'cause you know, music saves us all

Hope you enjoy the massive pic, it will be gone by August 1st. :p

Today I spent a lot of time at the drum kit, and an equally long time listening to music--live music, that is. It was a pretty good day overall; however, I would have liked to have spent more time with Laura (regardless of the fact she's gone for a few days) and studied some Mandarin.

I got up before noon, watched a show about gecko-inspired technology on Discovery, and did a whole lot of nothing. At some point, I got really frustrated with my 'rents and started drumming. But I didn't just play random stuff, I practised through all my material, all of it! and made some improvement. I also played some piano. Drum lesson was around 5:00 PM, not too bad but unremarkable. Dinner took awhile because we were out of propane for the barbecue.

At around 7:15 PM Laura & I went to the "heavy" show @ Pleasant Valley Community Hall. We saw many people whom we knew there; however, when we arrived a few unpalatable punk bands were playing. So, as usual, much of the time was spent talking outside. Drew was there again; I feel like he is everywhere I go, and I cannot escape him. I waited until "Unit 29" was done playing (I like them, though they are a bit heavy and unbalanced for my liking, it's quite a talented group) and then escorted Laura home.

Quinn, Sean & Luke (¾ of "Sister Ray," or "The British East India Company") left earlier to jam at Quinn's house. Ryan Steele's band, "the Lady Esther," was to play later, but they tired of waiting for it. Windross (with his new Element) was somewhat interested in watching, as was I, so I led him there. It was an interesting experience, though I didn't learn too much new. I helped Luke pack up his kit and then went home. I just picked up a few Googlewhacks to pass the time. Tomorrow morning I am getting up to go to Hammermania (at Rutherford I think).

Total Googlewhacks to date: 52

taking care of business

Well yesterday, I was so busy taking care of business that I neglected to blog; I did, however, accomplish all the other things I wanted to do, so it was a good day. Some things I did yesterday:

did my laundry

forearm day

watched a movie with Laura

studied Mandarin

installed my digital camera

One thing I did not do yesterday was go down to the beach with Paddy & mini-Paddy to shoot pellet guns. Foo also declined because he was too tired; my reason was that it was 2:00 AM and I had promised to do stuff with Laura today. I sort of regret not going, but I can imagine having greater regrets doing it (for example, having the van taken away, or being imposed with a curfew). In this case, my stance is that it's "better the devil I know than the one I don't." Were I, on the other hand, in 'unique experiences' mode I might have been more interested... also in the last few days before I go to Taiwan, I may be more prone to fun & erratic behaviour.

Speaking of which, Helen Dyck (of Thomas Cook Travel) phoned today to say that my airline ticket has been purchased, and my visa will arrive at her office tomorrow. This means that I will definitely be going to Taiwan on August 20th of this year. I'll be leaving from the Nanaimo-Collishaw Airport, so on the off-chance you want to see me off (or make sure I'm gone), that's the last chance. Afterwards, I will hopefully post a year's worth of exciting blog entries about my stay in Taiwan.

Today, I went downtown & had lunch at Delicado's with Laura. We then browsed various downtown bookstores, though I tried not to spend any money as my breakfast/lunch cost about $6.00. I gave a toonie to some homeless beggar guy though. I saw Laura off at the City Centre bus exchange (see bus map) and then went to my Mandarin class. It was challenging; Swan made us do some pretty hard conversations/dialogue. It worries me that my speaking skills are so weak, but I will keep trying--I can't afford to stop now that I am 100% committed to this upcoming Rotary Exchange.

I haven't been to any Rotary meetings recently. Apparently, 'guests of Rotarians' & 'visiting Rotarians' aren't so welcome to their fun meetings. The club has been touring various local businesses, which I would very much like to do, but I am not invited. Oh well. I bought a new journal at Staples and then went home for a while. Dinner this evening was @ the old folks' home. The food was excellent as usual: I had chicken noodle soup, breaded veal, and strawberries & cream for dessert. Afterwards I played Mendelssohn's "Andante Sostenuto" on their piano but I sucked a lot. Drove to T'ai Chi and then returned home again. My day has ended videogaming with Foo, and eating rice pudding.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 46

dazzling orange orb damaging the retinæ

Today was a fairly good day. Again, I saw an atmospheric phenomenon which I had never before encountered; however, this time it was during the day. While walking downtown, Laura, Alleah, Barbara & I were able to look directly at the sun! It was enlarged, a dullish orange, and none too bright in the hazy sky. We thought it was due to smog from Vancouver, and Alleah proclaimed the Apocalypse (to quote Dogma, "This is not a drill, this is the Apocalypse!"). I was apprised by Meagan that it was probably from the Chilko Lake fire (though I can only find information pertaining to a 2003 fire on-line).

Mandarin was good, worked more on learning to write characters... it helps me understand what's going on SO MUCH, compared to talking & writing romanized sounds down. Pinyin (拼音) is much better, IMHO, than older systems of romanization, but only useful in typing and text-messaging in chinese (otherwise you'd need a keyboard with thousands of keys!). Afterwards, I went to Zed's but he wasn't home so I headed to Alleah's.

Laura arrived just as I did, and Barbara was there shortly afterwards. Geoff didn't come; Alleah said he was cleaning his house or something. We hung out, talked, and played with baby Nicholas, as well as Sherayna's other children. Dinner was an excellent spaghetti with meat sauce. Afterwards, we went down to Zed's house, and he was home at that time. Our plan was to go down to the Cambie and listen to 'Last to Leave' & 'Lady Esther' from the restaurant, but Zed said it had closed already.

That plan negated, we began hanging out @ Zed's house. Some girl was there making dinner with him, so we all chatted and played with the super-cute kitten. He was kind enough to give us some hot noodle stirfry gratis, and didn't seem to mind that we'd just dropped in. After dinner #2, we went downtown to some sort of event where people were drumming, stilt-walking, and hula-hooping. Laura, Alleah, Zed & I circle-sang in the gazebo for a while.

At the end I saw some guys hacking, and joined them. I'm a bit out of practise and was unable to impress, but they were pretty good. Most wore sandals, and the hack was ridiculously small. I got eliminated early in snipe, and then dropped Alleah & Laura off at their respective houses. The collective is going boating tomorrow so I'll probably clean my van & stuff.

People should check out "Shades of Grey," a Brad & Kevin single. The C major song was a bad recording though, we've done it better many times.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 40

dogma & atmospheric phenomena

Today started off slow, but by the late afternoon the action had begun. Laura said people were meeting at the lake @ 1PM, but I was the only one who arrived there at that time. I went to Laura's to rouse her, but she wasn't home. I returned to Long Lake only to find her, Brianna & Lanky there. It was quite windy but the sky was a lovely shade of blue... I only went to about mid-calf in the water, but the others all went in at one point. Met Aiden & Spencer I think, siblings, but I don't know if that's how to spell their names.

Geoff & Alleah never showed up at the lake; however, we did call them at their respective houses and made them come over. Geoff & I were hungry at the time of his arrival, so we made (with the help of Laura) another thing of pasta--the sauce was again ridiculously excellent, and the noodles well-cooked. The sacue:pasta ratio was also good. Alleah arrived just in time to eat with us.

Pretty soon Laura's mom decided to make dinner (meal #3) which was excellent wraps. We cleaned everything up afterwards, and sat around for a while deciding what to do. Alleah wanted to call people & hang out, but instead we went to the park and swung on the swings. Then we decided to rent a movie, so we walked to the video store (because I, of course, am not ALLOWED by parents to drive people & Laura likes to walk). On the way we found a Smirnoff Ice box, which Alleah wore upon her head, and a 'SOLD' sign on the ground. What would you know but a realtor accosted us later on and took the sign away; she didn't believe we hadn't stolen it.

Fast forward to the video store: I proposed "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," but was over-ruled by the "Robin Williams Live on Broadway" lobby. It was out, as I predicted, and I was forced to laugh because of said out-ness. In the end we rented "Dogma," because it had Matt Damon, Chris Rock, and Jay & Silent Bob on the front.

It turned out to be a very funny movie. Though the ending was weak, the first half was very good. There were some priceless little scenes strewn throughout that I highly enjoyed, though at the end the movie was less random because they had to make reference to previous things and tie it together. All in all the plot was pretty chaotic but everything was somewhat interrelated and interconnected. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After Rogers video, we went to Save-on to get bulk candy. It was, as usual, rather inexpensive--I can't believe people wanted to buy food at Rogers. Walking home, we saw the aurora borealis overtop of the mountains behind Laura's house. I didn't know it was visible in this area, but it was quite a breathtaking moment, and we watched it for quite some time. I also bet Alleah that Julia Stiles was in Terminator 3, because I distinctly remember seeing her in the previews; however, it turns out she didn't end up in the movie and I lost $2.00. But that's life. We ended up starting the movie at 11PM, which was quite foolish.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 36

video games & dinner

Today, unlike yesterday, was kind of dumb. I had a lot of fun, but at the same time the sheer unproductiveness was weighing on my mind. I basically got nothing done except I played guitar/practised "Stairway to Heaven" for the day; in essence, the opposite of yesterday.

We played "Rampart" (SNES). We played endless games and variants on "Super Smash Brothers" (N64)... there was even some "Champions of Norrath" (PS2). My only other accomplishment worth noting was that Foo & I successfully cooked dinner: that's right! we barbecued hamburgers, cooked french fries in the oven, sautéed onions on the stove (not such a success) and all in all had a pretty good meal without any assistance from the parental units.

Somewhere in there were about 5 pushups as well, but my forearms cry out to me "we need exercise! Let us grip the villainous wankinator and test our might against it!" But that didn't happen either. All in all, I'm not very satisfied with my accomplishments. Maybe I'm just a little morose and pessimistic. I don't know what I can do about that right now though. I'm talking to my better half (the perennial font of joy and wisdom) so maybe that will help. I did some more googlewhacking, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 32

when you're having fun

Today was a "big day," in my mom's words. It kind of snuck up on me; all the way through the pace seemed pretty slow but in the end I actually did a lot of stuff. Got up around 11, went downtown for volunteering at 12. Zed showed up and was recruited; we tryed to get donations but met almost no success. Just when we were about to leave the sound of marimbas caught his ear from far away. We followed it to CHLY's something something festival. After the marimbists was a performance by Tracy Myers & Myron Makepeace.

They're both local musicians; I have seen them play before (such as at a Wally Gator Watson concert). I even helped Myers put her kit away once after a Bel Canto Singers performance. I was really impressed by this show though... it was excellent. She did "Speak Resistance," as at the peace rally, and other good songs. Actually, it was kind of a 'spoken word' type performance, backed up by hand percussion and Makepeace on bass or guitar.

Afterwards we went up to Zed's and called Alleah. Headed up there, then off to the dam to swim. It was good, but I am very out of shape, so when I swam really fast, it was too much; I exercised too hard and got kind of sick. Alleah cut her toe. We dried off and headed back to Zed's, where he made dinner for us. That was some good dinner - noodles, chick peas, and fried vegetables all with soy sauce. I tuned his guitar while I waited.

Did I mention Zed had the CUTEST KITTEN EVER? Alleah & I couldn't get over the unparalleled and remarkable cuteness constantly exuded by the miniscule kitten. We played with it extensively, and I for one was highly delighted. Even Laura--who has dogs--was enthralled when we dropped the dishes off at Zed's house.

Anyway, on to the performance... we just barely got there in time; had to stop at 7-11 so Zed could get money for it. We were eating our dinner right until we went inside. I ate while I bought my ticket. The staff were helpful enough to put our plates in the fridge then microwave the food at intermission. All in all that worked out rather well. I saw many people I knew in the audience and in the play--including two Dover girls I met at a singles dinner with Olives, Farm, Lewis, Chris & Kim (before I got back together with my better half).

Laura asked how it was and I said "good," and then she made me promise not to say more. So, considering she will read this, I must leave it at that. Both Nikki and Sasja made me laugh a lot with their roles, it's safe to say. Stage makeup is strange. Saw Barbara & Drew there too; it seems he's still kicking around, so whatever. He keeps showing up where I least expect him. I challenged Hawker to an impromptu drum battle as his house was across the street, but he declined: everyone had to head downtown to see the fireworks.

Now, I learned this evening that Arts Alive students have a tradition of swimming from Swy-a-lana beach to underneath the bridge for the watching of fireworks: consequently, Laura was quite a wet girl afterwards, but I'm gettting ahead of myself. Zed was meeting with his fire-dancing friends, but they called that off. So, we took up position at the foot of the bridge, looking over the people (he's 6'2"-6'4" with his new women's flip-flops) at the fireworks. This year, unlike at Victoria Day, there was music. Also the fireworks lasted for about 20 minutes, and the larger budget really showed. There were some songs I enjoyed, such as "Drops of Jupiter" and "Complicated" and the show was really good.

This was the time when I had to drop the dinner dishes off at Zed's, as he had gone looking for his mother. We said goodbye to Geoff and Erin (they'd driven to Tofino so Geoff could drink like a hypocrite)--somehow I can't understand why they drove 5 hours in a single day for an out-of-the-way drinking location. I went to Laura's house, where she had dried off and changed out of ocean-water-clothes, and we had some sort of weird tea. It was o.k. though. Next time, I'm having Twining's of London English Breakfast tea, which is probably my favourite of all time. A gourmet strawberry might be nice too, but not to drink day in/day out for the rest of my life. [Check out this article on drinking green tea copiously].

When I got home I had some ice cream with chocolate sauce & maple syrup (hello diabetes and mouth-rot). Then I went downstairs and played Rampart with Cam for a while. I was planning to go to bed at 1AM (as I want to watch the sunrise later this week) but when I looked at my watch, it was 1:45! Of course, now it's like 3:10AM so that plan is out the window. Sorry for my wordiness, but I did a lot. Rock on.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 26

toastier bedroll

Well, Foo is back today. I dropped mom off at the ferry at like 11 this morning, then didn't do too much. Peanut butter toast for breakfast. Went uptown with my dad, got 'rents' bikes serviced. Chicken caesar salad at Romeo's, sundaes at Costco. Drums was good, though Gregg took all my cymbals to use in recording trance music in Vancouver tomorrow.

It's frickin hot today. I bought more wankinators at Walmart, but I'll overheat if I use them. Right now it's 29 degrees upstairs; too much for me. A giant slice of pizza for dinner in air-conditioned Costco was good too. Afterwards we watched "Bourne Supremacy" with Pam & Bill. It was a pretty good movie, I thought--certainly beat the hell out of searching for googlewhacks. Brad spent most of the day with Amay, and is going away for a while soon, but Laura's last day of AA was today.

Hopefully there will be an exciting social gathering at Geoff's soon though. This weekend he is hypocritically going on a road trip to go drinking in Tofino (I do not approve... I wish I could go on road trips). All I can really look forward to tomorrow is volunteering downtown (in the heat) and maybe seeing Copacabana. Or bathtubs and live music downtown. Maybe I will retreat to the basement and begin translating my Chinese Book of Mormon word by word, à la mode "The Last Samurai." It might be mega-tedious, but I bet my command of the language, and all-important literacy, would improve significantly.

Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to my upcoming Rotary International Youth Exchange more and more. Just as Foo came back happy from "The hardest thing [he'd] ever done" (a 17-day mountaineering expedition), I like a good challenge to motivate me every once in a while. The imminent threat of being immersed in a foreign language and culture does that quite nicely, and I actually do some studying now and again. Gregg is raising the bar with "heel-up only" bass drum technique, which makes everything significantly harder as I've been playing heel-down. If it weren't so hot, I would even do some bodybuilding. I plan to have a lot of fun starting August 20th, and actually start trying.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 24

hopelessly addicted

I am, I must say, doing far too much googlewhacking. I must have spent an hour on it today, and while I got five, including some consecutives, it just isn't as beneficial as working out or practising drums or something.

Got up around 11 or 12ish. Had some peanut-butter toast, practised drums a bit. I honestly can't remember what I did this morning. I went to Mandarin as usual, and it was fun, informative, and challenging (yay challenge). Afterwards, drove up to Alleah's but she wasn't there, so I went to Cash Converters (with a new name now), considered buying Gauntlet 64 (but didn't), and went home. Drove back downtown for excellent t'ai chi in the park, talked to Zed & Fred, then went home again.

All in all it's been pretty uneventful, I've talked to a few people (Sean, Alleah, Laura, Megs, & Brad) and not too much else. My 'rents are back from down-Island, finally. Today was not nearly as good as yesterday.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 8

peanut butter toast & forearms

Today was a good day, let me put it that way. I got a little bit of stuff done, didn't backslide (no negative progress/increased mess) and had much fun with my friends.

Called Geoff around 2:45, told him to come over. Had a hardcore fast 5 minute shower (at least fast for me, especially to dressed), and then he arrived. We called some people and played with swords for a while, then decided we were going to a matinée of "I, Robot;" however, no-one else could make it. I got $20 of gas, so I have a quarter-tank again.

The movie was pretty good, especially for $6.00. Special effects were excellent, and the personality projection of the robot "Sunny" was very well-rendered. The story was ok, good speculative fiction/sci-fi and a little supsenseful, though the ending seemed a little weak. Action sequences were for the most part very good; they weren't epic/dramatic like LotR or "King Arthur," but good. A different style, not sword-and-sorcery.

Afterwards we decidely to stop by randomly at Laura's. We picked her up and went to my house. I put on some rice, and Geoff made perogies. I got Laura to help me in my unsuccessful attempt to sauté onions. Once the rice was done I found out there was no soy sauce, so I called Val, and she generously offered to give me one of hers. I drove up there and got it immediately, and we soon were having an pretty good dinner (for our skills).

Later, we were watching "Kids in the Hall," and discussing what to do. I suggested watching "Army of Darkness," which Geoff strongly supported. Then we couldn't find it, but Laura came to the rescue with her advanced searching skills. Brad called near the beginning, and came down to watch it with us. It was great fun, full of laughs, incredulity, and nostalgia. The inconsistencies and one-liners in that movie are excellent, and sometimes I think it's deliberately poking fun. I mean, there are so many shots just so you can see where Bruce doesn't have the shotgun, and then he just whips it out of nowhere. I love that movie.

Went over to Brad's afterwards, jammed a little. Talked to Jenna online for a while, and then Brad & I looked for Googlewhacks. He found 3 and I got 2 more. Now I've just been cleaning up the house, eating peanut butter toast (protein) and working on my forearms.

Total Googlewhacks to date: 3

chrysocolla öpiates

I got a googlewhack today, and it only took me an hour to find.

Needless to say, I was pretty happy about that, but it's not as excellent a hobby as computer games. See if you can find a unique hit, according to the rules of googlewhacking. Note that the umlaut is gratuitous, though it makes it look mean.

Anyway, today I drove up to Comox in the sports can with my parents. We had lunch with the Woods, whose son Matt has recently returned from his Rotary Youth Exchange to Taiwan. I learned a lot about various aspects of life, and am reassured. Mandarin was good today, I met the other student, who works for Canada World Youth. If you are interested in hosting a pair of exchange students for 3 months starting August 27th, give me a shout and I'll forward you her contact info, as she's looking for host families.

Hanging out with Alleah, Geoff & Laura was great fun. We went to Value Village, and Geoff got a corduroy trenchcoat. Alleah purchased some pants-able pants, and we had pizza for dinner. Subsequently, we had friend rice for dinner:part II and then hung out at Gyro Park #3. Apparently, Geoff & Alleah are back together, again; but as always, you should ask them, and not just believe what I say. I don't pretend to understand people, or be routinely infallible.

show & tell with the British Museum

Did a lot of nothing today (started learning "Stairway to Heaven" on guitar) and then headed down to Victoria with my parents. We went to the Royal BC Museum to see their exhibition of Ancient Egyptian artefacts: it was awesome.

There was something timeless about everything there; it was 2,000+ years old. At the same time there was an immediacy to many of the pieces that made you feel a connection to the artist that made them. On some of the stelae there were still the original grid marks to make writing and figures in proportion... it was neat. I also saw a real live mummy... well, dead, more like. A mummified adult, a boy, a falcon, some crocodiles and a cat. Those were creepy, but mega-neat.

My favourite part were the scrolls from the Book of the Dead. It was really, really sweet. I mean the actual papyri from Ani's Book. I am really glad I went, and equally happy that these pieces were on tour and came to Victoria. However, I do want to go to the British Museum someday.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I'm going up to Campbell River to meet a guy who's just got back from Taiwan (last year's Rotary Exchange student). Afterwards, Mandarin lesson downtown, then I'm going to Alleah's house. Hopefully, I can hang out with other people downtown, but of course if she's not there then I'll just go home. So, time for bed.

next to godliness

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my room (getting everything off the floor). A lot of stuff is now packed up in banker's boxes, so my parents can have their way with my room while I'm gone. Also, said boxing will make it easy to move out to go to university--should I go to one other than Malaspina upon my return.

The best part of the extra space and order is a kind of mind-calming state which I feel in the area. It reminds me of my view of the basement from the drum kit; that kind of headroom is conducive to healthy living and efficacity, at least in my opinion. There's a happy medium between institutionally severe, bare walls and the stifling 'cosiness' of an over-cluttered room. At least, that's my opinion... horizontal surfaces without breakable things and doilies, that you can work on, are good; however, completely empty surfaces tend to bother me.

Today was an o.k. day. Brad came home early from Lake Cowichan, so we jammed and played through all the 'Brad songs' in the afternoon. He then proceeded to show me the rudiments of Bridge while talking on MSN. Dinner was spaghetti (had to get french bread from the mall-on sale for $0.99) and an amazing maple-sugar-pie kind of dessert: remarkably sweet. Afterwards we picked up Amay from chez Clarke and hung out at Brad's. He destroyed me at foosball, and then we played some songs for Amay. She was pretty quiet though, stared at the ceiling and wasn't too interested in doing anything.

Bethany showed up a little after 9:00, so we hung out with her for a while. I 'fixed' Amay's blog so one can post comments; however, I think it needs more work as I am unsure of how to view said comments (a challenge for another day). Then Bethany & I went chez Clarke again to talk as she awaited a phone call from Rastapoppus. People were having a religious discussion group in the house, so we chatted in the garden. Eventually I went home, and now it's just been MSN and blog-tweaking. I await eagerly any opportunity to see Laura again.

les Chevaliers de la Table Rond

After seeing "King Arthur" in theatres today I came across a wonderful piece of writing, Lord Tennyson's "Guinevere." I think it is a very good piece of blank verse, and wonderful turning of the Arthurian tale to Guinevere's perspective. Of course, the tale as counted in the Idylls of the King is much more traditional than (and far different from) the new cinematic portrayal.

I seem to recall several retellings of ancient stories recently. Of course, some might argue that there are only X stories, and all new work is simply a new spin on a timeless formula; however, "Troy" and "King Arthur" have definite roots in the Iliad and the body of Arthurian legend (including Le Morte d'Arthur and Idylls of the King among others). I believe, like the academic consensus, artistic works reflect and represent, in part, the times in which they are created. Moreover, the shaping of the work can be guided towards a desired end: not only commercial viability, but also a deliberate message. Although the political commentary on war in "Troy" ("War is old men talking, and young men dying") is more blatant, "King Arthur" speaks on idealism, and how the world we're fighting for isn't what we think it is.

All in all, I quite enjoyed the movie. Character development left something to be desired, though some emerged among the Knights; however, I really felt sad for one character in particular. The scenery was beautiful, the costumes excellent, and the attention to detail for backgrounds (even just a few seconds) in many cuts was commendable. The combat choreography and action cinematography were high on realism, but some of the atmosphere was too overblown, to the point of being melodramatic. This was a good end to a long day of cleaning my room, and I would recommend seeing it in theatres to appreciate its ambience and visual beauty.

benefits of capitalism?

Although the Communist Party of Canada may not agree, I've been noticing a little bit of beneficial capitalist competition recently: in the wake of Google's GMail, other free email providers have revamped their services.

Brad has never missed an opportunity to tout the excellence of Yahoo! Mail, which already offers 100MB of free storage. I seem to recall a time when you got 2MB of storage space, and email messages bounced because of full inboxes. My hotmail account is currently full almost to the brim, and I have to delete archived messages frequently; however, Microsoft recently stepped up to the plate with the promise (by email) of 250MB web storage with their hotmail service. Why the unprecedented magnanimity? What motivates a 125-fold increase in service at no extra charge?

The answer is simple: competition. Just as when in the Vancouver mayoral election, all candidates campaigned on the same platform regarding safe-injection sites, these businesses want to take away the competitive advantage Google would have had with fifty times more storage. What can be perplexing is the financial benefit to these companies. If you attempt to 'follow the money,' this strategy begs the question, "Why do private corporations compete to offer a free service?" There is neither government contract nor tax incentive to providing 'free email services.'

That, I believe, is the key. While email accounts may be provided free of charge, users are exposed to inescapable advertising, among other things. Free email is part of a larger network of services, some of them paid services. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are profitable companies. Microsoft and Yahoo! have been publicly traded for years, and Google is apparently planning an IPO.

Personally, I am just hoping hotmail makes good on its promises soon, so I need not switch exclusively to my Shawmail account (13GB of storage on my hard drive!) or sign up for Yahoo! Mail. In the meantime, I shall wait for further developments, and marvel at what free-market capitalism can be-but so rarely is.

a nuclear plant running a PDA

Just randomly, consider this article on quantum physics and temporal mechanics. I find this guy very inspired and interesting, although not the most articulate or educated person ever. He reminds me of Paddy. What do you think?

Well, today was both filled with activity and somehow not full enough. I have way too much energy/processing power and inadequate sources of exhaustion.

M & G woke me up at 11:30 this morning, and told me I had to be at the Hong Kong House by noon to have brunch with my grandparents. It was ok, but I ate far too much jello. Afterwards, my mom and I went to the optometrist to pick new frames for my new glasses. Following that, went to the doctor's for a fianl pre-trip appt. Then, drove downtown to my Mandarin lesson; after that I went to Alleah's.

Alleah and I left, purportedly in search of a Bottle Depot. We found one next to Value Village (I need to cash in about 20 empty 2L bottles) but decided to go clothes-shopping first. Looked at blazers, leather, some silly hats, and more women's clothing than the world's premier stick-shaking master could shake a stick at. Once we left, the Depot was closed; after picking up a loaf of french bread at Quality Foods we returned to the Poirier residence. Alleah's sister had cooked spaghetti, which was good, and we all bandied words about in good fun.

Saw Fred, Michèle, and everyone @ T'ai Chi, which was good fun. I was pretty tired by the end though (did 25 snakes and tons of donyuus at the start). Afterwards, came home and talked to Laura on the phone a while. I've just been organizing a showing of "The Godfather: Part I," a very excellent movie, for Friday night. It's @ 7PM, chez moi, call me 758-9378 for more information or if you want to come. Recently I've just been chatting on MSN.

The Brad-Amay-Sean triangle continues to tie up the CPU speed and RAM of everyone involved. Brad talked to Amay again this evening (procluding any hanging-out) and came up with... an interesting development. He made me promise not to say more, and unlike a certain member of the collective, I do believe I shan't. I personally want to hang out with people more and wish Brad & Amay would interact with other people more often; in the spirit of such I've extended an invitation to "Godfather" to Sean.

That's all for now, peace out & rock on. Perhaps more musings later, but VGX should give you something to think about, if you get through his wordy piece.

Quelle Technophile

Well, all I can say is that I foolishly stayed up tweaking the template. You may not notice any difference, but it IS slightly modified from the original/default. Maybe later I can get my nice guitar picture in there, it's not the best color scheme though. Perhaps if I convert to B&W then lighten it up... but that's a photoshop project for another day. I am going to be a little tired and getting up late tomorrow, which is not what I want. Serves me right.

Shades of Boredom

Well, today was quite an uninspiring day. Woke up at 12:30, Rotary meeting from 4-7ish in Lantzville, dinner at the Pita Pit with my dad. Mom took Foo to Vancouver for his mountaineering thing so now he is gone for a while. Came home and chatted on MSN for a while, and then went to Amay & Bethany's around 10PM. I feel like doing something with technology, though I don't quite feel like stroking my disdended, oversized ego.

I'm noticing more and more a kind of ridiculous pretense without substance in my writing. That is to say, what have I actually said so far? Nothing of meaning, yet I have managed to use several large, unnecessary words; however, I don't know if I can stop, even should I try to.

Brad is still after Amay, as is Sean. She has not, it seems, come to any decision; rather, she prefers to suffer quietly in recovery from a wisdom teeth removal. Bethany can't stand the prolonged absence of breakdancing guy, who is currently in Utah. I shouldn't complain, because I haven't seen Laura since Monday and I am already antsy. I don't anticipate meeting her tomorrow either, though it might be possible in the late evening after T'ai Chi. I hope to get some people together on Friday evening after drums to watch 'The Godfather: Part I,' as it is an awesome movie and I want to watch the second part soon.

Anyway, I should sleep soon, maybe I'll update my website this evening. It certainly needs to be done, but I have to have content to work with. Perhaps I can host some pictures to get rid of my excess space. That would require being able to take in-focus photographs with my digital camera, something which is, so far, beyond me. All in good time, I hope.