NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Last night I was trying to create and edit a DVD of my parent's anniversary party from last summer. I had edited all the clips and was stringing them together into chapters when suddenly the program froze and would not respond. I was so not impressed. I just about flipped out. About an hour's worth of effort down the drain.

So mom, if you're reading this, expect the DVD a little after Christmas. It is coming, just not tomorrow.

Going Silent for a While

Christmas vacation is coming up and I will be offline for a lot of the following week, so consider this post the last one possibly until the new year. I might get one in tomorrow, depends on how the day goes.

Happy Holidays to anyone reading, and see you on the flip side!

Getting Greener

Last night I had my second stripe review for Orange belt and it went well. Only screwed up one small thing and my hold escapes were really good. Now I am over halfway to Green Belt and I expect to go for it in February. That means getting off my butt and attending the Monday night White and Yellow belt classes again in January to review my previous stuff so I don't look like a fool. (Moreso than usual I suppose I should add).

Christmas Is Almost Here!

I finished my Christmas shopping today at lunch, buying the last stocking-stuffers for Kim. Now I just have to wrap them before Christmas gets here.

* * * * *
This past weekend was busy for us. Kim was helping people with their shopping and I watched the Kids on Saturday while her and Erin were at the mall. Sunday we wrapped presents (Kim moreso than I).

Just five more working days until vacation! Woot!

Meta-Blogging

I've moved this blog to the new Blogger Beta that hooks into my Gmail account. So the new things like Labels and possible format changes (as well as a spell checker I've started using in FireFox woot!) will be noticeable.

That's all, carry on.

Weekend Is Here!

I felt like crap for most of yesterday, but the physical exercise of class always makes me feel incredibly better. Highly recommend it. Anyway, I got the information I needed on the techniques I didn't know or remember. I should be good to go for Tuesday's test assuming I keep practicing on and off on the weekend.

This weekend Kim is being a good Samaritan and helping her dad with his Christmas shopping tonight and then Erin with her shopping for the Kids tomorrow. Tonight I'm just going to veg while she is out and tomorrow I'm going to hang out with the Kids while the girls are off cavorting around town. Last year the Kids and I went tobogganing but looking outside I think that option is off the table.

Maybe we'll go exploring around town and see what we can find.

Surprise!

I went to Jiu-Jitsu class yesterday and got told by the receptionist that it was time for my second stripe. Ack! I thought I had more time, but I guess since next week is the last week of classes for the year, I suppose I had better get it done, eh?

So I looked at the Orange Belt Second Stripe requirements and realized I hadn't practice many of them much at all. Oops. So tonight I'm going to class to get some instruction of what a couple things are and practice them before my test next Tuesday.

The World Became a Little Poorer

Over at Canoe is this sad story of the effect of the burgeoning human population: Chinese dolphin declared extinct.

BEIJING (AP) — An expedition searching for a rare Yangtze River dolphin ended Wednesday without a single sighting and with the team’s leader saying one of the world’s oldest species was effectively extinct.

The white dolphin known as baiji, shy and nearly blind, dates back some 20 million years. Its disappearance is believed to be the first time in a half-century, since hunting killed off the Caribbean monk seal, that a large aquatic mammal has been driven to extinction.

[...]

Overfishing and shipping traffic, whose engines interfere with the sonar the baiji uses to navigate and feed, are likely the main reasons for the mammal’s declining numbers, Pfluger said.

[...]

For nearly six weeks, Pfluger’s team of 30 scientists scoured a 1,000-mile heavily trafficked stretch of the Yangtze, where the baiji once thrived. The expedition’s two boats, equipped with high-tech binoculars and underwater microphones, trailed each other an hour apart without radio contact so that a sighting by one vessel would not prejudice the other.

Around 400 baiji were believed to be living in the Yangtze in the 1980s. The last full-fledged search, in 1997, yielded 13 confirmed sightings, and a fisherman claimed to have seen a baiji in 2004, Pfluger said in an earlier interview.

At least 20 to 25 baiji would now be needed to give the species a chance to survive, the group’s statement said, citing Wang Ding, a hydrobiologist and China’s foremost campaigner for the baiji.

If there are baiji still alive, they believe the population is too small to survive and is effectively extinct. Loss of habitat due to increasing human activity is going to be a common theme in the coming years as more species face the fact that there is not enough room in the world for all the people and the non-domesticated animals they share land and water with.

Much Ado About Nothing - Revisited

What's the point about having a blog if people expect you to defend your comments? Yeesh. Demands, demands, demands. But since Andrew left a comment longer and more thought out than my original post, I feel some responsibility to try and defend some of my mindless rambling if to do nothing else than to dignify the "2006 Best Conservative Blog" author with a worthy response. On to the show.

Andrew commented:

Your other strawman is found here: "This does not nor should it reflect on his ability to lead us, in fact it should be in his favour as it may give him a wider view on the world and our place in it. We should judge him on his worthiness to lead the nation by his policies and leadership abilities." I haven't read anyone saying that Dion's citizenship impacts his ability to lead.... you, and most others on your side of this issue, keep asserting that we are - but that fact is that you're fabricating that line of argument; it simply does not exist, and is not on the table.

If it does not impact his ability to lead, then why is it an issue? I agree I set up a strawman that was very easy to knock down. Mea culpa. Still, why is it an issue?

IMO the symbol is very important - the PM of Canada must be beyond reproach, and part of that is that the PM must hold Canadian citizenship, and must not hold any other citizenship. They are representing CANADA, not Canada and France, or Canada and Zimbabwe, or whatever. If you feel that view is "close-minded and petty".... well, that's awfully close-minded and petty of you ;)

Why does being "beyond reproach" imply not holding any citizenship beyond Canadian? Are you implying that people with dual citizenship are somehow reproachable? Are they somehow less Canadian? If so, why? (Definition of reproach.)

If the symbol of the Prime Minister of Canada is the reason why you feel Stephane Dion should renounce his French citizenship, I do not agree. I do not think the symbol nor the office are tarnished in any fashion because I do not see having citizenship in a second country as a "disgrace or shame" or worthy of "rebuke or criticism".

If I have misconstrued your point, please let me know.

On the other hand, perhaps reproach is not the right word you were looking for. Are you concerned with divided loyalties? Preferential treatment for France in international relations? Security concerns? If so, I can only respond by saying that those concerns do not go away by giving up French citizenship so I do not see the need for him to do so.

So in summary, based on your comments I do not find any reason yet as to why I think Stephane Dion should renounce his dual citizenship. I believe it is an emotional "gut-feeling" reaction that people like yourself are having and that I do not share.

I look forward to your response!

Much Ado About Nothing

Alternative Titles: Tempest in a Teacup, Mountain out of a Molehill, Idiots on Rampage.

For a supposedly worldly and tolerant country we all claim to be here in the Great White North (especially when compared to our neighbours to the south) we certainly get our snowpants in a twist when confronted with one simple fact: dual citizenship.

Hide your daughters! Lock the doors! Stephane Dion has French Citizenship! How un-Canadian! Dual Citizenship, divided loyalties!

"He can't lead our country!"

"Um, why not?" I ask.

"Why, he might just turn our country over to the French!"

*Stunned silence*

It boggles my mind that people can be so simplistic in their views in a world we know has many shades of grey. Telling someone with dual citizenship that their Canadian citizenship is not as good because they are sharing it with another nation is so close-minded and petty that I'm disgraced this has been a news item in Canada at all.

The fact of the matter is he is a Canadian Citizen. He is allowed by our law like millions of other Canadians to hold dual citizenship. End of story. This does not nor should it reflect on his ability to lead us, in fact it should be in his favour as it may give him a wider view on the world and our place in it. We should judge him on his worthiness to lead the nation by his policies and leadership abilities.

To do otherwise is practically un-Canadian. ;)

You'll be Pleased to Know...

...Kim absolutely crushed all of us in Tetris Saturday night. She was at level 11 at one point while the rest of us struggled at level 7. Andrew hoped his luck would be better at Mario Party but merely proved how apt he was at finding bombs instead of stars. He did fare better at Mariokart, posting a couple wins in some of the races (but I think he was cheating by working with Kim and Jenny to beat me).

In other news...

Kim and I got our Christmas tree up and decorated Saturday afternoon, and finished the bulk of our Christmas shopping on Sunday. Only a few people left and we can then sigh a breath of relief.

Except Kim, who has to help her best friend and father with their shopping next weekend.

For All The Geeks Out There...

Monty Python and Science FTW!

How the Heck Did Christmas Get to Be Only Two Weeks Away

Christmas is kind of sneaking up on my this year. It seems like only last week that it was over a month away. Now we're counting days until Christmas break. Freaky time warp or something, I dunno.

Regardless, the season is fully upon us. Tree goes up Saturday, shopping on Sunday, wrapping next week. Before you know it we'll be ringing in the New Year of 2007. Wow, time flies.

P.S. I had another topic for a blog post about how Buffy the Vampire Slayer was going to do another season but in comic book format and how I was so excited (and yes, I'm a full blooded geek) but Kim of all people beat me too it. Sigh.

Work is Busy For A Change...

So not much thought to blogging today. Suffice to say I blame Andrew.

Political Thoughts

Out of all the candidates for Liberal leader going into last weekend, I thought (like many others) that it was between Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, neither which I liked very much. I considered Ignatief to be too divorced from Canada and politics by his years at Harvard, and well, I lived through the Bob Rae NDP Ontario government.

So I was more than pleasantly surprised when Stephane Dion won the weekend, slipping from third or fourth to build the momentum and consensus of delagates. Out of all the choices, he was the one I liked the best: strong federalists, concerned about the environment, untouched (AFAIK) by scandal, and he simply seems like a man more interested in good governing than winning an election. Time will tell if this holds true, but I admit the rise of Dion has given me some new hope for our political scene in Ottawa. That he did it as an underdog only endears him to me more.

But the neatest thing of all is how the two current main party leaders illustrate the dual nature of this country: Stephen versus Stephane. That cracks me up.

Sometimes, You Need To Be An Archeologist

Kim was arranging stuff in the fridge freezer trying to fit in groceries last night. She found this margarine container in the back corner.

In case you can't read that, it says "Chilli, Sept 17/04". That's right, its chilli Kim made and froze on Sept 17, 2004. Over two years ago.

Yummy.

Intelligent Design "Theory" Produces Scientific Contribution

For the computer geeks out there...

Scientists have been complaining that Inteliiigent Design has provided no useful contributions to any field, but now in computer science we see the results:

Introduction

Intelligent design sort is a sorting algorithm based on the theory of intelligent design.

Algorithm Description

The probability of the original input list being in the exact order it's in is 1/(n!). There is such a small likelihood of this that it's clearly absurd to say that this happened by chance, so it must have been consciously put in that order by an intelligent Sorter. Therefore it's safe to assume that it's already optimally Sorted in some way that transcends our naïve mortal understanding of "ascending order". Any attempt to change that order to conform to our own preconceptions would actually make it less sorted.

Analysis

This algorithm is constant in time, and sorts the list in-place, requiring no additional memory at all. In fact, it doesn't even require any of that suspicious technological computer stuff. Praise the Sorter!

Hat Tip Pharyngula

Offered Without Comment

Really, with a headline like this, what could I add? "He was naked, on crack and in alligator's mouth. "

How I Loathe Travelling

When I was growing up, the farthest we had to travel was to Seely's Bay, a quick 45 minute jaunt over county roads. Now the shortest trips to family involve 45 minute highway drives and many are much further than that. I don't enjoy the driving very much but at least I usually have good company with Kim.

This past weekend we went to Belleville for Kim's Extended Family Christmas dinner. It was a good time, but by 9 o'clock I was tuckered, had a headache. We had an hour drive back to Kingston ahead of us so I was eager to get going. I head out to the parking lot to start loading up the car and a cousin says, "Hey, you're tire is flat."

Well, crap. Yep, the front passenger tire was flat as Coke left open for three days. Turns out another car had a flat as well that night and the current theory is that some punks decided to puncture some tires for fun as the hole in my tire turned out to be in the sidewall and looked like a straight puncture.

Well, we tried pumping the tire back up but we could hear it leaking. There was lots of suggestions and ideas as about 10 family members stood watching me trying to figure out what to do. Gee, after 9pm on Saturday night and no garages open? Who would have thunk it? With our overnight bags waiting for us in Kingston, a hotel was not an attractive option. Someone suggested getting CAA to tow it to Kingston, but that was kind of unattractive as well. Finally a suggestion came up that seemed halfway decent: we would drive the car to Canadian Tire down the road (the air would hold long enough) and then borrow the inlaws van to go to Kingston. They were staying in town anyways and could see to the car in the morning at the service department of Canadian Tire (against my better judgement I might add, but I was two hours from home and without many options). Then they would drive my car to Kingston and meet us there on Sunday.

Yeah, it was a pain in the ass and we didn't get on the road until almost eleven, but we survived.

Barely. *Sigh*

Where's the Beef (Been)?

 Read this found at Pesky Apostrophe this afternoon:

When workers at a Nebraska beef packing plant inadvertantly sprayed waste water on 493 carcasses, the company should not have been allowed to clean and treat the meat and allow it to enter the food supply, a non-profit consumer group said Thursday.

U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Steven Cohen said that the meat would normally be deemed “contaminated,” but in this situation company officials at Swift & Company convinced government inspectors they could make the beef “safe and wholesome again” through “approved treatment and microbiological testing."

And I just had meatballs for lunch. Yummy.

Let The Holiday Season Begin

November 30th. Rain, grey skies, about 14 degrees in the morning.

December 1st. Ice rain, temperatures hovering around zero, salt trucks, ice and snow on windshield.

Its not quiet a white winter wonderland, but it is a blast of things to come. Tomorrow we are travelling on down to Belleville for Kim's extended family dinner and gift exchange, so that is the official start of the holiday season for me. Now I suppose we got to dig the tree and decorations out of the crawlspace and put it up in the living room. Should be fun.