| Death Of A Province: The Crumbling Economy |
[Dec. 10th, 2007|08:35 pm] |
Welcome one and all to my first in what I hope will be a series of articles on my home province of Nova Scotia and the crisis that is affecting it. Over the next few posts I will look at the political impact, the education system, the long standing problems with health care and more. For my first post I have decided to start with the crumbling economy of Nova Scotia.
When I was in grade 9 my social studies teacher told me something that stuck with me for years and years, I still don't know if the information is accurate but I suspect that it is. He told the class that when Confederation was taking shape one of the reasons that the province of Canada (the combined provinces of Ont. and Que.) came to the Atlantic Provinces and asked them to join the new dominion was because the Atlantic Provinces had more money than them. Now the situation has changed, Ontario and Quebec now have well established economies and have substantially more income than the Atlantic Provinces, but why is this? What did Nova Scotia do wrong?
The biggest mistake we made wasn't building on our natural resources; instead we abused them and slowly depleted them. We have over fished the oceans, we have cut down all of the best trees and now we are sucking the gas from Sable Island. Primary industries are the ones that are set up directly around the natural resources, this is what Nova Scotia has been relying on for most of its existence and that is the major problem, we never really branched off into secondary and tertiary industries. Granted we have a few of them around but compared to the Primary industries they are small in comparison and with natural resources getting smaller and smaller we are on the threshold of a major crossroads, the time where the province either grows into a more economically profitable place or will it try to live off the dying industries for another 10 years?
Another large mistake that we have made and are still making is we are selling off the most important natural resource that we have sable island natural gas. While the price of oil and its bi-products continue to rise we have sold the rights to the natural gas to American businesses in order to have the gas shipped out to the US for there consumption. While some of the products of the Sable Island gas project are coming to Nova Scotia, such as home heating, a large amount of money could be made by rendering the gas ourselves, turning into different products and selling it ourselves and keeping all the profits. By doing this we would encourage other industries to invest in our province and get some much needed employment and extra capital.
Because the Primary industries are starting to die off we are seeing unemployment and under-employment rising sharply, the only option for the most learned of Nova Scotia’s is to leave for the west, try your luck on the plains of Alberta.
Now the province is trying to entice workers to come back to this province by holding large gathering out west and posting billboards telling native Nova Scotia’s to come home after working. This is such a large scale waste of money and it is a prime example of how the old ways are hard to break. We could take the 2.5 million that was invested in this provinces "Come to life" campaign and created new jobs, instead of trying to get back the workers that are already lost we could try to save the workers that are up and coming.
Here are some novel thoughts, ideas that I think could help take this province off of federal life support and back into its rightful place as a rich province where people want to come and work.
1) Taxes; Most people hate to pay the extra 14% on almost all goods bought (there are classes of goods that are exempt from the HST which are Residential rentals, Financial Services, Medical Services, Basic Groceries and Prescription Drugs). But there is a very easy way to encourage growth and to help keep local business running. For goods and services that fall under the HST (which is a combined provincial 8% and federal 6% tax) the provincial part would be lessened or eliminated altogether, depending on the situation. If the good or service was completely local (grown, manufactured, sold, etc) then the tax should be taken off, thus the consumer would only pay the federal fraction of the tax. If the good or service isn't completely local but the company in question operates in Nova Scotia then the tax should be cut in half to 4%. In this way you could keep the tax revenues and create a fertile ground for new opportunity.
2) The Sable Oil Fields; These need to be taken back into the province, they need to provide natural gas to this province first and everyone else second. We should open processing plants, run by a crown corporation, to create jobs, income and a new influx of workers.
Do I expect these things to come to pass? No because most of the young, smart people that could make a difference and have novel thoughts like these are leaving the province to go where the work is. The more young people this province loses the harder that it will become for change to take place.
Someone told me once that by the time the youth with the new ideas get the power they are already corrupted by the system, while that might be true it's hard to get the youth into power when they are all leaving the province.
Next time Death Of A Province looks at the health care problems that plagues Nova Scotia and what can be done to help. |
|
|
| Complaints Dept. Pt 6 Plus An Extra |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|11:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  angry | ] |
Well I have returned again and in another bad mood, more things in this world that piss me off and I feel that other should know. So let’s get this going;
First things first, I am really sick of my job search, its been a few months sense my work term ended at Bowater (granted they just took a large job cut so it might have been a good thing to get out now) and so far I haven't even got a call back. The only thing that I got back was a really nice rejection letter from NSCC; they are very luck that I didn't send them something back. From where I sit I see the problems that hold me back and they are always the same, lack of experience and the lack of foresight of companies Human Resources dept. as well as the 'jack of all trades' problem.
The lack of experience is a double edged sword, you cannot get the experience if no one will hire you and no one will hire you without the experience. No one seem to be willing to take a chance on someone that just got out of school, they would rather someone that has 10 years experience. But does experience mean a better worker? I am not so sure, these people have been out of the system for sometimes 10 years or more, they might not know the newest software or hardware. A bigger issue is that they might be set in their ways, they have a system and they are going to stick to it, a younger working is still malleable, you can mold them into something that you approve of.
The bigger problem is the HR issue and it almost always involves the level of training that you have the large majority of these people think that a degree from a university or college is worth so much more than a diploma or advanced diploma from a community college. On that I beg to differ; I feel that my training at NSCC has given me the talent to do almost any job, with the exceptions of databasing and programming (which were two things that we never touched on in my courses). I look at the job postings and I always see that you need a degree in computer science...WHY?! Do the HR people know what you learn in computer sciences? I doubt that highly that they would know the difference between a technician and a programmer.
This brings me into my last point, the jack of all trade syndrome. This is a problem that seems to be rather unique to only a few professions but is a major problem by those that are affected by it. I see it all the time when I look at current job postings, and in fact Mitch Hedberg made a joke about something just like this;
"As a comedian, I always get into situations where I'm auditioning for movies and sitcoms, you know? As a comedian, they want you to do other things besides comedy. They say "alright you're a comedian, can you write? Write us a script. Act in this sitcom." They want me to do shit that's related to comedy, but it's not comedy, man. It's not fair, you know? It's as though if I was a cook, and I worked my ass off to become a really good cook, and they said "alright you're a cook... can you farm?""
Case in point;
Advertisement for a Network Administrator; They ask for the stuff that one would expect until you get to the notation that says, "Programming in C++ required".
...What The FUCK!?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!
That's not what a network admin does; you want someone to program in C++ hire a programmer! A network admin's job is to keep the network running so that you are connected to the World Wide Web. The problem is that almost no one in the upper echelons of HR knows what they are hiring for, they have no idea what a programmer does, they don't know what system analysis is, they don't have a sweet fucking clue what a network admin does. The always assume that anyone that they hire in the wide field of IT would be able to do anything, well this is NOT the case, we are not the magic guys that you call on to fix every little error that you come across. We are specialist, we are training to do a job and that’s what we do, if you want someone that can do it all then you had better keep looking.
Well for now the Complaints Dept. is closed but, as stated in the title, I have an extra. I have been living in Nova Scotia all my life and I see this province being pulled down by moron leaders and the lack of any real progress. As such I am going to start a series of articles that I am calling, "The Death Of A Province". Something to look forward to in the near future. |
|
|
| Complants Dept. Pt 5 |
[May. 30th, 2007|11:24 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | angry | ] |
Well I am back again and ready to unload and man am I a pissed off man with these jokers, after a little experience with these clowns I am ready to snap so lets get this over with shall we?
Out sourcing, god Damnit I hate it! Not because its giving jobs to people in poor countries, I am not even pissed off about the low wages that they are making I am just pissed off that when I call a help line I have to talk to some half-wit in India about a problem that he knows nothing about. Not only can I not understand you but I cannot for the life of me see the reason to restart my computer for the tenth time in a row, sorry dumb ass but it didn't work the first time and I don't think it is going to work now.
I know that these people are trained to deal with the average user, the one that doesn't know what a command line is nor do they know what IP stands for, but I am not the average user. Trust me buddy I have more background in this field then you know of the English language (and I know that’s a fact when you repeatedly use sentences over and over in a vain attempt to pass off English as your first language). When I call a help desk line it is a LAST resort, when I am out of ideas, options and have nothing left to gain from my own tinkering, which means that either I have made a large error (happens to the best of us) or the product or service in question is fucked.
The last help line I called had the nerve to ask me to call back and tell them how it went for me, after an hour of no help and broken English, yeah fuck you assholes I will get right on that and why don't you just cram that reference number right back up your ass, I don't think I will be needing it, trust me if I have to call back I will be so pissed that you had better hope you don't understand English that well because if you understand me you are going to be one offended mother fucker.
Here's a novel thought, maybe you should hire people in English speaking countries with real experience dealing with problems that both the average and the expert user would deal with, not just problems that can go away with a simple reboot or "Try installing the drivers again". Might cost the company some extra money but you know what? If a company offers great support for there products I am going to consider them more in the future, do you hear that Link-sys? FUCK YOU AND YOUR SHITTY USB PROUCTS!
Next;
Why do old people think that as soon as they turn 70 the speed limit drops about 30km/h? I don't understand this logic, if your reflexes are that slow and you are that old then you shouldn't be driving a fucking car, you are more of a threat on the road then a teen-ager (funny thing that an 18 year old's insurance will be crazy but a 70 year old's will be within reason). And these people always seem to appear right at 1pm, right when I am trying to get back to work on time, I leave with 15 minutes to spare, knowing that I will get there on time but instead I have this grandma in front of me doing 30 in a 60 zone. FUCK!! Now I am going to be late and it’s all because you seem to have forgotten where the damn gas pedal is.
Here's one for you, did you ever see an old person using a walker to leave a mall, and then walk up to a car, put the walker inside and then drive away?
WHAT THE HELL MAN!?
You cannot walk without support but you think that in a situation that would require fast relaxes and a quick foot you would be able to perform? I don't think so mate, and I hear people saying, "They are old so death to them isn't as big a deal." Yeah that's true, but please tell that to the 20 year old that was just killed because of a 80 year old who couldn't move fast enough to avoid a head on collision, hey you have better talk fast I don't think a person can hear you when they are dead.
It should be a law that if you are over 65 and are clocked doing 20km/h under the speed limit you are ticketed, and if you get more then 3 of them you will lose your car and your licenses. I know that people are going to say that you cannot do that, that’s judging people based on there age. You damn right it is because the fact are clear about reaction times and the driving records of the elderly I can say that they are a danger on the road and I have the proof to back it up. And I am sure that this will keep the streets safer and people a little less pissed off while driving. |
|
|
| Life In Liverpool |
[May. 30th, 2007|06:47 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Liverpool | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  happy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Volvo Driving Soccer Mom - Everclear | ] |
Well here we are, been quiet some time hasn't it?
Part of that isn't my fault, seeing as how I have been without the internet for about 3 weeks, which was really a downer (you don't know what you got until its gone). But now I have returned to the on-line world and I have decided to start with a general update on my life as it stands now.
Well I have left Yarmouth behind me, which was harder then I first figured it would be. I think that the sense of loss was only made worse knowing that this year, my third year, was both the sum total of my college life and that it had been the best year of college (I dare way my life) that I have experienced. I left behind a lot of memories and a lot of good friends and great times, granted that my drinking and drug use took off during my college time but I say that they haven't affected me in any negative ways.
Case in point; my new life in Liverpool and my new summer job. While the town of Liverpool is quiet small and very boring I cannot really complain about it seeing as how I am making $15/hr and most days the work is minimal and very easy. It’s the first job that I have had where my advice is respected and I am listened to and where my time is considered as valuable as the next guys, and I must say that I love the feeling, at 4pm, of leaving as just one of the workers, one of the guys. I cannot ask for more in my current working life and I will not either, I shall enjoy my time for everything that it is worth to me.
As for my life in general, well its great, as Dr. Evil would say "I am one can away from a six-pack". I have money to life with, I have a job to work at, I have almost everything a man can need and yet I still want more. However after my last relationship ended with a crazed stalker I have learned that rushing into anything that involves human emotions, even more so with one so powerful as 'love', isn't a wise idea.
That's not to say that I don't have my eyes open and my targets set, just to say that I want to approach this with care and take my time. It stuck me weeks ago that I have never told a girl how I feel about her, to her face and in person, without knowing that my feelings would be returned. Maybe it’s a fear of rejection or fear of the reality that is life but either way it is not a help. But I have learned from my college life that strange things can happen and that one must look upon every day as something new, and that a negative outlook on life isn't the answer to anything, as such I have started to look at life differently and I have tried to curve my negative outlook on life.
I have been keeping myself busy with my little side projects, more of my writing and more of my ideas. I think my problem is that I can never stick to my guns when it comes to my writing but this time I have been doing a lot better and I think that my guide book will be completed soon and maybe I can get to work on my other ideas.
Well odds are I shall be posting another complaint Dept. very soon, I have a lot to yell about and I need to release it soon. Until then my friendly readers I bid you good-day. |
|
|
| Hey all |
[May. 12th, 2007|03:30 pm] |
|
So I am now in Liverpool and I am bored out of my brain, so if you know my cell number give me a call one of these nights, please, I have nothing else to do. |
|
|
| An Update, Lenin Knows I Need One |
[Mar. 22nd, 2007|01:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | ...as a kite | ] |
Well with another year gone and another year just begun I sat down last night to think about my year 20 on this earth. I have got to say it was one of the better years I have had, granted that in ever year there are good times and there are bad times, and you try to forget the bad times. Granted that the last three or four months have been quiet a ride with some points being very high and other being very low it was still, over all, a good year.
Looking ahead to the future looks very bright indeed, and I am not just saying this because I have changed my outlook on things (more on that later). Today I had an interview for a paid work term position at a place in Liverpool; the interview went very well, so well in fact that they are passing my application over to HR so that they can make a formal offer. At a rate of $16/hr for a student still in college I will be making $525 a week for my work term and for the summer after I am done of school. This is good news because with that money I can pay off the little debt that I have, very low for a college student (less then $500.00), get some work done to my car and still have enough left over to save some money for the long run.
My year in review was marked by some very low points, such as the new stalker that I have picked up, and some very high points, some of the great parties that I was a part of. I and T (roommate) gained another new roommate so that the grand total is now at 3 people in a 2 bedroom place, he sleeps on the couch. For a time we had a true communal lifestyle, which I defined as the people that don’t have to live there being in the majority, that worked very well. We had Gavel living on the couch and paying rent, we had me and T, the original renters and we have Emily, the crazy girl that slept on the other couch and cooked and cleaned to pay for the rent. We had to get rid of the maid service because of some issues with T and her and T’s girlfriend (that’s another story altogether that I will not get into).
The last weekend of March break was where I had my “party”; I say that because it was only I and one other person there, but it was a great time. With the amount of substances in our system it was a wonder that we where sober enough to do anything at all, granted we where intoxicated for 37 hours at the very least. It was that event that closed out my 20th year, and I will say that 20 went out with a hell of a bang.
I have been considering getting a tattoo done on my right upper chest; I want to get the Eye of Ra (otherwise known as the Eye of Horus) done on there for a number of reasons. First of all Ra is my favorite band, for those that know me well know that it hasn’t always been them but time’s change. Ra is also a great and power god in Egyptian mythology, the god of the sun that was incorporated into other god’s later on. The eye itself is also a symbol of royal power and was considered indestructible and was the symbol of the sun. I also think that it would look really sweet, the only X-factor is my fear of needles but I think that I will be able to get around that so long as I have a friend beside me, and I already have one good friend agreeing to go with me.
I have also gained a new outlook on life itself; I am not longer the supreme pessimist that I once was. I now think that life is full of surprises and things that I will never see coming will always hit me, that’s what I like about my life. I would rather live a life that is unexpected and unknown that a life that has everything planned, living in Yarmouth has shown me that you can live an exciting life without having everything in your life being exciting. I see things very differently now, everything seems so full of promise and new.
The only thing that I know for sure is that my actions will determine where I go next.
"How did I get here? The pain so unexpected and undeserved and for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. I realized I didn't hate the cabinet door, I hated my life my house, my family. My backyard, my power mower. Nothing would ever change, nothing new would ever be expected; it had to end, and it did. Now in the dark world where I dwell ugly things and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things spill out at me constantly, and I can count on nothing."
-A Scanner Darkly
Phillip K. Dick |
|
|
| As Long As It Has Been |
[Mar. 20th, 2007|11:30 am] |
Well I am back, well that is assuming that I was gone....which I wasn't...not the point.
So today is my birthday, its been 21 years on this planet, 21 years that I have lived my life and I have to say that I am going to miss being 20, it was a good age and I did a lot of things when I was 20 that I will never forget but we all must move on.
In the near future I hope to be posting more on here, my poor neglected LJ account, but for now I just don't have the time, I am working on a few side projects that demand all of my time, but fear not because I will be back sometime soon with an update on what I call living my life. |
|
|
| The Concepts Of Leagues |
[Jan. 15th, 2007|07:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Ra - Sky (live) | ] |
When you where growing up, somewhere along your middle or high school life, sometimes in elementary if you happened to know someone that was learned on these things you, you where, no doubt, introduced to the concept of a League, but not like the NHL, no this is the concept of dating leagues.
You could always be told by a fast thinking friend that "She is out of your league man, give up." The thinking being that ones will date ones and tens will date tens however I have begun to think that the idea and the concept of a hidden league system is imposable and is only left in ones mind.
If you have been told that someone is out of your league then someone is trying to say something to you without coming right out and saying it. If it is a friend then it could be a number of things; 'I want them myself', 'I don't want you to get a girlfriend' or 'you might get hurt and I don't want that to happen to a friend'. If you have been told that by the male or female that you where after then it is a plain and simple way of telling you that they don't like you and that you should stay away from there friends or they are trying to spare your feelings by giving you a logical reason.
But after being out of high school for a while I have come to the conclusion that they, the leagues, do not exist they are only a function of the mind. After you get out of high school and you figure out that being the coolest guys doesn't matter for dick and that being the smartest guy doesn't matter either. Its all about you as a person and having confidence about yourself, if you do you can try for anything, now I am not saying that being confident will get you everything you wanted and any woman/man on the face of the earth, all I am saying is that the leagues aren't a valid reason to think that a person is beyond your reach. |
|
|
| Thinking Out Loud Pt. 19 |
[Jan. 10th, 2007|10:47 am] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Class | ] |
Well here we are, one away from my 20th post in the Thinking Out Loud series, I didn't think I could go this long and I know that I haven't been updating much but I plan to change that, besides everyone loves something to make them think.
Let’s get onto in shall we?
"Once a man has changed the relationship between himself and his environment, he cannot return to the blissful ignorance he left. Motion, of necessity, involves a change in perspective."
Commissioner Pravin Lal
"A Social History of Planet"
At one point in the run of human life we thought everything that was told to us was true, if someone said that there was food over there then we had to go and make sure that the person was right but we believed, that didn't last to long. We are, by nature, a skeptical creature; we are always trying to find out the truth behind things and for a long time that truth was clouded by several wrong, but at the time believed items that had been told to us.
Of course I am talking about the dark ages, when the church gained power and science, reason and logic where all heresy. When we where told that the earth was the center of the solar system and god had a plan for us all. It took several hundred years but we finally saw the truth, that science and not religion would take us into the new century with a better outlook then religion could.
But we changed that day, most of us cannot go back to the way we used to think, we cannot think like the people in the dark ages did, we cannot expect that if we live a good life that we can be rewarded because, in the age of science and reason, its very hard to believe.
That’s the whole point of this, to get you thinking about changing the way you think, it’s going to involve losing a part of yourself and changing what you think. No matter how you look at it when you learn something you cannot unlearn it, no matter how much you don't want to here it and it does not just hold true for facts you learn in a classroom or from a book either.
In regular life it is much the same, if someone tells you something that you find shocking and that you didn't expect then you will have a new perception on life and you cannot go back to that which you where so used to.
Case in point;
You are friends with a girl for many years and you have always thought of her as a good friend, one day she tells you that she has left her boyfriend of a long time and are very sad. You, being the good friend that you are, go over and try to comfort her and during this time you two have sex. You have now changed the relationship, you have introduced a new variable into the equation and because of this you cannot go back to the old way you used to be. And the same thing that can happen if you tell her that you have feelings for her, the friendship cannot go back to the old way.
A change in perception can be a great thing and it can also be the worst curse, before you go for something that might change everything you should wait, look around and see what you have now and ask yourself; Is this really that important that I need to change everything?
Depending on the answer to that question you either press on or you fall back.
Next Thinking Out Loud will be number 20 and I plan to offer tips to live by, things that I have learned on my short time on this world and who knows maybe we will have something to rant about too. |
|
|
| College Life In My World |
[Jan. 9th, 2007|08:10 pm] |
Wake up at 5 at night because I had to take a nap from being so tired, rise out of bed, living in a shit hole of a community watching days of my youth go to waste with classes and homework. My room is clean - that is clean compared to the rest of the house - or at least to me it looks clean, doesn't matter; only a few people go in there but me. Heading towards the computer and hit the mouse so that the room is bathed in the computers light, no messages, no problem.
It’s hard to see things clearly, slept with my contacts in again, need to tear up to clean them, either that or take them out and clean them that way. Finally get my vision back and I start to think about the hours before the pass out, I had been smoking weed quite heavily over the last day and a half so I was really tried, I was finding it hard to keep my mind on things but that was as much the party the night before to the dryness of the subject material. Either way it was either one poison or another, so many options that where once closed where either re-opened or newly opened, smoke myself silly or get myself tanked; options, options.
People out in the living room, always people around; its part of living in a house where partying is a common thread, you always had a good time at our place. I say ours because I have a roommate to, he is also just rising as he was smoking the same batch of weed I was.
This place is a shit hole, the sink drips all the time, the shower is either too cold or too hot, the front door doesn't work right, and the driveway is all mud but its home. Given the choice between home to me and my place, it's a hands down winner for my place, only here can I do the things that I can do.
People are gone now as is the roommate so I sit down and look from side to side, slowly scanning the room. Beer bottles are all over the place, glasses and plates litter the floor and coffee tables, there is a box of old crackers on the table as well as my laptop on the second couch.
College life, that is a college life away from your parents, is one of the dawning moments in the life of a teenager, this is the time you think, this is the time when I can be who I want to be, no more rules but my own. You are on a true path of discovery, you have no idea what's coming next but you know that, good or bad, you are going to walk away from it with something new.
I think this as I look at my place and I see that not only is this the best way to spend college I think that those that don't are fools. One will only get the college experience once, for anywhere from one year to several, so the shorter it is the more that you have to make of it, personally I am in my last year of a three year tour.
I Admit when I first started college I was very scared and I was trying to just do well, now I am no longer scared, I have no more fear in the college system, in the long distance from home, in the lost friends; no now I am trying to embrace my last year of true freedom, no job to worry about no bills that cannot be paid, no family to keep my mind on. Just myself, just what is important to me, only looking out for number one, turning a blind eye to the problems of the world and saying "Fuck everything I am going to get drunk."
So here I am, in my room, my music is loud my beer is cold and my bong is empty - just got done you see. I am thinking about the past few years and the short time that I have left to enjoy myself and hoping that I can make the best of it.
Fuck hope, I know it's going to be one crazy fucking ride that I don't want to stop. |
|
|
| Thinking Out Loud Pt. 18 |
[Nov. 1st, 2006|12:10 am] |
It seems to me that humans are a crazy species, an interesting evolutionary creation, or mistake if you want to think about it. We are very much unlike other animals on Earth, we have the ability to make changes to our environment, hold back death for years and years, we are the only known species that is self-aware, that is that we know we exist and we have independent thought. But for all of this goodness, for all of the things we can be, and in some ways are, we are still animals, creatures of both habit and instinct which can cause major problems.
Case in point, we are governed, wither we like it or not, by genetics. This means, among other things, that we are going to try to reproduce in order to pass on our genetics, which in itself isn’t a problem. The problem is when we, humans in general, define rules and institutions that surround both sex and reproduction and try to establish some kind of “order”. When you try to place rules on top of hard coded genetics the result will always be the same, you cannot beat what is coded into your genes.
We humans like to be in control, we like to think that with all the advances we have that we are above the baser laws of nature, we have homes to keep us warm, we have antibiotics to kill off bacteria and we have broken nature down to some of its smallest parts but we have still not figured it all out, nor will we. The scary thing, and one of the things that most people hate to think about is that we aren’t in control, and the illusion that at one time or another we had control is a fallacy of grand proportion.
So the question become why do we, as humans, seem to want to control our most basic programming?
Well humans in general have a massive superiority complex, we think that because we understand this and we have invented that that we are better the most other creatures, and in some ways we are indeed more advanced, and because we see ourselves as this grand creation, the product of hundred of millions of years of life on this planet. The problem with that statement is that we are still evolving; we are not the end as we think, there is still more to come, and we can see it starting even now. We are not the greatest creation; we are merely the ‘latest model’ of the next step in the chain of evolution, a stepping stone between Homo sapiens and the next form of life. So because of all of this we try to control our baser animal instincts, thinking that we are higher and better then they are.
So then the question becomes why are humans so different?
The answer isn’t simple and many people have come up with different ways of explaining it, some of which as asinine other which have merit, but I think that the best way of looking at it would be as follows;
Animals, humans include, have several things ‘hard-coded’, if you will, in there brains, wither or not they know it. These can be very simple things, such as how to hunt, or very complex, such as the ability of fish to find there way back to the place where they were spanned. All of these things, this information, are not learned in the traditional sense. These are all things that are either gained from simple imitation or are ‘hard-coded’ into the brain via instinct.
The difference starts when you think about the ability to learn and be self-aware, the concept of sentience. There are many creatures that can learn, several birds have been noted as learning new skills in order to survive however that alone does not mean that they are a sentient being, it just means that they have a high level of learning function. A way to look at it is that crows in large cities, mostly in Japan, will take nuts and drop them onto roadways, when a car runs over the nut, cracking the shell; the crow waits on the sidewalk until people start to cross the street. At this point the crow will walk across the street, retrieve the nut and fly away to eat. This is a great example of an animal that has learned something new in order to survive, but that doesn’t make him sentience.
I believe that sentience is a function of the brain and, as with most things in the natural world, it has an opposite which is instinct. In creature with very tiny brain, or with no brains at all, there is no concept of sentience, only instinct. A bacteria doesn’t care about learning nor does it care about much of anything, it genetics tells it that it has to reproduce and sense reproduction is an instinctive behavior it would be safe to say that it has no sentience at all.
However as you move up the evolutionary chain you can see sentence starting to form however it should be noted that self preservation is NOT proof of sentence. The want and desire to keep on living is more instinctive then sentient, nothing wants to die and no creature wants to be killed. When you see a lion chase after a gazelle the gazelle always runs away, this doesn’t mean that it is sentient. The desire to keep on living is show by every living thing on the earth, from bacteria that are resistant to drugs to creatures that develop camouflage.
The higher that you go up the chain the more sentience that a creature has but none rival the human mind. Most other creatures will have a large dominate instinct portion of there brain and a relatively small portions of sentience, so small that they are not self-aware. As humans evolved we began to slowly began to gain a larger portion of sentience until now most humans have a large part of there brains controlled by sentience.
However humans are an interesting case because they are all unique no two human brains think alike and because of this no two humans have the exact same mixture of instinct and sentience. Some humans have a large amount of sentience, which is exhibited in their abilities such as scientists. Other humans have a larger amount of instinct which is exhibited in there abilities such as survival and baser brain functions.
However there will never be a human with a completely sentient brain, that isn’t possible. Every human must have a portion of there brain devoted to instinct, however small it might be. Most humans will fall into the range of fifty to sixty percent sentient and forty to fifty percent instincts, with exceptional humans falling into the ranges of sixty one to seventy percent.
The whole concept of a sentient being is a clouded one at the best of times and down right impossible at the worst of times. There is no way to truly clarify which creature is self-aware or not, and there is no test to find out for sure. However there is one last possibly, the creation of an artificial intelligence, an AI. But there will not be a truly one hundred percent sentience being until computers can program and create there own AI. A computer is as good as the person that programmed it, and humans are naturally imperfect so the code will be imperfect as well. The errors in the code are the instinct of the human which is passed onto the program of the AI, once an AI can program another AI the errors in the code will be removed and a perfect sentient being will be created.
Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these . . . things . . . these lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots. And now we propose to teach them intelligence? What, pray tell, will we do when these little homunculi awaken one day and announce that they have no further need of us?
Sister Miriam Godwinson
"We Must Dissent" |
|
|
| Complants Dept. Pt 4 |
[Aug. 23rd, 2006|02:27 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pissed off | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Less Than Jake - Soundtrack of My Life | ] |
Well people I have had it with the governments of the world, and it's not over something that you would think I would complain about. It's not about the lack of support for healthcare, or to further my cause of Neo-Communism, no not this time, this time I am pissed off at Copywrite laws.
In principal they are a great idea, it stops people from claming that an idea is theirs and from making a profit off of someone else's idea. Great back in the 1940's but for the modern age it’s not going to work. It’s a universal law that you cannot police the internet and, if you try, you will fail. We can look back and see the victims of the copyright laws from napster to pirate bay but when one dies at least three more take it's place (in the case of Pirate bay it cam right back within a few days).
The list goes on and on, listing many web sites and offering many services. But what has got me in a fowl mood is that now they are starting to attack people who are creating tabs. For those that don't know what tabs are they are visual representations of music in a form that a person, trying to learn the music, can look at and know how the song goes. These are now coming under attack from the lawyers, now I see a couple of problems with this. For starters you are making tabs for a song that you have, either paid for or downloaded, so there is no problem there (the RIAA is already failing in the attempts to stop "illegal" downloading).
You are creating this tab work by ear, your not copying the exact way the bass player or the drummer play the song and this means that there will be mistakes in the tabs, happens all the time and I am sure if you look at a couple of tabs for the same song you will notice that there are differences in each one. Now my problem is that the only reason that tabs are coming under fire is because they are causing the recording industry to lose money, or so they say. They are trying to get people to buy the licensed sheet music which is what this whole copyright law problem boils down to, money.
It’s all about Capitalism (guess this is going to turn into a bit of an anti-capitalist rant) and the need for greater profit. But what really ticks me off is that websites and P2P networks are falling over in the face of the corporate lawyers, with the very notable exception of pirate bay which came right back in the face of this crap.
Greed and abuse of good ideas is what makes the world work, rather it’s what makes the capitalist system work. There are a number of artists that have come out in favor of free internet downloading, but for every one that does 5 more of them say that they hate it, pity that these people have lost sight of what matters having been brainwashed by the corporate morons.
I say that we, the so called pirates of the internets, the ones that download the music, the games and the movies, to band together and create websites that will not bend to the wills of the lawyers. I have seen some great websites fall to the lawyers, from Napster to MySongBook to MXTabs and it makes me sad. Well if I ran my own website, which I think might be a good idea because all of the good tab sites are falling, and I got a letter or an E-mail from some fuck nut lawyer telling me to shut down or face legal action I would do what my teacher does when he gets pissed off at corporations. Send them a jar of Vaseline and a large object and a letter that tells them where they can stick it.
I will not be brought down by some lawyer who is working for a company that is scared that they will lose millions (HA) over my little website.
John Oswald once said "If creativity is the field, copyright is the fence" my god was he right. But if the times are any indication of the things to come then I see the copyright acts becoming less and less important and sooner or later they will be re-written. The only question is will it be made better and give freedom to the people, or will it become illegal to do anything without paying $3.00 first? |
|
|
| Thinking Out Loud Pt. 17 |
[Aug. 9th, 2006|02:05 am] |
In a conversation with a friend today the subject came up of being able to see the future and what we would see and that got me thinking.
If someone could see into the future would they always see the same thing, or would the future change depending on actions in the present. At one point could a person see the death of a loved one and then change the course of events so the person lived, would they see something different, or would they still see the same event, which would mean that you cannot change what you can see, you can only delay the event in question, not fully stop it.
But we can see the future in a sense, rather one event, we cannot see when and we cannot see where or how but we all know it's going to happen. Death, it is the sum of the equation of life; it's what we are all working towards.
Now think about it, if you had the ability to know when your death was going to occur and exactly how it was going to happen and where would you really want to know.
That's going to take some of the risk and fun out of life. You could do anything knowing that your death wouldn't result from it, but that leads to an interesting situation.
If you knew that you would die from cancer and you decided that you don't want to die that way, with all that pain so you shoot yourself in the head, killing yourself. Would that mean that you didn't really know your death, or would your death change as soon as you made up your mind that you where going to kill yourself?
Which leads you to a more pressing matter, what of fate? Is life all planned out from the start or do you have the opportunity to change it based on your actions? If fate does exist then you have no chooses in life, it's already decided for you so you might as well just enjoy the ride. But if fate is just a product of a human mind and you are really in total control of your life then whatever you do is going to effect what happens in your life. Now if you a religious person, in particular a catholic, then you are always government by a type of fate, which has become known as the 'divine plan', gods personal plan for everything and everybody. Now I am not going to go into that in to much detail but I will say that from experience the best laid plans always go to hell, and this has got to be the best laid plan in history.
Fate or no fate there are two things that we cannot avoid, death and taxes. |
|
|
| A Letter To Hotmail |
[Aug. 4th, 2006|06:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pissed off | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Trivium - Dying In Your Arms | ] |
Dear Hotmail Staff
I would like to express my discontent with your span services, more importantly I would like you see you stop sending me other people’s mail. I have been receiving span from people that isn't even addressed to me, I am not little_guy0726@hotmail.com, in fact I have no idea who this person is, or even if that account exists but I don't care, that’s not me.
While I know that its hard to run a simple mail server, and I know that you think yourselves big for granting people a small bit of space on the web where they can receive e-mails but you would think that you would try to stop handing out mail to people that it isn't addressed too. If fact I think if a post office employee does that he is fired, so I think that I should be keeping track of all of times that I am given someone else’s mail, which is at least twice a day. Ever time I get someone else mail I want one of your employees fired, and the problem corrected so that I never have to get a message addressed to someone else again.
Thank you
You half wit morons
Tyler
Now I know that most people out there just throw there spam away and never bother to look at it but I say you should take a look and see who it is addressed to, is it you are is an address that is close to yours?
I say enough hotmail; get your act together, and soon. |
|
|
| Complants Dept. Pt 3 |
[Jul. 27th, 2006|11:48 pm] |
Welcome, welcome one and all to the complaints department, this is the third installment of my branch off series from my Thinking Out Loud series and this time I have quite the thing to complain about and its something that almost everyone on the internet has come upon.
Let’s look at a typical scenario of the internet user shall we?
You are on the internet looking at websites and you come across a site that looks like it could have a lot of great stuff on it, could be a game either way you stick around and decide to check things out. As you go along this site you see a bunch of stuff that you think might be worth checking out, or you think that this game might be worth a try but, to your horror, you discover that you have to pay to ‘get access to all the features’. Is this not utter bullshit?
The internet was created so that information could flow freely from person to person but, as always, the lure of easy money and capitalism make it into a place where anyone can try to make a buck. I understand that you need money to run a website and I have no problems with web sites asking for donations, this means that they don’t have a pay section and, in rare cases, doesn’t even have ads to make revenue. Personally I think that something’s are going to have a price tag involved, such as porn sites, but there shouldn’t be a price tag on everything.
Another problem is that we have sites that where once free and now that have decided that they are going to start charging money. This is the lowest of the low, and it drives away the people that have been going there for a while. If you have a free site don’t change it into a pay site because you cannot afford to keep the server going. Sometimes things happen to make the owner have to start charging, costs are up, ad revenues are down, etc. That’s utter bullshit, if you cannot afford to keep the website up then either shut it down, sell it off or ask people for donations, if you have a popular game/website people will always help you out.
This leads me to my next point, ads. These are the worst things ever created, they are a pain, they slow down the internet, they cause no end of problems and trick the novice internet user into clicking on them. The only reason that banner ads are on sites is that the site owner gets a small amount of money, I have heard that most times the owner only gets about 25 cents. It sounds like a good idea, people click on the ad and the webmaster gets a little money to help the website, well are things ever that simple? By clicking on the ad you are going to be sent to some other place, odds are thru a pop-up, which will cause several other ads to be displayed and then you will get a nice big load of spy ware, which I will get to later. So what these webmasters are doing is getting 25 cents for each time your computer is attacked, yes that’s the term that I think is best, with pop-up, spy ware, ad ware and more ads.
I have seen all the ad types, the fake windows warning of infection (ironic that clicking on the ad will cause an infection), there are the smiley ads (Damnit I hate those, always making fucking noise when you roll over them), the earn a degree ads, the get a free {insert any expensive piece of electronics here} by clicking (you should all know that you will never, NEVER get something for nothing in this world, any number of the “fart button/love compatibility/’do you find this funny’” ads (these things are just dumb) and, of course, the “you are the hourly winner or you are the one millionth person to view this you win” type of ads (which are only believed by the truly thick).
Next we get to the most infamous ad, and it's more like an ad type, the pop-up. This little creation of hell is the worst enemy of all internet users always trying to ruin your day. Your on a website and then BANG! You have several ads opening in different windows and you cannot control them. They are the same breed of ad as mentioned below, they come in all types but in the end they are always the same thing, a large pain in the ass. So we have the pop-up blockers, but they aren’t always effective. In fact I have IE running as my main browser with the built in pop-up blocker at max (which means that unless I hold down the ctrl key pop-ups should all be blocked) and yet some get thru. The man that created these should be shot; they are the most ineffective way of advertising. You would think that after people started creating programs to block the ads and that most people simply close the ads before looking at them that people would stop creating them.
Now of course all of these ads leak back to the same things, spy ware and other malware. These are the creations of people that have nothing better to do but make crappy programs to sell to even crappier internet companies so that they can see where you go and what you do and your personal information. It has gotten so bad that there are laws that can fine and imprison the creators and the people that use them, but of course that’s a pipe dream you cannot police the internet no matter how hard you try. There isn’t much about spy ware that I can say that hasn’t already been said, they are the new computer viruses, they destroy, they steal and they corrupt.
Next thing is something that I cannot stand at all; it is the most annoying things that the evil internet has created. Span, god awful span. You get up in the morning and you check your e-mail and you have 124 messages, all of which are offers to have a large penis, gamble, see porn, get money for nothing or gamble. All crap and all just there to take up space in your inbox. For a while I used to e-mail them back with viruses and threats but I figure that if they are sending out span that they aren’t looking in there inbox. I say that we need a united front against span and the senders, I say we get a nice virus, something powerful, and every time we get span we reply with that virus and hope that every computer that sends span is destroyed, maybe that’s a little to much to ask but oh well, one can dream.
When the internet was first created there was a vision of sharing data from one lab to the next. Those creators would be most happy and, at the same time, most sad. They have seen their idea grow, and now people can find information about anything as long as they have a computer, but they also would be saddened to see the state of the rest of the internet, full of ads, viruses, malware, span and other things that can lead to serious problems. No matter how hard we try we will never be rid of all of the internet problems, so we will have to learn to cope. |
|
|
| Complants Dept. Pt 2 |
[Jul. 20th, 2006|09:14 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pissed off | ] |
Well it's been sometime sense my last posting so I figure that I might as well give you another installment of Complants Department and this time I have got a big one.
Now most of you know that I am Canadian and that I have the utmost in respect for my country and I love living here, I think its the best place in the world to live but I have also noticed that we are slowly become Americanized.
Now you have to think about this from a US and Canada stand point, we are two different countries but now the acts of the US are causing Canadians to change some of there policies and the way that are people act. For example, because the US treats marijuana as a hardcore drug which can destroy the fabric of the country (I pause as I laugh at the utter stupidity of that remark) we have been told that we shouldn't change our laws. This is one sovereign nation telling another nation that it shouldn't change laws that we have ever right to change, the American influence makes me sick.
Of course it doesn't help that Canada has elected a moron for a Prime Minister that is bending to the will of Bush, I remember Paul Martin saying no to Bush about missile defense, Jean Chrétien saying that we would not take part in Iraq, good leaders that saw that another country was starting to invade on Canada's sovereignty and took a stand. Now, thanks to Harper, we are bending to the US whims. I cannot wait for the next election, this time I hope we can get Harper out of Office.
Canada is ranked higher than the US in most everything that we can rank them for, with a few non-noteworthy exceptions. But a major problem has been how our citizens are starting to complain about little things.
Case in point; the evacuation from Lebanon because of the conflict. I have seen on the news people complaining that they had to sleep on floors; there wasn't enough food, the seas where rough.
If I was the captain I would have said "To fucking bad, this ship isn't meant to be used as a rescue vessel, how would you like to see how things are back on land, back in the war zone?"
These people should be happy that we sent anything at all for them, that we didn't just leave them there, now that's not a Canadian thing to do and it would never be done, but the least you people could say is thank you and not complain about the little things that we cannot help. Did we not do our job in getting you out of a war zone and getting you home to Canada?
We did?
Great then why don't you sit down, shut up, and thank your god(s) that you don't live there and that you live in a country where wars don't happen on that soil.
Just like American's we cannot help but complain about little things, very sad, but we are still Canada and we are still Canadians so lets start acting like them. Let's make our own laws, let's decide what is best for our nation, andlet's not worry about what the US thinks. Sure we might lose some trade over that but look at the US economy right now, who would want to trade with them.
Lets pass out own laws, lets make our own decisions and, most importantly, lets act like Canadians. |
|
|
| I Am |
[May. 16th, 2006|08:39 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pleased | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Nicknameless - Estaban | ] |
I'm a freak
I hawk, I spike and I dye
All the while being myself
I'm a criminal
I steal, I pirate and I mod
All the time doing nothing wrong
I'm an addict
I drink, I smoke and I grow
And nothing stops me
I'm a communist
I preach, I rant and I keep the revolution alive
All the while living in a money society
I'm a musician
I write, I play and I bleed
All for my music that will never be heard
I'm a nerd
I play, I upgrade and I watch
And I don't care what people think
I'm myself
I live, I feel and I hurt
All the while walking towards my own death |
|
|
| Thinking Out Loud Pt. 16 |
[Apr. 24th, 2006|01:38 am] |
Humans are the most advanced creature on the Earth, among other things we have the ability to make rational decisions, we can invent, create and image but all this has come at a price. We also have the power to destroy, to hurt and to hate and in the mix of all this we where given emotions so we are a very odd creature as well.
But each of us is different and that can be thought of as the greatest curse and the greatest gift. It is a gift because there are so many people that you can meet, you can share different thoughts and ideas but it is a curse because while you can share you can also try to destroy ideas that conflict with your own. And in the middle of all this we have one fact in the back of our heads, and its the bi-product of our thinking power, unlike all the other creatures on the face of the Earth we, as humans, know that we are going to die and that each second that we are alive is one more closer to death.
We all know that death is inventible, we cannot avoid it and we cannot hide from it. We can try to prolong our lives for as long as we can but in the end its all useless, the end comes for us all. So we invent ways to make ourselves feel better about our mortality, we try to live for the moment, some of us find religion to make it feel like we are given a second chance at life, or even a reward for living a good life.
What this can all be summed up to is fear, we all fear death, while some openly admit it others will say that they are not, but we all have that fear. Some its not a fear of death but of that death we will have, will it be painless, painful, quick, slow, These are the questions that are highly evolved brain has to deal with but we are not without a weapon to fight back. We were also given the means to help ourselves out, emotions will keep us going in life, happiness, love, hope and others are the counter weight to the fear of the unknown but they also pose a great problem, and I have singled out these three because they are the most problematic.
Happiness is something that we all strive for in life, everyone wants to be happy and we all have a different idea of what true happiness is, and there in lies the problem. Some would be happy living out in the woods with nothing but the clothes on there back and a small cabin to live while others want everything that modern technology comes out with. It all leads into wanting more, the man that wants to live in the woods will almost never get that, and while a few will go off and live the dream many will not. So you make sacrifices and that is what causes you to lose happiness, now over time what the person thinks is happiness changes and that's fine and very necessary because you can make some goals but not all. But the problem is that not everyone can be truly happy because the happiness of one can come at the expense of the happiness of others, so happiness is a flawed way to give us the will to go on in the face of death. But it still works because you never know true happiness, true happiness is the moment and the moment is always passing you by but who is to say that the next moment isn't going to be better, so happiness is always changing and that's why even with all its flaws happiness is still a way to rise out of bed, to strive for life.
Love is the most powerful emotion that humans have, it can turn the most peaceful man to a raging beast that would kill anyone just like that. If a person believes that they are in love they might stop at nothing to achieve the goal but while love carries some very powerful negatives it is also the greatest emotion when it is mutual. If two people love each other then the bond between those two is so strong that nothing can break it, not even death itself. That is loves greatest power of all, it is one of the few emotions that can transcend death, happiness cannot do this, for you cannot be happy that a loved one is dead and you cannot hope to bring them back because this isn't possible but you can always love them. But as always not everyone finds love, sure we love our parents and our friends but that's not the most perfect form of love, the most perfect form is that of a stranger loving you and you loving them back, the relationship between a couple , be they homosexual or heterosexual, is a very powerful bond. For that one person you will do anything but the problem is that the human mind is never inactive, we are always changing so what was once love can become hate very quickly, as the saying goes "there is a fine line between love and hate". So love can change everything, it can make a sad man happy and a man that wanted to die strive again for life.
The last of the great fighting emotions is hope, and this one is a major emotion. Hope is what all humans have and use to keep them going on the bad days. It can give us strength where is was none and can keep us going when the bad times hit. Hope is one of the emotions that is triggered when you are told you are going to die, you hope that they are wrong, you hope that you will fight on and beat back what is killing you and sometimes this emotion can win the battle for you, it has a lot of power but with this power comes the problem of hopes failure. Hope can lead you down the path and then leave you there to rot, you can hope for something so much and then be let down by it and that is a great pain. In the movie The Matrix Reloaded when Neo meets the Architect he, the Architect, has a very good description of hope;
"Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."
Such truth it is, hope can give us the power of many and then you can be shot down with the rest that have tried. But because it gives us such a burst of power it is the best emotion against death and in the long run its one that we cannot run from. You can stop being happy and you can stop loving but you always hope, wither it be for the simplest things or for the most complex item.
Death comes for us all, the only question is how you plan to greet it. |
|
|
| The Act Of Surrender |
[Apr. 22nd, 2006|03:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  Beaten | ] |
Meeting in my room at 1500 hours the two sides came together to form what would be the final surrender of Tyler.
For a long time the battle had been on going, the war was bloody and hash, many victums fell for what was once thought of as a worth cause but now it seems that the forces have no need to fight on, their will is broken and moral is at a all time low.
Many times it looked very good, the forces might be able to accive a break threw but each time circumstances changed and the forces where thrown back in disarray until they lost the will to fight on. So the two sides aranged a meeting to stop the war and end the pain and suffering of all involded.
Act Of Surrender
We the forces of Tyler surrender unconditional to the defending forces, after months of warfare the troops are tried, moral is low and the odds of a successful campain have all but faded away, upon signing of this act the following terms will come into effect at 1800 hours on this April the 22 of the year 2006.
1. All forces are to be withdrawn to there home countires with no further aggressive actions
2. All POW's are to be taken within 4 months to a POW camp so that they can be processed and sent back to there home countries
3. All aggressions towards allied countries will cease
4. All Tyler allied troops are to disarm and submit to inspections
5. Leaders of the Tyler allied armies will surrender to the home allied high command and face trial
6. The Tyler allied countries will sign a document stateing there intent to never again to invade the home allies countries and if they so try they will be meet with the full power of any and all WMD currently owned by home allied countires
This act of surrender hereby ends the third Tyler war.
If you know me, then you know what this is for and what it means, if you don't then I leave it to your own mind. |
|
|
| Complants Dept. |
[Apr. 2nd, 2006|07:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Bah, Yarmouth | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | Pissed I guess | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Collide - Sandbox | ] |
Yes I am back with a whole new concept, welcome to my complaints dept.
For a few weeks I have been brooding over a couple of things that have been pissed me off as of late and now I think its time to vent my frustrations.
First things first I have a beef with NSCC;
Why do they seem to want to waste my time with crap like "Women in non-traditional roles" and "Black kids go to college day"? I paid a lot of money to attend this campus so I think its only prudent that you shouldn't waste my time with these "PE" days. Most times when these students come in they are in grade 9 or 10 and they always have made a decision about what they want to do with there life, what’s the point in Indoctrination when they have already been indoctonated?
But still I have to entertain these kids as I try to get my work done, like that’s going to be help from my productivity. Seems to me that if the college wants to reach out to the community they should do it on there own time, when I am in on campus and trying to do work.
Waste of time comes to mind and you had better believe that they don't do this kid of bull shit in colleges and universities, but the real question becomes, do you know why they do this?
Well the answer is simple, its hard to compete with the larger institutions, and in this province its doublely hard. Well if you want to make yourself known then start to offer different programs, when I looked at NSCC I only saw one program that looked like I would enjoy it and now I am taking it. Now if they would have offered something like Paramedic training then NSCC would have been my first choice, seems like the deans just cannot see what is in demand otherwise they would offer a course in EMT as it is a growing field and its very hard to get into, VERY hard.
You know what I really hate? Record companies. I know its been said a million times before, about them trying to stop "illegal" downloading but now they are coming out with security on there CDs to prevent songs from being ripped. I find it very funny that Sony got caught doing this and that the "security" in questions was causing a hole in operating systems that a hacker could exploit.
But its not just the record companies that are to blame, also the artists are fucking us around. Now not all of them are guilty of this crime but I can think of one large band that I know is not only the biggest hypocrite of all time when it comes to music but is also one of the biggest baby bands of all time.
Metallica is gods gift to those that want everything there way, and its funny that when I bring them up only one person agrees with me that they are nothing more then a useless band, a left over from the evolution from hair metal to the grunge age, a fossil.
Lets look at the facts shall we?
Metallica was a nothing band until the advent of tape swapping, simple precedent you have a tape, you copy said tape, you give copy of tape to a friend so he can have the tape without paying for it. Now doesn't that sound a lot like downloading music?
But Metallica never said anything about this, they where to busy enjoying the life of fame that was given to them but as soon as they started to lose money then had to speak up. Fuck these hypocrites, people that gain fame from an illegal means shouldn’t go back on that same means when they start to lose money.
In fact many bands support downloading music because they don’t make much money for CD sales, they make there money off tours, and it might shock these high and mighty musicians, but some bands are still in it for fun and for the music, not for the money.
Have you been following the news from the US? I glace at it ever so often just to see how much more they will take before they finally destroy themselves. Last time I turned on the TV I saw that good old Bush is trying to pass a law to make it harder for people to get into the US, now they say people but we all know they mean Mexicans.
I heard one report spout off that “We are betraying the people that built this country, the middle class.” Hmmm that’s funny because if the middle class wants to go out and get a job I am sure they can, the problem is that most people out there have gotten so used to the perks of work that they will refused to work without them. Or they think that some work is below them, such as waiting tables and cleaning floors. The middle class isn’t being betrayed its being phased out because it cannot adapt to the world, if you want to work you need to accept that your not going to get everything the way that you want it. In fact most works from other countries work harder then most people from the US and they will do it for less pay and less benefits so why hire a whiney US worker that will just want more and more when you can have a nice Mexican that will do the job, not complain and never ask you for anything extra expect for maybe more hours.
Still on the US, I remember when I first saw the movie Supersize Me, there was one thing that stuck with me after the fact, and it wasn’t even the fact that fast food is bad for you, which we do know, but that the American children are now fatter and dumber. A expert said that the US was getting rid of gym and other active programs in order for the students to learn more math and science, and they are still not performing. So you now have a country of fat adults that aren’t to bright, and one of them will grow up to lead a country with thousands of nuclear weapons, now that’s scary. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
tracer300's journal
Baked