Participation Proclamation

The stuff I ramble about actually does not fall on deaf ears! Keith Mo, made it onto page 10 of the Metro today! Very well done Keith! Great message too! If you'll also notice, the newspaper contrasted Keith's letter with the one right below it. A very balanced approach, which you'll see I am also quite fond of.

Be My Guest, Be My Guest

Remember a while ago, how I wanted some guest bloggers to help with maintaining a steady stream of content on this site? Well a few stepped up to the plate, but not as many as I would have liked. To be honest, I would have preferred a permanent solution, but we don't always get what we ask for. I've also wanted to change the site around, perhaps hosting it somewhere else (where I could post pictures, etc) and have more flexibility with the site design. Unfortunately I'm cheap and having the Pyra's Blogger tools makes it easier for others to blog independently. But a very annoying thing that I discovered a few months ago was that Blogger.com no longer supported the "&" symbol in the URL. As a result, I can't make changes to anything on the site without getting a new URL first. I modified the Title a bit, as you may have noticed, but that was just a temporary hack. So if I want to begin making changes around here, I have to change my URL....which screws things up. But at some point in the (near, hopefully) future I will have the time and resources to start anew. Anyway, enough technical stuff.

The first person on my wish list has agreed to become a guest blogger! And although I did not intend to start having guest bloggers with this old site, an opportunity has presented itself.

An Introduction:
I've known this individual since middle school. He used to live just around the corner from me and we spent countless hours at his place playing ping poing, video games and watching sports and movies. He is very intelligent and articulate - which will become obvious in his writings - and not surprisingly, he is in the prestigious Arts & Science program at MacMaster University. But most importantly, we are best of friends.

Oh yeah, one more thing...when I told him I was going to introduce him on this site, there was one personal characteristic he demanded be made clearly known. He actually made it sound like it was his defining personality trait. Because it is so important to him, I will bold it and and also reveal his name in the following sentence. This way, whenever you think of this person, you will link it with this defining trait. Tim Ho is a huge Philidelphia sports fan. He likes all the teams from Philly. He is an absolute diehard fan of the Philidelphia Eagles. In fact, he was heart broken as recently as two months ago, when his beloved Eagles was eliminated from the playoffs. He is also a noted 76er, Phillies and Flyer fan.

The real reason Tim is making his appearance today is because he has some thoughts on the recent posts about the war. I highly respect his opinions and am proud to have them here. I especially like the quote at the end. And notice how much better he writes than myself. That, my friends, is the difference between an arts student and an engineer. Without further ado:

I got the idea to write something while reading Blogs,
such as Matt’s and Nelson’s… I really should be doing
work, but I felt like saying something. I know you
guys are busy, but if you wanted something quick to
read, feel free. If not, I’m sorry for jamming up your
mailboxes.

I look around Mac, and I see students camping out
in the student centre for peace. I look around the
nation, and I see emotions running high, people booing
the Star Spangled Banner, for instance. I look around
the world, and I see people blatantly protesting the
war – even (especially) in countries that are currently
fighting it, namely the US, Britain, Australia.
There’s something disturbing in these protests that I
want to share with you guys.

While I may be the most unabashedly pro-American
in our little group of Bananas, I did not want to see a
war start, nor did I think one was justified. Well,
whatever, war has started anyways, and it did so
against my wishes, but hey, we don’t always get what we
want. My point to all these people STILL protesting,
STILL camping out for peace, STILL trying to subvert
the war is that, war has started, and they have lost
their case. Move on from it. Before the war started,
they had a legitimate right to protest and let their
voices be heard, but now it’s clear that Bush and his
administration aren’t going to listen anyways.
But by protesting now, debating whether or not the
U.S. SHOULD HAVE gone to war, I believe they risk
deligitimizing the entire process altogether. True,
the process may not be entirely legitimate to begin
with, but there are 250 000 US soldiers and 40 000
British soldiers SUFFERING and DYING out there, along
with untold millions of Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
Now is not the time to be debating whether we SHOULD
continue the war or not. Now is not the time to be
trivializing the deaths that are currently happening.
War has started, it’s a given, and now it just needs to
be drawn to its final conclusion. What we need is a
little respect for the killing that is going on. The
average American or British soldier is no older, and in
many ways, no different from any of us. He’s not out
there trying to grab Iraqi oil, or kill as many Muslims
as he possibly can. The average soldier just wants to
go home to his wife and kids as quickly as possible.
But what happens when that soldier returns to his ungrateful
nation angry with its leadership, and unaware of the
profound sacrifices he has made? What will his best
friends have died for?

I don’t think there’s anyone I admire more than a
soldier. I personally could never become one. But a
soldier is willing to give up everything he can – after
all, what more can we ask from him than his life – for
the rest of us. And the scary part is that the average
soldier out there on the battlefields is truly no
different from any of us. I truly believe that we need
to show some respect to these boys. Silence and
reverence for the dead – on both sides – is all I can
think of. Don't boo their national anthem. It's
disrespecful to the dead and those that will die.

Basically, my point is, the world doesn’t need any
more armchair politicians. I’ve done a lot of debating
this year across many Ontario universities, and
invariably, the things we debate all come down to
issues on the geopolitical scale. While it’s important
to be informed, I question how qualified we are to be
debating these issues. I feel that endlessly immersing
ourselves in these geopolitical issues takes away from
what can really be done, and distracts us from the
immediacy of global events – people getting killed, for
instance. Thus, unless one of us goes into the US
state department one day, our lives will not revolve
around US – Middle East relations. My personal
challenge, and my motivation for keeping up to date
with global politics is not Reach for the Top anymore
(lame joke, I know), nor is it the hope that I will
somehow influence Bush’s mind. The goal in educating
myself is that hopefully I can learn some lessons from
the world around me and apply it to my own life – and
by doing this, strive to be a better person. I feel
that self-improvement is all I can achieve as an
individual. I really don’t care all that much about
debating politics or the war – to be perfectly honest;
those are things beyond my control. But what is in our
control? Depending on your religious convictions, we
can pray for peace and understanding; if not, there’s
one thing in our control: ourselves. We can strive to
be a better person to those around us. As we get a
little older, we can strive to be a better person in
our own little sphere of influence – our family, our
workplace. It’s my firm belief that whether you’re the
president of the United States or a janitor in some
school, you have the power to make a difference and to
make the world a better place. Maybe one day, one of
us will study hard and get into a position where we can
make big, global decisions. But until then I think
I’ve had enough debating on the war – what should be
done, what shouldn’t be done, who’s the good guy, who’s
the bad guy. Let’s remember people out there are dying
– some no different from us. And remember that there’s
something firmly in our control, something that we have
the power to change. Here’s my favourite quote:

.” When I was young and free and my imagination had no
limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew
older and wiser, I discovered the world would not
change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided
to change only my country. But it, too, seemed
immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one
desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my
family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have
none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly
realize if only I had changed myself first, then by
example I would have changed my family. From their
inspiration and encouragement, I would have been able
to better my country and, who knows, I may have even
changed the world. —Anonymous epitaph written on a tomb
at Westminster Abbey

I absolutely loved the closing quote. Something that I've tried adhering to for a while now.

Just to get more balance, I would like to link to an article with an opposing view on wartime expression, even though this was only one of the major points Tim was bringing up.

--Nelson

PS i'll blog about different media sources tomorrow...

Blog from Baghdad

You gotta check this out: A person, who calls himself, Salam Pax, is apparantly blogging from Baghdad. It makes for some compelling reading. Of course you have to question it's validity, when there's stuff like this out there. This person, who's had contact with Salam Pax for some time believes he is for real. It is so interesting because it gives a first person perspective on what is happening in Baghdad from a unique point of view. It's very different from the general media we are so used to. I just added this site to my daily rotation of links. Let's hope this is non-fiction, in these fictitious times.

--Nelson

Informed

Yesterday, I urged everyone to at least be informed. Not a very difficult thing to do, because information is always just a mouse click and read away. I also made some comments in my last post about people feeling indifferent about the war and not feeling that it was important enough to bother with. Well Matt Wong has so kindly expanded on that thought and made an interesting/entertaining analogy in the process. I was never good at elaborating my thoughts or expressing them very well. Hopefully this blog is helping me with that.

So just a small thought...I too, am disturbed by the general indifference I see around me. I think of it in this way: A responsible and successful democracy is built upon citizens that take an interest in their political institutions. In fact, when democracies first came about, there was a lot of active participation and that was their strength. Nowadays, people are complacent or take for granted what we already have, when we really shouldn't. I get the sense that in arab countries the political awareness is much higher; for example, it is very common for citizens to sit around after dinner and talk about politics. What impact will this disparity hold for the futures of our respective societies?

Anyway, that was a little off topic, what I really wanted to get at was being more aware. And I think I didn't go about it in the right way...shock and sensationalism. After all, that is the very thing that Michael Moore believes to be the problem in America. But really watch it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

As you can already probably figure out, I get most of my information from the Internet (in fact, my parents find it strange that I don't read the newspaper and every so often try to get me to read it). So I just wanted to link to some interesting articles I came across. The first one is about an American Senator who is opposed to the war. His opinions are very similar to mine, so that's why I'm linking to it. The next one is on France's motivations and role on the world stage. It was written by an American of course, but still a good read. Here's a very well written article, albeit somewhat lengthy, in the New Yorker. And one more article, a lighter one, if you don't mind scrolling down to it (and soon it'll be off that page completely). It compares one of my favourite movies of all time, Boyz N the Hood, to the war. Pretty funny stuff.

On last thought on the Oscars. Adrien Brody had a really eloquent speech, which was in sharp contrast to Moore's. But I guess that's Moore's style, blunt and confrontational. With Brody in mind, here's an example of an article with a punch line.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to blog about reading other media sources for a more balanced viewpoint. But some big news today was that Al-jazeera has set up an english language site. Although you probably can't access it, because of those pesky hackers.

--Nelson

Well Michael Moore did have some strong words, but they were drowned out by the booing. Maybe it's a Charleton Heston conspiracy. If you watched Bowling for Columbine, you'll know what I mean.

I would also like to take the time to encourage everyone to watch Bowling for Columbine. It is a really eye opening view on fundamental differences that exists only in America. It's main subject is Gun Control, but I think it also provides one (of many) window(s) into the pysche of America - which is especially relevant with the recent world events. This entertaining documentary has also changed some of my personal views too. Beforehand, I thought that I might end up working and living in the States, but now, I'm not so sure I want to. I always thought that it wasn't that horrible down there and if I were living there, I would be able to filter out the negativity and stay true to myself. But it is a really different culture and attitude down there, and not something that's very welcoming (especially if you want to raise kids). But perhaps this negativity exists only with white Americans...I don't know.....I generally don't like to make wide inflammatory extremist statements like that, but IMO, that's what Michael Moore partially portrayed. On the flip side, he also portrayed Canadians in a very positive light. I especially liked the bit on trusting Canadians having unlocked doors. Actually I think I've reached a different conclusion on America. To live in America and be happy, you have to be damn rich. So if I end up down there, I'd better be damn rich. But who knows about my future financial situation; I haven't lived my life with money as a top priority and who knows where that'll take me or whether that will change. Anyway, I think I'm rambling.

I need CNN and Al-Jareeza (I guess an understanding of Arabic wouldn't hurt either).....I've been watching a lot of the war coverage recently. I've got some thoughts on it, but I feel it's getting near my bed time, so I'll save that for another time. But I was watching a lot of TV and was not able to find any network playing the infamous tape of the American POW's. For all those people out there that feel disconnected, detached or indifferent (whether by selfish choice or otherwise), I have found some images that should stir some thought and reflection and also happen to be quite disturbing. View at your own discretion.

I urge everyone to try to participate in your society or at the very least, be informed.

--Nelson

Just wanted to say to watch out for Michael Moore if he wins the Best Documentary Award at the Oscars tonight. I bet he'll have some strong words.

And if anyone can, try to catch the pre-Oscar show with Joan Rivers. It's quite funny, because they've cancelled the Red Carpet this year. As a result, she doesn't have much to say and is grasping at straws. She making quite the fool out of herself running her mouth off like that, just to fill the dead air.

--Nelson

Finally, I got some batteries for my keyboard. I feel liberated. :)

Just wanted to ask if there is anyone out there that wanted to be part of my annual Oscar Pool. No money, it's just for fun. Pass over your email address asap if you want to participate (it's run by Yahoo! Games).

--Nelson

My battery for my wireless keyboard has run out. i have been reduced to cutting and pasting. :(

--Nelson

Confirmation

The Mononucleosis test is POSITIVE.

Crap.

Right now, it's not too bad, just a sore throat and cough. I'm hoping it doesn't get very serious. I don't want it to get worse to the point where I am stuck in bed all day, because I'm so tired that I can't even get up. So the Doctor has ordered me to stay at home and do nothing for two weeks. There is no medicine I can take for this, just rest and time to wait it out. My question is, how do I do nothing? What is nothing?

Well first of all, no work. Stay at home and do nothing stressful. It feels so weird to just bum around and do nothing. I even have to limit my time on the internet because my parent's think that's a stressful activity. Right.... I'm feeling really antsy though. It feels like I have all this pent up energy in my muscles that wants to be released. But I shouldn't. So I'm just sitting here, doing a little reading, watching a little TV (which I find isn't that exciting of a medium) and surfing.

Now I'm wondering, how the heck did I get this? I have absolutely no idea and people keep on asking me too (perhaps with a suspect tone). Well, just to satisfy your curiosity, I haven't been going around kissing people (except Kitty ;) ). Think about the last last time you saw me kissing someone. Thought so. It can be passed through sharing food and drink too, which I sometimes do, so maybe that's it.

So anyway, here I am with a bunch links to pass on, since I have a lot of time to surf now:

I spent quite a bit of time reading all of this daily comic strip from the very beginning. I don't think most of you will like it, but it's about these people working at a small software company (sorta like me...) called GPF Software. The people in it are very geeky and some of the jokes are quite geeky. But also quite funny. Yes, this is what I do with my time. But it also kinda reminded me of how much I enjoyed reading Calvin and Hobbes as a kid. I used to collect the books that came out, but unfortunately, I didn't quite complete my collection. But I remember rereading the ones I own when I was older and getting more out of the more mature/philosophical jokes. Bill Watterson is a very skilled, intelligent and creative person. He has created a timeless work of art.

The next link is almost the opposite of a work of art. I came across this strange internet interpretation of Romeo & Juliet. You have to be an internet/hacker junkie to get all the jokes though. A real different take on the whole story, but also entertaining. It is also quite obvious a guy made it. If you have any trouble w/ the language, look up the words on a spoof of www.dictionary.com (which incidently Google uses) called Urban Dictionary. I'm sure Matt Wong is going to like that one.

While on this technology vein, I would like to comment how disapointed I am that North Americans are so behind in technology compared to our Asian/European counterparts. Perhaps not so much in terms of having companies innovate technology (although there's room for improvement), but rather, having our society accept and integrate new technology. In Japan, cell phone usage takes on a whole different meaning. I can't wait until cell phone penetration and usage becomes ubiquitous. Especially text messaging. I use it to send and receive messages not only when I'm mobile, but I also send messages to mobile phones over ICQ. I encourage every single one of my readers to use more mobile technology. Check out this interesting article about Japan's cell phone culture.

One more technology article. This one is about the computer gaming culture in Korea. If you read the article you'll find that Internet Cafes are where people regularly hangout. I don't think that kind of thing is going to happen here, but it's always interesting to see how other young people are growing up. One of the most interesting parts about the article is when they talk about Starcraft tournaments. They televise starcraft games on Korean TV and they are able to draw ratings equivalent to that of Friends here in North America! Such a different culture. Maybe we really are completely white washed over here.

And last, but not least, congrats to Mike. He got an interview with Western's Medical School! Hope it goes well!

--Nelson

Still Sick...

I'm going to find out tomorrow if I have Strep throat. I really hope I do, otherwise I may have something much worse.....

The doctor said Mono is a possibility. :(

--Nelson

No

Can you see the image below?

No More Popup!

But I do hope all of you are using your Google toolbars! ;)

Been stuck at home the last few days with an unpleasant bout of strep throat. Not fun is all I have to say.

But I've had the chance to do some surfing. I've started my yearly Oscar pool, and we're looking for anyone else out there that might be interested. I'm trying to defend my title as last year's pool winner, but these things are hard to predict. I barely watched any of the contending films last year, but it hardly matters if you've seen the movies. It's all about the hype, promotions and strong-arm tatics by Dreamworks (according to one of Vince's theories). So let me know if you're interested (preferably via ICQ#6460306).

I also watched Being John Malkovich today...finally. That movie was a total head trip (no pun intended). It was a really creative and unique piece of work. I think I like it :). Am I becoming a Kaufman fan? I have an urge to check out Adaptation now.

Another movie I would like to see is "A Better Tomorrow". About "stereotypical" Asians kids in high school with a twist. Check out their site. Don't have much to say about it yet....I have to watch it before passing judgement. With that movie and all this Oscar talk, check out this site too.

One interesting thing that happened to my family. We got a maid. Her name is Marie. And although she will be coming by fairly infrequently, I think she's going to make a big difference. In a positive way. :) Seems like my parents are getting physically older and don't have the convenience of kids to dump the chores on anymore. (At least not as much...I still gruelling wash the dishes every day).

More thoughts on Google and Blogger. These two links seem to think that one of the keys to blogging is the recording of the trails that are formed when surfing. A sequence of links that I've recorded above is sorta like this. Not extensive or exhuastive, but a rough start. I'm trying to to do my bit and it seems like others are doing their's :)

One last thing I saw on Slashdot that seemed really cool. 3D Displays! Think about how much more addictive games are going to be! Err, I meant, think about how much more productive we can be in a business environment...cough, cough, argh, my strep throat caused me to cough at that inopportune time and also impelled me to write it in my blog entry. Yes, that's right.

Better go to sleep now!

--Nelson

Anyone annoyed yet?

By the popup? I'll remove it soon...

Last weekend was pretty fun. It was the weekend where people's reading week overlapped. So a bunch of us got together at Tim's house for some Dreamcast fun. And know what is one of the best games ever? POWERSTONE! and POWERSTONE 2!!! Never understood why this game didn't take off, but it is the best fighting game i've ever played. It's not your typical one and not serious as most, but it's a lot of fun. And when I mean it's not serious, I mean that the second one has a chef as one of it's characters and uses a pot to smash things. Anyway, after a few hours more of DCast, including some virtua tennis and basketball, it was time to go Commerce Gate for Carol's Bday.

The weather was really really bad last weekend. Even on teh way there, I was sliding on the roads. On one turn on Vancho, I sort of slid to the side and luckily there were no cars parked there, or I probably would have hit it. Man, even today there was a close call. I was on the highway coming back from work and the car in front of me didn't have their brake lights working, and I find this out as the traffic is going from 120+ km to 0. I stopped with a car length between us, but for a short while I thought I was in some trouble, b/c I was practically braking as hard as I could.

Anyway, we went to Shabu, Shabu, a hot pot place, which was very good. Lot's of variety in the foods and I liked 'em all :) Afterward we went to get some sticker pictures done. We fit 13 ppl in one booth! What an accomplishment!!! Actually not much of an accomplishment, but it was fun. What I considered an accomplishment was gettting Ava in there....I mean fobby photo booth...must be her worst nightmare. But it really did seem like she enjoyed herself, which is always good.

After that, some bubble tea....where Mike was being rowdy as usual. I think we (err I mean Mike) were drawing some strange looks b/c we were so loud. In the end we decided to leave early since there was a huge snowstorm. It was quite the adventure driving home. Took almost two hours. I'm really logging the mileage this term.

And in sharp contrast to last weekend, I just stayed home all of this weekend. I was sick for all of it and still am. I missed out on fri, when a bunch of the High school gang got together at Cary's. Well gotta concentrate on getting better so that I can play some ball this week.

Sleep time,

--Nelson

PS I wonder if I lose viewers b/c of my ad.... (some recent comments: Keith: "damn that ad", Cary: "Stupid Google popup")