Possibly on the verge of WW3, should we be concerned that Wal-Mart is the world's largest employer, with 1.3 million workers, and that it has an enormous impact on the US economy? Are Canadians on the verge of turning into a Wal-Mart Nation, like the US? There's one down the road from my house, and I do shop there too.

From Derryl's site comes this bloody brilliant way to deal with junk mail, including credit card applications.

I had acupuncture on my tennis elbow today (which, contrary to a previous entry, is on my left arm.) This was my first time, and it was interesting. It was administed by the physical therapist working on my injury. Tonight it feels a wee bit better.

I've been in a crabby, poopy mood for a few days. (What, you're saying? Is that any different from any other day?) Anyway, I think the planets converged and All Things Annoying hit me at the same time, heightened by the constant pain in my left arm. I'm looking forward to drinks after work tomorrow with BAWK (Bi-weekly After Work Club), and on Saturday, a full body massage at noon, and friends over in the evening for an Outer Limits Pizza Party. We'll be watching episodes from the original series.

It warmed up here today for the first time in weeks. By warm, I mean 4C. And it felt great. Tonight I'm as restless as ever.

I was minding my own business, scanning other blogs on my list, noting the intelligence and wit of the entires therein, compared to my latest missives about mostly nothing. Then I see an entry on Chris's site that catches my eye: word that National Geographic is issuing a special one-time-only issue on 100 years of swimsuits. Er...um...d'oh! What the hell is going on? I'm thinking, nah, this must be a joke. So I go to the National Geographic web site, and damned it isn't true. And what's with "100 Years"? Have the NG photogs been secretly photographing models in bathing suits since 1903?

The larger question is: is nothing scared anymore? The answer is: of course not, nothing ever was. Duh. Sports Illustrated: yes, and I've bought every one since 1975. But National Geographic, and to boot, issuing it in February, within the same week or two of SI? Cash grab, anyone? (Yes, I'll buy a copy...)

Now I'll go back to reading interesting and thought provoking entries from my friends.

Fans of the Tolkien series, Lord of the Rings, are predictably upset over the news that a new character, outside of the Tolkien universe, has been added to the final movie, The Return of the King. I'm wondering if this is a move to generate even more dollars at the box office in December 2003. Personally, I think Peter Jackson and George Lucas have gone just a bit too far this time.

Do you live in Canada, and watched the Super Bowl last Sunday, missing all the US commercials because the Canadian stations refused to run them, being the dorks that they are? You can watch the ads here.

I saw two recent films this weekend: Chicago and Frida. I enjoyed both of them. To appreciate and enjoy Chicago, go knowing in advance that you will see musical numbers every ten minutes. Richard Gere, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones do their own singing and dancing in the film, and it is very impressive. The production numbers are outstanding, with the best being one in which Gere plays a ventriloquist with Zellweger as his "dummy", and the press gallery are puppets - it's a brilliant presentation and delivery. The only negative thing I can say is that the website Sucks Big Time.

Frida explores the life of Frida Kahlo, a controversial Mexican painter who was twice married to Diego Rivera. In 1925 she was in a bus accident that injured her severely. She had many operations, body casts, corsets, etc. She poured her soul into painting, was determined to walk again, and eventually approached the famous Rivera for criticism. It was a defining moment in both their lives, and the movie follows her life from that point onwards. Salma Hayek gives the performance of her career, and she is surrounded by an excellent supporting cast, including Alfred Molina as Rivera, Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky, and appearances by Edward Norton, Saffron Burrows, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas, Mia Maestro, and Valeria Golino. Highly recommended.

We have had a month of cold, snowy weather. But when I stepped outside to drive to the theatre to see Frida, it was -10C and raining! I drove there, fighting the rain on my windshield, which kept turning to ice as it hit. I used all my windshield antifreeze to keep said windshielf clear until I got there.

The tennis elbow condition in my right arm is still bothering me considerably. I'm doing exercises with a 5 pound weight, and will visit the physical therapist again next Thursday. Acupuncture and cortisone shot may happen next.

Check out the trailer for Kill Bill the forthcoming Quentin Tarantino movie. It's very cool.

OK, this is a blatant plug for the new album, ever-so-slightly rearranged, by my wonderful friend and brilliant musician, Jessica Owen (formerly Schoenberg - love you lots, girl!). After some delay, the record is now available for purchase from CD Baby.

This is Jessica's fifth album. I was fortunate and priviliged to have played on and arranged most of her first offering, Sounds Like A Plan, recorded and released in cassette in April 1994. Since then, her talent has blossomed considerably, her songwriting and playing improved geometrically, and her incredible, powerful voice continues to amaze and demand your attention.

If you have hi-fi broadband access and Windows Media Player, listen to 2 mins each of four of her new songs. Low-fi dialup access is here.

Trust me, this is worth the effort. Yes, I am totally biased in her favour, but I can also tell quality music and effort when I hear it. Please consider buying a great product in support of a musician whom I respect enormously and love unconditionally, but more importantly, buy it because you'll enjoy it for a long time to come.

Naomi Klein offers a chilling view of how America is "expanding" its borders to the northern Canadian and southern Mexican lines to create what she calls Fortress Nafta. Klein: "A fortress continent is a bloc of nations that joins forces to extract favorable trade terms from other countries--while patrolling their shared external borders to keep people from those countries out." She also describes how this is happening in Europe.

It has been snowing heavily in Edmonton since Sunday, and the temperature has dropped into the -20C range. This morning, I woke early because I had to team-teach at 9:00 am (4th year Civil Eng class), knowing the roads would be shyte and that I had to clear my driveway. While making breakfast, I cracked my head on an open cabinet door in my kitchen, and it started bleeding. When I was ready to leave, I shovelled my driveway, got in my car, backed onto the street, and got immediately stuck in more snow. I tried shovelling under my tires, etc., to no avail. Fortunately, a kind soul in a pickup truck saw this, and came by to push me out. I did make it in time for class, sore head and all.

Three weeks ago I injured a muscle near my left elbow. The pain continues, despite using a tennis elbow brace and prescription gel on the soreness. It hurt like hell to play guitar on Saturday night. I think I may return to the physiotherapist.

It's a snowy Saturday afternoon. The roads in Edmonton are shyte. Tonight I'm performing with Amelia (fiddler) and The Celtic Fiddlers of Edmonton for Robbie Burns Night at the Edmonton Scottish Society. It's 2:20 pm, and other than getting a haircut at 10:00 this morning, I've been in bed sleeping...sheesh. I think grey days can make you feel sluggish.

At the U of Alberta yesterday morning, the Board of Governors passed a series of back-breaking tuition increases on students registering for the 2003-04 school year. Who do you blame? It's easy: our provincial government. Note that they have cut provincial funding per student in half in the past 20 years. For every dollar increase in the price of oil, our government pots $108 million dollars. For every 10¢ increase in natural gas prices, it pots $163 million. The last provincial budget assumed oil prices would benchmark at $20US/barrel, and natural gas at $3/1000 cubic feet. As of Friday, 17 January 2002, oil was at $33.91US/barrel, and natural gas at $5.54US/1000 cubic feet.

The government's standard whine is that "there isn't any more money", and "we've got to come to grips with (fill in the blank)". Consider that ours is far and away the richest province in Canada. Our university administration says it must work hard to convince voters of the importance of university education, but I hear and read this plea yearly, and see no efforts made, except by the students. Read how many of them feel today.

Recently our government announced $105 million to upgrade video lottery terminals in this province. BTW, gambling is so important in Alberta that it has its own department, Alberta Gaming. Advanced Education, on the other hand, does not have its own ministry - it it lumped in with Alberta Learning, where the primary focus is and always shall be, K-12. Salaries for academic staff at the U of A, when adjusted for inflation, rose 1.5% between 1991 and 2001. Long-term projects such as new, badly needed buildings and infrastructure upgrading are on hold. Desparately needed upgrades to elementary and secondary schools across Alberta are "on hold", because "there is no more money". The same mantra is chanted for other major infrastructure projects on hold at the moment, such as roads.

It is not a huge stretch to see where Alberta's priorities are at the moment, and beyond. Many of our cabinet ministers, MLAs, and our Premier, never had much formal education. However, some due, with PhDs and MDs are in the inner circle - one might think they understand why post-secondary education is important. What I can never fathom is how, collectively, they cannot see the long term benefits in investing strongly in all forms of post-secondary education. Of course the easy answer is that they don't see any collective immediate benefit to the economy. Translation: Unless you are studying in a faculty that will bring wealth to the province upon your graduation (i.e., land you a job immediately), it's not worth the government's long term interest. Yet historically we know that advancement in civilization and society begins in places of higher learning, where new discoveries, theories, philosophies, and creativity emerge.

On the Premier's web site is the quote: "Find out what this government is doing to ensure Alberta remains the best place in the world to live. " I'm still looking.

Of course, all of this is just a few of my thoughts. I could be wrong, and I like cold toilet seats.

Courtesy of Fiona comes this interesting link to a story about how eBay is changing how some academics conduct their research. One of my responsibilities as a librarian is to instruct students in research and library skills. That scholars and researcher would be searching eBay for material relevant to their work was something I had not considered until now.

My brother Chris sent this interesting story on the emergence of CD burning clubs. Group members chose a variety of songs, burn CDs, and send one back to every member. Downloading copyrighted material continues to be a hot topic. I agree with Dave Marsh's comments in this article, and I've said this before: I've discovered more interesting music and been exposed to more interesting artists as a result of downloading and listening to new music from wherever. Copyright is the sacred cow in my profession. What I don't like is the wholesale burning of an entire CD for someone else's use, or downloading of anything for burning and resale. And so on goes the downloading wars.

It's bloody freezing here in Edmonton today.

Am I the only person around who is not surprised of the lack of interest or outrage by Americans regarding the bankruptcy scandals involving corporate executives at Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, etc? We've become numb to such events, I believe. There is so much crap happening in the world, that when we hear about senior Enron execs defrauding investors, we shrug our shoulders and check out the next news story.

The second set of my NYC/NH pictures are now up.

Just returned from the fascinating movie Narc. A suspended narcotics officer is asked to participate in the investigation of the murder of a police officer. Ray Liotta plays the slain policeman's partner, and Jason Patric is the suspended officer assigned to the case. Not your typical buddy movie by any stretch of the imagination.

Yesterday at the Power Plant, in the midst of our giddiness, we tried inventing new band names. The one that had us laughing the most was Botox Nutsack. Have you invented any good band names?

Risking a name drop, Derryl sent me notice that William Gibson has a blog. I've added it to my list to the right. It's fascinating reading from a complex individual who is credited with inventing cyberspace. Read his first entry. And the name drop? Derryl and I know Gibson as Bill, not William. I've known him since the early 80s, before he published anything. I haven't seen him since his tour for Virtual Light brought him through Edmonton. So, forgive me this moment of self-indulgence, but check out his writing.

My brother Chris finally made it onto Big Sandy's photo page (check the bottom of the page). Big Sandy and His Fly Rite Boys were a huge hit at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in August 2002, and Big Sandy himself is a consumate gentleman and all-around nice guy!

I am a little more upbeat of late, despite the cold and the dark of January, and the insanity of university this time of year. I delivered two well-received research skills/library resources lectures to two materials engineering design classes this week, with more to come next week in civil and environmental, and another materials class. I feel much satisfaction when I know I've reached at least one student and helped them to understand and develop information literacy skills.

My friend Jen has the ability to write bits for her blog and then solict comments up the wazoo. Check her site and read the entries Love Circles and SUV Redux. (Jen, when are you going to add Permalinks!?)

There's a lot going on right now, and a lot about which to write, but I've been busy. Lots of teaching and mentoring this week at work. Tonight five of us went for beers at the Power Plant, and laughed ourselves silly for four hours. My ribs are still hurting, but it felt so good to laugh (when I wasn't choking).

Here's an interesting story, however: 500 original Beatles tapes, stolen in the 1970s, and containing music and tracks that have never been heard, have been recovered in Holland. Now we'll wonder if and when some of these songs might be released. I'm trying to imagine how fascinating it would be to hear complete, original Beatles tunes we've never heard, recorded in 1969 and remastered to match today's quality. It would be absolutely fascinating.

When I consider my top ten movies of the year, it's a list of my ten favorite movies, not the ten best per se. I saw 91 movies last year, but that's hardly enough to qualify me to consider which might be the ten best. I would have had to have seen about 150 more movies, as well as films that are released in NY and LA only at the end of December. For example, The Hours, and Adaptation have not played here yet, and About Schmidt opened here on January 3rd. The alphabetical list below is the ten films I saw in 2002 for the first time that moved me the most in any number of ways, and brought me the most enjoyment I experienced going to the movies.

Bloody Sunday
Far From Heaven
Gangs of New York
The Grey Zone
In The Bedroom (2001 film released in 2002 in Edmonton)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Minority Report
Max
No Man's Land
Rabbit-Proof Fence

Honorable mentions: Gosford Park, The Royal Tenebaums, Apocalypse Now Redux, Kissing Jessica Stein, Monsoon Wedding, Insomnia, Lovely and Amazing, Tadpole, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Good Girl, One Hour Photo, startup.com, Bowling for Columbine, Secretary, Tully, Igby Goes Down, Auto Focus, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Catch Me If You Can.

David Suzuki will be on campus at the U of Alberta on Thursday, Jan 9. His talk is part of The Revolutionary Speakers Series. Last year in September, Ralph Nader spoke to a packed house about the environment, government, and citizens' civic responsibilities to get involved. My guess is that Suzuki will be addressing the Kyoto Accord, which our provincial government has done everything it can to discredit and slam. It fascinates me one of our premier's favorite sayings is "short term pain for long term gain", yet when such pain might affect his oil baron buddies, it doesn't apply. I'm looking forward to Suzuki's lecture. I have seen him speak twice before, once in the late 60s when I skipped high school to watch him at the U of Manitoba.

School begins tomorrow, and I have lectures to deliver in various engineering design and report writing courses. January is always our heaviest month on campus.

Happy New Year to everyone! Begin your 2003 by reading the "28th annual ‘extreme’ List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness, which the world needs ‘now, more than ever.’" The 2002 list is still applicable and relevant, especially the note on "9-11" "9-1-1", the use of which I've railed against since September 11, 2001. All the lists are here.

2003 is the year I turn 50. I can't believe it. I'm still wrapping my small mind around it. It feels very, very strange, and at the same time, it feels like nothing. But it's a benchmark year in a person's life, and already I'm wasting time going the motions of evaluating all I've done up the now. *sigh* I know, age is just a number.

Anyway, my best to all who read this little blog. Thanks for visiting my site, and the very best to you in 2003.