Monday, February 28, 2005

Friday Morning Movie Club

Now there's a new home on the net for the Friday Morning Movie Club or as it is officially known, the "He-Man Women Hater's Friday Morning Movie Club".

It will hopefully be kept up to date with the current weeks movie and time as well as some member reviews.

Still waiting for that Constantine review MacDaddy!?!

Update:

The name has now been officially changed to "He-Man Friday Morning Movie Club".
You can check out the site for updates on what movie we are going to watch as well as reviews as well as other Club/Movie related news.

Ottawa Traffic (Part 3)

Turn Signals.

If your car was built anytime in the last 65 years you're pretty much guaranteed to have signal lights. Apparently, most of the drivers in Ottawa are still on the fence about these new fangled devices or just haven't figured out how to use them.

Honestly, while neither is preferred, I'd rather see a person not signal at all then do the infamous signal while turning. At least when someone doesn't signal at all you can think "maybe they just forgot this time"; but when they signal, while turning, they're showing they know that the signals exist, they just don't know how to use them.

For those who haven't figured it out yet, turn signals are meant to inform other drivers and pedestrians of your intent to turn, not to tell others the direction your tires are currently pointing.

Ottawa Traffic (Part 2)

I got my driver's license in Newfoundland but I'm pretty sure even in Ontario there is nowhere in the instruction booklet that tells a driver to pull to the extreme left before turning right or vice versa.

Unless your last name is Andretti or you happen to be traveling at upwards of 80K/H it only takes a little common sense to leave some space for those of us with someplace to go to get around you. But alas, it appears common sense is in short supply on the streets of Ottawa.

I know you're proud of your new "I Luv Carleton U" bumper sticker but I really don't want to stare at it for the next 5 minutes as you wait for a break in the oncoming traffic. Especially when you seem to think your Civic requires the same amount of space as double long tractor trailer.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Ottawa Traffic (Part 1)

What's up with all the potholes?!?

Discuss...

Monday, February 21, 2005

Another Political Post (Updated)

For those of you who don't know Karl Rove, he is a, and some people say THE, senior political advisor to President Bush. From all the reports on the left side of the blogosphere he is personally responsible for almost everything good that happens for the Republicans and almost everything bad that happens to the Democrats.

But that's the world of blogs where everyone with access to a keyboard and the internet (ex. Me) can write whatever they feel like and never really have to back up any of their accusations. The problem with this story over at Little Green Footballs is that the accusations are being tossed around not by an anonymous blogger but by an elected US Congressman.

The gist of the story; according to Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Karl Rove planted the forged documents that CBS used in their attempt to portray President Bush as an AWOL National Guardsman. It was his plan all along to give the press all the evidence they needed so that when they brought the story to light, using his faked evidence, the Republicans could easily disprove the documents and therefore discredit the whole story.

The LGF link above has links to both a mp3 and transcript of the actual speech given by the Congressman in which he makes these claims outright. When questioned about evidence to back up his accusations he first confirms, then seconds later, denies the exists of such evidence. He then goes on to claim that only he has the courage to make these charges and bring this injustice to light and for that he should be thanked.

After listening to the audio file or reading the transcript, it's hard to think that the Democrats will have an easy time winning back any political power in the U.S. While a lot of people, mostly extremist from either the right or the left, will jump on any bandwagon that will hurt the "other guys", most people want at least a smidgen of proof before calling for someone's head.

The main problems with the congressman claims, as I see it, are these:

1) How can anyone believe that documents that were so easy to identify as forgeries (none of CBS's own analysts would confirm the veracity of the documents) would be picked up and run by any self respecting news organization. Mere hours after the running of the story, several blogs were calling into question the validity of the documents. Texas Best Grok (with help from LGF) has a great page showing how the documents are easily recreated on MS Word.
(Update: for the best review of the 'Rathergate' documents I've managed to find anywhere see Wizbang!. His post is based on CBS's own expert called in to review the documents for their review panel)

2) The documents were given to CBS by Bill Burkett, a known Anti-Bush crusader since as far back as 1998. He is the only person to have claimed to have seen the original documents (which I believe he claims to have later destroyed???) and is the sole source for the CBS proof. Hardly a likely accomplice of Karl Roves.

The accusations, even if true, would only be useful to prove one thing. Not that the President was AWOL from his National Guard duties (as that has already been shown to be as much as a red herring as the stories of John Kerry intentionally injuring himself to get a quick exit from Vietnam) but that the American mainstream media (or CBS at least) has a severe liberal bias and that the opportunity to attack a Republican President would be too much of a temptation to let pass by.

As always, your comments are welcome. But please look at the Little Green Footballs story first and make up your own mind.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Movie Review: Constantine

Just went and saw the movie Constantine and I have to say while it won't win any Oscars next year it was worth the $10 to get in.

Of course I may be partially swayed by the fact I had one of the best Wetzel Pretzels I've ever tasted. Right out of the oven and into my hand. (I'm drooling over it just writing about it.)

Anyway, back to the movie.

If you're a fan of the comics the movie basically stays true to the character (with the exception of an absentee British accent). No blatantly obvious changes, so the main concern for the comic readers is probably the story itself.

Personally, I liked it. Nothing too original, but good enough for the 2 hour runtime.

The basic story is that Angels and Demons are battling for the souls of all mankind but not suppose to directly interfere. In the words of the famous Doc E, "That ole Chestnut".

Of course the bad guys are trying to stretch the rules as much as possible, but that's where John Constantine comes in. He basically gives anyone found cheating a one way ticket back to hell. Of course the bad guys are getting a bit braver now that they've found a way to cheat the system so John's a little busier than usual.

I won't go into much more detail, since I hate reviews that give away all the plot twists (he's really dead; the aliens are afraid of water; Rosebud is the sled) but the best advice I can give is if you liked The Prophecy than you'll probably like Constantine (with the exception of Randy who slept through most of the first hour). They both share a similar story and pace.

3.5 out of 5

For more detailed reviews you can always check out Rotten Tomatoes to see what the experts think.

Update

Apparently MacDaddy disagrees with my assessment of Constantine but he's yet to put fingers to keyboard and write his rebuttal review.

Even Randy wants to put in his 2 cents but since he only saw about 30 minutes of the movie I'd take his opinion with a grain of salt.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Politics in the classroom

In what may become a staple on this site, consider this my first political post.

From NBC affiliate WAVY TV Virginia by way of Thursdays edition of Hannity & Colmes

Apparently, a teacher in a North Carolina school handed her grade 7 students an assignment recently asking them to write a letter to President Bush giving reasons for him to callback all the troops in Iraq.
The assignment included such guides as:
* "Focus on the problem of how sending U.S. soldiers over to fight in Iraq is too risky and clearly present your solution."

and

* "Support your solution to the problem of risking innocent men and women's lives to fight for another country."

Some of the students claim to have spent up to 3 days of classtime on this "project".

The letters were not intended to be mailed but the fact that a middle school teacher would hand out such a blatant politically biased assignment is, to my mind, unforgivable for an educator.

I have no problem with a teacher encouraging an open discussion on a topic, but it is not their job to preach their own political views from their positions of authority. A good teacher should be able to moderate any discussion without anyone know which side they personally agree with.

That is not to say a teacher can't have an opinion. If a student wants to know which way their teacher leans on a particular subject they should be free to ask them AFTER class but a teacher, especially one in charge of young children, should first and foremost realize the power they wield and act accordingly.

The district superintendent and school Principal have already apologized to the students and parents involved but it appears that as they consider this an "internal" matter, the teacher or teachers involved have not had to publicly apologize themselves.

Rogers and Me

First, let me say I love my PVR.

I rarely even watch TV in real time anymore.

I must say they did add some nice options. The ability to finally record all occurrences of a show by time slot is a godsend.

BUT.. ever since last weeks software "upgrade" it seems that getting 5 minutes of uninterrupted viewing is asking too much. Every few minutes, and the space between those minutes seems to be getting shorter and shorter, the picture freezes for a couple seconds.

I'm still not sure if it's a hardware or software issue but I'm really hoping for the latter, since that would probably mean a patch soon.

Of course I do know someone who works for Rogers so I should probably just ask her.

Problem solved.

Public Sponsored Voyeurism =)

Just got a email from a friend updating me on the sudden boom in the intersection camera business here in sunny Ottawa.

You can take a look at the surprisingly well laid out site if you want to see what's happening around town:
http://webcam.city.ottawa.on.ca/trafficvideo/map_en.htm

I remember looking at this site a while back when then only had a handful of cameras. Now, it seems they have over 50 placed all over town for our viewing pleasure.

(Un)fortunately it doesn't look like I pass even one camera on my drive to or from work so I guess I won't be launching my website xxx-traffic-cams.com anytime soon.

For the true traffic cam connoisseur, may I suggest keeping an eye on Zone 3 (especially on the weekends). Montreal Road is especially known for "stop and go" traffic later in the evenings.

Enjoy,

This is a test..

Just testing the email publishing feature of blogger.
If you're reading this comment you're probably me but if not, please refer to previous post.

=)

Move along.....

.... nothing to see here.

It's 2:30 in the morning and I have to go to work in 5 hours.
Just figured that in between watching PVR'd tv and reading some political blogs I'd take some time to quickly create a blog of my own.

This is the result.

- Neal
Who Links Here