I want a Devil Bat.

Well, just got back from another great Bad Movie Night at Cindy's place. It's amazing how enjoyable heckling can be when you're with the right people. As a side note, Bela Legosi is still an incredible actor, even if he did nothing but horrible movies. I'll admit to being somewhat creeped out, even when all he was doing was laughing about a giant bat he made, using SCIENCE! It takes a fair bit of talent to make a giant rubber bat seem even mildly frightening. (or maybe it was just the Romanian accent. I mean, this guy is the Platonic Dracula.

As a side note, I'm currently unsure of all who's reading this, but everyone who can possibly make it out is invited to New Years at either the house in Cut Knife or at the farm, whichever it happens to be. It shall be a night of bad film, black coffee, and grass Angels (if you don't know, don't ask) . Anyway, I know most of you live in the city, so Cut Knife is "too far", but the invite is still there. The more the merrier.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Wow, it's been almost two weeks since I posted here....
Well, I'm now officially home, and slightly less stressed out. I forget how really enjoyable being around my family is... the bad puns, the teasing, the old arguments that have been gone over so many times they become stories.... I can't imagine what it must be like to grow up in a small family. I sometimes forget how much I've come to depend on being surrounded by caring, intelligent, trustworthy people.

In other news: I now am the proud owner of a violin case! Now I have a great way of toting my Tommy-gun... oh, and the store threw in this nifty violin at no extra charge! I know I'm near to functionally talentless when it comes to music, so all you damned musical people (which is all of you who read this save Kelly) please keep your snide comments to yourself. I know I'm probably not going to be any good with the damned thing, but I need something besides school, or I'm going to go insane.


Hmm, I can't think of much else worth wasting all your time with, so I leave you with the chorus to "If Venice is Sinking" by Spirit of the West (who happen to rock.)


"And if Venice is sinking
I'm going under
'Cause beauty's religion
And its Christened me with wonder"

(wow, this post ended up being a lot stranger and more candid than I expected it to. I guess my brain just wanted to do its own thing. Oh, and Merry Christmas all!)

My rage filled rant

Okay, the writers of Green Lantern are idiots. So there's this hero, who's given a power ring, with the power to create anything, as long as it's green. With me so far? Okay, now, after giving him this amazingly powerful tool, they realized that he was overpowered, so they gave him a weakness. Seems fair thus far, but what do think this weakness is? His fricking powers can't act on anything coloured yellow! that's right, you could beat this guy up with a bottle of dishsoap. I can just picture it now.....
People: "help help!!"
Green Lantern: "I am here! Who attacketh you?" (he really doesn't speak with a Shakespearean accent, but I just thought it was cool)
People: Its the evil menace of..... Big Bird!!!
GL: Screw this, I'm going for a beer.

How can you strike fear into the hearts of villains when half the cast of the muppet show could kick your ass? Golden age Green Lantern was even worse, because he was powerless against yellow and wood. That's correct: the cabinetry gang could kick the ass of one of the most powerful beings in existence.

Now, I'm sure they find clever ways around this in the comics, but it's still inherently stupid. Hell, if I was him, I'd just call Superman to take over crime fighting; that is, when Superman wasn't busy being turned into a giant ant.

(Ps: Caitlin and Bee: just try and out-geek this post.)

My new dream

When I get the money together, I know what I want to do: I shall become a lemur farmer. I shall 10000 head of miniature primates. I hope I won't have to grow them from seed, but if I do, well, I guess that's the price one must pay to live the dream. I shall develop pygmy lemurs, and attack lemurs, and speckled lemurs. Finally, when I am famous enough, Hollywood shall make a movie about me, called the Lemur-Whisperer, or possibly Kill-Die-Death 3, because that's the kind of thing they do in Hollywood. Hopefully, they'll cast Matt Damon to play me, but anyone would be good as long as it's not Keanu Reeves. Finally, I shall buy all of Australia for me and my herd of noble beasts to run free in.

In defense of the arts

I am a scientist. In university, this seems to automatically make me out to be an autocratic, self-absorbed jerk, entirely uninterested in people or differing view-points. Too often, I've heard people (even professors!) spit the words engineer and scientist as if it implied "White Middle Class Protestant Oppressor Who Wishes Destruction Upon The Humanities!!!!". Now, I have met scientists (and even more engineers) like this, but not all of us dream about the day when our universities have become giant technical collages.

It constantly amazes me how the academic world can get this polarized. Why are the sciences trying to strip-mine resources from the humanities? I am all for increased science research money: we desperately need more basic research, now more than ever. However, gutting the humanities and social sciences to feed said research is just shooting ourselves in the foot. Science thrives on cross-fertilization of ideas. Some of the best ideas in biology have come from economics, and some of the most interesting theories in evolution are being proposed by philosophers. More importantly, the arts can provide an outside perspective on the methods and assumptions made in the scientific process. Hell, if anything, it's the arts that don't need the sciences (although I still maintain that both philosophy and history could be improved immeasurably if those fields took more interest in some of the new research coming from the sciences). Realistically, the natural and social sciences, as well as the arts, gain only when we stand together, both against imbeciles within, and those outside, who want to suborn knowledge to fit a political or ideological agenda.

Crazy ain't bad

I've had an interesting realization: all my biggest heroes are (at least to some degree) what conventional society would call crazy. Lets look at the litany:

Nicola Tesla: basically invented the modern era, at least electronics-wise. He wouldn't eat spherical food, and became obsessed with the number 3.

Howard Hughes: Aviator, film maker, financier. He built the Spruce Goose, a gigantic plane, built entirely out of wood. He suffered from a deep fear of germs, and bought Las Vegas from the Mafia, for a place to stay.

Emperor Joshua Norton the 1st: Lost his fortune on rice, so he declared himself emperor of the United States. He walked around San Francisco in full military uniform, selling currency he made for food and cash. He was a close friend of Mark Twain's, and corresponded with Queen Victoria. He was either the craziest or the most sane person I've ever heard of...

Isaac Asimov: One of the greatest writers of the 2oth century. Mayhaps not as crazy as some of the others here, but you can't tell me that someone who writes 400 books can be entirely balanced.

Gabriel Dumont: One of the leaders of the North West Rebellion. Not crazy per se, but he followed Louis Riel, who definitely counted as strange.

John A. McDonald: The Father of Confederation, and our first Prime minister. Drank more than any one person could possibly imagine, and dreamt of a national railway when it seemed as likely as building an elevator to the moon would today.

Hell, the only sane people on my list are Darwin, Robertson Davies, and Tommy Douglas, and even they wouldn't qualify as normal....

Really, this is all very gratifying. I love seeing people who don't fit in the mold make the rest of the world fit around them. Being outside the norm isn't a horrible thing, it just means you face somewhat different struggles and problems than the rest of the world. And if you gave me a choice between suffering from the struggles of a dreamer or a norm, well, there's no doubt which one I'd pick...

I'm really starting to get annoyed with the North American film industry. Why is it that Hollywood seems to be physically incapable of producing a good adult animated movie? Even with excellent sales for movies from anime directors such as Hayao Miyazaki (Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoki, Spirited Away), the industry hasn't even started developing an interest. When a mainstream animated movie comes out, its invariably either a small release, like the Iron Giant, or a CGI showcase, like the uninspiring "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". I wish one studio would break form and produce a animation using their best directors, writers, and actors, rather than some second-stringers and a team of CGI geeks. (Note: Pixar does not count for this, because they still haven't made a mature movie. Sure, adults can enjoy all the films, but the themes and issues dealt with just aren't that complex. )

I really enjoy watching animated films, simply because they have far more potential for truly exploring the wondrous and strange. If "Watership Down" was filmed live-action, or even in CGI, it would have been just another unnoticiable talking animal film, rather than a fascinating morality tale. I can only imagine what the Star Wars prequels would have looked like if they were animated, rather than drenched in tacky, overdone CGI. And I can only dream what an animated Ringworld would look like. However, until we remove the stigma of 'children's entertainment' from animation, I guess I'll be left sponging off the Anime import industry for my fix.

Hurray for strange holidays!

Happy Day of the Ninja one and all! Well, actually, apparently that was Sunday, but I for one will celebrate it today (honestly, since ninjas are sneaky anyways, they probably secretly celebrate it today as well.) So take the time to thank your local neighbourhood ninja, or just order takeout from Ninja Burger. And remember, if you see a ninja, it's not polite to say anything. I mean, if they get pointed out, there is the whole sepaku thing they have to do, and killing oneself honourably on the Day of the Ninja just isn't fun.

I have no willpower....

Man, do I enjoy bargain bins..... Managed to just about double my movie collection for less than $30 at VHQ. Originally, I just saw The Gods Must Be Crazy for 95 c.... then I saw Pushing Tin, then MST3K the movie, then Mars Attacks.... and it just went downhill from there. I think I've found something to do for the next few days until finals.

Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location... For anyone who hasn't see Found Magazine yet, it's really worth a look. It's amazing how much significance other people's trash can have. It's also great fun trying to invent stories around the items. Right now this one and this one are my favorites.

Thirdly: I wish I had $100 to spare. I had thought that all of the Captain Tractor Hoserista Box Sets had sold out, but apparently there's still some hanging around. Well, I guess I know what I'm saving up for now.

Ps: Okay, I just saw this five minutes ago, and the idea is just too awsome not to show the world: The Monty Python Musical, being made right now. This almost restores my faith in humanity.

Simple fun

For all of you who love puns, rhymes, and word association, or those who just think playing with the English language is fun, here's Lexical Freenet. For example, did you know that Attila the Hun and Oscar Wilde are only 4 links away from each other? And that pigs can fly, if only they become experimental test pilots or radioactive? I can blow hours on this site.

In other news: for anyone even vaguely contemplating watching Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life, don't. It's about three times less interesting than the first one, which wasn't exactly stellar to begin with. The plot was nonsense, the characters uninteresting, and it had like 1 tomb and 2 action scenes! What's the point of making a block-buster action film with no action? In addition, the villain was useless to the point of being laughable. An evil biologist (of course. Why can't we get an evil quantum physicist, or an evil lit major?) is trying to discover the anti-life (What? What?! What the hell were these writers thinking?) hidden in the Cradle of Life, to kill most of the world's population. While it does seem like an admirable goal, this meat-head goes about it in the worst way possible. Why would you threaten someone with a disease, when its just as easy or easier to just shoot them? When you have the hero in your grasp, why don't you kill her? Why would you hide a biohazard lab in the middle of a mall, with two imbecilic security guards watching over it? Argh.

So, if you want to see a really, really bad film, go watch this. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague.

(ps: blogger is really, really getting annoying. The random loss of posts, the posting when I'm not even done the message.... someone needs to learn how to code.)

This is becoming strange.... I really have nothing interesting to post here, but I still feel obligated to put something up.... It's like my blog has become another friend, who gets lonely if I don't talk to it. So, to help make my blog feel better....

It's a rare science fiction author who can balance science and characters to make a believable world. Too often, you get authors like Robert J. Sawyer, who ends up writing the same character in every book, or Anne McCaffrey, who writes amazingly, but really doesn't have more than a passing relationship with actual science.

Hard science fiction has gained a reputation for being unreadable. Largely, this is because for a long time, it was unfashionable in the sf (not sci-fi. Sci-fi is what Hollywood makes) community to really concentrate on getting the science aspect right. The so called 'new wave' authors got into it because sf was what was selling, and a great deal of them didn't have a science background.

Now, however, this is starting to change. There's a whole generation of authors who have been raised on well written sf, and have a strong back ground in science. Authors like Greg Bear, Tad Williams, Kim Stanley Robinson are really making hard science fiction popular again. We're going through a golden age for the genre, and it couldn't come at a better time. Already, technology is changing so quickly that no one individual can keep track of it, let alone understand how it could affect them. Hard sf explores this, in ways that no other thing can. It lets us explore the idea of what it means to be human in a changing world. Perhaps more importantly, it can teach people what actually is involved in science, and it removes the mystique behind science. A basic understanding of science is going to be absolutely vital for anyone in the next century, and people who can explain it effectively are going to be in huge demand.

Well, this post really rambled a great deal, without actually saying anything. Ah well, not like my posts make a great deal of sense anyways....

blegh.

Well, finished failing my lab final now. I'm begining to take an irrational dislike to Thursdays.

Why I love talking to TJ....

This is why me and TJ get along so well..... we were on the perfectly innocent topic of why we need to bulid our time machine, and the following dialog just fell out of nowhere: (*horrible pun warning*)


Eric :hhhmm. We really need to finish that thing before the paradox fucks us over.
or the pair-o-ducks. they're nasty as well.
TJ: pair of Docs who's injured?
Eric: appear-o'-dukes? Is it a device for making nobility come to me?
TJ: what did he say? a pear of puck well they do that to me too
Eric: pare O-ducts? I don't even know what an O-duct is, let alone how to cut one up...
TJ: hair of bucks
Eric: lair of yuks (comedy club!)
TJ: fair of muks
Eric: glare of trucks
TJ: problem with the french (it ryhmes with everything you know)

Sad really. The english language doesn't deserve what the two of us do to it (and not like that! Peverts.)

Back again.

Well, I'm currently going mad trying to learn names like Jungermaniidae and Metzgeriiales, so I'm taking a break to make a much-needed update to this rag.

I love rediscovering artists. I fell in love with The Dismemberment Plan years ago, but I stopped really listening to them when I left home. Now, I've got a whole pile of their songs again, and I've discovered their site provides Streaming forms of all their songs! Yay! Their music is hard to describe, but its great for weird-brain days (I have a lot of those).

In other news, some fun links! If you haven't seen these t-shirts, they are hilarious (well, if you're a big natural science geek. I promise nothing for my other readers. Also, a link to a bunch of new stickers to place over the creationist... ahem, I mean intelligent design ones on text-books.

To finish, I shall leave you with a quote from one of the best hair-pieces... *ahem* actors of all time, William Shatner:

"KKKKKAAAAAAHHHHHHHNNNNNNN!"

Nightfall

Ever since I was a kid, staring up at the Milky Way, nothing could stop my heart like the stars. Even now, some of my most vivid memories are of standing outside at the farm for hours on end, just watching. I can't imagine ever living in a place where I couldn't see the sky.

Night....

Sometimes I don't understand my own brain.... after about 1:00 AM, I invariably gravitate to listening to this song. Don't know why. It's classic Tractor, but still, who listens to songs about dirty dishes and lost love at 1:40 in the morning?

Aaaaannnnnndddd FIGHT!!!

Okay, in honour of Bee's most recent post, I am starting my own string of competitions. Only here, we're having a hip-off. That's right, all you gen-x hipsters (well, actually, virtually none of us, with the possible exception of Caitlin, can claim this, but I don't care), we get to decide forever after what true hipness is.

1st match: Smokers vs. Coffee drinkers. Frankly, you all know where I stand on this, so we'll just count my vote for smoking (hehe). But the rest of you, who's more hip, cancer-pals or jitter-bugs?

2nd match: Ipods vs Espresso machines. Which tech-gadget is more essential for the up-and-coming hipster? I'm voting slightly towards espresso, simply because it can make normal coffees as well.

3rd match: Che Guvera t-shirts vs. ironic-but-slightly-amusing slogan t-shirts. I love PR for communism, but hey, hard to beat a good psuedopithy comment....

4th match: Organic vs. Fair Trade. And no, you can't choose both. For the sake of argument, all fair trade farmers bathe in DDT and eat red-wood sandwiches, and all organic farmers use imported Guatemalan midget slave labour. Me, I go fair trade, just because DDT adds zest to any meal.

What rat race?

I'm being to realize that not only am I strange, but that I really don't understand normal people. I don't understand what makes most people tick. Why does wearing a suit make a person respectable? Why is singing in public frowned on? Why does being adult seem to imply stopping having fun, or taking pleasure in the absurd? I mean, I enjoy dressing nice, but I always feel like I'm playing dress-up....

I think this is why I get along so well with kids. They still know why taking everything seriously isn't important. We can laugh about the same thing. (mostly stuffed-shirt adults....)

All I can say to people who live in the normal world: keep it. I want nothing of dying of ulcers in 20 years, working a job I hate for stuff I don't want. I want nothing of pointless status gains, trying to crawl up a ladder made up countless people, all who should know better. If I don't end up rich, famous, or in control of other's lives, I will have considered my life well lived. Leave me to my fungi, my clouds, my entire beautiful, amazing, breathing world. I'll let you keep your suit. We'll see who comes out happier in the end.

I wish you all a happy Origins Day

Well, tomorrow November 24, 2004 marks the 145th anniversary of the release of Origin of Species through Natural Selection. TJ and I decided this date needs celebration. Why, you ask? Because Darwin is the most influential thinker of the last two centuries, if not the whole of history. It's not only the fact that his theories have had an unbelievable impact on biology. It's the fact that every branch of human thought has been changed by this theory. It's because Darwin was the first person to publish a book for the lay reader and the expert It's because was Darwin was one of those amazing people who loved what he was looking at with all his heart, and wanted to share that love with everyone in the world.

The Theory of evolution is still shaking up the world, and will continue to do so for a very long time. In recent years, it has affected art, economics, psychology, business, computers, religion, and politics, and it's still spreading ripples.

The Origin of Species also started the idea of explaining ideas to those outside the scientific community. Hell, he started science education with this (I exaggerate slightly). Darwin also spent a great deal of time teaching the public, explaining his theories, and fighting against ignorance. Even today, evolutionary biology seems to attract the best scientific explainers... Dawkins, Gould, Asimov, Denette, they all share this passion to show the world why we love evolution, why the world makes so much more sense with it there.

This great man is one of my biggest role-models. He is perhaps what every scientist dreams of being, and his (and his book's) place in history are safely secured. I raise a glass to you, Charles, where ever you may be. Goodnight.

WHY!!!!

Damn it to hell! Why do we constantly have to fight this battle? Again creationism is being taught in schools, as if it had any scientific credibility whatsoever! This is the most depressing image of all time:


Now, on the eve of the anniversary of the release of "Origin of Species" (145 years to the day on November 24th. I've got a bigger, less angry post planned for then) we're still fighting the bloody stupid ignorance that Darwin, Wallace, and Huxley faced all those years ago. Frankly, if this keeps up, it may mean the beginning of the end for legitimate science in the US.... If Bush continues to allow the fundamentalists to attack legitimate freedom of scientific expression, then the states may well be on a rocky path indeed. (for those who think: this is only a problem for biologists, remember, the fundies don't like a great deal of theories in the humanities and social sciences... )

Argh, I am incredibly angered by this. Evolutionary biologists (and scientists in general) have better things to do then waste their time fighting against blind stupidity.

More utter garbage

Well, fairly quickly, Project Web Comic will be posting a second strip. you can all avert your eyes here. Now with 50% more suck!

Also, a certain person with too much time on his hands, who shall remain nameless (not me, but that's all I'm saying) has made web-banners for the site. Here's my favorite

I love stories. I love being pulled into another world, seeing other visions, going to far-away places. I don't think I'm alone in this. Hell, I'd say story telling is everything that makes us human. Good, evil, poetry, love, science, they all stem from this first power. In communicating with each other, we become so much more than just individuals. Hell, there's some theories that state that the reason we live past reproductive age is so families and communities have someone to pass the stories and lessons on.

If you get right down to it, our lives all only stories we tell ourselves (at least, it is for me). When I look around a room, I don't look at the contrasts, objects, or shapes. Processes beneath my awareness do that, then tell me I'm looking at a shirt, that my hands are chilled, that I'm lonely or tired. I was once listening to an argument about whether we can truly understand people from the past, even though we haven't lived through it. I think we can, because we don't need to go through a famine to imagine "this is what it would feel like for me to be in a famine". The ability to tell stories about ourselves gives us the ability to understand other stories.

Well, that's all I really have to say right now. So does anyone have a story to share?

YAY!

My brother is amazing. He got me Sandman: Brief Lives, and Sandman: World's End. For the uninformed, these are some of the most interesting, well written, and well drawn comics of all time. Gorgeous gothic artwork, mythic and horror stories, and fantastic characters. I reinterate: Kelly is amazing, and knows me too well.

On an unrelated point: I'm looking to get a violin, and I have been told that it's possible to get a decent one for under $100. Since my instrument-purchasing knowledge is slightly less than my knowledge on weapons-grade plutonium purchasing, I'm looking for advice. The cheapest I've found in Saskatoon is $149, but I don't know if that's just low demand doing that. On eBay I've found ones for $40 - $50, but eBay is always a risk. So, comments? Advice? Outright mockery of my plebian lack of musical knowledge?

Well, I just got back from the David Suzuki talk at the NFU convention. Before going, I thought I'd be more annoyed with what he had to say. Some of the things he's gone on record for just make me shake my head. However, I was impressed tonight. He was bitingly critical of academics working for corporate contracts and media sound-bites about science (wow, he's ranting about the same things I've been ranting about for the last 2 months....) . Except for a couple minor issues (what do you mean no lateral gene transfer in nature?!), he wasn't making outrageous claims, or overstating his scientific knowledge. Mayhaps I've misjudged him.

Also regarding the convention: I remember why I love the NFU. About 150 of the most opinionated, loud-mouthed, eccentric farmers you have ever met, all together in one room, trying to decide policy. A mad-house, but an interesting one.

When the groove begins to move you

Okay, I'm offically now addicted to swing and Big Band. Can anyone recommend any really good swing bands? I'm currently listening to a lot of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Atomic Fireballs, but I need to find out other good artists.

Suggestions?

For your viewing pleasure

Well, I've had this mental movie stuck in my head for the last half hour, and it still strikes me as hilarious...

(note: this is not meant to offend. This is just some of the weird stuff that falls out of my brain)


"My grandfather told me of the great herds that used to wander the plains"

*sweeping shot of wide open prairie*

"He would tell me how they used to more in one herd than there were stars in the sky."

*Giant dust cloud appears on horizon*

"they were truly majestic, those great mime runs."

*pan across many, many mimes, miming grazing*

"We would spend days, leading them to the right spot"

*shot of people on horseback, guiding mimes, who are milling frantically and bumping off of imaginary walls.*

"It was rush, when they finally hit the jump"

*mimes all running frantically, then 'falling' over an invisible wall*

"It is all part of the proud history of this spot, Beret-Smashed-In Mime Jump."

*Final closing shot of a beret draped over a boulder*



If this is horribly offensive to anyone, well, I can take it down. But dammit, I still think it's a funny imagine. (I can't take full credit for this... Like many of my wilder ideas, this one sprang out of a conversation with Kelly.)

On a lighter note.

(Considering the last post, this one'll probably turn into a discussion on why Abraham Lincoln never won the Hundred Year War....)

Well, since everyone who seems to be interested in making "Maurice, King of Canada" now reads this blog, I'm leaving this forum up for possible movie ideas.

Right now, some of the ideas that have been tossed around are:

Maurice as average bum, tagged for King of Canada. (why is he tagged? Any good ideas? Odd will? Unknown ancestor? I'm partial to he won it unknowingly in a drunken hockey bet.)

Love interest: (probably Rabies) - a devote Irish Catholic, who Maurice loves, but can't marry because.... (she's not French enough? She's not ethnic enough? She's an Albertan, and thus not really Canadian? Any other ideas?)

Narrator: Maurice's faithful compatriot, narrates with a thick French-Canadian accent, a la The 'ocky Sweater. (NFB)

Style: doing scenes backwards through time? Black and White? A musical?

Other suggestions and plot points welcomed.

And now: Create!

Sad, really....

I'm finally admitting the shameful truth: I'm a Bob Mcdonald fanboy. I have been since Wonderstruck was on when I was a kid. In a world where intelligent, balanced science reporters are as common as hen's teeth, he's one of the few who actually are able to explain science interestingly, clearly, and without stupid hype. So now I command you, my minions...er loyal readers to go out and listen to Quirks and Quarks. It will make you a better person. Small children will sing your praises. Hell, it may even keep Joel Schumacher from ever directing another Batman movie. For those of you in "humanities", and don't think science is "interesting", or "useful", well, I'll forgive you this time, but only if you follow these links.

(ps: please don't hit me. I break easily.)

Rejoice!

For all Hitchhiker fans, here's a trailer and concept art from the new movie. For all of you who don't know what hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is (ie those of you living in a shoebox with holes punched in it) well, all I can say is: drop whatever you are doing and read these books right now. Or listen to the radio play. It will make you a happier person, and I'm pretty sure that it will help stave off cancer.

Who needs sleep when you have coffee?

After far too many hours of playing Rome: Total War, I have decided on what I will be when I grow up: a War Elephant. Good food, get to see the world, don't have to give way to anyone.... its the life. (although I think I'll be avoiding the Alps. Just strikes me as a good idea.)

Hhhmmm, now I know why people try to lock me in my room after I go on a caffiene bender...

Turning myself into you.

It's sorta strange, but I'm starting to realize: I really don't have a self. I'm really not the same person from moment to moment, or from place to place. When I'm with one crowd, I'm "Eric with these people" and I'm another person with another group. Even when I'm by myself, I'm playing the part of "Eric by himself". What am I really? Am I the part that stays the same at all times, or is that just a slightly more consistant act? To tell you the truth, I actually like the idea that I am really everything I play at being. If I had to stay one person forever, I'd get bored very quickly. I like being unpredictable, even to myself. Keeps life interesting.

Simple joys

1. Walk down a crowded hallway and make eye-contact and smile at everyone who passes by.
2. Start singing loudly in public
3. Dance for joy
4. Make up a whopper of story, and try and convince someone its true
5. Read a book to kid.
6. Roll down a hill
7. Make up stories about the people who pass you in the mall.
8. Read a good book, for nothing except pure enjoyment
9. Dress up in funny clothes, and flaunt it in public
10. Run through a puddle in February
11. Bad puns
12. Watch bad movies, just to make fun of them
13. Pick the wildest proposition you can think of, then argue with someone until they accept it.
14. Have a cup of coffee.
15. Watch the sun set, then stay up all night just to watch it rise again.

We're in for a spot of rain with a 80% chance of DEATH!!

For today, we have a high of 37 C, a low of 19 C, and a Rapture Index of 153! Prepare for rains of frogs tommorow folks.....

Ignore this.....

This is an un-post. It has no point at all. In fact, I'm actively ignoring all useful information that I can include. Hell, this sentence is entirely recursive! Purple dishwasher monkey! Now it seems this post is becoming so pointless I've dropping into total utter gibberish. Flying cow jumps car last endtable bookend! Here's a link to a random page. And the post ends abruptly, with no explanation or conclusion!

Oh poor world, how little you deserve this...

Well, I'm finally living the dream: I am now one of the proud co-authors of a really shitty web-comic: PROJECT WEBCOMIC (drumroll) Those of you who know me will figure out who at least one other of the authors is. (but can you pick out who drew what?). It's so nice to know its possible to create something this bad.

What is nationalism, anyway?

I don't understand the fuss everyone seems to make about heritage. I can understand the love of history, and the interest in finding out where your ancestors came from. But its this idea about being rabidly defensive about a country you've never visited, or even the country you live in, is totally foreign to me.
Why should I feel allegiance to a nation? I can support a nation's policies or actions, but I've never met this thing called "Canada", so why should I get defensive about people making fun of it? What does being "Canadian" mean? This goes double for my being "Danish" or "Mennonite" or anything else (I'm not entirely sure what all backgrounds my grandmother is from, which really contributes to my confusion over who I should feel proud about)
Maybe I wouldn't see nationalism as such a problem, if it weren't for the fact that it IS a problem. Separatism, war, "my country, right or wrong" (Actually a misquote*, but a lot of people have this attitude) , all these things that spring from that little part of our brains that say: "anyone outside my band is a potential enemy, and can't be trusted". It's hard to argue that there are any benefits to patriotism that outweigh the tragedies.

* "My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right"
Senator Carl Schurz

Innsomnia's a bitch

It's 2:50 in the morning, and here I am listening to Captain Tractor and blogging. Tomorrow's going to be hell, but meh, I guess I'll survive..

Sister Hazel - Champagne High

I wasn't looking for a lifetime with you
And I never thought it would hurt just to hear
"I do" and "I do"
And I do a number on myself
And all that I thought to be
And you'll be the one
That just left me undone
By my own, hesitation

and for the million hours that we were
well I'll smile and remember it all
then I'll turn and go
while your story's completed mine is a long way from done.

Well I'm on a champagne high
Where will I be when I stop wondering why
On a champagne high
I'd toast to the future but that'd be a lie
On a champagne high, high

Spring turned to summer
But then winter turned to mean
The distance seemed right
At the time it was best - to leave
And to leave behind
What I once thought was fine And so real - to me
And while I'm still gone
On the quest for my song
I'm at your - celebration


Your wagons been hitched to a star
Well now he'll be your thing that's new
Yeah what little I have you can borrow
'Cause I'm old and I'm blue...


Well I'm on a champagne high (so high)
Where will I be when I stop wondering why
On a champagne high (so high)
Toast to the future but that'd be a lie
On a champagne high
Where will I be when I stop wondering why
On a champagne high...high...
So high so high you left me undone
so high, so high you left me undone...



Have you ever had that feeling that everything is just sliding past you, while you stand still? Like the whole world is changing around you, and you're sitting there staring at your feet? This last month I've been on an emotional rollercoaster, and I really don't feel like I have any control over it. Argh! Dammit, you'd think a person could leave this kind of stress behind in high school. Hell, I don't know. I'm going to bed.



Post Script (22:30): Okay, I'm somewhat more balanced now. Having an older brother to talk to is amazing. Now I'm going to bed.

Home sweet home...

I really love living in Canada.... I'm currently listening to Czech music on CBC. What a Canadian creation the CBC is..... Socialist in concept, yet so entirely anti-authoritarian. It's a station based around both compromise and aggressiveness. Who else would let David Suzuki and Rick Mercer have free platforms to speak? (I don't agree with either of those two all the time, but they both make for fascinating viewing) Who else would put out Zed? Who else would put out CBC radio on OGG Vobis stream, just to make sure that the Linux community could listen to it, without having to jump through hoops?

Now, I know it has its problems, its stupidities, and puts out a great deal of crap. But it's still one of the best signs that those ideas I hold dear are not yet dead... that maybe creativity and innovation still have a place in our world.

Here's to the Captain

Captain Tractor is the one of the few bands that deserves instant purchase. They're one of those groups that I can pop in when in any mood, and find a song to fit the moment. All their music either makes me want to sing out loud and dance around, get really hammered, sink into myself, or laugh till I cry. And on days like today, when I want to do all 4 at the same time.... well, there just isn't any comparison.

Well, you all can suffer with me. (hehe)

Well, recently I've been getting into a massive rut: go to school, come home, sleep. I think I've finally figured out the problem: I haven't been doing anything remotely creative (unless one counts a billion bio drawings a week...) and I think its high time to start. I'm not quite sure what I'll be doing yet, but rest assured, I will be forcing all my loyal readers (sorry TJ) to suffer through any poorly written prose I can come up with. (don't worry, even I wouldn't inflict my poetry on an unprepared world....)

Well, I can't promise that anything I post on here will be good, but at least I'll have tried, dammit.

I am such a geek.....

Which OS are You?

Welcome to the New World

Wow, but if this isn't going to be a fun century. The so-called developing world is starting to show new teeth . The World Court is gaining prominence, everywhere in the world, people are starting to show new life. Well, except for those parts which we seem to live in, or hear about. I mean, I expect to hear about "terrorism in every corner of the known world" from Fox, and "Bush's ability to destroy everything we love and hold dear" from some of the more liberal sites, but I have never seen a story on real construction and growth in any country outside of the West. (unless, of course, that growth was paid for and organized by groups of well-meaning pretty western people)

Its time we started getting our heads out of our asses. For too long, we've thought that the only way to 'solve the third-world problem' is to be good Samaritan and gift people with our wealth. Well, from the looks of it, it may well be the "developing world" that catches us in the end....

Hobbits found in Indonesia!

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=198867&page=1

Next, I'm sure we'll here an announcement that "a tall, grey bearded hominid has been found in bottom of large mine shaft, locked in eternal combat with a prehistoric horned hominid."

An ode to the bad

Quality. Its a word we hear all the time. "that's a good movie. They really know how to write. The song was incredible."

Well, I'm fed up with it. Its time for the invisible minority (thanks Caitlin, this term is amazing) of low-quality producers to speak up. Ed Wood is our unsung hero, and every cheesy cover band a candidate for saint-hood. Where are the B-movie producers of our day? Where are the people writing 25 cent science fiction, with Buxom Ladies as cover art? Where are the small town bar bards with the knowledge of only 1 chord and a song portfolio exhorting their tractors?

So therefore, I declare today, October 27th, Anti-Quality Day. Go rent Enter the Ninja. Read something from Heinlein's later works, or some Chick tracts. Take the time to pat your b-movie film director on the back, and say " thanks for adding more suck to the world."

Now, when I say bad, I'm not meaning vulgar bad (although often low quality stuff is vulgar as well, as South Park so aptly demonstrates) or even artsy bad. While these are both valid forms of suckiness, they often end up being second-rate bad. They don't have the same dedication to the terrible, the same deep-rooted enjoyment of bad, that only the truly "B-caliber" works have.

So I say: Rise Up! Fight the establishment, and Damn the Man for saying every artist must make art! Don't take the high-brow mockings of your "superiors"! Remember, they still need us to make them look good!

Less than 2 months. Must be a record

Two months back to school, and already I'm fed up with acedemia again. The "If you can't test it, kill it, or evaluate it, it ain't worth it" is getting really old. (and this isn't just the Natural Sciences. Far as I can tell, its a plague thats hit the entire damn world.)

Second, this idea that if I can't automatically translate thoughts into writing, I can't think. Hell, I'll expand this: the whole: if you haven't spent your entire life in an ivory tower, you can't contribute to the 'intelligent' dialog. Every day, I hear smart people pay lip service to democracy, then berate the "unwashed masses" for not listening to their pronouncements from on high. Now, I'll be the first to admit that there is a lot of stupid people out there. Far as I can tell, however, the proportion of imbeciles to useful people is exactly the same in the accedemic community as there is in the general public. The only difference is the access to information, and so many of the intellectual elite show no inclination to share unless the world comes begging to them for "expert advice".

Thirdly: What the hell ever happened to actually enjoying your subject, or even enjoying teaching your subject? Why are we letting people who seem to only be in the university to show off their intellectual dicks teach? They're there to just process as many people as they can, so only those who can bend to their methods slip through. They're like god damn prions: one gets bent wrong, and bends everyone else into the same shape. Where's our Darwins, our Einstiens, our Turings and our Northrop Fryes? Where are the educators who love the subjects so much, they can pass that on, they can hand that fire down to a new generation?

University seems to have become just one more fucking hurdle on the way to actual discovery, actual joy.

Well, there's my rant. I might have edited a bit more, but I'm pretty sure that only TJ is still reading this, and he's heard this rant from me before. Well, back to performing stupid human tricks for the PhD's.....

"I've brought a tiny marvel of nature: a single snowflake. I think we might all learn a lesson from how this utterly unique and exquisite crystal turns into an ordinary boring molecule of water just like every other one, when you bring it in the classroom. And now, while the analogy sinks in, I'll be leaving you drips and going outside."
- Calvin

Damn you Robert....

Why is it that every author that was inspired by Robert A. Heinlein chose to copy the crappy parts of his work? I mean, I love Heilein: his interesting politics, his exploration of the future through individuals rather than stereotypes, his ideas on future history and just goverment....

So I ask: why does every Heinlein-knockoff choose to copy the lunatic ravings and rampant group sex? Honestly, One man's facination with group sex, its a quirk. But if every third science fiction writer feels the need to copy it, you know they were getting the wrong ideas from Robert....

Wow

This is why I love science..... every time you think you have the world wrapped up in neat, easily understood package, you find something that drops you on your ass. Seeing the world through a microscope or a fossil can be amazingly humbling.

http://www.scienceart.nl/Frames/HOMEpage.htm
http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_TRAG_PRA.html


"Where the world ceases to be the scene of our personal hopes and wishes, where we face it as free beings, admiring, asking and observing, there we enter the realm of art and science."
-Albert Einstein

2:48, lost and wandering

Why is it that the more friends I have, the further I feel from everyone? It feels sometimes like I've built a marble cast around myself, for people to view, without ever imagining that there was anything inside. It feels like every time I temper my thoughts to conform to what people want, another brick goes up. Maybe it's time for a change.


"The unexamined life is not worth living"
-Socrates

What do you do?

Yesterday, I found out about the death of a friend of mine. His name was George Bonsan, and he was father to two friends of mine who I used to be very close to. He made me feel like I was family, at a time when I was suffering a great deal, caught in the middle of my self-doubt and self-loathing.

I hadn't spoken to him in a year or so, but hearing about his death is ripping a hole in me I can't seem to fill. I guess I'm hoping writing about it will help me understand this.

Here's to you George, where ever you are.....

The poetry of the world

Well, I normally don't talk about this stuff, but since I'm relatively sure that almost no one will read this....

I fell in love with biology at an early age, probably because of my dad. My parents are two of my biggest heroes. They encouraged us to think and debate. It was from them that I got my love of argument, but it was from dad that I got my love of nature. He knows damn near all there is to know about prairie plants, and he loves sharing this stuff. He could have made the most amazing professor.... But I digress.

Anyway, as I was saying, I fell in love with biology. Not because there's a fortune in it, or because I really like looking smart. Its, more than anything, because when you really understand what Darwin and Mendel are saying, you start to see a larger glimpse of the world. You start to see yourself, less as an isolate, but more as something vital, a part of a Mosaic, woven throughout everything. No one is born, or dies. We are simply the crests of waves moving unseen across the world. Its like watching a picture draw itself, through starts and fits, never perfected, but always more beautiful.

Well, that was entirely incomprehensible, but I guess I'll post it anyways.... Its not like I make a great deal of sense any other time......

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having being originally breathed into a few forms, or one."
- Charles Darwin

My moment of zen

I just realized: the house next to ours has a door exiting onto its roof. Not a porch, or a deck, or a patio, but just a semi-flat part of the roof. It has to be the oddest thing I've seen all day. It's moments like this that remind me why it's never wise to take the world entirely seriously.


"this morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
How he got into my pajamas, I'll never know."
-Groucho Marx

Guilty pleasure

Its truly sad. Other people get guilty pleasure from doing things like eating chocolate, or smoking. Me, I go check out chick.com. It fills me with rage, but I still can't stop.

Maybe I can take up smoking crack to try and break the Chick cravings....

Lets see if this lasts any longer

Well, here goes my second try at creating a blog. Lets see if I'm any more ambitious about this one than the last....

I'm still suffering through studying for my bio lab test. I blame Carolus Linnaeus for all my suffering (mostly because he's dead, but also because he's the one who popularized naming creatures in a language that no one still speaks!) . Ah well, I shall soldier through.

Time to return to the wonderful world of algae....

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

-Walt Whitman



Note: the following picture is posted so I don't have to use other people's page's bandwidth to display my user pic: