A bold move.

If you find yourself living in the new arctic called Southern Ontario, then you're now witnessing the seasons first bitter blast of winter. I know that by complaining I'm likely emasculating myself, but it really is rather cold out there. Saying -9˚C with a windchill that drops that number by an additional 10˚ is too cold is certainly a defensible position. The bewildering concept here is that we, as Canadians, live with this every single year for approximately four months or more. And every year, the majority of us will also grumble about season with the oft heard utterance of "I hate winter." I too am undeniably guilty of this treason. After my endless gripe while out and about today, my thoughts couldn't help but begin a focus on the immigrants to this country; more notably those from warmer climates.
On more than one occasion, I've witnessed someone else experiencing snow and ice for the first time. You can literally feel their excitement (especially after they've thrown a snowball at you). How long does it take for the seething hatred to consume them? I'm reminded of a bit of humour I read called "Diary of a Snow Shoveler". An excerpt below:

December 12 - The sun has melted all our lovely snow. Such a disappointment. My neighbor tells me not to worry, we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

...

December 20 - Electricity's back on, but had another 14" of the horrid stuff last night. More shoveling. Took all day. Stupid snowplow came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

more

I imagine the entirety of the above sums things up pretty well. As someone who has lived without the harshness of winter, I can only begin to fathom what goes though the minds of our new residents. What a horrible trade-off for the experience of Canadian life.

Procrastinating in the Name of Writing Exercises

It appears that despite being nearly a decade removed from college, I still maintain the same study habits I did back then. That is to say that I procrastinate like a mo-fo. Back in the day (I make myself feel old when I say that), if it wasn't due until Friday, chances are it was completed at 4 or 5 in the morning on that very Friday. If I had essays due every night that week, then I did and essay a night for the entire week. That's how I rolled, and it managed to serve me well every time--consistently pulling off A's and B's. Sure it might mean sleep deprived, caffeine induced hallucinations and outbursts of random laughter, but the results were always there. The only time I got a C was when I tried to be responsible about my essay writing and work on it a week before it was due. My lesson was learned and I quickly went back to my prior habits.
So now I'm supposedly a responsible adult who's trying to achieve a highly elusive degree. I crave it. I've been thirsty for it for years. The only problem is that I have no hard deadlines for my assignments. The only actual deadline I have is the course end date. Without those deadlines, I have trouble settling down and actually getting work done. Setting personal deadlines ultimately means nothing to me. Complicating the matter is that no matter how awesome I may be (and that's pretty damn awesome), I can't complete an entire courseload in one coffee filled evening. I still manage to find something else to occupy my time, such as cleaning, or writing for a blog.
I truly commend the abilities of those who can work and do correspondence programs at the same time. I'm hoping to develop this dedicative skill where I too can put everything aside and focus on what I need to-- but it's hard. Procrastination's in my nature, and as the everlasting cliché goes; old habits die hard. Start dying already.

One other thing--curiousity is getting the best of me. If you actually read my blogs please be so kind as to comment on this one with a "read it" and your name. If you read it on Facebook, leave a comment there. If you read it from the main site, please leave a comment there. I want to know if my messages of procrastination are actually reaching the populace.

Losing the Fight of Freedom

A Canadian election has come and gone. The news this week wasn't so much that the Conservatives improved their representation in the house of commons, but more that the role of our citizenry in selecting our Parliament's members had continued to decrease. Voter turnout was estimated at 59%. I pulled the following quote from Reuters:

"There was either general apathy toward the candidates or a degree of voter fatigue as this was the third Canadian election since 2004," said Antonia Maioni, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

I'm not a statistician, nor do I have a degree, but my feeling is that the issue here is a little more towards Column A. With more than half of Canadians being over the age of 35, I would be willing to put my chips on which age group didn't vote.
When I cast my ballot, I took a look at those around me, which made me shockingly young at the age of 30. The majority of those I saw were old enough to have been a part of, or experienced the effects of WWII. The people whose families, friends, and relatives fought to protect our freedoms and democracy are the ones who are continuing to vote. Meanwhile, we have a generation of voters who have become apathetic towards the entire process.
The idea behind democracy is that we, the people, all have a say in who leads us and what ideals it is we as a nation would like to pursue. In this day and age, however, the younger generations feel as though our wants and wishes don't really matter to our politicians. There's nothing that really engages them in a way that makes them feel like their voices are being heard. Democracy only works when ideas are exchanged, and the people are included in the actual decision processes of our country.
It's easy to understand where the apathy comes from. Between the ideas that all politicians are liars and that no matter who you vote for, nothing really changes, it could be rather difficult to motivate yourself to go to the polls. I voted because I felt it was my responsibility as a Canadian to do so, knowing that thousands of people died protecting these ideals. However, not everyone of my ilk or younger will ever understand that. Obviously there's a problem in our system of politics and unless we can nail down the problem and find it's solution, I fear Canada may one day move towards a totalitarian state.

What we are.

I was out for a brief walk by myself yesterday to purchase some milk. After acquiring said goods, I made an impulse stop at an Anime Otaku store which is right across the road. I wandered the isles, and regardless of the feeling I was being supervised by their staff (apparently I must look like a liberator of overpriced goods), I simply didn't feel the need to make a purchase.
I remember a time in my not too distant past when I was very much a consumer. I was the very model of impulse buyer. Whether it was DVD's, novelties, figurines, CD's, video games, etc., I would drop ridiculous amounts of money on, for lack of better term, 'useless shit.'
During a bit of a rough financial time at the beginning of the century, I came to a brief conclusion that all I needed to keep me happy in a materialistic sense is a computer (with solid internet connection), and music. This is important because when you fast forward to the present, this truth still holds true. I've gotten to the point in my life where I look at the murchandise that advertisers and mega-conglomerates insist that I need, all I see is crap that just ways me down. I do not help the economy grow.
I believe that for most, it's truly difficult to really understand exactly how much of a consmer and target market that they are. Something that is an even more interesting phenomenom is that people will spend real world dollars to buy virtual goods. A good example would be in Second Life™, a virtual world that aims to create what it's name suggests. In this world people take the form of avatars, and will buy land, clothes, novelties and other digital goods. Although there are ways to make money within this life simulator, there are many who will just buy "Linden Dollars" to make their purchases instead.
Another good example is what started off being a simple instant messenger in China called QQ. A similar deal applies here, where it's users will spend real money to buy the QQ currency in order to give their IM avatars clothing, backgrounds, as well as spend this currency to participate in games and other activities.
It's rather disturbing that we as a consumer culture are no longer happy enough to buy physical, tangable objects. Now, we have turned to worlds of make believe to spend money as well. Is there something seriously wrong with us?

End of Weekend Blues

It's funny how it never seems to get any easier. It confounds my sleepy brain that I must go through the process of back to work anxiety every Sunday.
I think I would go through this same cycle no matter what job/position I held. Is it laziness, or something so much more profound?

Wary of the Chrome

As it's not available for OSX yet, I naturally haven't given Google's entry into the web browser market a shot. However, catching the below warning from CNet in regards to Chrome's Terms of Service agreement, I'm not sure I want to.

2. Although you retain any copyrights to content you own and use in the browser, Google says it has a right to display some of your content, in conjunction with promoting its services. Here's their exact wording.

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

If you wish to read more of CNet's warnings, you can check them out here.

Something burning?

Thanks to the folks at CTV, I was able to enjoy the DNC coverage as brought to us by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show all in one sitting. As per the norm, it was filled with some good satirical laughs and underlying education. They were showing a clip of the DNC's surprise "special guest", Barack Obama, and as he spoke I expected him to end his dialogue with "If you can sm-e-e-e-e-e-ll, what Barack-- is-- cookin'." If you listen to him speak, he sounds like a somewhat subdued Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock).

With that new image in my head, I don't know if I can take anything he says seriously ever again.