the pod bay door

:: It’s early in the morning, June 28, 2004. I was born on June 28, 1953, at 1:05 am, Central Time, in Winnipeg. I don’t know if daylight savings time was in effect that year. No matter. I celebrate my 51st birthday today. It’s also the day of our federal election, in which Canadians will, most likely, elect a minority government.

Whatever. 51. And I still feel like a kid. Happy Birthday to me! 🙂

:: I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 last night at the local stadium-seat theatre complex. I went to the 9:50 show, having bought a ticket earlier in the day. The show was sold out. I can’t remember the last time a documentary received such a wide release, and then proceeded to sell out on its first night in Canadian theatres. I look forward to reading the weekend US movie grosses. The film has already broken single-day records in at two NYC theatres. One East Villlage theatre showed the film every 45 minutes, and then decided to show it all night long.

Moore is facing a barrage of criticism, and is responding to some of it with Fahrenheit 9/11 Facts. Christopher Hitchens, for example, spares him no quarter. Then again, others aren’t sparing Hitchens much, either. Chris Parry, of Hollywood Bitchslap, rips Hitchens’ comments apart piece by piece.
Read more »

:: And we wonder why we get so much spam. I hope they nail this guy’s butt to the wall.

AOL EMPLOYEE BUSTED FOR STEALING E-MAIL ADDRESSES

Jason Smathers, a 24-year-old employee of America Online, has been charged with stealing the e-mail addresses of 92 million AOL customers and selling them to spammers. Under a new federal anti-spam law, he faces the prospect of as many as five years in prison plus a fine of $250,000. The stolen information includes not only e-mail addresses but also telephone numbers, ZIP codes and the type of credit card the customers use (though not the actual credit card numbers, which are kept by AOL in a separate database). The company says: “We deeply regret what has taken place and are thoroughly reviewing and strengthening our internal procedures as a result of this investigation and arrest.”(New York Times 24 Jun 2004) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/technology/24spam.html

From: Newscan Daily, 24 June 2004.

:: :: It’s been over a year since Day I Forgot, Pete Yorn ‘s second album, was released. It’s a recording I’ve come upon only in the past few months, and it was worth the wait. The follow up to musicforthemorningafter, it is more than a worthy sophomore effort. Rarely does an album grab me after a few listenings, and not let go. It is my favorite album of 2004 so far, even though it’s a 2003 release.

Yorn writes about the fragile nature of relationships, hanging out at 7-11, searching for simple joys, and wondering what to do next. For me, however, a good melody always trumps the lyrics. So many of the songs on this album have superb, understated melodies that resonate for long periods of time. Music is always in my head, and of late, many of the tunes on this album have elbowed their way into my mind.

Day I Forgot has another quality that drew me in the more I listened to it. It has what I can only describe as “cool song parts”. The web site, retrocrush, recently posted a entry called “The 50 Coolest Song Parts“. As subjective as it gets, the 50 choices are often good ones, highlighting that certain moment that grabs you and makes the song memorable. It could be the lyric, the voicing, the instrumentation, or a combination of the above at that moment – it could last for a second, or for half a minute.
Read more »

:: Today is Father’s Day, and I just finished chatting on the phone with my Dad for about 35 minutes. My Dad was born in Winnipeg on Sept 12, 1926, and worked very hard for 31 years to put food on the table for Mom and us kids when we were growing up in St Boniface, Manitoba, in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He is 77 years old, and still doing quite well. He is an artist and a photographer, and spend a lot of time online, learning about the computer and the Internet. He also drives cars to Minnesota and North Dakota on a regular basis for a local Winnipeg company. Like my Mom, he has a thirst for learning new things, never content to sit quietly and watch the world pass him by. With my Mom, he is an inspiration, and a hero to me. I am very fortunate that my parents are both alive this late in life, and as well, to be so active and relatively healthy. Check out my Dad’s paintings if you haven’t seen them yet, and he does do commissions!

To my friends who are fathers, I wish you a Happy Father’s Day as well. This would include fellow webloggers Tony, Steve, Robert, and Derryl. And while I’m not a father, I received a wonderful and heartfelt e-Father’s Day card from this beautiful little girl in Lethbridge, Tigana, who is Robert’s daughter. I am also thinking of my foster child in Togo today, Welalo, and my e-mentee at Big Brothers Big Sisters, Bradley. I have no children of my own, but I have many who are very special to me, and I consider myself blessed and fortunate because of that.

One of my favorite blogs is Tonya‘s brilliant adventure journalist: the notebook. Seemingly without much effort, she weaves colour, shape, love, intensity, creativity and passion into her writing. In her latest entry, she writes of “10 weird, fun, interesting and/or disturbing things about my family“. What I wrote on her site is below, with a few minor editorial changes. Do you have anything interesting to share about your family? If so, let both of us know! 🙂

1) My maternal grandmother, Marie-Ange, known as Mary, and her sister, Yvonne, married the Carriere brothers, Jean-Charles (known as Charlie) and Armand, and lived in Winnipeg. Two of her other sisters, Florence and Blanche, married the Chale brothers (George and Red), and moved to North Dakota. My grandma and grandpa, Mary and Charlie.

2) My mother’s birthday is New Years Eve. Her first ever birthday party was when she turned 51.

3) My dad’s birthday is Sept 12, as is one of my best friends, Lea. On Sept 12, 1983, I was phoned and offered the job I have to this day, working as an academic librarian at the U of Alberta. When I was working at my first job in the early 1980s, a woman with whom I worked, who had been trying to conceive with her husband for years, but was told by her doctors that it wasn’t possible, learned on Sept 12 of that year that she was pregnant. Something else happened on Sept 12 of significance to me, but I’m blanking at the moment.

4) My niece’s birthday is May 29, 1992, which, depending upon how you write it numerically, could be a palindrome: 29/5/92.

5) My paternal grandmother used to bake “money buns”. She’d bake buns for the grandchildren, and put coins in each one. Each of us hoped we’d get the one with the 25c piece in it when we got to eat the buns. Then she’d make us tea, which we loved to drink with cream and sugar.

5) My maternal grandfather got me hooked on eating white bread, milk and brown sugar. I’d dip the bread in the milk, put brown sugar on it, and eat it. I don’t eat bread, milk and brown sugar together any more.

6) Neither of my parents finished high school, but between my two brothers and I, we have five university degrees. My parentsare nonetheless smart, articulate and talented.

7) My father is an artist, but didn’t have his first art show until he was 67. He worked full time for 31 years, and never had the time to organize an art show of his own works until he was retired.

8) When I was small, I tried to break a hard plastic cup by smashing it on the sidewalk. A piece flew up into one of my eyes, and I had to wear an eyepatch for a time while my eye healed.

9) In junior high school, I slipped on ice and the top of my head hit an edge of the outside school wall. I felt no pain, but a moment later, blood began gushing out of the crack in my skull. I lived.

10)I had pneumonia when I was 5 years old, one of at least four times I had it. At the time, my body temperature rose to 105.5F, and my parents were told that if it hit 106F, I wouldn’t survive. I lived.