The last of Facebook

Finally I have the last of the images from Facebook. Most are from the 24 hour Montreal Marathon of 2007, some are pictures of my cats when they were less than a year old. I have posted the pictures here for reference, my cats used to be that small!

See this is good technique, notice how my right skate is near parallel with the left, except I should have held the left in the air longer. (Posted July 19, 2007)
lame lame lame, WTF!! Why am I doing a set down of the right foot while the left has not even started the push! (Posted July 19, 2007)
Posted July 19, 2007
See Eric? He's the guy with the medal, he just skated almost 500km in a 24 period, without taking more than a few very short (i.e. 5 minute brakes). (Posted July 19, 2007)
Okay, this is a pretty acceptable thing to see, except my right leg is now pushing at a perpendicular, not good. (Posted July 19, 2007)
WTF? Now my left leg is at a perpendicular to my direction of travel, not good. (Posted July 19, 2007)
Jacky has good technique, I totally dont. (Posted July 19, 2007)
Posted July 19, 2007
What the hell am I doing? Coasting when I am the skater with the batton!! (Posted July 19, 2007)

Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last! No more Facebook for this Crackberry hater. (And anyone ever tries to tell me to get back on Facebook is gonna get a smart bottom!)

Over the next few weeks I'd like to explore something new, there is an article in the August 2006 issue of Scientific American Magazine on the subject of Supersonic Combustion RAM Jets (or SCRAM Jets) and their applications on a space plane. Inspired by this article I would like to describe, in boring technically accurate detail how my grandchildren will go into Earth Orbit just as easily as I go to Vancouver, or Shanghai today.

First pictures of my custom skates

These were the first pictures of my custom skates from Facebook. (Two more photo albums left then new content, and no more facebook. I promise.)

Although I have been told the skates have shipped, actually got the email to my Blackberry last night while at the Toronto Inline Skate Club (TISC) practice, the only thing I have to go on at this point is this marketing image. It turns out there was some confusion, but the end retailer is going to set me right, course until things get fixed I am stuck on my old K2s and Rollerblades. Oh well! (Posted August 29, 2007)

Here is the original packaging, prior to opening, and open it up we get... (posted August 30, 2007)

WTF!!! I ordered black skates, these are white. Bont calls it Pesti white, I call it Vile white! Damnit, after shipping to the wrong address, waiting, litterally ten months, they get my order wrong. I am never getting Bont again! (Posted August 30, 2007)

This is the box the re-shelled Vaypors came in. I sent to China to get re-shelled, so after arriving from China, being sent back to China and then returning to Canada, three trips across the Pacific Ocean in 30 days! (Posted September 26, 2007)

I open the box and... Ah ha! They are black! Sweet! (posted September 26, 2007)

The flash from the camera makes them look kind of disgusting actually. But I am sure once I get some frames and wheels attached they will be a sight to see. (Posted September 26, 2007)

My customs, notice the large wheels, those are 110mm in diameter... 110 wheels baby!! (posted September 26, 2007)

The blue wheels really don't work, they are Gyro F2-110, but doesn't matter, I am saving my Yellow Matters (F1110) for Scooters (indoor). (posted September 26, 2007)

A third and final view, I cannot take a picture of the weight of these things, but far and away the heaviest component is the wheel and bearings, frames and boots weigh next to nothing. (posted September 26, 2007)

An Email disclaimer we can all live with and other things.

Notice: The information contained in this email is not confidential, if it were we would have encrypted the email since unencrypted email is about as confidential as the New York Times Magazine. If you are not the intended recipient, you really should get a life and stop reading other people's email, you may disclose or use the information, (like we could actually stop you with stern language) especially since destroying any copies of a message is pretty much impossible, with all the backups and redundant disk systems out there, destroying an email is sort of like find Osama Bin Unfound him, you know its possible, just not really feasible and wouldn't actually do any good if you managed to achieve your objective. I don't stand behind a single word in this message anyway so who the hell cares!



An unrelated aside, I have found my new religion, but guys, sometimes I have to use Yahoo... second thought, no, I don't. Alright sign me up!



Finally here is an image from Facebook I deleted before I posted to my blog.

From the left, Morgan Williams, Mike Lin, Michael Cole, Herb Gayle.

More images

Below are more photos from Facebook. As I post here I remove the images from my Facebook profile. With time I expect to remove all the images. Then I can finally get rid of that useless account.

The image above is me, naturally. Lesley was so inspired by my picture where I stuck my tongue out she made me do it again this time with a close up. Incidentally the trees in the background are close to the centre of power as you can see in the images below.
The couple in this image are my in-laws. This picture was taken during the congressional recess of the summer 2006. Curiously there was a police presence in DC the likes of which I had never before seen. Its a shame, Americans should be able to tour the capital unhindered (okay I'm not American, but if my friend from Rochester wanted to take a tour of the capital he'd have to arrange it with his Congressman first.)

This image is from August 2001.

This image was also taken during the congressional recess of the summer 2006. Over my left shoulder is where the United States House of Representatives convene, over my right shoulder is the US Senate. Like I said above, those trees are closer to the centre of power than just about any other trees in the World.

This picture was taken from Liberty Island in the summer of 2006. Behind us is the Battery and over my left shoulder you can make out the Brooklyn bridge. It started pouring cats and dogs just after the picture was taken.

This is the national mall, taken from the lowest steps of the US Capital facing the Lincoln Memorial. The man on a horseback is part of the Civil War Memorial, I cannot remember who he was, probably General Grant. The pool is part of the civil war memorial and not the famous reflecting pool which is beyond the Washington Monument. (The Vietnam Veterans memorial and Lincoln Memorial are about 4km away just a little to the right and directly downrange respectively. The Whitehouse is just a few hundred meters to the right of the Washington Monument.)

Photos from the summer 2001.

Facebook Images

Below are images from my Facebook profile, they were taken by Georg and put on his Flicker account. (To my knowldge Georg does not have a blog.) The photo's in today's post were all put on my Facebook account Sept. 28, 2007.

Me, just about to put my helmet and wrist guards on, total distance covered, 0!! (Munro Foster in the background)This is me gone round the bend! (Actually that looks like a pretty decent cross over.)

Me, chasing Candy Wong, I'm doing cross over's that's why my right foot isn't comming up clean... I hope that's why.

I think my left leg is in recovery here, if it is about to perform a set down this is a good stride, if it just came up in the air, this is really BAD.

Here I am chasing Jay Brown, I wonder why his leg is out so far... then again Jay takes HUGE strides.

I love how this image suggests movement, you don't see that when everything is perfectly clear.

So this is why Jay's strides in a cross over are so wide, when he crosses over, he really crosses over!

I think I was about to adjust my skates, they were pretty uncomfortable by this point. (New skates always are.)

On skating

Today I donated blood, for the 58'th time. (If one donation can save three lives, then the way I see it, 174 people owe me a big one, not that I ever expect to be paid back, but it sure would be nice,... maybe a tax deduction?)

Anyway on my way to the clinic I walked past Nathan Phillips Square where people were ice skating on the reflecting pool. Ice skating is a funny thing, if a person does not know what they are doing, watching them try to remain upright on ice is a pathetic sight to behold. But a reasonably good skater on ice is so graceful, far more so than an inline skater. Its hardly any wonder that figure skating is such a popular spectator sport whereas 'roller dancing' goes almost unpracticed. One of these days I will break down and buy a pair of ice skates, but the problem I have found is the sporting goods stores only seem to have hockey skates and I am not sure I want to spend hundreds of dollars more on speed skates.

On a totally unrelated aside, I have decided to phase out my Facebook account. Besides being a good way to find out that my taste in movies is eccentric (to put things mildly) frankly Facebook seems like a mammoth waste of time. At least ten years from now I can read my old blog postings and find out what thought processes were zipping through my mind in late November of 2007. With Facebook things are ephemeral.

So in honour of the end of my Facebook profile I am including a picture that I have yanked from the site:

(Facebook caption) My brand new Bont Vaypors with 3point frames, and Gyro F2110 wheels. Outside on the track for the first time ever! (Picture posted on September 28, 2007.)

On The West Wing and dysfunctional US politics

Every time I use the Elliptical Machine I watch the Television. Rather than try to keep my mind occupied during commercials I put on DVDs, often old T.V. shows. Not for the first time, I have been working my way through NBCs award winning, The West Wing. The other night, I saw In Excelsis Deo, an episode from the middle of the first season.

Now I am going to make a confession, which will probably surprise next to nobody. I am a sentimental sap. Show me the scene from The Shawshank Redemption where Morgan Freeman walks towards Tim Robbins on the beach at the end of the movie and I get good and moved. Well show me the scene in In Excelsis Deo where "Toby Ziegler" and "Delores Landingham" are at the homeless Korean war Vet's funeral and I'm reduced to tears.


Although I'm not so sure if its the fact that Aaron Sorkin has a way with his writing, or the music. Rather I am inclined to think its something else entirely.


For most people who read this, it is not overly difficult to go take a trip to the District of Columbia. Its a very worthwhile adventure, besides the astoundingly good, free, museums, the District has some spectacular architecture amid some absolute squalor. But the reason I bring up DC is not the museums, although seeing Apollo 11 in the flesh is something to behold, or the DaVinci (eat your heart out Ottawa, the Americans really know fine art). Rather the reason I bring up DC is the memorials.


Take a trip to DC in the late Autumn when it is cold and rainy, and then go for a walk from the Capitol along The Mall to the Lincoln memorial. Stop enroute at the Civil War Memorial near the Capitol, the World War II memorial the reflecting pool. Read the Gettysburg Address (it was too dark and I should have brought my glasses, so maybe print a hard copy and bring it with) on the wall of the Lincoln memorial, then walk over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and get really depressed. Remember that on that wall is the names of some 50 thousand boys who died, and for what? So that America could well be worse off than if the war had never happened. (It does not include the names of the 2 million or so Vietnamese people who died for pretty much the same lack of reason.) Touch a few of the names, embedded in that black stone, and remember, that the name your finger is following was someones husband or boyfriend, a son or maybe even a father and he's dead. Did he want to be there? Probably not. Did he want to serve? Probably no on that count too, after all during Vietnam America had the draft. The boys who went to fight no more wanted to be there than Rush 'medical deferment' Limbaugh.


When you are done at what really is a Wall of Shame go walk over to the Korean War memorial and if you still aren't moved, then all I can suggest is mental help might do some good. While I was in DC in December of 2006 at the Vietnam memorial all I could think to myself is, in twenty years they're gonna have to build another wall like this for the Iraq war. It all seemed so hopeless and futile.


Well when you are done at The Mall, go walk back to The White House and keep going through Lafayette Park at the intersection of Eye/I Street (yes it actually has two different spellings depending on which block you are on) and 17'th Street North West you have the choice of facing the US Department of Veterans Affairs, or across the intersection (kitty corner) is McPherson Square. Every time I walked by that block the number of homeless people in the square and at the VA was staggering! You want another reason to cry, think about those homeless people, and why they are almost certainly congregating at the VA. They fought for their country, they gave what Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion and this is how they are treated.


I should be frothing at the mouth angry that a society would treat its citizens this way. But I can not its just too emotionally tiring. So many boys, that is what they were, too poor, or just unlucky to get 4-F, skip the country, go to school, so they ended up getting completely messed up in South East Asia. You want a good reason to cry, think about those homeless people and then go read the text of the Gettysburg address.

On Guitar playing

Lesley has taken an interest in playing the guitar. Which is going to be rather complicated for her as she has long nails. For myself I used to play many many years ago but pretty much stopped when I went off to Waterlooooser to learn how to screw up computers. Its a shame really, I used to be pretty good on the guitar.

Today I tried to play the opening riff to Day Tripper and it took me about ten minutes just to remember how. Possibly more upsetting was the condition of the guitar, I really need to get it serviced, besides new strings the glue is starting to give on the bridge and I ought to get the frets sanded down a little, particularly the first fret, it is sticking out like a sore thumb.

In other news I bought a new vacuum cleaner! Exciting stuff! This vacuum is replacing the other three, or four? the cleaning lady broke. I want someone to explain to me how it is possible that in 30 or so months she has broken more vacuums than I have in 30 years? Oh that's right, I use a broom and dustpan. (Still on the set I bought when we moved in here three years ago.) For those of you who are wondering, I am an anal retentive tidy freak, so once a week I clean the house and to ensure that I have a life, once a week we have a cleaning lady do the dirty work.

Lesley has just declared that she loves Eric Clapton. Something tells me I shouldn't be jealous, but I want to know, whats wrong with those fine, well dressed, English lads from Liverpool?

Anyway I'm short for entertaining things to write about so I will stop here for now, but tomorrow expect a proof a Fermat's Last Theorem, I think I found a way to shrink Wile's proof down to a marginal note.

Uninspired

Lesley and I went "rock" climbing at Rock Oasis yesterday. It was a difficult experience for me, chiefly because I suffer from a most unbelievable vertigo. Ironically, this fear does not manifest itself in high buildings or airplanes, just when I am climbing up the side of a cliff.

Prior to climbing the safety systems were explained in detail, one thing I noticed though, was that for all the redundancy in the knots and harness there is a staggering lack of fault tolerance in the pulley or the rope. If either of those had failed... well a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Anyway I have decided to make a go of writing an article for 2600 Magazine inspired as it were by a particularly badly written article about building your own home network. (My article would probably be on building a proper fault tolerant Internet access using BGP to ensure availability across multiple Internet connections.) If I do get it written, I will not use a hacker alias, and I will cross post it to this blog.

On an unrelated note, Andrew thanks for the skating advice, I will attempt to remember it next time I am on the trail.

Skating and The Daily Show

I was just reviewing the video of my skating in Hamilton and I noticed a very bad toe flick. Oh well something for me to work on.

In other skating related news, the not so wise people who run the Montreal 24 hour marathon sent out an email. In that email the September race date was explained:

Why the later date? Primarily for safety reasons, Parc Jean Drapeau has decided that from now on, races will be held on different dates than other kinds of events, thus avoiding interference from cars and pedestrians on the track. This means that the 2008 edition will take place entirely on the main track, without any detour through the woods.

Alright, recently I decided to avoid ranting about skating because it causes so much grief and a good deal of skater politics that I really could live without thank you very much. But this is idiotic. Running a 24 hour race in Montreal in September when evening temperatures fall to near freezing is just begging for some serious cases of hypothermia, but at least this year no one will have to skate though the woods at mid day when the chance of a wipe out is just so appallingly huge that I don't think it even happened once last year. Honestly what are these people thinking? Is it really the case that they wanted it in September or was it just maybe a case of, oops, we can't book the track for July or August cause someone at our end dropped the ball? When I am alone on a trail skating I love the sport, but it seems to be that as more people get involved the worse things get and soon enough I feel like screaming: get me out of this insanity! Skater politics, so petty it transcends childish.

Enough of that politics, onto the real thing.

I am slowly recovering from my Daily Show withdraw. Despite the continuing WGA strike I find John Stewart, without writers, is really on fire, the man is genius. After watching a re-run of last night's Daily Show I could not be bothered to move and saw some of Stephen Colbert. Colbert replayed an interview with Bill O'Reilly of Faux News infamy. Bill said something to the effect of John and Stephen can't find a camera without their screen writers. It is a shame really, O'Reilly has so many viewers yet it is no secret his viewers are among the least informed in America, meanwhile viewers of The Daily Show are better informed of current events than viewers of any regular television news program, even the Jim Lehrer News Hour on PBS.

At the end of the Colbert report, Stephen interviewed, Neil Shubin, the author of Your Inner Fish who said something interesting. Specifically, Shubin said humans are now evolving not because of evolution but because of our own medicines and machines, 25 years from now we might be entirely different because of our own inventiveness. All I could think of was the line in Understanding Media the Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan, We shape the tools and thereafter the tools shape us. It seems like every year, Understanding Media becomes less complicated and more prophetic. The first time I read that book, in 1998 it was a horribly complicated read, I wonder what I would make of it today.

Aaaack! My Technique is HORRIBLE!!

So as I wrote earlier, I went skating outside this weekend. Here are the pictures, thanks to Candy Wong, (see Dream Chaser on Wheels).

Ironically just before this picture was taken I had complained that 3-point frames seemed like a marketing gimmick. Then one of my bolts came loose and the only indicator was the rattle, Mike Lin, is seen here helping me tighten the bolt.

Here I am leading the pack, my left foot set down was too early, my right foot should be further into the push when the left foot hits the ground.

Once again I lead the pack, with a really awful set down. Candy Wong is the one in the Toronto Inline Skate Club (TISC) skin suit in the foreground.

Its common for skaters to keep their hands behind their back, its common and as it turns out, wrong. In addition, what the hell are both skates doing on the ground at the same time?

See, its the same damned problem all over again, hands behind my back, feet together, (one should be pushing). And another problem, I'm all bent over at the small of my back, the bend should be at the ankles and knees, hardly anything in the lower back. Damn I've got a lot to work on.

One final addition, Candy took a video of me skating here, the part where I take my jacket off while skating is an example of exceptionally poor technique.

More Random Thoughts

There is a story that circulated around The Internet some time ago, I have no idea if this was a moral tale, the dangers of all languages besides English, or just another effort to make fun of the French but anyway. The story goes, at a convention of NATO generals the supreme French general protests that everyone is speaking English, to which the Australian general responds, that were it not for the English, Americans, Canadians and of course Australian's, the French general would be speaking German!

For years the notion was the English language promoted democratic government. After all the great democracies all spoke English, America, India, The UK, etc. Well I was just glancing at yesterday's Globe and Mail and there was an article:

Dateline: Washington DC, Friday January 11, 2008 (AFP, The Canadian Press)
Protesters in prison-style orange jumpsuits staged demonstrations around the world [today] to mark six years since the U.S. prison camp opened at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Police arrested about 80 protesters outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington.

Amnesty International, which organized the protests, also sent a list of recommendations to presidential candidates, backed by signatures from more than 1,200 legislators around the world. So far, none from Canada have signed the list.

I have a confession to make, I am once again embarrassed to be called a Canadian. We should be protesting this prison just like everyone else, it's wrong. Remarkable isn't it, two words describe so much about this so called "war on terror", it's wrong. It is all wrong. Its not a war on an emotional state, that is not a winnable proposition. What we have going on is a fiction, its an effort to sustain the wealth of large corporations within the United States.

Think about it, if you want to stop terrorism you have to start by asking the forensic question, what is their motive? This quickly leads to some very embarrassing questions regarding the foreign policy of the United States and The West in general. We had a moral obligation to Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out. We should never have involved ourselves in the unfortunate mess that was English relations with Iran (Iran had an infant democracy, why didn't America stick to her ideals and not intervene, tell the English to buy oil from Texas if Iran wasn't playing nice.)

Assuming we wanted to stop terrorism today would it make sense to piss off the entirety of West Asia for Weapons of Mass Distraction? Remember WMD? The reason the America's went into Iraq? Ooops, turns out there weren't any. It also turns out that even before the invasion the United States Government knew there were going to be problems, just Google Search "Future of Iraq Project" but who wants to worry about a long occupation and nation building when you can get such a turn on landing jets on aircraft carriers!

Ultimately the real problem is, its just too easy for all of us to be distracted by the petty and unimportant things, POTUS Bush lands an S-3 on the USS Abraham Lincoln and half the male population of the United States wets their pants. Meanwhile an insurgency is brewing in the place where major combat operations are "over"... oops! And really who wants to read my angry rantings about politics when its so much easier to go outside and play? It seems to me we would rather be distracted or entertained then do the dirty work of being good citizens in a democratic country. Someone, please prove me wrong, find me a counter example, because frankly this whole line of thought is depressing me.

Etymology

It occurs to me, anyone who does not believe in the fact of Global Climate Change should get their head examined. Today I went skating, outside, inline skating, in Toronto! (Its January and I am using the bike trail.) I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how fast I could go and how well I could sustain it, evidently the change I did in my training regimen on the Elliptical machine helped. Skating outside on a bike trail beats skating indoors, hands down, no matter what the conditions, which in this case included, rain, hail and near zero (Celsius) temperatures, but at least there wasn't snow!

In any case, that was not the purpose of today's post. (Again I apologize for the delay but it takes quite a bit of effort to research a post like this one.) Before I begin I would like to attribute the inspiration for this post, as well as the major source for what I am writing, to Chapter 4 of the mother tongue english and how it got that way by Bill Bryson. I should also note that since the book's publication in 1990 new discoveries have been made which render some of what Bryson wrote obsolete.

Today I would like to discuss something everyone reading this blog uses, every day. The largest and most distributed language on Earth, English. (I should note, when I say largest, that is speculative, but given that English is so willing to assimilate entire languages, nearly whole, right into its vocabulary it seems reasonable to conclude the OED is a sampling of a truly immense language, I might also note that on my Birthday in 2005 there were over 301 thousand words defined in the OED.)

Now today I do not wish to discuss the entire language, it is far to big, rather I just want to go over some history, for one reason alone, it interests me. In particular, I wanted to have a look back at post Roman England of the 5'th through 11'th Centuries.

You see, towards the end of the 4'th Century the British citizens of the Roman empire were getting frustrated with something many of us can relate to, the taxes were to high. Only unlike us Canadians who can vote the scum out of office and get health care for our taxes, Romans could not vote for Emperor nor was the money being wisely spent, too much was spent on the most bloated bureaucracy in the history of humanity to that time. The British set a precedent in 410 which other British patriots would follow some 1365 years later in Boston harbour. The British revolted against the taxes. Those Roman citizens could not possibly have timed their revolt any worse, you see they didn't actually want to loose the Imperial rule, they just wanted to call attention to the unacceptably high taxes.

Well as we all, should, know, on August 24, 410 the City of Rome was sacked by Alaric of the Visigoths. (This was the second sack of Rome, the first was in 387 BCE when the young Republic was attacked by Brennus who lead the Gauls.) When the English revolted the two Roman legions garrisoned in England were ordered back to the Eternal city to protect her from further attack. After the Roman withdrawal to the continent Saxon's and Jutes entered from what is now Northern Germany and the low countries.

Bryson describes the arrival of the Germanic barbarians very nicely on page 47.

That is about as much as we know - and much of that is supposition. We don't know exactly when or where the invasion began or how many people were involved. We don't know why the invaders gave up secure homes to chance their luck in hostile territory. What is known is that although the Saxons continued to flourish on the continent, the Angles and the Jutes are heard of there no more. They simply disappeared.

And although Bryson describes it as an invasion with hostile territory in fact "It was not so much an invasion as a series of opportunistic encroachments taking place over several generations."

There are few records as Bryson explains:

The early Anglo-Saxons left no account of these events for the simple reason that they were, to use the modern phrase, functionally illiterate. They possessed a runic alphabet, which they used to scratch inscriptions on ceremonial stones called runes (hence the term runic) or occasionally as a means of identifying valued items... In 1982, a gold medallion [coin sized] was found in a field in Suffolk... The medallion bears a runic inscription which says (or at least is thought to say): "This she-wolf is a reward to my kinsman." Not perhaps the most profound of statements, but it is the earliest surviving example of Anglo-Saxon writing in Britain. It is, in other words, the first sentence in English.

The medallion is from sometime between 450~480 CE. But as I mentioned earlier there is other old English. Unlike the runic of the Anglo-Saxon's, around 650 other Anglo-Saxons inscribed in a bronze broach, left at what is believed to be a burial ground, the letters N, E, I and M. These letters would represent the first English writing known.

Ironically this young language, survived, what is even more remarkable, as Bryson would note, "by the fifteenth century people in part of England often could not understand people in another part." By the sixteenth century the English spoken in London could be understood not 60 miles from the city, yet this East Midlands dialect as it is formally called, would go on to be the Lingua franca of the World hardly five hundred years later!

It truly astounds me that in five hundred years we have gone from William Shakespeare to John Stewart, from sailing boats to jumbo jets and from a language spoken by just a few thousand souls in the area of London to the most widely understood language, spoken by literally billions of people everywhere, including, of course, you the reader and me the writer of this blog.

On Fear

I should first start by apologizing for posting with less than daily frequency. As it turns out writing on for real politics, especially the US Presidential variety, is far more time consuming than mindless ranting which my blog is already overly thick with.

Researching and sourcing good hard data is no trivial task even with tools like Wikipedia and YouTube. But to the individual who posts JFK's inaugural on YouTube my sincerest gratitude, an entire nation of school children should watch your 14 or 15 minutes of rerun, they would be better served than the thousands of hours of "channel 1" paid in classroom programming.

Previously I discussed the Democrat Primaries and my hopes for BHO (Barack H. Obama). Today I would like to discuss the Yang to the Democrat Yin.

If you are old enough to read this you are almost certainly old enough to remember what you were doing in 1999 and 2000. I personally was a University of Waterloooo coop student in the Math Faculty doing my major in Computer Science. (Back in those days it was a department, not a School of Computer Science.) But returning to my topic, if you are old enough to have read this far you probably remember the US Presidential Elections of 2000. Recall there was that disaster in Florida where Al Gore got more votes, but because Fox news called Florida for Bush and the Supremes stopped the recount Bush "won" Florida, its 25 electoral college votes and thus squeezed buy with a razor thin, minority actually, more people voted for Gore than Bush.

But before what we will charitably call a fiasco in Florida, there was the Republican Primaries. Remember John McCain? Remember the straight talk express? The maverick former solider who had served in Vietnam, spent time (five years) in the Hanoi Hilton, had gone on to become a senator and a straight shooter, who said it as he saw it. He cleaned up in the New Hampshire Primaries and then disaster struck in South Carolina. What happened in South Carolina? Rat Fucking, pure and simple.

To understand Rat Fucking we must first remember George Walker Bush's former deputy chief of staff, one Karl Christian Rove. Well it turns out Karl had built up quite the portfolio of dirty tricks and campaign skulduggery. He had been at it from the days before the Nixon administration and had carried on with it right through, (I am sure we will find out) until his resignation just a few months ago. Karl, or Turd Blossom as POTUS Bush would sometimes call him, was a protege of Donald H. Segretti of Watergate infamy. Rove's mentor was one Harvey Leroy "Lee" Atwater who, on his death bed no less, would denounce his former practices of dirty tricks. (Tricks spelled out very nicely in the linked Wikipeida articles.) It's a shame Karl did not pay closer attention to Lee's dying words.

Well in the run up to the South Carolina primary Karl used Push Polling, "pollsters" would call up voters and ask questions like: "If you knew the John McCain had illegitimately fathered a child with a black woman would you be more or less likely to vote McCain?" Remember South Carolina was one of the states to succeed from the Union that comprised the United States, when threatened with an end to enslaving its black population. The straight talk express drove right over a cliff in South Carolina and was never seen from again.

You would think that after South Carolina, John McCain would give up politics and become an executive at some behemoth insurance or legal firm, like all good retired Republicans. But old John McCain outlasted the Hanoi Hilton, he was gonna outlast the Rove slugfeast by, well as it turned out, joining the fun! John McCain wasn't running no straight talk express no more.

So who is left? There is that model of old money Republican wealth Mitt Rommey who prides himself on being the CEO candidate. Sort of like a current President. Mitt didn't run any companies into the ground but he did run the 2002 Winter Olympics. There is crazy Christian conservative Mike. Beware any politician who calls themselves Mike. Michael is fine, but not Mike, those guys will gut your social safety net faster than you can say separation of church and state. Of course there is "America's Mayor" who appears to be physically incapable of stringing together a sentence that has a noun and verb, unless at least one of the above is the expression '9/11'.

Finally how to ensure that your gang of misanthropic curmudgeonly miscreants gets elected? Well, that's what Rat Fucking is for, now documented in a handy guide! Democrats, watch your walets, protect your wives, the barbarians are at the gates, and they wear dark suits with expensive watches! (And are physically incapable of human kindness, or even decency.)

An Aside:
In doing research for this post I came upon a really good link on the New York Times page. This link documents the Democratic Primary Calendar and this is for the Republican primary Calendar. Political junkies and those who are just curious, I would encourage you to read up, its a good lesson in civics, even if you are not American.

On Hope

In my last post I promised to discuss the Iowa caucuses, which are already over. In fact, Tuesday (tomorrow) is the New Hampshire Primary. It blows my mind how quickly these things happen, primaries start while people are still cleaning up from New Year's parties, its not supposed to be that way. But the problem is we have ethanol in gasoline.

Allow me to explain. Its no real secret, corn ethanol is a really poorly thought-out fuel additive. It costs a huge amount of money to produce and it requires more energy to produce than it returns. In short, consuming a liter of corn ethanol is implies also consuming roughly 1.2 liters of dino juice, there is little value to car drivers and no good environmental arguments to use it. So why is there corn in gasoline? Because a lot of corn comes from Iowa and Iowa is the first state to vet potential presidential contenders. Every person who runs for President in the United States takes a pledge, committing to more ethanol in gasoline, after all winning the Iowa caucuses means at least a few cycles of good news for that candidate going into New Hampshire and South Carolina. A candidate has a really good reason to promise ethanol, the reasons against ethanol, not so relevant.

Of course other states have seen what craziness is happening, the prestige conferred on Iowa for a few winter days every fourth year is a big deal, as a result every state wants their primary earlier, the result is what we have now, a primary season that starts over a year before the general election and a political party who's entire composition is decided by the end of Super Tuesday.

Personally I'm rather a conservative person when it comes to traditions, I don't see the harm in mandating that certain states will have their primary on certain days thus halting the ever lengthening election cycle. Given that from the day a congress person is elected they need to raise ten thousand dollars a week just to get reelected I can see why mandating campaign spending limits might also make some good sense, give congress a chance to govern.

Anyway the reason I bring up the Iowa caucuses is not because of the scheduling, it is because of the results. Before I continue I'd like to direct anyone who is still reading this to two different YouTube videos, the first one skip the opening bit and just advance to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. (Well watch the opening bit, seeing a Democrat get sworn in always makes me feel warm and fuzzy, every time I get hopeful, maybe this one can clean up the mess the barbarians - read: Republicans - left behind.) The second YouTube video I add just because I like the line at the 4 minute mark, although it is not actually relevant to today's topic.

By now I hope that you have watched the video and recognize President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's Inaugural Address, a cold Friday on January 20, 1961. If you want to feel really warm and fuzzy, and probably a little creepy too, read the text of the speech here, among the sections of interest, paragraph 25 has the famous "ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." But I would like today to look at paragraph three:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

I've always been a sucker for Ted Sorensen's writing. But that is some pretty stirring stuff, let the word go forth from this time and place... the torch has been passed, & cetra. Wow! I wish I could write that well, the imagery is amazing.

Kennedy was the first President born in the 20'th Century, he was the youngest. He was a symbol of change in a vibrant democracy. In retrospect, he was the wiser choice.

Today America has a new choice in front of it. I will take it as a foregone conclusion that the Republicans do not stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected after eight years of disastrous mismanagement. This narrows the field to three contenders, John Edwards, Bill Clinton's wife (lets be honest, that is the only way she'd ever get elected) and Barack Obama.

I believe Obama represents the best possible option, I believe Obama is as close as America gets to the embodiment of hope. I believe that while John Edwards may be a good man, Obama represents a clean break from the past, a clear denunciation of the policies that have landed America where the great arsenal of democracy ought never find herself. And I am not alone.

Tomorrow a review of Republican election "tactics" (probably better referred to as Rat Fucking).

Angry rants

Wednesday and Thursday of the past week (and possibly Friday too actually). The price of a barrel of light 'sweet' crude oil on Wall Street New York surged briefly above $100 (US). This is very close to the record (inflation adjusted) set in 1980 of about $102 (US). It is expected that by the summer driving season, the price of gas will sit between $1.30 and $1.50 a liter.

Remarkably in the Friday Report on Business in the Globe and Mail, the big central photo is of a couple looking at Toyota Pick-Up trucks.

We truly a disturbed species. Given how horrible we know dino juice is when it is burned, and given how expensive burning dino juice is, shouldn't we be trying a little harder to burn less?

On an unrelated note, for those of you looking forward to reading about skating, it won't be happening for sometime. I have decided not to return to Scooters, the brash elitism on display by certain skaters is so repugnant that it becomes repulsive. The fact that the track conditions are bad does nothing to improve the situation, but I skate for the joy of skating and as far as I am concerned there is no joy to be found in indoor skating. I have, in short, run out of motivation and rather than burn myself out and hate skating for the rest of my days I will find new ways to remain entertained in the cold months.

Anyway I've had a very long day today, its actually tomorrow now, and I really should get some rest. But I might just have something to say about the Hawkey State tomorrow.

In Boston

Yesterday I described the journey to Boston, with a little detour into political ranting en route. One item in the journey I neglected to mention, just West of Albany there was a road sign: Albany/Montreal (left lanes) Boston/New York (right). I love American road signs, they tell you about great things, you just have to be willing to drive millions of miles. Lesley had an interesting point, ignore Montreal and the road sign we passed, is hardly much of a choice, for once I'll be bearing hard right!

Anyway Sunday December 30 we spent the day in Boston. I am not sure if it was the site of the hotel room, but Lesley decided that we should leave after the day, which was alright by me.

We saw Harvard campus which was a surprising experience for me. The last time I went to Harvard in the summer after grade 9 I was inspired, I really wanted to go there, I was so impressed by the campus... (I was an odd high schooler). Now, with a B. Math (Waterloo, Honours, Co-op, Major: Computer Science) and an M. Eng (Ryerson, Computer Networks) Harvard seemed... well Passe. I'm not saying the schools I went to are that super impressive, they aren't and the degrees I got, a function of hard work, not raw brains. It just seemed that everything at Harvard this time was smaller and I guess the realisation that which University you go to does not matter, its that you had the self discipline to finish. (In truth the smartest people I know either did not go to University or dropped out). Funny it took a Master's degree for me to learn that.

Lesley made an interesting observation, everyone in Boston wears a baseball cap. I wonder if all the tourists at Harvard in their ball caps just degraded the place too much for me?

On going to Boston

As promised I took notes, not many, I didn't have much time, but I took notes.

Friday night (December 28) we left Toronto at around 9:00. The traffic was modest and we made it to the US border with very little in the way of excitement.

Now Lesley is a permanent resident of Canada, not an actual citizen, not a citizen yet anyway. This means, it is legal for Lesley to be here, she can go as she wants, and as long as she does not break any major laws or remain outside of Canada for more than (I think) two years out of any 5 she can return to Canada. In order for Lesley to become a citizen she has to fill out some paper work, which we have started doing, but it takes time to get everything completed. But because Lesley is not a citizen her entry into the United States is complicated. First she must obtain a US Visitor's Visa (which she has, it expires in 2014) then she must get an entry card which expires six months after she gets it. In order to return to the United States she must turn over the entry card to a Canada Customs official prior to its expiration. (In other words, Lesley has to leave the United States within six months of her arrival, this to ensure she does not try to remain in America and work as a Lou Dobbs special.)

After waiting about an agonizing hour, and listening to one person who wanted entry after being expelled previously Lesley was finally granted entry in what was a pretty modest background check. (Somehow I suspect that Buffalo area retailers would go into open revolution if the DHS were to block Lesley, and more importantly, her Visa card, from entry into the great American market.)

Although I have to wonder, what did the expelled person do? Were they Iraqi and in the United States at the same time? Or maybe they were, dare I say the L word? A liberal? Or given that they were trying to re-enter after being expelled, just plain stupid. Guys, its the United States, George Walker Bush (a miserable failure) is president, did you honestly expect that due process still applies? This is the land of military tribunals and home of Haliburton, where the fear of terrorism's menaced glare, the bombs bursting in air, gives proof through the night, that the ideals of the United States just aren't there! O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave... Nah, it was burned to a crisp by John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. Sorry I had to rant, but you know, it had to come out. Anyway one of these days I'll rewrite the entire Star-Spangled Banner, anyone who would dare to trash the ideals of Jefferson, Lincoln and all those that gave the last full measure of devotion are going to get it every which way I can give it to them.

After crossing the border we drove for about two hours East on Interstate 90, now I-90 is an interesting road, it runs from Logan Airport in Boston to Qwest Field in Seattle Washington, which if it were a slower road would probably make it a terrific route to see America on. As it is the scenery from about Utica, New York on East is worth bringing the digital camera out. (Sadly the camera was in the trunk.) In any case by the time we had crossed the border it was close to midnight, by 2:00 when we stopped it was late enough that I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. We spent the night in a specular motel, outside of Waterloo, New York, but at least the washroom was, well a shade less than disgusting, but just a shade.

The next day, Saturday December 29 I will describe tomorrow. As it is, I am tired and still have yet to do my elliptical training.

On I-90 West to Buffalo

I have notes, and I will post a detailed description of what happened in Beantown just as soon as I can. (Probably after I get some rest.) But I'd like right now just to describe the return trip, its fresh in my mind I did no take any notes while driving.

Anyway we left Boston at around 5pm and somehow, even though Lesley took a nap and was quite willing to help with the driving I made the entire 850~900km trip stopping only four times, each time I made sure to do as my parents always told me and make use of what the Americans call a "restroom". No napping for me though, the purpose of each stop is listed:

1. caffeine
2. gas and food (*blush* McDoos, but I was on the highway, I didn't have a choice... at least I only had the sandwich, no fries or pop)
3. gas
4. gas

The last gas stop was as close to the Canadian border as possible to cash in on that cheap American gasoline. We made it home just after 1am, which, when you factor in stopping for gas and all that good stuff was still a pretty impressive time. The downside to that impressive time, I was basically incapacitated for much of the rest of the day.

Anyway a few observations, one, the best way I found to take in caffeine, Starbucks bottled Frapacinos. Because they are in a bottle you can have a sip at mile 200 and then seal the bottle and not even look at it until mile 350. Maybe next time, I'll just buy some caffeine pills, if I can find a time release pill, but if not I'm loading up on girly bottled luke warm ice coffee and I don't care!

Also despite what we like to say about American drivers, they are supposed to be a lot politer and more careful I can assure anyone out there this is not always the case. First just watch all the New Yorkers or Michigan drivers who use the 401/403/QEW to short circuit the south shore of lake Erie, if you've never driven to London Ontario, its not at all worth it to experience the road racing that these lunatics do on our highways.

But it gets better, I was somewhere between Syracuse and Rochester when a model of bad driving occurred. I was in the left lane behind a rather sluggish older model red Saab from New Jersey (for readers from TISC, the only reason I know it was not Richard A, is he's from Ontario!) Seeing a car in the right lane about a kilometer ahead I pulled into the right lane with the intention of passing the Saab on the right. Naturally what does Jersey do? They hit pedal to the metal. At no time what I did made the grade for unsafe driving, neither really did Jersey. Ultimately I passed Jersey, after they passed the car about a kilometer downrange, mentioned above. Sadly while extreme, that sorry tale does represent pretty typical driving for some of the people I had to contend with.

The most ludicrous part of the whole sorry adventure, the road was almost empty, much of the time I had high beams on because otherwise I wouldn't be able to see far enough, there was no other light. (But I personally love the drivers who don't remember to turn the high beams off when they are coming up behind someone. Nice guys, real nice.)

Sorry, this entire entry has been about driving, but then on the other hand, I just drove somewhere between 1700 and 1800km in the last 72 hours. I swear I think if I see another white lane divider I'm gonna be sick!