McFee

Round 1 to Dion

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:59:11 GMT

Not according to the press, mind you, many of whom hate him with a passion. Rather, according to an Ipsos poll of actual voters immediately after the debate.

http://blog.macleans.ca/2008/10/02/debat-des-chefs-premiers-reactions/

Note, I can't find the original poll at the Ipsos site. However I assume Coyne isn't making it up.

Hopefully for the sake of avoiding a Harper majority Dion can repeat it in English.

Good old Carleton

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:49:03 GMT

http://securitywatch.eweek.com/vulnerability_research/carleton_university_home_of_the_asinine_administrators.html

Blogging

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:31:19 GMT

Nothing amazing, just trying to keep in the habit of writing so my mind doesn't completely atrophy.

Political rant

Video games

Sodium

Read Paul Wells

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:18:26 GMT

He reminds me of when Magoo and I discuss CUSA.

"But that's not actually what this column is about. Harper passed a law, he doesn't like the law, we should ignore the law, blah blah blah, election, whatever. You'll hear plenty about all this without my help. Anyway."

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/opinions/article.jsp?content=20080827_106822_106822

He has a regular blog on the Macleans site as well.

This never happens...

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:14:06 GMT

Car loan renewal came in the mail today... payments will be $7 LESS this year due to the fall in interest rates.

Happy 41st to the Maple Leafs

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:25:43 GMT

Another one in the bank..

HA!

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 01:22:46 GMT

Someone on Craigslist with a sense of humour (and a bit of chutzpah):

http://ottawa.craigslist.ca/bab/601692952.html

Florida/Michigan

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 04:17:57 GMT

Supporters of Clinton are offering to help pay for a Florida/Michigan "re-vote", which would take place in June. They have also been pushing the idea of a Clinton/Obama ticket (with Clinton at the top).

It can't be good for Democrats not to have a nominee before July. I wonder if Clinton's people realize that and hope they can put pressure on Obama to agree to a joint ticket by threatening to otherwise stay alive until July.

Herbie Hancock wins album of the year at the Grammys

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:22:08 GMT

A nice moment for those of us who still enjoy music for musicianship last night, as the Grammy award for Album of the Year was scooped up by 67-year old Herbie Hancock. Herbie was the pianist for Miles Davis' classic quintet in the 60s, and they made some of the best jazz of all time together. He also produced a number of solo albums in the 60s of consistent quality. In the 70s he started exploring funk and African music more with his Mwandishi sextet, then made the classic albums Sextant and Head Hunter (of which the title track I believe has been covered by our good friends Stairwell K). You don't see too many people make classic music in multiple genres but Herbie was that good.

The speculation is that the Amy Winehouse and Kanye West supporters split the "young trash" vote and Herbie came up the middle. Whatever. This may be the last time anyone good wins that Grammy, so cheers to Herbie and I hope a few people are exploring his back catalog today.

FMPM 2008

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:43:28 GMT

The Montreal Progressive Music Festival (FMPM)

September 13-14 2008

Salle Pierre Mercure, Centre Pierre Peladeau
Montreal, QC, Canada

International artists include:
* Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (Italy)
* Univers Zero (Belgium)
* Riverside (Poland)
* Knight Area (Netherlands)

Quebec artists include:
* UnexpecT
* Charles Kaczynski
* Spaced Out

Gold tickets go on sale Friday, February 1st. Regular tickets in March.

For more information, http://www.fmpm.net

South Carolina Democrat Primary Exit Poll

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:44:56 GMT

Continuing from last week,

45% white, 53% black.

Incidentally, 39% male and 61% female.

Gee, ya think?

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:48:57 GMT

"Regrettably, we did not win enough games to reach our goal, winning the Stanley Cup."
Toronto Maple Leaf (sorry, "MLSE") President Richard Peddle

They couldn't even win enough games to not be a laughingstock. This team has been architected for failure. Bad signing after bad signing, you knew this day would have to come, although I figured hoping for it too much would jinx it.

But no... this year is one to enjoy for Leafs haters everywhere, and now the circus begins and Cliff Fletcher tries to find homes for all these failures (while the one person who would be worth something in a trade, Sundin, has a no-trade clause. Brilliant!).

South Carolina Republican Primary Exit Poll

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:59:44 GMT

96% white.

I mean, I kinda figured it would be high. But...

96%!

Don't you have to be funny for it to count as comedy?

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:58:57 GMT

Headline: "Dane Cook Breaks Stand-Up Comedy Endurance Record"

(Alternate explanation: it's going to be hard for other comedians to stay ahead when he has so many of their repertoires to choose from).

Obama, Huckabee take Iowa

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 04:18:31 GMT

On the Democratic side, I'm not really sure how to react because I honestly had no idea going in who might win. I thought Edwards might but it was a gut feeling not really based on anything. The big losers are everyone other than those three; not that Biden or Richardson were given much of a chance to win, but I'm sure they didn't do all that work to finish with 1-2% of the vote. It is hard to argue that any of the second tier candidates belong in the race past tonight. Richardson had hoped for a last stand in Nevada but Biden for New Hampshire, but it seems neither one has much to hope for now but humiliation and maybe to latch on to someone else's ticket as the veep.

On the Republican side it is interesting that Huckabee won. He seemed better than most of the second tier candidates early on despite his non-belief in evolution (?!), and the lack of a non-problematic front-runner in the putative top three of Giuliani, McCain, and Romney opened up possibilities for a dark horse to emerge, but it's still amazing to see. I share David Sirota's view that it is too simplistic to chalk this up to the Christian fundamentalists getting their man. Huckabee is quite different from many of the other candidates on economic issues and his record as Arkansas governor might play better in a general election than it does in primary season. The main surprise is how handily Huckabee won, beating Romney by nine points. McCain and Thompson are still slugging it out for third. McCain now needs and has a good chance for New Hampshire, although he is hurt by independents leaning Democratic and possibly by Paul siphoning "maverick" votes. He is helped less by his own qualities than by the groundswell of antipathy that seems to exist for Romney in that state. Giuliani seems to be in big trouble but hope might be colouring that prediction. I'm also not sure what Thompson's strategy is at this point. Presumably he has one. This race is still pretty open, especially if McCain takes New Hampshire, because the Huckster strikes me as weak in blue states, McCain is hated by much of the base, Romney still has lots of money even if he won't have anything to show for it at that point, and Giuliani is ever lurking in his coffin ready to rise at night and feed on fear if the terrorists attack again.

Lastly Ron Paul's 10% gives him plenty of reason to stick around. It's not the REVOLUTION his supporters were hoping for but it's also stronger than pretty well any poll has been giving him so far. The decision to exclude him from the Fox/ABC debates seems pretty arbitrary after tonight.

Let the aggravation begin!

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:27:46 GMT

"Dear plan member, to process your claim we require some paperwork you were never provided."

Mind you, I can get it now. It just would have been nice to get the money by now. And if they had correctly entered my postal code I could have found this out before now.

An eerie feeling from the Iowa caucus

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 04:11:01 GMT

Is Clinton Ignatieff? Is Obama Rae? And is Edwards Dion?

Scientists shrink a bible really small, now figuring out how to photograph it and enlarge the photo

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:46:05 GMT

Which would in the end make it a normal @#^%@ing bible.

Cure cancer, you genius idiots!

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/12/27/nano-bible.html

HA HA HA HA HA

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:49:28 GMT

Larry O'Brien...

Cocoa Camino Fair Trade Organic Dark Hot Chocolate

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:18:41 GMT

I can't speak for the cost-efficiency of this stuff -- it's probably three times the cost of regular hot chocolate -- but holy crap, is it good. Adding to the warm rich chocolate is the warm rich feeling of smugness and moral superiority that comes with any fair trade purchase.

Their chocolate bars are also pretty good but mondo expensive. (I prefer President's Choice Unfair Trade Organic Dark Chocolate at $1.99 per 100g bar).

Appliance question

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 04:30:38 GMT

Looks like the inner tub in my washer is now loose, so that when the washer is in the spin cycle you hear THUMP THUMP THUMP and the whole thing shakes. This I assume is not good for the washer.

My question is, based on what people know about appliance repair costs vs. replacement costs, does it make more sense to get this repaired or to get it replaced?

Radiohead / Guitar Hero 3

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:53:13 GMT

Just picked up the new Radiohead which is called "In Rainbows". For those who don't know it's available only as a digital download and you can choose how much you pay for it. I've played it through once so far and it sounds good enough, although I'll have to spend a bit more time with it. It reminds me a bit of Hail to the Thief in that it consolidates the band's earlier periods. Lots of good band moments on this one. The album is short by modern standards (about 40 minutes) and will be available in stores early next year.

Also grabbed Guitar Hero 3 for the PS2. It's been out about a week on all next gen platforms as well as PS2. It's basically... well Guitar Hero 2 with new songs. Avid gamers will notice all the differences but that's what it comes down to. Some of the highlights for me include One (Metallica), Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden), Kool Thing (Sonic Youth), Welcome to the Jungle (GNR) and Cult of Personality (Living Colour). Also getting a healthy dose of alterna-metal stuff that all sounds like Nickelback to me... Disturbed, Slipknot, etc. etc.

The neat thing is I'm getting to hear some newer or more obscure bands that I probably wouldn't have otherwise, since I don't listen to radio. Some of the songs I'm enjoying are When You Were Young (the Killers), Knights of Cydonia (Muse), Ruby (Kaiser Chiefs) and She Bangs the Drums (the Stone Roses, which is older but new for me).

The News This Week

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:04:02 GMT

1. The NFL may play games in Toronto.
2. Ellen Degeneres cried because of something to do with a dog.
3. Dumbledore is gay. (Also Snape killed him)
4. Canadian retailers, or distributors, or somebody else, should totally lower their prices.

Also Turkey's parliament has approved an invasion of Iraq to go after the Kurds nothing to see here la la la

Unreasonable lack of accommodation

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:19:05 GMT

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/10/20/pq-citizenship.html?ref=rss

In other news Newfoundland was proposing its own citizenship test. In order to pass the Newfoundland test, applicants would have to show proof that they had taken and failed the Canadian one.

THE FINAL &@#$ING COUNTDOWN

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:22:36 GMT

I know some of my friends seek to have every recorded version of The Final Countdown in existence. Or so they claim. This should test their determination.