Big Wide World

Now, it could just be me, i've become known not to be much of a liberal (read tree hugger) but when will others jump on this bandwagon with me. but when you read the following, you may want to join me.

for example, i specifically refer you to the out-of-control use of, and creation of, political correctness. i don't think i'm the only one that is a little annoyed with this concept. i understand that there may be situations in which we would want to be a little sensitive (short is kindof harsh -vertically challenged, a little silly but not as offensive, so ok). but when we start taking it over board, it just makes the entire practice ridiculous. exhibit one: the whole situation with redefining everything to do with "terrorism". terrorism is a good word. it says "this is bad", the connotation of a negative is there. it is widely understood as a concept. why the need to change it? recently, the bbc, when referring to "terrorists" called them, i kid you not, "misguided criminals". um, not the same seriousness implied. not the same brutality understood. if ever a word needed to have a negative connotation to it, i think it would be terrorist. misguided criminal just means "oops, i'm sorry, i didn't really mean to do that, i was just misguided. slap me on the wrist and send me to my room without dinner". terrorist says "i am willing to kill people, and preferably the more the better, for my cause". a terrorist is a terrorist, a misguided criminal is some stupid kid who breaks into store after hours when there is noone there and robs the cash register.

the idea was to remove emotion from the context. again, maybe its just me, but i don't want to remove emotion from the concept of terrorist. i'm quite happy hating terrorists, and i'm thinking that the (surviving) victims and their families want to keep the emotion in what they went through. emotion is what keeps us from forgetting, from not turning our heads. lack of emotion is what leads to lack of empathy, and that's what leads to acts such as terrorism. but, again, that could just be me. has the whole world gone insane?

other ridiculous politically correct uses:
brainstorming = thought shower (lmao)
failure = deferred success (OMG!)
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" = "God Rest Ye Merry Persons"(just not the same-try it)
there are many more, but for an extra funny kick, read the following Little Red Riding Hood in politically correct terms.

i bought a new toy. i caved. couldn't resist. but when i started playing around with it, there were two problems (so far). uploading vcs for the calendar, and getting music off the nano (had an audio file on there that i needed to get off at work). so here's the fix. vcs was annoying cause i'm not about to upload individual calendar appointments. but there's a great freeware out there that will compile whatever dates you want into one vcs and then you can put it on the nano (time saver, annoyance saver). the program is called "outpod" from "stoer"

the other program (also freeware) which moves files off is sharepod. what's great about this is that it sits in the nano, and works when you go into the nano folder (as a drive), so you can exchange on any computer. can't beat that.

so i fixed the annoyances that i came across so far, we'll see with more use. also bought a sweet case (www.zcover.com but they sell in futureshop). it's silicone, nice feel, and almost clear (called ice something or other). a little hefty at $30 somewhat for two cases (don't sell just one) but well worth it (i couldn't do the zip lock thing like some other inventive people i know).

ok, i haven't seen what there is left of the litter, but i want this one.

hey guys i know that you know this one is all yours. she's so cute, oh my god, i could die.
enjoy

first of all, i'm not biased or anything just b/c Dinga is Rad's dog and i LOVE her, but i think that she is the most beautiful dog in the world (check out jay's photo stream of the pic of her lying on the floor), and again, i'm not biased or anything, but are these just not the MOST adorable and beautiful puppies that have ever been born in the history of the universe (thanks for the pics jay). come on, try to tell me they aren't. and if you try, you'd be lying, cause they sooo are.

anyways, weekend in Ottawa was fun, played the game of Life (i won and kicked both your asses) and then Cranium (which Nancy knows is the most fun game ever- and i still kicked all your asses muhahaha). we didn't really do anything, as in go out, but first of all, we had the games which i much rather play, and second, its Ottawa, when night comes, you better be somewhere warm (ok, granted it wasn't that bad this weekend). thanks for the laughs guys.

lastly, b/c i'm so spoiled and have no sense of restraint, i bought my second mp3 player in 3 months, this time the ipod nano (between the two i have 5 gb of memory-sweet). and i am still using both for different reasons (don't ask, maybe i like my life to be difficult). but yeah, i saw magda's and just had to have one, and for those that know me, if i do make up my mind to do something (not a daily occurrance i realize) i have to do it, and i have to do it/have it NOW (that's not yet a problem so no comments please and thank-you.)

and now i have to go and figure out the 100 technical issues that i've having with some form of gadget.

i'm doing a favour for my boss, and its ugly.

what it is is that someone did an interview of a famous composer, and they did it in a restaurant or something, on an analog tape, and its pretty bad. you can make out little things here and there, but sooo ugly.

so here's my idea (though i have to wait until i get home sunday to do it, and that doesn't leave much time, b/c i have to have it done by monday for work, but i'm crossing my fingers). for now, here's what i have to do:

i'm going to go through it, get as much as i can. then, when i get home on sunday, i'm going to plug it into my mp3 player, since it has line-in function (basically it'll record any audio from any source). once i have it converted to digital, i'll try to run it through digital software which will hopefully be able to get rid of some of the noise (noice reduction etc). then i'll transcribe it. here's hoping that it works.

also, i'm checking out myjeeves beta, and i'm thinking that i'm going to like it. i can save all my bookmarks to it, so they don't ever get lost AGAIN (kind of like del.icious but more private), and i can save images (sort of like flickr but more mundane research stuff), and save links or web pages of research, put into folders and tagged. i'm just starting to try it out but will post when i look at it some more. the cool thing is that there are some awesome extensions for it through firefox, which makes research and surfing all the easier.

went out to CLub Inside last night. not the greatest club, but always nice to go out and drink and dance with my girls. and of course, i have some pics from it. here are the latest shots. p.s. today = total write off. not a good day after all the alcohol. thank god reeta and i went to eat at 3:30 in the am.

wanted to keep the post free of seriousness today, so here are some interesting facts that i found. also, (this is for you jay) scroll to the end of the post and there are links to either watchs the Celebrity Jeopardy SNL skits online, or to dowload them. have fun.

Humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin every hour - about 1.5 pounds a year. By 70 years of age, an average person will have lost 105 pounds of skin.

On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000.

On average, right-handed people live 9 years longer than their left-handed counterparts.

Smokers are likely to die on average six and a half years earlier than non-smokers.

(damn, between smoking and being left-handed i'm dying like 15 years before non-smoking right-handers)

The average human body contains enough:
iron to make a 3 inch nail,
sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog,
carbon to make 900 pencils,
potassium to fire a toy cannon,
fat to make 7 bars of soap,
phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and
water to fill a ten-gallon tank.

The average person produces 25,000 quarts of spit in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools

The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.
(and the gaps for the rest of us lazy mofo's are filled in by ppl like m-j and rad, thanks for keeping up the status quo).

The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."

links:
to download SNL Celebrity Jeopardy (all 13 skits)
to watch SNL Celebrity Jeopardy

My favs are all the ones with Sean Connery (especially #13: japan us relations"

is there anything more annoying than setting up a home network? i know the answer to that, and the answer is NO NO NO. i'm about to throw everything out and be done with it. i might actually have to get one of those guys in to come and do it for me. arg (hair pulling)