« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »
Sorted out more of my music.
I broke 5 weeks!
I doubt many people have as much music as I do. Moreso, I doubt most people with more music than I have actually listened to all the tracks they have, unlike myself.
Whoohoo!
More music to be sorted.
I go back to Ottawa on Monday...
WHOOHOO!
Blogging will resume when I've got things to say and I'm settled in.
Hmm...
A tenth planet in our solar system?
Quick! Someone tell the schoolteachers to stop with the nine-planet falsities!
Saw this over at Gizmodo...
A man-portable Wireless Jammer.
The blogs are all making fun, insinuating them to be tools of Luddites and the Amish... which is sort of amusing but it doesn't get to the significance behind one of these babies.
I want one, if for nothing else but to start collecting weird and almost useless tools.
Except it has this use: There are a lot of non-CCTV wireless cameras out there that people take for almost as secure as laid-in CCTV, and cheaper, without having all the wiring to worry about...
It's a ridiculously useful burglar's tool. My mind may think in weird tangents... but what I'm saying is true, if you think about it. Pocket-sized, doesn't get in the way of any of your other break-in gear, and handy enough to have pretty much anywhere, and if you've specced the cameras in the place you're hitting and they're wireless, tested the jamming capabilities of your widget...
The somewhat hefty price tag can always be offset by the fact that you get away with diamonds, bonds, and cash.
Innnteresting.
Of course, you can always just be that annoying dude in the coffee pub who turns off a wireless jammer for the sake of being a jerk, but shelling out that kind of cash to be a jerk seems... silly.
I can also think of uses in industrial espionage, counter-terror, and all sorts of fun and games.
I never thought this day would come.
Okay, I'm being overly dramatic. I knew it would come eventually.
I didn't think so soon.
My friends... I am about to cry tears of happiness.
The IRA's armed campaign is over!
Nuff' said. Read and be happy.
The long-awaited and long-promised...
Bonnaroo Report, Part 2
I blame listening to Hendrix for me actually having motivation to write something.
I left off last time with the end of Day 1, leaving out the stuff that happened along the way for my conclusion to the Bonnaroo Report.
I know, I should've blogged this a long time ago, but you guys should know by now I'm a lazy, lazy lazy lazy fuck. =)
So... woke up, had food. I mean, there's little to talk about there, if you were there, you'd understand that even getting food down the street was a fun thing to do, walking by all the stands, just soaking in the good vibes from people...
It was good.
Back at the car... something incredible happened... and Emily will testify to this:
Alien Floating Headcrabs Fly Over Bonnaroo To Chill
I'm serious... I have photographic evidence!
At 12:30 I split out to hit up the 22-20s. I don't remember what Emily was doing, I think she might've rested it up in the car, not quite positive. The weather was not the best... but when you're rockin out, really... rain is preferable to frying your butt off.
Actually, I'm pretty positive she rested it up, since I'm pretty sure she wasn't at the 22-20s with me.
So the boys from Britain were decent. Decent, but not fantastic.
I didn't go in expecting too much, but I was dancin it up a bit by now anyway.
Kings Of Leon came on about an hour after, so I had lunch between the 22-20s and KoL. Now... up to this point Emily and I both wanted to try the fries with cheese they had, especially since I told her the States didn't have poutines, and we figured it'd be the closest thing to a poutine over here.
They sucked.
They sucked terribly.
I went back to KoL... it was a pretty decent show, as much as you'd expect from KoL. Good sound, though admittedly (even by them) off tune at times, they were pretty cool. Surprisingly not much of a stage presence, though no one really cared.
I bumped into a heck of a lot of people from the day before. Twas' awesome, some fellow Canucks from Edmonton, a Korean guy with nice Minolta digi, and the girl that was beside me at Joanna Newsom said hi by bumping into me in the same manner as happened at Joanna Newsom, by accident the first time around.
I mean, it was a decent show... I had plenty fun especially since I was surrounded by cool people... But as I already admitted to someone who asked, I wasn't a big fan. I was, however, waiting to go see Rilo Kiley.
Now... those of you who remember my visit to San Diego remember I was very upset that I left SD just a few scant days before a bunch of my friends went to see Rilo Kiley. This was... what... two or three years ago. They liked their show so much (and it ended up with JohnKo flirting with Jenny Lewis, to hear it be told... lucky bastard)... they drove up to Pomona the next day to see them again.
Jealous, yeah.
If I had to sum up their show at Bonnaroo in one word:
HOT.
So hot, in fact, that I used up the rest of my 1 GB card shooting pictures of them and all of my half-gig card...
So here are a bunch of them. And by a bunch, I mean 28 of them.
Scroll down at your own peril.
/>
I missed one great shot I could've taken... I had been telling Em how I wanted to bring back the V-fingered peace sign... and Jenny gave us one as she walked off. This was, if I recall correctly, before the encore... but it didn't matter, I was out of shots anyway.
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot, I included a Jenny Lewis photo last time as a preview that I didn't put in this time... here:
Long, eh? But it's all good, because now I had to DELETE a few pictures to get in some shots of Sam Beam (of Iron & Wine) and there will be no more pictures after this.
I met up with Emily after Rilo Kiley, since she was there elsewhere in the audience... we grabbed a bit of food and went back to the van... then I went and hit up Iron & Wine... I do not think she came with me, but my memory could be a bit spotty.
What can I say about Iron & Wine... besides...
FUCKING AMAZING.
Sam Beam made it to my list of most coolest men ever. He was already pretty up there...
... but... the music... and the beard...
See for yourself: Awesome beardness!
The second picture is his wife, I believe. No lovin' for me, I spose.
Anyway, I went to a bit of Widespread Panic after, but not for long. The crowd was ginormous, and so I really didn't feel like staying.
Day three started really late. Woke up... had lunch, and talked to Emily for about six or seven hours... she was feeling kind of sick, so she stayed in the van the whole day, poor girl.
Guy next door offered us a discount on his sushi... his name was John... he was pretty cool. He also helped us jump our van, which was pretty damned necessary given that we've been opening and closing our power windows the last three days without once even turning on the car.
I skipped on over at six to hit up Modest Mouse. Free of a camera... Johann got his dance on. Admittedly, not at first. When I got to Modest Mouse there was this guy with long long dreads dancing it up like a madman, and it was... just awesome to watch. As I got on, I got the same way.
Those of you who've seen me dance know what I'm talking about. =)
After Modest Mouse, I pretty much quicktimed it over (in the rain) to the last 30 minutes of SuperJam... which was just... as the name suggests... one long, awesome jam.
Hence, much dancing. Went over to Widespread Panic, cut my way through the crowd... and drank a LOT of lemonade. Widespread Panic, being the last show (having played two other shows already the last two days) was CRAZY. Everyone at Bonnaroo besides those who'd left or needed sleep for the drive the next day was there.
I went nuts.
Someone behind me was like, "Someone get him some glowsticks!"
Glowsticks were thrown at my feet... and I had to relearn glowsticking in a very short amount of time. It wasn't the best... but it got the job done. I still had one of them... but it has now gone to my trashcan, since I have to move everything back to Ottawa and I really see no point in keeping an old glowstick
Glowsticks... mmm... it was hella fun.
Total, fucking nuts.
Stay tuned, I make no time promises, but sometime I'll write up a small conclusion to the Bonnaroo Report... about the drive there and the drive back. 1500 km in a day after three days of rockin is a hella feat. =)
Looking through my old black and whites, and realizing that I really should probably develop the thirty some-odd rolls of film I've been too lazy to hit the darkroom with in the last two or three years... and so I probably shall this week. There's no way I can duplicate the quality of B&W film on my digital... I believe I shall dust off my old SLR and have some good times with it once again...
Besides, I have been shooting colour all year, s'bout time for a change.
Wrong place, wrong time.
Happens all around the world. Wrong place, wrong time, and shit just happens.
My memories are in all sorts of weird places right now...
Lesson learned: don't park and sleep too close to a crackhouse in the dead of the night.
When it happens you'd be surprised how sublime it can be, when things go right and you don't piss anyone off. Didn't occur to me I could've gotten shot till a quarter-hour later.
*sigh*
Twas' so long ago. I don't know why I recalled that all of a sudden.
Maybe because I wanted to write a short story about it... but I'm too motivationally dead right now to write at all.
So, with the whole Hot Coffee thing, I'm sure you've all heard that the lawyer who went after Rockstar for the Hot Coffee mod is now going after The Sims 2 for nudity.
Those of you unaware... a quick recap... GTA: San Andreas was pulled off the shelves recently and given an Adults Only rating for code that had to be reverse enginneered in order to put the mini sex-game in.
Excuse me, but I played The Sims 2. There IS NO NUDITY in The Sims 2, despite being mildly more sexually revealing than San Andreas (look... the graphics are better, and it's a life simulator, come on) but the bodies beneath the mosiac fuzz is COMPLETELY MANNEQUINLIKE...
What the fuck.
I also heard that the politicos in the States are now viewing all modding as a sort of hacking.
Uhm...
Let's just say that I'm about to freak the fuck out here. A large part of the longevity of games, which a lot of games count on, is the modding community. Hell, Counter-Strike would NEVER have been a thing of today if modding was illegal in the first place.
So in an effort to see what the hell is behind all this nonsense, I went and downloaded the Hot Coffee mod, dragged out my copy of San Andreas, and gave it a go.
Point number one: The unlockable content is completely non-nude, and only additional downloadable content makes the girlfriends in the game nude. This is, however, not availible for the PS2 or XBox versions.
Point number two: The low-poly models used in San Andreas don't look real at all. In fact, I can think of many more games that (without the notorious reputation GTA's had for all the violence and whatnot) are plenty more revealing and far more detailed.
Point number three: The guy is totally clothed in every scene. Shirt, pants, everything.
Point number four: The downloading of the mod is OPTIONAL, and does not come with the official game. It is hidden away in the official game under piles of unused code.
You want to tell me, then, that this mod is heinously revealing in some fashion or another... and moreso that Rockstar should claim responsibility for a MOD?
Well Jesus Christ! I heard the Bush Administration was getting bible-bashy on pornography, but I didn't realize it extended to pinning blame on the wrong parties and fervent anti-gaming policies.
Scratch that, not just the Bush Administration. Every old little fucking loser politician that dares call themself a defender of the innocent, hiding behind the smiles of children while they dabble in things they don't even understand! Do they even understand the amount of code-monkeying it requires to unlock the Hot Coffee thing? Or do they need to keep up their caring image and the whole motherly/fatherly thing?
Besides... if you don't want your child to be playing a game of San Andreas' nature, don't BUY it for them. And if you think video games will fry their brain, then REGULATE THEIR USAGE. Parents have to pick up responsibility for their children at some point.
I mean, legally in America they're your goddamn responsibility till they're 18. So bloody fucking take responsibility and stop blaming everyone else for your bloody failings as a parent!
Making an uninformed choice like that is banning a mod... I dunno... asking a man who really has never seen combat to command a platoon of soldiers into battle... or be Chief of Staff and hold all their lives in his han... ooohhhhh wait.
Right... in the middle of my rant there I had almost forgotten what a stupid stupid world we live in.
Never mind then, carry on.
I just noticed, and this may have been on for some time... I have not visited the Apple Store for some time... but it seems they've phased out the 4G iPods and made the iPod name... at least, the ones that aren't shuffle nor mini... congruent with the iPod Photo.
Good news, I feel, as the colour screens are quite pretty... though the question of album art now brings to my attention the lack of third-party support in that area, since it seems iTunes will be needed to easily upload album art to the iPod itself.
I am, however, content with my 3rd Generation iPod, despite it's short battery life and mere 10 GBs of music space... it's visual appeal, I feel, with the touch-wheel and touch-buttons rather than the click-wheel, certainly looks far more appealing, despite the fact that it may very well have been the same reason the 3Gs drew up so much power.
Plus, the blue and orange lightups were prettier than the pure white, I think.
I am curious to why the black & red U2 version sells for approximately 10% more STILL, since it was released months ago and declared 'special edition' all the way back then.
They've even updated the 'special edition' with the colour screen... I think they'll be around a while yet.
In other Apple News, I'm sure those of you that care enough to know already have read that Apple will be switching to Intel processors within the next two years... which means you can likely dualboot OSX and Windows, when they come out.
I wonder about the quality, now that they will no longer be using IBM processors, which have been quite reliable in all the Apple desktops I've ever laid my hands upon (and worshipped)... but I have a feeling I may own a Mac within two or three years... since the dual-booting ability, if proven the rumours prove true by the end of development, will solve many of the incompatibility issues which have stopped me from buying a Mac all these years...
The price, of course, I do not expect to drop. That is a problem for me, as the price has also been a factor in my unwillingness to purchase a Mac... but I think I shall bite the bullet on that.
Besides... a powerbook that runs OSX, Windows, and Linux? That sounds like a pretty sweet idea to me.
In other tech news, since I'm on that streak... The new Windows (previously codenamed Longhorn), the next Windows which has been in development for quite some time, is being renamed Windows Vista and announced for 2006. Whether you choose to believe that, given the length of time we've been waiting for Longhorn to come out... is your choice.
In my opinion, with what I've seen out of Longhorn so far... Vista isn't so much of an appropriate name as "the tiny view you get out of your jailhouse window"... but I guess there isn't a word in the English language that says exactly that. If there is... do feel free to correct me.
In other far less interesting news, I updated my playlist online earlier today, though I have added more music since then... it is, if I may say so... bloody frickin' long.
Oh yes! By the way, I heart Joan Baez.
Stories like these are starting to make me very very angry.
Not that I'm saying that I'm anti-Isreal in any way, because hey, let's face it, stories like these happen with any bloody person behind the bloody trigger.
It's not the reason that bothers me, as the article suggests. After all, they must've had some reason to go after that guy, be it a stupid, ridiculous one like a show of force... I've already ranted my share about military administration and how their goals and aims are not exactly humane.
But they're the military. The ISREALI military at that, they've been fighting a war for ages. I stopped caring about the reasons.
But come on. Shooting a subdued unarmed subject near point-blank is just bloody sadistic. Sure I'm aware it's unavoidable to have soldiers that are built that way... after all, it's their job to kill and all...
... but it's still bloody sadistic. The individual act itself... it's bloody screwed up. Even the most bent-out whackjob soldiers I know, decent people that they are outside of military life, would never even dream of shooting an unarmed man with an automatic rifle from that close a range AFTER they'd already blown out their ankles..
I can understand anger, after all, I'm practically infamous for anger among certain circles... but there's a line somewhere that gets crossed when people do shit like this... whether it be strapping a bomb to your chest, or gunning down an unarmed man in cold blood point-blank after you've already shot up his ankles.
I understand the mentality, of course. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
And there's always the plentiful stories of US cops (who're trained, of course, to dump ammo on a suspect if things go wrong) shooting 200+ rounds at an unarmed man... that's 20 clips of ammunition in a standard police-issue sidearm. THAT's almost as fucked up as the fact that barely any of the rounds hit the suspect, and most art unloaded wildly, often dangerously, into the surrounding neighbourhood.
Sometimes people are just plain fucked up.
FINALLY! About bloody time a major news organization cleared up the meaning of Jihad a bit.
I wonder how many people actually will read it.
In any case, an excerpt:
But clerics strongly disagree with this line of thinking, arguing that Islam does not allow Muslims to respond to "a mistake" by another mistake.
"Islam is absolutely clear on this issue. Two wrongs do not make a right," Mufti Usmani said.
"If they feel that the US or the UK are killing innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, it does not give them the right to kill innocent citizens in London or New York," he said.
Well duh. I bloody hope it gets through some thick heads, on both extremes.
In a weird turn of events, though I actually found out about this Monday... my article didn't get to my editor.
And I couldn't find the original, since I've been cleaning out my computer and putting parts in/out and such in preparation to move back to Ottawa.
So I had to rewrite it.
Go figure, the one job I do this summer... the one volunteer thing I've actually enjoyed doing since like... I started doing St. John's Ambulance, something screws up.
At least it gave me something to do again besides bloody chores and shuttling my little brother around from place to place, I'm really not complaining... I just don't like fuckups, and there were a few here... the thing not getting to Allendria, my deleting things indiscrimately (I've eased up on the deleting since then... but on the bright side I freed about 30 GBs of space), and leaving off the 'looking for the thing and then finding out I have to rewrite it' thing till today...
Well, it 'has' been a pretty busy week. I guess I can't hate on myself too much. Just another week-ish till I go back to O-town.
Makes me happy.
I'm going to bed now, I have to wake up in 3 hours to take my little brother to his cello lesson.
I consider it my duty as an expert on terrorism to not talk about it, since I'm sure all of you get your real inside news from some bigwig news corporation anyway, whom are so much more likely to be more knowledgable than me.
Heh.
No really, I really don't want to talk about it because it just is upsetting, and there's no point drawing attention to things that already give the culprits more recognition, and give the hardliners even more reason to go off and send more people to die for a whole lotta bull.
My days of doomsaying are over. No one believed me when I warned a year in advance something like 9/11 could, and would happen... they were too self-absorbed in the greatness of the United States... and when it did happen they all pointed fingers.
Screw that.
London is my capital, mind you. I love both my countries (UK and Canada) with a hell of a lot of my heart. But there's no point talking about it now.
I even have several long, long posts already written up to speak my mind about all of this, but I decided against posting them.
So instead I bring you a top 5 wishlist of cool gadgets and things that I want, but cannot afford myself... =D
There's a thing about North America, it's that we're smack in the middle of the tech world. Europe is behind us in terms of cool little gadgets, but they definately have the coolest designers. Over the Pacific, they've got a ton of awesome gadgets... but very conformist designers.
We've got an even mixture of the two.
Some would say that's a good thing. Me, I'd rather have one or the other.
Some of these toys, by the way, were found over at Gizmodo... a pretty sweet blog about gadgets and gizmos... as if you couldn't guess already.
1. Minolta Maxxum 7D
Well yeah. I like my Minoltas. It's a hot camera. I'm not complaining about my A200, but the 7D is HOT. Nuff' said.
2. LCD RFID Mirror
When I get my comic rolling when I'm in Ottawa, I want to be able to advertise it in my apartment window. Or maybe a window at school. Or better yet, every bloody window on the Humanities residence floor. Or just every window in Residence. Yeah. Screw those idiots who run around with stickers advertising their crappy sites on bannisters and bathrooms. I'd advertise with style. (Plus my content wouldn't suck, which is the usual bane of Engineering majors' webpages, heh)
3. Fruit Filled Walls
This is what I mean when I say the Europeans have a leg up on us when it comes to design. I mean over here the best we can do is a fruitbowl with a painting of a fruitbowl behind it. And the best we can do for wall decorations, albeit awesome, is homepainted stuff, because the stuff our designers make is just fucking ugly and super-commercial. I would eat fruit if I had a wall like that.
Yes, yes I would. This one's pretty, so I'll put up the picture.
4. Wacom Cintiq 21UX
My more... 'practical' dreamgadget. Cause I get pissy when I can't see what I'm drawing on my tablet sometimes... which is... whenever I'm using my tablet.
So a lot.
5. X-47B UAV
It was really a toss-up between this cool UFO, which I saw at Gizmodo... a fighter jet... which apparently you can buy on Ebay... as the sale maybe a year or so ago of the Mig-21 demonstrate... or the X-47B Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS)... and the prospect of remotely putting target painters on my enemies' foreheads kind of appeals to me. But even moreso, I'm just thinking of the heads it'll turn at the corresponding convention/event. Sure, everyone at an airshow will have seen a Superflanker or equivalent flouting its stuff with its vector-thrust nozzles making your head spin just watching it... but...
Who in the world would expect this thing at a RC Aero convention?
You know, I've refrained from jumping on the bandwagon and talking about this... but now that it's all over, and the ESRB's gone ahead and switched Rockstar's rating to AO, despite the fact that the content isn't in the game itself... at least not without modification...
Well, I find it quite stupid.
I'm half surprised that Hillary Clinton jumped on the Hot Coffee bandwagon... but I don't like Hillary Clinton in the first place, and her stance on video games was already known to me.
I guess people are done bashing the telly for making kids into mindless criminals... it's video games now.
Bah. I'm done talking about this. I could write pages, but I'm far too tired to do so, and far too disenchanted with people in general.
Link: IGN's interview with Rockstar about the rating change.
Remember that family that I said was getting deported a while back?
They're leaving the US tomorrow... and I really don't know what's in store for them...
My thoughts are constantly with them...
In the news today... Dave Newfeld of Broken Social Scene gets the shit beat out of him by a bunch of NYPD assjerks.
See... this is why marijuana and USA don't really mix all too well. Even still, the dude scores a bit of pot and you deck the shit out of him?
What the fuck.
I hate it when that happens...
I REALLY should stop writing my posts in Firefox and instead... write them in notepad before I post them... I wouldn't lose them to simple idiocies like CLOSING THE BLOODY WINDOW...
There's a good 5 page post dead.
Sorry, but I'm going to try to sleep now. I'm bitter and angry about losing that post.
Well yeah, so I had once promised a comic. I know, I'm an ass, and I really should follow through on my promises. Truth is, I really didn't like the style I was using, and moreso, I'm not digging the whole 'digging into my psyche' thing that a comic of that nature would've done.
So I'm playing around with starting a historical Steampunk comic... been really digging the Steampunk as of late, and I think a lot of people, based on the amount of fans there are of comics like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, would dig it too. However, it requires a whole new host of characters... and a lot of practise in drawing victorian dress...
Damn them and making their bloody clothing so bloody complicated. They should've worn a simple tee and a pair of jeans... but of course, that would ruin the whole appeal of the era. =D I'm just pissy because it requires detailwork...
Anyway, I'd like thoughts on whether you'd like to see a Steampunk comic. Cheers.
Lying back... listening to Nick Drake. I'm actually getting some work done on the layout for this site... which is something I haven't done in a long while... I am awesome.
Awesomely lazy, but that's the way things go.
Well, now that I don't have any articles for the Charlatan, since I sent my one for the conference in on Friday, I have to have *SOME* excuse for work, right?
In other news, I've been playing a lot of videogames, when I'm not swimming, going out on the town (alone, poor me, lol), or being my lazy self... oh wait, playing video games *is* being my lazy self.
I bought Battlefield 2 as of late. It is superb... it's a good way to manifest laziness, and make sure my new case isn't heating up in mysterious ways.
I feel like I wasted away some of my life though, when I took the old VAIO and stripped it down, putting all the parts in another box... I'd thought the power supply fried, but it might actually have been the motherboard. Took me a few hours to do that, and if the mobo's fried, then it's an obsolete piece of junk anyway...
Waste of my bloody time. =(
Anyway... that's all I have to report. Speaking of reports, I really should finish the Bonnaroo report... but I've been sooooo lazy.
Powersleep, w00t!
I got some massive powersleepage. Four hours and I wake in the middle of the night refreshed like a king.
Today was a fun day, saw someone I haven't seen in ages and talked a long time after I hit up the MTCC for something I had to cover for The Charlatan... when I got home I was soo pooped out. I was doing all this on three hours of sleep, so when my body got a chance to let it all go, since I didn't realize I was tired most of the day... it just did.
And now four hours later I'm up again. I'm going to regret this in the morning, I just know it. =)
By the way, I am throughly sorry at the way this blog's suffered over time and through the summer. If you compare the quality of the posts in March to the ones now, I'm sure you'll agree with me that I've really fallen into a pit as far as keeping this blog going is concerned.
HOWEVER... since I am clearly inebriated at this time and having difficulty typing, with none of my Ottawa buddies (God, I hate being home) to sing rowdy bar songs with, I shall have to worsen the quality of the blog by posting some rather rowdy drinking songs having to do with Germans...
As this was to really piss off the German club that I belonged to. I mean, as much as I loved my teachers in a way, and I did do some fun things with them...
Friendly rowdy Britishness is of course, necessary during football season. Football being soccer to you uncultured folk.
Anyway, here we go:
There were ten German bombers in the air...
There were ten German bombers in the air...
There were ten German bombers,
Ten German bombers,
There were ten German bombers in the air...
But the RAF from England shot one down...
But the RAF from England shot one down...
But the RAF from England,
The RAF from England,
Oh the RAF from England shot one down...
There were nine German bombers in the air... (etc.)
There's one I particularly fancy, since it's simple and pretty much anyone, despite their non-Britishness, can join in, especially when dealing with very very patriotic and hardcore footie fans from Germany...
Though I have to admit their players are top-notch. But not as awesome as ours. =)
Of course, we also have worse, and worse. I'll share one more... to save your poor eyes.
The German soldiers crossed the Rhine... taboo, taboo...
The German soldiers crossed the Rhine... taboo, taboo...
The German soldiers crossed the Rhine,
They fucked the women and drank the wine,
and they all sang Sieg Heil!
Tickle my ass taboo...
Haha, of course, this gets the competition quite roaring. It's fun fun shit. We've other drinking songs, but none of them really get a good friendly bar rivalry going with the Germans, since most don't involve them and actually involve Canadian pride... (Barrett's Privateers, anyone?)
Anyway, that's my go at destroying my own blog's integrity... ciao!
What... the... fuck.
Alright, you all know I hate America's current state, very very much. You all know I've been accused of being a terrorist, being an Asian British-Canadian in the midst of Upstate NY. Hey, and you all know I've studied terrorism since I was ten, know the subject matter well, study religious texts at school as my subject priority, and pretty much flip the fuck out when someone accuses anyone else based on their race of being a terrorist. And you all know, at least, those who lived in NY who asked me to my face what the fuck happened... that I had predicted 9/11 years in advance. And you all know I'm a left centrist (despite being a dedicated socialist, go figure) who really despises any sort of paranoia generated by any sort of extremism.
NOW, with that said... WHAT THE FUCK.
There was recently a post by Hawk of Applegeeks about how someone on the subway thought he was a terrorist. That's fucked. I'm sorry... what, every muslim automatically is a terrorist now? Why doesn't that apply to anyone else? What, there are no white terrorists? Why isn't... say... every Asian man a spy for China? Why isn't every Irish man part of the IRA? Why isn't every black person a Black Panther? Or everyone in the South a goddamned KKK member?
I mean, WHAT THE FUCK.
Futhermore, those who associate Jihad with terrorism are fools. But that's a totally different subject matter.
Now, with the huge paranoia that the States seems to have kicked in recently (THANK GOD I moved back to Canada... unlike that poor Canadian kid that got arrested on terrorism charges) no one seems to recognize that not everyone's a terrorist. Or that their history stems also from similar freedom fighters that killed pretty much every loyalist they came across, and in that they have their own history rooted in terror. Not that I'm justifying terrorism... but their paranoia is just fucking dumb.
Please, for god's sakes! Not every person with a darker skin colour than you is a terrorist! Surely, despite your history, YOU aren't a terrorist, are you? So for fucking chrissakes... CHILLAX!
This message brought to you by the empty Guinness' on my desk and bottled up anger at ignorance.
Now, I don't know who I'll really reach. I only get something like 200 unique visitors a month. But I hope those of you who act in the ways I'm ranting about forgive my rant, and really THINK about what you're doing. I don't want to hear any of that "if it fits the bill" bullcrap.
Seriously guys. What the fuck. I mean, London's my fucking capital, for my British citizen side, and I love the city, and I'll be damned if I'm not pissed about what happened. But this paranoia is STUPID.
Life's getting complex. Sorry I haven't been blogging. Here's something a great old friend sent me... a post her father (and later herself) wrote elsewhere. She called me a few days ago when it happened to let me know of the situation, I'd been feeling miserable all day for no reason, then I found out why. We'd always had a sort of connection. So... that's one of the many things occupying my mind.
Oh yes, and my article for the Charlatan is up.
... Anyway, her father's post...
I have big personal problems and since you are all my log time friends here, I will explain why I will not be around for a while and for obvious reasons my server is down. Just to say it upfront, this is not a security issue, so no worries on that end.
Background, I am German citizen, grew up and studied engineeing in Germany with two degrees and moved with my wife and now 4 children to the USA to enjoy freedom and success in the land of all great opportunities. It was not easy over the years and sometimes a big struggle. But then that is life. We have now living here in the US for 16 years.
Our Visa expired before we got it renewed (stupid slow bureaucrats) and so the fact is that we are out of status. "No big deal" is what my immigration attorney said a few month ago ... just wait for the new visa and hold on tight. So we did....
Now... 2 days ago at 6:00 AM in the morning, 12 US federal officers stormed our house woke us up and took the whole family in to custody. (except my 2 smallest children, who are US citizen) So me, my wife, and 2 oldest daughters 18 and 16 got booked. These people can not be reasoning with not discussed with not even any common sense conversation. UNBELIEVABLE!
They wanted to place us on a plane that same day to Germany. None of my attorneys could do anything because I was stripped of all my rights and became an illegal alien in an instant. They did not care that I have a house a business where I employ some US citizen and 2 children who are us citizen as well. They did not care about anything!
After many hours of discussion and finally some people whose elevator went at least halfway up, they agreed to give us 10 days befopre we have to leave for Germany. They finally released my wife and children form custody the same day, but kept me over night. I was put in those kind of chains that you see on the worst of the worst criminals on TV with chains around the body and feet and hands and they locked me to the seat of the bus to drive 1 hour to the Jail.
That Jail exprerience is probably the worst I had in my life.
A Jail only for illegal aliens with NO rights whatsoever, and the first person you great will make sure you understand they you have no rights whatsoever.
It is so bad, I dont think I should repeat here what they do to people without rights.
I was lucky, check-in procedure took 6 hours and then check-out procedure started and laster another 6 hours.
Next mornig I was taken back to the downtown office for further processing. After long talks, they agreed to let me go home under house arrest. 4 Federal officers took me home in chains and installed the same kind of device on my leg that Martha Stewart has. They told me that I can be kind of proud, since I am the first one in my county who has received the honor of this bracelet around the leg.
So, now what.
I have to sell my home, close my business let go of my employees get airline tickets and make arrangements to have all my stuff shipped to Germany. And I have 10 days to do all of this. Now the challange is to do all of this within a 150 feet radius from this house arrest device and frozen bank accounts.
But they do not care, because I have become a threat to the us federal goverrnment.
You know, it was always my dream to live in the USA but what I have personally experienced over the last couple of days has put a big doubt in to that thought.
I will be around for 10 more days. But then not sure when I will be back online and from where.
Greetings to all of you and may this never happen to anyone of you.
... and hers...
I was part of this whole ordeal where the Fed's showed up and dragged us off to their shiny, intimidating metal detention building downtown. I can honestly say that was one of the scariest things I've been through, even being young and not having a lot of experience with the scary parts of the world.
I've only been pulled over by cops once, and have never been arrested, much less by Federal officers from various departments who honestly couldn't care less about us.
Having declared us as illegal, we were stripped of any rights, including those of an attorney, a judge, pretty much anything.
I do have to give some credit to these Feds, though... they treated my mother, sister and myself very well. There was obvious racism in the building (due to being so close to the Mexican border, most of the problem is probably known... all the Mexicans that smuggle themselves and others across were being held with us) between the Mexican people and the others. We, being white Germans, were treated very well, and were allowed to keep our own clothes, were not handcuffed and shackled, and were given blankets, and not locked up. The Mexicans, on the other hand, weren't treated very well. Even the women were shoved into cells in prison clothing...
Anyway, I digress. You know, I've lived in this country since I was two, so I grew up pretty much American. I went to public school here, I made very good, very close friends with many various people, learned what it was to live in this country. Always, I had a very good opinion of America, even when so many people spoke out against it. I still say there are many, many good people that live here, and even most of the administration is good, and stands for the right things. But somewhere, somehow, I feel completely let down by what I thought one of the best countries to live.
People that live here, legal or not, commit crimes each and every day. Many of them don't get caught, or get off even when they are. For one reason or anything, judges and officers let them go and do what they want. Smugglers are in jail for all of 20 days before they are sent back to Mexico (or wherever) and do the same thing again. It's routine.
And then you take us, and our family, who employs people, pays taxes, has children that contribute to society, etc. And... they don't care. That's twisted for you.
Anyway, that's mostly all I have to say. We're up 24 hours a day, trying to get things packed and worked out, and still spend time with the friends I've fallen in love with, and the places that I know I'm absolutely going to miss. Thank goodness I've had such good taste in friends who drop everything to help us out, and whose parents are fighting to get things made easier for us. There really are good people out there.
Still, this will be something new, and I won't have to worry about certain things so much anymore.
I think I've said quite a bit, so I'll leave it at that.
Thanks, everyone.
The world is shit, ja?
Spent the majority of last night disassembling my PC and reassembling it in a new case.
The good news is, this case RULES, and I don't have to worry about cutting my hands to ribbons in my case again...
It's very pretty too. =)
Oh, and it lowered my CPU temp about 5 degrees or so. Always a good thing.
Tired, going to bed. Live 8 was awesome. Great Canada Day Weekend, first seeing Feist for free, then going to Live 8. Life is good.
Happy Canada Day!
If you're in TO, go downtown! Free music!