I guess this commercial has been banned or something.

Whatever. It’s awesome!

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

So, I guess we’ll have another election.

I have some pretty conflicting feelings about the Government. I have my views on what they’re are doing right/wrong and I even have some ideas on how our system could be improved. I know that I’m not really that happy with the Government, I have no idea how to do anything about it, and to be honest, I’m distracted enough to put it at back of my mind. That’s one thing about our way of life these days. We’re all so busy, we don’t really have time to focus on some of the things we should be.

Don’t get me wrong, I want to care. I think Canada is fantastic, and I mean that as a whole. I’m very patriotic, and enjoy spending my vacation just exploring different parts of Canada. It really bothers me to see the West so unhappy with our government and so consistently thinking of leaving. Same with Quebec. It’s probably the biggest indication that something is seriously wrong. And I’m not sure why so much of my generation is apathetic to elections.

So how do we fix this messed up system? I really don’t know. I don’t even understand the system we have. I do understand that it’s broken, though. We’re smart people and I think if we all started caring about what was going on, we could form a system of government that actually does represent our values and way of life.

I would like to see our surplus used for bettering the country, or even the world. How about helping the Native American people preserve their culture, and continue to integrate into our fast paced society - and not just in Canada, but accross the world. How about sharing technology and knowledge with the world to help everyone achieve at least a certain quality of life, or a certain knowledge base?

I get worried these days when I think about Governments because I see them as just corporations. Everyone in Canada is just an employee of a company called Canada, and the goal of that company is to make money; and to stay in power. That is a broken system. I would much rather have a system of government which helps corporations and communities focus their energies on bigger goals. I don’t mean to control what society or corporations do, and I know that’s tricky.

It wasn’t too long ago that most people lived as part of a community, and their goal was to help that community as a whole survive. The focus was on living and making the community better. That’s been completely abstracted now - we all work for companies, and we all interact with other companies. Who focuses on making things better anymore? I don’t really understand who knows what the big picture is, and what the big goals are. All I can do as an individual is try to help others, and try to live well …. but I’d like to understand how the gov’t works.

I mean that on a large scale, too. How do we fix the world? And I don’t care if the world is deteriorating naturally or because of something we did. We should be focusing on our future. Corporations should be focusing on supporting the community and society, not their bottom dollars. That’s hard to do because of the financial pressure on corporations to make enough money to pay people, or they go under. But I think something needs to be done about that. I can think of quite a few organizations that were making a real difference in the community and providing their products for free. That Open Sourced model should be rewarded or at least aided.

I guess the first thing to admit is that I don’t know as much as I should. So, with that in mind, you can check out the Fireweed Democracy Project which is really helping me to understand how I can share my ideas and concerns. It’s run by my cousin, Rick Anderson - it’s a good site that’s actually updated frequently, and does have a lot of information on it.

For my part, I really hope to start contributing - and this is where I start. I want to start to understand what the problems are, and hopefully help fix them.

The Firefox Qualtity Feedback Agent crashes itself every single time, without fail. Irony?

Well, I watched this movie at 12:05AM on Friday morning. Seeing as it was released Friday, you might be able to figure out that I was excited about the film. I definitely was! I actually have been waiting for it for over a year, since I found out it was being done. But after I saw the flick, I hesitated to post a review as it’s easy to pick it apart from the book’s point of view. Obviously when you’re talking about such a huge book, you have to expect they’ll chop out quite a bit to fit the main plots into a 2.5 hour movie.

It was fantastic! A solid 4.5/5. They did a great job directing - this wasn’t a kid’s movie at all. Excellent use of humour throughout the film, and a Sirius plot-line made the film and emotional roller-coaster! Shit, I even jumped in my seat a few times.

So, as a movie, which follows from the other HP movies, they have done a great job in moving forward. It is well worth watching, and much better than the other 3.

While it was very well done, entertaining to watch, and definitely got the major points across to the viewers, there were some significant changes from the book, which I hope to outline in a follow-up comment to this post. The point of the in-depth review is to point out some of the subtle things that went on.

I’d like to document a phenomena which I, lovingly, refer to as “Bretts crappy luck at buying drinks”. A few of us from the office go to a variety of places for lunch and, inexorably, we find new lows in drink crappiness. It seems that Brett’s always the victim, either because the Universe hates him or, more likely, he’s the only one who actually tries new things ;)

Todays adventure was from Babylon Foods, or “the donair place”. (As a side note, these guys make fantastic donairs. Way better that the ones at Jimmy’s, which is saying a lot ‘cuz Jimmy has personality & style on his side). So they have this new drink … machine… thing, and it’s got white stuff in it (who doesn’t love white stuff?). Tom and I were speculating as to what it was and Brett stepped up to try the “white drink”.

So we found out it was some sort of yogurt drink, and we figured who could go wrong with a Yogurt drink?!

Brett can.

This thing was Nasty! It had the consistency of skim milk, and it tasted like cottage cheese mixed with sour milk. What made it worse was how good it sounded, which got everyone’s hopes up. It was like waking up on Saturday morning, only to realize it’s really Monday. (boo!)

Anyway, the review on the Yogurt drink from Babylon foods is two thumbs way, way down. Sorry guys - good donairs, but horrible drinks.

This happens all the time. Lloyd’s Patty Plus seems to be especially crappy with drinks, as does T&T Market. It’s getting to be kind of amusing, though, so we’ll see what other stories come up. Sometime one us of will tell you about the dreaded Red Bull Malt, which is still sitting in the fridge. YUCK!

Yay!

The Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie comes out on Friday! I already have my ticket for an IMAX viewing at 12:05AM friday morning. Quite a few people are excited about this one - even PA - and they should be, this is the book most people liked the best. Harry’s getting older and life is getting more Sirius. Yeah, I’m funny.

Anyway, this book was darker, so I’m hoping the movie keeps to the theme and doesn’t try to make it a little kids movie. These books rock ’cause they get progressively more adult, just as Harry does.

What a great film! I had a blast watching it - I give this a 5/5.

Yeah, a 5. I know, it’s rare.

I went into the movie with no expectations or knowledge of what it’s about. I heard that Val Kilmer and Robert Downie Jr. were in it, and frankly that could be a good or bad thing. I went with Barb and Eric, who are two of my favorite people on the planet. We carefully orchestrated the purchasing of the movie tickets, gathering of food stuffs, acquisition of TCBY treats, and seat reservations. Thanks to Barb’s quick thinking, we got 3 seats together … in the very back row. You may infer by that comment that it was packed in there. It was. I doubt there was a spare seat - we watched quite a few couples split up for the show, and by the time the opening credits were rolling, there were lots of people sitting in the aisles.

What the hell was up with only showing 2 movie previews?! Part of why I spend 12 fucking dollars to see a movie while surrounded by 200 other people in the same room as me is to watch previews. And with Harry Potter coming out this Friday, and not showing it?! I almost got up and DEMANDED they show it. Or maybe Chronicles of Narnia? Underworld 2? Come on, we have HITS coming here!

So, the film starts, and within a minute I was laughing my ass off. The film has fantastic wit. Great one-liners are just being thrown at you the whole movie. Don’t worry about missing a few. Add to that a nicely complicated murder plot, occasional nudity, a tonne of realism, and loads of sarcasm, and you’re looking at something I just really enjoy.

Maybe it’s just that I’m reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but that it was a “whodunnit” type of flick was really appealing to me.

I guess what I liked most about it was that it was very funny, but it wasn’t a stupid funny, or a current affairs funny. It was just quick wit. I really enjoy that. The plot was very realistic, and the whole film unfolded well. It was narrated by Downie, who did a GREAT job. Same with Kilmer, he did a great job.

I look forward to adding it to my collection.

Quadruple F score!

Well, I have 2 aquariums. One is a 33g saltwater fish/reef aquarium which I think is the neatest thing ever. The other is a 100g freshwater tank, where I have about 40 cichlids and some other beasts. I’m not sure that I actually have pictures of the big tank, but when I get some, I’ll totally hook you up. It’s 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 2.5 feet high and weighs about 1000 pounds. It’s actually very beautiful, for a freshwater setup … there’s nothing venemous, but that’s okay too.

So, the 100g tank has a tonne of hiding places in it, and sometimes it’s hard to see all that’s going on in there. The other night, Jeff decided to part with his massive Terror of a fish, so we placed it in my big aquarium as I have other fish about it’s size and it won’t hurt them. You see, the Terror was eating all of Jeff’s fish, which is decidedly mean.

Anyway, we were kicking back watching the Terror being terrorized - it was no longer the biggest fish in the pond - when I noticed some movement in one of the tank’s recesses. A baby fish! Apparently there are 2 or 3 of the little guys floating around in there! So, that rocked. We’ll see how they survive, some of these fish are pretty damn big, and cichlids aren’t the nicest of fish. They look like they were bred from the frontosa’s that I have - I’ll see how they develop in the next few weeks.

As for how this came to be … I have actually done this before. Cichlids are pretty easy to breed. I have had lots of baby fish when I had cichlids in my 33g tank. What you want to do is to provide some places where they can nest (caves, upside down bowl, etc). Apparently frequent water changes also aid in spawning, so if you do frequent water changes, that’s supposed to inspire them, I guess. Apparently when I notice them, I should take them out of this tank and put them all in a different tank so they can grow up and be big and strong. But I really have no interest in getting more fish. By the way, baby fish are called fry. Yup.

As a side note, I wish you could keep cichlids at the .5-1 inch size. They’re awesome!

This is awesome and absolutely pointless. Fun to watch though, there’s lots going on!

Bouncy Blue Balls!

Chester was given a wonderful gift of Bernard Callebaut, white milk chocolate last night. Anyone who’s had some BC chocolate knows what a treat it is. This was a large, cellophane wrapped bag, with a bow at the top, tied with a ribbon in such a way that scissors or a knife would be neccesary to open the package of sugary delight. Chester loves white chocolate, even more so than normal chocolate, so this gift was something to be cherished.

Because he got the gift so late, he decided to wait and eat it the next day, or possibly (although unlikely) over the next few days. So Chester placed the bag (still intact and wrapped) on his living room table. This is a 30″x30″ table, about 20″ high. He then went to bed, making sure to lock the front door. That is of some importance, usually Chester doesn’t lock his door, his house is completely open and people are known to wander in whenever they’d like.

This morning, Chester wakes up early and decides to do a bit of cleaning. He spent about 20 minutes going over the house and cleaning it up, and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. When he reached the living room with the table, he found the bag of chocolates completely empty! It had been cut along the side, a tear big enough to easily let out the chocolates. There were traces of chocolate left in the bag, but none on the table. A search was conducted of the house, but there were no traces anywhere of the missing chocolate.

Re-affirming the door was locked and some chocolate fiend could not have entered that way, Chester moves upstairs to interrogate the other occupants of the house. He lives alone, save for 2 aquariums containing approximately 100 marine and freshwater creatures, and 2 cats. As none of the animals could talk, the interrogation was decidedly one-sided.

He was forced to assume that one of the cats was hungry for the treats, tore open the bag for it’s contents, and ate the chocolate during the night. However, there is actually no proof that they did it. Time will tell if further details come to light.