An interesting vid . This is based on a series of advertisements from apple based on “I switch” (from PC to MAC). This presenter switched to Canada.

Pardon me while I roll on the floor laughing.

Within moments after the online tech-news portals began publishing the news that Google had inaugurated an online patent search tool, Briana emailed me with the news and I started searching. The first thing I noticed was that my boss now thinks I am a genius! I come up with wierdly detaied solutions to technical and mechanical problems, find hard to source parts and anwser arcane science and physics questions with my use of google, wikipedia, and the internet generally. Now I can add drawings and measurements from the last two centuries of innovative advancement to my catagories of known genius. Sweet!

It is very entertaining to peruse the ages of patents presently parked on the google service and I would bet it will be very useful for many as well.

Alright everybody, it is time to pay the piper. We have posted photos and anecdodes of our wedding and our honeymoon. It is your turn now. Lots of you took pictures at the wedding and we are really looking forward to seeing your photos.

Email them to one of us at our gmail accounts with your best shots. I bet they will be awesome. If you don’t have our address, leave a comment here and we will mail it to you. Also, if you have a funy story about the wedding that you think we may not have heard, post it here.

Awesome guys. Thanks.

To ths page via Gillian and provenance beyond.

I like Crowe reference. Lucky Jack Aubrey, beat to quarters!

I have been tagged by Bree with a ‘four things’ meme.

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Sandwich Artist
2. Dock Jockey
2.5 Used and Antique Book Dealer
3. Park Ranger (sort of)
4. Marketing Director and Marine Stove Guru

Four movies I would watch over and over:

1. Ken Burns “Out West” or “Civil War”
2. Henry the Fifth (Ken Branagh)
3. Mambo Kings
4. The Lion in Winter (both Close/Stewart and Hepburn/O’Toole)

Four Places I have lived

1. Montreal
2. Edmonton
3. New Westminster
4. Vancouver

Four TV shows I love
1. House
2. Rock Star
3. Mythbusters
4. The Office

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Queensland, Australia
2. England
3. Hawaii
4. Cruise Ship

Four of my favourite foods:

1. Curry (but I pay for it)
2. Really good pasta
3. Salmon
4. Pecan Pie

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Portugal
2. Bruges
3. A beach, with big waves
4. On the Boat, cuddling

Tag, you’re it:

1. Gillian
2. John
3. Sarah

In some ways, a blog is like a journal. I don’t mean the type of journal that gives us the word ‘journalism’ but rather the introspective, private kind.

In some ways, it sure is not. The whole point is to share what is written or posted, and to enter into a community of readers and writers. Thats great. It is also the real attraction but for me and others, it can be more. It can be more like a diary, a journal. What I have in mind here is the ability to go back in time and read what was written, see what was important and what the state of the writer in the world was. Here in this blog, this ability doesn’t really go far back. I started posting in January on this url but I had a blog before this one. Still, it is interesting, once in a while, to have a look back. I promise, I will not turn into a pillar of salt.

Here I review posts that have been marked political or current events.

29th January 2006

Hey Presto!

Where I comment on the prospect of Preston Manning become the next Canadian Ambassador to the USA, my (satirical) preference for Svend Robinson and my prediction that the former ambassador, Frank McKenna, would run for the Liberal leadership. NONE of these things happened but here is a quote:

It is as clear to me as it is to Frank McKenna that Canada needs a new man in Mordor. This Liberal big whig is in the running (perhaps) to be the next Lib chief. Who then?

Oh I know! Preston Manning! I can see this working, really I can, With the Tories in Ottawa and the #$@@%&%*)! in Washington, a plaid shirt wearin’, cattle brandin’, true believin Albertexian just might fit the bill. I can see the logic but still, this is not my choice. I disagree with him on most things but Preston is scholarly and thoughtful, faithful and clean living. Still he is not the man for the job.

February 2 2006

Stop Shooting At Us!

In which I cry out, !Dear Dods in Heaven! Why are the Americans always shooting at us! A quote:

Canadian diplomats take fire in Baghdad as hail of bullets riddles their car with out warning. American officials unrepentant. Related stories in Afghanistan and again in Iraq.

7 February 2006

Lampooning Cultural Icons

P1090493

Originally uploaded by ms_doyle.

Where I am motivated by the recent Chinatown parade and by the riots following the publication of cartoons including depictions of the prophet Mohammad.

Is one culture special enough to be exempted from this treatment?

Jews and Muslims do not eat pork. I eat pork and so do people I know. None of us are causing a riot. You don’t like depictions of your religious icon? Don’t draw them. You don’t like it when others draw them? Suck it up.

28th February 2006

One Smoking Hole Deserves Another

The bombing of the Samara Mosque in Iraq. A bloody mess.

It is almost a habit for me to post on current events after they are current but so often, I am conflicted. This is a horrible event perpetrated by one sect to another yet the groups seem indistinguishable from each other.

12 March 2006 Viva La Revelucion! (On Sark)
I really liked this one. I had heard on the radio that the Island or Sark would forsake its feudal government and embrace a nascent form of Democracy.

What I did not know, and what I learned later, is that my good friend Kevin’s ancestors come from there.

This little island reminds me of the Peter Sellers movie “The Mouse who Roared” where the backwards inhabitants of a miniscule island kingdom stuck in the Middle Ages some how manage to steal the newest of the new Q-Bomb form the United States and thus become world powers.

I am sure the Bush Administration is sleeping easier at night knowing one more tyrannical regime has given way to the enlightenment of democracy. Sark Today, Iraq tomorrow… or the next day.

12 March 2006

Luna the Killer

Luna, Meet Poochie

Originally uploaded by Will_Tom.

In Which Luna the Killer Whale dies on the same day as former dictator Slobodan Milosovic. I mourn Luna.

19th June 2006

More Blokes for the Kiddies!

I post an article by Mary Ellen Lang of the CBC that promotes more male teachers in the classroom. I feel more and more deeply about this. I think it might turn into a thee for the blog in the future.

1 July 2006

Democracy Can Kill You

A recent post to be sure. You can probably scroll down right now and read it. The young soldier is still a prisoner in Gaza. The Israeli government is still behaving in a way that will ensure the blood letting continues into the next generation.

Well, that is all. I have skipped a few but no more. I hope to have more Summer Blog Blog Summaries. We shal see. How about Puppie blogging next?

From the ever productive ones at Lifehacker: Sticking it to the man: uber geek style….

CurrentCodes.com discount codes

Dontcha just hate when you’re checking out at an online store and there’s a field for a discount code you have to leave blank because you don’t have one? But you know you’d save money if you did? Web site CurrentCodes.com is dedicated to maintaining an up-to-date database of online merchant discount codes.

Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide

Blogged with Flock

$@”*%!)#

The blinking cursor. It mocks. I write, I post. I curse.

Please give me some ideas, you 10 who read this. Where are the readers? Who shall come unto this my Blog and Know-That-It-Is-Good?

Harrrumph.

Could they not have called it “An Occasional Diiversion”? No it has to be “Second life“. I have been introduced to second life by some remarks on Darren Barfoot’s Blog“I’ve become convinced that it’s something important, and worth paying attention to.”

I was instantly hooked on the idea. Imagine a virtual world populated by hundreds of thousands of Avatars, spending and making real currency, operating real church ministries, stock exchanges, movie theatres (Mr. & Mrs. Smith any one?), casinos and “edutainment centers”. There are awareness campaigns for non-profits and even a Wells Fargo financial planning education island.

I read stories about companies meeting in the virtual land for employee orientations and project meetings. College students meet to do group assignments and thousands meet to dress provocatively and , erm, date…

. And here is a twist, you own the rights to what you create here. That means you can buy and sell items, apply copywright scripts etc.

With all of this free-form usability though, I worry for the future of the platform. So many questions arise as to copywright (movies, avatars shaped like Snoopy), property law, soverignty, currency trading (who operates the securities regulation anyway), criminal law, hacking, and who knows what else.

Certainly some one someone, somewhere will sue. I suppose that for now the jurisdiction is California as Linden Labis is there. Some are talking about decentralising the servers so Mr. Xeboperific can host his own Second Life integrated “real estate” separately, or that the server base in California could me moves to somewhere where the law is not a factor, like, um, Guantanimo Bay, Cuba.

I am in it now, with Bree, and we shall see that this new world holds.

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