All posts by dave

Another thought re: C-484

Rollins has a phrase for this sort of situation that I’ve been using for a few years.

“Your choice is fish.”

I have used this in many a situation where the choice offered is no choice at all. Apparently there’s a name for this. Hobson’s Choice. Found the link in a fark thread on SCOTUS debating the 2nd Amendment… that’d be a completely different post.

But ultimately this private members bill would be a way of telling women considering an abortion, “Your choice is fish”.

Oh I see how it is

Bill C-10 – A bill to make sure that illegal content doesn’t get tax credits or a bill enabling the use of an undisclosed morality system to censor film in Canada? Considering that no film has ever applied for a Tax Credit that could be described by the talking-points brought up on this so far (child porn & extreme violence), I’m of the opinion that the true reasoning is the latter.

Bill C-484 – A bill that would create a loophole that would be used to deny women the freedom to get an abortion. Not that the abortion would be denied, just an unclear threat that she could be charged with murder after the fact. But it’s not an attack on abortion. The Harper government aren’t going to re-open the abortion debate. They said so. They just want to make sure that someone who kills a pregnant woman gets charged for ending two lives, that’s all they want.

I’m growing tired of this government.

Smokables Update

I enjoy the fact that I have a tobacconist. I get a kick out of walking in and being greeted by name, being able to just kill time and talk about everything smokables or everything but.

I’ve recently finished off a pack of Tatiana cigarillos with a cinnamon flavored wrapper. I quite enjoyed these little treats as the tobacco itself is unflavored, which is my preference when it comes to my rolled smokables.

I’m currently working on a pack of Neos chocolate flavored cigarellos which I can’t say as I’m enjoying quite as much.  They’re a much smaller cigarello and as such have a tendancy to burn a bit quicker and hotter.

This past weekend I also picked up a club-pack of Monte Christo cigarellos. I’ve had them before and felt like treating myself. They smoke just as wonderfully as a full on Monte Christo.

With all that said, I had my first pipe of the season about 8 days ago and I’m looking forward to the pipe season to start. I want to finish breaking in the Charatan from last season and I’m hoping to rescue my orginal Choquin Butz, but as I’m afraid it just may be too cheap to be a really nice smoker.

I’ve spent a bunch of time on forum.pipes.org lately, quite enjoying the posts there. I may even start posting soon.

Life goes on

Most of you already know this. I guess I’m writing just for the sake of keeping record. I’ve now been single for a month to the day. Carla decided she didn’t want to try any longer to make it work, and while at first I argued, it was best that I accept it.

I’ve been basically floating the last month. My shit has been apart. I think I’m finally starting to stabilize, though.  I had strep last week and ended up spending a bunch of extra time sleeping. I think that was really for the best.  I don’t usually get sick, and this hit me pretty hard. I think I needed the sleep. Hopefully I’ll start seeing people again in the coming weeks.

The only lucky thing in all this is that work has been simple enough that it hasn’t caused me any extra stress over the last month.

I don’t really think I’m going to say much else about this here. I think it’s time I just focus on moving forward.

Tasty Things

I may or may not blog about dieting and exercising and making my body feel broken, but this is too damn good to share:

Berry Good Shake

Ingredients:

  • Mix 2 scoops of Raspberry Yogurt and protein powder
  • 4 strawberries
  • 15 blueberries
  • 16 ounces of nonfat milk
  • 1.2 cup of ice cubes.

Stolen from here. Absurdly tasty… Om nom nom nom

They found me… I don’t know how but they found me… Run for it Marty!

Exhibit A: Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada last week

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Exhibit B: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada today

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It’s currently colder here now than it was in Iqaluit when I was there, but not to be outdone, the temps in Iqaluit have dropped since I left.

Being that my car didn’t start yesterday when trying to leave work and I don’t have a proper way to plug it in (snaking an extension out the front door isn’t proper in my mind), I’m calling in “it’s really fucking cold outside” and working from home this morning.

Flying North

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We land in Rankin Inlet. We’re given the option to stay on the plane or head across the tarmac to the terminal. However, they’re offloading cargo which means the cargo door on the side of this 737-200 is going to be open for a while.. We decide to head to the terminal. I put on my toque and coat. Pull up my hoodie and pull on my gloves.  I pick up my laptop bag and tell myself I’ve seen this cold before.

I step off the plane and my breath is immediately stolen from me. -37, before accounting for the wind chill, is worse than I remember. I spend the entire 30 second walk gasping for air. I feel like I’m suffocating. I wonder if I should have stayed on the plane.

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I didn’t find the translation book my mother asked for in the terminal, though we waited around for much longer than the 15 minutes we were told on the plane. Unfortunately, it does come time for us to get back on our way. I bundle up again and prepare to be assaulted. It doesn’t seem as bad as I leave the terminal. The wind is to my back. As I round the tail of the plane and turn into the wind so I can get up the stairs, the biting cold tears into the only exposed flesh on my body., my cheeks, nose, and eyes. The kid in the terminal wearing ski goggles had the right idea. I get stuck on the stairs for an excruciating 30 extra seconds as people file onto the plane and find their seats. I turn to deb as I get inside the fusilage and her face is bright red. I imagine mine is much the same.

I also imagine it’s going to be colder in Iqaluit

Was building a few machines yesterday

And it looks like I got the new release of xp, which is XP SP2C.  I should have realised something was awry when I notice that it was a new sticker style for the license key, but I didn’t clue in.

So when I tried to install the OS with one of the older discs I have around the office it took the key no problem.  However on the first boot, XP required immediate activation.  Further to that, when stepping through the activation wizard, no Installation ID was generated.

This is because I used a SP2C cd key with a original SP2 disc.  Installing with a SP2C disc solves this problem.  A quick search on google and the MS KB didn’t really give me any hints, so I figured I’d post about it here.

Offline Update of Windows Boxen

While catching up on the month of podcasts I somehow spaced on, came a cross an episode of Security Now that mentioned ctupdate from Heise Security.  Essentially, you pick what products you want to create an update disc for, then the language, then the format (cd or dvd) and hit go. It downloads all the updates from microsoft.com and packages them on the cd.  From there it uses MS’ Baseline Security dealy to update the machine. Add in the nice feature of it being able to automatically reboot and log in (with an account it creates for this purpose, and delete when it’s done) and it’s quite the tidy little package.

Download it available here.

Decent guide here.

I just got a call from my cell carrier

They verified who I was and then told me a qualified for a new FREE phone!! Oooh!! I could have my very own Nokia 6085 if I sign up for a new 2 year contract with them.

I told the guy no thanks, and he sounded confused. He asked why I wouldn’t want a new phone, and I told him I was quite happy with my Treo 680. He said according to their records I had an old Nokia (the last phone I bought from them). I said I wasn’t interested in the Nokia clamshell and wished him a good day.

It really seemed as if he thought I was lying to him….