Figure 9

"I'll turn my head off for a while"

2006-08-23T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yeah...another Goo Goo Dolls quote in the title.... :P

anyways, AE was fantastic! Tons of people were there.......I MEAN TONS!! And maybe 1/4 of them were dressed up cosplaying too. Naruto, Full Metal alchemist, Bleach, Kingdom Hearts 2, and of course FF were very popular cosplays but others like Viewtiful Joe, Terrance and Phillip from South Park, and even a gigantic Dominoe were also in there.

In our group alone there was about 13 people tops (some days less). Lots of fun cosplaying with friends. Heat was pretty brutal at times for me. Wearing a big black robe AND black gloves AND having to wear black T-Shirt and pands underneath as well.... X_X;;;

But it still was worth it! Lots of stuff to see at the convention but I'm not sure if its even worth buying the pass. Alot of the stuff there you can do for free...we even got into the Anime Music Video screening room without having ot show a pass. They hardly asked to see it at all, and even if they do you can just take it home...scan...print out (muahahaha) so you save $40 right there.

Bought these really cool FF7 Advent Children figurines....so cool! They look great on the top shelf of my bookshelf that I have dedicated to random hobby related stuff (nhl trophies, kung fu hamster, other random stuff).

I like those alot...I usually dont buy stuff like this but either. It was supposed to be a set of 5 different ones and I ended up getting two of the one on the far right (pointing a gun) so that kinda sux. Also bought a really cool keychain of Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist...looks exactly like this...

Tons of other Kingdom Hearts 2 cosplayers there as well. I actually was "Glomped" by them all on the first day when I had arrived. Standing in the hallway and just comes outta nowhere without any warning (a glomp is basically a really big unexpected hug from a person...sometimes someone you dont even know). In this case, a group of other Kingdom Hearts 2 cosplayers saw me and decided it'd be funny...heheh. All their costumes looked totally amazing so that was a blast...maybe next year i'll put more time+money into mine. I really didnt mind wearing the costume as much as i thought....kept thinking that i'd be all embarassed but when u get in it you really dont care. I guess it depends how self cosncious you are but even when we all went to metro we were still wearing our costumes in the mall (yeah people were staring but just stare back or dont even bother looking at them...its not as big a deal as you think).

Anyways, thats all for now...i'll post pics later if i feel like it. So much I could talk about that happened at AE but im kinda tired cuz i just got back from the states today. *sigh* I know....my life is busy busy busy! Cyas

My head lies to my heart / And my heart it still believes"

2006-07-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

So I just ordered my Organization XIII costume. Man, its gonna look pretty bitchin if u ask me...i mean, dont get me wrong cuz i think alot of cosplay costumes just look plain geeky. But look!

Real leather and chains....must weigh alot come to think of it but meh. Looks pretty cool for a cosplay costume if ya ask me. Custom made to my height as well so yeah, cant wait to see how it looks.

Splashdown. Man, what a huge success that was. Ended up having over 30 people show up and all except maybe 2 people had a fantastic time! The replies we got back from people saying how much fun they had, means so much to me and ankie (the other manager who heled set it up) it in the end...just seeing how the efforts of two people can together make a difference to so many others. I know things are going to be better at the restaraunt just because of it. The morale and bonds between the crew are very strong now, being able to talk with people outside of work and just be normal can make all the difference sometimes.

Having all this come together with this kinda result is probably the most rewarding thing I have done at McD....possibly one of the most rewarding in my life as well. The management team at McD has been going through some very hard times these past 6 months, with all the in-fighting and everything. Its just so refreshing to know that despite these circumstances, good things still can happen. I know that sounds really Disney-esque but its true. Before, I couldnt help but think that the actions of others ultimately determine an outcome...that under strained conditions no progress can be made.

I guess I'm just slow to figure this all out or something....I'm an idealist at mind but not at heart because more often than not the ideal is usually squashed by reality. Here, tho...the whole thing almost proves that all wrong...that things can really be the way they should, if only for a moment, because of the actions of a few good people. I lost track of how many times I thought things would go wrong....Aarti (restaraunt manager) stepping in and taking control/coming along....people who wanted to go not being able to get the day off cuz they are forced to work....the weather....the cost/rides for getting to splashdown....its endless. Yet here we are, nothing but good has come out of it and yeah, that really makes it worth the world in the end.

....ok, enough with all the emo mumbo-jumbo. Lots of pics of it...and a video too! Posted it on youtube for fun so others can see it. THe background to it is that it was near the end of the day and we were just all going into the main pool. Alot of us had just gotten out of the hottub but many crew were already in the pool. As some of us were going in they get the idea to start dunking the managers. Yeah, great....i got dunked despite my best efforts to evade the swarm of peole jumping on me trying to take me down. All of us were dunked in the end....EXCEPT for one person: ankie (the person who I worked with to plan the whole thing). She was sticking by the hottub and wasnt going anywhere near the pool. Soooooooo one of the crew came up with a solution to that and when we got back to the tent area to clean up.....well, heres the vid :D

Yup! Pretty damn funny if ya ask me...and yes, thats me that stopped her after she ran like hell. Her and I are pretty tight so I guess she figured I'd save her or something....muahahaha.....like that pasty white complexion? hey, they lighting is bad ya know...besides, after that day i was sunburned all to hell. Want proof?

see? I dunno if u can see how red that is but man did it hurt like hell for a couple days. That pic was taken a day after I went to splashdown. Could hardly wear a shirt cuz every time it shuffled it would rub against my shoulders/neck and hurt like hell. Its not as bad now but its still hurts a bit....nowhere near as raw. The sunburn on my face is pretty much gone and now I ACTUALLY HAVE A TAN!! Not just my arms too, whole body for like the first time in years. :D

As for the other splashdown pics, i'll post some of them in another update when I'm done collecting them all (making a collage of them to post up in the crew room at McD). Gotta get them printed out first tho cuz they're all digital...but my bro should be able to get a discount from LD cuz they do digital pohotofinishing there :D so yeah....

First Aid class was pretty cool. Also was with ankie at that cuz she had to get her 2 year renewal certification as well so yeah, wasnt AS boring as it wouldve been otherwise. The instructor was pretty funny too. McD Head Office also has a restaraunt in it and during the course a crew member from the restaraunt was using a boxcutter and it slipped and slit his wrist. All the sudden this manager comes running into the classroom and says to the instructor "hi, we need you right away." Ambulence and Firetruck came, sirens on. What are the odds tho? Getting an injury like that and having a fully trained paramedic next door to your restaraunt teaching a class.

Alright! Thats it for now....was gonna mention about this other crazy party i went to just yesterday (all mcd crew but it wasnt an 'official' crew activity...just inviting lots of mcd people over to a house and drinking and stuff lol...see! toldya everyone is close now!!). Oh and that quote in the title? Yeah, you guessed it! Goo Goo Dolls lyrics again...even from the same song as last time! Another very pretty phrase. I think im just gonna start randomly placing Goo Goo Doll's quotes in my posts...just easier that way. Anyways, CYAS!

"Everything they ignore Is all that I need to believe"

2006-07-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

So, what has it been? 3 months?? I know i've been MIA for a while....hardly talking to some people who are all probably wondering where the hell i've gone. Yes, I do realize this and I apologize for not responding to some of your messages on msn (whenever i leave my screen in RO my msn messages do not pop up, plus im often online even tho im owrking). I just have so many commitments that its just hard to keep up with everything. Really could use a holiday...going nonstop since i can remember...never booked off days except the few days when i had finals. Maybe a week off would do me some good, who knows

Birthday came and went and I hardly even noticed cuz I was so caught up in other things. Didnt celebrate it but thats not a big deal anyways, I never really do (though ther was a belated spontaneous dining yesterday with lots of coworkers after we finished buying food for the annual bbq...more on that later).

===WORK===

Since Im on topic of work, i'll just roll with that. My manager training has been moving along nicely. Learning lots of stuff and for the first time this job is actually challenging me. Whole reason i became a swing was because I wanted to learn how to be an effective Leader and thats what its been. Working crazy shifts as well. Either really early morning (as early as 5am) or Graveyard (til 430am). nothing in between....so yeah, by the tiem i get home im usually too tired to do anything at all. Still recovering from that 4-day 2 opening/2 graveyard blitz last week. And if i have any energy left then its usually spent doing something like playing softball...

...speaking of which, I'm on the crew softball team (got a great deal on a $90 mitt for $25 brand new!). its a McD only league so nothing too serious but lots of fun. Practices monday...games tues and thurs morning so doubt i'll be able to go to every single meet but meh. The only team we have played so far also happens to be the best in the entire league (they even hold tryouts...for a corporate softball league?!!!! Unbelievable...can u imagine going to tryout and being told you're not good enough to play for a McD team? what a morale killer that would be). But yeah, they are pretty hardcore so we got out asses handed to us both times (though the second time we put up a respectable fight, was alot better). Other two teams in our division arent that great tho so meh (4 in our division, 5 in the other ones and like 5 divisions in the whole league)

Time for the Annual Crew BBQ which we always have at SPlashdown. Started this about a month ago and its turned out great. Myself and a couple of Co-Managers set it all up. We Managed to get about 38 ppl (almost all parttimers) to go which is amazing. Bought a whole ton of food for it yesterday too, chicken wings/burgers/dogs/fishballs and pop/chips/candies. should be lots of fun. marinating all the wings tho...that'll take a while.

First Aid class at head office next monday :D should be lots of fun....well, at least more fun than the FoddSafety Certification one was....EEEEEZZzzzzz

===School/Life===

Wow long message already. heh, well gotta make up for 3months of being Non-communicato. As you know, I'm an English Lit major. However, I now have declared my minor....in SOCIOLOGY. Yup! I was thrilled to find out that sociology can qualify as a teachable concentration (under social studies) History is good and all, plus u can sound ridiculously smart if you know your stuff, but I've wanted to have sociology as a minor ever since I took it back at langara.

Picked my courses too...for the next 2 terms =_= Take a look:

Not a bad schedule if u ask me. 2nd term is great, only 2 days of school and the courses are all spaced out nicely! No japanese tho...was pissed off about it cuz even 3 days befoer my registration date every single Beginners Japanese 100 was full and there were about 8 sections. Even the intensive beginners japanese was all full. So yeah, really annoyed about that....maybe i'll take it in the summer or something.

erm...what else is new? Might be going down to the states on thursday just to buy stuff. McD is exchanging USD on par with CDN! MUAaHaHAHaH. U should see the look on customers face when we get people from america using their money and it is counted the same as ours. They take it as an insult or something, you can see it in their reaction....like the disbelief of it actually being on par with CDN money is too ridiculous to even consider. But hey, we had it at 1.10 exchange rate before and that was 4 months ago and our dollar caught up so we had to lower it again! Just a matter of time :D

Finally got a haircut....ya know the last one i got when i got highlights in my hair for the first time? Yeah, that was the last time I had had a haircut (im guessing 3 months? lol). So i finally got one yesterday....they cut it really short again but I had highlights done again. Never gonna go back to parting my hair on one side. I'd put up a pic of it but bro took the camera like 3 weeks ago and he hasnt returned it yet.... >:(
Gonna be going to an anime expo thing in august. Probably gonna be cosplaying too if you can believe that. Dressed as a Kingdom Hearts 2 Orgnaization XIII member....basically a big leather hooded cloak/trenchcoat with chains. Looks pretty cool if ya ask me.

===Other fun stuff===

Wow...still reading? I bet you're surprised too. Whenever i send out store-wide messages to crew people at mcd for updates (safety/crew bbq/stuff like that) i always get people complaining about how long my msgs are but they are usually only like 2 paragraphs! Oh well, im an engl major, what do you expect?

Im 3gb into my 4gb of paul oakenfold that I downloaded. ALmost at the end! The guy is a master, can learn so much just by listening to it...his new album is DA SHIT! Havent heard it? LISTEN TO IT NOW! Its titled "A Lively Mind" and the opening single is awesome. No, its not synthy techno or anything....no trance. All good music with lyrics and everything. I'll never forget when I woke up one day and actually heard the radio announcer say "...new track from Paul Oakenfolds new album...heeeeere's Faster Kill Pussycat [the song title] on Beat 94.5)

Yeah, tahts was like the coolest moment ever for me because i never EVER thought that paul oakenfolds music would become mainstream enough, outside of the UK, to ever be played on the radio. I hate to say it but i think it all started with that DJ Sammy remix of "We're in Heaven" by Bryan Adams.....kinda sux that it has to start that way but meh. Oh and last thing....like that title? Just reinforces my whole thing about how the Goo GOo Dolls write the best lyrics out there. But yeah, i like that phrase....very graceful way of putting it.

OK! Congrats! You made it to the end *gives you a cookie* Cya in another 3 months......

.........................hahah :D

Trip to Seattle: Mac n' Chizzle!

2006-04-13T00:55:00.000-07:00

Yeah, trip was awesome. We all had alot of fun :D Seemed like every place i turned, tho, i was getting ripped off on something. It really was strange cuz no matter what i tried to do today, i pretty much got nowhere with it. ANd it all started when i crossed the border too....

So yeah, go to a McD in america....just for fun right? Man, their menu is waaaaaayyyyyy bigger than the one we have. SO i figure i'd try a diff burger....a Premium Ranch BLT Grill Chicken burger meal. Fries tasted a bit strange but whatever, maybe a diff type of shortening they use or something. But the burger.....i open it up and it has no tomato....which is good! cuz thats what i asked for. Take a bite, look at the burger again and realize it has NO BACON....which is bad! cuz THATS WHAT I FRICKIN PAID FOR!!!! Not only that, the Grill chicken was actually sugary. yes.....sugary. It tasted nothing like the canadian chicken mcgrill patties. Ugh, but whatever...i can deal with it...at least just this one time

...and then we go to a few outlet malls. Why is it that 90% of the clothing in the stores is XL or larger? Im shit you not, everything was pretty much XL....i even found a 4XL sized shirt! that was pretty damn funny. Oh and as if that wasnt enough, when i did find a nice pair of jeans that would fit me, they ended up not being on sale. Thats fine, i just misread teh price...no big deal. Then i go to Macy's and find a great shirt that also fits (i reaaaallly cant stress how much of a rarity that was with all the L and XL's) and RIGHT as the the guy is scanning it he says "im sorry but do u know that this shirt is scarred?" and he points at a seemingly irremovable white line on the shoulder. Seriusly, this is starting to get to me but whatever....i can deal with it.....at least just this second time

why is it that the clothing is so damn ugly in some of these stores? This pic is the product of what happens when you have a white guy travelling with three azn guys and the white guy has a camera in his pocket. These ski jackets...omg, total nammers!!!! hahahah, but really. Pretty damn fugly if u ask me. Just take a look at these shoes....my god, who would ever wear these?

....and then we hit up a THIRD EB Games looking for a pc version of FFXI. Yes, this is the third EB we had visited.....first one we visited had a copy but i wasnt able to get to it in time....so i was looking for another copy. Couldnt find it at either of the other stores. thats fine, but all the while i was also looking to buy a used copy of Silent Hill 4: The Room. Searching and searching and searching.....and finally im about ready to leave the third EB when suddenly a guy on the tv in the corner of the store comes on and says "come in and pick up a used copy of Silent Hill 4: The room for a great low price only at EBGames". Wtf is this? The truman show or something? Could the timing have been more painfully ironic? So yeah, this is what about set me off the edge here.......one recalls that simpsons episode where home visits new york. Washington, at least for today, was my 'new york'. I probably wouldve been a total asshole for the rest of the day, being let down so many times but good company makes good times so all was good.

...oh and if it didnt end there, i think my string of bad luck became a bit contagious too cuz we saw this sign for a "main arcade" on the 6th floor of Pike's Place Market in Seattle. Sure, lets go to the arcade....if the thing ACTUALLY EXISTS!! We mustve spent a good 20 mins just walking around searching for wherever the hell the 6th floor is. I mean, come on...its on the harbor right? so it ~should~ be 6 floors up! but noooooo...they count the floors downwards which is just such a backwards thing to do. Even still, we were only able to make it to the 4th floor so WTH!!! ARgh....i think it was just some sort of elaborate tourist trap/ploy to get you to walk through the whole market in search of something that isnt even there. Seattle: 4 Graham & Co: 2 (we did find a couple of pretty sweet deals on clothes at Macy's)

WEll, time was wearing down by then so we decided to head off. Went to an all-u-can-eat buffet just near the border crossing. The food was pretty good for a buffet....every single person in there was overweight tho which is a pretty weird feeling if youve never experienced it before. All the sudden we're laughing our ass off at what this guy said at the buffet bar: he was getting some "Mac n' Chizzle". I dont know why but this is just too damn funny when you say it. Especially after all the hardcore black ppl we had seen in downtown Seattle (complete with bling and everything), it was weird to hear it outta nowhere. Good food and a good laugh make the score even at Seattle: 4 Graham & Co: 4

...utnil we hit the border crossing from hell. Holy shit, there mustve been at least 20 cars in each lane and only 2 lanes open. When each car takes AT LEAST a minute to be processed, assuming there are no problems. thats ALOT of waiting. This brings the score to a close at Seattle: 5 Graham & Co: 4

...and yeah, thats what the Canuck's lost by tonight. Pretty damn sad if u ask me, the most underperforming team in the whole NHL if u ask me. We should be in bloody 3rd or 4th place in the western conference but we cant even scrape 8th place for a playoff spot? give me a break. That's pretty much game over for our post season. Sux to be us.

But oh well, it was a really fun trip overal. Good times all around. Must do it again sometime fo' sho' Mac n' Chizzle. Till the next update (which will be a real one, i promise!) keep it real ppl

Been a while

2006-04-12T01:14:00.000-07:00

Well here we are once again. Havent updated in the longest time for many many reasons.....school has been a major distraction....not to mention "her" (but thats more of a pleasant distraction...and yes, i hear all ur guys' encouragement/advice and appreciate it). Sorry but this post won't have a topic like the others and will be more of a journal entry.

Pretty much burnt out from working 20hr weeks while doing 4 courses. Counsellor said that every 8hrs you work a week is the same as doing 1 course. So i was doing about 6.5 courses if u look at it that way (its really more since McD is more exhaustive than normal work). Hell, barely had any time to play games at all until last week when i handed in my last essay. Oh well, at least my essays are getting better. I think i finally got the confidence back in my writing that i lost at langara thanks to a couple of horrible 2nd year profs (curse them for making me second guess my style!!)...

....but 'nuff said about school. Going to Washington with a bunch of friends/coworkers for a day. NOt sure really what we're gonna do there......probably shop around but it'll be cool either way. Sometimes its just fun to 'wing it'. I'll try to remember to take pics :D

So im totally tempted to start again on ffxi b/c "a certain someone i know" is thinking about it as well. i quit last time b/c of all the gil-selling that was going on (and the resulting inflation of auction house prices) and also b/c i didnt really know anyone on there. I mean, i did have a linkshell (chat group) but they were a bit more powerful than me when i finally returned (i quit once before and started playing again last may....then i quit again in oct and here i am). I keep telling myself i'll never waste my time or money on it but oh well, everyone needs a few vices.

Have i bored any of u ppl out there yet? ur seriously still reading this? hell, i even read this back and am boring myself.....but im too lazy to post something interesting right now so too bad, wait for the next post. Hopefully it'll be more exciting than me simply talking about school/work/places im goin/games im thinkin of playing. 'Til then...

None of the Above

2006-01-22T20:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, election time (yeah yeah, this post was bound to happen so dont try and act like u didnt see it coming).

Now let me just get this out for the hell of it so u dont have to keep guessing: im probably gonna vote liberal. Why? couple of reasons:

1. ujjal dosanj happens to be the health minister; itd be stupid to keep changing someone who already knows the sitiuation with health care, especially with privatization around the corner. Better a powerful position like that in western canada than have the job go to someone from ONT or QUE (which it likely will if conservatives win)

2. the other two candidates are total nobodies.

but apparently im in the minority now....seems conservatives are the new 'in thing'. Well heres an explanation about the conservatives:

the cons are getting their new votes from disgruntled liberals. WHY!? shouldnt those people be voting ndp then, the other left-wing party? Liberals are all for social care, ndp are as well but to a greater degree. Cons are for BIG-BUSINESS!! where is the logic?

Well, there isnt one. People figure that the NDP dont have a chance anyways. They think that Canada really has a 2 party system: Liberal and Cons, with the NDP and Bloc being the eternal opposition parties.

Further, people are so concerned with sending the liberals a big "fuck you" for the scandal, making their vote act as a sort of punishment. VOTES ARE NOT A PUNISHMENT THOUGH! Its up to the courts to decide who should be punished, but nooooooooo thats not good enouhg for people. we gotta really stick it to the liberals this time!!! Lets not worry that conservatives stand in direct contrast to the liberals on alot of important issues (harper wouldnt even answer the question on abortion when he wsa asked for his views...."i dont want to answer that question, im not campaigning on that issue"). By voting for 'the only other party that can win' you are not punishing the liberals, but rather punishing urself with a political platform.

Dont believe me still? Who do you think that 2% reduction in GST is gonna help the most? Sure as hell isnt going to be the commoner....nope, it'll be big business. The people who spend millions of dollars will get teh bulk of that, and the average canadian will save 10 cents off their coffee purchase at Tim Hortons. This is a SALES TAX REDUCTION. The more u spend, the more u benefit. It doesnt help low income ppl at all, or seniors for that matter. Unless u buy alot, u wont benefit too much from this so its a shame ppl are all fired up about it.

.....oh, and according to harper the whole Gay Marriage issue is NOT a matter of rights. (funny, last i checked thats all it was about)....

ok ok ok, i'll settle down for a bit...........

..............................................ok that should be enough :D Harper is also goin to be the most pro-american PM ever in Canadian history. No wonder 55% of the ppl voting cons say they feel uncomfortable with Harper being a PM.

Ya know the Conservatives motto for their platform is "Stand Up for Canada". I'd like to add something to that:

"Stand up for Canada.....by bending over for America"

And after all this is said and done, tomorrow when i go to vote, i cant help but look below all the candidates for a checkbox for "None of the above".

In time

2005-11-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just did one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life. I pray that it was the right thing after all. Its all in time now

ThanksGetting

2005-10-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

On a day such as Thanksgiving we are told to be thankful for what we have. Yet time and time again we chance to look around and realize that expressions of want are lacking least of all....but, for what? Such desires force us to be grounded within the materialistic world. To quote a few union reps, "we all chase after things that just hold us down....but we're moving up from the ground!"

And yes, thats really all it's about: being better off than the next guy. People are constantly comparing themselves to each other, guaging to see when and where they have one up on them. Then you look at, for example, the massive earthquake that just happened in Pakistan yesterday where upwards of 30,000 people are expected to have died. Contrast this with everyones favourite topic of the moment, the BCTF strike. Which story ends up being on the front page? Thats right! the BCTF strike. Why? Because people are more concerned about something incredbly minor such as difficulty in finding daycare for students forced out of school than they are about 30,000 dead Pakistanis.

Now I know what you are probably thinking here: oh great, he's starting to sound alot like one of 'those' kinds of people. You know what I mean, and to a certain degree I can plead their case just as well. However, I too am tied down by these same things that I am so fervently chastizing. Furthermore, unlike 'them', I am not about to go out and join a social-action group with similar views. Realistically, the only reason those types of organizations exist in the first place is because individuals, on their own, need reassurance that what they feel is felt by others, especially when it is something that really goes against the grain of society. Jumping to the extreme might seem like a great idea but no, it hardly ever works. The trick is to admonish our wants; that is, never forget that we have power over them. To quote those same union reps, "And I'm ashamed to admit / that I'm a slave to the shit as much as anyone / but I'm not afraid of it." Just be grateful for how privileged you are in the face of such tragedies. Happy Thanksgiving Day PPL!

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-you can stop reading here if you are not interested in the teacher's strike, i just wanted to get that thanksgiving day msg across :D
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And now, bearing that in mind, we can properly look at the BCTF strike (as I said, the strike isn't as important as the pakistani earthquake, but I can't help myself...plus, its not a very cheerful topic). On one side we have the drastically militant BC Teacher's Federation and on the other side the BC Liberal government. Is there a third party caught in this battle? Of course, theres always a third party that gets the shaft whenever there is a strike, and in this case it is the students.

So the BCTF wants more money, like everyone else does. The government, on the other hand, doesn't want to give them any or, alternatively, improve working conditions so they pull out their not-so-secret trump card: the BC Supreme Court and legislate them back. Everyone knew how this was going to turn out even before the teachers officially served their strike notice. What makes the whole thing different this time? PUBLIC SUPPORT. Since 1993 the government, be it NDP or Liberal, has imposed contracts on the BCTF. Not once during those 12 years have the gov't or the teacher's union managed to come to terms on a settlement and inevitably legislation was used to force a contract.

The initial plan the BCTF had was to follow rotational striking, meaning not all schools would be closed at once but, rather, it would be more of a regional thing (ie. Kamloops one day, a part of vancouver the next, etc) so really any given student would only lose one day a week tops. Put into perspective, one day a week is not so terrible. However, the gov't just doesnt like having to have kids missing valuable education at all and, even though they knew the teachers wouldnt obey, they imposed legislation against any job action that would see students missing school. The BCTF, being a very militant union, does break the law but abandons their original premise for rotational closures and just shuts the whole thing down. This probably didn't help their cause too much, but as in most cases when you back something into a corner, it tends to lash out with even more ferocity.

So the BCTF is now extreme and the gov't is getting pissed, using every trick in their book to make the teacher's job action as painful as possible. After all, if the teacher's aren't there then who will be the babysitter? This is really what the whole problem is: students can miss one or even two weeks of school and easily make them up, but the parents will have a bitch of a time finding someone to take care of the kids while it is all going on. Most of the people in gov't have kids of their own so they sure as hell don't want to have to deal with that. If it weren't for the problem of finding daycare then there would be no problem with the teachers shutting down schools. But because of the daycare thing, its an 'essential service'. Essential service, at least in my books, means that people die if that service is shut down, end of story.

So then the gov't starts to become extreme because further legislation takes time in a bureaucracy and tempers will rise in the legislature. Madame Justice Brenda Brown of the BC Supreme Court said yesterday that obeying court orders is the foundation of western society and if the rule of law is not followed "anarchy cannot be far behind." Give me a break, as if the whole of society will collapse because of a teachers strike. The only way that would happen is if...say.....about 200,000 workers all have their contracts end on the same day....

eh? wait a minute.....March 31st 2006? That interesting, it seems that about 200,000 public sector workers all have their contracts end on that very same day. Should the teachers decide to follow their legislation, their contracts would be up on March 31st as well so you can add another 50,000 to that number for a grand total of about a quarter million potential strikers all begging the gov't for money all at once. If theres ever going to be a General Strike, that sure as hell is going to be the day that sets everything off so don't say that I didn't warn ya.

There ya have it, a nice big figure-9 with a nice summary of how much people really want and how willing they are to sacrifice others in their pursuit of it.

And 'lo, there was bad PR

2005-09-30T23:36:00.000-07:00

Way to go Sony! You have managed to overstep your bounds :D

See that crown? It doesnt take an English major to figure out what that is alluding to....but notice anything strange about the thorns? Why, aren't those the trademark playstation button symbols? By Job! I think they are!!! I can just imagine what the conversation at Sony was like when they came across this idea for approval:

Marketing Guru: "Hey Hideo, you think any major chunk of society will be offended if we trivialize the torture of the Son of God by picking up some poor schmuck off the street and throwing a crown of thorns shaped like playstation buttons on his head? maybe even add a 'lil blood"

Hideo: "Are you insane? Of course people will be offended!!! Lots of people out there dont like the sight of blood..."

Yup, its just that stupid.....and seriously, whats with that guy's smile anyways? Is that even natural for a gaming ad? Its like he's posing for one of those homosexual lavalife print adds that you see at the skytrain stations. Anyways, theres the figure9 for ya.

First Impressions of UBC

2005-09-09T00:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh UBC....proof that administrative screwups really do know no bounds. Why do i say this? More on that later...

The campus itself is great, tho. Not as depressing as Langara either, the people at UBC actually are happy to be where they are. That isn't to say that people at Langara are unhappy, but rather that they are looking for the quickest way out. Remember, the vast majority of ppl at Langara are only there to just transfer to somewhere better in the future so I think this causes their attitude to change...probably true in my case at least cuz now im exactly where i have wanted to be for so many years.

But lo', nothing is ever as perfect as we would want them to be and it only took my first day of classes to realize this. Lets paint a picture:

Say you have died and are searching for an explanation for the meaning of life. Problem is, you don't know where to find it. You are pretty new to the afterlife and naturally are having trouble getting everything in order. You decide to ask Gabriel where to find the meaning of life. Gabriel gives you a map and tells you to meet God at a certain place an time, marking the location on the map. I guess Gabriel wants you to get this info from God directly. Oddly enough, the place Gabriel tells you to go to is is right next to a parking lot. I guess that's where paradise used to be. So, the next day you go there and see the parking lot with a building next to it. You figure that God must be in that building, along with the explanation for the meaning of life . However, when you walk inside the building you instantly realize that it is not the right place. Why? Because its a Starbucks. So you go in, order a Lowfat Chai Latte with a Double shot and ask the clerk where God is. She tells you that God is not anywhere near here. In fact, he is on the other side of eternity. You look back at the map Gabriel gave you and it clearly points to where you are. You show this to the clerk and she says "Ohhhhhhh no no no! You see, thats where God is going to be later on...not where he actually is right now."

Well right about now you are getting pretty stressed out because you are likely going to be late for your meeting with God. Why did Garbriel tell you to meet God in the wrong place? And when you thought you were all alone, along comes 5 or 6 other lost souls trying to find God as well. Apparently, this was a group meeting. Collectively, you are able to figure out how to get to the other side of eternity to meet God and all 7 of you make your way to the location. By the time you all get there, the meeting has already started and a bunch of other souls are already seated, listening intently to what God is saying. Triumphantly, the 7 of you march up to God. You, still holding your latte cup, ask him what the meaning of life is. God, raising an eyebrow, replies "What? Didn't Gabriel tell you to read those little excerpts on your cup?"

=======================================

ok and now the "non-story" version. Went to the building where my class was supposed to be held at ubc. Yes ,it is next to a parking lot. However there is also alot of construction goin on there.........and everywhere else at ubc, it seems. So the lady tells us that the building our classes are being held in has not even been built yet. She even points outside at all the construction going on. Ummmm wtf? why would they schedule us in a room for a building that doesnt even EXIST!!?!? So by now theres a group of us and we all ask where to find out where our class was moved. We have to call the English Dept. and do so, only to get put on hold. Great....might as well start walking towards their office. So we do and, yes, the class has been moved. Nice of them to let us know ahead of time. Eventually found the place after much walking and stressing. Missed about 30 mins of the class but no big deal cuz its the first day. Not quite as interesting as the first story right? well i was bored and in a creative mood so thats what ya get. Come to think of it, isn't this the same premise as the movie 'Big Fish'? Anyways, thats all for now.

2005-08-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

No, i havent dropped off the face of the earth....i just havent been posting here much lately cuz ive been so damn busy working my ass off to earn enough money to cover the first semester's tuition at UBC. Its gonna be close but i think i'll make it....tho this doesnt factor in the cost of books or supplies which i most desperately need so student loans here i come!!

so whats new with me? Well my laptop is *D*E*A*D*....yeah, thats right. I havent been able to go on MSN at all in the past week because of this (i know i have other computers at my house but they are always in use or need fixing). I think the HDD died on me so all that media i had on there is *sniff* gone. I did ask the toshiba ppl to call me with a quote on how much data recovery is because i dont feel like downloading all that crap on there again (and believe me....theres alot of stuff that i really wanted to keep). I honestly think it should be for free since its not even my fault that it crashed in the first place so why should i be troubled to get it all back to where it was before the HDD died. Anyways...

Bard on the Beach never happened this year (sorry kev). On the other hand we have our beloved hockey back so that can be used to suppliment it.....and yes, we are ALL going to have to go to a hockey game sometime this season.

Ok now onto some content. Plz direct your attention to the comments on my last blogpost. Scroll down.....way down.....

down....

further......

THERE!!!....SEE THAT! That huge mofo post is a spam blog comment. can you believe that?? Man, ppl are really getting creative on how to advertise their shit that nobody really cares about. I didnt bother deleting it so that you guys could see it.

Moving on, today is a sad day indeed for the game of hockey. Probably the saddest of them all, actually. Why? well take a look at this link

Battle of the Hockey Enforcers

Done reading? Pretty sick shit eh? Not even sure why they put the word "hockey" in the title in the first place. I mean yeah, all the combatants have hockey backgrounds but thats about it. They stick up walls at the bluelines and get 4 ppl to beat each other up until one wins that heat and advances on to the next round. To the loser goes the taste of bitter defeat. To the winner goes all the glory annnnnnnnnd.....yep!, you guessed it!......prize money totalling $150,000. Funny, i have this inexplicable urge to watch Gladiator and Ben Hur.

Ya know, this kinda makes the whole bertuzzi thing looks like a puff of smoke. If i were in colorado right now, this would be enough flame material to last for quite some time cuz it really does reinforce/prove alot of the points they were making just after the hit on Steeve Moore. Honestly, dishing out between 50 and 200 dollars to see a bunch of ppl beat the living hell out of each other....

......ON ICE.....

.....i just dont get it sometimes. Oh, and they are advertising it as the "inaugural event" implying that it will be an annual thing. I can hardly wait.

The End of the End of the Beginning

2005-06-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, upon further recollection i did leave out alot of stuff and since my bday has now passed its worthwhile to add another post here. if you dont want to hear about camping just skip down to the line of "======"

So i didnt mention to omuch about Bob during the camping trip, even tho he was with us most of the time (except for when he went into Salmon Arm for the day). The reason is because, quite frankly, by the end of the trip i was tolerating his presence rather than appreciating his company. I dont think that he really wanted to go camping in the first place, or at least he didnt know what camping is all about. He had invisioned some sort of nonstop screwfest with plenty of ladies to go around. As noble a cause as that may be, thats not what camping is all about. Sadly, because of him being "out of his element" (his words) he didnt really do much of anything. Nick and i had to set up just about everything in the campsite and, when it came time to leave, we did almost all of the cleanup. He always found the most opportune times to take a piss......i remember when we just got there and it had started to rain (before the big thunder storm). We got out of the car, felt a few drops and said "man we really gotta get our tent up". His first words were "im gonna go take a piss." He came back 6 or 7 mins later.

At least he provided a bit of amusement tho. Nick dared him to drink the last 2L of a 4L jug of milk after he had already eaten a can of Chunky soup. Of course he tried....and failed....horribly. He drank until suddenly he put the jug down, ran over to the bushes, and threw up everything he had just eaten. This might just sound gross if ur reading this but if you were there watching it all go down then you would be laughing your ass off. I think he knew that there was no way he could finish the last of the jug, but that just makes it all the more hilarious.

Another time we had just woken up and decided to go to beach. Nick and i had had showers and just finished eating breakfast when we set off for the beach. When we got there we had finished drinking a few beers and nick had the BRILLIANT idea of me either shotgunning a beer or Bob spraying me with one. I personally dont like chugging beers cuz i think that its a waste of a perfectly good beverage, and i CERTAINLY wasnt up for getting sprayed with beer when i had just gotten out of the shower no less than 2hrs prior to heading to the beach. Nick knew that i would be pissed if he sprayed me and i told him not. So i just continued reading Nothing's Sacred.

...and surely enough he grabbed a can of Buddweiser, shook it, punctured a hole in the side, and sprayed me. Now, normally if this were anyone other than myself then it is likely that Bob would not have been able to walk back to the campsite afterwards. however, thats not my style of course so i just got up, wiped off my book, had a few words with him and walked away. What really got to me is that when i stood up he had the nerve to say "I'm sorry" even though he knew exactly what was going to happen. I've had alot of people apologize to me in my lifetime so i can tell when its legit and why they are saying it and, in this case, he was apologizing because he didnt know how i was going to react. It wasnt because he had, in that split second, amounted an ounce of empathy and realized that what he did was an asshole move. No, it was because he was uncertain of what would come next. As i said, if it were anyone else then he would still be recovering from that little incident, but i chose words over fists because words are far more potent imo.....but thats for another post.

So yeah, i just headed back to camp, grabbed my towel that wsa still soaking from the shower i had had earlier, and had another shower. Had to do my hair again too, and thats a big deal for me ;) Nick and Bob stayed on the beach and went out in an inflateable boat while i was in the shower. Apparently, to get back at Bob for the beer spraying, nick took Bob out about 400m into the water. Nick then asked Bob for his pocket knife and, beyond all reason and sense, bob just handed it over to him. You gotta be able to put one and one together here, but for some reason he couldnt see what was coming.....which is a real shame too cuz bob cant swim. Slice, slice, the boat starts to deflate....but theres a middle to it thats not punctured! Bob clings onto it and asks nick not to pop it, though when he continues to slice up the boat he 'accidentally' does. so the boat is sinking, bob is clinging to it and nick is just floating there. Nick ended up draggin him back to shore obviously because its not good to drown ur friends, even if they do spray your other friends with American beer. Naturally, had it been Canadian beer then things would be different. If only i was still on shore with my digicam i could have caught it all on vid, but oh well, i'll have to leave that one in writing.

The remainder of the trip was straight forward, i just tolerated him and dint really pay attention to anything he did. Even on the drive back it was like that. He managed to dirty up alot of my stuff too (the tent especially), plus bend the jacket of my brand new book....but whatever, i had already decided that i didnt like him so what else could i do.......decide i REALLY dont like him? He even tried to have a heart to heart on the way back when i observed out of the blu that whenever he has something up on someone he will always let the other person know about it. I wanted to leave it at that but then he obviously wanted to hear more....so i said a random thing about learning from mistakes and he went on to lecture me for 5mins about taking risks and comfort zones and all that shit. Thats nice, he may have been right about me not liking to leave my comfort zone but at least i have boundaries. Probably would have been better to say that there wasnt a single ounce of empathy in his personality, but that never occurred to me at the time. Ok, thats it for caming trip. I got pics now and i will get those going shortly.

=====================================================

I'd like to that all those ppl out there for wishing me a happy birthday yesterday. Kev, nick, my bro (yes....he came too), and myelf all went to see War of the WOrlds. If ur planning on seeing this movie, DONT. The ending just destroys whatever edge the movie builds up. Im serious, the ending is so abrupt it almost feels like the just said "well, im tired of this film, lets just end it". If it werent for the ending it might have had a fighting chance at being a good movie. The FX were pretty cool and it had good ambience. Tom cruise didnt really act in the movie....he just whispered or yelled his way through the movie, all the while trying to put on a "deer caught in the headlights" look evertime the aliens were coming. Thx for the tix tho nick.

After it was off to village pub for 3.95 burger and fry combos! add a beer for $2 and thats one hell of a good deal. So yeah, good eatin. All four of us had beers....black label was on special for 2 bucks but kevin, being too good for Molson, had to get Guiness. For those that havent had guiness, man is it ever a dark beer. Its imported too so its pretty pricey stuff but whatever, its his money. Thx to kev for buying my meal, btw.

And after that.....we did nothing!!! heheheh....aaaaaaaaaabsoluuuuuuuuuuuutely nothinggggggg *pokes kev and nick*. Well we just went drinking acutally, nick and kev both bought a pitcher and that was it. Played a bit of pool and called it a night......

....ok well theres more to that actually, but its mostly just boring stuff anywyas. It was a great day anyways so thx everyone for remembering and making it so memorable.

The End of the Beginning (Part 2)

2005-06-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm 21 now, Las Vegas here i come!!

Actually, not like i can afford to spend any more money in the first place. Reason being is.........

I got into UBC!! I didnt really have my doubts that i wouldnt get in in the first place, but its just nice to have it all in writing. And so begins the arduous task of registering for the right courses a.k.a the 2nd rung of hell. I have about a week to figure out how the whole system works and then its registration time, so let the games begin i suppose.

Anyways, back to the camping trip. I will have my camera back by the afternoon so pics are just a few hours away. As for the vids, those will be alot trickier due to the filesize of some of them. Unless anyone knows where i can get about 100mb of free hosting, it looks like i will have to filetransfer all of them. i'll try and figure something out.

Back to the trip, which was actually not that bad at all upon retrospect. Definitely didnt meet nearly as many girls as we had hoped but we did get the shaft on that one. Shuswap turned out to be a family only area and Herald was pretty much the same. Its also significantly smaller than Shuswap Lake and most of the young ppl are finishing up exams/whatnot right now so probably could have timed the trip a lil better.

After that horrible thunderous first night we finally got properly set up. The tarp that Nick had packed along was gonna be used to cover the table and the chairs just in front of the fire pit. Problem was, when it did being to rain the tarp leaked....alot. There were a couple of big holes in it but other than that there was no way for us to know it would do that. Why it leaked? No idea, but it did and it was a pain. All we really did that day was get our bearings, buy food, and lounge around.

Next day was a lil more interesting. Bob, thinking that he could have more luck with girls on his own, decided to go solo into Salmon Arm for a day. All he ended up doing, though, was working out at a gym for a couple of hours, going to a few bars, and watching 2 movies. Basically, all stuff that he could have done in Sechelt. Meanwhile, Nick and i were travelling around. As mentioned before, theres a huge hill overlooking the campsite that we climbed....tho we didnt realize we were climbing that same hill until we got to the top and saw the entire campground from there. Yes, theres pics of the campsite and a vid of Nick literally sliding down the mountain on his ass.

The rest of the time was spent either playing Simpson's Monopoly (which i now own ^^) yahtzee, or cards. I've come to the conclusion that there really is no skill to playing monopoly. Really, you just move around the board and buy whatever u can...make a trade and see who gets nailed by a hotel first. As for Yahtzee, we thought of a variant called Nahtzee. Its basically the same thing, except for whoever loses dies.

Finally, there was Nothing's Sacred by Lewis Black. I brought along this book to read during down times when it was boring, but Bob and NIck both took a quick pass at it and ended up reading more of it that I did on the trip. Bob alone read the entire book once and was halfway through his second pass by the time the trip was over. Great book, incredibly funny and its a good summer read. I cant imagine anyone not liking that book and if you dont read AT ALL, this is the perfect book to get you started.

I did buy a couple of papers while we were in Salmon Arm. What can i say, im a news junkie and i cant help it. I saved some pretty funny stuff from those papers and the rest became fire fuel so, without further adieu, here is some actual blog content:

Apparently 12 ppl died on a funeral mound in Beijing. They were all stnading on top of the mound when the thing collapsed and burried them all. I'm guessing the mound was sorta like a hobbit home only smaller. Anyways, this is one of those stories that only gets attention because its ironic, but only in a very sinister way. You want to feel bad for these ppl but sometimes the irony just makes you smile. This is one of those times and, no, i dont think that i am a horrible person for having smiled when i saw that for the first time; on the contrary, what makes me a horrible person is wishing i had a video of it all going down (anyone see that vid of the guy trying to catch a falling tree? hilarious stuff aint it)

Another thing i saw while reading the paper on the beach was an article about Video Game Viloence and its link to real life aggression. Apparently some scientists found that first person shooters, when played alot, cause ppl to become more agressive in real life. Thats great, now lets see where these results are coming from.

Oh, whats this? You did a study on 18 to 26 year olds! Well now, i for one am shocked that such a demographic would let their egos get ahead of their brains. And what do we have here? Just 13 men were used for a sample in the study?!? Is that even enough to make any conclusion worth reading? What about the women damnit! They are out there gaming too and i'm sure they're not all princesses. Ok ok, well its not like they're German or anything........oh, nvm, they actually are. So you have a bunch of German scientist taking a sample of 13 men aged 18-26 who play games for 20hrs a week or more, and seeing if they are aggressive in real life. Hell, i dont even know why this article was given so much space in the first, yet it has nice big lettering on it so that ppl will read the headline and think "gee, i never realized that and it must be backed up cuz its got the scientific method seal of approval on it." WEll, guess again cuz imo its just a load of bs. If anything i'd rather have a person take their anger out in game than out in the real world. Just cuz a persons "dorsal portion of the anterior cingulate cortex" becomes active (showing higher agression) during gameplay doesnt mean anything. Its not like gaming is asshole-proof. If anything, i think the anonymity causes ppl to be far bigger dicks than normal, end of discusison.

Well, thats it for now. Its officially the End of the Beginning.....of summer, that is. Probably should have explained that title before but whatever, deal with it. I'll close with a really funny thing i heard Bob say during the camping trip:

"Heaven would suck....I wouldn't know anyone"

The End of the Beginning (Part 1)

2005-06-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Lemme guess, you didnt even notice i was gone right? well not surprising actually since i didnt really tell anyone i was going camping in the first place. Only ppl that really knew were the ones i went with (nick and his friend, Bob) my work, and maybe one or two others. anyways, i have alot of stuff to talk about here....thats why im probably gonna need two sittings just to type it all out.

Before i start, i DID take along my nice new digicam but when i got back just today i accidentally left it in nick's car so i'll be able to grab all the pics and vids off of it when he comes back from the sunshine coast in a couple of days. Believe me, its worth the wait for some of the stuff thats on there ;)

Ok, so the plan was to originally head up there from friday til wednesday but that got cut short since there werent many ppl camping and the weather was not cooperating AT ALL. I swear, the first night we were there and set up we had a pretty vicious thunderstorm. We dont really get those kinds of storms in the city but when you go into the interior it is easily 20x more potent......the bangs are bigger, the flashes are brighter, its hard to imagine. For perspective, the bang lasted about 10 seconds nonstop from a single blast, which i thought was impossible but i assure u that is the case.

Its probably a good time to tell you where we were.......or rather, where we should have been and where we actually ended up. The original plan was to head up to a place called Scotch Creek/Shuswap Lake. here's a map of where that is and u can click on the icon over it to get more info/pics of the place. Its a really nice place with lots of stuff to do but man is it ever hard to get in there if u dont fit the profile...

Dont get what that means? Well we showed up there at 7am or so before that campground opened and there was a friendly security guard at the gates. He wouldnt let us in to look around the campsites to find a good one to stay in so he told us to come back when it opened. We went around the area just north to a place called Magna Bay which had cheap camping but was a real dive so we went back to Shuswap Lake and they were open. Pull up to the registration booth and find out that the security guy had warned the lady about us coming by and that we had to wait another hour. Um, ok....lets walk around and look for a good site. So we do that, finally an hours up and we head back. The lady calls for the security guy to come over and this time its a different guy. He asks if the three of us want to stay here and we say yes. He then says thats there are strict regulations and security protocols that have to be followed for us to be able to get in. Wtf? Seems kind of weird but whatever. So we get asked a few questions....where are ew from....do we know anyone nearby/in kamloops...what are we gonna do.

After the screening is over he says, and i will never forget this, "Ok, well you guys answered all my questions and you 3 seems to be ok. Normally, if this place were really busy i wouldnt let you guys in but since we arent too full i will let you guys stay here." Now, i can take the questioning and whatnot, that i will let slide cuz i really dont care, even tho they shouldnt be screening us without reasoning in the first place. But what REALLY gets to me is how they have the nerve to tell us that under normal busy circumstances we would be turned away from a provincially owned/run campground for absolutely no reason. its one thing to have a bias against youth, but we were all 20 yrs old! Hell, i was a week from hitting 21 but apparently the gov't still thinks im a hazard for disturbing the peace of their fair campground. He explained how they try to only allow families in for that reason. Doesn't this whole thing fall under the category of Ageist Discrimation based on prejudice? And its by a gov't owned officer too so you can sure as hell bet i will be writing a letter to, what is it?, the MInistry of Water, Land, and Air Protection.

So anyways, we moved on searching for another campground and found a bunch of other dives. Finally got smart and went to an information center where they told us about Herald Park, another provincial campground. Its also on the same map as above just south of Shuswap Lake. I swear, this has got to be one nicest campgrounds I have ever seen. On one side you have a open country style camp area and on the other a nice wide open forest with a creek going right thru it that feeds into a great shoreline/beach. Our campsite was right on the border between the forest and the open area. The creek was no less than 10 ft from our site and they had paths following it all the way down to its exit. Probably one of the most tranquil walks u can imagine and i have video to prove it when i get my camera back :D

Anyways, food was basically hotdogs and hamburgers with oatmeal for breakfast and nachos for lunch. We cooked all of our meals over an open fire, but also had a standalone gas element to basically heat water up for coffee. Everything else was cooked via campfire so thats roughing it bigtime for lotsa ppl out there but we can handle it. ohhhhh, if u only knew the vids of our campfires you would be grinning right now but i guess thats something to look forward to when i get my camera back! Til then i'm off and will fill the rest in tomorrow.

Can't help who we are

2005-06-18T01:56:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't a funny post like the others so if ur looking for a laugh then don't bother reading the rest of this.

Some ppl no doubt have figured this out before me and I guess im just slow to learn, but there really is no point in trying to change who you are. Plain and simple, you cant be something youre not. Seems so simple doesnt it? Yeah, well it gets worse when you start expecting other ppl to change who they are. Its all nice to pretend that time will cause a person to change for the better but, really, we dont have a right to expect that of someone in the first place. Living this way seems more like a test on how tolerant we all really are of other ppl, but naturally it just becomes too much sometimes.

But then you come back to that original point, "what right do i have to expect someone to change their ways just so that they suit mine?" Its not like everyone has to get along with each other all the time. So what does it come down to in the end? Is it really so much an issue of tolerance, or more an issue of personal pride? If pride, then on which side: the person requesting change, or the person refusing to make an allowance?

Well enough with the rhetoric. In my case i try and be a nice guy, i do things for ppl just to help them out without expecting anything at all in return. Even if there are things that they do which I really dont like, I still cant help but lend them a hand. Why? I dont know, its just who i am and believe me, as much as i would like to i cant change the fact that im that kind of guy. Problem is that other types of people dont see it this way. Selfish, inconsiderate, egocentric, insecure people are willing to get a freebie wherever they can so they will continually exploit ppl who just want to help. So why cant i stop hating people who do this time and time again, tapping every single resource they have at hand just to fix their own problems which, had it been someone else with the same problems, they wouldnt care the least? I cant expect these people to change because its just part of who they are, just like its part of who i am to help ppl out when i can. All i can do is hope that by practicing what i preach other ppl may catch on and return the favour for someone else when asked for help. Whatever happens, it wont be permanent.

[SIDE NOTE:]

Didnt Douglas Adams go on about something like this in Hitchhiker's Guide? I think he called it the S.E.P Field. When something horrible happens that does not affect you it is Somebody Else's Problem and becomes completely covered in an invisibility field. The only people that can see the problem are the ones affected by it, while everyone else just ignores their plight. Come to think of it, one of the funniest things imo is watching a SEP Field be removed; the person would just be going along, minding their own business and WHAM! all the sudden a problem that has existed for a long time instantly becomes apparent to them and they have only just learned about it cuz they are affected by it. Maybe there is a small, sinister joke in this post after all....i guess i cant help but try and be funny either :P

Technology Overload! o.O

2005-06-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since my last blog update and man do i ever have alot of stuff to talk about. Enough wasting time.......

I have a laptop! Yes, now that i officially have received my Associate of Arts Degree in English i went ahead and bought a laptop for use while at ubc. It is an absolutely kickass Toshiba M40 with pretty much top of the line stuff for laptops. It has the new 533mhz fsb centrinos instead of the normal 400mhz ones, a really nice 128mb GeForce FX Go 6600, dvd +/- rw (DL compatible) drive, and a bunch of other stuff. Heres a specs link:

Toshiba M40

Moving on, we also got a brand new Canon Powershot A510 digital camera using Airmiles points. This camera is really really nice, has awesome quality and is likely one of the best 3.2mp cameras on the market. Heres a link to a very detailed review with sample pics and videos:

Canon Powershot A510

Ok, new stuff out of the way....i havent used either of them yet. Why? because both of my desktop computers need reformatting! Anyone who has ever done a reformat and full reinstallation knows just how bad this is, but its even worse in my case. While im doing all this reformatting i have to make sure that my parents can still run their transcribing business. that means constantly making sure the network is running with internet, making sure their documents are backed up in multiple places, and dealing with the series of hardware malfunctions that seem to pop up only after solving the issue before it. Well at least im getting a bit smarter cuz im using Norton Ghost to create a barebone image of a WinXP installation with all the tweaks done, Wordperfect installed, Word installed, Antivirus, and a few other apps. Next time i'll just format the drive and flash the norton ghost image onto it and thats it! hours of time saved...though i'll need to do a separate one for the laptop, obviously.

Ok, enough with the life narrative, time for some actual content. I was watching the Daily Show just today and John Stewart, my comedic idol, played a clip of the GM conference that announced the 25,000 layoffs that would occur in the USA factories. What makes this so special? Remember, this blog is pretty much designed to point out details that get overlooked....usually because it results in complex irony (heh, kev knows what im talking about). Take a look at the speech the guy gives during a shareholder meeting to announce the layoffs:

"Going forward in order to achieve full capacity and utilization based on conservative volume planning scenarios, we expect to close additional assembly and component plants over the next few years, and to reduce our manufacturing employment levels in the U.S. by 25,000 or more people in the 2005-2006 period"

How about that first sentence eh? I think that pretty much perpetuates the exact definition of corporate doublespeak used to simply blind the listener to any possible meaning associated with what is being said. What does it mean when u stop and read it very very slowly? Absolutely nothing! That entire first chunk boils down to saying "in order to become more efficient....." Whats so wrong with saying that? Who knows, but it doesnt sound nearly as technical the way i put it, and if theres one thing ive noticed its that people like to use complex jargon that only a miniscule scope of ppl will be able to understand. New doctors that just finish their fellowship do this too.....always using the latin form for parts of the body instead of simply "femur" or "stomach". Phil is another good example of this, no need to explain there

So really, what gives? This is what english students/profs like to call mental-masturbation. Yep, you read that right and when you think about it thats all it really is. People use this overly saturated idiom to make themselves feel accomplished. Sad thing is that everybody does it, but why? Because right from the moment we enter secondary school we are taught that, "no, its not what you say that matters anymore but how u say it instead." Will the system change? Not likely, academics like doing it cuz they feel they are learning, and professionals like to do it cuz it reaffirms their position.

In short, anyone can say what i just explained here, but only a few can actually call it an issue of epistemological Semiotics (and yes, those are proper terms).

2 down, 2 to go!

2005-05-21T01:10:00.000-07:00

Well I finally did it. Just today I received my letter from Langara congratulating me on successfully completing an Associate of Arts Degree (Area of Concentration: English). With this I am one step closer to finally transferring into 3rd year at UBC so everything looks pretty good so far. I certainly worked my ass off trying to get the last few courses I needed to get the focus version of the degree rather than the general associate of arts. Ended up taking 1 more course than I had planned last semester and ended up with 2 2nd year history courses, an advanced french course, and 2nd year english course. The research from those history courses was brutal enough and add in trying to learn a new language and constant reading for english discussions...........amazed i actually made it

but I did!!! Will i attend the graduation ceremony? nah, dont feel like it. just give me my credentials and i'll be on my way, tyvm.

Anyways, now onto another completely unrelated incident that happened today as well. I picked up my bro from work today but when he got to the car he said that he was volunteering at the Vancouver Aquarium as a guide for some tourists visiting from Toronto. There was gonna be a free buffet for all attending so free food, great deal right? Well sadly it was cancelled and he told me all about this when i was driving him home. Apparently they were going to have lotsa nice food there like steak and lobster and prawns.

Ok, did u catch that? Read that last from the previous paragraph just one more time. Got it now? Yep, thats right. They were gonna serve lobster inside an aquarium. Now, why was i the only one who could see the irony in this? You'd think that the people planning the event would clue in somewhere along the line that just MAYBE serving seafood in an aquarium would be ever so slightly ironic. I could just see the reactions on some of the people's faces when they look at their plate, look around them, and realize that they are currently eating "Exhibit A Homarus americanus: primarily scavengers, the average adult is 9 inches long. Avging around 2lbs, they can live quite long and become even larger and heavier, therby making the time and effort spent trying to crack open the claws all the more justifiable."

Eurovision 2k5: Let's hear your country's song and decide if we think its shit

2005-05-16T20:34:00.001-07:00

Ok, consider this to be the first 'real' post for Figure9. Rather than keep spelling the way I should, like in all my academic essays, I'm just gonna start typin like i normally do when i talk to ppl on msn, k? All the posts so far have been about stuff that has happened to me and, though it must be exhilirating to hear about, there has to be some sort of voice to a blog.....otherwise ur just pretending :P

So welcome to Eurovision 2005 where various European countries submit a song done by their own artists. Its done in an American Idol sort of fashion with voting on songs and whatnot.

Anyways, what struck me is one of the songs in particular. The one im referring to is the Ukrainian submission which, unlike the vast majority of submissions, is an OK song. However, take a look at the little tiny song description at the bottom of that window. What do u find there??? The following:

Greenjolly sing - Razom Nas Bahato which has undergone lyrical surgery to avoid being too political for the Contest.

Well, now thats just peachy isn't it? The irony of censoring a song's message when the show is called Eurovision might not be enough, so it gets better? Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, you probably know about all the political unrest (to put it mildly) that has happened in Ukraine. Attempted assasinations, mass demonstrations, it was all real fun. So these rappers are really just talking about all that in their song. But, the doesn't want to offend anyone right? Well here's the kicker: its being hosted in KIEV!!! Seriously, what can be so bad in the lyrics that they need to be changed? Well, lets find out cuz here they are:

VERSION 1: EUROVISION VERSION TRANSLATION

VERSION 2: THE REAL LYRICS TRANSLATION

Whats wrong about shouting Yuschenko's name anyways? He DID win the election, after all. Come on ppl, the song was written during the political unrest, but now that its simmered down is there really any reason to censor it? All the talk of revolution was understandable cuz the other side was trying to kill their leader (more Dioxin anyone?). All thats over now, though, and the guy was DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED so its not like the majority will be offended.

For those that think its playing off the whole American Idol thing, its actually the opposite. The first time this event was held was in the lat 60's so up urs Seacrest. Yeah, thats alot of years, which is surprising cuz some of the music is total crap. Just take a look at Austrias vid and u'll get the picture [DISCLAIMER: YOU MAY HURT URSELF FROM LAUGHING TO HARD WHEN WATCHING THIS VIDEO].

On the other end of the scale, I listened to the french one and its actually really good. I could ~almost~ understand what she was saying but not completely. I knew the exact words but need more time to think about what they mean. The title means "everyone thinks about themself" (theres a typo in the title). Clearly in the case of Eurovision, the people at the top are doing just that when they cover their asses from any lawsuits from ppl who get offended when they hear the name of their President. Its really just a load of Paul Martin :P

Round 2: Burke Mountain

2005-05-09T23:52:00.000-07:00

So I went hiking again today, just after dropping off my ps2 at MTC. Hope everything goes smoothly there. As for the hiking, the Burke Mountain trail was actually tougher than the Grouse Grind in the sense that it was all endurance instead of pacing. The entire trail is a constant incline on what is pretty much a dried up creek bed. Anyone who has done a fair amount of camping will know exactly how rocky creek beds get so the hike was a real pain in the ass. Constant attention had to be paid to footing so you never really get to look at whats around you when you're going up. Its rocks, rocks, and a few boulders to add a bit of flavour to the mix.

Took a couple of hours to get to the top of what seemed to be a never ending incline. I swear, half way through you are at the same height as all the trees around you making you think that you have hit the top, but then it just keeps going up. We stupidly did not bring any water so this made it 10x harder than it should have been. Good thing that we eventually ran into some snow at the top and that made everything afterwards much easier. We passed a snow patch and were still not at the top so I'm guessing that we went quite a bit higher up than the Grouse Grind.

We did finally reach the top, but only after contemplating heading back about 5 times since it had a neverending feel to it. The 'view' was not much of a view either. Basically a cliff that drops off with a whole bunch of trees a few hundred metres away....nothing spectacular. The way down was brutal too. Going up a creek bed is fine but when you go down it is much much easier to slip so it was a very slow descent. Overall, I don't think I ever want to climb it again since it just really was not that fun. The "trail" ended up being a creek for the most part and was about the width of a two lane road. You cant really stop to rest unless the idea of sitting on pointy jagged rocks is attractive (and boy it was at times). The mosquitos are pretty brutal too since there is still water runoff, perfect for breeding.

Only real highlight was close to the top we found a rock with blast holes drilled into it. I stuck my hiking stick in a hole and this little frog popped its head up out of the hole. It's reactions were probably like "now wtf is poking me in my HOLY CRAP!" Sound very uninteresting? Believe me, this was the most memorable experience of the hike........kinda sad but oh well, got a lot of exercise I guess......

Oh dear, not again.....

2005-05-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

Well it's official: I have the worst luck with consoles. Granted, the last time it broke was pretty much my fault but the guide made installation look so easy!

So now my precious HDD is busted (the one that came with FFXI). How did it happen? Honestly, I don't know because this time it isn't my fault. The thing is just really really slow at storing/accessing data. To give you an idea of what I mean, when I decided to start playing FFXI again just this week there was a massive software update waiting for me when I logged on. Normally this kind of update takes 2hrs as an absolute maximum. I decided to start it, go to work, and come back with it all finished. However, when I got back it was only at 62% downloading the update and had 4hrs 45mins to go. That means it wouldve taken about 13 hours total!!!

So yeah, HDD is on the fritz. I must thank nels for the 'support' he gave me, citing the shoddy workmanship that sony does "all the time". Well, apparently they are good on service. I called the SCEA (sony consumer electronics) and, after much discussion, they confirmed it was an HDD problem. I didn't really care about finding out what I already knew. What i really wanted to know is if they would replace it for free. "Well Gram, just disconnect the Network Adapter and HDD and send those in with the console and we'll fix it for you."

SWEET stuff right? Well, sorta. The warranty stickers on my ps2 areripped but (this is the absolute truth btw) when I ordered it from ebay about 3 years ago I didn't realize that the warranty stickers had been ripped. The guy didn't even put that in his posting and I only found out about 1 year ago when I was cleaning off all the dust on the vertical stand. That bastard!!! So of course, I had to tell the Tech Support guy this and, after a few mins of being on hold, he said it was still ok.

Ok, now I can celebrate! BOOYAH!!!! If this all goes thru then I will have a renewed faith in Sony (they were hanging on a thin line before).

Ohhhh...so THATS why they call it the grind

2005-04-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

New Year's resolution completed...I think I made it a bit too easy though. I pledged that I would do the Grouse Grind at least one time this year and just today I finished it.

A couple of other people came along, including pieman3141 who is listed under my blog links. Man did I ever have my doubts that he would be able to make it up there considering he was already crawling up the rocks before we had even hit the quarter marker. I lost track of how many people walked past us but didnt really care...I decided to stick with kev for the last half of the climb while the others plowed ahead. Seemed like the only nice thing to do, and he ended up drinking the last 1/3 of my water bottle even after finishing his. We both got to the top at 1:58:31, timed on my watch.

On our way up to the top I ran ahead and met up with some guy who apparently was waiting for kev to get up the last couple sets of steps. I had a feeling that he was impressed by the determination cuz by this time kev was taking about 1min to do 5 steps. He did manage to get to the top though. Nice view up there. Word to the wise: DO NOT DRINK BEER AFTER EXCERCISING THAT MUCH. Trust me, this one wasn't my idea but somehow I ended up having to pay for the better half of the beer.

Wish I had pics to post but funny thing happened when we were about to take our victory shot. Nick's memory stick went on the fritz so we were only able to get a shot off of kev at the top, fingering the camera of course, with a bunch of ppl up on a rock that congratulated him when he made it up. I'll post what we did get when/if I ever get them.

All you people out there reading this should really give it a try though. Think about it, some people pay good money to get here just to do that and we live here so might as well right? It's a damn good workout too that is actually enjoyable so please consider it.

So, in short I'm still not quite sure how tough the grind is. I don't blame pieman for that since I decided to stick with him for the most part. Sorry there aren't too many details about what the whole group was doing but we were split up so oh well. I do know just from the first half of the course that I did go relatively full pace up that it is very very tricky. Probably could have pulled it off in 1:30 which is what the others did so that'll be something to shoot for next time. And yes.....there will definitely be a next time.

Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test

2005-04-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

So I was randomly clicking on links last night and I stumbled upon this test. It asks you 70 personal question with a choice between two answers. You pick the one thats applys to you the most and at the end the test calculates your Temperament (from a list of 16 distinguishable categories). I gotta say this right now......it's amazing how accurate a test with only 2 answers for each question is. I'm pretty skeptical about this but I wouldn't be posting about it right now if it was full of shit.

If you have 10 mins then try taking it. You don't have much to lose, except your time of course........but not like you're doing anything important right now anyways, right? After all, you ARE reading the tripe that I unexpectedly seem to be pumping out on a daily basis....

Btw, I ended up as an INTP (Introverted Thinking Aided By Intuition) and thought that it was pretty much dead on for how I think. Not sure if anyone else sees me that way but at least thats how I've always thought of myself as being. Also, whoever decides to take the test plz post up the results in the comments box....unless you're extremely shy, which means you wouldn't have to anyways ;)

My list of things to do during the summer after learning about the Cold War:

2005-04-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

Just did my Hist 2241 final exam essay today and it was only an hour long. Had some extra time at the end but Grossman wouldn't let anyone leave until the full hour was up so he suggested, jokingly, entertaining ourselves by writing about all the fun we are gonna have during the summer. I took this to heart and created the following list....

Things to do during the summer now that I know about the Cold War:

- Start a socialist uprising at McDonald's head office (they aren't capitalists, are they?)

- Visit Playland and only go on rides where I can sit next to people who are wearing red and have a moustache.

- Think of words that rhyme with 'Khrushchev' and write a song about him. Working title: Once, Twice, Three Times my Comrade.

- In honour of Harry Truman (a.k.a. 'Dirty Harry') watch every Clint Eastwood film ever made......yes, even Blood Work *shudders*. As for Molotov (a.k.a. 'Iron Ass'), I'll have to use my imagination.

- Celebrate the American ideal by buying my own cake and eating it too!

- Celebrate the Soviet ideal by making sure all of the icing on the cake is uniformly covered, all in red with the picture of our fearless leader, Paul Martin, magnificently drawn on it

Yes, this is what I wrote on the left hand page of the last page in my exam booklet. Cheesy? Yes. Borderline brown-nosing? Possibly. But hey, what else are you gonna do with 15 mins to spare in an auditorium. Feel free to add your things to do during the summer (that are related to the Cold War) in the comments if you want.

Cooper -S, here I come!

2005-04-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

Currently Listening To: Captain Jack - Only You

So finally took in the Saturn to a Craftsman Collision thing to get some damage repaired on the car that was caused a long time ago. It was very minor damage so there wasnt much rush, but when we came to pick up the car today we found out they had this promo going on where you spin a wheel and wherever it lands is what you get as a prize. We spun it and we were given an entry into their contest for a Mini Cooper -S. No big deal right? Heh, the lady said that last time they did the draw there were only about 4000 ballots so those odds are pretty damn good imo!

Don't Panic!

2005-04-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

BBC's h2g2 Goes Mobile - Again

Heh, I get a real kick outta stuff like this, especially when its something that came out of as fictional a book as Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Somewhere deep down inside of me I really want to see this idea get big. Alas, I have a feeling that it will shortly move on to the graveyard of products that sounded so very cool but just weren't very practical (let's not forget our good ole' matrix cellphones, eh?)

Moving on, I finally finished reading God's Debris and man was that ever a weird little ride. I've read so many reviews saying that this book is hardly worth the time/effort of reading it, but I wonder what these people actually do with their lives anyways since the book can be finished in 3 hours easily. It's NOT THAT LONG! What can you possibly lose by spending 3 hrs with this book? As for the effort, I found it very easy to understand the ideas being expressed........even though theres enough holes in the logic to give cynics a field day in analyzing it. I'm gonna say this right now: if you are a cynic, then you are hearby stripped of your right to read this book since, when upon reading it you feel the urge to call up Scott Adams and bitch to him about his logic, you will have missed the entire point of the book.

He says this right in the beginning of the damn book too!! Something along the lines of "this is created so that you can find the holes in why the simple explanation is usually shit." Anyways, I will gladly lend it out to anyone I know that wishes to read it....just make sure that you dont leave it at a Starbucks (*pokes pieman*)

Look at me! I have a Blog! Someone notice me!.....

2005-04-13T01:08:00.000-07:00

Kinda sad really, my giving into peer pressure once again on this instance. But I can't really blame anyone I know for compelling me to start up this Blog since, apparently, I had created one back in July 2004. Honestly, I have absolutely no recollection of doing so but I have a feeling that it has something to do with a Linkin Park induced phase I was going through at the time....

....thus the name 'Figure 9' which is the title of one of the songs from the band's Meteora album. When I logged on to this account for the first time since July I saw that I had named it after this song. I kept it cuz it's still a pretty good name and it does roughly coincide with what the whole underlying theme of my posts will boil down to.

"What is your underlying theme, Graham?" Why, im so glad you asked. Anytime something seems just a little bit too half-assed for my liking and I just happen to come across it, you can be certain that it will be forced to bear some brutal, critical analysis. If theres one thing I can do it's definitely put up a valid arguement.

Otherwise this is just gonna be a dumping ground for any deeply ironic events, interesting life experiences, or abstract ideas. Feel free to stomp on them if you wish.....honestly, thats what I think this whole blog is about ;)