Archives 2003

13 December 2003

Gone Daddy Gone

Ace O' Spades

So Saddam was finally flushed from his hidey-hole this weekend, looking a might worse for wear after 9 (?) months on the lam but still packing his gat and huge wad of Dead Presidents. With street cred like that, someone should get him into a recording studio on the double - he's a slam dunk to be the next big rapper, don't you think?

Much chest thumping and gloating from the Bush camp today, of course, and Fox and CNN have already starting reporting next year's presidential election like W's already won it. Like it's a fait acompli that Georgie Boy gets to sit in the big chair for another 4 years because some grunts finally managed to stumble across Hussein over there in the desert. Bush and Company are taking the states straight into the dumper, but finding Saddam makes it all ok. WTF?

A story out of the middle east has it that Saddam was actually being held hostage by some of his own people, in order to claim the $25M bounty placed on his head by the Americans. Click here to read the story >>

5 December 2003

The Spirit of Radio

It's too late now, but I just found out about a reunion of all the staff (and fans) of the old CFNY 102.1 (The Spirit of Radio) station. I started listening to CFNY back in 1979, when Dave Marsden was on the air. It's impossible to convey just how important CFNY was to this city back then - the station was pretty much solely responsible for creating a serious "alt" music scene in Toronto. They exposed us to so much amazing music that no other stations would touch, and they kept it up from 1977 until the early 90's. The playlist was so wide they could go for 24 hours without repeating a single song. In fact they had a contest for a while called "Catch Us If You Can" that invited listeners to call in if they heard the same some more than once in a 24 hour period.

They're still on the air, but the glory days are long long gone. I keep a button in the car tuned to 102.1, but I find I can't take too much of it these days. It's not that the music is new - there's nothing wrong with new music - it just seems like there's no heart to this particular radio beast any more. Even so-called alternative music is now just another format, it seems.

Anyway, if you're a fan, check out the Spirit of Radio site. Lots of great stuff to read, photos, bios, history, even sound clips.

29 November 2003

iTunes Therefore I am

Having had the pleasure of using a Mac at work for the past couple of years, I was familiar with the power and beauty of iTunes, the music management software from Apple. Compared to the rough and clunky CD-burning and music file managers available to Windows users, iTunes was pure gold. Like all great technology it was easy to use and (!) it worked flawlessly.

Apple recently made iTunes available to Windows users, so I downloaded it for my poor old PC at home. What a beautiful piece of work. If you don't have it yet, get it. I use it only for ripping tunes from my unwieldy CD collection onto my PC, since my pokey dialup connection makes downloading MP3s too long of a process. Nevertheless, it's a breath of fresh air on my Windows desktop. Thank you Apple.

Click here to get iTunes from the Apple site >>

28 November 2003

SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM EGGS AND SPAM

I've had it up to here with spam. The relentless deluge of filth and annoyance is really becoming too much - last week I opened my email to 310 messages, of which around a dozen were legit. I'm test-driving two solutions right now to see if either will help:

1. Mailwasher. Supposedly sends back a message to the spammer that your email address is a dud, so they take you off their list. I tried this for about a week, but the interface is not convenient; you have to wait for the avalanche of junk to load and the scroll through it all to make sure that Mailwasher has only marked actual spam as spam. It will flag stuff as being 'probably spam' 'might be spam' or as coming from a known spam source. Once it marks your emails for deletion or bounce back, you run the program again. Then you run your own mail program to get your actual mail. Too much work for me, brothers and sisters. Meh.

2. Mozilla Thunderbird. Sibling to the most excellent Mozilla Firebird, the web browser Spacedog recommends to all PC users out there, Thunderbird appears, so far, to be one smart l'il cookie when it comes to spam. It accurately identifies junk as junk and streams it into its own folder so you never have to see it, and it learns as it goes. After only a couple of days I'm already dealing with way less spam than before. Sweet relief. And a lovely interface too. Now if someone would only devise a way to send back anthrax spores to these spam creeps...

21 November 2003

FBRC 2003

A belated hats off to Maurice for once again hosting the Fall Bike Ride Classic, a once-a-year night-time dash through the eastern ravines and beaches of our fair city. This is the 5th annual, I believe, the previous excursions being the Wet One, the Light One, the Warm One, and the Cold One. The 2003 version, it was decided, will henceforth be known as the Reverse One, since our usual clockwise route was this year run anti-clockwise. What's the big deal, you ask? I dunno, you can't 'splain it - there's just something about riding through the empty Scarberian night with a bunch of other cyclists that keeps us all (most, Paul) coming back every year. Maybe it's the refreshments en route, maybe it's the pub at the end o' the night, maybe it's the sight of the moon rising over Pickering "A" with the steam from the sewage treatment ponds rising into the night sky behind you, who knows? Who cares? It's fun.

Lies, Damn Lies

So, a new party takes the reins of power in Ontario and a new dawn breaks over our beleagured province. A ray of light shines, illuminating and perhaps even warming our hearts with the hope that Things Will Be Different This Time. Oh, wait a second. What were we thinking? We should have known that as soon as any group of humans gets into office they immediately start acting like the Government. Breaking "promises", changing their minds, and generally stomping all over our misplaced affections. Again. It happens every time. This time out, the honeymoon officially ended (for me at least) when the Liberals let slip that those 6600 houses being built on the Oak Ridges Moraine, the 6600 they said they would never be built if they got into power, well those houses were going to get built after all. 5700 of them, anyway. Way to go, you guys. Way to protect our drinking water, our green spaces, our homes. Well done. I guess it was too much to hope that you were telling the truth about all this during the election campaign. I can hardly wait to see what happens next...

11 November 2003

Matrix Shmatrix

Every time the first Matrix movie comes on tv, I end up watching the whole damn thing. Again. It's just such a well-made movie that it keeps me glued to it even though I know all the scenes now and of course know how it "ends". In fact I wish that it had ended with that first installment, because the 2nd and 3rd parts of the supposed trilogy have been weak beyond belief.

The 3rd and hopefully final part of the Matrix suite is out now, so I went. Blah. If I had wanted to see Terminator 3, The Rise of the Machines then I would have seen it. Matrix Revolutions is nothing but a tarted up video game full of flying bullets, flying enemy insect-machines, and flying B.S. Where the first film was notable for its philosophical bent, this one is about as deep as spit. Star Wars (which I despise) had more going for it plot-wise than this mess. Don't waste your time.

5 November 2003

More 911 Eye Openers

This time from the CBC, of all places. The Fifth Estate re-ran its season opening show last night outlining various conspiracy theories about what actually happened on 9-11. The most interesting part of the show was the detailed links shown between the Saudis, the Bin Ladens and the Bush family.

Read all about it on the Fifth Estate website.

4 November 2003

Lost Opportunity

I was disappointed to learn the other day that former Ontario Premier Mike Harris had declined a supposed offer to lead the new federal conservative party, whatever it's going to be called. By not throwing his hat into the ring, Mikey has deprived me, and I suspect, large numbers of like-minded Ontarians, of the opportunity to open a rather large can of industrial strength whoop-ass on him. I was really looking forward to not voting for him in the next federal election, the democratic equivalent of a swift boot to the head. I'm sure the Appliance Party will eventually find another Suitable Boy, just as I'm sure our friends in the West will again be shaking their fists at heaven come the election results, and wondering why they've been forsaken once again.

30 October 2003

Mr. Sensitive

At the risk of blowing my cover as an ultra-manly hard-drinkin' tough-livin' no bullshit kind of manly man, may I offer you a little something I submitted this past week to CBC Radio's Haiku Night in Canada contest:

stars wheel slowly in
the cold black diamond sky
skate blades carve white ice

Yeah, so? Wipe that smile off yer face or I'll break my stick across your spine...

24 October 2003

Geek Night Out

If someone had thrown a bomb into the Danforth Music Hall last night, there would not have been an IT department in the city that would have escaped without some kind of damage this morning. WIRED-proclaimed "Dark Prince of cyberpunk" author Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and now Quicksilver) was in town for a dog and pony show, and the assembled crowd was about 90% male, 100% nerd.

The man we had all come to see and hear appeared fidgety and not at all comfortable on stage for most of the night, which is no surprise given his own declaration of profound introvertedness. The interview portion of the show went smoothly, albeit with some pretty rambling responses from NS. The nerds lapped it all up anyway, clutching their fresh copies of Quicksilver, a door-stopper of a book that I'm still in the early stages of plodding through.

Next came a reading from NS, a few pages worth from the heart of the current book. As a reader, Stephenson makes a good writer - not exacly riveting, but then again he's not a performer so no surprises there. Finally came the Q&A session, which reminded me of the famous SNL William Shatner sketch - geeks asking him technical questions about crypto, assuming that because he had written a novel (Cryptonomicon) about it he would be an expert. Wrong. According to Neal, he's pretty much forgotten everything he learned about it while writing the book, and his head is now filled with useful stuff like what type of wig the well turned out Parisian gentleman of th 17th century would wear. In other words, he's a writer not a geek. He wrote the current trilogy in long hand, ditching his computer for a pen and paper. Take that, nerd boys!

I'm sure some of the crowd went away a little disappointed that NS wasn't a bona fide member of their nerdy tribe, but that's what you get when you try to get close to your heros. The letdown is inevitable. In answer to the question "why do you write about the things you write about?", his response was pretty much that the act of writing keeps him sane - getting into the 'flow state' of writing for a few hours each day is his motivation, not some deep interest in tech culture per se. Planet Geek will just have to live without Mr. Stephenson I'm afraid, even as it's citizens continue to read his books.

21 October 2003

Skin 2 Win

Ever the Johnny Come Lately in the world of bleeding edge web design, the spacedog site sheepishly presents its very own Style Switcher. It's over there on the right, near the top of the menu.

Just click to pick your favourite skin for the site, lean back and enjoy. May not work in old browsers, so if you feel like filing a bug report go right ahead. I may fix it, I may not. Depends. More skins to follow, as soon as I get some time to waste.

9 October 2003

My Nightmare

Iy hav a niitmare ware I fined mysself inn ann alturnate yuniverse, wone ware mye liife ande evrything inn itt iz exacktly thhe sayme az itt iz nowe, exsept thhat allmost evry singel wurd inn thhe Inglish languaj haz a diffrint speling. Iy'm considerd sub-literet becus I cann't spel wurth a damm, ande reeding becoughmes a hyuge hedake.

7 October 2003

Election Fever Continues

Now that the Tories have mercifully been told by Ontario voters to pack up their horrorshow and move on, we here in Tronna can focus on the upcoming Municipal election. It will be much easier to do this, since the city can collectively stop grabbing its ankles, which we've been doing ever since Mike Harris & Co. came to Queen's Park in '95.

The main candidates in the race for Mayor of Tronna are David Miller, John Tory, and Barbara Hall. There are others but they aren't really in the running. John Nunziata is too much of a whack job, even for a city that elected Mel Lastman mayor, and Tom Jakobek is just a big fat liar and everyone knows it. So, that leaves the other three.

Barbara Hall: correct me if you think I'm wrong, but I don't think that she should be anointed by default simply because she once sat in the Mayor's chair, pre-amalgamation (amalgamation being a euphemism for the whole ankle-grabbing routine described above). Click here to visit her website.

John Tory: a better choice than Barbarella, but maybe not quite what the city needs. A bit of a right-winger, which may not be a breath of fresh air after nearly a decade of "common sense" in Queen's Park. Click here to visit his website.

David Miller: for my money, this is the guy who should get the job. He's the only one with the jam to say no to over-developing the island airport, plus he's got the support of urban planning legend Jane Jacobs and other political heavies who know a thing or two about what might be good for this city. Click here to visit his website.

If you're voting (and you should be) don't let Barbara Hall take this thing just because hers is the only name people recognize on the ballot. That's just pathetic.

5 October 2003

Old Dog, New Tricks

Or, Another Tedious Website Re-design.

I've gone and changed the site yet again, just a few visual tweaks this time and some tightening up of the CSS and html code. I won't bore you with the details, but it's all just way way sexier now, trust me.

Some pages may or may not be ready by the time you read this. Too bad. They'll be there as soon as I get around to it. I do have a life.

28 September 2003

Marathon Men

That's Paul in the grey shirt, checking his watch already!Kudos and Attaboys to 3 who completed the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon today:

A perfect day it was, cool and sunny and just right for runnin'. Your host merely ran the 1/2 rather than the full course, but did manage to set a PB for the distance.

22 September 2003

Housebroken In

My friend M told me that I shouldn't worry about the weather for this past saturday because the day after a hurricane is always bee-yootiful. Being from Belize, she should know, and lo and behold saturday dawned bright and clear with a fresh breeze and the promise of a fabulous day. This is significant, since saturday was also the day of the first truly big gathering at our new(ish) house. Bash, shindig, soiree, party, whatever you want to call it, it turned into a pretty good day. The backyard was jam-packed with smiling faces & cold drinks, nobody got stung by our pet wasps, nobody threw up or broke anything, nobody called the cops, and everybody had a great time.

To those of you who were on the guest list but couldn't make it — too bad, so sad. Maybe next year.

An unofficial poll conducted during the cleanup revealed the least-popular beers, based on how much was left un-swilled in each opened bottle:

Finally, I can stop cleaning the house.

18 September 2003

Eye in the Sky

I've been following the slow but steady approach of hurricane Isabel all week, mainly via AccuWeather. If you're a weather junkie or even just a regular Canadian (same thing) you have to see this site. Not only does it have an amazing array of doppler radar images from stations around the U.S. (use the Buffalo station for Toronto & the GTA), it has incredible satellite shots of pretty much everywhere on the planet. Watching Isabel this week has been like having a God's Eye View of the world. It's also been like having an out-of-body experience, looking down on eastern North America and watching as this huge storm makes its way towards us.

 

12 September 2003

9-11 Questions Unanswered

Yes, you're probabley tired of hearing about September 11, but take a few minutes to read this piece from the Philadelphia Daily News. No answers, but many unanswered questions about the events leading up to the attacks and who may have known what.

Nice to see that not all the U.S. media are licking the boots of the Bush administration.

10 September 2003

Too Many Pauls

I know way too many Pauls. Check it out:

I'm sorry but i'm no longer accepting business or friendship applications from anyone named Paul.

5 September 2003

Lily Dearest

Lily

As promised, a lovely shot of the new cat. The new cat who tries to escape at every opportunity. The new cat who howls like a wounded panther at 4 in the morning. The new cat who runs around the house like a badger on crystal meth. She was just taking a break here.

The Winnie Shot

Winnie

Behold, she is Winnie - ruler of the roads, rescued from bike shop purgatory and pressed into commuter service. Designed in France (home of the Tour de) and built right here in Canada (home of your host), Winnie now plies the dangerous rush hour streets of downtown Tronna. I keep her in my office while at work, since I would not dream of tying her up outside like some common mountain bike. Winnie is one cushy ride, granite-lined saddle notwithstanding.

25 August 2003

Iron Maurice

A huge shout-out to Mr. Maurice Gallagher, certified Iron Man 2003. Braving the scorching heat and leaping flames of the B.C. interior, Mr. Gallagher completed Iron Man Canada in Penticton this past weekend in a time of 12 hours 14 minutes 53 seconds.

As the man himself would say, "Bloody hell!". Well done sir!

 

21 August 2003

Winnie

She is sleek, she is creamy, she is 20 years old. She is Winnie. Winnie as in "the Peugot", a lovely little 10-speed number I picked up at Ideal Bike a couple weeks back. Tired of shlepping to work on my dime-a-dozen mountain bike, the default ride for the unwashed masses of big fat asses, I decided to step into the Wayback Machine and grab myself a piece of the past. Sure, it's uncool. But doesn't that just make it even cooler? The 10 speed 'racer' (ie. road bike), once the favoured wheels of every guy in Scarborough with a mullet and a mustache, is now the retro-stylie darling of the morning commute. Trust me on this. Laugh with me as I cruise past sweaty Gen-x dorkwads pedalling furiously to keep their bouncy bikes moving forward, me ticking the pedals over at a leisurely 55-60 rpm. Winnie darling, you are the apple of my cycling eye, and we shall be together always. At least until the snow returns.

 

11 August 2003

Lily

Here is what we know about Lily so far:

Let's hope that last one comes true. Photos to follow.

10 August 2003

Beer VS Tri

The Chemong Triathlon was held today in Lakefield ON. This is a nice little race, not well known but certainly well run and and a real fun course. I, however, was at the Toronto Festival of Beer all day, quaffing a series of different microbrews from a little plastic cup and letting the hot sun fry whatever brain cells were left unpummelled by the suds.

Why, you ask? The decision to loaf rather than race was made at about the 10k mark of the 15k run portion of last week's K-Town Tri in Kingston. First time on the Long Course, and although I turned in a respectable time there was some suffering. So Chemong was out, beer was in.

Cheers!

 

22 July 2003

TDF AOK IMO

Is there a more exciting sporting event than the Tour de France? This year's tour has been amazing, a real race for real athletes. Not like those pathetic pantywaste North American team sports with their overpaid undertalented overweight millionaires.

Pro baseball players go on the DL every time they pull a butt muscle from sitting around too much.
Pro cyclists break bones and keep racing.
Pro basketball players limp off the court if they happen to turn an ankle.
Pro cyclists beat cancer and keep coming back for more.
Pro soccer players fall weeping to the ground if an opponent comes near them.
Pro cyclists crash and rip their clothes and skin right off, then get up and get back on the bike.
Pro football players have to rest for 2 minutes after every 30 second play.
Pro cyclists ride 5-6 hours a day continuously for nearly 3 weeks straight.

Any questions?

 

6 July 2003

Tri #1

Completed triathlon #1 for the year, in Midland Ont. A perfect day for the race and an ok day for your host, in spite of three separate nearly disastrous altercations on the bike course with a pickup truck, a pylon, and a cat. The bike is getting better, the swim is getting better, the run... better get training.

Don't forget the triathlon performance calculator, available here free of charge.

30 June 2003

Ride or Pride?

Hey kids, play this great new game! See if you can guess which of the following quotes are from this year's Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour, and which are from this year's Gay Pride celebrations!

  1. "My ass can't take much more of this"
  2. "Be a sport and hand me that butt jelly, wouldja?"
  3. "I'll be along in a minute, I just have to wash out my shorts"
  4. "I haven't done this much riding since last year"
  5. "My back is killing me from holding this position too long"
  6. "Ok, it's your turn to pull now"
  7. "Will you check my bag for me?"
  8. "Are you staying at queens?"
  9. "Hey guys, let's take a shower at the athletic centre"

Hold your mouse here for the answers

26 June 2003

Wayne Shorter

Saw sax legend Wayne Shorter on tuesday down at the du Maurier Jazz Festival at Nathan Philips Square. I was all primed for some hot tunes, but I gotta tellya I didn't really 'get' the show. The chops were on display for sure, but mostly from the other band members (who were jaw-droppingly good). Wayne pretty much laid back the whole night, letting the piano, drums & bass carry the load and only occasionally giving us a taste of his awesome talent on the horn.

The tunes themselves were... challenging. Not a repeated moment the entire show - no backbeat, no easy time signatures to tap your foot to, nowhere to hang your porkpie hat at all. It was like listening to a Jackson Pollack painting. I came away impressed, but still scratching my head about it all.

Then today it dawned on me (feel free to roll your eyes at this next bit); if the best art is a metaphor for human experience, then what we heard the other night was a pure example of that. The music was like life itself — chaotic, unpredictable, exciting, boring, and mostly improvised. The band were in a sort of non-linear groove, communicating but not really following a score as far as I could tell. What an achievement. To compress all of our experience into a 90 minute sonic metaphor is a feat beyond all but a few artists, and I feel now that I was priveleged to have been there to see and hear it.

Globe and Mail review >>

Wayne Shorter's stream of consciousness >> (G&M article, June 19 2003 - looking back at this article it seems that I was on the right track here, so there.)

22 June 2003

Photos Finished

Ok sports fans, the photos are in from the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2003. I've culled the best (ok, the only good ones) from the roll I took this year and have placed them here for you to enjoy at your leisure. Please, no pushing, there's room for everyone.

Behold >>

16 June 2003

So Long and Thanks, Fish

It is with great sadness that I must report the passing of one fifth of the piscene population of the spacedog household. At about 9pm this evening, after an illness of undetermined length, one of our five (now four) pond goldfish went to meet his maker. He survived the winter, but couldn't make it through the summer, poor guy. The missus is quite forlorn over this, as she is a great lover of small creatures. Burial and ceremony to be held tomorrow, June 17th 2003, after work.

Sure, he was only a fish, but it's the first loss suffered in our new home so it's significant. And anyway, even a small loss can make one reflect on the inevitability of it all for each one of us. To paraphrase the Buddha, death is certain, its time is not.

Note: if by chance you've dropped in on the end of a link from CSS God Stuart Robertson's designmeme site, and if by another chance you're using Netscape 7 or Mozillas Phoenix or Firebird or any other browser built on MozCode - I know. I know the rest of the pages in this site fall completely apart. I know it's ugly. I swear, I'm going to fix it. Really.

Other Note: photos from Rideau 2003 are in tha house, and may even get scanned by the end of the week. I may even post them on this site soon. Until then, please enjoy last year's photos and picture us all one year older.

15 June 2003

Give It Away Now

For some reason, I've recently developed the habit of saying yes to any and all unsolicited requests for charitable donations. It started with the guy from Big Brothers who knocked on our door in a hellish snow storm back in, what, May? (joke) The guy looked so pathetic I bought a $25 book of coupons from him, and I normally never do this. Now I can get 10% off my next session at Fab-U-Tan! Exciting, isn't it?

Then a lady from MADD called on the phone and I heard myself agreeing to give them $35. Which I then actually did. I have nothing against the Mothers, but they are not usually on my list of charities.

My next triumph was a beauty. The other night some palooka calls up from the Metro Toronto Police Association. Not the police themselves, they get their money from the Province, but the Police Association. The one headed by that jackass Craig Bromell. I fucking hate that guy, but for some reason I said I'd give the PA $35 for some program called "Fishing With Cops". Seriously, this is a real thing. I asked the guy what this was and he said it was to help get underpriveleged kids out into nature or some damn thing. Watch for a Toronto Sun headline this summer - "Tragic Fishing Accident Kills Young Offender". The sales pitch was hilarious, as was the Tony Soprano delivery; "You do agree that it is important to support the police, don't you Mr. McCartney?" What do you say to that? I agreed to give them the cash in exchange for not getting whacked.

Five minutes later the phone rang again, and I found myself agreeing to renew our family membership to the ROM for 2 more years. Talk about a 180. I think I only agreed to it to cleanse myself of the icky feeling left by my previous donation. The sales guy on the other end was terribly British, and sounded like he might levitate at any minute with the delicious excitement of it all. Highly amusing.

If anyone can recommend a 12 Step Program for compulsive donators, please contact me asap.

9 June 2003

Rideau Lakes Psycho Tour

Another RLCT successfully completed. This is my second, which makes me a rank amateur/clueless newbie/greenhorn/trainee among most everyone else who takes part in the Ottawa-Kingston-Ottawa ride. No matter, it's still a great ride.

Travelling by bike is so different from travelling by car - you hear the landscape as you pass through it, you smell it, you feel it, more like having the land pass through you rather than the other way around. Visually, you get small vignettes of the countryside imprinting themselves on your brain. Brief, but just long enough to form little snapshots of the journey - a dozen vintage MGs cruising past on the way in to Ashton, tops down - cows dotting a green pasture with postcard farm buildings in the background - two almost identical calico cats standing shoulder to shoulder in someone's front yard, staring into a hedgerow - a turkey vulture lifting off heavily as we approach, struggling to get airborne, followed by the sudden reek of roadkill - a lone sheep bounding across an open field away from a sheep-sized gap in an otherwise well tended fence - a huge snapping turtle* pushing its way towards the highway, surrounded by curious cyclists - twenty or so Harley Davidson motorcycles pulling into the gas station in Westport, us ignoring them and them ignoring us - little girl standing in her front yard, miles from any town, waving as we pass and then smiling as I wave back at her. There are lots more, many of them being simply the sight of one or two or ten other bikes on the road ahead, surrounded by hills or fields and blue sky.

At the end of it all, 354 kilometres somehow seemed too short.

*The turtle was hoisted by your humble narrator and carried across the road, at great risk of life and possibly limb. I really hope that's where he/she was going, but it sure looked that way to me.

31 May 2003

Conspiracy Theory Goes Mainstream

"It's no secret that right-wing ideologues want to abolish programs Americans take for granted. But not long ago, to suggest that the Bush administration's policies might actually be driven by those ideologues — that the administration was deliberately setting the country up for a fiscal crisis in which popular social programs could be sharply cut — was to be accused of spouting conspiracy theories."

More evidence of the pending implosion of the American Empire. What sort of country will be left once everyone is either stupidly wealthy or poor as dirt? What are they thinking down there?

Check out "Stating the Obvious" from the NY Times.

30 May

Letter to an Asshat*

Dear Driver of the BMW on Broadview at Danforth yesterday,

First of all let me just say thanks so much for your concern yesterday when I crashed my bike in front of your car. Your thoughtful honking of your horn as I lay stunned on the pavement was just the encouragement I needed at the time, encouragement to pick myself up and move myself out of harms way without delay. Your lightning fast reaction time — I'd say that you let no more than a millisecond pass between the time I hit the pavement and the time your hand hit your horn — was a real inspiration to me. Without your kind reminder, I may have lain there selfishly gathering my wits for, who knows how long? Maybe ten seconds or even longer. And that would have kept you from your far more important journey to wherever it was you were so stylishly headed.

The next time I have the audacity to skid on some streetcar tracks and fall heavily into oncoming traffic, I will surely make certain that you sir, are not inconvienced in any way. Please accept my apologies for my rude and inexcusable behaviour yesterday, and may you have a pleasant and safe journey each and every day of this and every other year.

Your Clumsy Pal,

Jeff

(PS- to the guy who did ask me if I was ok, thank you - I didn't see your face but I heard your voice and it was appreciated.)

*asshat: it's a neologism that's sweeping the nation

27 May

Oh No Canada, Stars n Stripes No More

Does anyone else find the playing of national anthems before major sporting events to be an unbearable experience? I don't know about you, but my discomfort level with this ritual is on par with, oh, say, the 'get to know you' chat Alex Trebek has with Jeopardy contestants, or the skin-crawly / wrist-slashy feeling you get about 90 minutes into most business meetings. Enough with the battle hymns already.

23 May

Musician, Heal Thyself

The scalper was onto me before I even made it close to the Opera House box office. "Need tickets to John Mare? Johnny Mare?" His look of desperation and his mangling of the name of the band he was selling tickets to pretty much summed up the situation for Johnny Marr, former Smiths guitarist and uber-sideman for Matt Johnston, Brian Ferry and many others. Revered as a guitar god among those in the know, and fondly remembered for his Smiths days by fans of a certain age, he nevertheless still flies under the radar of most pop music fans today. The show was not a sellout, which meant a $30 ticket cost me $20 less than an hour before showtime. Good for me, bad for Johnny I suppose. Touring with his new band, The Healers, in support of their accomplished new release Boomslang, Mr. Marr got straight to work once taking the stage. A tight 4 piece unit, the Healers delivered the goods - driving guitar-based tunes with a Manchester undertone and Marr's signature melodic inventiveness. Aside from a few bars of the lovely "Back to the Old House" tossed off almost absent-mindedly at one point, there was a strict No Smiths policy in place, but I don't think anyone really cared. The new material is as good as anything from the old days, and besides, Morrisey-style angst would have been seriously out of place here. Marr's own voice is surprisingly strong, both on the CD and in concert. Ballads like Another Day and out and out rockers like The Last Ride were delivered with equal skill. Who knew Marr could sing? The man is a awesome talent, for sure, and deserves more popular success than last night's attendance would indicate he's receiving. Buy the CD, and try to catch him while he's still on tour - last night was his second stop in Toronto this year so he's definitely out there pushing. Who knows, he may turn up on a summer festival tour as well. Rating:

Recommended listening:

Johnny Marr official website

16 May

Tha Dog Be Back

Ok, it's back to the old style Spacedog again. The "war" in Iraq is over, although there is still plenty of action over there and still a lot to cover(up) in the White House. To that end I'm going to keep following political news and putting links on the site, although I'll also be putting up my usual useless bloggedy blog as well.

The WarDog Files can be found here.

More changes to come; some design tweaks, some re-writes, some new sections. I'll bet you're simply breathless with anticipation...

25 March 2003

I Would Have to Say 'Yes"

To the question posed by this piece from Will Thomas, entitled "Is Bush Nuts?" Thesis: years of hard drinking and drug abuse have seriously and permanently affected the brain of the leader of the most powerful nation on this planet. This is not a joke.

Click here to decide for yourself. Thanks to Kevin McMacintosh for the head's up on this one.

20 March 2003

Bowling for Baghdad

A letter to George W. Bush from Michael Moore, on UnamericanActivities.com and on Michael Moore's own fine site, michaelmoore.com. You may not agree with everything Mr. Moore has to say, but you gotta tip your toque to the guy for being so outspoken during this neo-fascist era in the 'States. Balls the size of a house, as they say.

And just in passing, I read today that a radio show for Canadian Snowbirds in Florida that had been on the air for 25 years has been 'yanked' due to Canada's non-support of the U.S. Attack on Iraq™. Land of the free indeed.

17 March 2003

Amateur Night

Happy St Patrick's Day, readers. I've heard that seasoned tipplers refer to New Year's Eve as "Amateur Night", and I imagine that term could apply equally to today. Lots of green beer (dumb) and drunken shenanigans (a perfect word for this occasion, no?) will be the rule for this eve. That and a huge lineup at evey faux Eire pub in town, even the wretched Tara on Kingston Rd. in Scarbragh. Not the place you want to spend an entire evening in, unless you harbour a fondness for soggy furniture and a general air of decrepitude. The other Tara out on Eglinton at Brimley is much nicer - actual Irish people go there, and they will glare menacingly at your sorry Canadian ass if you dare to sit down for a beer. Tis a beautiful ting it is.

11 March 2003

Wrestlemania, Web-Style

Soon to come: a new and possibly better look to SDD.com, just as soon as I finish wrestling with the CSS code used to lay this site out. It's driving me nuts - the current site looks ok in IE5 and NN6 but falls completely apart in Mac IE5. Plus it's pretty wretched CSS. Sorry if this means nothing to you, but I know at least one or two web geeks visit this site. All for you, sports fans.

And speaking of geezers, how about those Leafs? Owen Nolan, Glen Wesley, Phil Housely and *gasp* Duggeeee Gilmour are now Buds. Combined age: 144. Good players all... in 1992. We shall see.

4 March 2003

The Return of the Kings

With the recent explosion in popularity of "chillout" music, Massive Attack fans have been waiting patiently for the return of the band that pretty much defined the downtempo genre. 100th Window marks their re-emergence, and not surprisingly, marks the humbling of the (too) many pretenders to the crown. 100thW is everything we hoped it would be - dense, layered, moody, subtle, heavy, and of course, very very chilly.

This time out the band uses Sinead O'Connor on guest vox, and although she's no Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins' vocalist and MA guest on the sublime Mezzanine) she does a surprisingly good job here. I've always thought Sinead got short shrift on her music because of her extra-curricular activities, and she delivers the goods on 100thW.

Accept no substitutes, good people; Massive Attack is the real chill. Hopefully this will thin the herd, or at least up the ante for all those basement dwelling DJ-types who think Pro Tools and G4 is all they need to score big in the chill.

2 March 2003

CIA Gets the Big One

American authorities announced over the weekend that they have captured the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Apparently even they were surprised when it turned out to be none other than troll-like porn star Ron Jeremy, pictured at right.

According to CNN, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said it was "hard to overstate the significance" of the arrest a week after he eluded arrest in Quetta, and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee called the arrest "huge."

Yes, huge.

26 February 2003

Propaganda Remix Project

More good stuff from the US - a motherload of anti-war posters done up in the WWII style. You have to see these to appreciate them, they're quite awesome. Is America becoming the 4th Reich? You decide.

Look for the link to the slide show, that's the best way to view these as there are quite a few.

Click here, please.

24 February 2003

Homeland Security Taken Seriously by Americans

But not necessarily all Americans, apparently.

First, check out the official US Government Homeland Security ready.gov site, paying special attention to the creepy feeling of dread that will soon begin to come over you as you read all about how those nasty terrorists are planning to strike the U.S. Learn how to protect yourself from biochemical, biological, and nuclear attacks! Fun! Scary! Enjoy the artwork in particular.

Next, check out the parody site that sprang up within a week of the original. From the Department of Scaring the Crap out of Americans.

Step three: take a look at this discussion thread on yayhooryay.com - those wacky Americans, god love 'em, you never know whether to despise, pity or admire them. This is some seriously funny stuff.

Special thanks to Stuart Robertson, Supafamous Web Guy, for alerting spacedog to this vital information.

23 February 2003

The End of Winter, Part II

Uh, never mind.

20 February 2003

The End of Winter

Yes, winter is almost over. How do I know this? Several recent signs have proclaimed to me the imminent relax of winter's icy embrace:

Why all the hoo haw over the anticipated change of season? You'd be happy too if you had as little insulation as I — it's been so cold lately it's given me physical pain just to step outside. Like an electric shock or a boot to the thorax from God's almighty ski boot. So the arrival of temperatures in the plus column has made me a bit giddy.

 

7 February 2003

Vinyl vs MP3

First of all, I have no problem with the concept of fileswapping when it comes to MP3s. There's simply no way a CD should cost $25, so if a little illicit trade in popular tuneage is what it takes to get the record companies to ease up on the Greed button, so be it.

I do wonder, however, about the future of true high fidelity music in a world that accepts MP3 as an acceptable sonic format, quality-wise. As mentioned earlier in this space, I've been spinning some of my old El Pees whilst toiling away in the new home office, and even through a 30-year-old amplifier of fair to middling quality, I'm astounded by how good they sound. Lush, smooth, silky, and not at all like a CD. It's true, you can tell the difference.

So if CDs really were a step backward in sound quality, just like the audio geeks all said they were when they (CDs) first came out, and MP3s are necessarily of lesser quality than CDs (the codec throws out "unneeded" bits during compression), just what are we getting ourselves into here?

Here's the rant portion of the show: MP3s are simply another example of a world that eschews quality in favour of convenience. It's the MacDonald's mindset all over again, albeit in a less dangerous forum. But still. Think about this: the MP3 codec wasn't even designed specifically for music - it's simply layer 3 ( the sound layer) of the MPEG codec for compressing motion pictures. I submit that the sound quality of MP3s is shite, no matter what the bit rate.

Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong. But read this first. Here's an excerpt from David JM Robinson, the author of the tests behind that last link (he's a PhD student from the University of Essex)

"Mp3 encoding is a lossy process - audio information is lost that can never be put back. Mp3 decoding does not put any data back - it takes a very compressed file format, and converts it into the audio data that the file represents. However, the audio data that was thrown away during the encoding process is not magically returned. The decoded wav file is much larger than the mp3, but it holds the same information. The original wav file contained much more audio information."

So there.

30 January 2003

I Told Him!

I don't want to say "I told you so", but guess who just got sent down to the minors? That's right, Donald Au(effing)dette, boy wonder of the Montreal Canadiens and chronic underachiever in my hockey pool. I believe if you check my entry for November 5 (it's on the slagheap page) you'll see this all-too-prescient piece of advice for M. Audette: "You won't be IN the playoffs if you don't soon wake up, sir. In fact you may not even be in the NHL."

I told him, he wouldn't listen, now he's playing in Hamilton. Sweet justice.

29 January 2003

Sporting Thesaurus Says

A drubbing. A pasting. A damn good thrashing. A pounding. A lopsided victory / a crushing defeat. A whipping. A laugher. A boot to the head. A kick in the teeth.

Whatever you care to call it, it was certainly a poor excuse for a hockey game.

28 January 2003

Just Do It.

no caption necessary

27 January 2003

Submitted for your approval

I'm just sayin...

23 January 2003

Entropy? What Entropy?

This past week has been marked, some might say disfigured, by a distinct absence of molecular kinetic energy—ie. heat. It's as if the atmosphere suddenly parted like the red sea 'fore Big Mo(ses) and a piece of outer space was allowed to settle on top of us. Too cold to bike, I keep telling myself, as my poor commuter bike gathers a fine patina of chain rust out in the garage. To cold to go outside save to scuttle to the bus stop each morning on the way to work.

Nasty rumours persist that February will be the coldest since February was invented, maybe even the coldest since the earth was created that one week about 5,000 years ago.

14 January 2003

Hey Hey!

Sideshow Mel & Hershell Krustofsky

So long, Mel. You'll not be missed.

12 January 2003

A Public Service Announcement

As a generous and selfless gesture towards the men of Aubrey's Aces, I hereby offer some space on this humble website as a home for our 2003 Hockey Schedule. Bruce, if you want to keep up those winsome summaries of our games I'd be happy to post them here as well.

A permanent link will stay in the right hand menu.

5 January, 2003

Flashback 1979

I just finished setting up a sound system in the basement that is composed entirely of ancient stereo components resurrected from the storage room at the old family homestead. The good gear is upstairs, but since I had to buy new (smaller) speakers for the TV room I thought I would put my old stuff to use by hooking it up to my too-big speakers in the basement. So now I have what is essentially a Wayback Machine set to about 1979. No CD player, 'cause I only have one and it's upstairs, and the tuner (a separate component from the amp) seems to be dead. That means I get to play only my old LPs. Vinyl dinosaurs from the 70's and 80's that haven't seen the light of day since skinny ties were all the rage. Supertramp, Led Zepplin, Van Halen, Yes, and even Rush for heaven's sake, mixed in with a smattering of post-punk and britpop like PIL, Teenage Head and the Smiths. This is real retro, not some overdesigned ironic version of it like you might see on some Much Music Retro-cheese Hour. It's fun for now, but how long until it drives me mad?

Check out the Currently Spinning section over on the right to see what's on the turntable. Next stop: faux wood panelling and maybe a bar with a nautical theme.

3 January, 2003

Jean, You Rock.

Never let it be said that the Government of Canada doesn't spread it's good will around to all citizens of this great land, even the lowliest of spacedogs. Have a look at the cheque Jean's Machine cut me recently, and try not to weep at the overwhelming, unadulterated largesse of our beauteous Liberal Leaders.
your tax dollars at work

I'll entertain your suggestions as to how to spend it all.

2 January, 2003

Rage Against the Machine

I hate computers. Seriously, I really do. Consider the following scenario and then tell me we wouldn't all be better off banging rocks together down by the river somewhere. I call this

"How Not to Upgrade Your Computer".

Step One. Attempt to install new software on 3 year-old PC. Fail utterly. Why? Your pathetic Win98 OS is not up to the task of running the new program.

Step Two. Attempt to install new OS. Fail miserably. Why? Your weak little 5 gigabyte hard drive will not hold all the yummy goodness contained in the new OS.

Step Three. Attempt to install newly purchased 80 gigabyte hard drive in PC. Fail completely. Why? Your hoary old BIOS does not have the fortitude to withstand such a massive hard drive. It refuses to see it at all. Complete denial.

Step Four. Attempt to upgrade your BIOS, using $US60.00 upgrade downloaded from suspicious-sounding American company. Think you are finally succeeding, but actually fail totally. Why? The BIOS install instructions are incorrect.

Step Five. Mess around with your BIOS settings, thinking you are now getting close to having the damn hard drive installed. HA! Fail repeatedly. Why? You just screwed up the drive settings and rogered your CD burner. Now you have an 80 gig drive AND a perfectly good CD burner sitting inside your PC, neither of which you can even see, much less use.

Step Six. Download yet another piece of software from the hard drive manufacturer, one that they claim will allow you to see your spiff new drive with your limp-wristed old operating system. Follow the instructions to the letter until you get to step 13 of 17, when it all goes bad. Yes, you just failed again. Sadly. Why? Well you tell me, ok, because I have no freaking idea.

Total time now wasted: 4 months. Yes! From early September to late December and still no results. And I make my living from computers! Co-workers come to ME for help when they bollocks something up. I'm considered a "power user", a geek, a guy who Knows About Computers. Buying and installing some extra storage for my electro-bits should not be this hard, or this humiliating.

Step Seven. Ask your good friend Steve to bail you out of the mess you've created. Steve knows computers, especially hardware. Steve is a good person. Steve fix. Thank you Steve.

If your evil PC needs afixin' you just let me know and I'll give you Steve's number. I don't care if you're Osama Bin Laden, I'll give you the number, because nobody should be forced to endure the hell I just went through. Nobody.

1 January, 2003

The Party's Over

That's right kids, the party is now over. No more yummy egg nogs, no more filling your face with xmas treats, no more excuses to hang out with all your friends, and no more distraction from the interminable blech-ness of a winter in Canada. Just an endless string of dark days, howling winds, icy rain and/or drifting snow, and a scuttling between isolated pods of warmth - home to car to work to store to bar - while you wait for the return of the sun.

Enjoy!


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