Saddam dead

CNN has reported about 5 minutes ago that Saddam is dead. The news is unconfirmed as of yet. More to come.

A religious question

I wrote this paragraph, but I got the idea off another website where the original poster wasn't quite as eloquent as I try to be.

It has been said that Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. However, there has to be some sort of judgement process in place when people die, as they would not presumably just wait to be judged. When Jesus comes again to judge everybody, will the dead be judged again? If so, would that not constitute double-jeopardy?

I really need to ask that to a priest, to see what kind of answer I get. Probably something along the lines of "you're an idiot, get out of my church, blasphemer!"

Tetris DS, and other titles

I love Tetris. All incarnations of it. Even the 3d ripoffs like Blockout.

So, I finally decided to pony up and buy Tetris DS. After all, I had a Nintendo DS and only Madden to play on it, so I figured I might as well buy other games.

Anyway, Tetris DS has about a googolples modes. There's the "classic" where you have blocks falling down, multiple types of duel-y modes, some really weird game where you have to build a 4+x4+ block, then blow it up... There's just about everything Alexey Pajitnov (creater of the original version of the game) might have thought about, and probably some stuff he didn't think about.

You can even play Tetris on Nintendo WiFi against people around the world. Wee! (Or maybe I should say Wii!)

What's missing, however, is some kind of "original" version. I don't mean just the game itself being what it was originally, but the whole deal that was on Gameboy. The Russian music, the Russian landscape in the background... y'know, all that cool stuff. I mean, it's what made Tetris so appealing in the first place!

I'm still glad I bought it, but I miss the "Tetris song" (Korobeiniki) and all... especially considering it's been replaced by "classic" Nintendo music; Mario, Metroid, all that stuff.


In other news, I also bought Brain Age, a game that says it'll train your brain, through sudokus and various puzzles and memory games and pretty much everything you'd expect to "work your brain." It looks good. I also got StarFox Command. It's another of those classic games, where you play different animals piloting ultramodern fighter planes against evil aliens, and blow their alien butts to smithereens. It sounds violent, but it's not really; you don't see blood or anything, and it's cartoony. I never got the chance to play the original StarFox game much, because I never had a Super NES, but I like that type of entertainment.

I love video games; I am a geek, after all. I'm always happy when I buy new ones, too, but when I buy a few at the same time, it troubles me because I can't play all of them at once!

Back to Tetrifying the neighbourhood, now.

And I thought I was a geek

Wow. Just wow.

There's this game called Second Life, where you have an avatar (real original...) and you can do various things, like waste your money on pixels, become a cyber-prostitute, or fly around a pretend city.

Ok, so flying around in a city sounds pretty cool, but c'mon! Why would I spend any of my hard-earned dollars to buy clothes, shoes, and electronics for an electronic version of myself (a version that's a little taller, a little more muscular, and doesn't wear glasses...) when I can save up that money and buy the real thing?

I mean, sure, if we could plug into the computer like in The Matrix or at least have some kind of virtual reality kit and actual voice communications, then maybe... But c'mon, now. All they're doing is playing a video game like any other. Actually, not quite like any other, because as far as I know you can't win in Second Life. It's more like Tetris, except I'm pretty sure playing Second Life all the time won't make you smarter, whereas playing Tetris will.

Anyway, I'm glad to know I'm nowhere near as geeky as I thought I was. Besides, I gave up learning Klingon a long time ago. And I didn't give up Klingon so I could learn Elvish, either.

I much prefer learning Orcish. Until I do... Qu'plah!

Bon Cop Bad Cop

Well, I've finally seen that ultra-hyped movie. Ultra-hyped bilingual movie, even. And I mean that.

While I wouldn't say it fully lived up to it's hype, it lived up to part of it. It's funny, smart, engaging... ok, it's really, really funny, and that's pretty much it. There are a few twists and turns, but the writers aren't Hitchcock, so don't expect the unexpected.

For those who have no clue what movie I'm talking about, here's a short recap, in my own recap style.

Evil psycho killer kills guy, drops him between Ontario and Quebec (literally--the corpse is found on the billboard announcing both provinces). OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) and SQ (Sûreté du Québec--"QPP") reps decide to have two detectives work together; one franco, one anglo. They work together despite very different styles. More people get killed. Guest appearance by Rick Mercer who gets his ass kicked by the franco. More people get killed. Franco and anglo must work together some more to solve the mystery. Evil psycho killer guy kidnaps the franco guy's daughter. The two detectives get ever closer to solving the mystery. And I'll stop there before I reveal too much of the ending.

There are a LOT of appearances of various well-known actors and comedians, though (maybe because I don't know that many from Ontario) it seems more like a who's-who of Quebec comedy than of Ontario comedy. Rick Mercer is a very obvious appearance, but he's about the only one. Still, it explores some of the myths and misconceptions each "culture" (are we supposed to say "nation" now?) has about the other, such as the anglo (Don Cherryian) conception that Franco hockey players are sissies, and the franco conception that Ontario is boring. Ok, that one's not a misconception.

It's a bit too much of a "feel good" movie. The two detectives resolve their differences and end up being friends, and it's just generally a "Quebec and Ontario can stick together."

One thing I liked (being bilingual and all) is that the movie is just that, bilingual. The anglo characters speak English and the franco characters speak French. Obviously they speak in each other's language a lot, but it's not like those old war movies where you know someone is foreign because they have an accent. Here, they have accents, but they also speak in their own language. It's not for everyone and subtitles will be necessary for most who aren't fluent in both English and French (and even if you're fluent in Parisian French, you'll need subtitles for the Quebec characters) but those who speak both official languages of this great big cold country, you'll love it.

I give it four and a half hot female Torontonians out of five. I'm not sure where we'll find four hot female Torontonians, let alone a hot female Torontonian midget, but you get the picture.

RIP Mr. Brown

(Source: CNN International) Showbusiness legend James Brown is reportedly dead.

Famous for appearing, well, everywhere, he'd been hospitalized recently.

Let's bet he's entertaining some pretty important folks on the other side of those pearly gates.




Brown during his appearance in Rocky IV, singing "Living In America" (Photo "courtesy" of photos12.com)

Biggest Loser

I don't actually watch that show, except when exceptionally bored, though I couldn't help but notice that the lady who hosts the show is still, after several seasons, overweight.

Maybe I'm just too smart for TV, but I would've thought that after hosting several seasons of a show that's all about losing as much weight as possible, she'd be, y'know, lean. Maybe not model-thin (otherwise she couldn't go to certain european countries) but, y'know, I'd have expected her to be in the "not-fat" category.

But I guess she's kinda like Dr. Atkins; advocating weightloss and healthy living without practicing that themselves.

I just really hate hypocrisy, and it seems to me that anyone who works in the weightloss business should be lean, otherwise he/she is a huge hypocrite. I mean, if you're saying "hey, do what I say and you'll be lean"... how can I believe you if you're still fat?

And don't get me started on the hypocrisy of rewarding fat people for being morbidly obese... fame and fortune if you're super-fat and realize you have about six months to live unless you lose weight... How about fame and fortune for people who make an effort to stay as lean and healthy as possible?

The one thing the Dixie Chicks said that makes sense

"To talk without thinking is to shoot without aiming."

Or something like that.

I think the lefties really need to take a good look at themselves and remember that. But then again, what do I know, I'm a hawk and all.

How 'bout them Cowboys?

Well, according to the NFL's Playoff bandwagon chooser, if the Patriots crash and burn (I'm only rooting for them because they drafted "me" in Madden 07's NFL Superstar mode, and because all the cool guys from the Titans are gone), I have to cheer for the Cowboys.

Which is funny, because when I was younger, I rooted for the Cowboys, too. I mean, they're the coolest dynasty ever. Besides, they're from Texas, and Texas is awesome. They have steak... uh... oil... steak... the Cowboys... well, judging by Lone Star restaurant, Texas is an awesome place, anyway.

Anyway, according to the NFL: "my team" is the one that's fresh, with rookies (does Romo count as "fresh"?), has a historical name, goes for it on fourth down (because they have to...), is a warm weather team (I've had enough of the cold... watch me get thrown to CFS Alert at some point in my career, during winter, or patrol the North Atlantic on a Frigate), and plays late games.

Thing is, I have a feeling that, despite Romo's awesomeness in replacing Bledsoe, the Cowboys will crash before the Patriots. Then what do I do? Root for the Packers and the Favre of favreness?

Another lesson learned

Snow sucks.

Ok, so it's not that simple, but it sums it up nicely.

So, it hasn't been snowing much in Quebec, especially at home, in the middle of the Laurentians. There actually was about as much snow, until yesterday, as there normally is in, say, October. But that was before I told myself "I'll go for a run tomorrow."

So, this morning, (ok, early afternoon) I got up, grabbed my tracksuit (I couldn't figure out where I'd put my Underarmor™ stuff), put it on, laced up my shoes, powered up the ol' iPod™, and stepped out the door. And then I stepped back indoors, scared I had died and was now in hell.

See, it was snowing as if we were in... uh... some Christmas movie! There was a good inch of snow where there hadn't been any snow when I'd gone to bed!

Still, I decided to run anyway; I put on my RMC tuque, my Running Room™ gloves, and went on for a run.

And I realized two things:

First, not running for ten days is a bad, bad idea, even if I have a good reason to not have been running for at least a week out of those ten days.

Second, running in the cold when you're used to running in relative warmth is another bad, bad idea. I went from running in 5-10C temperatures to, today, around -2 or -3.

So, I shall go to run again tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, the day after that, and the day after that.. and I'll probably run the day after that, too.

By the way, I learned another lesson that's unrelated to the two previous: trying to run up a big-ass hill without slowing down is a STUPID IDEA. It's pretty steep--I don't know exactly how steep, though--and it's LONG. It's not as long as the Fort Henry hill I like so much (and by "like," I really mean "detest") but as it's steeper, it's much harder.

Anyway, I'll definately be running a lot more, and the evil cold will probably just strengthen my lungs--at least I hope so.

Until then.. I'm gonna go have health-friendly cheesecake. (No, really, it's good for your health!) And for that, I can thank Dr. Berardi over at Precision Nutrition.

How the US can win in Iraq

Army Captain's Simple Demonstration: How to Win in Iraq
Officer Killed in Battle, but His Ideas Live On
By MARTHA RADDATZ
Full story

Dec. 15, 2006 — President Bush has spent the last few weeks engaged in complex briefings with senior military officers, State Department officials and outside experts as he tries to come up with a new plan to achieve victory in Iraq.

But a young captain serving in Iraq's violent Al Anbar Province has offered a simple explanation of what the problem was in Iraq and how to solve it. Among his observations is the importance of having a moustache in Iraq.


In a military known for its sleep-inducing, graphically dizzying PowerPoint presentations, the young captain's presentation, which has been unofficially circulating through the ranks, stands out. Using stick figures and simple language, it articulates the same goal as the president's in Iraq.

The creator of this PowerPoint presentation, "How to Win in Al Anbar," was Capt. Travis Patriquin.

But Patriquin will not see victory in Iraq. He was killed by the same improvised explosive device that killed Maj. Megan McClung of the Marine Corps last Wednesday.

Patriquin had fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. A gifted officer, he spoke numerous languages, including Arabic.


"How to Win in Al Anbar" may not make it to the desk of the president, but maybe it should.

You can find a copy of the presentation (in pdf format) here and here.

The presentation is both funny and, well, it makes perfect sense. Wonder why nobody thought of it before?

Anyway, rest in peace, Captain Patriquin.

The proverb of the day is...

Allow a suburban kid to listen to music, he'll buy a Linkin Park CD.
Teach a suburban kid to play music, and he'll annoy the living crap out of you.

On sheep, wolves and sheepdog

By LTC(RET) Dave Grossman, RANGER, Ph.D.,author of "On Killing."

Found here

Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always,even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?
- William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me:

"Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.

Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.

I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful.? For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.

"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf."

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed

Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools.

But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa."

Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog.

The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door.

Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero?

Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.

There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population. There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.

Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.

Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll," which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers - athletes, business people and parents. -- from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.

There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. - Edmund Burke

Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision.

If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

For example, many officers carry their weapons in church.? They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs.? Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to massacre you and your loved ones.

I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"

Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for "heads to roll" if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them.

Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have and idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?"

It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up.

Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear helplessness and horror at your moment of truth.

Gavin de Becker puts it like this in Fear Less, his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation: "...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling."

Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level.

And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes. If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself...

"Baa."

This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

TV financial advisors are stupid

Lunch:
Brownbagging would save:

$7 x 5 lunches per week: $35
$25 x 52 weeks: $1300

Now, I always say my English is not perfect and there are expressions and whatnot that I still don't get. But I'm fairly certain that "brownbagging" means taking a lunch with you instead of buying one, right?

So... what about the food you need to buy to be able to brownbag? Sure, it's not as much, but you're not going to save a full 35$, unless you decide to just stop eating lunch altogether, which is a pretty dumb idea.

Besides, financial advisors are like the fat guy (Dr Atkins, anyone?) telling people how to lose weight: he might have the theory down, but he hasn't got a clue what he's truly talking about.

"Our soldiers deserve the country's attention"

'What? Better that the CBC goes back to fetishizing the Liberal Party?'
By CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD

Saturday, December 16, 2006 – Page A29


I was en route here this week when the CBC's The National devoted much of one newscast to Canadian soldiers and the mission in Afghanistan as part of what the network calls its On the Road series.

That night, I was in that madly affluent, zany, over-the-top Middle East bastion of capitalism called Dubai, where every entrepreneur and shopper on the planet is welcomed -- well, except for, as the posh guide book in my acreage of a hotel room reminded me, "those travelling on Israeli passports or with Israeli visas."

Anyway, I didn't see a lick of the CBC news that night. And I guess, by rights, I shouldn't write about it. But I will anyway, albeit peripherally, just as so many people expound upon Afghanistan without having once set foot in it.

I gather, from what I've read, that the show included Peter Mansbridge anchoring from Edmonton, home to one of the nation's biggest bases; featured interviews with some of the soldiers recently decorated for valour for their service here (these would be the men of the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, who were in Kandahar until late August, when they handed over to the 1st Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment, whose troops are here now) and families of serving soldiers; and that it ate up a good chunk of time.

In an inside-baseball sort of way, it seems the coverage has sparked a bit of a brouhaha.

Read the rest.

I guess our military still has at least one ally in the biased, anti-everything-western propaganda machine-like media apparatus of our nation. Thank you, Mrs. Blatchford!

A little something from USAFA

("Reprinted" from eDoDo, the "underground" newspaper from the United States Air Force Academy.)

This post was not suitable for children under the age of 12. Why they would be reading my ramblings full of pre-millenium references is beyond me, however.

If your kid read this, you are a worse parent than I can ever hope to be.

Oh, and I just remembered this priceless baby:

Rosie O'Donnell: Racist

Contrary to what some characters from the now-defunct show The Undergrads seemed to think, Rosie O'Donnell is evil.

Now, I've always said she was. (For no particular reason. But c'mon, she has a worse aura than Emperor Palpatine!) And now, the world has proof.

She insulted the Chinese. Or was that basically all Asian people? Either way, she insulted a whole bunch of folks. It seems like that's a trend, lately. But usually, when people rant or insult a particular race--also known as "saying something racist"--they apologize quickly and there's a hail of pseudo-journalistic bullets that kills their chance of regaining their popularity... until someone else makes a racist comment.

Thing is, Rosie didn't apologize. Instead, she made fun of the people who were offended by her comments. If some random white dude used the n-word (repeatedly, like Rosie) and then said, "well, I'm sorry I offended some of you, and that some of you were born the wrong colour." Well, he'd probably be shot, but if he wasn't, he'd be poisoned, stabbed, hung, stretched, disemboweled, drawn and quartered, and then fired. All on network TV.

There's no point in all this; I'm bored and watched more TV since I've come home than I watched since I started school last September, discounting football and hockey, so I decided to just rant about a popular culture event that normally wouldn't even register on the radar of my immense brain.

I just hope people stop being idiots, or start being idiots when it comes to warning labels. "'Do not use toaster oven in the bathtub.' Pffft, I can do whatever I want, I'm famous!" *BZZZZZZZZT* "And in other news, (insert random celebrity) was found, cooking in their bathtub. Apparently, they had been making cinnabuns when the toaster oven fell into the water."

I don't wish ill on anyone, but if we're going to have complete bumbling idiots running around doing... uh... idiotic stuff, we might as well have them injure themselves for everyone's ensuing hillarity. It's just like watching America's Funniest Home Videos--which I still maintain they should rename America's Funniest Shots in the Nuts.

Car companies are crooked

Weeee, I just got a letter from GM saying I have to show up to my dealership and pay $70 for some random inspection that includes stuff I got done about a month and a half ago.

Now, I know I gotta take care of Betsy (yes, I named my car), but c'mon, why would I have to pay $70 for an inspection that covers less than Siberian Tire's gazillion-point inspection that costs, what, $25? Sounds like a way to make dishonest money to me. Besides, they do things like switch tires around, which doesn't quite make sense when you think about it. The whole point of switching them is to make sure they wear out equally; why switch them when they haven't had time to wear out? Guess that's how they manage to justify the price: they do a lot of completely useless work on the car (or pretend to) and then say "hey, look, we did all that, and that costs time!"

Anyway, I'm quite miffed at GM. I knew I should've bought that Lancer... (Ok, not really. I love my Cobalt.)

Home sweet home

...Or something.

Yes, I am home. For 25 days. (Well, not counting travel time and all that)

I don't really have plans for the holidays, really. My plans revolve around staying home, watching TV, playing computer games, maybe practicing the pipes a bit (I do plan on going back and being able to, y'know, play), and mostly working out. I've brought reading for school--mostly books for French class--but I don't know how much reading I'll actually get done. And watching all those movies I've bought and haven't had a chance to watch yet. There aren't that many, but even a few unwatched movies are still too many. And I need to do a Rocky marathon, too.

Hopefully, I won't undergo total schedular reversal like I usually do when I go on holiday for too long. By "total schedular reversal" I mean "sleep during the day and play computer games at night," really. I tend to do that--start playing while I'm watching some TV show, and next thing I know, it's 0330! And then, of course, I don't turn on any alarm clock, so I get up sometime in the early afternoon. After a few days, I get to bed at 0430, then at 0530, and by week two, I'm going to bed right before my mom wakes up.

But, all in all, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, a happy Hannukah, an all right Kwanza, and a downright crappy Non-Denominational Consumerism Festival. Have some Christmas spirit and have fun with your family and friends; no need to just buy and buy and buy and buy! Just cook a lot of food, invite everyone to your place, and EAT!

Speaking of which, I need more food.

And in case some of you are scared and think I'll abandon you over the holidays, fear not. I don't have anything to do back home, so I'll be posting on here regularly.

You know what really grinds my gears?

Rosario Dawson.

Actually, it's not Rosario Dawson at all. Just her name.

Exhibit A: A picture of the absolutely stunning Ms. Dawson.


Now, any red-blooded male will agree that she is, to put it in simple terms, "hot".

Therefore, her name does not fit her at all. That name is for old men, and possibly slightly retarded fictional characters.

Exhibit B: A picture of a random man named "Rosario"


Now, I hate to be mean, but that man is fat, and not even handsome.

I contend that Rosario Dawson's name is completely unfitting of her beauty, and I believe her parents made a terrible mistake in naming her. Therefore, I propose that we rename Ms. Dawson something more appropriate: Suzie. Not because it's a particularly nice name, I just figure she might as well have a female name.

Another thing that really grinds my gears: not finding the droids I'm looking for.

Catherine the Great

So, it turns out my essay on Catherine the Great wasn't so bad after all. I got 80%.

The teacher wrote that it was a "good" paper, "carefully studied and documented", although I need to be more concise (don't I always...), and he probably took a few points off as he pointed out I didn't talk much about foreign policy. (To be honest, I had no clue what to say about it.) But his little blurb ends with "generally a very good effort."

Sounds good, eh?

Now, if only my other term papers are this good... and my finals.

Two more to go! Canadian Military History, and French Canadian Literature. Both tomorrow. Wee!

Next semester will suck

Well, we got the DCdt's intent today... All in all, sounds like good stuff. However, there's one little part that's gonna suck big time for me.

And that's called, "Every other Wednesday."

See, I have PE on Wednesdays. Two hours of it. And then, I have SPT. Another two hours of it. That's four hours of physical stuff, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Now, with the DCdt's new plan, every other Wednesday morning will consist of circuit training, runs, or other such physical activity. For two hours.

Do the math. That's SIX hours of PE in a single day. I'm awake maybe 16-17 hours per day. That means over a third of my day is going to be PE.

The thing is, I have two hours of PE on Tuesday, two on Thursday, and two on Friday. So I'm going to have a rather heavy-duty day and not even have a day off to recuperate.

Can anybody say "overtraining"?

RDS: Irrelevance Incarnate

For those who don't know, RDS is the French Canadian counterpart to ESPN (or TSN, if you prefer.) It shows crappy sports between the peak hours, when they show hockey or football, and sometimes even baseball.

But their website is where they really, erm, shine.

Bob Gainey--some important guy in the Montreal Canadiens organization--has a daughter. Sadly, her daughter is missing at sea, having fallen overboard from some ship.

That's sad, and I hope she'll be all right and everything will go for the best.

But really, did RDS really have to put that as it's main story? There was a bunch of important NFL games, surely a bunch of NHL games... heck, even Jimmie Johnson's injury (NASCAR driver, broke his wrist) was more relevent. TSN mentionned it, in a sidebar to some other important story.

This is when I realize my fellow French Canadians really don't have their priorities straight. A sports network is supposed to be about sports, not about gossip and faits divers. Yes, the disappearance of Mr. Gainey's daughter is a sad event, but it has NOTHING TO DO WITH SPORTS.

And with that random diatribe, I'll go to bed.

GO NAVY, BEAT ARMY!

I know the second half just started, but I was playing Madden through the first.

Anyway, here we are, 7-7 into the 3rd quarter, Navy's commercials making their team look really good.

Oh, and one of the announcers said the Army coach was "trying to restore pride into this team." ...I find that hillarious. They're playing for ARMY, where's the pride in that? That's like Browns pride in the NFL or Maple Leaf pride in the NHL; it doesn't exist.

(Just kidding, you army guys. You have your usefulness. I don't know what it is, but you probably have one.)