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10-27-07
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I made pie.
Actually, that's an understatement. Angela and I went nuts baking stuff today. The gigantic pumpkin I brought back from Chilliwack has but a small chunk used up; even after I made three pies. Angela used a huge number of local apples to make a big pie, two muffin-sized mini-pies, and a whole load of apple crumble. I really don't know how we're going to eat it all. Nevertheless, I feel some sense of accomplishment in having successfully duplicated my mom's excellent pumpkin pie recipe, even if I did take the mutinous step of replacing the whole wheat flour in the crust with pastry flour. Alas, the blasphemy! Oh well, I'm sure she'll forgive me someday.
Oi, so much pie...
10-25-07
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Battlestar Galactica: Razor looks awesome.
I don't know where you'll be at 6PM on November 24th, but I'll be glued to a TV in worshipful dorkdum.
(sorry Allen)
10-24-07
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
10-19-07
Friday, October 19, 2007
Work... busy.... so God-damned busy...
HFTYJIFF - (holy fuck... thank you Jesus it's finally Friday)
10-16-07
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I picked up Wii Play the other day. It costs $60, which is about par for a new game. However, it comes with a Wii Remote (normally $50), so you're essentially buying a Wiimote and getting a game for $10. In case you don't know, Wii Play is a series of minigames meant to showcase the abilities of the Wii Remote, much like Wii Sports. Unfortunately, a most of the games are quite minimal and wear out their novelty relatively quickly. The exception is the game called Tanks!.
In Tanks!, you control a tiny toy tank, pitted against other tiny tanks in an arena made out of wood blocks. When the tanks roll they sound like old tin wind-up vehicles, and the music consists of a nutcracker-like piccolo and snare drum march. It's wretchedly adorable. Your shells ricochet off walls, which you can use to hit enemies around corners. The game is definitely addictive, and can be played solo or with two players. It's for Tanks! and Tanks! alone that I'd recommend picking up Wii Play if you need an extra controller.
OMG Tanks!
10-11-07
Thursday, October 11, 2007
It's a difficult time for the discerning mind to live in. We are trapped in a torrent of information (pun not intended), where we are presented with so many "facts" and "figures" that it's difficult to determine what's accurate, what's real, and what's impartial. There are a lot of scary things I've heard that I'm not too concerned about yet because I don't think they're very credible.
But there's something that's no longer flying below the radar: the North American Union. That's right, the leaders of the big three North American nations have been sneaking around behind our backs tossing around ideas for a fundamental change in the shape of our respective sovereignties. The confirmation came when Mexican president Vicente Fox admitted in an interview that he and President Bush had come to an agreement about the formation of an "Amero", a North American united currency.
It all smacks of a sort of union arms race. The Europeans have one, the Africans are making one, the Middle East is talking about one. So North America needs one, and then perhaps Asia will want one? Sounds a lot like the world order of "1984" to me.
Orwellian analysis aside, this would mean Canada and Mexico would be paired up with the United States. To me, this is a frightening process. How could Canada ever distinguish itself while under a Union umbrella with a power as huge as the United States? Make no mistake, this would mean the end of a distinct Canadianess. A US-style central bank, US-style politics, and US-style foreign policy.
I will rescind my threshold of politeness to appeal directly to my Canadian readership. The United States is a sick nation. That is, a nation in need of civic healing. Their constitutionally-intended freedoms have been replaced with surveillance, arrests, and warrantless searches. Their love of peace has been replaced with warmongering. Their democracy and debate have been replaced by apathy and ignorance. The United States is a big, stupid, bully of a nation that does not deserve our friendship.
Would Canadianess survive under a Union? The Canadian dyad of English and Quebecois Canada? Our distinct culture? World view? Our unique brand of multiculturalism? Can you not, every day of your life, find the the latest dumb Americanism seeping into our culture? Ask yourself, honestly, would "Canada" survive?
Frankly, I'd rather see Canada as a member of European Union before we got into the wedding bed with the United States. This is definitely an issue I'll be keeping an eye on. It's coming, and I for one am going to fight it.
10-08-07
Monday, October 08, 2007
So today I harvested the last goodies from my garden. My first growing season has been rife with mixed results. Here's the total lowdown of all results, more or less in chronological order:
Garlic: A quick and complete failure. The plants were wimpy and died when things got too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, or too anything.
Potatoes, Part 1: When a bag of supermarket potatoes went rotten this winter, I decided to simply stick them in the ground to see what would happen. The result: a bumper crop of delicious little nuggety potatoes! Though the plants appeared to get sick and die off in the middle of the season, the spoils underground made the venture worthwhile.
Radishes: I didn't get many actually radishes from this crop. However, when the radishes rapidly bolted I found out their seed pods were fairly delicious. I'm not sure if I'd grow them again though. Success or failure? Meh...
Yellow Wax Beans: Another plant that seemed like all it wanted to do was die. In the cooler months I kept trying to start them inside and then transplant them to the garden. The first batch died entirely. Half of the next batch died on transplant. When it was warm enough I started a few in the garden. Still, only a few beans were yielded. Not really worth the effort.
Turnips: Contrary to common sense, my turnips did not seem to want to start outside in early spring. The second batch of seeds grew voraciously. You can stew and eat the greens much like spinach, and the roots go good with potatoes. I'm still pulling them up and eating them.
Potatoes, Part 2: The garden's previous owners' potatoes regrew in their same location as last year. The plants were bigger and leafier, and the potatoes were bigger, but there were much fewer of them.
Onions: They grew. I ate the greens. I ate the onions. There were delicious.
Peppers: I started these plants inside and they seemed to take forever to grow. The peppers never became very big in comparison the the storebought variety, but there were quite a few of them.
Carrots: I harvested these today and was fairly impressed. Regrettably, a lot of little worms seem to have made their homes in some of the carrots. Sigh.
Next year I think that I'll grow some zucchinis.
10-04-07
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Here's a letter I wrote to the Vancouver Sun about Shaw Communications' recent newspaper ads regarding the Canadian Television Fund. It wasn't published. While the Sun editors seem to generally like my letters I find that they have a "don't bite the hand that feeds us" rule. Hmph.
Dear Editor,
Recently, Shaw Communications has been running advertisements in major Canadian newspapers attacking the Canadian Television Fund (the "CTF"). For the readers who don't know, the CTF was started to help fund original Canadian television programs. It's worth mentioning the CTF is funded by the federal government and cable companies.
This weekend I felt compelled to read through Shaw's advertisement. I learned that some of the higher-ups at Shaw are upset that CTF money was used to finance, among other programming, a "show about the dysfunctional residents of a mobile home park". And I found myself thinking, "Hey, did they just take a swipe at Trailer Park Boys?"
Reading further through the ad, I learned that Shaw is looking for programs that "entertain", and which "should be a lot more reflective of the audience that will ultimately watch it". Apparently, in Shaw's opinion, the programs which the advertisement took shots at don't match these criteria. I think more than a few Canadians would disagree. However raunchy, Trailer Park Boys has been a huge success, both in Canada and the United States. Like it or not, any media produced in Canada by Canadian artists IS distinctly Canadian. It can be comedy, science fiction, reality television, or anything under the sun. It need not necessarily take place in remote Canadian towns and beat us over the head with its stereotyped definition of "Canadianess".
Just because Jim Shaw doesn't particularly like some of the programs which the CTF helped finance doesn't mean that his company should be exempt from contributing to it. As Jim said, the CTF should fund Canadian programs that have broad appeal. That includes popular shows with raunchy humour that don't appeal to stuffy old CEOs.
10-02-07
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
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