the pod bay door

:: I have been off work since December 18th, with the exception of December 20th. I had planned to do some major house cleaning and purging, but have made it through part of one room only. I was back at work today, in the sub-zero, bone-numbing city in which I live.

Derryl sent a link to this short animation, Gotta Get My Stuff Done, which while funny, also illustrates in the simplest of presentations, how we can rationalize not doing the stuff that needs to be done.

:: A week ago, we were first hearing of the tsunami. I recall the first time I heard something on the news, that 4,000 people were presumed dead. Seven days later, I find it very difficult to process what has happened.

Three weeks after September 11th, 2001, The Onion published its second issue since that fateful day. The cover story featured a composite picture of various pop culture icons and newsmakers of the moment, with the headline, “A Shattered Nation Longs To Care About Stupid Bullshit Again.” My tolerance for stoopid bullshit continues to decline on a daily basis, and in the past week, has hit an all-time low. I watch no so-called reality shows, and when I see an ad for one, I reach for the mute and/or channel buttons as fast as humanly possible. Who can give a rat’s ass about the next Survivor, Insert-Name-of-Country-Here Idol, or The Apprentice? Perhaps for some, shows like these are a diversion. But what they represent is so infinitely distant from anything that really matters.

What is critical right now is contributing to help those in need. In Canada, the Canadian Government will match donations by citizens until mid-January:

Until the UN donor conference in mid-January, when needs will be reassessed, the Government of Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency is matching dollar for dollar contributions that individuals make to recognized Canadian non-government organizations already involved in responding to the disaster in South and Southeast Asia. Some of these organizations include:

* Canadian Red Cross
* World Vision Canada
* Doctors Without Borders
* Oxfam Canada
* Oxfam Quebec (French only)
* CARE Canada
* UNICEF Canada
* Development and Peace
* Save the Children

Please donate if you haven’t already.

:: As received in a recent e-mail, illustrating how far we’ve gone (backwards) in ensuring that no one is ever offended, again, in late December (for those who recognize the calendar with the month “December” in it):

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all…. and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make Canada great (not to imply that Canada is necessarily greater that any other country), and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

In other words, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

:: Happy New Year to everyone, as we begin the second half of this yet-to-be-named decade. In Edmonton we are experiencing -20 to -25C temperatures for the next few days, a deep freeze. I saw The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou yesterday, bringing my Films Viewed in 2004 total to 112 – this figure includes a number of short films as well, not 112 full-length features.

Regarding resolutions, the one I want to seriously tackle this year is losing a few pounds, and getting into better shape. Beyond that, enjoying life to its fullest is a good challenge.

:: For the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling like the Bill Murray character in Groundhog Day. The days seem to be repeating themselves. I’ve been working on the book chapter, redesigning the STLQ web site (based on Icy Blue, a Neil Turner template), and falling as far behind as I have ever been in answering or processing work and personal e-mail. I’ve spent significant time (by choice, of course) learning the original tunes of Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, who will be performing at the Sidetrack Cafe on Dec 14 (show starts at 8:00 pm, should be over by 8:45 pm). So to those who are patiently waiting to hear from me, thank you for being patient.

I wanted to complete the book chapter this week, and tomorrow I hope to do so. The STLQ site is working, and I can live with that. It needs further tweaking, but that can come later. I needed to clean up the presentation because it wasn’t working in Firefox. I haven’t been getting to my Y workouts, either, which is my fault, and no one else’s.

I’ve been hitting the sack after 12:30 am almost every night, and realize that I can’t keep this pace. Fortunately, I will be off work from Dec 18-Jan 3, and plan to spend a lot of quiet time in that period (despite it being Christmas season).

It doesn’t feel like Christmas, for any number of reasons. We have no snow, which suits me fine. The weather has been mild for a few weeks – the high in Edmonton tomorrow is 6C. This will change very shortly, however, as temperatures start to drop, reaching the -20s by mid-week. I don’t feel that I am being bombarded with Christmas commercials either – could be because I’m not watching much prime time tv, other than Lost and the 3 L&O’s.

It has been an interesting experience playing with the members of Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys. Consider that my electric guitar, in a virtual kind of way, has been in its case since 1991, with the exception of a few weeks in 1999 when I worked with Capt. Nemo (gone, but never forgotten.) Ironically, the last “electric” gig I played was with the Nemos at – you guessed it – the Sidetrack. My Telecaster is running through a Line 6 Flextone amp, a very generous gift from an old friend, Paul Anderson, of Ontario, who send it many moons ago. Now, finally, it is getting some use. Certainly I hadn’t planned on playing live electric music again, but I’ve never been closed to the idea, either. This music is very different from anything I’ve played before, and not immediately accessible to the listener who is looking for melody and basic song structure. It is, however, very original, and quite challenging to perform.

I am intrigued that the decade is less than a month from being half-over, and still doesn’t have a name or identity. The Aughts, The Zeros, The Tens? What has defined this decade so far? What do you think?

This bumper sticker made me laugh today. Bed time.

:: As someone who wants to be able to subscribe to HBO, I almost fell off the couch reading this article, which appeared in many Canadian newspapers this morning:

Making it illegal for Canadians to subscribe to television programming via foreign satellite systems infringes on their freedom of expression, a long-awaited judgment concluded yesterday.

Quebec Court Judge Danielle Côté handed down a 153-page ruling that found two sections of the federal Radiocommunication Act violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Those sections deal with so-called grey-market satellite systems for decoding an encrypted programming signal.

In 2002, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it was a federal offense to sell technology which allowed consumers to get access to encrypted signals from US-based satellite systems. Côté’s ruling could eventually lead to the end of the CRTC dictating to Canadians what they can and cannot watch on their televisions. Côté is allowing a one-year grace period before her ruling comes into effect. Consider that appeals will probably be made as well, meaning that change could take a while. But it’s a move in the right direction.

The court order was sought by Jacques D’Argy of Drummondville, after years of legal battles:

D’Argy, representing himself throughout all the court proceedings, said yesterday he always wondered “why can I import the New York Times but not (the U.S. television network) Fox.”

Well, DUH! The Red Sox win the World Series, and a ruling in favour of allowing access in Canada to US cable networks. What a great week.