Rants/Musings
The Big V-Day and my Birthday
Feb 18th
Been awhile since I last posted again – I kept starting posts, but not getting around to finishing them… so I apologize for the delay.
This past week was a busy one that included a couple of notable events. One was Valentine’s day which every year is a source of frustration for me. Why? It’s not that I don’t have a significant other that I wish to bestow upon my love and devotion to … it’s that I hate that there’s a specific day for it! It feels entirely too forced for me — one of these events that the general public (read: corporations) have decided is the time for all who are involved in a relationship must partake in. To me, that’s not how you should show your love! Showing your love and affection for your significant other is by all means great — but there’s no reason that it has to happen on a particular day! What’s wrong with … today, tomorrow, or … next Tuesday?!
So while Diane and I did spent the evening together, there wasn’t a lot of extra fanfare outside of spending a fairly ordinary evening together. I did cook dinner though … something I want to start doing a little more often. This time was cod fillets battered with flour and pan fried with oil and butter. It turned out pretty well! So Diane and I had a rather lovely evening, thank you very much corporate greed.
On a related note, a couple of my friends lent me some copies of Good Eats to watch. I have since gotten addicted to watching it. For those who haven’t heard of it, it is hosted by Alton Brown.. He’s kinda like the Bill Nye the Science Guy of cooking. Besides being really fun to watch, the show is also very informative. The food recipes are explained really well … but not only that, the reasons for the various steps are explained which means that the show builds understanding of cooking.
A couple days ago, Diane and I tried out the pan seared steak technique he shows in the first show. It turned out really well! The juices from the meat stayed on the inside which made the meat juicy and tender and oh so very tasty. I’ll definitely be trying out some more of Alton Brown’s recipes in the time to come! Mmmm … tasty meat.
This Saturday was my 24th Birthday, so I held a party to celebrate. The party was quite a success — many people attended, and I was really impressed with the food everyone brought. Very very tasty! After a poker tournament in the afternoon, we had our potluck, and then continued to play some video and board games. I think everyone had a good time. I certainly did — though I was unhappy that the oilers lost.
Hope everyone is having/had a good weekend (those outside of Alberta probably go back to work tomorrow — but most Albertans have Family day off tomorrow). I’m going to spend tomorrow playing some poker and doing some work.
Heraldk
On Doing Good Business
Jan 12th
It seems to me that there is a certain subset of businesses operating in today’s world that just don’t seem to get it. If your business treats me with respect, then I will be far more inclined to do business with you. If, on the other hand, you treat me like an idiot, then I will avoid your business like the plague.
Take, for instance, the numerous credit card offerings I get in the mail. The chances are, if you have sent me 20 previous offers for credit cards, I will refuse your latest one that presents no added benefits compared to the previous bazillion other offers. So STOP SENDING THEM! I don’t care that I get a low interest rate if I transfer an existing balance to another card. The reason I have good credit and can get a platinum card if I want to is because I’m smart enough not to carry a balance!
I also find that many advertisements on television and the radio seem to want to go out of their way to annoy me. I know that creating a good advertisement is a difficult and expensive proposition. But so is running a good business. Put in some effort to make the ad effective without being annoying. If ads start to annoy me, I start to actively avoid going to those establishments.
The thing I like to see businesses do to gain my respect and my money is for them to display a strong image taking the high road. If you treat your customers well, have a good product that you support very well, and don’t annoy me or treat me like an idiot, then I will likely do business with you!
Examples of the wrong way to do this:
- CapitalOne credit cards (the reason I’m ranting about this to begin with)
- anyone doing telemarketing calls (particularly the pushy ones)
- companies that utilize those automated dialing systems (the ones that call you and saw “please hold for the next available service representative” … YOU CALLED ME! Please tell me you’ve got enough time to deal with your valued customer)
- Annoying ads that say the same thing at the same time slot every morning. Good examples of this are the ads that are placed in between news segments on The Bear radio station. I will never buy a mattress from Sleep Country, Jeep-Dodge-Chrysler, or the handful of others that had ads that I didn’t want to listen to EVERY morning when my alarm went off. (kinda defeats the purposes of advertising if I don’t go buy stuff from you).
I really like how there are some really upfront companies that treat their customers with respect and do a good job doing what they do. Examples of these companies (note that I am not paid by these companies for saying this … they are just an example of what I mean. The PSO link does give me referrals if you signup with them, but that is their standard referral program):
- Poker Source Online has gone over and above their call on many occasions. I’m not as active a member there since I’ve finished nearly all the promos they offer, but as long as you follow the instructions for each promo they will take care of you.
- NearlyFreeSpeech.net is my current webhost, and they do an amazing job. Unlike many web hosting services that attempt to offer packages which do not suit the needs of the person buying that package, nearlyfreespeech only charges you for what you use. Their FAQ and other documentation is incredibly refreshing to read. They tell you exactly why they feel they deserve your business and do not cut corners or fudge the truth. If you’re looking for a good webhost this is certainly the way to go in my opinion.
There are a few other companies that should stand out here. I’m a fan of Apple, Nintendo, and Blizzard – companies that release great products with a great eye for detail and quality. They also tend to have top-notch support which certainly doesn’t hurt!
So … if you want to impress me and earn my hard-earned money … keep this in mind. I’d also urge you to not support the business models I mentioned earlier. I don’t believe we’ll see a change away from these terrible things that annoy me so much, but its nice to dream!
Heraldk
The “Great” Debate
Nov 2nd
Ugh. I’ve been meaning to post this for a long time, but haven’t gotten around to it in awhile. Of course, now that I’m editing my thesis, I can’t find enough stuff to distract me from it!
I am becoming increasingly annoyed at the number of people debating each other over something that to me is a no argument kind of situation. That debate is the one that pits Religion versus Science.
This point was driven home to me a few weeks ago when Richard Dawkins appeared on the Colbert Report promoting his new book “The God Delusion”. Essentially he is trying to prove that God cannot exist. He admits that it is impossible to prove that God doesn’t exist, but says that it is extremely unlikely that any higher power exists.
Here’s what I don’t understand, and maybe somebody can explain this to me. Where’s the conflict? Is it so terrible to believe the scientific explanations for the formation of everything we live in and around today, but also believe that God exists? Let me explain my reasoning, and my own belief system and perhaps somebody can tell me where I go wrong. To me, science and religion play two very different roles in people’s lives. Science explores the natural world and tries to explain how all the pieces fit together. Religion is a spiritual journey, where people develop and prepare their spirit through all stages of life. Don’t these sound like different things?
Science has come a long way. I think part of the problem is that when science wasn’t as mature, religion was used as a way of explaining and understanding the world. However, knowledge is not stationary, and now that we know more about the world, why is it necessary to stick to the past religious beliefs when the scientific explanations make sense? On the flip side, why do some scientists want to disprove God’s very existence? This is impossible to do (as Dawkins does say), since God’s existence is a matter of faith … and forgive me if I’m wrong, but this seems totally outside the realm of science.
I’m not a good writer, and this is a complex issue that I don’t really understand that well. My main source of confusion is why people in both camps are fighting each other when it seems so clear to me that they really aren’t arguing about something that really doesn’t deserve all this energy.
Of course, the relationship between science and religion is intertwined over human history which makes it hard for people to take a step back and really look at the issue. But if they could do that, maybe they’d see that they are wasting their breath and should be diverting that energy to something more important … perhaps the environment?!
Heraldk
On Unsportsmanship
Sep 22nd
Sometimes, I shudder at the state of humankind.
Last night I played a late rec-soccer game on the Lister Hall fields. Our team plays in the semi-competitive division of the intramurals and were obviously outclassed against the team we played against. Fine, that’s all fine and dandy. It was tied 1-1 after the first half but then the other team scored 5 unanswered goals to win the game. Good for them.
But it was the actions of a couple of their team members that really had me shaking my head. One of the players in particular, wearing a Beckham soccer shirt nattered throughout the second half … including comments involving the word “pussy” and stuff like “I don’t want to make you guys cry”. Well, I’m crying all right … crying out that something isn’t right. It is a friggin’ rec soccer league! These actions don’t belong in a rec soccer league … one that has in its name “recreation” (I would argue these comments don’t belong in any league).
One of the guys on our team commented that I must not play much soccer. He said that this sort of thing is normal. Why the hell is something like this considered normal? It makes me seethe with rage that for all I can tell is impotent. What exactly am I going to say that will change things? Nothing. In fact, anything I say will just be mocked with more of the same. Ugh. I enjoy playing soccer for fun and some good natured competition, but when players make it a place to act with unsportsmanlike qualities, I stop having fun and start wondering what’s going on.
Heraldk
Why do people Blog?
Mar 2nd
An interesting question came up the other day when some friends and I sat down for coffee. “Why do people blog?”. Its an interesting question, and one that I can’t quite be sure of the answer right away.
The purpose of my blog is to have a kind of journal that I will actually keep an interest in maintaining. One of the problems I’ve had whenever I try to start a personal diary or journal is I tend to write stuff that I don’t find useful later – its just embarassing. A blog though, is much more public than a personal diary, and thus even as I write it I need to evaluate whether I want other people to read it or not. This keeps my posts much less filled with future embarassment, and as a result, I find I can actually go back and read some of the stuff I’ve posted awhile ago and say “cool, I did on “.
Aside from that, I use my blog as kind of a personal soapbox. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have many (or any) readers. What matters is that I have an area where I can vent my frustrations or give an outlet to my daily cynicism at the world at large. In the days of geocities and tripod, I started a webpage called “The Domain of the Herald”. It has long since died away, and the only remnants of it are on a recordable cd I have somewhere in my house. However, this was my first foray into online editorial writing, and I found it was pretty fun to have this personal soapbox. Since then, I’ve always enjoyed a chance to rant about the latest media outrage for instance.
So that’s the big reason why I blog. Primarily, it is a place for me that just so happens to have public access for those who are oddly interested in my life, thoughts and feelings.
There’s a lot of reasons that other people blog that don’t really fit why I do, but are common as well.
- Anonymous. The internet seems to give people this layer of anonymity that allows people to say whatever they want. As a result, more people tend to be willing to jump out and say things *because* they don’t have to worry about someone knowing who they are.
- News. Some bloggers take it upon themselves to help relay the news as they see it. A lot of these bloggers have inside connections to various places and are able to get news out faster or in a better way than your standard news sources.
- Commentaries. There are a lot of blogs out there that strive for readership. They consistently put out interesting articles and stories that bring back people to their site over and over. A good example is Daring Fireball, a site that has often brought up some very interesting things about the latest developments by Apple. Its blogs like this that really shine in this area.
- Other. Man, there are a lot of blogs out there, and a lot of them don’t fit into the standard things I refer to. Many blogs are a blend of these types. Some are very personal, some are totally not personal. Some are factual, some rely on conspiracy theories.
I guess one of the biggest things about blogs is they are a nice way of presenting a history of things. If you can formulate what you’re trying to say into this structure, than a blog will do wonders for you. Its simple, its easy, and there’s a lot of nice software out there to deal with your blog’s history for you so all you have to do is write. Its really quite wonderful.
Heraldk
Team Canada
Feb 23rd
Honestly, I can’t stand the media.
First, what’s with the debacle of accusing Gretzky of being involved in the gambling scandal? This man does more for the game of hockey than anyone ever before. He has always been an amazing role model for the kids everywhere and what does he get as thanks? Seriously, if he says he wasn’t involved, why don’t you believe him unless some reason not to comes up? Jeepers.
And now, with the crazy expectations everyone seemed to have for the Canadian olympic hockey team. I don’t really quite understand how Canada is such an overwhelming favourite. If you take a closer look at all the teams, there are very few weak teams out there. In fact, teams like Finland, Sweden, Russia, and the Czechs are all very strong teams with a lot of depth. Sure, I wanted to see Canada win. But just because they didn’t shouldn’t make us shameful. We have a lot of talented players, but that doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily win.
Its a very tough transition. These star players on our team are used to being the go-to guy on their team. At the olympics though, they play half as much as they would with their NHL team … and it can’t be easy to get out there and give it your all when you’re used to being warmer and getting more chances with your home team.
Bleh. So now we have the media asking questions like “What happened?”. I’ll tell you what happened. Team Canada lost to some very good teams. Those teams got prepared for the olympics as a team and not as a group of solo star players. Those teams played better than Canada, and so they deserved to move on.
There’s always 2010.
Heraldk
Politics
Feb 9th
Lets take a moment shall we and discuss politics?
Normally I wouldn’t do this, but the latest outbreak on the federal politics stage has *me* fuming … and I don’t even live in the riding in question!
I’m sure you’ve all heard by now about Mr Emerson crossing the floor from liberal to conservative to accept a cabinet position. He did this before the parliment even sat ONCE!
Frankly, I don’t agree with the idea of MPs changing parties. If you’re an elected official in the Canadian government, then you were elected because the constiuents in your riding decided that they like you and the party platform you were representing. When someone crosses the floor, they are dropping the platform they were voted in on and picking up a different platform that is likely very different!
Now, under extenuating circumstances, there may be a case where the MP thinks that his constituents no longer fall into the same platform as the party they belong to. But Emerson hadn’t even sat down in the house of commons yet to see anything like this! He was purely drawn for the cabinet position being offered.
He’s arguing that he gives his riding more of a voice by taking this position. The trouble is – what sort of voice is that? Is he going to push liberal platform choices on the cabinet? Or has he adopted the conservative platform? Because I’m sure his constituents are going to be really happy about that!
Brutal.
But what really gets me is not just that he had the audacity to make this move. He also claims that he’s surprised that people are outraged at it! Come on now, what did you really expect? Cheers from the masses? Riiiight.
It makes me shake my head.
Heraldk
Voting Day
Jan 23rd
Ugh. I hate politics. Everytime it happens it feels like I’ve got to decide between a bunch of idiots who make a mitt-ful of promises that there is no way on earth they will keep, or if they do keep them all then they’ll screw over an aspect of the country they didn’t stress in their political platform.
Blah. I’m scared of the conservatives. I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems oddly creepy that Stephen Harper seems like such a good candidate when last time around, he scared the crap out of most anyone I talked to. Paul Martin is running a terrible campaign from where I’m sitting – he is running a fear based campaign which I heartily disagree with. While I might agree that I don’t want to see Mr Harper in charge of our country, I want to hear why YOU Mr Martin, will do any better! All your campaign has done is made me want to vote for someone other than the liberals. Since I can’t quite bring myself to support the conservatives, I have to move onto the other options.
I ended up picking the green party. Why? Because I empathize with their position. I hate how they are a party with candidates in all the ridings in Canada and they had enough of the vote to get federal money to support this year’s election … but their leader is not invited to the leadership debate. A debate where the bloc-quebecois leader is assumed to be in attendance even though they are a Quebec-only party. I just don’t understand.
Frankly, it won’t matter who I voted for. My riding is so overwhelmingly conservative that there is no way I can stop that. But, I have to place a vote, and so I’m going to put it where it’ll do the most good.
Heraldk
Confidence
Nov 4th
It seems like life is all about confidence.
If you are confident in who you are and what you are doing, you will tend to succeed at the things you do. Not only that, succeeding breeds further confidence and from there you go onto doing bigger and better things. But confidence is a fickle quality. If, despite your confidence, you start to fail, then watch out! And just like gaining confidence breeds more confidence, losing confidence breeds more lack of confidence.
I have found that through the earlier portion of my life, I have taken many a hit to my confidence. I have now started to realize that my confidence levels at this point in my life are the highest they have every been. Its not hard to see why. I’ve got a big scholarship, a caring family, keen interests in several areas including my field of study, and most importantly, a loving relationship with Diane. When looked at this way, I can’t help but feel a little proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish. I am loath to say anything particularly good about myself. Frankly, I hate boasting, and I try to keep my ego in check by realizing that there are so many people who better than me at anything that I can claim any measure of skill at.
Still, my record looks pretty. Or at least shiny. Well … maybe not even that.
My life is an interesting story. There’s a whole lot more to it than I’m entirely willing to put up here on my blog for everyone to read. Lets just say that throughout my life confidence in myself has been … probably a lot less than is probably healthy. My low confidence levels led to moodiness, over self-examination, and low comfort levels around other people. I found myself retreating away from people who I didn’t understand – which turned out to be nearly everybody. I found my niches of interests and found people who shared some of those interests and we hung out where the geeks hang out. Away from popularity.
Its taken me a long time to embrace who I am. Even now, at the highest level of confidence ever, I still find that I feel awkward around people. I find that I feel like people are judging me. Evaluating who I am based on the actions that I take. I’m pretty sure that people don’t do that. But I can never be sure – and until then I find myself always careful about what I say. I feel foolish when I say something that could be misjudged and whenever that happens I find that I will closet myself up to prevent it.
Its really odd thinking about confidence like this. Lately, I’ve started to feel really confident in myself. Its an amazing feeling … one sometimes wonders just how long it will last.
Heraldk
“If You’re a Christian, Muslim or Jew – You are Wrong”
Oct 24th
Religious discussion always seems to bring out the worst in people. This guy claims that religion is the cause of so many problems in the world both in the past and today. He talks about people who go insane and believe that their religion is what is guiding them through their life’s actions. Ugh.
It’s a touchy topic. I’m not going to go out on a limb here. Religion, both in the past and today, has been the dispution point for many many wars and much hate and disagreement. This guy here seems to be just paying attention to the headlines. The newsmakers. The people who give religion a bad name. Seriously, for the average joe person who believes in one faith or another, religion can do a lot of good. There’s a lot of psychological comfort available! Not to mention a community of people who are friendly and willing to help when you are in trouble.
What I don’t understand is why people cannot give each other respect for their own decisions. For me, actions speak FAR louder than the label they bear. I don’t care what faith you are in. If you can’t give other people respect for what they believe, then you need to chill out and realize that faith should really be a personal choice. Sure, you can talk to other people about your faith, and if someone shows an interest, you can introduce them to it. But there isn’t a “right” way to believe. I’m sorry folks, but that’s where its at.
But then, maybe I’m just crazy.
Heraldk
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