Keeping myself honest

So I’m sitting at home in my parent’s basement (a place where I’ve done a great deal of different things for many years in my youth) typing up this blog post on a computer that hasn’t seemed to have aged aged a day since I was using it regularly around 7 years ago.

First a random thought, does space always have a trek movie marathon on Christmas day? It always seems like it and two things are annoying about it. First the good movies are always when your in the middle of something else, Wrath of Kahn is usually around lunch when people are over and the Undiscovered Country is enviably over dinner which is annoying. Second its now 11:43pm (although the clock on this computer is trying to tell me its 8:35 for some reason) and they just started First Contact. For those of you who don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of trek movies there are still 2 movies left after this and even if I didn’t own all of them on DVD there is now way I would be staying up this late to see them all.

It seems that the older I seem to get the more perspective I seem to get on holidays such as this. This year I am home for the shortest amount of time to date an have less events scheduled with friends and family. Now I’m not going to go off on the true meaning of Christmas or anything like that because its far too cliche but something feels somewhat different this year.

This holiday is more low key for me as there is no big break or letdown from exams or concerts and it seems a lot nicer this way. This feeling was also amplified as the presents didn’t have a large impact on my day as they usually do. I got a lot of very nice things but when you’re out in the working world they seem more like a bonus than usual.

I don’t have to tell anyone reading this blog that having money is nice but in this case it just helped me to be grateful for everything I’d gotten and not have any disapointment, which even though you know you shouldn’t have seems to creep around when you miss that one present you’ve been waiting for and know you won’t have recreation money to spend on it anytime soon. It was also nice as I thought I was able to good presents for each of my family members which I think they will enjoy (Cara I probably could have done better with some research but your birthday is just around the corner).

So now I’ve spent all this time in the last paragraph saying the exact opposite of what you should be saying at this time of year which is money is awesome to have and will solve all of your problem. At this point I might as well point out driving home with my car was also nice and I love how I look in my dress winter jacket just so I’m on a role of bad statements about money.

In all seriousness it’s been great so far to focus on just having a good time with the family, which has been the majority of the last two days. So at one point I think I was going to write more and something about the spirit of Christmas or friendship or something but as always this blog is taking way to long to update so I’ll close with this: Money isn’t everything kids, its nice but you can’t take it with you when you go and the holidays are fun.

Also I updated the photo album on the site, I have yet to take any photos to put up there but maybe someday I’ll do that, and make a blog post worth reading.

Scotty B Personal

To some of you this next post may seems a bit hypocritical but I think it serves as a reminder to myself as to how important that critical thinking about everything (especially those things that you are passionate about) is.

First we have this story where FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate said that kids are dropping out of school because of video games. This is where my head starts to spin as not only is this idea ridiculous but it wasn’t even supported by the report she referenced, above video games in the list of reasons why was ‘getting a good job offer’. Also the bigger problem in this story is that she is against net neutrality.

I’m going to put my bias on the table as I am an avid gamer, but video games are not evil. They are simple another form of recreation just like going out to party and drink, and will ruin your grades just as fast if you do that all time instead of studying. I am also biased towards net neutrality because any of the pros associated with letting ISP’s control content can be done in other ways. I do know it is a complicated issue with a lot of legitimate problems but we don’t let the post office search, prioritize and block mail because they want to and the Internet should be the same way.

Next we have this absurd one where Kentucky is trying to enforce its will on the rest of the universe. Both stories even if I’m not being even handed still get down to one of the things I believe to be true and something I’m trying to make sure I do which is: knowing the facts and making an informed opinion before I put any words up here. These two are perfect examples of what happens when you don’t look at the big picture and anger me that they come from people who have sizable amounts of authority in society.

Finally props to President Bush for ducking the shoes thrown at him over the weekend. The absurd part isn’t really the throwing but that a pair of shoes almost hit him. like seriously where is the secret service on this one, are catching bullets in the contract but not shoes? The guy had time to throw a shoe, pull off the other one and then throw it as well with no movement at all from anyone. So I must compliment the outgoing President on being quick on his feet and turning this into a funny situation.

I also updated the main site to be a little bit less hard on the eyes, hope people like it.

Scotty B Commentary

For the 2 of you who actually read this you might notice that the name of the blog has changed again (or for those of you more observant types the title is a dead give away). I started thinking what do I actually wanted to get out of sitting her and adding to the endless content of the Internet and realized that I may be able to write something interesting for both myself and anyone who stumbles by the site.

I always like to be in the center of an argument and the political sphere as it seems not only as a logic place to start but the only true way to get a clear picture of what is going on. So with that in mind I looked at how my writing compared to what I was originally envisioning and the one thing that became quite clear is that I am much more tempered and even handed in writing.

This probably come from most of my writing being academic over the last four years but it also seems to be something the medium is designed for.  In writing you usually look at your entire work before it is published and you have time to think and rework and reanalyze it on the fly unlike a conversation. Also there is no back and forth which is something I enjoy in a conversation and/or argument. All this combined with it being something permanent led me to think that I should approach this differently then I do my usually rants and off the top of my head opinions.

So I’ve decided that I should keep talking about things that both interests me and I have string opinions on but this is going to be where I look at my opinions and then scrutinize them from some different view points before putting them down here. Now this has already caused me some concern as I don’t want to ‘water down’ my sometimes passionate opinions in order to appear objective or moderate because I think that can almost be as bad and not looking at the other side of an argument. To me it feels like writing is the right forum for these discussions that often play out in my head or in a conversation as to what is actually the ‘right answer’ even if most of the time there isn’t one because almost every situation is not black and white.

This is also where the new name ‘Keeping myself honest’ comes from. I want to use this to make sure I base my opinion on facts and never get to entrench in them to dismiss the other side. So I hope for anyone who is still around that this will be enjoyable and worth your time to read, it should also be fun for me to as I like to argue and hear opposing views to my own (why do you think I listen to Dvorak).

First order of business is the OC transpo strike: So it looks like the main issue here is the scheduling which after reading the CBC article I don’t get how the current system got put in place anyway. So the drivers can pick split shifts that add up to 6 hours and still get paid for 8? I get that the union wants some security at the number of hours they are going to get in a week as you can only get paid for what you work, but who in the city let this slip through 10 years ago as it seems like their throwing money out the window for no reason.

Also who works 13.5 hour shifts? I can appreciate the city trying to save every penny the can at the moment but 12 hours (which was the old deal) doesn’t sound unreasonable and if the new plan is supposed to save millions of dollars then giving up 1.5 hours and coming out even or probably still saving money doesn’t seem so bad.

Finally I don’t really have any love for the union for doing this but their tactics are down right dirty at this point and show very little class a disrespect for the public, which is somewhat ironic seeing as respect is one of the things that they keeps saying is at the core of the dispute. Picketing public parking and shuttle’s for students is not only unfair to those people it misses the point.

Go picket city hall as that is where your dispute actually is If you believe in your right to hold this strike then also respect the right of everyone in the city not to have it ruin their day and try to get to wherever they are going. People already are angry at the situation enough and now you are rubbing salt in the wounds and giving them a place to direct their anger even if they had originally been on your side.

Scotty B Commentary, Personal

Well after the first big snowfall of the year my car isn’t getting perfect marks but it manged to get pretty good grades today with the only major problem I’ve had to contend with is user oversight (stupid summer windshield washer fluid, who thought of making this product anyway) and the fact that I now have to shovel out my parking spot.  This is still much better than the alternative of taking the bus which in 3 hours barring a minor miracle won’t be a option for most people in the city which I’m sure will make life interesting to say the least.

All I’m going to say about this impending strike is that once again I suppose no one really wanted to get this done because while waiting to the last minute can be a bargening tool it more often then not leads to this problem and I’m sure both sides know that so I really don’t get it.

I don’t have vested interest either way except that its hard to see the union’s side for the strike when more then enough people are loosing their jobs right now. That being said if the main issue is scheduling then this has nothing to do with the economy so why can’t you come to some compromise. I don’t think seniority should be the only factor in deciding what shifts you have to take, but give them some sort of preference and have the managers make the final call based on that.  There you go: problem solved.

and because I can’t stay away from it…

I like the fact that the Liberals are not wasting any time getting their new leader in order and that Harper says he wants to sit down and talk about making some compromises. I would have also liked Harper to admit that he had at least some fault in this whole situation but I suppose all’s well that ends well. This will help our political scene not look like a joke south of the border. I heard commentary on two of my tech podcasts, which while somewhat uninformed did correctly point out how absurd this situation is.

Finally I finished Fallout 3 a couple hours after blogging about it last (so much for it going on forever). The game is very solid and while the final ‘level’ was really well done in the end it seemed kinda rushed an anticlimactic and the ending seemed kinda out of no where. Overall it was a very solid game and I will get a retail copy at some point when I want to reply it (thanks for letting me borrow it Josh, even though you probably stopped reading the blog last week when the novelty wore off). No I think it will be some Left 4 Dead until I get an HD TV as it seems like Fable 2 wasn’t designed with standard definition in mind.

One last thing, the main page of the site is now live, so check it out to see my twitter updates and some links, I know the colour scheme is a little off and I’m working on something with a little less contrast.

Scotty B Personal

So I haven’t been on In a couple of days because well I’ve been busy and there seems never to be enough time in the day to get everything I wasn’t done, but this will have less of a political slant to it for those of you who are starting to think that this is a news commentary site and not my personal blog.

The site is coming along, although i have yet to make enough progress to upload anything I hope to be able to do so tomorrow because I’m taking the night off other than some chores. I think It’ll look pretty good and will have my blog and twitter updates integrated into it which will make it the one stop shop for seeing what I’m up to.

Ok so first the political rant of the day, I’m glad that some common sense has happened on parliament hill and that the Gov. Gen. decided to make them take a break and hopefully cooler heads will prevail next time everyone meets. Also to all of you angry at this Harper did make a huge mistake but not here. It not only follows precedent for the Gov. Gen. to let the PM have such a request but makes sense as her priority is to keep the government working which still has the greatest chance this way as it should be a lot less difficult for the conservatives to make a good budget and have a few people agree with them then keep all 3 of the other parties on the same page.

Next gaming, I forgot how much fun split screen co-op for a game is, I played a bunch of Halo 3 on Thursday and can’t wait to get an HD tv so I can actually tell what I’m doing on screen. Fallout 3 is still taking most of my recreation time even 3 weeks after I started playing which is almost unheard of for me and a single player game. Normally I will rush through one of these games much faster, be it a couple of days with an FPS or maybe two weeks with an 40 or 50 hour RPG (I also beat KOTOR 2 with a bunch of side questing in 4 days I think).

Even with open world games like Oblivion or GTA 4 I tend to stick to the main quest and finish quickly with some side questing and even i I want to extend the experience by wandering off the beaten path usually its not a fulfilling and somewhat dulls the excitement that I’ve built up. I don’t know if I should attribute this more to my working 9-5 now but it didn’t seem to make a real difference on both Mass Effect and GTA 4 but whatever it is Fallout 3 is an amazing game that delivers on both RPG and open world elements and I just wish I got into sooner than I did so I could forget about all of the other games that just came out that I want but shouldn’t be getting to make sure I have money for other important things like food.

One last thing, Microsoft if I go to download IE 7 for some reason -like lets say because I was trying out IE 8 beta 2 and It keeps crashing on every other website- don’t tell me I have Vista installed and therefore have no need to be downloading IE 7 because it comes with Vista and not give me a link to download it. If I wanted you to make all my decision for me and never have a choice on anything because I think your omnipotent corporate god should make them for me I would have gotten a Mac, on that note The Simpson episode last week was funny, if a little late to the game.

Scotty B Commentary, Gaming, Personal

So hopefully the blog still works seeing as I just updated the version of word press. Last night I saw what was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Neil Young is an amazing performer even at his age, I think his knees are better than mine with all of the bouncing around he did. The one thing that kept going through my head was wow this man is amazing even in his stupid looking t-shirt and suit jacket that looked like he painted he house while wearing it, which while looking somewhat absurd on anyone and especially on a man his age only added to the spectacle.

His actions screamed honesty at all times and not the current generation emo ‘I don’t care what you think about me cause that’s how the marketing survey says you like me more if I say that’ but a man genuinely who made his own path in the world and in music even when it was unpopular or went against the grain. Other than that I did miss After the Goldrush not being in the set list and the fact that the encore was only one song but his cover of Day in the Life was excellent and a fitting (possible) tribute to the anniversary of John Lennon’s death.

Next WOOOOOOOOOOOO way go Carleton students you did the right thing making a big deal out of the boneheaded move on CUSA’s part to cancel Shinearama for next year. I’m glad they got the message loud and clear that this kind of behaviour is not only embarrassing for the school and all of its students but is wrong and should be frowned upon just as much as being overtly racist. I did like the ironic idea someone brought up that they should have to attend sensitivity training after this but I’ll settle for two resigned councilors and a soon to be impeached president, I only wish I was still there to sign the petition.

Now once again onto the topic that has been the main discussion of most of my blog posts so far (and yes 3 isn’t that many) which is the impending motion in the House. After some of my cynical nature about politics has been subverted recently but the turnaround south of the boarder and the situation described in the last paragraph. Unfortunately this level of politics is somewhat more important than the other two and its definitely screwed up and what I can’t really comprehend is how badly everyone has managed this situation. Harper had a minority but not only tried to govern like he had a majority but did one worse and decided to take a run at the financing of the other parties which he kinda need to get anything (like say the budget) passed in the House.

This is like me punching the IT guy at work in the face for no reason and then remembering 10 minutes later that I actually came to see him because my computer was broken and maybe a better use of my time was too ask him for his help to fix it not do something that would make him hate me.

Like seriously for what 30 million dollars? This is pocket change for the feds its not like it would even save us that much money as a country so I see the only two options was that whoever came up with this idea was an idiot, or a bully cause I really can’t see how any person looking at the big picture thought that this might help out in any way.

Next onto the coalition first of all it is absurd that a man that doesn’t have the confidence of his own party might become Prime Minister this is like the substitute teacher trying to run the classroom, with all due respect to substitute teachers, but you know what I mean the students don’t listen to you because they know you’ll be gone shorty and their actions have no repercussions. This make Dion at best a lame duck PM and at worst a puppet with no real master as the liberals have yet to come close to deciding who will replace him.

As much as I think the conservatives have shown they don’t have the right or the support to wield power I really dislike the idea that the next PM could be decided by a ‘back room deal’ to me this undermines the democracy to have this happen I mean at the very best it’s a slippery slope to have the Gov. Gen. basically overturn the results of an election and say what you will but the conservatives won support in the last election and are just shy of a majority so more people wanted them in power than any other party by a wide margin and while more people may have voted for the other three parties combined.

This is like changing the rules after starting the game, I think the election results would have been different if the other three had campaigned with this on the agenda (who knows they may have killed the conservatives in support then). Anyone who knows me knows that I think the Bloc have no real place in federal politics so I’ll leave it at that and I hate the fact that they could play such a deciding role in this when they don’t have the best interest of the country in mind.

So as I see it the only solution at this point is for Harper to step down as this would probably keep the conservatives in power thus preserving the results of the election but also hopefully allowing all of the parties to sit back down and get back to what their jobs are which at this point in time is making sure the economy doesn’t implode, and while this may be apparently be the reason for both the Harper cuts and the coalition it is really hard to believe anyone is even close to sincere with that statement.

So this is where I go off and say how dare all of you when the country is facing this big of a problem to fall into even pettier partisanship and bickering, its bad enough to her the sometimes sexist, incoherent and juvenile yelling that comes from the House sometimes but this is too much. You are all making six digits worth of tax payers money which if your not going to actually do anything should be the first thing to be cut in order to help out.

How dare anyone up on the hill give me a statement about how much they love the county and how they’re only trying to do what is best when both sides are using this crisis to destroy the opposition or just to take power away from a party you don’t like because as much as you might have diluted yourself into thinking you’re doing the right thing the truth is this still boils down to partisanship which for some reason has gotten exponentially worse in the last few years.

Ms. Jean I don’t even your position and in most cases I dislike the amount of power you have as an unelected official but I hope somehow you can fix this thing because if not as this point I think the only option is for the public to overthrow the government, and because my apartment is in the city feel free to use it as a base of operations. VIVE LE REVOLUTION!!!

This is feeling more like a political blog them personal, I wonder if that will hinder readership or help it… O yeah zero plus or minus zero is still zero.

Mercer Rant

Another Comic

Scotty B Commentary