text:
The Net is Back
Did Ang Li catch the bad end of the Green Destiny?
Seriously, what happened to Ang Li? The man is obviously crazier than a cross-eyed man trying to feed a stick to a possum.
He gave us Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and then he must have had head trauma because everything just went down the crapper since then.
I mean, he screwed up The Hulk. That had to be the easier movie to make cool, but he couldn't do it.
Now he's giving up Brokeback Mountian, the movie so gay, it's called
My theory is that he originally had the idea for one huge epic moving but had to split it into three because of budget constraints. We can only assume this movie was about some deadly flying redneck who turned gay when he got mad.
Geek on.
Really, I used to be in a band
Geek on.
The fact I don't eat or sleep may be a factor
I'm feeling kinda of sick. I know what happen. I was playing goalie for the Statesman Intramural Indoor Soccer team and I was clapping really because we almost did something really cool (when a bunch of journalists get together and try to do something physical, we don't do cool things, but sometimes we get close).
I guess I was clapping so hard that I ripped a chuck of goalie glove off and it flew into my mouth.
I think I got the avian bird flu or something.
By the way, am I the only person who's realized that the name "avian bird flu" is totally redundent? "Avian" means bird remember.
Oh well.
Geek on.
Shinney's holiday tip#1
Sometimes, I fart in the computer lab
At work:
Only five papes left (that's how we say it, it looks really stupid when I write it) in the semester. We had a meeting today that assigned all the stories for a year. We're looking forward to next semester in which we will include our continual attempt to devl deeper into the lifestyle issues that really matter to students, like obesity, single motherhood and nude modeling.
I also write the preemptive critic every Friday, which is a lot of fun. It's like being a real journalist, without anywork.
Personal life:
As much as I hate to admit it, my wife can totally kick my left and right buttcheek at Doctor Mario. I've come to grips with it by reminding/convincing myself that Doctor Mario isn't a real video game. It helps with the pain.
I actually mentioned this in one of my (obviously) prodominatly male CS class and apparently this is a common occurance in various geeky relationships. My hope is that if I keep letting her beat the everlovin' snickers out of me as Dr. M., sooner or later she'll join me in a game of Heroes of Might and Magic.
Of course, once she beats me at that, our marrage will be in jepordy.
I finally found out what all the "Firefly" buzz is about. It's about the coolest show I've seen in a long time. Over the break I was able to catch an episode and a half. I instant fell in love. For those of you who haven't seen in yet, I understand, it took my a while too, but it's time to repent. Go watch it now. My goal for Winter Break has switch from program my own hexbased turn-based strategy game to rent and watch the whole series.
Random stuff I'm not making up:
My little brother wants my help training to be in the Ultimate Fighting Challenge.
Some girl just asked me if a decade was ten years.
My Mormon problem article has almost 4000 reads now.
I'm too busy to poop somedays.
[Beat] Everything I ever need to know I learn from Mario
I'm scared to be a dad. It's not the responsibility I'm afraid of. I kept me Siamese fighting fish alive for months and it didn't cry when I didn't feed it so I think I can handle a kid just fine.
What I'm worried about is that I won't be able to raise the kid up to be the well-adjusted adult he or she should be.
Everyone knows that a child's early years are crucial to their growth and development. This is why I'm worried about my kids. They will never have the same educational opportunities that I had, because they may not exist at that point.
That's because everything I learned as a kid that made me that man I am today, I learned from the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
I'm sure there are some Philistines out there who have outlandish ideas about the NES only being for entertainment. Well let me but such heresy to rest by showing you what video games have taught me.
I have personal worth. If a dopey little kid with pointy ears and a floppy hat can save the world from evil with nothing but a wooden sword than I can accomplish anything I put my mind to. (Zelda
There's a way to solve any problem that comes your way. If one doesn't work, try another. If the ice spell doesn't get the job done, trying something with a little lightning. (Final Fantasy)
Always look both ways before you cross the street. (Frogger)
Women are all being held hostage by a giant, evil dragon of some kind. If you're lucky, it's a literal dragon hat can be dealt with by simply dropping him into lava. In all likelihood though, it'll be some meta-physical dragon like being uncomfortable with herself in a swimsuit or fears of not fully reaching her own potential. Good luck with those man, they don't make fireballs to kill that crap. (Mario)
This one does have to do with self-defense, the weakness of every fat person, hitting them in the stomach. (Punch Out)
No matter what your parents tell you about how it helps you grow as a person or how it's good exercise, being a paperboy, just isn't fun. (Paperboy, the stupidest concept for a game, ever)
It's always a good idea to devote your entire life martial arts and to have your best friend to do the same. That way if by some off chance an evil gang come and punches you girlfriend in the stomach (not she's fat, they're just jerks) and carry her off over their shoulders, you can do something about it. (Double Dragon)
Ninja can beat guys with guns. (Ninja Gaiden)
Just because something is pointless and doesn't make much sense, doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Doesn't anyone remember those little spiky guys that would crawl around in the first Metroid? What were those things? What kind of supior alien race employs little spiky things to crawl on there walls? I don't know. But it keeps me up some nights. (Metroid)
Use want you're offered in life. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade. If life gives you a stone, make soup. If life sends you a stupid gun that shoots leaves, use it to destroy some other evil robot. (Megaman 2)
Sometimes you really have to get to the heart of the problem. Sometimes this isn't pretty. Sometimes this requires shooting the face right off your problem, climbing inside and shooting the problem's heart with your machine gun. It's times like these it's helpful to have 30 lives. (Contra)
Patience is key. You may be tempting to drop a crooked piece down your carefully crafted one square wide chasm to get a couple easy points. Hang tight though, the long skinny piece is just around the corner. (Tetris)
So you can see, everything I really need to know, I learned from Nintendo.
Geek on.
Steve Shinney is a junior in computer science and is currently trying to use skills his learned from playing computer games to get out of taking his midterms next month. Comments can be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Secrets of Marraige
For example, I've learned why it is generally the man's job to take the garbage out. It's not because the garbage is gross, or because it's too heavy.
It's just that taking out the garbage is the only job around the house simple enough that my wife will trust me to do it.
Geek on.
Big Brawl with the Bogeyman
I have never really got over my fear of the bogeyman. It's one of the many things from my childhood that I just cannot let go of, like my love of action figures, refusal to eat broccoli and this reoccurring dream where the people from
The thing about the bogeyman is that despite the fact that he has terrified me and prevented me from sleeping for the last twenty years, I still have no clear idea as to what he looks like.
The day that I moved out away from home was a highlight in my life, not only because it meant I could escape my mother's iron grip and spend all day eating cheetos in my underwear. It also meant that if the bogeyman were to finally get around to crawling out from under my bed to kill me, there would be a 50 percent chance he'd get my roommate first. This was a big improvement in my mind.
As a 7-year-old, I would always have my parents protect me from the bogeyman, because certain death and the hands of a drooling monster didn't seem to faze them.
I also assumed that by the time I was married I would be brave enough to protect my young bride from anything that may be hiding in our closet. I also figured I'd have matured to the point where I'd be able to resist giggling to myself when I hear the word "titillate."
I was wrong on both counts.
So here I am, a married "responsible" adult, I can do anything I want and I still spend my nights staring at the ceiling worrying about what could possibly be going bump in the night.
I've decided this needs to stop. When I become a father, if my offspring come to me with fears and complaints about monsters under the bed, I'd want to be able to do more than just dress them up in some football pads, hand them a wiffle bat and wish them luck.
For all these reasons and more, I've decided to take the fight to my enemy. I refuse to live in fear anymore. I'm officially calling the boogeyman out.
I'm not sure how this is going to work. The boogeyman definite has the advantage on me. He's been around for years, spying on me. If he's as smart as he claims to be, he'll probably start watching tape of some of my previous battles looking for weaknesses.
Fortunately, I've been preparing for this battle for a long time. I've got plans. I've got a training regiment. I've got booby traps set up in my room. I think I'm ready.
Ideally, the boogeyman will be a man and face me in honorable, one-on-one combat. Actually ideally we'd just settle the whole thing via a game of high-stakes Dungeons and Dragons but we all know he's too big of a chicken to do that. That's right boogeyman, I'm calling you a chicken.
Unfortunately, I know that I'm dealing with an underhanded monster that generally picks victims based on the presence of footie pajamas.
From what I've been able to gather, the boogeyman attacks when people are least expecting it. I didn't burn my eyebrows off in Boy Scouts for nothing. I be prepared. This is why I'm ready to face him at anytime of the night.
You think I'm kidding? Just ask my wife, I sleep with nunchucks under my pillow.
Now I'm sure some of you out there are laughing at me, saying that such a battle is unnecessary seeing as how there hasn't been a verified boogeyman-related attack since at least the Carter administration. To you I say, if you were attacked by the bogeyman, would you tell anyone?
That's not the point though, after I'm through with him, there won't be anymore little boys getting abducted because he didn't stay under his blanket for a very long time.
That's why I'm doing this, for the children.
Because they deserve to be able to stay up late, so that they too, may geek on.
Steve Shinney is a junior in computer science and is currently training for a fight with Count Chocula and his big rematch with the chucabra.
This beat first apearred in the Utah Statesman. Used with permission
Things have been just falling around my ears.
Not that anyone reads this thing anyway. I need to up my pimpage.
Lessons learned
For those of you who just randomly reading this blog, another editor at my paper and I recently ran a very controversial column.
Well most people now worship us as folk heros, a few people, however, want our heads on spits. Natuarlly these are the people who missed the joke. People who get the joke, thought it was funny and want to bare our children.
Anyway, you can't live your life a fraid of upsetting the unstable. In humor, if you can get half the room on your side you're a winner. If the respose we've gotten is any indication, we have 99 percent in our corner.
If you haven't read it yet, here's the link, let me know what you think.
[Beat] Mastering Science before hitting puberty
People often complain that I take to long in my columns to get to the point. As far as I'm concerned you people are lucky I even have a point. No paper I've ever written for a grade has had one.
Anyways, without any further ado, the point:
Just like Donatello, I'm a scientist. I have been ever since I preformed my first experiment on what would happen if you light your little sister's Barbie on fire. From which I developed my first real scientific equation: H2O * Sd <= G(t), which states (obviously) that the amount she cries combined with the smoke damage you cause are directly related to the amount of time you'll spend grounded.
This was than followed by the discovery of other scientific principals such as gravity pulls objects of smaller mass toward those with bigger, that food that's only been on the ground for 10 seconds in still safe to eat and just because you head will fit through something doesn't necessarily mean that it can come back out.
Despite my illustrious career in the sciences there are some things I've never understood. How scratch-and-sniff stickers work and my little brother's irrational fear of weasels are two of them. Also high up on the list is pretty much anything that a grownup ever said to me when I was a child.
From "Don't hold you're face like that, it'll stick," to "root beer is not for breakfast," everything my authority figures would say to me didn't make a lick of sense.
The one that would really dry my Play-Doh out was "Don't play too much video games, they're a waste of time and will rot your brain." Personally I don't think anyone who can't figure out how to get Link the wooden sword could accuse me of having a rotten brain.
With the exception of watching Drew Barrymore movies and coloring maps of various countries I'd never heard of in seventh grade geography, I don't think anything I've done in my life has been a complete waste of time. What may appear to be the useless actions of a kid with any over active imagination was in truth a secret training regimen for the day when my skills would be needed.
What would the rest of the class do if a dragon came? Throw a football at it really hard? Play piano at it? No, all they would do is hide and cry until I was able to slay the beast with my yellow Wiffle bat.
I would spend the time that wasn't dedicated to the pursuit a sword of dragon slaying to further my scientific prowess. You'd think my attempts to build a time machine on my skateboard would make me popular with the other kids but rather it just let to them doing their own experiments on how far up my underwear could go.
That's another thing I haven't been able to understand scientifically, why people claim kids are innocent and pure. From what I remember they were all mean and punched hard.
In grade school I used to get beat up for pretending to be He-Man by some kid pretending to Mike Tyson. Am I the one who sees the hypocrisy in that?
Sorry, this is a very personal topic for me. Just thinking about it brings a tear to my eye and the taste of 2000 Flushes to my mouth.
Well it looks like this column, let the semester, is coming to an end. Thanks for reading, I've enjoyed our time together and hope you will join my for next year's Geek Beats. Until then, geek on.
Geek out.
This was the last Geek Beat publish in the Spring Semester of this year. Published in the Utah Statesman.
This was the last Geek Beat publish in the Spring Semester of this year. Published in the Utah Statesman.
Don't ask what prompted this
They always put the words where you get in trouble for reading them.
Geek on.
Childhood is gross when you think about it
Basically you stick your head - with your mouth open mind you - into a mixture of10% apple juice, 35% and 55% percent backwash.
Yeah, that's gross.
Geek on.
[Beat] Dinner, dancing and zombies: the perfect honeymoon
I got permission to post my beats here as well as in the paper. This one was pretty well recieved. Most people liked the mental image of Magic the Gathering geeks trying to play DDR.
The unofficial title of this column is "What I did over my summer vacation," because that's all I'm going to talk about. I'm sure some of you are saying, "I don't wanna hear about what you did." Well, to you I say, "Hey, there's no 'I' in 'Steve'."
I got married over the summer. This just goes to show that just because your high school class votes you to be the last to do something doesn't mean it'll happen that way.
We went to
I don't gamble in Vegas, at least not with my money. I gamble with my life every time I eat at on one of Vegas's world-famous buffets.
It's not the food at these places that worries me, it's the all you eat part. I can eat a lot, a lot more that I probably should. I think the workers at the buffet should be able to cut me off, similar to how bartenders can tell an alcoholic when he's had too much. By my seventh plate of baked "salmon" and "prime" rib covered with "chicken" chow mein, someone needs to tell me to stop. I'm no longer in control.
I, like the rest of the world, don't go to Vegas to eat. I go to Vegas to put coins in to big shinny machines. The difference is that the one arm from my bandit is a joystick.
I love arcades. Always have, and I probably always will. There's just something about a musty room full of hormone-driven teenagers swearing at inanimate objects that makes me feel at home.
Not all is well in beep-town, however. The arcade is no longer the bastion of geekiness that it once was.
The arcade scene has changed a lot since I was a kid. I've been around arcades since a yellow circle passed as a hero and the scariest looking villain was a centipede.
These days there are games filled with zombies so scary that I refuse to play for the simple reason that I don't want to wet myself in public. Especially since the public consist of ten year olds who can slay countless of these zombies.
These zombie blood fests with names like "House of the Dead," "CarnEVIL" and "Picnic of Doom" aren't the games with which I have the real problem. The pox that has wasted our nations gamming dens is none other than Dance Dance Revolution.
For those of you who think Wedge Antilles is a golf club, Dance Dance Revolution (or DDR) is a video game where players actually dance along to Japanese pop music (or J-pop) by stamping along to commands flashed on the screen. It's been at the forefront of the new trend in arcade to have primarily dancing games (or crap).
I've never liked dancing games because they go against nature. If God had wanted geeks to dance, he would have given us Magic: The Gathering.
Up until my honeymoon I had never tried a dancing game. I was much too manly for that. But then my wife asked me to join her in playing one and I found out just how manly I wasn't.
I honestly expected to like it once I gave it a try. I was wrong. After about thirty of stomping to the beat, I worked up a sweat and it dawned on me "This isn't a video game, it's exorcise!"
I wasn't able to feel ripped off, as my two left feet reared their ugly head and I feel, causes he casino staff to use the gauze in the arcade first aid kit for the first time ever.
And that's what I did on my summer vacation.
Geek on.
This beat first appeared in the Utah Statesman, in August 2005. Used with permission
I'm not even going to talk about what would happen if we ran out of Mountain Dew
As I walked past the cemetary I realized that sure, Logan may be able to with stand a blizzard, which is granted the most likely natural disaster in this part of the world, but there are many that we would not stand a chance against. For example, our cementary only has a small chainlink fence with unshuttable gates. There is no way that would be sufficent in the case of a zombie uprising.
Geek on.
Geek on.
Time to face the change
I can't fart in bed anymore.
Geek on.
Will work for swag
This is where I will come in. I'll be doing this for them. I'm still not very sure exactly how it's all going to fit together. For what I understand, as I come across web comic related news, I'll be sticking it up on thier site.
This is cool becuase I love web comics and now I have more of a reason to read them. I can also write more, which is always helpful and fun. They said they could also pimp anything of my own which will be nice. I have tried to start a web comic of my own but to no avail as of yet. I have talked to the cartoonist at the paper and we might be putting something together, but that's a ways off I'm sure.
That's all I have for now.
Geek on.
At least I can articulate
Lock it or Lose it?
I took the paper out and read it. It was a notice from Campus Security alerting the computer science department that the door had been left open. This didn't seem that weird, the door was unlocked and it was midnight and that is Campus Security job.
What struck me as weird was the severity of the note. Scrawled acrossed the top were the words "Lock it or Lose it." It went on to say that if the CS department didn't be more responsible, they would lose the privaledge.
It was like a parent threatening to take away their kids puppy if they don't feed it.
My question is, what priveledge? The priveledge of having a door? How are they going to take that away? Remove the door? That'll improve security.
I don't see why they're even that worried. The Linux lab is not very well known. I only found out about it when I took a class in Linux. The computers in the lab don't even boot up into Windows so it's not like the average thief could even use them. They'd just steal it and bring it back later.
Anyway, it nice to know that they care.
Geek on.
My issue with keys
I never know when to get them out. I'll be walking toward a door that I need to unlock and I just don't know the proper time to pull my keys out of pocket. Sometimes I pull them out too early, then I'm just walking down the hall with keys in my hand. Too late, I'm standing there digging in my pockets just wasted time.
Obviously with keys this is a fairly trivial issue, however, it spreads to every aspect of my life. Going to the bathroom, however, it's more of a potiential problem.
Geek on.
Everything tastes like chicken, except chicken flavored Ramen
I noticed something distrubing about Ramen though. You have you basic flavors: chicken that's supposed to taste like chicken, shrimp that's suposed to taste like shrimp, beef that's supposed to taste like cow, and then you have Oriental. Is is supposed to taste like Chinese people?
I'd be a little concerned about the research that would have to go into to such a flavor but then I thought about how the beef powder tastes, so I'm not worried.
Geek on.
While such decisions are based on my religious beliefs, they do not stand on them alone. I also think the most important part of anyform of entertainment is to tell the story and any that takes away from that is bad.
For example, if the number of purple monkeys distracted from the story, I'd complain about the purple monkeys.
People often retort with stuff like "Sex is part of life. Get theF--- over it."
That's stupid. First off, sex is a part of my life, but it's never advanced the plot.
Second, people taking big stinky craps are part of life. We don't put those in movies do we? No because it offends some, and even those it doesn't offend, it doesn't help them or add anything to their movie experience.
Twins scare me
I am still afraid of the Bogeyman, but I'll go into that at a later date.
Twins however scare me to death. It's just not natural for there to be two of the same person. with the exception of the occansional episode Star Trek. Doubes are never a good thing.
Besides, have you ever hung around twins, it's like walking in a house of mirrors.
Geek on.
To me, that's like needed help with fertility and seeing a guy who kicks you in the nuts.
Geek on.
The Last Day
It's weird, but it should be okay.
Geek on, I guess. I'm sure gonna try.
We'd call it Greenbay.
Are you mad at me yet?
Geek on.
I miss Sally
That does remind me how bad I am at fishing. I ever started a column about it. That was back when I was living the dream of trying to be a real writer. Huh, so much for that huh?
Actually I did get to do some real writing today. I'm doing a story for the Statesman and I wanted to get it started before I get married and go honeymooning. I did feel pretty good walking around talking to some of the more important people on campus. Than the security guard wouldn't let me into the office and I was reminded how unimportant I am and how much he sucks.
I may start pimping this site a bit. Trying to get some readers. I think I may start right now. Or later.
Anyways, I've rambled enough just so I can say I update my blog. I'm going to go for a walk of something.
Geek on.
I killed Bambie's Dad
My car is a bit banged up. My door won't open, which super sucks, and my mirror is smashed. Fortunately my fiance (I know I spelled it wrong but I don't care) and I were fine which isn't a garruntee (see previous aside) when you hit a deer going 60.
I keep trying to focus on the positive and for the most part I do. I'm thrilled that we walked away unharmed. I realize what a blessing this and am grateful for it.
I'd be lying though, if I didn't say I was a little miffed that I'm going to spend the last week of being single without a car because some deer had to prove to his friends that his antlers were bigger than their's.
Anyway, geek on.
Starting to be a Superhero
I was driving down the road and I saw a can fall from another car. The drive by little really bugs me because the prepatrater can just drive away like nothing happened. I wasn't going to take I. I snatched up the can and chanced after them running and yelling rebuking all the way.
They finally stopped, it was a young couple, and started yelling back. The girl was furious. She was getting all up in my face yelling back. Something about ruining her wedding day.
Some people are just jerks.
Geek on.
Scott Johnson Interview
It was really cool to get to talk with an actual webcomic artist and hear straight from him what he thought about the genre as a whole. Plus Scott was super cool and just really fun to talk to.
The interview was for a story we'll be running for our first issue of Deversions which is the entertainment section of the Utah Statesman. So stay tuned for that...or I'll kill you, you know, with a toaster or something.
Geek on.
A Bit of a Beat
This is a Geek Beat that I never got the way I wanted. I still like the idea so I'll probably rewrite it. Don't forget to check out the Classic Beats sections for the best of the published columns from last school year.
My original plan today was to write a helpful and useful column about what people can do with their tax returns. It was going to include all kinds of great deals on geeky gadgets, high quality investing tips and how to create cold fusion with a fudgecicle.
Unfortunately it seems I've blown all my tax return on buying forty raw pounds of ninja turtle action figures and Mountain Dew.
So what's a geek to do if he just blew all his cash on bean bag chair full of pudding? Head to the last bastion of free nerd entertainment that's what. I'm talking about the computer labs
I love the computer labs here on campus. They're my geeky paradise. Nothing but wall to wall, T1 goodness.
They're the prefect place to go when you're in college and you're so strapped for cash that's you're watching entire movies in front of the the book store and sometimes you just go into the QuickStop so you can smell the hotdogs and wish.
Computer labs have replaced the library as the place to study on today's modern campuses. No longer to people have to risk nasty paper cuts and actual human contact to get homework done.
All you have to do at the lab is slide yourself into a chair that well worn in all the right places, fire up a few crucial programs, put on your head phones and your just moments away from what scientists refer to as, "the Zone".
You need to be careful though, while you may feel like your in your own little world, your not. You're still in a public access lab and we can still hear you including your singing along to your favorite song and all those embarrassing noises you make.
My first online confession
I'll keep working on it though. Send me some tips or something.
And don't forget to geek on.
I almost drank green milk
Geek on.
Coke Question
It's too jittery as it is.
Geek on.
More thoughts on Star Wars
Lately, as I've been preparing for my up coming wedding, I've found myself spending a lot of time with my girlfriend. During these times I've noticed our conversations are super lame.
This leads me to believe that this people complaining about the dialouge are tradtional Star Wars geeks who have never had a girlfriend and don't understand that even if you're the chosen one of the Jedi Order, once you're in love, you're a moron.
Star Wars III is awesome. Just deal with in.
And then geek on.
Retiring from hero work
The chaffing was unbarable.
I've canceled my subscription to City of Heroes, the hugely popular superhero based MMORPG. It was the first such game I'd ever really played and I really enjoyed it, I'm just too busy to justify the cost.
I was impressed by the game though and would recomended it to any one who wished they had a secret identity. Go there and act out the fantasies you thought you had to leave on the monkey bars in grade school.
Geek on.
Why the Dark Side would have easier recruitment sessions
I've been thinking about Star Wars a lot recently. This isn't all that unusual considering I often think about Star Wars quite often. It's one of those worlds that I retreat to when I'd rather not be where I am at the time. As a child I learned that the real world sucks but in my imagination I can live in worlds that better meet my requirements for magic systems and orc populations. Star Wars is on of the many worlds in which hide the the mundaneness that is my life.
So anyway, as I was saying, I was thinking about Star Wars and I realized the true appeal of the Dark Side. It not about power, or money or not having to follow a bunch of stupid rules or any of that, its not even about being able to love. It's about the names.
Think about it. The Dark Side has way better titles. If you fight on the side of truth and right, you start out as a youngling, a youngling. In a universe full of bad names, that's gotta be the worse one. After that you become a padawan. Not as stupid as a youngling, but still hard to spell and not something people understand very well. Finally, after all this work, you get promoted to the rank of Knight and out of the ranks that suck. After a life of battles and training, you finally become a Jedi Master and can get some decent name cards printed up.
On the Dark Side however, as soon as you sign up, you're a Lord. No questions asked. That's a lot sweeter than a Knight or even a Master. Chicks dig titles of power, and what has more power than Lord? Nothing that's what. Follow is up with a cool name like Vader or Maul and there's nothing you can't do with the title of Lord.
"Hey Jimmy, wanna be a Jedi with me? If we train for twenty years we could even be Knights."
"No thanks, I'm already a Lord."
"The Dark Side."
Yeah, I'm sure that's a pretty common conversation in the Star Wars universe.
Geek on.
Two points
Point Two: Don't argue in the elevator. This should be obvious but some people don't get it. Today at work I was forced into the awkwardest situation I've been in recently. I was waiting for the elevator and I heard a couple arguing around the corner getting closer. I figured as soon as they got close enough to see me, they stop. They didn't, they just kept fighting, even after we were all on the elevator together. I had to get off on an eariler floor, just for the sake of my sanity.
That's it, I'm out.
Geek on.
Fantastic Four was well...not bad.
Um, I really have no desire to write a full review of the Fantastic Four. I'll just say that I liked it. It wasn't the best superhero movie ever, but it didn't blow any goats.
I was really looking forward to seeing the movie until I saw Batman Begins. Ever since I saw that masterpiece 0f cinema, I was worried that there couldn't possibly be another good comic movie this summer.
The more I waited though, I started to think about it I relized there was a hope. This hope was that they would go for an entirely different purpose. This is exactly what happened. Batman rocks because it reminds us that comic books are a great way to tell indepth and intense story as well as developing better characters than other artforms. Fantastic Four reminds us that reading comics is fun.
That's the word I'd use describe the movie, fun. It's a fun movie. It has a lot of obvious jokes and some more that I wished I'd thought of myself. It's not about deep emotional heroes who use their gifts to make amends to the world, it's about a man who uses his powers to get paper when he's stranded on the toilet.
Go see it. You'll have fun.
Geek on. (I remembered it this time)
Reaction to Roger Ebert's Fantastic Four Review
OK, so Roger Ebert, of Ebert and Roper, just really pissed me off. Not only did he hate the Fantastic Four but his gave the lamest reasons ever for feeling so.
First of he called the four second tier superheroes. They were the first superhero team. They are reserved in their world. While the rest of the heroes need to hide behind masks and secret identities, the FF face the world uncovered. They are celebrities and national heroes.
So if this wasn't enough to prove Ebert didn't know what he was talking about he than proceeded to blow me away with his unknowledge (I know it's not a word) of comic books by comparing the Four to other heroes we've already seen.
He compared The Human Torch to the Flash, who hasn't even had a movie recently. Because, you know, fire and going really fast are so close.
The Thing was likened unto Swamp Thing. This one I will give to Ebert, they are both bald, strong and have Thing in their name. That's something, I'll concede that, it's a stupid something, but something nonetheless.
He had the balls to claim Mr. Fantastic was a knock off of the Incredibles. I will stand aside and let all those who know what I'm talking about speak on this issue.
Finally, and most absurd, he said that The Invisible Woman (or girl as she was refered to in the movie) was just like Storm. Storm. Let me say this again, Storm. Storm has the power to control weather. The Invisible Woman can turn, surprisingly enough, invisible and shoot force fields. While I've never understood how those too powers are related, if Mr. Ebert can see how the coincide with weather, he most have had some freaky high pressure fronts where he grew up.
Bare in mind here I'm not saying that Mr. Ebert or anyone has to be an expert in comic books to be a movie critic. But be honest. Don't try to come across like you know a lot about a topic that some one as feeble in knowledge as myself can rant about so easily. Just say you didn't like it. If you have to admit you didn't get it, that's fine too, you're entitled to you opinions and can not like a movie for what ever reason you want.
I for one, really enjoyed the movie as did the twelve or so other people that went with it. I'll give a full review better when I'm no longer suffering from this killer cough that has descended upon me.
Chinese Medicine
Anyways, my wonderful Chinese girlfriend came over to take care of me. She used tradional Chinese medicine which means soup. She pumped so much soup into me I can't stop peeing. I'm pretty sure the whole base of Chinese medicine revolves around the concept of peeing the germs out.
It worked last time I was sick so I'm not going to knock it.
Now I need to pee than I'm going to bed.
Thoughts on Swearing, part 1
Living in Utah as I do, you hear a lot of substitutes for common swears. A large percentage of people here, including myself, are taught that swearing that is bad or at least lame.
Most people still feel the need to use other words to fill in the void left in our life by not swearing. Basic fillers are used by the wide majority of people here and everybody knows them. Thanks to Napoleon Dynamite, you probably know them too.
As for me, I try to go beyond the norm and create new swears. My current one is "Crackers in my hat!" I got it from a friend who came up with it one day when he spilt crackers into his hat.
A common swear replacement that non creative folk use way too much in my opinion. Freakin' A.
Freakin' A. Let's think about this for a second. I've known some amazing swearers in my time, people who could, and would, string so many swears together that it becomes a language of their own. Never once have I heard one of these people use the combination that "freakin' A" stands for. When they, the swearers enter into a situation that would cause a non-swearer to say "Freakin' A" they too say "Freakin' A."
Weird huh?
So this is how the saga ends, with thunderous applause
warning: this post contains spoilers and probably a hundred spelling/gramatical errors. Also it's not very funny. Humor will some day come to this blog I promise.
Well, it's over. The Star Wars series is over. Balance has been restored to the force. Only two Jedi and two Sith remain. The Empire has formed and the Rebellion can't be far behind. Anakin is evil. Dooku is dead. Luke and Leia are alive.
More importantly, the saga is complete. The whole story has been told. The loose ends are all tied. I am satisfied.
*****Skip below if you only want a review******
I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I may not know the movies backwards and forwards but I enjoy the heck out of them every time I watch them. I love the story and the character, the exotic locals and intense battle scenes. I love how the original three show the battle between good and evil on an epic, galaxy wide scale. I love how the new three tell the same story on the equally epic scale of a single human scale.
I wasn't born a Star Wars fan. My parents weren't huge fans and I really didn't know anything about it until I was in the later part of grade school. My best friend, Ryan Loveland, was one of those kids born to watch Star Wars. He would tell me about the movies and did so with such an enthusiasm that I couldn't help but want to learn more.
We'd watch Star Wars together a few times, he'd tell me a few of those random facts that only Star Wars fans seem to know or care about. When we got older the trilogy was released again in theaters. We weren't again to see Empire, but enjoyed the A New Hope and Jedi.
My junior year in high school a buzz was starting. The prequels were coming. I was there opening night. Not with Ryan this time, but with Jessica, my first girlfriend. She was as big a fan as I was. It was her idea to watch it that night, no matter how late we would have to stay up. By the time school got out that night the line had already wrapped around the theater. Fortunately she had some friends near the front who were able to get us tickets for the 12:01 a.m. showing.
I still remember that night. Pocatello's geekiest were out in full force. There were people of all ages dressed as characters new and old. Little kids dress as Obi-wan and Darth Maul would duel for our entertainment. People brought TV's to watch the old movies and play new Star Wars based games. Occasionally people driving be would yell something about how geeky we were. We never cared. Those that were with us were more than those that were against us. For the first time in my life I realized just how many fans there were. I haven't felt alone in my fandom since.
I even wrote a song about waiting in line that night.*
When Episode Two came out I was in Australia. I was fortunate enough not to be exposed to very much marketing for it. Had I been I would probably have been very distracted.
In anticipation of the third one, I've been trying to get my girlfriend, Sally, to appreciated the story. She's from China and had never seen them before. I still don't think she understand how one movie could have effected this country as much as Star Wars has. Of course, I'm not sure any of us understand that either.
Despite (and probably partially because of) my promptings, Sally didn't really like the first two. Looking back I think I did her a disservice by showing Menace first. She never appreciated the characters. She really didn't want to go with us today, but I'd already bought her a ticket so she reluctantly agreed to come.
*****Begin spoiler-filled review*****
I loved it. It wasn't perfect, but it was a heck of a lot closer than I honestly expected it to be. From the intense rescue of Palpatine from General Greivious to the final seen where Owen adopts Luke and looks of into those same two setting suns, it was great.
My biggest problem with the movie was not with the movie itself but rather with the fact that I had to sit in the second row. The movie movies way too fast across the giant screen for a some one that close to follow. Why do theaters even put those rows in? Nobody sits in them if they can help it.
On the whole the movie was much better. The dialog was crisper and more realistic. The acting was much better (except for Ewan McGregor who was always good, except for the fact Jess had a huge crush on him after Menace). The battles were on a larger, more epic scale but still left plenty of time for the one on one light saber battles that made the movie.
A couple point in the movie really stood out to me.
First, the relationships Anakin had with others, namely Amadala and Obi-wan. The Clone Wars did much to mature and develop our young friend. He no longer come across as whining or spoiled, but rather as a real person. You actually feel for him for the first part of the movie, you know, before he starts slicing up little kids.
The battle between Obi-wan and Grievious. In the other movies, people always talk about how powerful a Jedi Obi-wan is. Never the less, you really didn't get that impression from the first two episodes. When he fights the general, though, he is a really tough mother. Grievious is literally a killing machine but Obi-wan does more than hold his own, but aggressively chases down and destroys him.
To me this battle shows a comparison between the old and the new. The Jedi uses a sword and rides a large lizard after a cybernetic creature that rides a slick giant wheel type speeder thing. Even though in the end, Obi-wan has to use a blaster to kill Grievious, it seems to me that there's no school like the old school.
This theme is carried one to Obi-wan's battle with Anakin. Even though Anakin has a slight advantage through out the fight, his pride ends up being his down fall. Obi-wan seizes the high ground and is able to use his greater wisdom and tatics to slice his former padawan.
John Williams did amazing music. I never notice the music in movies but this was just amazing.
There were a boat load of wookies. I would have like more, but I would always like more wookies.
There were a few things I would like to have seen differently. Mace Windu fights much like any other Jedi rather than the master of the Dark Side approaching style of vapaad that his is in the books.
In the final scene Obi-wan and Anakin should have had differently colored light sabers.
The much promised explanation of why some Jedi disappear when they die but others all Sith don't was missing.
Beyond this extremely minor things, it was a great movie. I couldn't have hoped for it to be better. I'm completely satisfied with how the epic ended. I feel like a part a my life has ended, similarly to how I felt when I graduated or came home from my mission.
My props and great appreciation go out to Mr. Lucas for giving us these great movies. For making me believe in the Force.
Now stop reading this and go see the movie.
Geek on
A New Hope
I'm not going to write too much. A thousand better, or at least less sleep depreived, writers have probably already said all that can be said about this. Many of them have probably seen the movie. I won't pretend to be able to add anything.
Our generation is sometimes referred to as the "Star Wars" generation. We've watched these movies a thousand times, and yet we keep watching. Not only watching though, we keep reliving these movies. Yelling out the lines with the characters. Cheering the heroes and even the villians. We know how it all ends. We wouldn't have it end any other way.
Tomorrow will be different. I won't know all the lines. I won't know what happens. Tomorrow I'll watch a Star Wars movie for the first time for the last time.
Tomorrow I hope to put up my feelings of the film as well as memories of how Star Wars has affected my life.
Until then: May the Force be with you and geek on.
A blog is born
Anyway, I set this blog up on accident trying to see what it was like but it went all the way through. So I might as well use it.
This blog will serve primairly as a way for my to brain storm ideas for "The Geek Beat" a weekly column I write for the paper at Utah State University. I really like writing though so I'll probably prattle on about all kinds of stuff and only me, my girlfriend and my few tech savy friends will every read them. My family will probably try to read if I tell them about it, but they're bad with computers and will probaly end up buying some Albanian man's pants on E-bay.
So yep, that's about it for now. I haven't showered yet and by darn people should shower by 7 p.m.
Geek on.


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Results 11 to 13 of 13
Thread: What does Lachlan look like?
August 29th, 2013 03:47 AM #11Member
- Join Date
- Jul 2013
- Posts
- 42
I think it's a great name. I can picture a baby, a young child, a teenager and it would also suit an adult (one that works in an office during the day but rocks out in the weekend). Don't worry, it's a great name!!
August 29th, 2013 07:47 AM #13
Thanks everyone for the responses so far!
I guess I should have clarified in my original post. I do know about Lachlan's popularity in Australia, but seeing as how we're halfway around the world and I doubt that a son of mine would end up living there (I've read that Australia has some of the strictest immigration laws of any country), it's somewhat of a non-issue for me.
I find it really interesting that a lot of you picture a lighter-haired boy. I kind of thought that everyone would expect to see a dark haired boy when they heard the name Lachlan, but obviously that's not the case. I can easily see a toddler/child Lachlan and an adult Lachlan, but I struggle more trying to visualize an infant or teenage Lachlan. Anybody have more ideas about those?
@ebenezer.scrouge: The pronunciation of Lachlan actually makes perfect sense. It was originally the Scottish name for someone from Norway, which they called "land of the lochs," loch being pronounced lock, thus Lochlan or Lachlan.
August 29th, 2013 08:03 AM #15
I know what it means but I have seen comments on Behind the name and other sites saying "it should be pronounced Lack-lan" i have always pronounced it that way. Like Lockie and Lachy are pronounced the same.Isobel | Eloise | Matilda | Lucia | Alice | Eleanor | Amelia | Felicity | Phoebe | Eilidh | Rosalia | Zoe | Azalea | Genevieve | Tallulah | Everleigh | Rebecca | Leila | Harper | Grace | Zara |
Eamon | Hayes | Tiago | Cooper | Lawson | Archer | Lincoln | Asher | Alfie | Baxter | Taylor | Flynn | Lewis | Fletcher | Jack | Harley | Brooklyn | Regan | Oscar | Spencer |

subset: commoncrawl


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Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month Archive
Quotes of the Month - from January, 1998 through December 1999.
2007-2006 || 2005-2004 || 2003-2002
2001-2000 || 1999-1998 || 1997-1996
Quotes from 1999 and 1998 can be found below.
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for December 1999
On Attaining Inner Peace
"The most important part of it was not the phenomena: the important part of it was the realization of the oneness of all creation. Not only all human beings - I knew before that all human beings are one. But now I knew also a oneness with the rest of creation. The creatures that walk the earth and the growing things of the earth. The air, the water, the earth itself. And most wonderful of all, a oneness with that which permeates all and binds all together and gives life to all. A oneness with that which many would call God."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for November 1999
"Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within there will be no more conflict, no more occasion for war. If this is the peace you seek, purify your body by sensible living habits, purify your mind by expelling all negative thoughts, purify your motives by casting out any ideas of greed or self-striving and by seeking to serve you fellow human beings, purify your desires by eliminating all wishes for material possessions or self-glorification and by desiring to know and do God's will for you. Inspire others to do likewise."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for October 1999
"Some people wish for a life of no problems, but I would never wish such a life for any of you. What I wish for you is the great inner strength to solve your problems meaningfully and grow. Problems are learning and growing experiences. A life without problems would be a barren existence, without the opportunity for spiritual growth."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for September 1999
"I have faith that God will care for me, and God does provide my needs. I don't in any way feel insecure because I don't know where I will sleep at night, where or when I will eat next. When you have spiritual security, you have no more feeling of need for material security."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for July/August 1999
"It concerns me when I see a small child watching the hero
shoot the villain on television. It is teaching the small child to believe that
shooting people is heroic. The hero just did it and it was effective. It was
acceptable and the hero was well thought of afterward.
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for June 1999
"Death is a beautiful liberation into a freer life. The limiting clay garment, the body, is put aside. The self-centered nature goes with you to learn and grow on the disembodied side of life, and then returns here into a suitable clay garment and suitable circumstances to learn the lessons we need to learn. Could we but see a bit deeper into life, we would grieve at birth and rejoice at death. If we but knew how short is the earth life in comparison with the whole, we would be less troubled with the difficulties of the earth life than we are troubled now with the difficulties of one of our days."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for May 1999
"For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections. Also I make it possible for more light to come to me by living up to the highest light I have. You cannot mistake light coming from the Source, for it comes with complete understanding so that you can explain it and discuss it. I recommend that way to all who can take it. And great blessings lie in store for those who are wise enough to quickly put into practice the highest light that comes to them."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for April 1999
"There is a spark of good in everybody, no matter how deeply it may be buried. It is the real you. When I say 'you' what am I really thinking of? Am I thinking of the clay garment, the body? No, that's not the real you. Am I thinking of the self-centered nature? No, that's not the real you. The real you is that divine spark, some call this the God-centered nature, others the divine nature and the Kingdom of God within. Hindus know it as nirvana; Buddhists refer to it as the awakened soul; the Quakers see it as the Inner Light. In other places it is known as the Christ in you, the Christ Consciousness, the hope of glory, or the indwelling spirit. Even some psychologists have a name for it, the superconscious. But it is all the same thing dressed in different words. The important thing to remember is that it dwells within you!"
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for March 1999
"When I started out on my pilgrimage, I was using walking for two purposes at that time. One was to contact people, and I still use it for that purpose today. But the other was as a prayer discipline. To keep me concentrated on my prayer for peace. And after a few years I discovered something. I discovered that I no longer needed the prayer discipline. I pray without ceasing now. My personal prayer is: Make me an instrument through which only truth can speak."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for February 1999
"Every good thing you do, every good thing you say, every good thought you think, vibrates on and on and never ceases. The evil remains only until it is overcome by good, but the good remains forever."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for January 1999
"Think about all the good things of your life. Never think about your difficulties. Forget yourself, and concentrate on being of service as much as you can in this world, and then, having lost your lower self in a cause greater than yourself, you will find your higher self: your real self."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for December 1998
"Live this day! Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Never agonize over the past or worry over the future. Live this day and live it well."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for November 1998
"I would like to emphasize again that right prayer leads to right action, that "faith without works is dead." An excellent way to put thoughts into action is to write a letter for peace."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for October 1998
"Know that you are God's beautiful child, always in God's hands. Accept God... accept God's protection... there is really no problem to fear. Know that you are not the clay garment. Know that you are not the self-centered nature which governs your life needlessly. Know that you are the God-centered nature, The Kingdom of God within. The Indwelling Christ. Eternal and indestructible. Identify with the real you."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for September 1998
"Faith is a belief in things that your senses have not experienced and your mind does not understand, but you have touched them in other ways and have accepted them. It is easy for one to speak of faith; it is another thing to live it. To me, faith represents that people can, through their own free will, reach out and contact God, and grace represents that God is always reaching toward people. To me it is very important that I remain in constant contact with God, or divine purpose."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for August 1998
There is no greater block to world peace or inner peace than fear. What we fear we tend to develop an unreasoning hatred for, so we come to hate and fear. This not only injures us psychologically and aggravates world tension, but through such negative concentration we tend to attract the things we fear. If we fear nothing and radiate love, we can expect good things to come. How much this world needs the message and example of love and of faith!
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for July 1998
"From all the things you read, and from all the people you meet, take what is good and leave the rest. For guidance and for truth it is much better to look for the Source through your own inner teacher than to look to people or books. Only if something within you says, "This is the truth. This is for me," does it become a part of your experience. After you have read all the books, and heard all the lectures, you must still judge what is for you. Books and people can merely inspire you. Unless they awaken something within you, nothing worthwhile has been accomplished. But if you must read books, read many books, so that you will contact as many conflicting opinions as possible. In this manner you'll be required to form your own opinions after all."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for June 1998
"Truth is the pearl without price. One cannot obtain truth by buying it--all you can do is to strive for spiritual truth and when one is ready, it will be given freely. Nor should spiritual truth be sold, lest the seller be injured spiritually. You lose any spiritual contact the moment you commercialize it. Those who have the truth would not be packaging and selling it, so anyone who is selling it, really does not possess it."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for May 1998
"We limit ourselves by thinking things can't be done. Many think peace in the world is impossible - many think that inner peace cannot be attained. It is the one who doesn't know it can't be done who does it!"
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for April 1998
"Looking through the eyes of the divine nature you see the essence within the manifestation, the creator within the creation, and it is a wonderful, wonderful world!"
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for March 1998
"You can visualize God's light each day and send it to someone who needs help.
Your divine nature must reach out and touch the divine nature of another. Within you is
the light of the world, it must be shared with the world.
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for February 1998
"I do my work easily and joyously. I feel beauty all around me and I see beauty in everyone I meet, for I see God in everything. I recognize my part in the Life Pattern and I find harmony through gladly and joyously living it. I recognize my oneness with all mankind and my oneness with God. My happiness overflows in loving and giving toward everyone and everything."
Peace Pilgrim Quote of the Month for January 1998
"The path of the seeker is full of pitfalls and temptations, and the seeker must walk it alone with God. I would recommend that you keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights, so that you may attract only good. Concentrate on giving so that you may open yourself to receiving; concentrate on living according to the light you have so that you may open yourself to more light; get as much light as possible through the inner way."
2005-2004 || 2003-2002 || 2001-2000 || 1999-1998 || 1997-1996
This information comes from Peace
Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words
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Cellular magnetic resonance with iron oxide nanoparticles: long-term persistence of SPIO signal in the CNS after transplanted cell death
Aim: To study the specificity of cellular MRI based on superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPIOs), especially within the CNS. Materials & methods: A microglial cell line was engineered for the expression of a suicide gene, the receptor of diphtheria toxin (DT), and two reporter genes, green fluorescent protein and luciferase, in order to induce, in a controlled manner, cell death and test it through bioluminescence. SPIO-labeled DT-sensitive and control DT-insensitive cells were transplanted into the brains of mice, which underwent serial MRI and bioluminescence studies before and up to 90 days after DT-induced cell death. Results: No variations in SPIO signal voids were detected along longitudinal monitoring in brain hemispheres transplanted with DT-sensitive cells. Ex vivo analyses showed persistence of iron nanoparticle deposits at transplantation sites. Conclusion: Due to the long-term persistence of signal after transplanted cell death, caution is advised when SPIOs are employed for cell tracking. Original submitted 27 January 2014; Revised submitted 18 April 2014.
- doi:10.2217/nnm.14.84
- View record in Web of Science
Keywords: cell death ; cellular MRI ; diphtheria toxin ; microglial cell ; specificity ; superparamagnetic iron oxide
Record created on 2014-05-26, modified on 2017-05-12


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House For Sale Trailer (2012)
18 February 2012 18 mins
A stranger posing as a home buyer shows up at a suburban house that is up for sale. What is he doing there? He asks himself. He is after more than just the house.
Watch the official House For Sale 2012 trailer in HD below or find more House For Sale videos on Vidimovie.


text: New York Literature Harper & Row, Publishers London Huxley Aldous Aldous Huxley 1894 1963 Evanston Literature and science. Online version: Harper & Row, Publishers. Literature and science Science nyu 325699 First edition. 1963 1963 325699 en Literature and science Literature & science In these reflections on the relations between art and science, Aldous Huxley attempts to discern the similarities and differences implicit in scientific and literary language, and he offers his opinions on the influence that each discipline exerts upon the other. 2017-10-23


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5 reviews for Dr. Renny McLean Bundle
I am blessed learning the supernatural and the moves of the Holy Spirit from Dr. Mcclay. Everyone ought to open up to this new level of the anointing the Lord is calling believers. God bless you man of God(Pastor Renny for sharing the Kingdom nuggets) with babes.
I would really love to buy Dr. Renny Mclean Bundle, I stay in South Africa, do you guys deliver internationally?
Renny mclean bring back
Dear Damon
I was really facinated by your show with Dr Mclean. I'm in Zambia Central Africa. how can I get hold of his book. Please please please.
I have the book i would love to get. The prayer and proclamation CD. Could you tell me how to get it.


text:
A major summit on the status of women and what can be done to ensure greater gender equality is underway in Montreal.
The Sommet des Femmes comes just a few days after Lise Thériault, the Quebec minister responsible for the status of women, said she believes in equal rights for men and women — but rejected the label of being a feminist.
"If this minister became a minister, it's because of all the struggles that women have felt so far," Yolande Geadah, an award-winning author and researcher.
Thériault's comment was surprising to many, including summit organizer and former student leader Martine Desjardins.
"It's a shame to see that some women today are still afraid of that label and the word 'feminist,'" Desjardins told Radio-Canada.
'There is still a long way to go'
The sense that things still need improvement is part of the reason for the summit, which includes workshops and speeches on everything from racism to entrepreneurship.
Allison Christians is a McGill University associate professor in law who is presenting at the beginning of the conference Wednesday night.
She said there needs to be more women in the political arena.
"Women are underrepresented in a lot of different areas, and one of them is the decisions that we make about what we're going to do as a society," Christians said.
Geadeh says she dreams that one day women will have a greater place in society.
"There is still a long way to go."
To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities). Pseudonyms will no longer be permitted.
By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.
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Hidden Feelings
Saturday, April 24, 2010
First impression lasts. I backstubb first, then I sorry, then I was pretty insecured then I sorry. I think, they will never trust me again. it's my fault. But, I always sorry to them, promise it was sincered. For now, I still hope that we will be friends again. God forgive us, a million times. So his mankind will do too. Ü I feel down, I treat myself as nothing. But, I've learned that it's a simple thing. Don't get affected.
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Short get away to Las Vegas. Spent a day at the GVR Spa- Spa services were great! Amenities were excellent. The only negative was the front desk staff. They were very nauchalant, obviously just there for a paycheck. Lack basic customer service experience! Also, the locker room key boy- lack of hospitality. We could have gotten key via automated service. Very poor customer service in the Spa for a hotel of this caliber. Massage staff was great! Be sure to get Cynthia-very good, polite, hospitable and made up for the customer service where her colleagues failed. Will definetly be back- hopefully front desk at spa would have improved. First impression is always lasting impression......
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
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text:
VTB Factoring and Gazprom Energoholding have completed a factoring transaction worth RUB 13 billion.
The subject of the transaction was a debt owed by Inter RAO to Mezhregionenergostroy, a Gazprom Group company, following completion by Mezhregionenergostroy of construction work on the second unit at Kaliningrad TEZ-2 combined heat and power plant and the plant's subsequent transfer to Inter RAO.
The transaction was structured in two months. The debtor is Inter RAO Capital (a subsidiary of Inter RAO). VTB Factoring has provided Mezhregionenergostroy with financing of 100% of the assigned receivable without recourse.
"This is Gazprom Energoholding's first experience of using factoring. The speed at which the transaction was completed was really impressive, and we hope that factoring solutions will be useful for companies in our group in future," said Evgeny Zemlyanoy, Deputy General Director for Economics and Finance at Gazprom Energoholding.
"Factoring is a very important product for VTB Group that targets large corporate business. Transaction with a leading Russian group is the best proof of our success. I am sure that our future cooperation with Gazprom will be productive and effective".
Yuri Soloviev,
First Deputy President and Chairman of VTB Bank Management Board
|Anton Musatov,
VTB Factoring CEO


text:
President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday set up a committee to probe all monies received by the police, either through donations or appropriation for renovation and upgrade of its training institutions from 2009 to 2012. The setting up of the committee came on the heels of the president's visit last Friday to the Police College, Ikeja, which is in a state of decay because of prolonged neglect by successive administration.
It also coincided with a meeting in Abuja between the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd), and Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, over the state of police training institutions.
The establishment of the committee and the president's visit to the 73-year-old institution are the fallout of the footage of a documentary aired by Channels Television last week to draw attention to the decay in the college.
A statement from the presidency said the 11-member committee will be chaired by the Director, Special Duties with a representative of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as vice-chairman.
Other members of the committee, which has until January 29 to submit its report are: Director, Finance and Accounts; Director, PID; Director, PSD; three representatives of NPF, legal adviser, Head of Budget Division, Head of Internal Audit, Head of External Audit and Secretary PRS.
The committee, among other terms of reference, will ascertain the amount of funds appropriated by the Federal Government to the police for the renovation/upgrade of its training institutions between 2009 and 2012 and total donations received during the period.
It will also examine the budget proposed/appropriated to the NPF for the institutions between 2009 and 2012 as well as verify the utilisation of the funds.
As part of the efforts to redress the situation at the police colleges, Olubolade met with the IG and other top police officers on how to find immediate solutions to the lapses that led to the neglect of the training institutions.
Answering reporters' questions after the meeting, the minister said: "I'm here to follow up and interact with the IG and his management team to look at the lapses that may exist and how to surmount it because it is a joint effort and I think it is critical to do that.
"Ordinarily, I would have called this meeting at the ministry but once I have a management team with them, sometimes I like to do less stretching and come around and see progress, and he (IG) is making some progress in certain areas. I will also want to have a look at them."
The minister pledged the government's commitment to reposition the NPF, adding that the government was working round the clock to address every issue that had to do with the optimum performance of the police.
On his visit to the Presidential Villa on Monday, he said: "I went to the presidency to see the Chief of Staff and that is a regular routine thing that we do because Mr. President is also away.
"I also made a similar visit to the vice-president's office, so that at both ends if there are issues that pertain to the police, I would like to know and hear about it."
A retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of Operations, Mr. Adedayo Adeoye, however, blamed the rot in the police on past military officers appointed to man the Ministry of Police Affairs.
He accused the ministers of fighting the police they were appointed to protect and develop.
"The problem of the rot in the police started from the time of David Jemibewon, a retired military officer, to that of Godwin Abe, and the present minister, Caleb Olubolade. They are all retired military officers, who concerned themselves with promotions.
"Anytime there is assistance for the police, the organisation or governor would first inform the Police Affairs Minister, who would quickly inform his constituent, the military, and they in turn would quickly seek for the same assistance, thereby reducing drastically what is meant for the police alone.
"On a daily basis, they keep rendering the police powerless and equipping the military for the job of policing," the retired police boss stated.
In the meantime, Channels Television has postponed the launch of its intervention programme to mobilise assistance for the upgrade of the Police College, Ikeja.
The General Manager Operations (GMO) of Channels Television, Mr. Kayode Akintemi, explained that the postponement was done to get the involvement of every stakeholder who is essential in the rebuilding of the police academy.
Source: Naija.ng


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The Cognitive Sciences Laboratory in Palo Alto, California, made some exciting discoveries. They studied a group that had natural clairvoyant, clairsentient, clairaudient, ESP abilities.
They discovered a cycle during which ESP practitioners are "more" and "less" accurate in their abilities to "see" or predict events. ... The precognative cycle coincided with LST.
I made some preliminary webpages to keep track of this (using javascript). See weblinks below; the image used is modified by me: the upper zodiac-signs are the (almost) true heliocentric, the lower the signs according to the seasons in the Northern hemisphere. In between the months, and below that the startime-hours. The numbers at the bottom of the image are used by my program, and displayed for visual clarification.
Practical exxperiences (but not only restricted to the following description) shows that, when the LST is at a sharp downward slope, people (who are predispositioned to such behavior) tend to lie, cheat, and behave aggressive.
People who are more balanced and peace-minded may find that the conversation tends to talking about negative experiences; but when the LST is at an upward slope, the conversation tends to become positive (again).
I hope my webpages will work ok in India too. Otherwise send me a message please.
A newsletter from http://www.alunajoy.com/ (cou- ldn't find it again);
http://www.viewzone.com- /siderealtime.html
http://www.a- voratio.nl/Allerlei/_data/JRE_- LST.pdf (In this paper, an association between the local sidereal time (LST) at which a trial occurs and the resulting effect size is described (I forgot the original source));
My webpages with this in action:
http://www.avoratio.nl/- Allerlei/Startime/ (basic)
http://www.avoratio.nl/- Allerlei/Startime/_try/ (extended to include someone's birth-horoscope-data, and I want to add the current positions of the planets as well but that's not yet imlpemented yet).
A circular image of the used graphic looks like the following; to see this in action in real time at the appropriate place on Earth is pending):
Again, if you know Astrologers in India or the Netherlands, or if you know a University where Astrology is taught, please forward this. Thanks.
Wishing you all the best,
Kind regards,
Leo Bakker.


text:
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text:
We had a bad day: The crash.
For starters, the drop score is now 7-4(or 5, depends who you ask). I'm losing. I'm losing really, really badly. And I've now had the first drop that occured while moving, actually damaged a bike, and unfortunately, also damaged Jayne's brain. We crashed. Jayne has a concussion and a few bruises. I walked away with a slightly ripped jacket. We had a bad day in the Arctic.
The events of the fateful tuesday started right at the Arctic circle, where the night prior we thought it would be a neat place to camp.
Jayne and I arrived at the Arctic circle after a six hour ride up the Dalton highway from Fairbanks. We had avoided rain all day for the first ride in awhile. That was a nice change. It was overcast though, and since camping at the arctic circle sounded pretty novel, we decided to forego any further riding that day and get an early start in the morning. Things were going well. Then Jayne's bike wouldn't start again. Profanity uttered.
I reached into Jayne's bike aka 'Cricket' and wiggled the suspected faulty spark plug wire. The same wire that had just been 'fixed' at the alaska fun centre. Cricket fired right up! What a relief. We set up camp.
It was even more of a relief when we hadn't even finished eating before the rain came. Did it ever. Several times I awoke during the night from the downpour. The rain stormed on us till late morning, finally allowing us to escape the tent around 11am. It was cold out, the coldest it has been all trip. Felt like the arctic should I suppose.
The cold highlighted my lack of hand guards and made-in-china heated grips. The heated grips I couldn't change, but I was able to make some hand guards out of a plastic milk jug I found in the bear-proof dumpster. In fact, you wouldn't believe how good these looked and worked! (well, you can believe it when you see it. No way to upload photos at the moment). The cold also made us want to get on the road ASAP. I felt it would help speed things along nicely if I knocked my bike over. So I did. Drop #6 for Phil. Groan. Seconds later, Jayne's bike wouldn't start. Groan! Then it started raining again. GROAN!
Jaynes bike issue was short lived however, as a quick wiggle of the faulty spark cable an the bike fired right up! Finally! Now we knew for sure how to fix the spark issue should it reccur again. Onto the highway, and within minutes we were even basking in some sunshine, reflecting off the alaska pipeline beside us. It was turning beautiful out. Then Jayne's bike died again. Except this time a quick wiggle didn't work.
Even a vigorous wiggle to the spark plug wire didn't get any spark back. The bike just sat there turning over, with no hint of wanting to start. After much failed wiggling and other such non-fixes, I tore apart my bike so Jayne and I could start swapping parts. This was the only way to truely isolate the problem and the side of the Dalton highway, just north of the Arctic circle was the place to do it. In taking apart my bike, I accidently tore apart my fixed fan switch, leaving very little wire left to work with. Profanity uttered. Anyways, almost two hours passed while working and we now knew this:
Jaynes spark cable and igniter coil were NOT the problem. Those pieces worked just fine on my bike, but mine didn't work on hers. We also knew that we couldn't solve this any further without a multi-meter, and there weren't any multi-meters on the side of the Dalton highway, just north of the Arctic circle. The decision was made to tow Cricket into Coldfoot, about 18 kilometres north. So we started re-assembling.
While rebuilding our bikes, of course, it started to rain again. But this rain was different. This rain came with incredible good luck. A big pick-up truck pulled up beside us. "you guys look like you're from Argentina". It was Scott and Sam. We had given these kind folks stickers a couple days back, and they recognized us in our struggles. Soon we had their truck backed up to a gravel embankment and rolled Jayne's  bike on in. We ate lunch with Scott and Sam in Coldfoot while deciding what to do next, and had the lady behind the counter call Deadhorse for us to cancel our room that night. There was no way we were going to make it all the way from Coldfoot up to Deadhorse on one bike… …But we could ride two-up from Atigun pass, a couple hours up the road. That idea sounded much more plausible.
Our ever-evolving plan was now to have Jayne ride in the truck up to the pass in the truck. I would ride along behind. We would pick up a multi-meter along the way from a friend of Scott's. If there was still snow in the pass (oh, btw, it had snowed 5 inches in the pass that morning) and I couldn't ride through, we'd load my bike next to Jayne's until we reached where Scott and Sam planned to go hiking at the other end of Atigun pass. From there it was just a bit more than 150 miles to Deadhorse. We still had a room booked since the lady in Coldfoot hadn't gotten through to cancel it. Good thing since it would cost us 200$ either way. On the return trip, we would stop at Jayne's bike and diagnose the problem with the freshly borrowed multi-meter. If repairable, we ride home. If not, we camp out for a couple days till Sam and Scott returned, then drive back. The plan was great and with ample space in the truck, we left all extra gear to make room on my bike for Jayne. But the great plan wasn't to be. We crashed 30 miles up the road.
We started riding from Atigun pass at 10pm, but of course the sun was still up and it was clear skies. The Dalton highway had presented us a great variety of textures of road along the way, this new one was wet dirt with water-filled ruts. For the most part I could ride in the middle out of the ruts. The ride was going well and we were excited to be so close to Deadhorse. We got to a particularly muddy, rutted section and at this particular point there was a semi-truck oncoming, so into the right rut I went. It was squirrelly, but no more so than much of the gravel or other slick roads we had been on. I was going about 25 mph. Then both wheels slid right, and I think  I caught the edge of the rut with the front wheel.
"We're going down".
Down we went.
I got up right away. Jayne did not.
Jayne was flat on her back not far from me, and wasn't responding, nor was she protecting her airway. I did a jaw thrust to open it while the trucker ran over. He quickly turned back around and radioed for help. Jayne's left arm raised itself eerily, involuntarily. She still wasn't responding, but was now breathing. Her visor had popped off, so I could clearly see her eyes twitching. I kept holding her jaw while I looked over at the bike. The windshield was broken and front fairing bent and torn, but my milk jug hand guards still looked ok. Phew. Then Jayne woke up. Win-win. She was out for maybe 30-45 seconds, but it sure felt a lot longer.
With some luck, there was an off duty paramedic driving right behind the truck. Jayne was able to move and had no tingling. We rolled her and cleared her spine. All good. No deformities either. So we got her up.
"Where's my bike?"
There were other questions, but the answers all lead back to Jayne asking:
"Where's my bike?" or "We had a crash? Is my bike ok? Where's my bike?"
Over and over and over . Concussion for sure. Her helmet was crushed at the point of impact, certainly could have been worse. But for now Jayne had no memory of the past week or more and no short term memory at all. Worse than a goldfish. Jayne was driven to a work camp nearby where she was assessed by the camp medic and determined she needed to go to Fairbanks. I was able to ride my bike about halfway to the camp before it developed an electrical fault of it's own and started to cut out when I put it in gear.
A couple workers from the camp and one of the paramedics helped load my disheveled bike up into the back of a truck. In doing so, the paramedic got his thumb caught in the wheel and tore his thumb nail clean off. I can't even make this stuff up.
I arrived at the camp and the boys unloaded my bike while I ran in to check on Jayne. Her memory was still shot. The camp medic recommended being driven to Fairbanks. Being flown was discussed, but dismissed. All symptoms pointed to concussion and nothing more, so a medevac seemed inappropriate. Still, there were camps along the way should her condition have deteriorated. A gentleman named Greg Davis was in charge of the camp and he arranged everything for us. We can't thank him enough.
The 7 hour drive to Fairbanks was courtesy of Del, an employee at the camp just at the start of his night shift. His job that night was, ironically, to fix the portion of road we had just crashed on. It was a long drive, waking Jayne every hour and checking her pupils. Of course, every time I woke her I had to repeat the story of what happened over and over. I began to dread waking her just to avoid having to try to calmly repeat myself. It wasn't her fault her brain didn't work, it was mine, so I just kept re-telling the story until she fell asleep again.
Del dropped us at the Fairbanks memorial hospital at about 7am, and carried on his way. Thank you Del. At the hospital, they did a CT scan of Jayne's head to rule out any bleed. It was clear. She also had some new bruises to add to the ones she got falling off the trailer a couple days back. Her right elbow was sore too, but did not appear broken. We caught a cab back to Art's house, who was again most welcoming. Art has been a true saviour for us.
I put Jayne to bed still confused and without memory. She woke up about 8 hours later and asked "where's my bike?". I told her again, but this time didn't have to repeat myself. Â Jayne was back.
Since then we have been staying at Art's place, waiting for our bikes to arrive. Jayne's just arrived this afternoon courtesy of Scott and Sam who are back from their trip. I had stopped and left them a note on our way past their truck after the crash. Thanks guys. Scott also left us a multi-meter so with luck we'll finally figure out Cricket's problem. It started again when they dropped it off. Damn thing.
My bike is on it's way down courtesy again of Greg Davis. We'll see what exactly is broken. I never really focused on it at the time.
Jayne is sleeping lots and feeling "fuzzy". Her elbow is sore but useable for day to day things. She's recovering well, but still has little memory of our bad day.
I have a small scratch on my knee. I'll likely make it.
What comes next? We're not sure. We have to fix the bikes for starters, then see where we're at. Then we'll discuss where we go next. The journey has had a hiccup. We just need to drink some water upside-down for a bit.
More photos to follow at some point.


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Rethinking Telecommuting
IBM and other high-profile companies have rescinded or scaled back their remote-work policies. Should other companies follow their lead?
By Knowledge@Wharton
There used to be a joke at IBM that the company acronym stood for "I'm By Myself." The software giant was once a model for telecommuting, saving significant operational costs by allowing many employees to work from home. But IBM recently gave thousands of its remote employees an ultimatum: Return to the office or find a new job. Peter Cappelli, Wharton management professor and director of the school's Center for Human Resources, joined the Knowledge@Wharton show, which airs on SiriusXM channel 111, to discuss why IBM is rethinking its remote work policy for some roles and whether other companies could follow suit. Following are five key points from the conversation.
Remote work policies were developed for practical reasons.
Working remotely is a relatively new concept that didn't take hold easily. The traditional office structure called for bodies in chairs to promote a sense of productivity.
"The initial problem always was that many people on the management side assumed that if they weren't watching you, you weren't working," Cappelli said. "Even when it might have made perfect sense for people to work away from the office, they didn't want you to do it because they figured you were just goofing around."
The switch to telecommuting began with the growth of Silicon Valley, where California's notorious traffic meant workers spent a lot of wasted time sitting behind the wheel. Executives realized that if they let workers stay home, they could recapture lost time and boost productivity while saving money on office space.
Ironically, it was Silicon Valley that first began pushing back against the idea of working remotely, Cappelli said. Google, for example, is known for offering generous employee perks such as catered dinners and in-house child care.
"The initial problem always was that many people on the management side assumed that if they weren't watching you, you weren't working."
"The point of that was to keep people at work," he said. "The reason you could bring your dog to work was so that you don't have to go home and let her out and feed her."
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer also made headlines when she ended the company's remote work policy in 2013.
"I think the problem here was really this kind of one-size-fits-all thinking," Cappelli says about telecommuting. "Is it a good thing or a bad thing? The answer is, it depends."
IBM changed its remote work policy for the sake of innovation.
Cappelli said IBM is switching to a business methodology known as "agile management," which necessitates the end of telecommuting for many. Agile management emphasizes highly flexible cooperation, face-to-face communication and daily interaction as keys to fostering innovation.
"I think what IBM has invested in is an alternative way of doing projects that involves collaboration, where the idea is you really need people together in order for this to work," Cappelli said. "That doesn't mean it doesn't make sense for other people in other organizations to work from home. The boundaries on that are always changing."
Medicine and plumbing, for example, were fields once thought of as strictly hands-on. A plumber couldn't unclog a sink remotely any more than a doctor could listen to a patient's heartbeat over the phone. But advancing technology has changed that. Now, a plumber or a doctor can videoconference with a client to help solve certain problems.
IBM is embracing agile project management because there is a mountain of evidence that shows traditional methods are ineffective, Cappelli said. The old way of project management was very top-down. Managers handed a group of employees a specific directive, a set budget and a fast deadline. Under agile project management, the parameters are far more flexible and teams are self-regulating.
Yes, but what about fairness?
With its global reach and reputation, IBM's change of heart about working remotely is likely to tip off a trend of "follow the leader."
"Most companies are very nervous doing things they feel are out of step with everybody else," Cappelli said. "For a long time, the way to get ahead in the corporate world was just to copy what other big companies or leading companies were doing, and that looked like you were doing best practices."
But best practices around working from home are "all over the map," which makes it harder for companies to determine what works for them, he said.
Perhaps a harder problem to solve is the question of fairness. Within any company are jobs that lend themselves to working remotely, and jobs that don't. So, how do you create parity for those distinct groups?
"Most companies have had historically a one-size-fits-all model [of managing people]. We've got policies for everybody, and we want to treat everybody equally because we're all in this together," Cappelli said. "How are you going to manage to treat two different groups of employees differently when your whole organization has been based around treating everybody the same? Actually, a lot of employment law is based on that."
It's unclear whether the policy change will reap greater profits.
Capelli says it's tough to ascertain how IBM's change will affect the company's bottom line. The evidence correlating profits to telecommuting is never clear, so those in the C-suite will have to make educated guesses.
"I think the idea of having to work back in the office is the tip of the iceberg. It's just a manifestation of bigger change."
But one thing is clear: A number of IBM remote employees are trying to figure out how to rearrange their lives in order to return to the office. Many may not find it feasible and will search for work elsewhere.
"In fairness to the company, they aren't doing what a lot of companies did, which is just firing everybody and bringing new people in. IBM has been pretty good about finding innovative ways to hang on to their employees," Cappelli said.
The takeaway is IBM's shift in methodology, not workplace policy.
"I think the idea of having to work back in the office is the tip of the iceberg," Cappelli said. "It's just a manifestation of bigger change."
He circled back to IBM's embrace of agile management and what it means for the company. Agile management isn't a revolutionary piece of technology but an idea, an operational value system. It has a proven track record for innovation. However, it could have an unintended cost when it comes to the quality of life for employees.
"The old approach of doing projects was quite predictable, and it made your life as an employee or as a manager overseeing it much more predictable," Cappelli said. "Now, if the process is unpredictable and you're a manager trying to watch this thing, and you've got the finance guys still pestering you for the same level of accountability, and you've got employees who can't organize their life around the agile product development cycle, what's going to happen? What we know in the past is that family has yielded to corporate demands, and [those demands] are likely to become more unpredictable as we move down the pike."
Cappelli made an additional point regarding the unrelenting pace of agile workflow: "This was a much easier thing to [implement] a few years ago when the unemployment rate was 7 percent to 8 percent and everybody was just happy to have a job."
Republished with permission from Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.


text:
Prince George, B.C., city councillor Brian Skakun says doing business with the city shouldn't be a secret and he is pushing for greater access to information about how and why the city pays private companies.
Skakun said he went to the city's administration with questions about payments to several businesses in 2011 totalling just under $1 million that were made to engineering and consulting firms and some numbered companies.
"What I wanted was some clarification, some simple clarification on why they spent the money with these different businesses. I mean, we're spending tax dollars, we're using people's money that really isn't ours."
But Skakun said bureaucrats told him his request requires too much work and he would have to get consensus from his fellow councillors to have the information released.
"I don't think it's fair that I have to go through the whole notice-of-motion process, try to convince all of council to direct administration to respond to me, when I've been elected by the people of this community to represent them on a number of fronts," he said.
Skakun will bring a motion to council on Monday, calling for a more streamlined process for releasing information.


text:
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Hello Lovelies!!! It is Wine Wednesday on the Happy Humble Heart Blog. As the months progress here in the South we just keep getting hotter and hotter. Fortunately the weather, being as hot as it is, does provide some wonderful… Read More ›
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In honor of The Kentucky Derby, this Thirsty Thursday post is all about the big hats, the horses to watch, and getting a little bourbon in your blood! Do you remember that scene in the My Fair Lady 1964 featuring Audrey… Read More ›
Originally posted on Eunice Jordan Blog:
Hello loves!!! So today I wanna share with you all an experience I had as a winner from Happy Humble Heart Blog!!! So I was scrolling through and saw a post she had about a…