While this blog has been dedicated to The Nerdy Things in Life, I feel that I haven’t really used this space to honestly and truly geek out. That changes here and now.
A little while ago I touched base with an old friend, Brian. He recently started a blog called The City State of Balic (which you can see a link from to you right if you look for it) which is primarily dedicated to the nerdiest of nerdy endeavors, Dungeons & Dragons. He sent me an e-mail a little over a week ago with an idea. He and I would join together and make a D&D setting, each taking part time responsibility for things. So far it has been really fun reconnected with that nerdy side of my life, and an old friend. While we are still in the draft stages, the setting got off to a good start. We both included some “creative” sections to lay a bit of the land for our planet which I’ll include here…
After 46 rounds of sheer awesomeness it is time for things to get real. With the help of my favourite website in the history of the universe (for this week), WhatIfSports.com it is time for a showdown.
For those of you unfamiliar with this site let me fill you in on a few things. First off, it is AWESOME. Secondly, it is a fantasy sports simulator where you can choose any two sports teams of all time and have them have a showdown. Naturally, I spent a lot of time simulating various hockey games (note: the ‘76 Habs win the most). Thirdly, you can draft your own dream team, which naturally we did to simulate our NOlympic teams. Fourthly, this site is AWESOME.
My apologies for not being the best, and certainly not the most diverse blogger of late. But it turns out that running a second blog, posting for another one, the Great Firewall of China, and you know, real life, are rather large drains on a person.
Another reason for my detachment from this bit of space has been my newest distraction, a wonderful website called Wolfram Alpha. This website if part of a very ambitious project to make the sum of human knowledge immediately computable. Sort of like Wikipedia for the math geek, which makes it very clearly in my territory.
This site has dozens of features, all you have to do is type in any of their many types of inputs, including (but certainly not limited to) measurements, musical notes, geography, colours, anagrams, dietary reference, and of course good old fashion mathematical functions.
After putting in some different inputs I learned the following things about myself:
-My height, 5′10″, is approximately equal to 0.97 fathoms, the length of DNA strands of the human genome, and the distance that light can travel in 5.9 nanoseconds.
-My birthday, December 30, 1982, is day number 2 455 334 on the Julian Calendar, it had 9 hours and 18 minutes of daylight in New York, and is 9643 days ago…I know, I don’t look a day over 8000, but that’s besides the point.
- Currently AIG has a stock value of $1.70 while Freddie Mac has one of $0.79. In the past five years they have had a return of -97.64% and -98.64%, respectively. Economic, what now?
- Swine Flu has 12 107 cases with 87 deaths worldwide
-My first name is ranked 502nd in the United States, with most people who share my name in their 40s and 50s, also there are an estimated 93 538 people who share the name in the US. Making my name 1 out of 2502. Not quite making me the 1 in a million that I had hoped.
-My last name, by contrast, would be ranked 191st if used as a first name, with 267 546 people in the US expected to have that as a first name. That’s right my last name is almost three times more common as a first name than my own first name. Can’t say that I’m the slightest bit surprised by that fact.
- In world rankings, Canada is ranked 2nd in land mass, 36th in population, 224th in population density, 136th in population growth, 8th in life expentancy, 23rd in median age, 9th in GDP, and the top three languages are English, French, and Plautdietsch. I have no idea what that third one is.
-Toronto (the closest major city to my hometown) and Suzhou (where I’m living now) are 11 460 km apart, with Toronto having an elevation of 85m higher.
-The title of this blog, is sadly not a recognized word, when I entered glen_______ into the crossword feature, I got no recognizable words.
- When asked “How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?”, it said “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind (according to Bob Dylan)”. Hard to argue with that one.
- However, it does not know the answer to “How do they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar?” or “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?”. I guess the developers need to word on that one.
While they need to get to work on answering those last two questions, there is still a lot of fun to be had, and a lot of useless junk to learn. Go ahead and give it a try!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I’m a little late on this one, but technically it is both still January, and the Lunar New Year just began, so I’m not as late as I could have been (i.e. if I posted this in December).
But yes, so starts my annual tradition of trying to predict the year, I did alright predicting 2008 (including a daring prediction that the Patriots would not win the Superbowl and that Obama would represent the Democrats in the election), so I figure, why not try my luck once more?
GLEN’S SUREFIRE PREDICTION FOR 2009….
Note: Pretend that dude has my face on it, and pretend that it’s in some sort of nice banner, I don’t have photoshop from my current location…
1. Prime Minister Ignatieff – Let’s start out with another daring political prediction. I think that by one way or another, Ignatieff will be our next Prime Minister within 2009. It seems that the coalition option is out the window (for now), but I think that people are getting sick of Harper, especially with Obama’s victory for progressives, that we may just see ourselves our 4th election in 5 years, and the Liberals will rally and win it. Chances are good it will be another minority government, and once more, nothing will get finished.
2. Victory from Beyond – I think that Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight was just too good to pass up. Also, the Academy can gain all sorts of good press by having the ever popular Ledger win the award, making him the first posthumous winner in over 30 years.
3. Original 6 Success – I know that Detroit won the Cup last year, but otherwise it has been a bit of a rough couple of years for the Original Six teams. However, this year things seem to be different, and I think that at least 2 of them will be in the Final Four of the playoffs. I am leaning towards Chicago and Montreal, but I would not be at all surprised to see Detroit or Boston there. Also, expect the Rangers to make some noise in the playoffs. sorry Leafs fans, there is always next year (or the one after that, or the one after that….)
4. Another Three Countries Scratched Off My List – A hold over from last year, and yes, a personal one. But I think that 2009 will see at least three new countries added to my list of places I have been. I am not certain which ones, or exactly when, but it will happen.
5. No Big 3 Bankruptcy – There has been a lot of talk of Ford, GM, or Dodge going under, but somehow, I just do not see it happening. These companies have been around for a long time, and I think that they will find a way to stay a float.
6. Liberal Upswing – In recent years, the world has been turning to more and more right-wing politicians, ranging from Bush to Harper to Merkel, and hell even Tony Blair got more conservative with age. I think that many people have become disillusioned with this and we will see more countries go to the left at some point this year. I already predicted Ignatieff, but I think that some other major Western Democracy will go with another liberal or left wing leader at some point in this year. That being said…
7. Obama’s Popularity Will Drop – Sure, I love the guy, and probably will continue to do so, but over the course of this year, there will be some people getting upset with him. He is widely popular right now, and I think that the expectations are too high, and they should drop over the course of the year.
8. The Temperature Will Continue to Rise – Third year in a row making this prediction, and really, do you think that anything major will get done?
9. No New World Champions – Yes, another wrestling prediction had to sneak in here somewhere. I think that for the first time in a long time (the early 90s at the latest) there will not be a first time World Champion over the course of this year, as Jeff Hardy, CM Punk, and Samoa Joe all were this year. For the purposes of a “World” title, I am counting the World Heavyweight Championship, the WWE Title, and the TNA Title, all of which have more or less “World” rankings associated with them. MVP, Matt Hardy, and John Morrison would be the closest, but I just do not see that happening until 2010 at the earliest.
11. Star Trek Will Rule Once More – Another insanely nerdy prediction, but I think that the new edition of Star Trek, scheduled for release in May of this year is going to be awesome. It will break the mold of odd numbered Trek movies being udder crap, and will be a great film. The plot sounds great (time travelling Romulan goes back in time to try and kill Kirk), and it is directed and produced by J.J. Abrahms, who after Lost and Cloverfield can do no wrong in my eyes.
12. The Economy Will Rally – I know that this is a bold one to make, but I think that things will bottom out in the middle of the year and start to rally. Here’s hoping that I’m right on that one!
13. I Will Have a Great Year – Yup, doing this one again. Kind of cheesy, but should still be a good one for me personally, in some capacity at least.
Tune back in December to see just how accurate things were….
Greetings one and all, today is a very very special day for me, and more importantly, this blog which I am currently writing on, and you are currently reading from. Two years ago on this very day, I typed some very fateful words, which would impact my life from then on:
“Friday, October 27, 2006…a day which will live in infamy. I have officially joined the blogosphere. I don’t so much have a concept, theme, or general idea as to what to have here but rest assured it should be filled with awesomeness.”
That’s right today is my anniversary of beginning to blog!!! Just as I did one year ago, I will once more go through my myriad of categories that I blog about (or blogegories as I like to call them), where I’ll highlight one or two of my personal favourite posts on the matter.
The objective of this is to:
a) Get people new to this blog get an idea of what they are in for with my highly distractable nature and desire to write about just about anything.
b) Introduce a bit more of myself to people who I have recently met in this crazy place called the “Real World”.
c) Help long time followers get refreshed on any of my older posts.
d) Give me a post to make without having to generate any original concepts.
e) Give my blog a new outfit for its birthday, hope you like it!!!
So whichever reason you are reading this…enjoy!!!
About G: This topic was reserved for stuff that is about me as a person, including my “Glen Facts” and “Insights into my Twisted Mind” which have been mostly discontinued. My favourite post in this category remains “My 2006 (12/19/06)“, which chronicled a roller-coaster of a year for me. Since then, my self-centered posts have diminished, possibly because I think that this one would be hard to top. Cruising on the Information Superhighway:This is a category reserved for information about the information superhighway, also known as the “Internet” to some. Since this has not been a huge focus of mine, this is a relatively small category. The last post that I have made on this topic was back in January, and is perhaps the best of the bunch, “The First 20th Century War (01/26/08)” where I look at the war declared by most of the internet on the Church of Scientology that was taking place at the start of this year. While not much has come of it in recent months, I do genuinely believe that there will be some interesting long-term consequences of this “war”.
Glen News: Yet another Glen-centered category, which does not get posted too often anymore. While this seemed to dominate my early posting habits, that really has diminished of late. Probably the most relevant is “News on the Glen Front (02/12/08)” where I explain exactly how I came to be living in China in the first place. Happy [Insert Holiday Here]: I hate to cop out here, but I think that I have two favourite posts in this category, and well, it’s my blog, so you’re going to damn well like my choices!!! The first one to share is my “Christmas Shopping List (12/04/07)”, where I outline my plans for the gifts I plan to give different individuals, a few of which actually happened! The other, is a much older post where I look back at the progress that still needs to be made in honour of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in “What Would He Say Now? (1/15/07)“. Hockey and Other Sports:My most plentiful category on this blog!!! This is one that tends to get posted in furies, especially during playoff, or trade deadline time. As the title suggests, most of my posts have been about hockey, but there remains the occasional post about other sports…but again, mostly hockey. I think that my favourite hockey posts where the two part posts “Eastern Conference No-Star Team (01/13/08)” and “Western Conference No-Star Team (01/14/08)”, as due to a well placed link they are among my most viewed posts here. Hoorah.
Muzzak: Another tag that seems to come in spurts, is music. While I Have had lots of fun writing my two “Thumbs Up and Down” posts so far, and my “Empowering Break-up” playlist remains my most viewed post, I am going to have to give my favourite one of these to “Lovers Music (02/14/08)”, must be the romantic in me.
Random Tales: Like “About G” and “Glen News” these posts have fallen behind after a rapid beginning. Partly because I have been able to fit any stories into different categories, and partly because I have other things to talk about I suppose. If I had to choose two favourites it would be a pair of posts from my first time in China, where I get myself into two very different situations “The Universality of Kindness (4/15/07)” and “Fall Behind, Left Behind (04/23/08)”.
Rants: Last year, this was my biggest category, but now it’s far lower on the rank. I suppose that is very telling. In retrospection, I think that my favourite post on this was one that I made just before my Anniversary post last year, so it missed the cut due to its recent nature, “The Outing of Albus (10/24/08)”, where I look at Rowling’s revelation that Dumbeldore is gay, and how offensive that is, but not necessarily for the same reason that you would think.
Rasslin’: My guiltiest of guilty pleasures, the world of professional wrestling. Posting in this topic usually gets pretty intense around Wrestlemania time, but shows up at other random times. While I have a great deal of fun preparing to write any of my Wrestlemania predictions, or hype posts, the ones that took the most out of me where the pair of posts I made about Chris Benoit. “Shock and Horror (06/27/08)” immedietly after the horryifing incident and “The Benoit Diaries (12/18/2007)” almost six months later. Since writing that last post I have watched a Chris Benoit match, and it made me feel quite uncomfortable. Being a fan of someone who is a known murder is a tough thing to have to deal with, and I don’t know if I ever will be able to. Real Politiking: Now here is one that has been getting a lot of posting recently, with two North American elections taking place. While I received some great comments for my “Outsider’s Perspective” back in September in the build up to the Canadian election, I think that I got the most enjoyment writing “Finally (06/04/08)” and could celebrate Barrack Obama being declared the Democratic Nominee for President. In a year’s time I know that I am going to celebrate my post celebrating his presidency…
Remixes and Collaborations: The posts where I get a little help from my friends (shades of John Lennon). There have been several other contributors to this blog, but I think that I have to give the nod to “Finals Prediction (05/26/08)”, since yes, Jeff went 14-1 in the playoffs last year with many bonus points for correct series length, blah, blah blah.
Teachin and Learnin’: Posts about my job tend to come few and far between, but when they come they are usually posts that I put a lot of thought into. Few had more thought last year than “Reflecting on my Vocation (01/20/08)”, which was a speech that I made to my school last year and referenced Napolean Dynamite and talked about the Ninja Turtles. You know that makes you want to click on that link…
Travelling Tales: This is one category which I expect to see lots of new posts coming in the new year, given that I live far, far away from home. One to get you set up for the posts to come would be “Logging My Journey (08/24/08)”, where I love blog my very long flight across the Pacific Ocean to get to China. Tree Hugging Hippie Crap: One of the smallest, but most important categories here on this blog. I feel that every post that I make in this category is somehow important. While it was ignored, I had a good time writing (and get a chuckle everytiem I re-read) my “Open Letter to the Minister of the Environment (12/09/07)”. Needless to say Mr. Baird has yet to reply.
Vegan Talk: Like the above category, it is small but well intentioned. If anyone really wants to get why I am a vegan, I would suggest that they give “It Ain’t Easy Being Green – Take 1 – Pacifism (9/17/07)”, a gander and perhaps any of the others that peak your interest.
Videos: Just a label for any posts that contain videos, with this one being my favourite, and the best of the bunch…
As if anything could be better than that….
Why I Love…: A recurring theme that gets its own label. This has a wide range from an album, to a politician, to an author, to a movie franchise, but “Why I Love Bloggin’ (4/16/07)“, holds a special insight into why I keep doing this.
So I’m a little embarrassed to write this right now. I was just researching for a post on Hilary Clinton when my MSN pops up. It was my friend Ryan saying “Happy Star Wars Day!”. It sneaks up on me every year, dang it all! I couldn’t believe that I almost forgot.
As such, I’d like to apologize to everyone out there, I am hastily preparing this blog post, about my favourite of nerdy loves. I know that I won’t encapsulate everything that I love about Star Wars, but I hope that it suffices.
1. ” Jedi Masters don’t go crazy — they just get eccentric.” – Simply put, Jedis are awesome. They can wield light sabres with the best of them, play mind tricks on lesser beings, and be all around ass kickers. Best of all, they expect nothing in return at all, just knowing that they are doing the right thing.
They are like kung-fu-fighting Buddhist Monks, Knights of the Round Table, and the entire cast of Heroes rolled into one futuristic ass-kicking package. What’s not to love about them really?
2. “These are not the droids you’re looking for” – While they are sometimes obnoxious, C3PO and R2D2 add a great deal to the films. They are the closest thing that the series has to narrators.
Along with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, they are the only two characters to be featured in all six movies. However, the other two changed drastically with one being covered in metal, and the other getting old and dying. The two droids do a great deal to provide a link between the two trilogies, especially with R2 having a memory of the whole ordeal.
3. “Don’t you call me a mindless philosopher you overweight glob of grease!” –
Is the fall and return of the Jedis an allegory for the fall of the church in our hectic modern life? Was the destruction of the Death Star (twice) meant to speak to the inevitable failures of the Soviet-American Arms Race? Is Palpatine’s Machiavellian scheme to seize power from the elected officials, eerie foreshadowing of Bush’s PATRIOT Act? Is the initially-incestuous relationship between Luke and Leia meant to echo Greek and Roman Mythology?
How the hell should I know? I’m not George Lucas! But all those sound totally plausible to me, especially if there is a solid argument behind any of them. My point, is that more than many other films, this has an amazing potential to be dug deep into, and create some pretty interesting connections with deep topics.
4. “Boba sure fooled the rest of us” — Boba Fett is EASILY the biggest bad ass to ever be portrayed on film. Don’t believe me? Well here is a thousand words to persuade you…
…thought so.
P.S. Eleventy Nerd Points for whoever knows where that quote is from (without Googling it)
5. “Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not such things.” — Well I sure do! And this series is able to deliver it in spades.
From the first shot of A New Hope when the droids are running away to the final scene in Revenge of the Sith, there is a definite feeling of adventure. While some of them (i.e. Phantom Menace) are not so good, there is always a feeling of adventure and excitement, that is hard not to get caught up in.
Whenever a light sabre begins to buzz, my heart starts to race as I know that something awesome is going to happen. Sure I’ve seen the battles before, but the sheer childish joy and reminiscence is hard not to get caught up in.
6. “Do or do not, there is no try” – So I mostly just wanted to use that, my favourite of Star Wars quotes to say something important about these movies. They are FULL of deep and very meaningful quotes that provide a tremendous amount of insight.
There are such amazing gems as “If money is all you love, then that’s what you’ll receive.”, and “All who gain power are afraid to lose it”. Impressive ones eh? There are a bunch more here, and many other places on the information hyperspace highway. 7. “If I told you half the things I’ve heard about this Jabba the Hutt, you’d probably short circuit.” — The opening scene in Return of the Jedi in Jabba’s palace is the greatest scene in the history of cinema. Really where else will you find psychic powers, the Leia bikini, an obnoxious laughing bat, a robot waiter, bantha battles, the Leia bikini, flame throwers, the Leia bikini, sand monsters, girl power, and the Leia bikini?
Here we sit eight years into the twenty-first century, and we now find ourselves at a very important, and historically significant juncture, just last week, our world plunged into war for the first time this century. Now I know what you’re thinking, that the current war in Iraq is almost five years old, so what war could I possibly be talking about?
Before, I answer that question, I need to explain something. The Iraq war is not a 21st Century War in any way, shape or form. For starters, in a typical US Foreign Policy move, no official declaration of War was made. In fact the United States has only officially been at war four times, the War of 181, the Spanish-American War, and both World Wars. All other times they have taken “Police Actions” or other vague terms which mean that they are not as inclined to follow the rules of war.
Secondly, and most importantly, this is plain and simply a 20th Century War. The comparisons between this Iraq War and the Vietnam War have been made time and time again. There was no real mission, no clear objective, facts were distorted or ignored to sway public opinion, they were both largely unpopular, really I could go on, but that would be a topic for another post, hopefully you get the point. The “Good Guys Coming to the Rescue” Model which seemed to work in both World Wars and in Korea, failed in Vietnam, and seemed to be a success in the first Iraq War, has failed miserably this time around. The Bush Administration has been using the 20th Century narrative of Us vs. Them, Good vs. Evil, and Freedom vs. Tyranny, to confront a 21st Century Problem.
While this model may have worked very well before, there is something very important that has changed, the access to information. One of the simple reasons that Vietnam failed, was because of Walter Cronkite and the evening news. The harsh realities of the war were broadcast directly to Americans so they became much more open to the realities of the time, and subsequently rejected the notions of the establishment at the time.
Fast forward to 1991 and the next American “War”, this time in Iraq. By this point, the establishment had learned how to use the television in their favour and not against them, and were able to twist their message around and ensure that people saw what they wanted to see, and low and behold, we have a popular American war in the name of “Freedom” (i.e. oil).
We fast forward again another decade and a bit, and the world is a very different placeYet despite the different world, we are given by and large the same message to support another war in Iraq. The establishment proved great, yet again, at controlling the spin on television, as CNN, Fox News, and the major news networks in the United States, broadcast news that largely supports the War in Iraq, regardless of what they may say now. But there is one very different thing that the Bush Administration did not take into account, the little machine that I currently type on, and you currently read this blog on. That’s right they forgot about the internet. This day and age, information and ideas are able to spread like wildfire. People were able to learn almost immediately that the Bush Administration was lying about the Weapons of Mass Destructions, which anyone with half a brain would have known before, no wonder Fox News never figured it out. Yet it took people a solid four decades to figure out the the Gulf of Tonkin Incident was exaggerated and/or fabricated, making it pretty irrelevant at this point.
So what’s my point here? That the Iraq War has been a failure because the United States is busy waging a 20th Century War in the 21st Century. Just like World War I can really be seen as the last war of the 19th Century instead of the first war of the 20th Century, due the 19th century’s narrative featuring the rise of nationalism and liberalism, the Iraq War can hopefully be seen as the last 20th Century war, due to that century’s narrative of the rise of individualism, shifting public opinion and political dissent.
So while the last war of the 20th Century rages on, without an end in sight, last week the first war of the 21st Century was declared, fittingly, on the internet. With this video, the nature of war has changed.
Yeah it’s cheesy, yeah it’s weird, but I’ll be damned if it’s not historically important. A hacker group known only as Anonymous has officially declared war on the Church of Scientology, called Project Chanology. In the past week, since war has been declared, many official Scientology websites have been hacked and crashed, the Church has received many prank phone calls and “black faxes”. Anonymous has also obtained many of the Church’s official secret documents and posted them on file sharing websites, and has organized many protests outside of Scientology Churches. They have also repeatedly posted these videos of Tom Cruise extolling the virtues of Scientology that was initially removed by Scientology’s notoriously powerful legal squad. I’m not sure how long this video will be up, so please leave a comment if it’s down and I will find a way to repost them.
Note the lines in the first video of “I don’t hesitate to put ethics on somebody else” and “We are the authorities on the mind”…and I really don’t know how they come up with this number of 1.037 billion, and I like how they included “…of Earth” at the end. Which needless to say, is pretty interesting, considering their supposed fundamental creation myth.
Scientology has responded by placing a $5000 bounty on the head of the hackers, and have shut down several Anonymous related websites, and have repeatedly relied on copyright laws to threaten the people who host the videos and documents.
Needless to say, this is going to get really interesting in a hurry. This is the first time that we have seen an anonymous (pardon the pun) group declare total war on an established organization in a very long time. Previous wars have started with a shot, but yet this one begins with a click. Both side appear ready for battle for a variety of reasons, and I expect this to be a very long, drawn out process.
What I find so very interesting about this, is just how 21st Century this conflict is. I think that someday historians will look at the beginning of the 21st Century as the “Me Age”, characterized by the individuals total empowerment. Because of technology, every day people like you and I, have more power than ever imagined. We can shape the lives of people on the other side of the planet in literally an instant. As shown on September 11th, 2001, a group of individuals can paralyze a nation. Here we are a little over half-a-decade after that event, and people are beginning to realize this fact.
This marks the beginning of the pendulum swing that began in the 19th Century. Then we saw collectives of people fight against the individual tyrants, in the 20th Century we saw collectives fight against one another, and now at the beginning of the 21st Century with this “war”, we are seeing individuals fight against collective tyrants.
While this “war” probably has no immediate effect on your life, mark my words, it’s outcome is important to all of us. This is a war of The Individual vs. The Collective, which I feel will be a hallmark of the 21st century. However, instead of being fought with guns and bombs, this war is being fought with something far more powerful, information. This war is going to be decided by whoever is able to spin the truth more aggressively, and effectively.
While I assume more “wars” of this sort will be fought in the coming years in grander, and grander style, make no mistake about it, this is something that history will look back on as a defining point in our information age. History is happening right here, history is happening right now on your computer screen, be sure to pay attention to it.
“Friday, October 27, 2006…a day which will live in infamy. I have officially joined the blogosphere. I don’t so much have a concept, theme, or general idea as to what to have here but rest assured it should be filled with awesomness.
Tune in to find out!!!“
So here I sit, in front of a computer, typing away once more, and my opening post still rings true. I have no idea what the “concept, theme, or general idea” for this blog will be. I began posting quite a bit about myself and any of my adventures, but since then it has changed, as I have tried to make as many posts about politics, sports, the environment, wrestling, or (like the banner says), whatever the heck else I feel like.
Since I can’t make a vegan cake for a website, I have decided that in honour of my Blogiversary, I went through each of my categories here on this site and found what I consider to be the best post in each of them. This way, if you are new to me or my blog and want to get a sense of what/who I am then this is your chance, but if you are someone who has been checking this out for a while, you can go on a little trip down memory lane.
About G:We kick of with my most narcissistic category, the one devoted solely to me, and things about my life. I started this one out when I was posting my “Random Acts of Glenness” posts, but it has changed to be a tag for anything where I divulge any insight into my own past/personality. My favourite post in this category was definetly “My 2006 (12/19/06)“, where I described the details of a pretty tumultuous year. It probably was the last post where I focused on myself so much, having got all that I needed to say out of my system.
Cruising on the Information Superhighway: Now this is an odd categot, that I don’t really post in too much. It’s essentially just anything related to this wonderful thing called the internet. My post of choice would be “My Life is Now Over, and I Couldn’t Be Happier (12/6/06)“, where I cave into the great temptation that is Facebook. I was right all along, it certainly did take over my life…uggh…
Glen News: Yet another egotistical category of mine. This one about news in my own life, such as graduation, getting a job, or some of the details of my trip to China, including the post “Culture Shock (5/30/07)“, where I talk about going through a brief period of reverse culture shock after I get home.
Happy [Insert Holiday Here]: Instead of focusing just on me, these are the posts where I pass on some holiday wishes. Of course the usual suspects like Christmas and Hallowe’en are there, but I also try to include less celebrated days such as Guy Fawkes Night, Holocaust Memorial Day, or my Martin Luther King Day post, “What Would He Say Now? (1/15/07)“.
Hockey and Other Sports: In attempt to assert some masculinity I discuss sports here on a semi-regular basis, with the vast majority of the focus being on hockey, including my Fantasy Pool, mine and Troy’s Predictaculars, or my personal favourite the newly debuted feature, “The Puck Stop – Episode I (10/15/07)“.
Muzzak: And yet another of my nerdy passions comes through. My music posts are generally talkign about how great The Arcade Fire, and Broken Social Scene are. I have made a few attempts at creating solid playlists, with “Music to Break-Up To (12/7/06)“, being one of my proudest achievements. Oddly, this has been my most visited post since I started blogging. I guess there are always sad people out there.
Random Tales: This is a big category, where really, I just fill in some random story of my own that may be either entertaining or enlightening. In the past year I don’t think that there was any story more personally meaningful than “The Universality of Kindness (4/15/07)“.
Rants: The biggest category here, were essentially I just get on my high horse and rant about something bothering me. I have taken many posts out of this category by creating a few more, but these are the ones that slip through the crack. My first official rant, “Hallowe’en – The Critical Analysis (11/1/06)“, holds a special place in my heart.
Rasslin’: I originally started hiding my most nerdy of passions from this blog, but then Travis had the idea for a joint post where we discuss wrestling (originally for his blog, which hasn’t really been updated…), and hten I just began letting loose with many wrestling related posts. If I had to make one pick it would be “Heel Heat – Episode 3 (9/15/07)“, mainly because I’m proud of my Photoshop work on the logo.
Real Politiking: The first splinter from the “Rants” category, and a nerdy historical homage to Otto Von Bismark. I usually stick to Canadian politics in here, but “The Death of a President (6/21/07)“, is probably my post of choice in this category.
Remixes and Collaborations: So this one isn’t really a category in and of itself, it is just a tag I put on any posts that feature some outside input. The contributors thus far have been McNutt, Travis, Kory and Troy, who have done a great job of stopping me from having to think up original content. I have a soft spot in my heart for “Shades of Wrestlemania – Part I (3/23/07)“, because it had three special guests coming together in a pretty great post.
Travelling Tales: A blanket post for anything about travelling, either while I was in China or looking back at any travels in Europe or Asia. A few days after I returned from China and wrote “Why I Love China (6/1/07)“, which still rings true to me.
Tree Hugging Hippie Crap: Just last week, after realizign just how many of my rants were about the environment, I realized that I needed a seperate category and here we are. I am a big fan of “And the Counter Attack Begins…(2/01/07)“, just because it uses Stephen Harper’s own words to show just how little he cares about the environment.
Vegan Talk: Another new addition to the fold. I had made a few posts about animal rights, but they were pretty few and far between. About a month ago, I decided to start a feature explaining why I am a vegan, with “It Ain’t Easy Being Green – Take 2 – The Environment (9/26/07)” being something I’m expecially proud of.
Videos: Ok, so this is actually the biggest tab I have, but it just comes up every time I make a post with a video in it. I’m not going to look through all of them, I’m just going to make a post of the greatest gift YouTube has ever given us…
Why I Love…: This is the only recurring feature that merits its own category, because it really just fits in everywhere, “Why I Love Bloggin’ (4/16/07)“, my special 100th post holds a special spot and is probably the best insight into why I keep at this blog thing.
Well that concludes this special birthday post, I hope that you’ve all enjoyed the past year in cyber-space as much as I have!!!
Hey there, this is just a short post and a tribute to the many great videos that have been posted on the World Wide Web. This song is truly brilliant, and I consider it to be a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for the Web 2.0 Generation. If you don’t recognize at least 75% of the people mentioned in the video then you have some serious Googling to do…
If you are too lazy to click that link then allow me to give a quick synopsis. Apparently in the immensley popular World of Warcraft Game a glitch in the game came through and people began carrying a deadly, infectious disease. The first players to get the disease were high level and it didn’t affect them a great deal, but they began to share it with other players of much lower level who began to die off in droves. The article also proclaims that I am the coolest person alive, don’t believe me? Give it a read!
So you may be thinking that this is no big deal or anything, because a) you already knew how cool I am and b) who cares if a bunch of nerds loose their nerdy characters?
Well first off, it is important because World of Warcraft has over 9 million users, so it is not just a few nerds. But more interestingly than that, this story gives scientists a whole new and unique way to study infectious diseases. Whenever scientists attempt to predict what will happen in the event of another great plaque or anything like that, they are always forced to rely on mathematical models, theory and conjecture. I mean sure they know how fast a disease spreads and how quickly it will kill someone, but they don’t really know just how people are going to react to it all.
One of the things that they mention in the article is the so called “Stupid Factor” where a number of people decide that they would much rather risk their own (virtual) lives by logging in and going around to see the carnage first hand, as opposed to just playing it safe and laying low. Sure people would be much more reckless when dealing with their own virtual characters as opposed to their own real lives, but it still is an interesting comparision is it not?
It’s not like anyone can morally infest a community with the Avian Flu, but they could easily create some program to infect World of Warcraft, Second Life, or any of other MMORPG (or whatever the heck the akronym is…) to get a much better idea to see exactly how fast a disease would spread and just how a society would handle it.
Sure it could lead to some pissed off computer geeks, but that’s ok. They need a tan anyway.
