the pod bay door

:: Things are little out of whack lately, as I sort through this and that in my life. It happens. I’m spending an inordinate amount of time agonizing over a lecture I’m giving in an engineering design class next Friday, trying to settle on what to highlight in the 50 minutes, and in what order. My house is a mess, and I’ve got a number of small tasks that I keep putting off, like writing a few letters, sending cards, getting some info to my Dad for a painting he’s composing, etc. I know this will sort itself out. Plus, it’s early February, and already I have events scheduled through to October, which for some reason, I find bothersome. No big deal, I suppose.

:: Among the increasing number of annoying catch-phrases and doublespeak that we hear on television and radio, and read in newspapers and magazines, I detest the habit of sportscasters who use an amount of money to describe the time left in a sporting event, when said time left is under two minutes. “Vince Carter, with a “buck twenty-two” left in the game, slam-dunked a decisive basket, leading the Raptors to victory blah blah blah…” Is this usage supposed to be cooler than saying “a minute and twenty-two seconds?”

I’m also weary of reviewers using the word “twee” to describe music or some other art form. Although I must admit I didn’t know that “niminy-piminy” is a synonym for twee. Whatever…

:: Interesting to note that the two entries below with photos of my father in 1945, and my mother in 2004, both feature them with casts on their right arms.

:: I saw The Triplets of Belleville and City of God this weekend, two Oscar-nominated movies. Both are excellent. Triplets is a bizarre, spaced-out 80-minute animated movie about a grandmother and her grandson, who competes in the Tour de France, but is kidnapped by the French Wine Mafia. There is little dialogue, so no subtitles are needed. And the song, “Belleville Rendezvous“, nominated for the Music (Song) Oscar, is infectious and catchy, making you want to start boogeying in your theatre seat.

City of God is about a young Brazilian boy, growing up in the middle of incredibly violent gang warfare, in the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. His best friend turns to drug dealing, but he resists the criminal life, and instead dreams of becoming a photographer. It is captivating, sad, and compelling, and deserving of its four nominations.

:: The US political system is not something to be understood easily. For example, the Iowa Caucuses. Whatinhell are they? I found explanations on the ‘net, but after reading them, I have a headache. You may fare differently. Try Jim Morrill’s description from the Charlotte Observer, or another take from MSNBC. There is also a detailed explanation on CNN’s site, but it’s a java pop-up window, so I cannot link to it. As of today, it’s on this page, in the “Related” box, about a third of the way down the page.

:: As if we need more proof that banks like CIBC are cold-blooded, heartless behemoths that care nil about their lunch bucket customers, I experienced more of CIBC’s slow but steady withdrawal of basic services today. While driving home from dim sum, I stopped at a Shell station to get cash, only to discover the CIBC machine there had been pulled and replaced by a Scotiabank machine. Undaunted, I drove further down Calgary Trail to a Petro-Canada station, only to discover that its CIBC machine had been swapped for a PetroCanada quick cash machine – you know, the generic kind, where the machine tells you that to withdraw any money will cost you an additional $1.50. Disappointed but not surprised, I drove to the local 7-11, which, thankfully, still has its CIBC bank machine.

But don’t let CIBC tell you otherwise. From their Public Accountability Statement 2003 web page, under “Affordable Accesible Banking”: In 2003, CIBC took steps to make banking more accessible to Canadians by enhancing products and services and upgrading delivery channels. Eh? From the same accountability statement: “CIBC offers customers a wider choice of banking services through Amicus Bank, a member of the CIBC group of companies.” Well, the two Amicus Bank machines I tried to use this afternoon aren’t there anymore.

CIBC over the years has pulled seven of its eight bank machines from my university campus. Now they are pulling machines from retail locations as well. “Enhancing products and services?” “Upgrading delivery channels?”

Er, no. Oh, SBT? Sucks Big Time.

:: In my short lifetime, I cannot remember a US presidential campaign with so many anti-incumbent movements before the election. George Soros and Michael Moore were on Charlie Rose last night, both speaking out against Bush, with Soros essentially dedicating the next year of his life to ending the Bush doctrine, which he believes to be a “temporary abberation.” Soros continues to provide leadership for an open society on this planet, with his Open Society Institute and Soros Foundation Network. Moore’s next movie, Fahrenheit 9-11, will examine the links between the Bush and bin Laden families.

Tonight I learned of the contest, Bush in 30 Seconds, in which contestants were asked to create a 30-second ad to explain and expose the failure of Bush’s policies. Of more than one thousand ads submitted, 26 were chosen as finalists. The five winners are here, and the overall best ad, “Child’s Pay“, is absolutely devestating, frightening, in fact, in its power and imagery – an ad with no dialogue, proving that pictures are indeed worth thousands of words.

Then check out Billionaires for Bush – “Because the deficit isn’t growing fast enough.”

:: I wasn’t really aware until this “holiday season”, of how Politically Correct we’ve become in North America, regarding saying Merry Christmas and mentioning Jesus Christ at this time of the year (gosh, it’s his birthday), instead saying “Happy Holidays”, and especially not mentioning anything connected with Christianity and the like, so as not to offend anyone. I was raised Catholic and still consider myself to be a small “c” Christian, and find myself more than a bit annoyed at this trend. A Christmas tree at the law school at Indiana University was removed so as to ensure that the University remains “an inclusive area in which no-one felt offended or left out.” I find this astonishing. Christmas trees and nativity scenes are not offensive religious symbols, but represent tradition and beliefs of, in this case, the majority of North Americans. Political correctness runs the risk of sucking dry whatever non-commercial-based joy there is left at Christmas time.

This letter from a local Devon pastor says it all: “However, I find a peculiar solace in one thing: I can now wish salespeople a “Merry Christmas” and consider it not only an act of faith, but an act of sheer political defiance.”

I hope you are not offended by my best wishes to you for a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2004!

:: A few days ago I lamented Safeway’s decision to stop serving Italian wedding soup as one of their deli products. Last weekend, I went to Staples, wanting to purchase a few Easy Stick double-sided adhesive cartridges, and a couple Staedtler Lumocolor 313 Superfine pens. I could find neither product, and ensuing discussions with a Staples staff member proved fruitless. Short answer: they don’t carry these items anymore.

For years I wore the Reebok Newport walking shoe. Simple, straightforward, basic shoe, about $60Cdn, heckuva deal, as they say in Minnesota. A few weeks ago, I visited a shoe store where in the past, I purchased these shoes. I couldn’t see any about, so asked a clerk for help. I might as well have been staring into the eyes of a chicken – no such shoe exists, there is no Reebok Newport Classic anymore. Reebok still makes the Classic, but there is no Newport.

For many years, my mother sold nutrimetics. The line of men’s products was called Bavarian, and I really, really liked the soap and aftershave. A few years back, nutrimetics stopped producing the Bavarian line, and replaced it with another family of products that in my estimation, didn’t come close to its predecessor.

A new word needs to be coined or invented, in the English language, to describe when this happens. The definition of the word would read something like: when a product or service one likes, uses and purchases regularly, is suddenly withdrawn from market and made no longer available, resulting in feelings of anger and frustration for the consumer.

:: Snow. Lots of it, everywhere. On the roads, on the grass, on the sidewalk, on your driveway. It snowed here all day, by 5:00 pm the roads were so bad that it took me 65 minutes to drive home (usually a 15 minute drive on a good day.) Thankfully it stopped around 8:00 pm, and it’s now clear and cold.

It’s a good thing the snow stopped now, because on Saturday, there will be two outdoor hockey games in Edmonton involving the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers. One is an old-timers game featuring the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur, followed by a regular-season game in the evening, the first outdoor NHL game in league history. The game, designated The Heritage Classic, is a sell-out, and will break the previous NHL attendance record by over 25,000 – expected attendance is 56,159, all of whom will need to dress warmly, as the high that day is predicted to be -7C, and it will be much cooler than that by the evening. A specially designed rink is being prepared for the game. The game coincides with the NHL’s 86th anniversary of its founding, and the 25th year of the Oilers in the league. The game is being broadcast in HDTV.

I’ve lived in Edmonton since 1978, but have always cheered for the Habs, and would love to attend the game, but no such luck. Tickets were awarded to names drawn from entries mailed in months ago, and I never made the time to enter. The outdoor game has already invoked a bit of nostalgia for me. As a kid, I played hockey for five years (not well, mind you!), and spent many a night on an outdoor rink, often helping to shovel snow from the ice surface so a game could happen. I played street hockey for years as well, with whichever kids were available at the time.