Archives - Winter 2003 and beyond

December 20, 2005

Funeral for a slain officer

A funeral is being held today for a slain police officer.  Constable Valérie Gignac was gunned down last week while she and her partner were answering a domestic disturbance call.  She was a 4 year veteran of the force, and was only 25 years old.  She leaves behind her spouse, constable Sébastien Boulé, her parents and five siblings.

The assailant, 40 year old François Pépin, was already arrested by Gignac a week earlier for harassing another female police officer.  Afflicted by an obsessive attitude towards female officers, the judge imposed strict limitations on Pépin's release following the original complaint.  But for some reason he was allowed to keep his firearm for hunting season, a .338 caliber rifle described by Laval police Chief Jean-Pierre Gariépy as being the type of gun you normally use to hunt elephants.  The shot was fired through the assailant's apartment door and hit Gignac, her back turned, just below her bullet-proof vest.  She died shortly after arriving at the hospital.

There was a seven hour standoff during which police managed to convince Pépin to surrender himself peacefully.  The accused now faces first degree murder charges, a charge which is automatically laid no matter if an officer's death was accidental or deliberate, and carries a 25 year prison term with no chance for parole.

There's not that much respect for police officers in our society these days.  But what many people fail to grasp is that when there's trouble in a neighbourhood somewhere, while everyone else is fleeing away from the trouble, the police are the only ones who head towards the trouble in order to stop it and prevent anyone from getting hurt.  When an officer is killed in the line of duty, everyone is affected by the incident one way or another.

My deepest sympathies go out to the family, friends and fellow police officers of constable Gignac.

November 26, 2005

New guitar

I just suffered from a bad case of GAS this week.  For those who've never heard of this, it's short for "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome."  And I just happened to stumble on a particular guitar I was hoping to find for quite a long time.

The guitar in question is a transparent blue Jay Turser JT-10L.  Jay Turser is not a real person, but a company that manufactures guitars out of China.  And as you can see from the picture, it's smaller than my Godin Exit-22.  Just as important, it's also much lighter.

The guitar is about 35" long, 11½" wide, and the scale is 24" long, just ¾" shorter than the standard scale length of 24¾" normally found on many guitars.  Construction-wise, it's far from perfect.  There are a few nicks in the rosewood fret board, one of the screws from the 3-way switch cover is actually screwed into nothing, there are many micro-scratches on the surface, and the sound is only "okay".

The Godin is still by far the better guitar in looks, build quality and sound performance (mahogany body with Bill Lawrence pickups), but I wanted something that I could easily take to work so I could practice a bit during my lunch break.  The Godin is a heavy sucker that's best carried around on your back.  The Jay Turser however is extremely easy to carry around with only one hand.  It was also a decent bargain, having cost me no more than $200 to purchase.  And the mediocre sound?  Easily correctable with a couple of humbuckers from Bill Lawrence.  They certainly made a huge difference on the Godin.

All I need now is a pocket guitar amp that doesn't cost sixty bucks.  I'm not too fond at paying an exaggerated price for what is essentially a box of plastic containing no more than five bucks worth of spare parts and a cheap tinny speaker.

September 5, 2005

"Katrina" or "How to throw your entire country's reputation into the wind"

Last week, the Gulf Coast of the United States was hit by hurricane Katrina, a class 4 hurricane which, despite being downgraded from a Class 5 hurricane, still inflicted massive damage in a huge area.

Despite plenty of early warning on the upcoming disaster including a computer simulation performed just last year, there was not enough organization and resources to evacuate everyone from the region before the storm came in.  In the New Orleans area alone, an estimated 100,000 people (mostly black/poor/elderly and without any means of transportation) had to seek shelter any way they could.  About 30,000 of those went to the local major sports arena, the Thunderdome, a facility ill prepared to accommodate so many people for an extended period of time.

What happened after the storm was a total disgrace.  The storm hit Monday morning, August 29th.  Relief efforts arrived on September 2nd, five days after the storm hit the coast, and a full week after it was clear the storm would hit the Gulf Coast and cause massive damage.  Following the storm, there was rampant looting in the streets for goods that were totally useless under the current circumstances.  Gangs of criminals armed with guns were roaming the streets, robbing and killing just about anyone they met, encountering little or no resistance by the incredibly overwhelmed New Orleans police department.  Rising flood waters from broken levees trapped people in their homes, many of whom drowned in their attics.  Conditions at the Thunderdome deteriorated to the point where people preferred taking their chances baking in the hot sun than swelter inside a stinking cesspool.  Even women and children weren't spared, assaulted and killed in filthy, darkened washrooms.

If all branches of government had responded quickly enough to the disaster, many lives would have been spared and the New Orleans area alone would not have become a death trap.  Instead, innocent people had to fend for themselves during five agonizing days while politicians were arguing over who to blame for the mess.

Five days wasted on political bullshit.  Have any of these bastards even considered the number of lives that were being lost day in and day out by their blatant incompetence?  How difficult would it have been for the U.S. military or National Guard to simply head in with whatever they had available just to begin relief efforts, followed by supply drops to continue meeting the overwhelming demand for help?  Under such horrendous conditions, would it have been too much to ask to push the bureaucracy aside and just try to save those that were left stranded?

The upcoming weeks won't be that much better for the survivors.  Already, in the rush to try and get overdue relief to New Orleans, the Mississippi coastline is still waiting for relief efforts of their own, complicated by washed out bridges and causeways and a population spread out across the entire State.  Even if you were located inland and your house was intact, you might still be living without electricity, food and water for weeks not to mention the chronic gas shortages.

For a long time, I believed the United States would take care of its citizens in the face of disaster.  Not anymore.  The people of the United States no longer feel safe because New Orleans was abandoned by all branches of the government.  People died because they couldn't get the help they desperately needed, many dying in their own homes.  The next time a disaster hits the nation, the people will remember what happened in the Gulf Coast and will most likely take matters into their own hands, possibly transforming the next disaster into an even bigger one through distrust, fear and panic.

Last week, the United States died as a nation.

Our new Governor General

Luckily, our own country hasn't had a major disaster in a while, mostly limited to meteorological events we're used to seeing from time to time.  But that hasn't prevented most federalist and separatist political factions across the country from behaving like real jackasses.

Michaëlle Jean has been nominated as Canada's 27th Governor General, becoming Canada's official representative of the Queen of England, our head of state.  Born in Haiti in 1957, Jean and her family fled their homeland of Haiti in 1968 to escape the oppressive Duvalier regime, setting roots in the town of Thetford Mines, Quebec.  She received a Bachelor of Arts at the Université de Montréal in Italian and Hispanic literature followed by a Masters of Arts in comparative literature.  She is fluent in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Créole (French spin-off spoken by Haitians) and can also read Portuguese.

During her university years, she worked at a shelter for battered women and helped set up a network of shelters across Quebec and Canada.  She also worked with organizations that help out recent immigrants, followed by Employment and Immigration Canada and at the Conseil des Communautés culturelles du Québec.

Jean also holds dual citizenship through her marriage with her French husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond with whom they've made many documentaries together.  She also worked as a reporter for the French CBC network as well as hosting and producing news documentaries for both the English and French language services of the CBC.  Her family now extends to their daughter, Marie-Eden, adopted from Haiti.

Along with the appointment, Michaëlle Jean will be the first black woman to hold the post of Governor General and the first from a family with foreign roots.  And that's it for firsts.  If you're keeping score, she's the second from a visible minority, the second in a mixed marriage, the third woman, the fourth youngest person, and the fourth journalist.  In other words, there have been many trailblazers before her, but she does add a couple of firsts of her own.

The controversy started when it was reported that her husband previously befriended FLQ terrorist Paul Rose, even making a bookcase for the couple.  This raised questions on her family's true loyalties.  Talk show hosts and political knuckleheads from both federalist and separatist camps were demanding that she reveal how she voted in the last referendum and whether she supported the separatist cause or not.  She and her husband had to release a statement affirming their loyalty to Canada and that she would not have accepted the position otherwise.  That didn't appease the knuckleheads.

The only area where I believe there could be problems is with her dual citizenship.  However, this is nothing unusual since many nations already require their citizens to surrender their passports if they're elected or nominated in a position of power in a foreign government.  However, the French government already made it known that they won't be asking Jean to surrender her passport.

Conservative and separatist knuckleheads are still causing trouble even to this day.  In fact, I've never seen so much hatred over a candidate for Governor General in all my life, a position that is mostly ceremonial in nature.  It's as if they don't like black people or something.

I Say Tomayto, You Say Tomahto

Here's a restaurant pricing critique from my sister Jacinthe.

What is the difference between a $42 filet mignon and a $25 filet mignon? The price. Last week, I had supper at a restaurant in Ottawa with a friend. I had very dry bruschetta, a filet mignon with fries (no vegetables, no gravy), and a bottle of red wine. The bill was a whopping $120 (including a very small tip) for this ONE tiny meal. Recently in Montreal, my mother and I ordered a similar meal (no appetizer but the steak came with a side order of gravy, crisp vegetables and fries, and we had wine and coffee). The bill was $70 for BOTH meals (large tip included).

The steaks were the same size and quality at both restaurants. Why then was the difference in price so great? Was the cow that produced the $42 steak prettier than the other cow? Did it come from an elite group of cows? Maybe it had more education than the other cow and was worth more money?

When I saw the bill in Ottawa, I had a cow -- literally. I thought there was a typo and that the numbers in the price of the steak had accidentally been inverted. No typo – the price of the steak was almost as high as my age.

The only conclusion that I can draw from this experience is that I will never again eat at that restaurant in Ottawa. Their cows are out of my league!

Moo!

July 12, 2005

New York City

I went on a little vacation this year.  This is what happened.

January 8, 2005

New look, less filling

Happy New Year everyone!  Do you like the revamped Web site?  The original design was getting a bit old, and it wasn't well suited for the newer computer displays coming out including some of the widescreen models.  Also, it was a bit difficult to maintain.  So I've made a few touch-ups, maintaining the same basic layout (Features on the left, main body on the right) and dropping the space hogging header and footer from the top and bottom of the page.

The year in review

2004 wasn't necessarily a good year for everyone.  And for those living in the South Asian Sea area, it was literally a disaster!  In an area that's not accustomed to big waves, they've be hit by one of such magnitude and at such a fast speed that it devastated the coastlines of just about every country located in the Sea of Bengal.  The wave heading westward was so strong that it even reached the African coast.

The CBC has a map depicting the scale of the devastation along with an animated clip of the tsunami wave's path.  What was especially frightening in the animation is seeing the westward wave bounce off of India and Sri-Lanka's coastlines and head back to the north-eastern part of the bay.  Even after the initial wave has hit a coastline, the surrounding geography may send back an unpleasant surprise later on.

Remember to make your donations to charities you know are legitimate.  Already there are plenty of fraud artists out there trying to separate you from your money by going through your feelings.  There's no lack of parasites out there.

In other news, Canada has a elected new prime minister, then fell right back to sleep.  Well, maybe not.  In a bit of exciting news, the current Liberal government is actually a minority government!  For the non-Canadians amongst you who wonder how this could happen, it's important to know that Canada's political system is parliamentary based, meaning that the voters in each riding of the country elects a single person to represent them in Ottawa.  Whichever political party has the most elected representatives or "seats" in Ottawa's parliament becomes the party that runs the country.  And the leader of that party become the prime minister by default.

Now how do you get a minority government?  Simple.  First you need a minimum of three strong political parties in the country.  Canada has four of them.  Liberal, New Conservative, Bloc Québecois and New Democratic Party.  Second, the party who wins the most seats in the election must also have won less than 50% of the total seats in parliament.

And that's exactly what happened here.  The liberals have won 135 seats, but the combined seats of all the other parties total 173!  And that means that all the other parties can get together and bring a motion for a non-confidence vote.  If the motion is passed, the current government is dissolved and an election date is set.  Another way to defeat the government is when the yearly budget is put to a vote.  If the majority of members of parliament or M.P.s vote against the proposed budget, that's seen as a non-confidence vote producing the the same result.  Joe Clarke found that out the hard way back in 1980 after only nine months in power.

In The U.S., George W. Bust was elected president for the very first time.  In the last election, the Supreme Court had to decide the final outcome of that election following the voting disasters in Florida.  This time around, there were still a few problems especially with the new electronic voting equipment, but overall the election was seen as fair and "Dubyah" was elected with both a majority of electoral college votes and popular votes.  Still, you have to remember this is the same man who looked like a deer caught in headlights when told the country was under attack by terrorists.

In Montreal, the city's blue-collar workers are annoyed at being forced to work five days per week like the rest of us and have started pressure tactics to go back to working only four days per week!  These pressure tactics include delaying snow and ice removal from the downtown core, resulting in a steady increase of snow and ice related injuries.  I find the situation so distasteful that if I was presented with the opportunity to work in another city, I might consider it!  Ever since the forced merging of the suburbs, the Montreal area has become even more mismanaged than ever before!  How can you keep living in a city that appears to be managed by a mafia trained goon squad instead of the elected representatives?

My personal improvements

Not much, really.  I still work for the same company, now having fourteen years of employment under my belt.  Relationship-wise, I'm not seeing anyone at this time.  Then again, it's not like I'm actively looking for a soul mate.  But you never know

Family-wise, my father is actually beating the odds, being treated for liver cancer through a procedure that's much less radical than traditional chemotherapy.  Already the treatments have extended his life for over a year, surpassing his projected life expectancy if the disease wasn't caught and treated on time.  Even better, the localized treatments do not disrupt his system in a critical manner aside from the need to get plenty of rest following the short hospital stay.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  This is the new hobby I'm taking up!

This is the Godin Exit-22 electric guitar with two single coil pickups and a humbucker.  The three-piece body is composed of lightly varnished solid mahogany, and the handle is a 24¾" scale rock maple handle with maple fingerboard and 22 frets.  Included is a five way switch along with volume and tone controls.

And what did I do after I bought it?  I proceeded to rip out the electronics and rebuild them from scratch!  The reason for this is because the volume and tone controls were way too noisy, indicating defective pots.  Also, the electronics included a few ground loops (they act as antennas for all the surrounding noise) and improperly shielded wiring.  Considering how much I've paid for the thing (only $450 with the case) and that it was still essentially a well built guitar, I decided to throw caution to the wind and rewire the thing myself with a bit of help from some useful Web sites.

Yes, the guitar still works.  In fact, I really like how it sounds now.  It even seems to play a bit louder than before.

Note: the guitar has recently been upgraded with Bill Lawrence pickups and two push-pull pots.  I now have 7-way switching and both L and EQ Q-filter settings.  The pickups are a pair of L-280s and an L-500XL.

The first practice guitar amplifier I've bought was the Fender Frontman II 15R, a 15 watt model with reverb.  Unfortunately, it also included plenty of distortion and lots of AC line noise!  The amplifier is a poorly designed unit that doesn't do a decent job.  And it's too late to return it for something else. So...

"FOR SALE: GUITAR AMP, SLIGHTLY USED, CHEAP!"

I purchased another amplifier that I've felt would do a much better job, a Roland Micro-Cube.  This amp is a two watt job that can run on batteries!  Even more important, it has some decent amplifier emulations, various sound effects, a noise gate (kills the hum in the single coil pickups when you're not playing) and is not as susceptible to AC line noise.  As an experiment, I connected the amp's line-out connection to my home theatre receiver.  I was surprised how nice it sounded!  This little box could actually be used as an effects box connected to a stage monitor.  Granted there aren't any pedal features available with it, but I'm not at that stage just yet.

I also tried connecting the Fender to my receiver.  Forget it!  All you hear is the line noise from the AC voltage!  Ouch!

So does this mean I know how to play the guitar?  Of course not!  I'm still learning!  I do feel a bit sorry for my neighbours.  It might get a WEE BIT noisy in the apartment!  Heh heh!

September 20, 2004

Yes, it's been a very long time since my last update.  The only pages I was updating in the last year were the DVD List page and the IBM 600 Battery page.  I haven't even reviewed any movies in the last few months.  I've been very quiet.

But if I did continue to speak my mind, the subject matter would have been very repetitive.  Simply put, the news is incredibly boring.  Even Canada's recent federal election wasn't enough to raise my spirits because the same clowns were running for office again.  Ok, maybe the Conservative's Harper fellow was new, but his views and opinions made me dread the bad ol' days of the Mulroney Conservatives.

And what about the Viet...Iraq war?  Aside from the daily bombings, kidnappings and ambushes, life is almost back to normal!  Man they must be happy over there!  Honestly, I don't know if they were better off with Saddam Hussein in the first place.  All they had to worry about back then was the sudden disappearance of family members and friends.  And need I remind you that it was the United States that put Hussein in charge of the country in the first place?

But the United States doesn't have to worry about all that!  They have good ol' Dubyah protecting them each and every day from non-existent weapons of mass destruction!  Don't you feel safer knowing George W. Bush is in charge of the country?  Of course you do!  And if you don't, that means you have no faith in your leader and you're an unpatriotic S.O.B.!  Or at the very least that's how you're made to feel in today's climate of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt.)

To be honest, I'm not certain John Kerry can do a better job.  He simply doesn't react quickly and forcibly enough against Bush's attacks.  What kind of a leader will that make him if he is elected?  Will he wimp out at every confrontation?  I suspect this is why the polls are frequently split between the two candidates.

All anyone had to worry about from Bill Clinton was his infidelity, a private matter that should never have been brought up in front of a grand jury.  In the end, the former president did properly manage the country without pissing off the rest of the world in the process.

Since then, the only politician who has ever show any potential to become a powerful, convincing and well respected leader was Colin Powell.  Unfortunately, he ended up working for Little Bush, completely ruining any credibility he may have had in the past.  This is probably the biggest disappointment I've ever experienced in my years of following American politics.

On Canada's (*choke*) cultural side, the CRTC continues to try and protect a culture which doesn't exist.  And they accomplish that by pissing off people from both Italian and Arab backgrounds at the same time by denying access to one channel and putting so many restrictions on another channel that people will end up paying fifty bucks a month to watch a blank screen.

Of course, the CRTC also has time to try and sabotage cultures that do exist, more notably by attempting to shut down Quebec City's radio station CHOI FM by denying them their license renewal due to the comments made by their controversial morning man Jean-François "Jeff" Fillion.  The station was ordered shut down by midnight at the end of August 31st, but the radio station with the support of their almost 400,000 fans have managed to have the case heard in federal court.  The station's deadline was stayed pending the resolution of the case.

There are plenty of other things that piss me off such as the 30% increase in my school tax bill (not a cent will be seen by the actual school commissions.)  This is why I stopped posting for many months.  Everything I'd write about would have been mostly anger and resentment towards the actions of mostly incompetent people.  And don't get me started on what I think of the major news media outlets, the biggest bunch of vultures and con artists I've ever encountered!

That's enough venting for now.  I have to get back to my real life.

May 20, 2003.

Here's a few tidbits just so you all know I'm still alive.

  • The US-Iraq War is over.  The US won.

  • The Quebec elections are over.  The Liberals won.

  • The Israel-Palestine war is still going strong.  People from both sides are still dying.

  • It finally stopped snowing.  You can put your coats away.

  • The Canadian DVD Group Web site is no more.  The Webmaster simply had no more time left to keep it updated.

  • There's a really sexy beer commercial on TV (Brazil Bavaria brand beer) that's stirring up a lot of complaints because of the incredibly beautiful girl in the skimpy bikini.  I had to watch the commercial at least five time before I finally caught what it was they were actually selling.

  • Based on his appearances on The Tonight Show, why is Dennis Miller so angry at everyone and every nation?

  • The Matrix Reloaded has just been released in theaters.  You should be able to download the movie from the Internet by now.  The MPAA is not amused.

  • For the first time since I moved into my loft four years ago, I've finally dusted the horizontal blinds, the ceiling fans and the brick walls.  I can now breathe more freely.

  • TMN is still not showing enough movies in their original aspect ratio.  I want to watch the whole movie, not half a movie.

  • Toronto resolved its SARS problem.  China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are not so lucky.

  • Toronto and the rest of Canada now have to deal with the West Nile virus.  We may not be so lucky after all.

  • On the American side of the border, many still consider president George W. Bush a moron.  On the Canadian side, everyone still can't understand what prime minister Jean Chrétien is trying to say.

  • In the province of Quebec, you can finally turn right on a red light everywhere except Montreal.  Allowing such a move in our fair city would triple the pedestrian death rate overnight.

Have a nice summer!


March 30, 2003.

Hi-Fi Expo review

I just attended this year's edition of the Montreal Hi-Fi-Expo and was not all that thrilled with what I saw this year.  You can find the review over here.

Quebec elections

Yes, we have provincial elections scheduled for April 14.  And this time, it's a three party race!  Just do yourselves a big favour and don't let the polls make the decision for you.  It's important for all of you to vote for who you believe is best qualified for running the province for the next four to five years.  This attitude of not wanting to "throw away your vote" doesn't do anyone any favours and is totally anti-democratic.

My opinion on the Iraq War

I know.  Everyone has an opinion on this.  But so do I.  And I feel I should let people know how I feel about this whole issue which I find totally ridiculous.  But instead of making this section long winded, I'll just point out briefly what I think among all the issues that are currently confronting us.

Canada's official position to stay out of the war: I agree with it.  The United States and England have embarked on an action that has received no official backing from the United Nations Security Council.  Even if the veto wasn't a factor, UN backing of the war would not have received the nine votes it needed to pass.  As for prime minister Chrétien's reasons behind the official government decision, I don't think they have anything to do with common sense or human decency.  He's a politician spending his last year in office.  He might simply be trying to boost his "legacy".

The news media: CNN and MSNBC are not only pro-war, they're also very pro-American, making for a very one-sided discussion.  The CBC is however very anti-war, maybe a bit too much.  Again, we have another highly one-sided debate going on.  As for Al Jazeera, they're simply doing what the American networks have been doing for years when the subject didn't affect them directly.  Report the blood and guts equally from all sides.

Violations of the Geneva Convention: Everyone's guilty of this. With all those cameras all over the place, how can you not film prisoners of war in time for the next broadcast?

UN Inspections: As crazy as this may seem, they were actually working.  With all those UN inspectors across the country, Sadaam Hussein couldn't fart without the UN knowing about it, much less make an adequate supply of "Weapons Of Mass Destruction".  And inspectors are certainly cheaper and less violent than an armed invasion which will now cost the USA about 75 billion dollars per month.

The Canadian War supporters: If you believe that Canada should join the United States in this conflict, I can easily respect that as long as it's not for economic reasons.  If you feel we need to send our soldiers in a dangerous situation in order to protect our economic ties with the Unites States, something is seriously wrong with our society when the almighty dollar takes priority over a human life.

Economic Trade between the USA and Canada: If you think Canada's non-participation in the conflict will come back to haunt us, don't worry.  Canada and the USA are possibly the largest trading partners in the world.  No matter how much the politicians squawk in the microphones, no business on either side of the border is ready to lose that level of business.

Going against the United Nations: This is where the United States and Britain might have attracted more trouble than they would have wished.  By defying the UN, they're basically saying the opinions of other nations is not important to them.  Now those other nations are almost ready to consider that the USA and Britain are not important for their viability.

Britain's contribution: One question.  Why is Britain in this?  I haven't figured it out yet.  I can understand the USA wanting some free oil as well as get rid of a tyrant they used to support in the past, but what's England's reasons for joining this war?  Prime minister Tony Blair not only lost a lot of support, he also lost a lot of well established friends in the last few weeks.

Michael Moore: He laid it way too thick during the Oscar ceremonies.  Also, no matter what you think of George W. Bush, he was elected legitimately and fairly.  He is not a "fictitious president" as Moore wants us to believe.

The French: Why all this sudden hatred towards the French?  They're not the only ones against this war.  The comments uttered by various members of the American news media have become downright vicious!  In this country, these comments might be considered hate crimes under the criminal code.

"Weapons of Mass Destruction": You want to make your own chemical weapons?  Just look under your kitchen and bathroom counters!  Read the labels on the containers and look at the parts that warn you about not mixing their household cleaning products with other products.  Even the Ontario Poison Prevention Center broadcasted a commercial about this very danger a few months ago.  As for the other weapons of mass destruction, if Sadaam is making so many of them as the USA insists, how is it not a single UN inspector has found one yet?

Official US criticism towards Canada's position: You wanted a war, you deal with it.  You haven't received official UN backing on the invasion.  We'll just stick with dealing with the real terrorist threat in Afghanistan.

The United States military: What disappoints me the most is that the US military, probably the best equipped military organization in the world, has been sent overseas to fight a war that has received no official international backing.  It doesn't make me feel good when I see American servicemen get killed thousands of miles away for a cause whose legitimacy is seriously in doubt.  Knowing the US government has just cut back support to US veterans doesn't help either.  They risked their lives for their country Damn it!  Why leave them out in the cold like that?  What is today's soldier suppose to think knowing his own government may not support him when that very support is needed the most later on?

Canadian and American citizens: For the most part, the only people with class in this whole affair.  Even if we don't always agree with each other, we don't feel we have to start going at each other's throats.  All in all, the politicians are the ones causing the most trouble.

Now you know what I think.  Have a good week.

February 26, 2003.

Those bastards!

Remember a while back when Prime Minister Chrétien's communications director Françoise Ducros called president Bush a moron?  Well it happened again!  Only this time it's much broader name calling!  Liberal Member of Parliament Carolyn Parrish was speaking to a few reporters about Canada's diplomatic initiative on Iraq when right at the very end of the discussion, she utters,

"Damn Americans ... I hate those bastards."

For many days, the United States government, the entertainment media and the general public were blasting away at France for not supporting the American pseudo-war effort, many comments coming very close to being considered a hate crime in this country.  Now with this nasty comment, the United States now has a brand new whipping boy!  Or whipping girl depending on your point of view.

The next few days should be very interesting -- that is if the Americans even notice the blurb.

March 1st, 2003.  They haven't noticed it.  I've found no information on the incident on the CNN, MSNBC, CBS and ABC news Web sites.  Searches on "Carolyn Parrish" and "Bastards" have returned no news links whatsoever.  The only item I could find was a reference to the incident on one of the Web site's discussion forum.


February 23, 2003.

What a difference a month makes

Many events have occurred since my last update.  Surprisingly, very little of it was related to the upcoming US-Iraq War.

In the morning of Saturday February 1st, the space shuttle Columbia was lost during re-entry.  Seven astronauts from different parts of the USA and the world were lost in the incident.  Most of the debris field was spread over the Northern part of Texas and the adjoining states.  However, pieces were found as far as California indicating the break-up occurred much sooner than originally believed.  Up to now, NASA has ruled none of the many possible scenarios that would attribute to the shuttle's break-up during re-entry.  What is certain at this time is that the incident started in the area of the left wing and/or the left wheel well.  But how and what could have been damaged in that area prior to re-entry is still being investigated.

On Tuesday February 4, Jazz musician Charlie Biddle passed away at the age of 76 following a long battle with cancer.  Biddle left his native Philadelphia in 1948 and established roots in Montreal during the city's wild days where he became a legend in the Jazz community alongside legends Charlie Parker and Oscar Peterson.  He was "instrumental" in setting the groundwork for the Montreal International Jazz Festival when he held a three-day jazz festival back in 1979 which grew in popularity.  The ecumenical service held later in the week was attended by thousands of people including many personalities from both the entertainment and political scenes.  All were unanimous in Biddle's contribution to Montreal's Jazz scene.  The man will be missed but his music will be enjoyed for centuries to come.

On February 7, Jesica Santillan, a 17 year old girl originally from Mexico received a heart-lung transplant at Duke University Hospital in the United States.  Unfortunately, the doctors failed to properly match the blood type of the new organs.  As a result, organs of blood type A- were transplanted in a person with blood type O+.  Jesica's body began to reject the new organs almost immediately.  At first, the doctors tried to bury the mistake even going as far as attempting to bar Jesica's US sponsor access to her hospital room.  It took a call from the state governor to make the hospital's administration back away from their threats.  Despite a second transplant on February 19, Jesica's body couldn't handle the strain.  Her brain started to swell and eventually stopped receiving blood altogether.  The damage was irreversible.  Jesica passed away yesterday.  For more information on Jesica and the battle for her life, please visit her official Web page.

On February 16, there was a stampede at the Epitome night club in Chicago following an incident inside the club which may or may not have involved guns.  21 people died in the stampede.  The club was already cited for municipal violations and was supposedly ordered shut down but was still allowed to continue to operate.  Then on February 20, a rock band named Great White used pyrotechnics in their act at a Rhode Island club, setting off a fire that resulted in the death of 97 people.  The club was operating legally, but they never authorized the band to set off pyrotechnics during their act.  Thos that weren't burnt to death were killed by the stampede for the main exit.  In less than four days, the United States experienced two very deadly nightclub incidents.

Needless to say it's been a very rough month.  Let's hope things get a little better in March.

Other less dramatic news

On February 18, Bell ExpressVu's spanking new satellite, the Nimiq 2, suffered a severe power failure which knocked out a third of the transponders along with the programming they carried.  Bell managed to reprogram the satellite and restore the bulk of their programming with only some of the HDTV content and a few Pay-Per-View channels missing from the line-up.  It's suspected that defective solar panels are responsible for the power loss.  Bell and the satellite manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, are still investigating the matter.  It's not know at this time if Bell's original satellite, the Nimiq 1, will be repositioned back to its original orbital slot in order to restore all of the programming.

After New York and the Maritimes, it's Montreal's turn to experience a major snowstorm this weekend.  But unlike New York, all a major snowstorm manages to do to Montrealers and Maritimers alike is slow them down a bit.  Rarely does any winter storm ever shut down an entire city.  The last time that happened in Montreal, we were victims of an ice storm!  And yet people were still trying to get around town even then.  We're a tough bunch.  We might even be a bit crazy.

Any new reviews?

Yes, a new DVD review is coming soon.  I know my output has dropped dramatically in the last few months, but between my daily workload and my satellite dish, I'm simply not watching as many DVDs as I used to watch.  Also, it's becoming more and more difficult to find really interesting DVDs out there (I'm always reselling newer ones).  As a consequence, I'm not reviewing as many DVDs as I used to review.  I'll still try to review at least one movie per month, but that's not guaranteed.

The next scheduled review will be "Eat My Dust", Ron Howard's first starring feature produced by Roger Corman.  After that, I don't know what I'll review.

January 27, 2003.

News?  What news?

I know I haven't posted here in a while now.  That's because there hasn't been much new news recently.  Israelis and Palestinians are still playing their murderous and suicidal games, The USA is still threatening to rid Iraq of their "weapons of mass destruction", and it's still cold here in Montreal.

Actually, that was all that was significantly different.  Great chunks of North America were recently swept by a cold wave we haven't felt in many years.  For over a week, the chill factor had dropped below -30°C, even going as low as -40°C at one point.  At those temperatures, it's not unusual for people to feel unusually cold even in their own dwellings.  Most modern homes are usually well insulated, but these low temperatures can challenge the best homes out there.

Toilet paper anyone?

In other news, the ongoing terrorist threats in the United States has made politicians extremely paranoid.  Already, various new laws implemented by paranoid and status-seeking politicians have seriously eroded civil rights to the point where one could start questioning the oath all politicians must make when taking office.  In a land where the US Constitution and the flag are considered sacred, it's incredible at what point these two symbols are being trampled into the ground.

That's where I had an idea for a highly controversial novelty item.  Bill Of Rights Toilet Paper!  Since the US constitution's amendments have lost their importance in the last couple of years, why not recycle them into something more useful?  Now you can wipe your ass with useless amendments such as the right to be protected against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Yes, I know.  It's rather harsh.  But how else can one feel knowing that today, any US official can intercept and read an individual's e-mails without so much as a search warrant.  Even worse, what about the reports of people of middle-east origins being detained by police for an excessive amount of time and totally isolated from their families for "reasons of national security"?

Does Canada have any backbone?

In a related matter, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen originally born in Syria, was detained by US immigration last September during a stop-over in New York City while on his way home.  After being interrogated for over nine hours, Mr. Arar was deported to Syria despite possessing a valid Canadian passport.  He is now rotting in a Syrian jail where both his safety and survival are in serious doubt.

The Canadian government talks a lot, but they are an organization with no backbone whatsoever.  While cabinet ministers babble about negotiations and diplomacy, a Canadian citizen who has been illegally deported to a hostile nation by our neighbor to the south is still not back home with his family.  It's because of situations like this that I now feel it's no longer safe for any Canadian citizen to travel to either the United States or to any other country in the world.  If you're arrested for committing a crime, regardless if you're innocent or guilty, you can't depend on the government of Canada to assist you in any way.  Even worse, in the case of an extreme injustice such as what has occurred to Mr. Arar, the Canadian government won't assist you at all.

Superbowl Crazy!

On a lighter note, I've had the chance to watch the Superbowl this year with all the American commercials left intact thanks to a nearby ABC affiliate and a UHF antenna.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won a resounding victory against the Oakland Raiders, 48 to 21, in a game that was reasonably free of controversial referee decisions and dirty tricks.  The only tricks that were occurring on the field were the number of crucial interceptions carried out by the Buccaneers defense line which looked more like an offensive line the way the game was played.  It was a great and highly entertaining game.

The commercials for the most part were reasonably entertaining.  There weren't any commercials close to surpassing the impact of Apple's 1984 "Big Brother" Macintosh spectacular, but there were still some entertaining moments such as the very funny Budweiser and Bud Light commercials involving everyday dilemmas blown way out of proportion such as the "mother-daughter" segment.  As beautiful as the Cadillac commercials looked on the small screen, they left me rather cold looking very much like every other car commercial that preceded them.

Satellite Crazy!

I now have a problem.  If ABC doesn't broadcast the Superbowl next year, it may be necessary for me to find an alternate source for my commercial entertainment.  That's because the CRTC requires Canadian cable and satellite systems to substitute American broadcasts with Canadian ones whenever the same show is broadcasted at the same time in both countries.  Anyone forced into watching the Superbowl broadcast this year on the Global Television Network saw the great and exciting American commercials replaced with very dull and unimpressive Canadian commercials.  I can't live with this blatant sabotage of an American institution.  So what will I do next year?  Do I just turn off the Canadian commercials and simply watch the American commercials on the Internet at sites such as http://www.ifilm.com ?  Or do I finally break down and purchase an illegal American based satellite system?

I feel the CRTC's current policies are actually hurting the Canadian cable and satellite companies instead of helping them out, denying Canadians access to the type of programming they really want.  Already, many people simply don't consider satellite signal theft a crime because for starters, they can't physically see the signal that's supposedly being stolen.  The other more serious problem is that Canadian don't have unrestricted access to the kind of programming available in the United States, creating a crippling television void within English Canada.  If the Canadian based cable and satellite service providers were given the opportunity to provide the type of programming Canadians truly wanted to watch along with wiping out all current signal substitution practices, satellite signal theft would most likely drop dramatically now that there was a true choice of television programming on the Canadian airwaves.

And what about English language Canadian television shows?  For the most part, the shows are dull and unimpressive, and simply not important enough to keep on the air.  The only Canadian based television channel that has created true Canadian content worth watching these days is the CBC with their hockey games and episodes of DaVinci's Inquest for example.  As for CTV and Global, their feeble attempts at creating Canadian content are an embarrassment to the nation.  Has anyone out there actually tried to watch "Degrassi: The Next Generation?"  Your stomach wouldn't survive the traumatic experience.

I want to remain a legitimate satellite service subscriber, but the current laws are making this goal almost impossible to achieve.  I was able to receive the Superbowl broadcast unaltered this year because I happen to have a UHF antenna and was able to receive the neighboring ABC affiliate across the Canada-US border, the only American station I can receive in my home.  But how do I get ready for next year especially if ABC doesn't carry the broadcast?  If I do connect myself to an illegal satellite system for next year's Superbowl, will this only be a one-time yearly event?  Or will the attraction of specialty services such as HBO be too good to pass up?

Satellite signal theft is a very serious problem in this country.  It doesn't help that this situation was brought on by irrational Canadian broadcast standards in a vain attempt to protect and promote a culture that doesn't exist.

New DVD review!

Alfred Hitchcock's "To Catch A Thief".  Enjoy!


December 12, 2002.

President Moron

I won't dwell for long on this subject.  By now you've heard about the senior member of Prime Minister Chrétien's staff uttering "What a moron!" in reply to President Bush's request for increased defense spending.  The only person who made the more obvious mistake here was Françoise Ducros for not shutting her yap at a time when she should have known better.

Out of curiosity, I did a search on Google for the word "Moron".  And wouldn't you know it?  The first site to come up was http://www.presidentmoron.com, a site dedicated to the lack of intelligence of the American President.  Even more incredible, the site has been up since the President's election victory in December of 2000, a full two years before Ms. Ducros' screw-up!

I just wanted to point out the irony of the whole affair.

New TV

I received my new TV set, a non-flat 27" Toshiba.  This will get me by until I find something more appropriate for a home theater that doesn't cost as much as a car.

The set is not perfect.  Although I was able to calibrate the set to a level where the colors are almost perfect, I was unable to fix some of the geometry problems.  First, the overscan on the sides exceeds 6%.  Second, the image is slanted to the left.  Third, there are convergence errors in the upper-right corner.

So why don't I return the set?  Because most other TV sets out there suffer from the same problems at varying degrees of severity!  It's so bad that buying a budget-priced TV today is now a crap shoot!  Even worse, those fancy +$2,000 34" 16x9 HDTV sets aren't necessarily better!  Sure they display progressively scanned images, but have you seen the corners?  Also, the 4x3 image on a 34" 16x9 set comes to about 25" in size.  So essentially, you're paying over $2,000 for a 25" TV which you could easily get for about $400.

So what are my options?  I don't know at this time.  Plasma displays are still too expensive, the price of replacement LCD and DLP front projection system bulbs cost more than my new 27" TV, and I find rear projection sets to be simply too big for my apartment even if I live in a loft.

One option is a refurbished CRT projector with a video processor.  Surprisingly, they're not that expensive and they can do HDTV.  Since my screen size requirements are modest, I can easily use a painter's canvas treated with Gesso as a movie screen.  Overall, these systems can cost around $3,000-$5,000 depending on the capabilities of the projector and the condition of the tubes.  But before you go out and buy one for yourself, please note that these systems must be professionally installed and calibrated.  I have the qualifications required to do this job, but you might not.  And hiring someone to set up your system properly could cost you quite a few bucks.

Still, a CRT based projection system is an option.  The equipment takes up much less room than any of the other options: a flat screen on the wall and a CRT projector placed inside a redesigned coffee table.  You can also claim you now have your own movie theater in your home.

New DVD review

This is a big one!  The HBO series Band of Brothers, a six disc special edition tin which has probably set a new benchmark for a television series on DVD.  Enjoy!


November 18, 2002.

IBM 600 Battery Page updates and info

An update has been made to the IBM ThinkPad 600 Battery Page.  It contains quite a bit of information from ThinkPad 600 series owners received in the last month.  Unfortunately, it doesn't include any definite solution to our problem.  And considering how quickly our notebooks are becoming obsolete each and every day, it may become pointless to push this issue any farther.  However, we're not totally helpless.  We can still speak loudly with our pocketbooks if need be.

New disc review

This time it's a TV special, "Carol Burnett: Show Stoppers", a free DVD courtesy of the Canadian DVD Users Group.  However, it's not because I receive free screeners from time to time that I compromise my standards.  This will unfortunately be demonstrated in this new review.

The next scheduled review will be the special edition tin of the HBO series "Band of Brothers".  But if you want to know right now if this ten part mini-series about an American WWII paratrooper company is worth the +$100 price tag, the answer is a definite yes!  "Band of Brothers" is probably the most accurate and terrifying depiction of the Second World War ever presented on any medium.  Without a doubt, the series succeeds in every possible detail including the storyline, the acting and the special effects.  So if you're already into realistic World War II epics, get this series right now!

My TV set is broken and it's snowing!

After ten years of faithful use, my 20" JVC TV set has finally bit the big one.  It was resting on shelving I built not too long ago.  In fact,  I put it on the shelving when the paint was not quite dry.  As a result, when I try to lift it, it wouldn't budge.  I pulled harder.  The TV lifted with a resounding SNAP!  At first, I didn't think anything was wrong.  But the I noticed the top of the screen was green while the bottom of the screen was red.  My best guess is that SNAP! shifted the electron gun inside the picture tube and misaligned the whole works.  Drat!

Luckily, a 20" TV set is not too expensive these days.  But with today's snowstorm in the Montreal area, it would have been very difficult to pick up the set I ordered last week -- that is if it actually arrived at the store today!  Something tells me it never made it.

Luckily it's no big rush.  For now, I'm using my notebook computer and a Hauppauge WinTV USB module to display the image from the satellite receiver.  The picture is a bit fuzzy (USB 1.0 is not a very fast communications protocol for video content) and the 13.3" screen is very small, but the set-up does allow me to watch my regular shows without losing too much of the content.

This temporary setback has given me time to examine more closely new display technologies.  As I have reported in my Montreal HI-FI Expo 2002 review, this year was the year of the DLP.  But now with 2003 fast approaching us, next year might become the year of the plasma display.  I say this because one of the best plasma displays available on the market, more specifically the Panasonic line of plasma displays, now costs $8,000 at Future Shop.  When you factor out the excessive profit margin Future Shop is making on the thing, this means decent quality 42" plasma displays are very close to breaking the $7,000 price barrier.  Same sized HD compliant displays are a close second at about $9,000.  This is a far cry from the +$10,000 price tags of last year for similar sized plasma displays.

Yes, RPTV displays of similar sizes can be obtained for much less, but the technology used in these sets is not all that stable and tends to drift with time, creating all kinds of geometry and convergence problems.  Plasma displays on the other hand are fixed-pixel devices which usually require no more than basic adjustments to get them looking just right, the kind of adjustments an individual can easily accomplish with an AVIA disc and less than an hour of work.  Convergence and geometry issues are non-issues because their design eliminates any need to perform these adjustments.  Proper geometry and convergence is built into the design!

For now, I can live with the new 20" TV I just ordered.  Being a Toshiba, I know how to get into the service menu and adjust the TV so it looks just right for my needs.  Also, since it's a very basic model, I don't have to battle with picture destroying features such as velocity scan modulation and color correction.  I might have to deal with a bit of red push in the image, but I believe I can also fix that if I can located the proper setting in the service menu.  And if I'm really lucky, maybe the set comes with the provisions needed to support an S-Video input and it's just a matter of adding the proper connector in the right place in order to activate it.  If that's not possible, it's no big loss.  After all, it's just a 20" set.

It'll be interesting to see the sticker price of next year's plasma displays.  At this rate, they'll eventually rival the price of most RPTV and tube-based displays out there.

Border trouble

There's been many problems at the border between Canada and the United States in recent times.  And from the look of things, they seem to be getting worse.

It all started when the United States indicated it would start photographing and fingerprinting anyone who was born in what the USA perceives as "hostile nations".  Unfortunately, this included Canadian citizens born in any of the listed countries regardless of when they immigrated to Canada.  The situation was so bad that the Canadian government found it necessary to issue a travel advisory to all Canadian citizens originally born in the listed countries that it wasn't advisable to visit the United States at this time.

A short while later, the United States suspended this directive with regards to Canadian citizens.  Afterwards, the Canadian government retracted the travel advisory.  Unfortunately, the behaviour of the border guards has become more and more hostile as time passed on.  To put it simply, the United States now practices racial profiling along their borders, a practice which is illegal in their own country but which is picking up steam in defiance of their own constitution.

Then in October, Michel Jalbert, a Canadian citizen living in a border town located between Quebec and Maine, was arrested at a gas station located on the US side of the border because he failed to check in at the customs office and was carrying a hunting rifle at the time.  It was easy for an INS official to assume this since the man in question was wearing a red hunting jacket on him.  As for the gas station itself, the entrance to the station is located on the Canadian side of the border while the pumps are located on the American side.  Since the next nearest gas station is located some 75 kilometers from the town, the area basically  has only one local gas station.

Most of the townspeople buy gas at this single station without even bothering to check in at the customs office.  When you live in a border town, this behaviour is perfectly normal especially when you consider the town's main road is also the borderline.  And under normal circumstances, the customs officials of both countries don't even take a second glance at these frequent border crossings.  But ever since "September 11", government and security officials of the United States have become so paranoid that they are now jeopardizing the close relationship our countries have had for over a century.

Eventually, Michel Jalbert was granted bail for one of the charges.  But as soon as the bail was paid, the INS arrested him again on one of the other charges!  Jalbert had spent over a month in a foreign jail, a situation further aggravated by the fact he doesn't speak or understand a word of English!  He signed a paper indicating he entered the United States illegally just so he can get back home.  However, this piece of paper could be damaging to him once his trial comes up in January.

That is if he even bothers to show up.  After such a harrowing experience, the first statement he made to reporters is that Canadians should avoid going to the United States at all costs, that the trouble he went through for a lousy tank of gas was simply not worth it.  It wouldn't surprise me if he refuses to cross the border to stand trial.  With one child in his arms and another child on the way, Michel Jalbert doesn't want to risk never seeing his family ever again.  And all this because of overzealous INS officials encouraged by the current paranoia which permeates American society.

Has it stopped there?  Not by a long shot.  The border crossing situation has become so severe that even Canadian companies doing business in the United States must screen their employees for "ethnic suitability" before they can go to the States to do their job.  As broadcasted on the CBC TV show "Venture", Canadian companies are now forced to perform their own version of racial profiling just to ensure their employees wont be harassed or detained at the American border.  If you're not "racially pure", you're essentially barred from doing your job.  And if you can't do your job, you may no longer be an asset to your employer and run the risk of being laid off.

I've crossed the Canada-US border in the past with no problems.  However, I've always noticed the American border guards always appeared much more paranoid than the Canadian guards who were always courteous.  With the current conditions in place, maybe I should forget about visiting the United States any time soon despite being "racially pure" in the eyes of US Customs.  Michel Jalbert was also "racially pure", yet he was arrested while trying to buy cheap gas across the street in his home town!  And if you think you're exempt from racial profiling today, think again.  One day, your neighbour is the target of these security measures; the next day, it might be your turn.  History has shown this to be true more than once.

There's a sign at one of the border crossings that states "May these gates never close".  Well, at the rate these new security measures are cropping up, it won't be long before the gates are closed tight!  And if that ever happens, it will be very difficult to reopen them again.  Considering both Canada and the United States are each other's most important trading partners, this is very bad for business.  And at the rate the United States is making foreign visitors feel unwelcome in their country, the United States risks losing a few allied countries along the way.

After all, no one likes a bully.


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