Television

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the telly.  Love, because....seriously....there's been some amazing things that I'd never seen if I didn't have this wonderful black box in my house.  And hate...because 99% of what comes on it is complete crap just churned out to fill airtime or sell the sponsor's product.

Despite the amount of crap out there I still think we're in a bit of a golden age right now as far as what we can watch on TV as long as you're willing to disconnect the cable box and hook up the interwebs.


With typical canadian cable you get.....actually...I'm not really sure.  I stopped watching years ago... except for "important" sports and a few oddities that I like that actually show up here. From my journeys into the real world I gather it's mostly a mixture of talent shows, dubious-talent shows (ventriloquists....my mom fucking loves ventriloquists) , tampon commercials, imitations of CSI, and some canadian content about muslims living in small-town saskatchewan (although I hear this series is over...which is the easiest way to know it's not american...more on that later).


So if you don't watch cable....what do you do?

Torrents baby.

There's good shows being made out there in the world.....but they just don't seem to ever actually get shown on our tv's here.  Sometimes a series has already been over and done for a couple years before you hear about it....but that's no reason to watch Jersey Shore instead.  But...but....you don't want to be left out of conversations at work about it.....um....all you need to know is it's something about new jersey....all the people in it are douchbags....something called a snooky happens....and everyone who watches claims to be embarrased by that fact but still watches anyway.   Boom.  You're all caught up. 


So how do you find shows.  Well...the best/easiest place to start is england.  It's hard to believe but they do watch tv there....and it's really fricken good.  One of the best parts about it is that when a show is over...it's over.




There's no dragging it out for 7 years just because it was a hot ticket for 4 and you wanted to guarantee ad revenue so you committed to 3 more even though you're completely out of ideas and all your main actors have moved on to other things.  British shows (the good ones at least) tend to have a pre-defined plot outline...they run through it and then boom...they wrap it up.  It's like a movie told 25 minutes at a time at weekly intervals. 

Oh and forget the american 26 show "season".....generally each "series" of UK shows are 6 or maybe if it's a really big one 12-13 episodes.  You can wrap up a 3 year english show in 18 episodes....maybe 20 if it's huge and their fans badger them into a Christmas special....and it's done.  Nice little package.  No filler.  No on-again-off-again-on-again love stories that drag out for 3 years. 

or

Ok...not the best comparo.....since the US Office was a pretty good show on it's own once it stopped trying to be the UK one.  ...  but you get my point.

Poking the Bear

Oh what wonderful times we live in when a person on one side of the world exercising their right to free speech can get someone else that they've never met on the other side of the world killed by a horde of religious fanatics. It's like the butterfly effect....except even less believable than Ashton Kutcher's "acting".

As you've no doubt heard, the muslim world is up in arms over this completely rubbish film "The Innocence of Muslims". There have been violent demonstrations all over the middle east and elsewhere and in what may or not have been a related attack, a US ambassador was assassinated in Libya (although the timing relative to other attacks and demonstrations may have been coincidental as it was also the 11th anniversary of Sept 11th).

 This is not the first time that muslims have responded like medieval savages to modern day events (Salman Rushdie's fatwa, Danish cartoons of mohammed, Terry Jones and his qur'an burning idiocy) and it is certainly not the last. There just seems to be difficulty understanding that people who are not members of your religion do not have to follow the laws of your religion.


You can wring your hands all you want about muslims killing muslims in pakistan because some verse in their holy book says that adultery, or blasphemy, or whatever silly thing this week, is punishable by death.. Sure....to a Canadian it seems barbaric and wrong and completely in violation of countless principals that this country is founded on.....but a) it's not our country b) all the parties involved are playing the same stupid game and know the rules going in. This doesn't mean we should just ignore it.....we shouldn't. We should, through our government, and through private companies that do business in these areas put pressure on the people to abandon their backwards ways and join the 21st century.


However....what we can't tolerate is when muslims expect the western world to follow their rules within the borders of our own countries. As you've probably heard.....free speech and freedom of religion are two of the most important principles of western living. In this case what it comes down to is that within our borders, you're allowed to believe whatever crazy mixed-up stupid shit you want....put a funny hat with a bow on top of it....and call it god almighty....and nobody can force you to believe otherwise. But what they can do....is mock the ever-loving shit out of you for being a crazy fuck who is worshiping a soup can with a couple of googly muppet eyes glued to it (or whatever you picked). Any you know what....being a civilized country, that's not necessarily a very civilized thing to do.....but ... you can do it. Nobody has to listen to you though. And no matter how much it hurts your feelings.....you don't get to beat them up, or kill them. And if they draw a picture of your little google-eyed soupy god having anal sex with a goat, you still don't get to kill them. And if they make their own life-sized replica of your little Mr Minestrone.....and then they take him to the recycling depot to be destroyed and melted down into something actually useful.....you don't even get to kick them in the shins.

Hail the great and all-powerful Mr. Minestrone!

 And if I draw two stick figures on a piece of paper, and put a little legend underneath that says "one of these little stick figures is NOT mohammed", nobody gets to kill me, or anybody else over it. Sure images of mohammed are forbidden in the muslim religion.....that's a very interesting bit of trivia......but since I'm not a muslim, and since I don't live in a country with sharia law I really don't think that applies to me. END OF STORY.

And if some idiot (Terry Jones), down in the states wants to make a big fuss and publicly burn the qur'an .... well that's not very nice, and I must say I'm really uncomfortable with the concept of burning books because you don't agree with them, or they offend you, (or any reason really besides being snowed in in a secluded cabin with no firewood and nothing left but a library full of combustibles).... but....as long as he didn't steal the book, and as long as he doesn't violate fire code and burn a building down....he's free to do it. And you know what muslims, you can be as mad as a cat in a bath about it....but you don't get to grab and kill the first handful of whitey's that you see after you hear about it....and you don't get to demand his arrest, and you don't get to put bounties on his head.

You can call up your local american embassy and lodge a formal complaint, but you should be simply told that while yes, the government agrees that the burning of your holy book was disrespectful, no laws were broken, and nothing was hurt except your feelings so you're just going to have to be the better man here and suck it up. END OF STORY

And guess what....following the pattern of the above examples....if someone makes a truly disgusting movie that makes fun of your prophet and your faith.....well....that sucks. Settle down, go watch Monty Python's Life of Brian or Meaning of Life, or head to New York and watch The Book of Morman....and have a good laugh and go about your business.

 Maybe have a discussion with your buddies about what a jerk that guy was to make such a shitty, historically inaccurate movie. Heck....call 100 of your closest friends and picket the US embassy, or if you're somewhere in the western world picket city hall.....but guess what? You're not justified going on a rampage. You don't get to threaten to kill people over this.  Also, if you're in a civilized western country and you've got your kid carrying a sign that threatens death to anyone who violates your religious rules.....guess what else....you've overstepped any reasonable interpretation of what "religious tolerance" protects and it's probably time for social services to step in and have a nice long chat with you about acceptable parenting standards.

So what to do, what to do? Should the western world self-censor? Put Islam up on an untouchable pedestal? "Any and all free speech is protected, and even promoted....unless it might hurt the feelings of muslims because those fuckers are crazy and they're gonna kill somebody". Sounds like a good law. We'll just pretend they don't exist and get back to making fun of christians and jews and those silly atheists.....can you believe....they don't even believe in god. I mean.....checkmate...right there....you can't not believe in something if it doesn't exist....otherwise how can you know you don't believe in it. Dumbasses.


Or maybe we could do this concerted society-wide program of passive-aggressive criticism.....instead of drawing political cartoons criticizing mohammed, just leave it blank and write something like "we WOULD have put a scathing cartoon poking a little fun at the muslim prophet, but sharia law forbids it" in it's place. I'm sure after a few years of doing that the islamists will be so curious about whatever could they have wanted to draw there that they'll be practically begging us to give mohammed his own cartoon on Adult Swim.

Or...probably the best response is the equivalent of immersion therapy. "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" works on this principle, and it's probably what we're going to have to do in the end. Simply fill the internet, the newpapers, and the TV airways with our western blasphemy.....overwhelm them with so many things to be upset about that eventually they realize that they have to either give up trying to force everyone to play by their rules and learn to play nice.....or they completely snap and well....let's hope it doesn't come to that. But still....even if it does....it's better than tiptoeing around the big bully in the room. Sometimes you've just got to poke the bear.

Got Me a Beard

T-Rex Taking Communion

Awesome Dino-eating-jesus-fish sticker

And....the response left under the wiper blade.

I love that it's written in crayon....I mean...if you're going to write the equivalent of a childish tantrum...it might as well be in crayon.

I'm guessing she was a paleontologist who was expressing her frustration because the Tyrannosaurus most likely preyed upon ornithopods and other herbivorous dinosaurs rather than fish.

(Stolen from reddit)

Why I'm Not a Creationist

Well...not really why I'm not....I was convinced well before finding this...but a good primer series on evolution.  If you watch it on youtube it's in a playlist to play vid after vid....not sure if it works with the embedded one.

GR 1986-2011

One year after her death, thinking about my late sister.





I was in charge of picking the music for her funeral (except for a couple of songs that my family picked....).  I thought of including this but I left it out.  Probably because of the lines ....

"A little less than a human being
A little less than a happy high
A little less than a suicide"

...  even though in retrospect they're probably perfect. From what I understand Jill died, most likely from toxicity from an overdose of local anesthetic complicated by a bunch of other medications she was taking for poorly diagnosed and treated psychiatric disorders.  We probably will never know what her intention was that day.....but it seems unlikely that she was trying to kill herself.  She had plans later that day with a close friend.  There was no note.  She'd talked to my parent's that morning about their supper plans and whether they'd be home or not.  And all the meds they found in her system were ones she seemed to have been using for some time. She was found by my parents in the backyard of their house, early in the evening of a hot sunny day, with the stereo blasting away on the patio.  Most likely she was using this medication to numb pain from self-harm, or for the buzz of a mild overdose and just overdid it.... but really....we don't know....and we'll never know.

The thing for me is, she really hadn't been any part of my life for quite a while before this happened.  The last time I really saw her was at Christmas, when she showed up at my parent's usual Chinese restaurant on christmas day for their annual chinese lunch.  She'd been living in their basement for some time since then....with a big chaotic move that of course happened to be the exact same weekend my brother and his wife moved from their tiny apartment to their first house.  She was at my parent's house but I never really saw her. 

....


We weren't really on good terms you see.  The last time my wife and I had dealt with her before that....was with her on my doorstep demanding we give her my parent's dog Grover....with a police escort.  She had commandeered Grover a few months prior from my parent's house.....because in her opinion he was her dog and he was happier with her.  Grover was a really elderly fellow.  With 3 legs and terrible sight and hearing.  He was pretty much happy as long as somebody kept food in his bowl and a rub on his belly ready for him. But Jill thought he was hers and my parent's decided to not declare war over his ownership. 

However.....that fall, my parents took a trip to Japan.  And as things usually were with Jill when it was most inconvenient, it was time for something to happen.  So....my wife got a call saying that she had to come and pick up Grover STAT!!!!!! from my second cousin(whom she'd never met)'s house because Jill was going to rehab and obviously couldn't take her dog.  So....my wife picked him up.  No big deal...we've got two dogs....what's a third?  And anyway, we knew my mom missed him terribly, so she'd be very happy to have Grover waiting for her when she got back from vacation. 

Yay.  All's well that ends well....except that about 24hrs later....we got a call from Jill. "I'm coming over to get Grover".

"Like hell you are, what happened to rehab?"

"He's my dog and you have to give him back to me"

"We took him because you were going to rehab....Mom and Dad are back in a couple days, how about we keep him until then, and you sort it out with Mom and Dad when they get back from Japan..."

"If you don't give Grover back I'm calling the police!!!!!!"

"You know what...fuck it...come get him. ....  I really don't care enough to fight you about this"

....

So...a couple hours pass....and the doorbell rings. 

Answer it...who's there?  Jill of course.  And a cop car...with a big fucking spotlight lighting up the entire front of the house (and any room with a window) like it's the Super Bowl. 

"here's your dog.", coax grover out the door, shut door.

A couple seconds pass ... knock on the door....answer....cop there

"Um...you can't just take somebody's dog"

"She asked us to take him cause she was supposed to be going to rehab"

"Oh?!?!, well...if you're concerned about the animal's welfare you can call the humane society and they'll check in on her house"

"We don't know where she lives, she asked us to take the dog so she could go to rehab.....she demanded the dog back...we asked about rehab....and then we gave the dog back"

"Um...you can't just take somebody's dog"

"Sorry for the trouble officer, I'm sure it won't happen again..."

End of story. 

...


So yeah...that was it....pretty much the last real interaction I had with my sister.  Sure she was at that Christmas supper....but it was about as awkward as a cow on rollerskates.  We didn't speak to her at all except a cursory hello.  And she was around here and there at my parent's house....since she had decided to move back home.....but she was usually out at an alcoholics anonymous meeting when we were there, or if she wasn't we really just tried to avoid her.  (interestingly...nobody in my family had ever seen her drink even slightly more than socially.....we suspect she joined AA for the acceptance and attention she found there)

And now...she's gone.  And she's not coming back.

It's still very hard to get my head around.  I think of the past 12 months, and everything that's happened in my life....and I can honestly say, with 100% conviction that all things considered I'm happier today than I was the day before Jill died....I mean seriously.  I'm a father now.  My career is pretty damn good.  I'm on a couple rec sports teams that I really enjoy.  My wife is a wonderful partner in everything in my life.

This isn't to say I'm happy Gillian's not around.  There are definitely times when I think about her and feel sad that she's gone....but there's just as many times that I'm .... not glad.... but relieved.  Her behavior was erratic and bizarre and inappropriate at times and I'm glad I don't have to restrict her access to my daughter like my other sister had to do with her kids.  I'm glad I don't have to worry about emergency 3am calls that she's in the hospital with some (likely self-inflicted) injury.  I'm glad that I don't have to worry about her calling the police on my parent's about some made-up thing just because they wouldn't do what she wanted some day. 

I have my memories of her as a little girl....and that's where she'll stay for me.  In all honesty...I said goodbye to the Gillian I knew when I left for college ... I was 18, she was...11.  I only really saw her at holidays and for bits of summers after that.....and along the line....she changed... from the little girl I knew, to a confused and troubled teen....to a troubled and self-destructive adult, and now to a person who is only spoken of in the past tense.  Of course it's sad.  Of course I wonder if there's anything I could have done  But you know what....it's too fucking late for any of that.  Maybe there is and maybe there isn't.  I tried.  And my parent's tried. And my siblings tried.  And "the system" tried.  But, in the end, she pushed everyone away enough times that they either stopped trying to help....or they helped her in whatever little compartmentalized  way she'd allow....

And I wonder....what her last few hours were like....did it hurt?  Did she know she'd gone too far this time?  Did she cry? Did she beg for a reprieve .....just one more second chance....from her god, her mother, or any passing stranger? Or...did she just drift away peacefully on a happy cloud of numbness?  We'll never know.  The only way to find out is a one-way trip and it's not one I'm planning on taking. 

So....we hope it was....okay.  Because she was unhappy...and now her unhappiness is over.  Instead, it is divided among everyone who misses her....her friends and relations who look back upon her life and its unreached potential and hope we can take what we learned from our time spent with Jill to make the world a little better.....for ourselves, and for everyone else we love.

Oldies but goodies

In order to consolidate and simplify (and also to generate more content for people to read without doing any more actual work), I'm going to re-post some of my old writings from defunct blogs onto this one.  I think I'll do them under the original date (since my writing style has (hopefully) evolved since originally writing them.  And .... done.

Here's some links.

Four plus years of writing and this is all that I'm not ashamed to republish...?

One about my big-gulp cups.  Also...I make fun of the size of my penis.  Hilarious!
It's big?

A rant about music....music that I really don't feel nearly as strongly about as this post would have you think....
Harry Connick Junior?

Here's the one where I make the best analogy for relationships EVER....or something
Is that a skidmark or are you just happy to see me?

I didn't even write this one.....but I did erase a teeny bit of text from the original cartoon...so I'm like a DJ I guess
Ice Ice Baby?

Ooooh a pharmacy rant
Raaaaaaaage!!!!!

And possibly my most famous post (at least among people who had read it...haha)...
Love in an elevator

Amazed

Some of my extended family are going through hell right now. Their daughter has been missing for about 10 days and the police are working under the assumption she has been murdered. A man has been arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact to her murder.... Kinda seems like a placeholder charge while they gather more evidence in order to detain him. Through all this they have received many pledges of prayers and general messages of hope...and if those are a comfort to them I'm glad. However, there was one today that I just can't let slide. I won't comment on Facebook about it but honestly, if I was in their situation and someone said it to me I would probably completely lose my shit and probably punch them out. My cousin (mother of the missing young lady) posted an update that they'd had no news about her case today, and in other news one of their other daughters rolled her car and totalled it tonight....they and their passenger are okay, just shook up a bit. And the comment.

"God's protecting hand is around you all in a very special way"

Seriously? That's what you take from these events? Reason #867 why I think religious belief overlaps with mental illness waaaaaaay more than people should be comfortable with. Definitely "a very special way"....like an abusive psychopath kind of special. I think I'd prefer a god that wasn't involved in my children being killed and nearly maimed. And if that was the god I was stuck with....I think I'd be a little more on the terrified walking on eggshells side and less on the unconditional praise and worship side... Ok. Rant over.

A blink of an eye on a tiny speck of dust.

 
Could anything sum that up better than this:  The last eroding remnants of an extinct civilization framed by a relatively small sliver of our universe - the milky way galaxy.  From NASA's APOD

Beautiful

Isn't it so wonderful to see a child who loves god's word so much.





And all those adoring adults just cheering him on.  So sweet.

He's going to grow up to be such a model christian.

Growing up godless

From the reading I've done around the internet I seem to have come from a fairly rare perspective on the whole atheism thing as my parents did not raise us to follow any particular faith.  It was never really something I'd given a whole lot of though to until I started noticing how many "how I became an atheist" stories there are on the blagoblag, reddit, and even among the big gun atheists' books. 

All those stories of lost faith, increasing skepticism and unanswered (unanswerable?) questions are almost as foreign to me as stories of faith, unquestioning belief, and how "Jesus is the answer"....simply because I never lived the transition.  My parents...at some point....did the hard work for me (us...I suppose including my siblings).  I think it's something I really need to ask them about.  We've honestly not had any really in-depth conversations about faith....at least not since I've been an adult.  About the closest we've come was last summer, when discussing plans for my youngest sister's funeral....when looking for an officiant, my father, specifying his preference, stated that "we're not very religious" and also made sure to insist that we had a "moment of reflection" and not a prayer. 

I remember asking when we were kids why we didn't go to church...but I don't remember the answer.... and when I asked what the hell I was supposed to do when I started in a new school, in a new town, in a new province at the beginning of grade 6 and we started every day reciting the lord's prayer.....which I had never heard in my life (ok...I probably had...but I sure didn't notice it) my mother told me to just stand quietly. 

So, I don't really know what happened to split my parents from the church, but for whatever reason they did.  Maybe it was both my mom's parents dying when she was in her early twenties (about 6months apart, from unrelated causes)....maybe it was something else.  I don't really know much about my mom's family, but I do know there's a fairly wide spectrum of religiosity on my dad's side that we lie at one extreme of.  His mother was a very regular churchgoer and was quite involved in church activities.  His twin brother still took my cousins to church when we were growing up.  My aunt was a very regular and involved churchgoer who actually married a well-known (by Saskatchewan standards) anglican reverend in her later years.  Some of my dad's cousins are very religious in the evangelical christian style.  We used to sit around the campfire at family reunions with the more moderate folks enjoying a beer or two and joke that they were probably saying their bedtime prayers for us. 

As a kid I always wondered what the big deal about church was.  I remember having my weekends free to play with my friends and my brother, or to play sports.....but there were always friends that were busy at church on sunday mornings.  Or even worse were my mormon friends that were doing "family time" all day on sundays and weren't allowed to play at all that day.  Seemed like a big waste of quality kid-time to me.  And it was inconvenient for my social calender as well.  If I wanted to play with those kids on the weekend it had to be on Saturday.  If you had a birthday party...and you wanted them to come....Saturday or nothing.  And there were no sleep-overs on Saturday nights because they wouldn't be home Sunday morning, and that just wouldn't so.  I really didn't understand what this designated family time was about..... I was available to play from breakfast until bedtime.... if I was home my dad would play with me....and if I wasn't...we caught up over supper....or the next day.  Why were their parents so selfish?

When I was a teenager it became less of an issue.  More activities on weekends (early morning hockey practice...yay!), and we'd moved so those particular mormon friends were long gone.... During my really (REALLY!!!) awkward loner phase I do remember being approached by a boy from my school and his "mentor" (?...fucking creepy older guy that helps you convert vulnerable teens to your creepy cult?...what do you call that?) about whether I'd accepted jesus and blah blah blah.  I dodged their questions for a while and eventually they just left me alone.  When it came down to it, this kid was probably even lower on the social ladder than me (at least I played hockey on top of my geekiness, shyness, scrawniness and general social outcast status)..... he was just a fat kid with asthma who wasn't even smart enough to get good grades....and he was hanging out with some dude twice his age.  Being seen with him definitely wasn't going to make me the hip kid on the block. 

I really think I started thinking of religious kids as losers around this time.  I mean...I was a social outcast, I was bullied, I got picked on, beat up, teased, all of it....but I didn't need some club of churchy losers and their imaginary friend to make me feel better about myself. 

Then when I went away to college it seemed to really disappear.  I fell in with a crowd of really good friends and we tended to keep busy on the weekends with definite non-church activites.  It's kinda funny.  College is supposed to be the time for the discussing of ideas great and small and for really figuring out who you are....but I think pharmacy school is a little different.  It's such a focused 4 years, with such a pre-determined class load that you don't really have time to take more than the bare minimum of "humanities".  You were required to take a few elective classes, but these were mostly picked for their lack of difficulty and their relatively light course load.  Given the choice between taking the easiest 101 level classes in 5 different things or following one pathway through more advanced courses you'd have to decide whether you really wanted to do pharmacy plus life, or pharmacy plus a bunch of time consuming essays and group projects.  Nope....there was definitely not much incentive to get past the 101's and their 300 student class sizes and their multiple choice, same every year tests. 

I definitely had friends and classmates who went to church.  At least in the twice-a-year-catholic style.... but it never really got discussed.  I really never knew what most of them were into until it started to become wedding and kids time.  Then all of a sudden it's time to start taking the "classes" that their church offer so they can get married there.  Gotta pick out the best bible verse about love.... fucking corinthians (I always laugh at the fact that assuming it's the bride that picks that verse out......they've obviously never read a few pages before and after that verse where there are all sorts of good old-fashioned nuggets about the rightful place of women....).  And you've got to get the kids baptized.  And you really should start going more often so the kids get a good moral foundation (you know....as long as they ignore pretty much the entire book the church holds up as its guiding document....)


So here I am, out of school almost 15 years now and starting to finally put a solid framework around all these things I always kinda knew....but were never more than a gut feeling.  You could almost say that I used to believe I was an atheist but now I know it.  I have to thank my parents for not indoctrinating me into any outdated immoral belief system, but I kinda wish they'd helped me a bit more with my skepticism.  Part of that is my own fault.  I've never been the type to publicly (or privately) ask questions if I think I can find the answer myself.  Too much fear of ridicule (thanks teen years....) but, at the same time it's a good quality to have to a degree.  I think when my little girl gets older I'm going to try to be a bit more forthcoming with the conversations about this kind of stuff.  In the end it'll still be her choice what she decides, but when presented with the options I hope she picks the most logical one.

Doctor Who

This past winter, with my wife incredibly pregnant and a 1 month "vacation" with my soon-to-be-born daughter pending, I finally gave in to my curiosity and watched an episode of Doctor Who.  I don't know why, but I just knew that once I dipped my toe in the water that I'd have to dive in whole hog.  Here in North America it's really the red-headed step child of sci-fi series.  There's Star Wars folk, there's Trek folks.... and then a sprinkling of big fans of some of the other big franchises.... but not a whole lot of Doctor Who. 

I did an informal poll at my work not long ago....and out of 10 people I asked...only 1 knew what I was talking about and really only that it was some show her husband watched.  So....not really a big thing with that crowd (admittedly, pharmacy people aren't nearly as geeky as you'd think they'd be)....  Honestly....you'd think people would have heard of it by accident...it's only been on TV for fifty freaken years.  But yeah...I dragged my wife along and gave it a try.  (Charge: Sweetest woman ever....Evidence Exhibit A: puts up with my geekery)

Sure, there was the chance that I'd watch an episode or two and decide that it just wasn't for me (a-la Star Trek), but being a huge anglophile (at least as far as TV tastes) I didn't think that was likely. (I can get into that in another blog post).  So...we watched a few episodes of the "new series" and we're hooked. Then, Vera was born and I got a bunch of time off from work.

Nothing gets the happy new parents through those rough midnight to 2am hours like a couple episodes of Doctor Who.  There were times we almost wished she'd start fussing at the end of an episode so we'd have an excuse to watch the next one.

I've watched some of the old episodes on netflix (and have downloaded a few more), and while plot-wise they read pretty good...probably as good or better than the "new series"....the special effects, and costumes, and even some of the acting falls into the so-bad-it's-good category.

So yeah, I'm officially a "fan".  One of the things that finally convinced me to give it a try was that Steven Moffat was one of the main writers/producers and in the last few years became one of the "show runners". (basically the big boss in BBC-speak).  To most canadians his name will mean pretty much nothing....but if you have any liking of British TV you can go through his filmography and you'll probably L-O-V-E-love his work ***.
Sherlock  - Modern-day Sherlock based on the original stories with a modern twist
Coupling - England's "friends" - not really....but to sum it up in 2 words....sure
Jeckyl - A modern day twist on the Jeckyl and Hyde story - AWESOME!
The Adventures of Tintin - Ok...a movie and not TV....but not terrible either...

(*** unless you're a feminist.... the internet world is full of posts that despise his treatment of female characters ... not something that has jumped out at me .... but being male you'll have to excuse my obliviousness.... the way I see it, except for Coupling his main characters are almost exclusively male, so it seems reasonable to expect them to be the most well rounded characters....yes the female characters tend to be more one-dimensional, but from my male perspective so do his secondary male characters.)

Alright...enough of that. 

Doctor Who fans are some of the most dedicated out there.... there's this entire website dedicated to people who have built or are building their own T.A.R.D.I.S.

I even have a new tardis ipad case on order...as we speak ...

from Etsy:MyGeekyBoyfriend


I'll let you know how it is when it arrives.

Unfortunately, the new Doctor Who series isn't on netflix in Canada.  There's about 6 of the 4-episode serials from previous years on there and there's the Torchwood spinoff (seems decent so far but working on about 1/3 of the budget and it looks it).  Extra unfortunately the DVDs of the seasons tend to be priced much higher than comparable sets of more popular BBC shows.  I'd say go hit your local video store and rent them....but I think they're all out of business.  Zip.ca might have them, but it might take forever to get to the front of the line.  You could always illegally download them....but you know what happens to people that illegally download things.... oh yeah....nothing (at least in canada....for now...) .   I'd recommend that route then.

The Chosen Ones

Alright...so...when I'm feeling lazy, I'm just gonna throw a cool picture or link up that I've found.  Then at least you know what I'm looking at on the computer....besides porn of course.

This one really sums it all up for me though.

The Bible of ...

 

I'm never quite sure what to think when I see a book that's called "The (Something-Somthing) Bible".   Is it completely outdated with questionable relevance to any present-day application?

Or what should I think when a respected colleague tells me to look something up in this or that reference book because it's "The Bible of....(insert specialty here)" ....    Is it a compendium of poorly documented, one-off case reports about improbable impossible things with not a sniff of legitimate science to back it up?

My examples above are simply what came up in the first page when I searched "the bible" on amazon and then clicked on a bunch of different subtopics (excluding religion and history, and any book that was referencing some other bible....)

Just for fun...try the same experiment...with "the torah" or "the quran/koran"....just on my brief overview...it's pretty much 100% translations of the original or references to the original.....  there's definitely no "Marijuana Grower's Koran" or "Torah of Halal Cooking".   Unfortunate really.

Well, ignoring the situation of a colleague suggesting a legitimate book with really poor selling skills... what should we do with this sub-genre of nonfiction?  Well, for starters, they generally don't look like the most legitimate expert opinions on their chosen topics.  "The Disaster Survival Bible"....it's probably just one page...with one word on it.... "Pray".  

Additionally, the topics are generally kinda dodgy things to be experts in anyways.... marijuana growing, herbal medicines, fur trapping (for fucks sake... from the amazon page this is a 2nd or 3rd edition even).  Seems like mostly areas where there's really crappy science at best, and "expert opinion" and dogma at worst.....just the kind of specialties where a bible would come in handy.

Well, for what it's worth, there are 2 (maybe 3...) books in my home with the word bible in the title.  One (or 2) actual bibles that are just good to have around (when you need a doorstop, or to press a flower, etc).....and this

I'm actually quite looking forward to reading it with my daughter when she's old enough.  Since it consists of very accurate illustrations of stories from the Old Testament...that'll probably be in 20 or 25 years....

Pro-choice

Science requires faith?

Someone on my so-called friend's list on facebook posted the old doozy about "Einstein" having an epic rap battle against his "science professor" and smiting him and for once and for all proving that god is real, and that science - especially evolution is as fluffy and as weak-sauce as your lord and savior always told you it was.

I'm not going to reprint it here...although you can hit it from my snopes link in my first comment....

I'm going to copy and paste because trying to read pages of screen-capped facebook text sucks balls.

Ren:    "Pathetic, some people will just post any old bullshit on the internet and attach someone reputable's name on it to try to give it legitimacy" - Mark Twain

• 

  snopes.com: Einstein Humiliates Atheist

  www.snopes.com

  Did Albert Einstein humiliate an atheist professor by using the 'Evil is the absence of God' argument on him?

  
  

Original Poster - Fair enough Ren lol Einstein aside I liked the argument! I have faith in God & I've never seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled him. April 16 at 10:11pm

I probably should have asked her how one would go about giving god this blowjob that would make him known to all the senses at once....but decided not to. 


Then one of her friends decided to elaborate on how he liked the argument because science requires as much faith as religion.....

What?  Um...no...... I'll let my next comment do the work here.




Science does not require faith.  Unless you are just playing word games like the student in the story.... (the heat vs cold and light vs dark examples)  I suppose you could say science requires faith if you mean in the sense that you have to trust that the scientists that have done the studies and reported their results and the people peer reviewing them have done so with proper care and attention.  But I don't think that's the kind of faith you're talking about.

As for the professor having no brain ... childish at best and easily tested scientifically.  You could have him undergo a trephination, take a look and observe his brain first hand.  Nowadays you could use an imaging device such as a CT scan or an MRI to visualize the brain.  Or you could take a look through the history of medical pathology and see if anyone has ever been autopsied that naturally did not have a brain but was alive anyway.  You could do experiment on animals that are similar to humans and see if any of them don't have brains...and then perhaps since they do....you could see what happens if you take them out.  Science in a case like this only requires faith if you are too lazy to ask the right questions and do the work necessary to test them.  I suppose that's a little closer to the faith religion requires but since science does not do that it's not a great example.

Not in science class, but I was definitely taught in high school that religion was a way of trying to explain the world around us.  But it was presented with the example of a religion that tried a little harder in this regard than the abrahamic religions.  The greeks.  The world was balanced on the shoulders of Atlas, Thunder was Zeus.  The sun was Apollo riding his chariot across the sky.  The bible doesn't really try to explain a whole lot about how things work....it's more a guide for acting morally (2000 years ago).... There's a kind of generic "god did it" vibe to answer any "how did that happen?" questions....but that's not really an explanation.

The biggest difference between science and religion, is that science does not rest.  Even the theory of gravity....which is pretty well understood....they're still trying to find the particle that may or may not guide it.  That's awesome.  How about the model of the atom?  There was the dalton model, followed by the delicious sounding plum-pudding model, which upon gaining more information was replaced by the rutherford model, and so on.  With new information, data, and evidence, old theories go by the wayside and new ones are made to replace them.  This is not faith.  If you had faith in science you'd eventually say "you know....this is enough...I think we got it this time..." then write it down and burn at the stake anyone who questioned it.  ;)

Religious faith is a bit different.  There is no new evidence.  Unless you're a mormon.... they got a whole bunch of new info relatively recently....but with nothing but faith to back it up, the christian mainstream says they're wrong.  The best faith can do is examine what's they've always had and reinterpret it.... which is where you get the folks who think the bible should be taken literally and intact and is a 100% accurate historical document....and then the others who look a little closer and say....."you know....there's really no way to fit that many animals on a boat".  Or...the protestant/catholic thing.... in the esteemed words of Lisa Simpson It always comes down to transubstantiation versus consubstantiation."..... Or the Jew/Christian/Moslem thing....


I apologize for not addressing the evolution question more directly....my university courses were heavy on the teeny-tiny sciences (chemistry, bio-chem, physiology) and light on the big picture sciences (biology, zoology etc).  However, there is a fairly solid body of evidence supporting evolution and while it is too slow a process for any one person to observe, the evidence is there to support the theory.  And as new evidence is found, the theory will be modified.   That's not faith, that's fact.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------






How'd I do?

No....you ignant!

Election day in Alberta on Monday.  It's a little bit terrifying.  People have been clamoring for years for an alternative to our PC party which has been in power for 40ish years.  My more liberal friends probably assumed that this would be a more liberal alternative.  What we have on the horizon instead is the "Wildrose Party".  Some of their ideas are good...others not so much.   They're definitely a few shades further right than the PC's they're neck and neck with in the pre-lim numbers. 

What's most disturbing to me is some of their more right wing social views.  I'm all for fiscal conservatism, but I'm definitely fairly liberal leaning when it comes to the more social aspects of things.  I really don't mind most of our conservative politicians because they have a good grasp of the separation between church and state and have historically been able to govern without forcing their morality on others.  This seems to be slipping the last few years.  Not as badly as in the theocracy to our south, but it's a disturbing trend.


One of the hot-button news items that have come out regards one of the wildrose candidates blogs - he's a pastor in some church and apparently doesn't approve of homosexuality.  They've tried to blow it off saying his personal views are his and not necessarily the views of the party....but it's concerning.  He's not the only one with a questionable moral agenda.  I really think the government should not try to legislate morality.  Things like gay marriage etc should be put to one simple test:

• Does allowing this infringe on anyone's rights? (past the point of minor inconvenience)
• Does NOT allowing this infringe on anyone's rights? (or deny them rights others have)

 Easy.   To stick with my example..... There are only 2 reasons to argue against equal marriage rights for all people.

1. RELIGION: Your religion forbids it
2. EW, Gross!: Gay sex is icky

That's it.  2 reasons that have any basis in fact or reality.  All the other ones like "if you allow gays to marry, people are going to start marrying toasters next" are so ridiculous they border on insane, and a bunch of the other ones: "think of the children" come down to an extension of 1 or 2.  

Neither of which by the way, is an acceptable reason to deny a right to one group of people while allowing it for others. Even if you personally think that homosexuality is a sin or if it's just not your thing you have no right to base any kind of legislation on that. 

Well, happy voting day alberta.

Hockey Playoffs

I know, I know....I'm a couple days late for a pre-playoff prediction post....but we're 3 games in to most of the series and things are starting to take form.

Not going to do a series-by-series breakdown....but a few things I've noticed.

• Holy crap is there a lot of nasty play going on.  The other day I thought I was watching a Philly game from 1974 (you could argue that the Pens were instigating as much as the Flyers...but whatever).  There's been head-shots and fights and controversy in pretty much every series
• Florida vs New Jersey : YAWN!  .... actually...this could be the best series going on this year...but I'd never know it.  I just don't care about either of these teams enough to even check the scores
• Phoenix vs Chicago - Gotta cheer for Chicago for having a) one of the best jerseys/logos in all of sports and b) a fanbase.  I just can't forgive phoenix for getting another city's team and not appreciating it (and the NHL for digging their heels in so hard on keeping them there that a different team has replaced them in Winnipeg).  I know they do have some hardcore fans...but as a percentage of the possible fanbase, it's pretty pathetic.  Also...Mike Smith - career scrub turned number one....has been pretty awesome all year.
• LA vs Vancouver : the battle of the teams who have no idea what their team colours or logo are.....

I especially like the tagline on the Vancouver one "the colour of hockey"....what the hell..  Blue/green/white/yellow/orange/black/red...so ... pretty much every colour except purple?  And depending on your personal colour wheel...some of those stripes on the Orca jersey are pretty close to a purple/burgundy....  so....every fricken colour available.  Seriously.  And 3 different primary logos....none of which reflect the team name whatsoever.  They do have a johnny canuck secondary logo....but I guess they're too good for that. 

Heck...they've gone through more colours/logos as the New Jersey Devils franchise...and they'd been 2 different teams before they ended up in NJ

It actually makes the King's drift from the gold and purple to silver and black to purple and black seem pretty consistent and reasonable.  And a crown....that's even got something to do with a king....wow.  Who-da-thunk-it.

• OVERTIME - there's been a few overtime games but nothing truly epic yet.  That's probably my favourite part of the playoffs and the part I'm looking forward to watching with my daughter the most....the 4OT epic in the western conference late game that goes until 2am.  Nothing quite like it.  Watching two teams with nothing left just trying to put themselves over the edge, but still keep it close to the vest so they don't lose.  These games are possibly the best part of my Flames missing the playoffs year after year....you can just sit back and enjoy without the stress of actually having some emotion riding on the outcome.

Well..that's all for now...maybe more after a few more games.

De-motivation

I'm pretty sure everybody's got one...(oh man...I hope it's not just me...) .. you know.  That person.  The one whose facebook is a constant cycle of "OMG things are so great", then "OMG things are so horrible, people suck" then they post a bunch of superficial, shallow motivational posters and the cycle repeats.....

Yeah...that one.  Can't they figure out that the common denominator is them.  They keep meeting shitty guys because....they make shitty judgments about people.  People talk shit about them behind their back because they deserve it.  They can never find that magical formula that will let them get it all together....because it doesn't exist and they need to stop looking for shortcuts and do things properly.


These are for them.

Thanks for the text XKCD

I really want to put these on facebook...might get rid of some of the dead weight on my newsfeed...

Back To the Keyboard

It's been a while.  Over a year since I posted here.  And probably about 8mos since I posted anywhere.  I had started writing at a grumpy pharmacist blog with a school friend....but then my sister died.....and I just got out of the mood.  That's something I'd like to write about actually....not right away...but sometime.  For a long time it seemed like I really couldn't (shouldn't?) write about anything if I didn't deal with that first....but I've decided I can write about it when it's the right time.....


Okay, so I'm back.

For real this time.

No really.

Okay.  Well...I'm going to try.



Why?

A big part of it is my daughter.  It's still kinda strange to type and read that word...at least in relation to me.  But at the same time it's the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced. 

There's a little person in this world that's made up one-half of me and one-half of my loving wife.  Is there anything more amazing than that? 

So...I just thought I'd try to write some stuff.  Maybe a bit about her, and probably a lot about just this and that.... heck...maybe I'll start a novel.

But...anyway.  I'd like to try to write at least once a week...and keep doing it for a while.

Join the Club!

So, one day you're just sitting on your couch and you think...."Damn!...I'm kinda bored and lonely and I should really get out of the house more....maybe I should join a club".


So what kind of club do you join?  It should probably be one that alligns with your interests and personal goals and beliefs.

If you don't really like snowboarding, it's probably best to avoid a ski and snowboard club.

If playing cards just gives you paper cuts, a bridge club is unlikely to fill the gap.

If you don't think that black people are inherently inferior to whites, you're probably not going to enjoy the KKK much.

If you enjoy drinking beer and playing pool....I bet you could join a pub league.

If you want to get better at public speaking, there's toastmasters that you could try....


See...pretty easy.  If you want to join a club, you pick one that suits you and then you join.

And if you're in a club and it turns out that it just isn't the right fit...you leave.

So....if you don't think birth control is an abomination, do think that it's a woman's right to choose to have a child or get an abortion, and you don't think that "god hates fags" and think they should be allowed to marry.....why do you still identify yourself as a Catholic (or any multitude of other hateful religious groups - just singling out Catholics since they are about half of the "Christians" in this country and it's a whole lot easier than differentiating between 27 different variations of Protestantism)?

I'm not here to say you should walk away from your spiritual beliefs.....but unless you seriously think you're going to change things from the inside you need to back away from these groups that don't meet your needs and don't align with your beliefs.  Maybe you need to find a different church that's a better match.

Most of the power of these groups lies in the number of members they apparently have.  Do you think there would be separate Catholic school divisions all over the country if there were only a few Catholics in each area?  The numbers give the church its power.  But what if their members aren't actually drinking the Kool-Aid?  It doesn't matter as long as they still say they are members.  That's why they never really do anything if you don't practice what they preach.  It only hurts them if they excommunicate you.  If they just tell you you're a sinner and move on they can still count you as one of their unified flock when it comes time to lobby government, or go to the media on an issue. You're allowing your voice to be stolen and used against you.


Un-join the Club!