Category: Random Thoughts

From Amy Reiter’s ‘Nothing personal‘ colum on salon:

‘Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are apparently the victims of burglary. According to the Associated Press, four teenage boys broke into the house the couple rents in Florida through an unlocked (!) back door and made off with bottles of booze (!!), clothing, video camera equipment and “personal” videos (!!!). The heist happened over the weekend, while the couple was on vacation. Neighbors called police to the scene, and the teens were later arrested. One of the filching fellas was apparently nabbed in the midst of making a copy of one of the stolen videotapes. Oops! ‘

Heh. This would just be too funny if true.

So I discovered Powells.com today.

And finally, I found an online bookstore that feels like I’m wandering through Elliot Bay or Duthie’s on Fourth. They’ve managed to imbue their entire site with an atmosphere of book-loving. I’m not sure if it’s their collection of interesting interviews with interesting authors, or the water-color images, but this site has character. And nothing is more important to my book-shopping experience than character. It’s why I’ll shop at the Granville Book Company instead of Chapters. And curiously, while the GBC has maybe 1/100th the stock of Chapters, I’ve almost always found what I was looking for. And often times, things that I wasn’t looking for, but want anyways.

Mmm…now I want to go buy books. Like the new Irvine Welsh. Or that Samual Delany book Caterina was talking about.

Warning:

The following is a dark humor joke related to the WTC. Some people heal through humor, some people aren’t ready for it yet. If you’re not, please don’t read on.

Continue reading “bad taste joke”

Anti-Globalism is so yesterday, according to a commentary in the National Post.

La pluie de vos insultes n’atteint pas le parapluie de mon indifference.

From The Surrealist Compliment Generator

This is the saddest thing I’ve seen in a while.

Here is the text of the speech given by Rep.Barbara Lee (Democrat) of Oakland, I believe, the lone dissenter in the vote to give G.W. Bush blanket authority to go to war against terrorism.

While I know that war-crazed mania is sweeping the US, and that the difference between republicans and democrats has never been smaller, I remain shocked and appalled that only one politician dissented. I don’t know anything about Barbara Lee, but I am impressed by her speech here and glad that someone said this at least. That she recalls the similar vote that led to Vietnam, perhaps America’s greated embarrassment, I hope that she is not equally prescient as her dissenting predecessors were.

So CNN has posted a 3D graphic about the extent of the damage in NYC. It’s really quite impressive/apalling. I say both as the cold observer in me enjoys the sheer spectacle of human engineering failing, the power of rubble to do further damage, while the emotional core in me is horrified at the extent of the damage, and is further amazed that the death toll is so low, really.

It’s funny, that both reactions are really kicking in now that I’ve seen this pleasant, brightly colored graphic, which I find much more affecting than crass, flashy TV-coverage. Maybe it’s like the difference between a good book and a good movie. I’ll take the book any day because it leaves so much more to my imagination.

So last Tuesday a friend of mine, Margaret, went east to Maine, where she’s spent some time previously. Margie is one of these people who is always peripheral to my life – never in my ‘core’ circle of friends, or whatever, but someone who I care for greatly. We had been pretty good friends back in 1996 – we had a class together and hit it off really well. However, due to each of our respective partners at the time (though for different reasons), our relationship strained. Margie had a bout with an eating disorder that was simply heart-wrenching to watch and has come out a vastly different person. If she wasn’t who she is, I’d probably term her flaky: she’s very artsy, kinda new age-y, etc. However, there is a certain – umm – earnestness about Margie that makes you realise that everything she does is carefully considered before being acted upon. She’s truly a marvellous person. So, while I don’t see her, or even talk to her terribly often (I think we got together twice this last stint of hers in Vancouver), I always feel saddened, feel like I’m losing a friend when she goes away (Oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever exchanged email with Margie. And really, I feel like I’d be missing out on so much in an epistolary conversation with her). So Margie, I hope you have a great time in Maine, and know that I miss you out here.

So Leah and I got digital cable today, which is great – sort of.

We already watch a fair amount of TV. Well, really, the TV is often on while we’re doing other things. The fact that we only have one working computer probably exacerbates this, as we both use the computer to do pretty much anything, and so while one person is working, the other person often watches TV. Plus, I tend to watch a lot of sports – hockey all week, football on sundays.

Also, we don’t go out that much. This is partially a financial thing, but mostly, I think it’s just that I enjoy Leah’s company more than pretty much anyone else’s, and so if she’s home, I really have little incentive to go out and be with anyone else. While at home, we can listen to whatever music we want, watch movies, read books, read the news, discuss any of the above, or just give the cats catnip and watch the ensuing chaos. All the things I like to do, and I like to do with Leah. One of the ‘perk’s of digital cable is the movie channels. There is now guaranteed to always be a movie on somewhere. If there’s not one on the regular channels, there are 40-odd pay-per-view channels that I can now apparently order at the touch of a button. So basically, there’s always movies. I don’t know if they broadcast these in dolby digital, but our receiver can certainly handle that, which means dvd-quality broadcast movies, to me.

The day that I can get DVD-on-demand, that is, choose the movie, watch it when I want, watch the exta features (yep – I’m one of those geeks who’ll watch the whole movie with the [person X]’s comments to learn just that little bit more about the movie (if I like it)), etc, is the day that I no longer leave the house. I kid. But I’d probably go to the video store less, and buy less DVD’s, which might be a good thing.

So, we’ll see how this thing goes. Channel’s I’m the most stoked about?

National Geographic Channel

Movie Channels (all of them)

Book Television

Toon

Comedy Channel (whatever it’s called)

The WB!!!

BBC World

Probably others as I discover them.

Oh, this is an unconfirmed thing: Pride TV, which is apparently part of my package, does not appear to work. I was told by Leah that you have to ask them to turn it on, because it offends their religious customers. So, we’ll have to ask for that. However, I’m offended that NOW TV, which is a religious channel, is on channel 10. A plain old, lower-tier cable channel. I don’t want religion entering my living room unannounced, and if I had children, I certainly would much rather they watch Pride TV than any religion-based programming. So WTF? I should start a letter-writing campaign, I tell ya. Get Religious programming onto channels that you have to ask for specifically, if they make Pride TV a channel you have to ask for specifically. Either one is a way of life that makes some people uncomfortable. Hetero/christian-centric double standards suck!