Say What?!

The headline says it all really: Kidney donor cries foul when recipient ditches Christianity

Actually, no, this section from the story says it all:

 Smith was aghast when she heard of the conversion, and she quickly wrote a letter asking Felks to re-convert to Christianity or return the organ, saying it was donated under false pretenses.
    "I feel helpless," she says. "Part of my body, my DNA, is stuck inside a person who's going to hell."
    Smith suffers nightmares of her former organ filtering "strange Asian teas, pig blood and witch doctor brews in Africa," she says. She wonders if the Lord really wanted her to donate the kidney, or if she acted on a "triple-espresso high" she had that morning. She is also concerned that when her body is resurrected, it might be incomplete.

I'm sorry, but that's funny. I thought it was satire at first, but looks like a real website to me. *snicker*

(Hat Tip Pharyngula)

Review Successful, Test to be Scheduled

My red tip review went almost perfect last night, only the rear mugging escape standing flumoxed me (again!). THey had a spot to do my test on Wednesday but with Kim feeling like crap and the Kids here for the week, I had to turn it down. I should be able to arrange something for next week, assuming I can find an uke.

Justice System may be Flawed, but its Better than Current Alternatives

I'm sure you heard by now the arrest of John Karr for the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey. We today find out that his DNA does not match that found at the crime scene and the charges have been dropped.

I remember last week when the news was all aghast that he was being escorted from Thailand without handcuffs, rode in first glass, and had champange! The horror! Kim expressed a common sentiment of disgust that this confessed child murderer was allowed such luxury.

"Well," I said, "he is innoccent until proven guilty you know."

"Bullcrap," she replied testily, "he confessed."

I shrugged. While I know some people have problems in the brain that make them confess to horrible things for the attention and others are browbeaten into confessions by overzealous police officers, I also knew that he was one creepy looking guy.

Creepy eyes and confessions aside, the police now think he is not responsible. In fact, his family is saying he spent that Christmas with them hundreds of miles away. This is a perfect example why we let the justice system take its course and prevent human emotion from running amok. I'm sure there are many people who would have seen John Karr executed on the spot as soon as he said the words, "I did it."

But he didn't.

Red Tip Review tonight

I asked about it on Friday and got scheduled for tonight. If all goes well, they may want me to go for my orange belt test on Wednesday, but I don't know if I can with Kim feeling under the weather and the Kids visiting for the week.

We'll see.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

My parent's celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Saturday and Kim and I were there along with about 100 other people. No, I'm not exaggerating. Kim and I had the job of recording as much as possible with Camera and Camcorder. It was a long day, but all the standing and walking seems to have cured my cramped calf muscle from Thursday's class nicely.

On Sunday Kim was off with her mother to help shop for a new dress while I visited with Andrew and got my butt whupped in some board games. All in all a good weekend.

Third Stripe and Holding

I successfully accomplished my third stripe review for Yellow last night. Most of the test was easy, I only had trouble on some techniques that I don't do very often, the single and double leg takedowns. Oh, and I forgot the rear mugging escape standing which was embarrassing. I was concentrating so much on the other stuff I forgot that hold escape. Oh well.

Like I said earlier, Belt test night for August is next Wednesday, but I still need to do a Red Tip Review which reviews everything on my test, and find an uke for Wednesday. I doubt that is going to happen cause I don't want to rush it all. I figure it would be better to take my time, practice my stuff, and do it right later even if I have to wait another month. Not that they will make me sit at third stripe for a month at such a low belt level, they will probably say "let's do it such and such a night next week" and then bob's your uncle.

Pluto Loses the Fight

The Astronomical Union voted today to officially demote Pluto from the list of planets of the solar system. They still have to decide what exactly constitutes a "planet", but the majority agree that an icy ball that has an irregular orbit around the sun does not qualify. Childern around the world gave an anguished cry.

As more details emerge, I will continue to keep you posted.

Year Round Schooling

Over on Canoe.ca I read this article about a new school opening in Ottawa. What makes it newsworthy is that it is giving up the traditional two month summer vacation and going to instead be schooling year round.

The balanced calendar school year is a three-year pilot project that will provide a year-round schedule where the number of vacation weeks remain unchanged, but are redistributed throughout the year giving kids breaks in October, an extra week off for Christmas break and two weeks off in March.

They have a reason for doing this.

Lise Bourgeois, director of education, said research has shown this type of calendar year better enables students to retain information and cuts down on student and teacher absenteeism.

[...]

She said studies show the format increases learning in kids by 10% to 20% mainly in language and mathematics.

Personally, I'm all for it. If I recall correctly, summer vacation from school was oringally to allowed childern to help on family farms and whatnot during the busiest time of the year. But our society is overwhelmingly urban now and two months off in the summer perhaps allows too much to be forgotten from the previous school year. I'm interested to see what becomes of this pilot project.

 

You Know What Freaks Me Out?

I was in the grocery store last night and in the pharmacy section saw a poster ad for some make up or another with Teri Hatcher as the model. As I looked I thought, "Man, that's one big ass freaky smile."

You know the smile I mean? The one where their back back molars are visible? Looks like they are trying to imitate the joker almost? Models in ads for makeup or teeth products often use this unnatural smile. Supposed to make them look, I dunno, friendly or something. Approachable perhaps? I tell ya, all it makes me want to do is run the other way. I've seen fewer teeth in a shark attack documentary!

Here's a normal smile borrowed from a quick search on Flickr of the smile tag. Six teeth from the top, that a big healthy smile to me. When you start getting to the point of seeing 6 teeth per side, that's just too far!

UPDATE: Ok, that picture of Teri Hatcher is not as indicitive of what I'm talking about. Its the only one I could find in short notice. I'll keep looking.

UPPER-DATE: This picture is more like what I saw. Freaky! ... Is this one of those posts where my commenters are going to tell me its just me again? 'Cause I hate those.

 

We Will Not Be Silient

Welcome to the U.S.A.

Rule #1: Don't wear clothes we don't like.

(Hat tip: Pesky Apostrophe)

Martial Arts Madness!

I'm going for my third stripe on Thursday evening. So the question becomes how soon after that can I get my orange belt? It could be as early as next week! Yikes!

You see, after you get your third stripe you have to have a Red Tip Review in which you go over all the material for your next test to ensure you've got a goot idea of what you need to do. Once they give you a red tip, you make an appointment for your belt test. In addition, the last Wednesday night of the month is set aside for belt testing because the higher ranks require tests of multiple hours instead of 20-40 minutes like lower levels. Next Wednesday is belt test night so they may try to have me do my red tip review between Thursday night and Wednesday so I can do my belt test on Wednesday.

I'm not in a hurry, but I'd best be prepared.

Real Smooth

I love it when a man learns to time travel. Or something:

The First Baptist Church dismissed Mary Lambert on August 9 with a letter explaining that the church had adopted an interpretation that prohibits women from teaching men. She had taught there for 54 years.

The letter quoted the first epistle to Timothy: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent."

Props to the church for being literal to the Bible.

In case you think this happened in Boondocks USA, South of the Mason-Dixon line, let me dispell that assumption. Waterdown, upstate New York. Right over the border folks. Yee haw!

Mayor Jeffrey Graham, however, was bothered by the reasons given Lambert's dismissal.

"If what's said in that letter reflects the councilman's views, those are disturbing remarks in this day and age," Graham said. "Maybe they wouldn't have been disturbing 500 years ago, but they are now."

I think 500 years ago is a little extreme, surely even 80 years ago people had a problem with Women in authority over men. Heck, even today! But you know, whatever. Good on him for pointing out how archaic it seems.

To be fair, the article at CNN ends with this:

In a statement, the board said other issues were behind Lambert's dismissal, but it did not say what they were.

I'd really like to know what these other issues were if your cover story is "Women teaching Men Bad! *caveman grunt*".

(Hat Tip: Pharyngula)

Parc Safari

I mentioned on Friday that Kim and I were taking the Kids to Parc Safari on Saturday. Well we did. It was amazingly fun and at the same time depressingly frustrating.

Fun: feeding the animals, seeing them up close and personal, standing side by side with a tiger (my favourite animal) and only a pane of glass between us, and the fun the kids had everywhere we went.

Frustration: Missing a turn in Montreal (what the HECK is a turn to go south doing on the north side of the highway when heading east!?!), sore backs from driving so long, kids getting restless in the car due to the long drive, the safari drive was extra long due to how busy it was, and getting rained out Saturday afternoon before we got to see everything.

We didn't let the rain stop us though. We did leave but came back a second day (it was part of the hotel package) with raincoats and we braved the misty rain to feed the deer, ride the fair rides, and generally have a soaking good time. All in all, it was a great time made all the more memorable for the weather.

Next time though, I say we plan on a three day weekend and head there for two days of fun.

Episode III - Return of the Astromoners

Continuing the saga of Pluto's status on this blog, a new proposal put forth late last week looks to downgrade Pluto from regular planet to dwarf planet once again. Apparently the thought of adding a few more "planets" to the description of the solar system shocked some people enough to give their collective heads a shake. A vote comes down this Thursday. Stay tuned for details!

Revenge!

Two weeks ago I mentioned that I finally got my revenge on my former employer. Well Andrew had asked me to keep a lid on it until he was ready and the time has come.

In the early summer of 2001 I moved back to Ottawa from Barrie to accept a new job. I was made aware of the company by Andrew and had been looking for work back in the capital for a few months. It was a small company but with lots of promise and hey, I got to work with Andrew. And who knows where we'd be today if 9/11 hadn't happened.

When work dries up at a large company, they can hold out for a while to try and get back on track. A small company like the one I worked for doesn't have that option so some measures had to be taken. I understand that. What I had trouble understanding is why they chose to keep one or two people who were not contributing as much as I could have had I been kept. Heck, one person that the company chose to keep had been downgraded from developer to sale assistant and I had been given their shoddy code to re-write. Which I did to my supervisor's satisfaction. Which pisses me off even more. To add insult to the injury, business picked up about the same time I joined my current job and they ended up hiring a couple more developers.

Although I carry a certain amount of bitterness over being laid off after Christmas in January of '02, I take great comfort that I survived mostly unscathed the period of being laid off for 5 1/2 months, and have a job now where even though things are not perfect, at least I know skill and ability is valued more than "time in" or who has stock options. And I take great pleasure in seeing that Andrew has had enough of that crazy joint and is moving on as well. I am going to miss the emense pleasure of hearing him complain about his old job though.

Disclaimer: It is possible that I was laid off before certain losers employees due to reasons other than nepotism, but I have not been made aware of them. If so, I would be glad to discuss those issue with David at any time.

 

Lions and Tigers and Bears (OH MY!)

Kim and I are taking the kids to Parc Safari tomorrow, about 50 km south of Montreal near the American border. I expect we'll have a good time, excepting the drive there. We're staying at a hotel tomorrow night so the drive back should not be too bad.

Full report Monday.

3-D So Real, It's Scary.

 From Pesky Apostrophe:

In case you haven’t heard yet, A Nightmare Before Christmas is being re-released in theatres on October 20...in 3-D.

I'm SO there! I love this movie!

Tennis Wars

My weekly tennis games against Andrew have gone well the past two weeks, and I've been pondering why that is. There are a few reasons I think.

1) Andrew's wicked forehand and backhand took vacation with me at the end of july but never came back. Well, the forehand is sort of back, but nowhere near as deadly as at the beginning of the summer. Plus Andrew has been forcing himself to use it instead of the safe light return in order to improve it, hence a few balls into the net.

2) My forehand has improved a large degree over last year. I've been working hard on getting my forehand to a point where the ball goes over a bit faster and lower than I used to get it to, forcing Andrew to dig a little harder to return.

3) My first serve has improved quite a bit in accuracy. While not critical to beating Andrew, it helps when he can't pick and choose his return as he can on the soft second serve.

4) I'm slowly getting in better shape. At the beginning of the season Andrew was buff from Ultimate all winter while I just start Jiu Jitsu at the beginning of March. I've kept it up and my body is slowly getting more stamina and slightly improved reflexes and speed. Not much, but every bit helps. I'm still no match for Andrew's speed and endurance though. If his forehand, backhand, and serves get back up to where I've seen them, he will dominate again. If that happen's I guess its a crowbar to the kneecap.

Pluto Strikes Back!

You may remember my recent post about Pluto being downgraded from regular planet status. Well, Here's another article suggesting Pluto is fighting back and recruiting allies!

Here’s the news the whole world has been waiting for… Pluto is a planet!

And there’s more news:

We have 12 planets now!

Well, sortof. It’s not official yet, and won’t be until at least Thursday. Sit back, folks, because this’ll take some ’splaining.

(Hat tip Pharyngula)

Warning! Geek Speek Ahead

This past I was captured by a wave of nostalgia and went searching online for a copy of an old computer game. I mean, really old. We're talking 1988 old, which in computer terms is practically part of the dawn of history.

The game? Might & Magic II: Gates to Another World. I played it on my Commodore 64 for hours over days and weeks, finally finishing it (well, nearly finishing it). It was the first real role playing game in the fantasy-adventure genre I ever played and it was a great combination of fighting, questing, searching, and leveling up. I have such fond memories of that game.

So I'm playing it again. The same graphics. The same beeps from the motherboard speaker. Fortunately, not the same painful load times from a 5.25" floppy disk.

I was worried that I would start playing and throw up my hands in disgust, memories shattered as I compared this game to the slick million dollar productions of big game companies today. But you know what? I like it. I like it quite a bit. Yes, the graphics and controls suck majorly, and the sounds are best left turned off, but the concept is so empowering. Create a party of six adventurers any way you want and explore the world. Perform the quests you want, go where you want, fight the battles you want to, and accept the consequences when you get over your head. You want to go to the most dangerous part of the world when you are at level 4? Go ahead, its your life (and death).

A lot of RPG games today rock on the graphics and sounds, adding 3D worlds and video interludes. But they often present players with a preset character or characters, with little customization. In some you can only choose your name and in many others not even that. Games like Diablo force you to explore only one level at a time and you cannot go on until the big boss at the end is defeated. Exploration is simply a linear progression from the starting point to the boss and no or very little flexibility is offered.

I didn't intend to play M&M2 for very long but now I think I've changed my mind. I've only explored one little town out of en entire world and I'm eager to see more while my characters grow in experience and ability.

Its the Constitution Stupid!

Reading this news story about the 43 foot cross on public land in San Francisco gets my blood boiling. A basic synopsis is as follows: In 1954 a 43 foot cross was erected on a prominent hill in San Francisco as a memorial to veterans. Seventeen years ago a court battle started where an veteran sued the city government to take down the cross because it did not reflect his beliefs. The court battle is still ongoing today.

The defenders in the court battle want the cross to remain and are trying to paint this as an attack on veterans. This can be seen in quotes from the story like:

"This is a great day for veterans."

And:

Sanders said he was glad the federal government would "take the lead in preserving the integrity of the memorial."

And:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Bush's action is "a great signal to our veterans that we will not forget the sacrifices that they made during the time of conflict."

But the fact of the matter is that no one is against there being a memorial to veterans, not even one 43 feet high. The problem is that a Christian cross excludes all veterans that did not hold Christian beliefs.

"The cross on Mt. Soledad shows a preference for Christian veterans over non-Christian veterans who have fought and died for their country, and that's wrong," McElroy said.

Would Christian soldiers be okay with their memorial being a 43 foot crescent for Islam? Or a star of David? Even if they were the minority?

The fact of the matter is that the cross itself is not offensive, nor is the idea of a large memorial on the hill offensive. Its unconstitutional. You know, that great document you often talk about defending? Its against establishment of religion, ANY religion, by the government. Quite simply, showing preference for one religion over all and any others is not allowed. Period. The cross to the exclusion of all others is unconstitutional. Its really simple and any American with pride in their founding document should understand why the cross has to be replaced with a secular memorial, or accompanied by symbols for all religions.

Since the defenders of the cross on public land know that they have no arguement against that fact, they try to change the battle into defending the memorial for veterans, which of course is not what the point of the court battle is.

Speaking of Drinks...

This article over at Canoe.ca has me rolling my eyes.

Pretty in pink. And orange and the most delicious lime green. They make you think bubble gum, Creamsicles and frozen limeade.

But they're available only at the liquor store, not the candy store or ice cream parlour.

And no matter how lip-smacking finger-licking good they are, they're 5% alcohol and consumed by girls who've barely left the Barbie stage.

A report from the American Medical Association (AMA) this past spring warned that these girlie drinks or alcopops are being drunk by girls of the average age of 13. (In the U.K., where some of these drinks originated, 56% of 11- and 12-year-olds consume them.)

Great. Not only do we have to worry about kids getting into underage drinking in the fist place, now we have companies trying to encourage it. Adn if they deny it, I call "bullshit".

But wait! There's more good news!

But a taste for the hard stuff isn't the only thing these drinks seem to be promoting.

In one nationwide survey, the AMA found that nearly one in six teen girls who have consumed alcopops in the past six months has been sexually active after drinking.

An AMA ad notes that starter girlie drinks can lead to women's diseases including STDs.

OK, I'll admit that isn't overwhelming evidence that drinking these candy-beers leads to more teenage sex, but I bet my bottom dollar its not helping.

Ah the Liquor industry: we meet again. Arseholes.

No Drink For You!

As Colby Cosh points out, the odds of someone taking out a plane with a pop bottle of explosive is extremely low. The effort and risk required to get the explosive to the point where it would truly be dangerous to the integrity of the plane is enormous.

I hope governments think critically about the threat and act appropriately once the knee jerk reaction panic is subsided.

Good Bye Pluto

Scientists are planning on demoting Pluto from full-feldged planet to a new classification called dwarf planets. The reason for this is that in the past few years, more objects have been found out beyond Neptune's and Uranus' orbit that are similar size to Pluto and the realization dawned that the Oort cloud that surrounds the solar system and is the source of many comets could house dozens if not hundreds of planets similar to Pluto. By creating this third designation of Dwarf planet (Terrestrial and Gas Giant being the other two we are familiar with) then they can all be recognized without having a huge list of planet names to remember and teach.

In the future, kids might be learning the names of the four terrestrial planets, the four gas giants, and the first found of the dwarf planets, Pluto.

This and That

I haven't worn a watch on my wrist since high school pretty much, but I've decided to give it another try since the clock in the car radio no longer works. And Kim is starting to get annoyed at me in the car always asking the time. I'm a time conscious person don't you know!

---

It took a few years, but I finally get my revenge on my previous employer today. Details to follow.

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One hundred and thirty four shopping days left until Christmas!

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Hilarious! I wish I was there for that show!

 

Insanity...

A simple definition of insanity I heard once is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time.

I heard on the Bear that two groups are trying to bring CFL football back to Ottawa. Let's review this history shall we?

In 1996 the franchise called the Ottawa Rough Riders which was over a hundred years old folded and CFL football left the capital. After a few years, people wanted to bring it back to the capital and succeeded in starting a new franchise called the Ottawa Renegades in 2002.

After three seasons the team was suspended due to losing money and requesting it from the CFL.

And now people want to bring football back to the capital in the form of a new team once again called the Ottawa Rough Riders. Let me set the record straight.

THE CAPITAL DOES NOT WANT YOUR STINKING FOOTBALL! Get an effing clue, you slack-jawed morons! Why is it that people with money feel the need to waste them on projects that most people don't care about? Is it for tax purposes? I just don't get it. They struggle every year to fill the seats and suffer financial hardships only to fold or get suspended and they want to try again!? What's wrong with these people? I can think of hundreds of better ways to spend the millions required to run yet another football franchise into the ground.

Idiots.

What the...?

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

Crappy Tire

Our sweet little Toyota Coralla was acting up this year, having trouble accelerating and backing up. A month ago I took the car reluctantly into Canadian Tire to get it fixed. I say reluctantly because I've had bad experiences with their repair services in the past in Barrie, but my choices are limited in Barrie right now and I can't get around in Ottawa without my ride very well.

It took them a while, but they diagnosed the issue as a busted Oxygen Sensor. I bought a new one and they (supposedly) put it in. Well, I get the car back and its as bad as before, if not worse! I can't see how they drove it out of the garage and determined it was done. Idiots.

But wait! There's more!

I foolishly figured that there was simply more wrong with the car and that the oxygen sensor was only one part of it and they were too stunned to figure that out. So while borrowing my mother's jeep for camping, I arranged to have the car taken to a garage we trust in Brockville to complete the repairs. I get back from vacation and what do I find out? They fixed the oxygen sensor in the car. Only this time, the car actually runs like it has been fixed.

So the question remains, what the hell did Canadian Tire do with my car, 'cause they certainly didn't fix the oxygen sensor. Idiots.

I'm an idiot too though, I should have taken the car right back to Canadian Tire after they looked at it and demanded they try again. Now I've paid for the same repair twice. I've never going to Canadian Tire for repairs again and I'm offically adding them to my Shit List along with U-Haul.

(For the story of my U-Haul moving adventure hell, check out this post I made on Bound By Gravity a while back._

Mideast Turmoil

I've avoided saying much about the Mideast war going on now because I find myself numb by it all. Between the hatred, the bombings, and the attacks, my outrage emitters have been overloaded and I'm like a house with all the fuses blown. Quiet; silent.

I will say this however. There are no blameless parties in this conflict. No one can claim to be the white knight, no one can cry that they are the victim. Only the innocent civilians who are caught in the middle are deserve our full sympathy.

Suffer the childern in this war of religions.

Third Time's A Charm

While camping I started reading Stephen King's It for the third time, using the new paperback Kim bought me for Christmas as my original copy was losing pages and falling apart. I love the book, its my favourite of Stephen King's novels. I'll probably read it again in another decade.

The reason I love this story so much is because it appeals to my love of a good yarn, taking lots of fully realized characters and imersing the reader into their world and the idioms and viewpoints. Plus its got a monster, a quest to defeat said monster, victories, defeats, heros, villians, and awesome climax. The TV movie they made about it, however, sucked.

Vacation Fun

Vacation 2006 has come and gone and I wish it was longer.

The first week of camping was overall very good, but not as awesome as last year. However, far better than the debacle of 2004. We set up camp at Bon Echo on Sunday and the first day was good. But Monday night we had severe thunderstorms roll through and I had to spring into action to prevent the tarp from getting pools of rain water and ripping down. In a moment of deperation I stumbled upon the right method of securing the tarp to avoid pooling water.

I got soaked for my efforts and all day tuesday it seemed nothing would dry.Wednesday dawned with better weather but we discovered the Jeep had a dead battery! A hike to the park gatehouse to ask for a boost, a hike back to camp, and after an hour we finally get the boost we needed and headed into town for more groceries and a long stop at the laundromat. We head back to the park only to find it rained AGAIN! By this time I was at wits end and ready to give up. Tired, wet, depressed, and it was only day three.

Fortunately, the weather and my spirits picked up on Thursday and Friday was also good weather. Saturday we packed up with no issues in record time and made it home to relax and recuperate.

The next week of the vacation was mostly lazy time for Kim and I. Our plans got changed so we didn't go to Barrie until Saturday morning leaving us with five stress free and mostly appointment free time. We watched some movies, I went to Jiu Jitsu class, did some shopping.

There was some stress Wednesday night when that massive storm front rolled through. Storm warnings and Tornado watches, it was fierce. We lost power for about 5 minutes at one point, and later I heard a thump from outside. Looked out the front door and saw that a big branch from our sick maple tree had fallen off and was leaning against the power lines. We didn't lose power, but it made me nervous as all hell. Ontario Hydro was too busy with people without power to answer their phones, so I called a tree service in Carleton Place to cut down the tree and I spent all day Friday cleaning off the front lawn so I could mow the long grass. The rest of the tree is going to have to come down this fall I'm afraid, before it falls on the house or car and causes damage.

This past weekend we made our to Barrie to visit Tamara, Ordell, and Lyric and played lots of Gamecube games and swam and generally ate too much good food. Mario Super Strikers is awesome BTW. We wandered back to Eastern Ontario yesterday, tired and wishing we had more time for vacation.

Oh well, at least this is a short week.

I'm Back!

Though I'm still getting back into the groove at work, I will be posting starting today. I just need some time to filter out all the junk emails.