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.