jeff's version).

Another thing that I'd like to mention is all the news surrounding Prince Harry's serving in Afghanistan. I really don't have much use for the royal family, but they deserve their due. He is a Prince and third in line to the throne, but serves just like any other soldier along side his countrymen. When Britain sends it's men to war, even royalty must serve. Now contrast that with George W. Bush and his war mongering. How about his daughters serving in Iraq to "take down the terrorists"?. Yeah, that's what I thought!

New Title & URL

2008-03-02T12:05:00.002-05:00

I've re-named my blog to reflect my soon to be finished basement, from where my new "headquarters" will be. I will no longer be in the room above the garage as this room will soon belong to my yet to be born child. So my main Mac, my guitars, ergo my "home studio" are all moving to be with me "Down In My Cave" as my wife likes to call it. So if you haven't yet, update your bookmark to http://downinmycave.blogspot.com. See ya 'till next time.

You May Not Want To See This!!!

2008-02-22T11:29:00.003-05:00

So there is a Gene Simmons sex tape. It's leaked to the internet. Millions watch it. Those same millions now wish they hadn't seen it(myself included). But it's like a car wreck on the side of the road, you know you shouldn't look but you just can't help yourself. Well for those of you who insist on looking at this car wreck, click here (WARNING!! Send the kiddies away!). Click here if you want to see Gene, through his legal team, confirm it is actually him in the video.

Now you can tell by the hairstyle(for god's sake man, your in your late 50's, do something else with it already!) this was within the last couple years. Having watched Family Jewels, Shannon and the kids pretty much take Gene's "I'm a sex god/machine" as part of his shtick, and in reality wouldn't put up with it if it were true. So the question is, what are they feeling now? Not that I really care, but when you build this whole image around yourself, and your family accepts that as the image, but finds you actually made it reality, how are they going to react? Will Gene be out on his ass soon? This will be an interesting one to watch play out. Can't say I will feel sorry for him if he loses his family, since he's always bragged about his conquests(tongue-in-cheek you learn from watching Family Jewels) and now they have come to bite him in the ass. Stay tuned.

Is Winter Over Yet??

2008-02-13T16:14:00.002-05:00

After last night's dumping, here's a little something to make you laugh. Remember years ago during a big snow storm, Toronto called in the army, and was the laughing stock of the country for it? Well here's a little spoof from the Rick Mercer Report, to remind us how sad and funny it really was.

Why Keeping Up With Technology Matters. (Or How Not To Look Stupid)

2008-02-07T19:49:00.000-05:00

Above is the 1st generation iMac, Apple's first modern version of the "all-in-one" desktop, ie. no tower. This article, is kind of funny/scary about some Danish police coming face to face with one. They obviously have no clue how fast technology moves(the original iMac is like 8 years old!?!) or even how the internet works!(just read the article to see what I mean). Nowadays it's even more important to stay in the loop or risk looking like an idiot.

New Songs

2008-01-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

I've got a couple new songs I've uploaded to my 2 music websites(Soundclick and Stage.FM). Their both instrumentals, one's called "Rainy Night In The City" and "New Groove". Also I don't remember if I promoted the last song with lyrics that I uploaded "It's Not Enough" so check that one out, or re-familiarize yourself with my "back catalog"!! LOL. And remember, you can download all the songs there and keep for yourself to play over and over and share with your friends!!!

Don't Tell My Wife!!

2008-01-28T07:46:00.000-05:00

Carmen Electra and I got a thing going on the side. Watch the video below for the proof!

The Business of Death

2008-01-26T15:54:00.000-05:00

Fascinating. I've always been fascinated with death and the various burial/disposal rituals. It's nothing morbid, just I find it so interesting, since, like so many other things, there are "more than one way to skin a cat" sort of speak.

Touched By An Atheist!

2007-12-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

George Carlin sets 'em straight!!!

Evolution:The Simple Explanation!!

2007-12-30T15:13:00.000-05:00

Can't make it any simpler!!! LOL!!!

What If The Beatles Wrote "Stairway To Heaven"?

2007-12-19T10:44:00.000-05:00

This is so cool!!!!

Truth Stranger Than Fiction

2007-12-17T17:35:00.000-05:00

From the "you can't make this up file". Check out the video below. This is the real deal, not some hoax. Comments?

12 Days of Christmas Sung A Little Differently

2007-12-16T20:51:00.000-05:00

Enjoy this pretty cool rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas. It's worth watching it right through to see how they incorporate other songs into it, especially one of my favourite 80's songs.

Why Pascal's Wager Fails

2007-12-09T18:15:00.000-05:00

A great cartoon depicting why Pascal's Wager is ludicrous and ultimately fails.

Merry Beerstmas!

2007-12-06T18:07:00.000-05:00

This one's for all you beer lovers. If you're looking for a new tree this year, consider building one of these. I'm pretty sure you could substitute Moosehead bottles Rube!!

The Real Bert & Ernie

2007-12-02T10:10:00.000-05:00

All those years of pent up hostility finally unleashed!

Great Quotes About Sex

2007-11-20T22:11:00.000-05:00

This is an internet classic, but I thought I'd post it here, 'cause their so damn funny!

"I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, natural, wholesome things that money can buy."
--Tom Clancy

"You know "that look" women get when they want sex? Me neither."
--Steve Martin

"Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."
--Woody Allen

"Bisexuality immediately doubles your chances for a date on Saturday night."
--Rodney Dangerfield

"There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL."
--Lynn Lavner

"Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist."
--Matt Barry

"Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope."
--George Burns

"Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation. The other eight are unimportant."
--George Burns

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships."
--Sharon Stone

"My girlfriend always laughs during sex ---no matter what she's reading."
--Steve Jobs (Founder, Apple Computers)

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch."
--Jack Nicholson

"Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is."
--Barbara Bush (Former US First Lady -- and you didn't think Barbara had a sense of humor)

"Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet."
--Robin Williams

"Women complain about premenstrual syndrome, but I think of it as the only time of the month that I can be myself."
--Roseanne

"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place."
--Billy Crystal

"According to a new survey, women say they feel more comfortable undressing in front of men than they do undressing in front of other women. They say that women are too judgmental, where, of course, men are just grateful."
--Robert De Niro

"There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem?"
--Dustin Hoffman

"There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men think, I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody naked."
--Jerry Seinfeld

"Instead of getting married again, I'm going to find a woman I don't like and just give her a house."
--Rod Stewart

"See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time."
--Robin Williams

You Don't Realise How Privileged You Are

2007-11-13T19:02:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to The Hour With George Stromboulopoulos' segment called Disinformation. The goal of this segment is to clear up common held assumptions about the world we live in currently. Now the reason for this post. Even I was shocked by this;70% of the world's population, have never even heard a dial tone. Think about that for a second. Never mind TV, cell phones, the net. 70% of the world have not even dealt with, what we would consider, the the most basic modern technology. Watch the piece and learn more about the possible impact this has.

A Man After My Own Heart

2007-11-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

Once again, why Dave Chappelle is a comedy genius.

The Godfather Part 1 In Less Than 2 Minutes!

2007-11-03T08:45:00.000-04:00

It helps if you've seen the original in it's 3 hour entirety. But you got to admit, it boils it right down the bare plot essentials and is quite funny in how they do it. Enjoy!

And They Think Everyone Else Is Nuts!!

2007-10-31T17:47:00.000-04:00

Here's the original article I'm quoting this text from.

Let's take a quick look at the basic biblical narrative:

There is an indescribably powerful and intelligent being called God who is in existence prior to the dawn of time. For whatever reason, he decides to create the universe and pays particular attention to planet Earth. Having created the universe, Earth and all the species on it (through 'creating' the Big Bang and 'guiding' evolution in the Williams style of interpretation), he decides to focus all his attention on a collection of tribal groupings in the Middle East, in particular the Israelites who are his 'chosen people' and who he obsesses over, while apparently ignoring the rest of the world's population. He lays down numerous often primitive and arbitrary moral and ceremonial laws, then gets involved in inner tribal politics and land disputes, inciting acts of brutality, war crimes, genocide, and rape along the way. Fast forward to the Middle East under Roman occupation and God decides it's time to put in an appearance. By mystical means he comes to earth in human form, being born of a virgin. He becomes incarnate as a Jewish male and wanders around what is today Israel-Palestine, imparting pithy social commentary (but never giving any systematic explanation of how such ideas might be made politically useful), engaging in faith healing (removing 'demons' from people), magic tricks (such as walking on water and raising a dead man), and ranting on and on about sin, eternal punishment for the majority of the world's population, and the impending end of the world. He gets himself crucified, in order that he can sacrifice himself to himself for our good. A few days later he walks out of his tomb and wanders round with some of his followers (noticeably not bothering to make himself known to anyone but those who already believed in him), before 'ascending' into 'Heaven', to wait for the time when he will return to raise every human who has ever lived in bodily form for judgement, then cast most of us into a pit of fire and take a select few into his 'kingdom' for eternity where they will live happily ever after.

Kind of sounds weird and cult like when you actually break it down to the basic underpinnings, which you can't argue are the basis of the Christian faith. No matter how you dress it up, it's no different then any other "whack job" religion or beleif system.

How The Music Industry Is Killing Itself

2007-10-28T02:02:00.000-04:00

This is a bit of long diatribe, but well worth the read if you are interested in music and downloading music. Here's the original post on Demonbaby

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

[Currently Listening To: Music I Didn't Pay For]

For quite a long time I've been intending to post some sort of commentary on the music industry - piracy, distribution, morality, those types of things. I've thought about it many times, but never gone through with it, because the issue is such a broad, messy one - such a difficult thing to address fairly and compactly. I knew it would result in a rambly, unfocused commentary, and my exact opinion has teetered back and forth quite a bit over the years anyway. But on Monday, when I woke up to the news that Oink, the world famous torrent site and mecca for music-lovers everywhere, had been shut down by international police and various anti-piracy groups, I knew it was finally time to try and organize my thoughts on this huge, sticky, important issue.

For the past eight years, I've worked on and off with major record labels as a designer ("Major" is an important distinction here, because major labels are an entirely different beast than many indie labels - they're the ones with the power, and they are the ones driving the industry-wide push against piracy). It was 1999 when I got my first taste of the inner-workings of a major record label - I was a young college student, and the inside of a New York label office seemed so vast and exciting. Dozens of worker bees hummed away at their desks on phones and computers. Music posters and stacks of CDs littered every surface. Everyone seemed to have an assistant, and the assistants had assistants, and you couldn't help but wonder "what the hell do all these people do?" I tagged along on $1500 artist dinners paid for by the labels. Massive bar tabs were regularly signed away by record label employees with company cards. You got used to people billing as many expenses back to the record company as they could. I met the type of jive, middle-aged, blazer-wearing, coke-snorting, cartoon character label bigwigs who you'd think were too cliche to exist outside the confines of Spinal Tap. It was all strange and exciting, but one thing that always resonated with me was the sheer volume of money that seemed to be spent without any great deal of concern. Whether it was excessive production budgets or "business lunches" that had nothing to do with business, one of my first reactions to it all was, "so this is why CDs cost $18..." An industry of excess. But that's kind of what you expected from the music business, right? It's where rock stars are made. It's where you get stretch limos with hot tubs in the back, where you get private jets and cocaine parties. Growing up in the '80's, with pop royalty and hair metal bands, you were kind of led to think, of course record labels blow money left and right - there's just so much of it to go around! Well, you know what they say: The bigger they are...

In those days, "piracy" was barely even a word in the music world. My friends and I traded MP3s in college over the local network, but they were scattered and low-quality. It felt like a novelty - like a digital version of duping a cassette tape - hardly a replacement for CDs. CDs sounded good and you could bring them with you in your DiscMan, and the only digital music you could get was as good as your friends' CD collections, anyway. It never occurred to any of us that digital files were the future. But as it turned out, lots of kids, in lots of colleges around the world, had the same idea of sharing MP3 files over their local networks, and eventually, someone paid attention to that idea and made Napster. Suddenly, it was like all those college networks were tied together, and you could find all this cool stuff online. It was easier and more efficient than record stores, it was powered by music fans, and, well, it was free. Suddenly you didn't have to pay 15 to 18 bucks for an album and hope it was good, you could download some tracks off the internet and check it out first. But you still always bought the CD if you liked it - I mean, who wants all their music to be on the computer? I sure didn't. But increasingly, more and more people did. For college kids, Napster was a Godsend, because you can all but guarantee two things about most college kids: They love music, and they're dirt poor. So it grew, and it grew, and it started to grow into the mainstream, and that's when the labels woke up and realized something important was happening. At that point they could have seen it as either a threat or an opportunity, and they, without hesitation, determined it to be a threat. It was a threat because essentially someone had come up with a better, free distribution method for the labels' product. To be fair, you can imagine how confusing this must have been for them - is there even a historical precedent for an industry's products suddenly being able to replicate and distribute on their own, without cost?

For quite a while - long after most tech-savvy music lovers - I resisted the idea of stealing music. Of course I would download MP3s - I downloaded a lot of stuff - but I would always make sure to buy the physical CD if it was something I liked. I knew a lot of musicians, a lot of them bewildered at what was happening to the industry they used to understand. People were downloading their music en masse, gorging on this new frontier like pigs at a troff - and worst of all, they felt entitled to do so. It was like it was okay simply because the technology existed that made it possible. But it wasn't okay - I mean, let's face it, no matter how you rationalized it, it was stealing, and because the technology existed to hotwire a car didn't make that okay, either. The artists lost control of distribution: They couldn't present albums the way they wanted to, in a package with nice artwork. They couldn't reveal it the way they wanted to, because music pirates got the albums online well before the actual release date. Control had been taken away from everyone who used to have it. It was a scary time in unfamiliar territory, where suddenly music fans became enemies to the artists and companies they had supported for years. It led to laughable hyperbole from bands like Metallica, instantly the poster-children of cry-baby rich rock stars, and the beginning of the image problem the industry has faced in its handling of the piracy issue. But still, at the time, I understood where they were coming from. Most musicians weren't rich like Metallica, and needed all the album sales they could get for both income and label support. Plus, it was their art, and they had created it - why shouldn't they be able to control how it's distributed, just because some snotty, acne-faced internet kids had found a way to cheat the system? And these entitled little internet brats, don't they realize that albums cost money to create, and to produce, and to promote? How is there going to be any new music if no one's paying for it?

On top of that, I couldn't get into the idea of an invisible music library that lives on my computer. Where's the artwork? Where's my collection? I want the booklet, the packaging... I want shelves and shelves of albums that I've spent years collecting, that I can pore over and impress my friends with... I want to flip through the pages, and hold the CD in my hand... Being a kid who got into music well past the days of vinyl, CDs were all I had, and they still felt important to me.

It's all changed.

In a few short years, the aggressive push of technology combined with the arrogant response from the record industry has rapidly worn away all of my noble intentions of clinging to the old system, and has now pushed me into full-on dissent. I find myself fully immersed in digital music, almost never buying CDs, and fully against the methods of the major record labels and the RIAA. And I think it would do the music industry a lot of good to pay attention to why - because I'm just one of millions, and there will be millions more in the years to come. And it could have happened very, very differently.

As the years have passed, and technology has made digital files the most convenient, efficient, and attractive method of listening to music for many people, the rules and cultural perceptions regarding music have changed drastically. We live in the iPod generation - where a "collection" of clunky CDs feels archaic - where the uniqueness of your music collection is limited only by how eclectic your taste is. Where it's embraced and expected that if you like an album, you send it to your friend to listen to. Whether this guy likes it or not, iPods have become synonymous with music - and if I filled my shiny new 160gb iPod up legally, buying each track online at the 99 cents price that the industry has determined, it would cost me about $32,226. How does that make sense? It's the ugly truth the record industry wants to ignore as they struggle to find ways to get people to pay for music in a culture that has already embraced the idea of music being something you collect in large volumes, and trade freely with your friends.

Already is the key word, because it didn't have to be this way, and that's become the main source of my utter lack of sympathy for the dying record industry: They had a chance to move forward, to evolve with technology and address the changing needs of consumers - and they didn't. Instead, they panicked - they showed their hand as power-hungry dinosaurs, and they started to demonize their own customers, the people whose love of music had given them massive profits for decades. They used their unfair record contracts - the ones that allowed them to own all the music - and went after children, grandparents, single moms, even deceased great grandmothers - alongside many other common people who did nothing more than download some songs and leave them in a shared folder - something that has become the cultural norm to the iPod generation. Joining together in what has been referred to as an illegal cartel and using the RIAA as their attack dogs, the record labels have spent billions of dollars attempting to scare people away from downloading music. And it's simply not working. The pirating community continues to out-smart and out-innovate the dated methods of the record companies, and CD sales continue to plummet while exchange of digital music on the internet continues to skyrocket. Why? Because freely-available music in large quantities is the new cultural norm, and the industry has given consumers no fair alternative. They didn't jump in when the new technologies were emerging and think, "how can we capitalize on this to ensure that we're able to stay afloat while providing the customer what they've come to expect?" They didn't band together and create a flat monthly fee for downloading all the music you want. They didn't respond by drastically lowering the prices of CDs (which have been ludicrously overpriced since day one, and actually increased in price during the '90's), or by offering low-cost DRM-free legal MP3 purchases. Their entry into the digital marketplace was too little too late - a precedent of free, high-quality, DRM-free music had already been set.

There seem to be a lot of reasons why the record companies blew it. One is that they're really not very smart. They know how to do one thing, which is sell records in a traditional retail environment. From personal experience I can tell you that the big labels are beyond clueless in the digital world - their ideas are out-dated, their methods make no sense, and every decision is hampered by miles and miles of legal tape, copyright restrictions, and corporate interests. Trying to innovate with a major label is like trying to teach your Grandmother how to play Halo 3: frustrating and ultimately futile. The easiest example of this is how much of a fight it's been to get record companies to sell MP3s DRM-free. You're trying to explain a new technology to an old guy who made his fortune in the hair metal days. You're trying to tell him that when someone buys a CD, it has no DRM - people can encode it into their computer as DRM-free MP3s within seconds, and send it to all their friends. So why insult the consumer by making them pay the same price for copy-protected MP3s? It doesn't make any sense! It just frustrates people and drives them to piracy! They don't get it: "It's an MP3, you have to protect it or they'll copy it." But they can do the same thing with the CDs you already sell!! Legal tape and lots of corporate bullshit. If these people weren't the ones who owned the music, it'd all be over already, and we'd be enjoying the real future of music. Because like with any new industry, it's not the people from the previous generation who are going to step in and be the innovators. It's a new batch.

Newspapers are a good example: It used to be that people read newspapers to get the news. That was the distribution method, and newspaper companies controlled it. You paid for a newspaper, and you got your news, that's how it worked. Until the internet came along, and a new generation of innovative people created websites, and suddenly anyone could distribute information, and they could distribute it faster, better, more efficiently, and for free. Obviously this hurt the newspaper industry, but there was nothing they could do about it, because they didn't own the information itself - only the distribution method. Their only choice was to innovate and find ways to compete in a new marketplace. And you know what? Now I can get live, up-to-the-minute news for free, on thousands of different sources across the internet - and The New York Times still exists. Free market capitalism at its finest. It's not a perfect example, but it is a part of how the internet is changing every form of traditional media. It happened with newspapers, it's happening now with music, and TV and cell phones are next on the chopping block. In all cases technology demands that change will happen, it's just a matter of who will find ways to take advantage of it, and who won't.

Unlike newspapers, record companies own the distribution and the product being distributed, so you can't just start your own website where you give out music that they own - and that's what this is all about: distribution. Lots of pro-piracy types argue that music can be free because people will always love music, and they'll pay for concert tickets, and merchandise, and the marketplace will shift and artists will survive. Well, yes, that might be an option for some artists, but that does nothing to help the record labels, because they don't make any money off of merchandise, or concert tickets. Distribution and ownership are what they control, and those are the two things piracy threatens. The few major labels left are parts of giant media conglomerations - owned by huge parent companies for whom artists and albums are just numbers on a piece of paper. It's why record companies shove disposable pop crap down your throat instead of nurturing career artists: because they have CEOs and shareholders to answer to, and those people don't give a shit if a really great band has the potential to get really successful, if given the right support over the next decade. They see that Gwen Stefani's latest musical turd sold millions, because parents of twelve year old girls still buy music for their kids, and the parent company demands more easy-money pop garbage that will be forgotten about next month. The only thing that matters to these corporations is profit - period. Music isn't thought of as an art form, as it was in the earlier days of the industry where labels were started by music-lovers - it's a product, pure and simple. And many of these corporations also own the manufacturing plants that create the CDs, so they make money on all sides - and lose money even from legal MP3s.

At the top of all this is the rigged, outdated, and unfair structure of current intellectual property laws, all of them in need of massive reform in the wake of the digital era. These laws allow the labels to maintain their stranglehold on music copyrights, and they allow the RIAA to sue the pants off of any file-sharing grandmother they please. Since the labels are owned by giant corporations with a great deal of money, power, and political influence, the RIAA is able to lobby politicians and government agencies to manipulate copyright laws for their benefit. The result is absurdly disproportionate fines, and laws that in some cases make file sharing a heftier charge than armed robbery. This is yet another case of private, corporate interests using political influence to turn laws in the opposite direction of the changing values of the people. Or, as this very smart assessment from a record executive described it: "a clear case of a multinational conglomerate using its political muscle to the disadvantage of everyone but itself." But shady political maneuvers and scare tactics are all the RIAA and other anti-piracy groups have left, because people who download music illegally now number in the hundreds of millions, and they can't sue everyone. At this point they're just trying to hold up what's left of the dam before it bursts open. Their latest victim is Oink, a popular torrent site specializing in music.

If you're not familiar with Oink, here's a quick summary: Oink was was a free members-only site - to join it you had to be invited by a member. Members had access to an unprecedented community-driven database of music. Every album you could ever imagine was just one click away. Oink's extremely strict quality standards ensured that everything on the site was at pristine quality - 192kbps MP3 was their bare minimum, and they championed much higher quality MP3s as well as FLAC lossless downloads. They encouraged logs to verify that the music had been ripped from the CD without any errors. Transcodes - files encoded from other encoded files, resulting in lower quality - were strictly forbidden. You were always guaranteed higher quality music than iTunes or any other legal MP3 store. Oink's strict download/share ratio ensured that every album in their vast database was always well-seeded, resulting in downloads faster than anywhere else on the internet. A 100mb album would download in mere seconds on even an average broadband connection. Oink was known for getting pre-release albums before anyone else on the internet, often months before they hit retail - but they also had an extensive catalogue of music dating back decades, fueled by music lovers who took pride in uploading rare gems from their collection that other users were seeking out. If there was an album you couldn't find on Oink, you only had to post a request for it, and wait for someone who had it to fill your request. Even if the request was extremely rare, Oink's vast network of hundreds of thousands of music-lovers eager to contribute to the site usually ensured you wouldn't have to wait long.

In this sense, Oink was not only an absolute paradise for music fans, but it was unquestionably the most complete and most efficient music distribution model the world has ever known. I say that safely without exaggeration. It was like the world's largest music store, whose vastly superior selection and distribution was entirely stocked, supplied, organized, and expanded upon by its own consumers. If the music industry had found a way to capitalize on the power, devotion, and innovation of its own fans the way Oink did, it would be thriving right now instead of withering. If intellectual property laws didn't make Oink illegal, the site's creator would be the new Steve Jobs right now. He would have revolutionized music distribution. Instead, he's a criminal, simply for finding the best way to fill rising consumer demand. I would have gladly paid a large monthly fee for a legal service as good as Oink - but none existed, because the music industry could never set aside their own greed and corporate bullshit to make it happen.

Here's an interesting aside: The RIAA loves to complain about music pirates leaking albums onto the internet before they're released in stores - painting the leakers as vicious pirates dead set on attacking their enemy, the music industry. But you know where music leaks from? From the fucking source, of course - the labels! At this point, most bands know that once their finished album is sent off to the label, the risk of it turning up online begins, because the labels are full of low-level workers who happen to be music fans who can't wait to share the band's new album with their friends. If the album manages to not leak directly from the label, it is guaranteed to leak once it heads off to manufacturing. Someone at the manufacturing plant is always happy to sneak off with a copy, and before long, it turns up online. Why? Because people love music, and they can't wait to hear their favorite band's new album! It's not about profit, and it's not about maliciousness. So record industry, maybe if you could protect your own assets a little better, shit wouldn't leak - don't blame the fans who flock to the leaked material online, blame the people who leak it out of your manufacturing plants in the first place! But assuming that's a hole too difficult to plug, it begs the question, "why don't labels adapt to the changing nature of distribution by selling new albums online as soon as they're finished, before they have a chance to leak, and release the physical CDs a couple months later?" Well, for one, labels are still obsessed with Billboard chart numbers - they're obsessed with determining the market value of their product by how well it fares in its opening week. Selling it online before the big retail debut, before they've had months to properly market the product to ensure success, would mess up those numbers (nevermind that those numbers mean absolutely nothing anymore). Additionally, selling an album online before it hits stores makes retail outlets (who are also suffering in all this) angry, and retail outlets have far more power than they should. For example, if a record company releases an album online but Wal-Mart won't have the CD in their stores for another two months (because it needs to be manufactured), Wal-Mart gets mad. Who cares if Wal-Mart gets mad, you ask? Well, record companies do, because Wal-Mart is, both mysteriously and tragically, the largest music retailer in the world. That means they have power, and they can say "if you sell Britney Spears' album online before we can sell it in our stores, we lose money. So if you do that, we're not going to stock her album at all, and then you'll lose a LOT of money." That kind of greedy business bullshit happens all the time in the record industry, and the consistent result is a worse experience for consumers and music lovers.

Which is why Oink was so great - take away all the rules and legal ties, all the ownership and profit margins, and naturally, the result is something purely for, by, and in service of the music fan. And it actually helps musicians - file-sharing is "the greatest marketing tool ever to come along for the music industry." One of Oink's best features was how it allowed users to connect similar artists, and to see what people who liked a certain band also liked. Similar to Amazon's recommendation system, it was possible to spend hours discovering new bands on Oink, and that's what many of its users did. Through sites like Oink, the amount and variety of music I listen to has skyrocketed, opening me up to hundreds of artists I never would have experienced otherwise. I'm now fans of their music, and I may not have bought their CDs, but I would have never bought their CD anyway, because I would have never heard of them! And now that I have heard of them, I go to their concerts, and I talk them up to my friends, and give my friends the music to listen to for themselves, so they can go to the concerts, and tell their friends, and so on. Oink was a network of music lovers sharing and discovering music. And yes, it was all technically illegal, and destined to get shut down, I suppose. But it's not so much that they shut Oink down that boils my blood, it's the fucking bullshit propaganda they put out there. If the industry tried to have some kind of compassion - if they said, "we understand that these are just music fans trying to listen to as much music as they can, but we have to protect our assets, and we're working on an industry-wide solution to accommodate the changing needs of music fans"... Well, it's too late for that, but it would be encouraging. Instead, they make it sound like they busted a Columbian drug cartel or something. They describe it as a highly-organized piracy ring. Like Oink users were distributing kiddie porn or some shit. The press release says: "This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure." Wh - what?? That's EXACTLY what it was! No one made any money on that site - there were no ads, no registration fees. The only currency was ratio - the amount you shared with other users - a brilliant way of turning "free" into a sort of booming mini-economy. The anti-piracy groups have tried to spin the notion that you had to pay a fee to join Oink, which is NOT true - donations were voluntary, and went to support the hosting and maintenance of the site. If the donations spilled into profit for the guy who ran the site, well he damn well deserved it - he created something truly remarkable.

So the next question is, what now?

For the major labels, it's over. It's fucking over. You're going to burn to the fucking ground, and we're all going to dance around the fire. And it's your own fault. Surely, somewhere deep inside, you had to know this day was coming, right? Your very industry is founded on an unfair business model of owning art you didn't create in exchange for the services you provide. It's rigged so that you win every time - even if the artist does well, you do ten times better. It was able to exist because you controlled the distribution, but now that's back in the hands of the people, and you let the ball drop when you could have evolved.

None of this is to say that there's no way for artists to make money anymore, or even that it's the end of record labels. It's just the end of record labels as we know them. A lot of people point to the Radiohead model as the future, but Radiohead is only dipping its toe into the future to test the waters. What at first seemed like a rainbow-colored revolution has now been openly revealed as a marketing gimmick: Radiohead was "experimenting," releasing a low-quality MP3 version of an album only to punish the fans who paid for it by later releasing a full-quality CD version with extra tracks. According to Radiohead's manager: "If we didn't believe that when people hear the music they will want to buy the CD then we wouldn't do what we are doing." Ouch. Radiohead was moving in the right direction, but if they really want to start a revolution, they need to place the "pay-what-you-want" digital album on the same content and quality level as the "pay-what-we-want" physical album.

Ultimately, I don't know what the future model is going to be - I think all the current pieces of the puzzle will still be there, but they need to be re-ordered, and the rules need to be changed. Maybe record labels of the future exist to help front recording costs and promote artists, but they don't own the music. Maybe music is free, and musicians make their money from touring and merchandise, and if they need a label, the label takes a percentage of their tour and merch profits. Maybe all-digital record companies give bands all the tools they need to sell their music directly to their fans, taking a small percentage for their services. In any case, the artists own their own music.

I used to reject the wishy-washy "music should be free!" mantra of online music thieves. I knew too much about the intricacies and economics of it, of the rock-and-a-hard-place situation many artists were in with their labels. I thought there were plenty of new ways to sell music that would be fair to all parties involved. But I no longer believe that, because the squabbling, backwards, greedy, ownership-obsessed major labels will never let it happen, and that's more clear to me now than ever. So maybe music has to be free. Maybe taking the money out of music is the only way to get money back into it. Maybe it's time to abandon the notion of the rock star - of music as a route to fame and fortune. The best music was always made by people who weren't in it for the money, anyway. Maybe smart, talented musicians will find ways to make a good living with or without CD sales. Maybe the record industry execs who made their fortunes off of unfair contracts and distribution monopolies should just walk away, confident that they milked a limited opportunity for all it was worth, and that it's time to find fortune somewhere else. Maybe in the hands of consumers, the music marketplace will expand in new and lucrative ways no one can even dream of yet. We won't know until music is free, and eventually it's going to be. Technological innovation destroys old industries, but it creates new ones. You can't fight it forever.

Until the walls finally come down, we're in what will inevitably be looked back on as a very awkward, chaotic period in music history - fans are being arrested for sharing the music they love, and many artists are left helpless, unable to experiment with new business models because they're locked into record contracts with backwards-thinking labels.

So what can you and I do to help usher in the brave new world? The beauty of Oink was how fans willingly and hyper-efficiently took on distribution roles that traditionally have cost labels millions of dollars. Music lovers have shown that they're much more willing to put time and effort into music than they are money. It's time to show artists that there's no limit to what an energized online fanbase can accomplish, and all they'll ever ask for in return is more music. And it's time to show the labels that they missed a huge opportunity by not embracing these opportunities when they had the chance.

1. Stop buying music from major labels. Period. The only way to force change is to hit the labels where it hurts - their profits. The major labels are like Terry Schiavo right now - they're on life support, drooling in a coma, while white-haired guys in suits try and change the laws to keep them alive. But any rational person can see that it's too late, and it's time to pull out the feeding tube. In this case, the feeding tube is your money. Find out which labels are members/supporters of the RIAA and similar copyright enforcement groups, and don't support them in any way. The RIAA Radar is a great tool to help you with this. Don't buy CDs, don't buy iTunes downloads, don't buy from Amazon, etc. Steal the music you want that's on the major labels. It's easy, and despite the RIAA's scare tactics, it can be done safely - especially if more and more people are doing it. Send letters to those labels, and to the RIAA, explaining very calmly and professionally that you will no longer be supporting their business, because of their bullish scare tactics towards music fans, and their inability to present a forward-thinking digital distribution solution. Tell them you believe their business model is outdated and the days of companies owning artists' music are over. Make it very clear that you will continue to support the artists directly in other ways, and make it VERY clear that your decision has come about as a direct result of the record company's actions and inactions regarding digital music.

2. Support artists directly. If a band you like is stuck on a major label, there are tons of ways you can support them without actually buying their CD. Tell everyone you know about them - start a fansite if you're really passionate. Go to their shows when they're in town, and buy t-shirts and other merchandise. Here's a little secret: Anything a band sells that does not have music on it is outside the reach of the record label, and monetarily supports the artist more than buying a CD ever would. T-shirts, posters, hats, keychains, stickers, etc. Send the band a letter telling them that you're no longer going to be purchasing their music, but you will be listening to it, and you will be spreading the word and supporting them in other ways. Tell them you've made this decision because you're trying to force change within the industry, and you no longer support record labels with RIAA affiliations who own the music of their artists.

If you like bands who are releasing music on open, non-RIAA indie labels, buy their albums! You'll support the band you like, and you'll support hard-working, passionate people at small, forward-thinking music labels. If you like bands who are completely independent and are releasing music on their own, support them as much as possible! Pay for their music, buy their merchandise, tell all your friends about them and help promote them online - prove that a network of passionate fans is the best promotion a band can ask for.

3. Get the message out. Get this message out to as many people as you can - spread the word on your blog or your MySpace, and more importantly, tell your friends at work, or your family members, people who might not be as tuned into the internet as you are. Teach them how to use torrents, show them where to go to get music for free. Show them how to support artists while starving the labels, and who they should and shouldn't be supporting.

4. Get political. The fast-track to ending all this nonsense is changing intellectual property laws. The RIAA lobbies politicians to manipulate copyright laws for their own interests, so voters need to lobby politicians for the peoples' interests. Contact your local representatives and senators. Tell them politely and articulately that you believe copyright laws no longer reflect the interests of the people, and you will not vote for them if they support the interests of the RIAA. Encourage them to draft legislation that helps change the outdated laws and disproportionate penalties the RIAA champions. Contact information for state representatives can be found here, and contact information for senators can be found here. You can email them, but calling on the phone or writing them actual letters is always more effective.

Tonight, with Oink gone, I find myself wondering where I'll go now to discover new music. All the other options - particularly the legal ones - seem depressing by comparison. I wonder how long it will be before everyone can legally experience the type of music nirvana Oink users became accustomed to? I'm not too worried - something even better will rise out of Oink's ashes, and the RIAA will respond with more lawsuits, and the cycle will repeat itself over and over until the industry has finally bled itself to death. And then everything will be able to change, and it will be in the hands of musicians and fans and a new generation of entrepreneurs to decide how the new record business is going to work. Whether you agree with it or not, it's fact. It's inevitable - because the determination of fans to share music is much, much stronger than the determination of corporations to stop it.

Vista-Expalined

2007-10-27T22:59:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure this was done by a bunch of windows users who just have hit their frustration point with windows...and I don't blame them!! Enjoy!

Funny Satire About Gay Marriage

2007-10-22T18:50:00.000-04:00

Though this list is labeled as American reasons, just substitute your nationality, the point will remain the same; people who oppose gay marriage are to pre-occupied with other people's lives and should maybe concentrate on their own!!!!

Ten Reasons Gay Marriage is Un-American

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

See, We Aren't Bad At All!!

2007-10-22T06:16:00.000-04:00

A great article in the Ottawa Citzen. See, a rational dogma free explanation. Original here if you'd rather read it there.

Atheists Aren't A Bad Lot
by Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen

Can we be good without God? That's a very old question believers like to ask because, I suspect, the answer is very pleasing to them.

No, they say, we cannot be good without believing in an invisible spirit who, like Santa Claus, knows when we've been bad or good. No invisible spirit, no reward or punishment. No reward or punishment, and moral codes become empty words. Inevitably, atheists must conclude that morality is for suckers -- and so believers are, ipso facto, better people than non-believers.

There was a time when there wasn't more to say on the subject. Almost everyone believed in a god or gods and those few who didn't kept their mouths shut lest others conclude they were the sort of lying, thieving, murderous wretches people inevitably become when they stop genuflecting to invisible spirits.

Alas -- some would say -- faith has eroded over the centuries. Today, substantial numbers of people have decided that until such time as there is proof of the existence of Santa Claus, they will not believe Santa Claus exists. Ditto for god. And they're open about their disbelief.

This has complicated the issue considerably because now everyone knows a few atheists who are not lying, thieving, murderous wretches. They work. They pay taxes. They have kids and don't beat them or sell them for medical experiments. How can this be?

An answer comes from the godless science of evolutionary psychology. "People have gut feelings that give them emphatic moral convictions," writes Harvard cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, "and they struggle to rationalize the convictions after the fact." Those "gut feelings" are not the result of what we learned in Sunday school. "They arise from the neurobiological and evolutionary design of the organs we call moral emotions."

Physically, humans are pretty pathetic. We're weak and slow and our fangs wouldn't frighten a raccoon. We do, however, have really big brains and, by working together, our ancient ancestors could survive and thrive. But working together required humans to follow certain rules even when doing so was contrary to their short-term interests.

Say you covet your neighbour's cave. You could just smash his skull and move in. But you need your neighbour's help in the mammoth hunt. And besides, if you smash his skull and take his cave, someone else might get the same idea. So in the long run, both your neighbour and you will be better off if everybody agrees it is wrong to smash thy neighbour's skull.

Humans who learned to restrain themselves prospered. Those who didn't vanished. Over time, the internalized rules we call morality became hard-wired instinct.

That instinct remains no matter what we believe about invisible spirits. And its force is not diminished by recognizing its origins in biology: We can no more choose not to feel moral impulses than we can choose not to feel sexual desire.

So it's no surprise to learn that atheists can be perfectly decent people. They are human, after all.

This has led believers to a subtler attack. "People who don't believe in God can be good," writes Reginald Bibby, a theist and University of Lethbridge sociologist. "But people who believe in God are more likely to value being good, enhancing the chances that they will be good."

Mr. Bibby's evidence is a widely reported poll he conducted in which higher percentages of believers than non-believers said values such as kindness, forgiveness, and patience were "very important."

"To the extent that Canadians say goodbye to God," Bibby concluded, "we may find that we pay a significant social price." So the occasional atheist may be a fine fellow but in general they're not as nice as theists and if their numbers rise society will go to hell in a handbasket.

One of the many problems with Bibby's thesis is that his poll asks about qualities that religions typically present as dogmas. Kindness is good. Period. No discussion. It just is. Same for forgiveness and all the others.

So it's no surprise that believers would simply say, yes, these are very important. That's what their dogma says. But an atheist is less likely to approach morality dogmatically. She might feel, for example, that kindness is good but she can imagine circumstances in which it's not appropriate. To reflect that, she may rate it "important" instead of "very important." That wouldn't mean she's a less moral person. It would mean she's more thoughtful.

Worse, Bibby simply assumes a link between what people casually say, what they feel, and how they behave -- an assumption belied by heaps of academic research, not to mention plain old common sense. Televangelists would get boffo scores in Bibby's poll. Does that mean they are models of moral behaviour? Anyone who believes that is invited to send a contribution to the Church of Latter Day Skeptics at the e-mail address below.

To get around this, we have to look at how people behave. As it turns out, the lowest levels of religious belief and weekly church attendance in the world -- possibly the lowest in history -- are found in Northern European countries. These societies are not lacking in basic moral qualities. In fact, they may be the most tolerant, peaceful, compassionate, orderly societies that have ever existed.

If that's the fate of countries that say goodbye to God, it will be a good day when we see the back of that old fraud.

Dan Gardner writes Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
E-mail: dgardner@thecitizen.canwest.com

A New Atheist

2007-09-18T15:44:00.000-04:00

This is funny because it's so sad. Notice who uses the swear words;the Christian or the new atheist? And as far as Christmas is concerned, it's a originally a pagan celebration of the winter solstice that was used by Christianity to further their reach. Look it up.

glumbert - Don't tell Mom you're an atheist

Thankfully my mother took it a lot better than this kid's mom.

Why Unfortunately, The Blonde Bimbo Stereotype Persists

2007-08-26T15:54:00.000-04:00

What happens when you concentrate on your appearance your whole life and neglect your brain. Someone needs to remind her that her looks are going to fade one day.

Why Some People Should Never Get Stoned

2007-08-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

Check out this idiot cop. Hilarious news story out of Detroit.

Here It Is!!

2007-07-27T16:08:00.000-04:00

Here is "My Fast" in all it's digital photo glory. The windows are now tinted, and boy does it look nice. The color is United Gray, and yes, that's 225/40 18" rubber. I'll post some better pics later on once I've had a chance to wash it. Now for the sub upgrade...

It's Here!!

2007-07-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

I picked up my GTI Friday afternoon. This car is a blast to drive! I gotta be careful though as I need to break it in. The pick-up off the line is fantastic, with all 207lbs/ft available @1800rpm. The initial fit and finish is pretty good too. The car feels solid from the doors closing, to road feel. Best part; it has an aux jack for my iPod!! It's in the glove box, but I found a way(without any drilling) to route the wire into my centre console. The factory stereo is decent, but lacks real low end for my taste. I may add a sub/amp to the factory set-up in the future. All in all, a great fun and practical car. I will post pictures soon, as I am getting the windows tinted on Wednesday. "Be one with your Fast"

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do...Now On To The Next One!!

2007-07-17T10:09:00.000-04:00

My run with my 94 Si is just about over. I got the diagnosis last Friday. I'd been noticing that the car was running hotter than normal lately. My drive clean was also due. Well it turns out my head gasket is going, which means I'm slowly eating coolant. They tried to make it pass but no dice. Best of all it's going to cost me $1400 TO START to fix it(likely more by the time it's all over). The car's worth maybe $2500 with the mileage it has, and even with my mods. Add this repair and I'd be lucky if someone would pay $1500 on the open market, considering they would have to put in another $1500 just to get it on the road legally. Well my buddy at Honda is giving me $1000 for it since he has a 93 hatch Si. He's going to swap his much lower mileage engine and A/C(mine died last year as well) into my car since my car already has the performance exhaust and only one area of rust compared to his car. Being that he works at Honda he can do this for a lot less than I could.

Now for the good news. I'M GETTING A GTI!!!!!! 2007 in United Gray, 5dr w/DSG automatic, 18" wheels and sunroof. I took a manual one out for a test drive and this car is amazing. I'm getting the automatic so the wife can drive it if need be(rarely lol) plus I'm getting old and lazy. Seriously, it's got paddle shifting and a manual mode so I can control the gearing. It's a lease to start, and if it's not a lemon, I'll buy it out at the end. Can't wait to start enjoying "My Fast"!!!

Ain't It The Truth!!!

2007-07-09T16:11:00.000-04:00

What men and women really mean!!

The iPhone Is Finally Here...Sort of.

2007-07-02T13:51:00.000-04:00

Well the iPhone is finally available, but only for our American friends. We will have to wait here in Canada, rumor says closer to the end of the year through Rogers, since they are the only GSM provider in Canada. While I have no need for a "smartphone"(though my sister's boyfriend's Blackberry Pearl is really cool...he works for RIM)I want one of these. Based on the reviews that are out there, the user experience is phenomenal. The touch screen interface looks like it's light years ahead of everything else. I have to wait now until September 2008 before my Bell Mobility contract is up. (they get no link cause they pissed me off, as you might remember from this post). By that time they might be on the second generation .

Main point is that the iPhone is important for every cell phone user whether you want one or not. This thing has the potential to change the way cell phones are made and the way carriers behave. While I'm admittedly an Apple fanboy, several people have mentioned the reason the phone has gotten so much press and attention is because by and large, most people just tolerate their cell phones, no one really loves them. The iPhone is a phone you can love, like your MP3 player, or a cool laptop. Now I'm counting down until next September!

Here, Here!!! Give Her A Raise!!

2007-06-27T12:23:00.000-04:00

Finally a journalist who wants to do here job. If they even think of firing her, they will sure hear about!

Pretty Bad Parody, With One Saving Grace

2007-06-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

Hillary Clinton had this parody done up as part of the announcement of what her official campaign song would be. Can you figure out what show and and scene they are parodying? Hint: The shifty stranger was in the original show. Overall it's actually a pretty crappy parody with Hillary and Bill acting really stiff, but for me, that guest appearance makes up a little for it.

Mac Or PC, The Rap Battle

2007-06-21T16:23:00.000-04:00

Pretty funny. Enjoy!

Wonder Why Your Service Support Call Ends Up In India?

2007-06-13T16:14:00.000-04:00

Cartoon spells it out beautifully. I'd like to think Canada as a population never buys into ANY religious zealotry.

The Soprano's Bow Out

2007-06-12T05:17:00.000-04:00

Honestly I don't really get all the fuss about the last show. I thought it was great! It wasn't cliched which to me would have sucked. If he was redeemed and "saw the light", that would have been bull, which the show really wasn't about. If he'd been "whacked" it would have been to obvious. Like one of A.J.'s last lines, "remember the good times". The "shock" to black(no fade to black) was stark and obviously effective based on all the complaining on the net. Hell, Phil's getting run over was worth the price of admission alone!

Bravo David Chase, for giving us a show that really pulled no punches with it's characters. If it wasn't for The Soprano's, a show like House would never have existed. Now to back and watch all it over from the beginning. Thank goodness for DVD!!

Why Cell Phone Service Providers Are Like Political Parties

2007-06-09T15:30:00.000-04:00

I've come to the conclusion that cell phone service providers are just like political parties; no matter who you go with, they will screw you in the end! Having dealt with Bell Mobility to today has led me to this conclusion.

A month ago I went into a Bell Mobility(screw them, I'm not linking) store to see when I could possibly upgrade my cell phone since mine is starting to crap out. Now I still have just over a year to go on my 36 month contract. I was told then that as of June 9 I could get $100 off the regular price of any phone. So I walk into the Bell Mobility store to get a newer phone and guess what, now it's only $50 and I'd have to wait until September! Pissed off, and at the insistence of the clerk who actually helpful, I called Bell Mobility directly and let it rip(being mindful and telling the person at the other end, this wasn't directed at them personally, but at the crappy customer relations, as a company they were providing. Hey, I worked a call centre job for a year, so I understand). Bell Mobility being the only cell carrier I have ever used and with for the last 11 years, I asked that something be done, otherwise I'm walking when my term is up, thanks now to number portability. After being on hold for 5 minutes, I was told that as a one time exception, I would get my $100 off the regular price of any phone...AS LONG AS I RENEWED FOR ANOTHER 3 YEARS!!!! So let me see. If I was a new customer, I would get a new phone at a deeply discounted rate for 3 years, but because I'm upgrading for another 3 years as a long time customer, I get $100 of the regular price? KISS MY ASS!!! Hopefully my phone will get by until next year, and then I walking to Rogers. Yeah, I've heard they're crap to, but at least they'll have the iPhone by then hopefully, which I may consider, and my wife and I could have a couple plan. I think it's time, just like in politics, I give someone else a chance to screw me.

This Is Quite Sad

2007-06-06T15:57:00.000-04:00

Watch the video below. Even though there is laughing from a studio audience watching this, it's quite sad the lack of knowledge by some of these Americans(New Yorkers even to boot!!). I'm sure this was edited to effect, but the fact that they don't know or remember speaks to the fact George W Bush has been able to get away with what he has. If the general public is this ignorant, then they shouldn't complain about their government. Pathetic and sad.

Is It Wrong To Laugh At This?

2007-05-10T20:25:00.000-04:00

Now you may accuse me of not being empathetic, but I'd like to think I reserve my empathy for people who genuinely deserve it, not this spoiled brat who assumes the rules of the real world don't apply to her, like so many celebrities.

American Defence Contractors Are Idiots!!

2007-05-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

Check out this article from the Northwest Florida Daily News. Remember those poppy quarters that came out as part of Rememberence Day, and that story about Canada using coins as part of some spy plot? Well here's the story. To quote The Kinks; "Paranoia will destroy ya!!"

Paris Hilton...

2007-05-05T09:48:00.000-04:00

...goes to jail. "That's Hot". Hahahahaha!! It feels so good to hear that this talentless airhead who's only reason for celebrity is HER PARENT'S money, is not above the law. And a womens jail too! Maybe we'll see a new video. We can hope! Then again after seeing the first one, maybe not. She's not that great a lay.

Some Real Perspective On Earth Day!

2007-05-05T09:41:00.000-04:00

Call me a cynic, but tell me Lewis Black isn't right on!! Pretty damn funny too!

Practical Use Of The Force!!

2007-04-30T15:58:00.000-04:00

I knew Darth Vader had some redeeming qualities!!

Kermit's Hit Some Hard Times!!

2007-04-08T16:16:00.000-04:00

Man this is funny and not for safe for work, so you've been warned!

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Sex

2007-03-25T10:08:00.000-04:00

I love #2 since it slams down that whole Catholic "sex just for pro-creation" bull we learned in Catholic school. I mean nobody really believes it but hey, you know the Vatican and change. Also watch out for those bats guys! They might be friendlier than you think! Here's a link to the original site.

1. The typical lovemaking session lasts around 15 minutes: roughly 10 to 12 minutes of foreplay and around 3 to 5 minutes of intercourse.

2. Humans aren't the only horny members of the animal kingdom doing it just for fun. Dolphins and a type of chimpanzee called the bonobo have also been observed engaging in sexual activity when they are not in their natural reproductive cycles.

3. While Viagra has made erectile dysfunction (affecting 10 to 12 percent of men) a household phrase, the opposite problem -- premature ejaculation -- is more common (affecting 24 to 27 percent of men). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently reviewing a drug called dapoxetine as a cure for this problem.

4. Crank up that thermostat... orgasms may be more intense in warmer conditions. The degree of vasocongestion, reddening or darkeing of the skin known as the "sex flush," is both more common in warmer temperatures and an indication of how intense an orgasm may be.

5. If a woman experiences orgasm during sex, she is more likely to become pregnant, since orgasmic spasms in pelvic muscles help move sperm up the vaginal canal to the uterus.

6. Homosexuality is not unique to humans. Many species have been observed engaging in homosexual activity, and in fact male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of all mammals.

7. On any given day 400,000,000 people around the world -- 1 in 17 of us -- will have sexual intercourse. Broken down further, 4,000 people are having sex at any given time.

8. Sex cures headaches. Endorphins released into our bloodstream when we have sex not only give us pleasure but also act as painkillers. Useful information to whip out the next time your partner uses a headache as a reason to say no.

9. Many elderly can and do have frequent sex. At age 70, 73% of males are still potent, and 30% of women 80 or older have still have sex.

10. 70% of women would rather eat choclate than have sex.

Sources: The Kinsey Report, Wikipedia, American Urology Association

Everything But The Kitchen Sink!!

2007-03-12T15:49:00.000-04:00

Watch this video and have a howl. It's a band from Norway called Hurra Torpedo covering Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Using and old fridge as a bass drum is pure genius!! Love the stove crashing!

P.S. Thanks to Amber & Leo for mentioning this post on Net@Nite (link here or on the side). Now the rest of the TWiT Army can marvel at the genius that is Hurra Torpedo. Also check out my new song "It's Not Enough" at Stage.FM .

Wow, I've Been Lazy!!!

2007-03-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in ages. Just pure laziness, I'll admit. I've passed my night class mid-term in the mean time and I'm planning to take the next course on internet programming, which scares me since I have no coding experience at all. The closest I've come is cut and pasting with HTML code but not actual manual coding, so who knows. It's going to be two nights a week so it will be coming fast and hard. Hopefully it all sticks.

I also picked up a external hard drive finally to back up my computer. Considering how much music and pictures I have with out a proper back up, I was playing with fire. Nowadays, your gambling if you don't have a second copy of your important computer data, because it's not a matter of if your hard drive fails, but when. A Western Digital 500GB My Book with Firewire(very important to me since most now just have USB) and USB for $250 at Costco is a steal, so no excuse to be safe than sorry.

I'll try be more regular in my posting. To all you married men I'll leave you this...

Thankfully I don't need a subscription...I think. Cheers!

Valentine's Day 2007

2007-02-14T15:33:00.001-05:00

What a day! We got pounded with a snow storm as you can see. One hell of a workout though shoveling it all. The snow bank I built as I shoveled are now 5 feet high(as tall as Anna!)! Great trenches for snowball fights!

Well my beautiful wife got me an iPod shuffle to add to my iPod collection(at this point that's what it is! If women can have multiple purses and shoes to suit the occasion and purpose, why can't I have that with iPods?). She even had it engraved as you can see. Yes, I'm a very lucky man. I got her a lovely ring with her birthstone(topaz) but it was half a size to big so I'm exchanging it but now she would like another style(she picked this one out initially but now found another one she likes better). Well now it's ordered and she's keeping this one...she thinks...yeah...maybe... She's very decisive isn't she! And she wonders why I find it difficult to shop for her!?! Good thing she's sexy and smart!

To end off, here's a funny video I found of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs if they were to duke it out. "iPhone bitch!!"
Enjoy!

The Global Warming Hoax

2007-02-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

I've always been a skeptic of the global warming environmental movement. It's not that we shouldn't conserve or find better energy alternatives, but "the sky is gonna fall and we're causing it" mentality is a little suspect. This article here by a climatologist backs up my suspicions that it's more a political movement rather than a rational response to our environment. It's pretty ballsy nowadays to go against the "conventional wisdom" that humans are causing all our environmental woes. Anyway it's an interesting read and may open your eyes to the other side of the argument. Al Gore oversimplifies as far as I'm concerned.

These Pictures Say It All!!

2007-02-03T18:53:00.000-05:00

These maybe possibly fake, but as far as I'm concerned, it damn accurate!

Bill, Now Your Just Making Shit Up!!!

2007-02-03T11:05:00.000-05:00

I believe in healthy competition in the market place. That's how you and I, the consumer win and end up getting the best product for the best price. So it's with that in mind I'm going to talk about Bill Gates and this interview he had with Newsweek about the release of Windows Vista. Now I'm not going to knock Vista completely. It looks real slick and has a lot of cool features and functionality. Having said that, here's a reality check about some of his claims in the article.

He claims Vista is the first operating system to have parental controls. First for Microsoft but not the first OS, since Apple's OS X has had parental controls for a couple years now. He then goes on to claim that everyday,EVERYDAY, there is a new exploit to completely
take over OS X. HUH?? If there is, no one in the tech community on BOTH sides has found it. And the ONE that was, required the user to accept something and allow it to happen(you know, clicking on things your not sure about). He then dares anyone to find that sort of exploit for Windows. Where has he been, under a rock? If you leave a Windows system on a network unprotected, without the user doing A SINGLE THING, that computer can be completely taken over as a bot computer(ie. a computer that will act like a zombie to forward spam and mass blitz websites).

Like I said competition is a good thing, but outright lying and mis-labeling your competition is just sad and pathetic. What ya scared of Bill, that people may be finally waking up to the fact that for the average home user, a Mac makes more sense. Windows machine serve their purpose, no doubt, but like I tell anyone who asks, get a Mac for home if you want a computer to manage your music, pictures and home movies. You will pay a little more than a PC but you will get a hell of a lot more useful applications right out of the box and a more pleasant user experience.

Starting The Basement Finally & A Very Accurate Comic

2007-01-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Well I finally have gotten started on finishing our basement, with a little, I mean a lot of help from my best friend Joe. It's insulated now and we have the sub floor material, so it's a start. Don't really have a time plan to finish everything, but I figure when ever Joe is available to help me(because I really have no clue what I'm doing) is when the next chunk will get done.

Check out this comic.

Says it all as far as I'm concerned!!

Sorry Honda, But Torque Wins! Also Cool Song/Video

2007-01-06T13:45:00.000-05:00

Last night I finally got to drive the new VW GTI. If you haven't heard about this car it is a powerhouse hot compact. Turbocharged 2.0L 4 cylinder 200hp, 207 lbs/ft of torque. The thing is amazing! I love Honda but I think I've found my next car. They offer it in 4 door, plus they offer it with a DSG 6spd automatic that is probably the best transmission in production right now. Yes a die hard Honda man is now planning on buying a VW, but man if you drive it you'll understand! See what I mean below.

Also check this really cool song/video from Badly Drawn Boy. I discovered it last night while putting together an IKEA sideboard. I had Bravo in the background and they played this video. I heard it and it caught my ear. The video is something that most are not today, unique. Enjoy!

Music Page Update

2007-01-02T23:54:00.000-05:00

Just to update everyone that my Audiri.com page has changed. The site has changed it's name to Stage.FM which should be easier to remember and spell. So my url there is now stage.fm/moniz. If you go there using the old url, it will redirect for the time being. The link on the side here has been renamed and adjusted. Adjust your bookmarks accordingly. Cheers!

Happy New Year!!

2007-01-01T13:10:00.000-05:00

Well 2007 has arrived and 2006 has been regulated to the dust bin. Thankfully. It was not a good year overall with the death of my father in law, but we, as many others who have lost loved ones must and will persevere.

We rang in the New Year by going out to dinner with both our mothers (great steak!) and then watching the Beverly Hills Cop Marathon on Bravo. Man are we a bunch of party animals or what! My mother in law and my wife were both half asleep when the big moment arrived. Personally now that I'm a little older I prefer my New Years celebrations to be more low key. It's just a number anyway. Do you get excited when the odometer in your car rolls over? I know I don't so what's another year? Hope as always the new year is better than the last.

Hussein Hanged Video(The Real Deal)

2006-12-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

I'm posting this because I can. If you don't want to see it then don't play it, but I don't believe in censorship so if want to see here it is as long as Google keeps it up.

I still don't agree with the death penalty for anyone, even Saddam. As a punishment what does it really accomplish? He's no longer a danger and killing him won't prevent other nuts out there. Hell it may even inflame some of his supporters. I'm no pacifist and would kill to defend or an imminent threat, but the death penalty meets neither of these criteria.

How Painful Is This?!?!

2006-12-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

Dear god!!!!!! I had to post this because it's so goddamn bad!!! I know nothing is sacred(as it should be!) but this is just brutal!! Now to purge the memory of ever seeing this!!!

Ahhhhhhh!! Much better!!!

Sun of God??? And Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T11:31:00.000-05:00

Being an atheist, I find the claims in this little presentation interesting. I'm not sure that they are particularly true(some of it does have a conspiracy theory feel to it), but they do raise some interesting points and questions. Just watch and think about the points raised.

Either way it's the spirit of the season, not "the reason for the season" that ultimately matters, so in that spirit, Merry Christmas to everyone out there and please be safe, if not for yourself then for your loved ones who care about you. Cheers!

"Pull It Into Hug Harbour"...

2006-12-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

...that's all I have to say! Though "hug it out bitch" would have been good!!

Rudolph..A Different Telling of The Tale

2006-12-11T21:17:00.000-05:00

Pretty funny. This is still my favourite Christmas show, but this version takes the cake! Sorry Diane for scarring you,hehehehe!!

A Charlie Brown Christmas-The Alternate Ending

2006-12-11T21:12:00.000-05:00

Stick this in your stocking! Well I found this funny!

Bob Saget Set's The Record Straight!

2006-12-11T21:09:00.000-05:00

Apparently most of the world doesn't realize that Bog Saget is one foul mouthed comic. I love it!!!