Archives For June 2004

when that idiot was making his case about adult content i posted about COPA/CIPA and the fights in the courts, well there`s been a new development.

yesterday the Supreme Court; including Clarence Thomas; voted 5-4, to bar enforcement of COPA/CIPA because it violates constitutional free speech rights.

“The 5-4 ruling, however, does not resolve the constitutional question in a case pitting free-speech rights against efforts by the U.S. Congress to protect minors from online pornography.”

read the rest of the story

before someone misconstrues my joy; this decision makes me happy because it tries to put the responsibility for what`s accessible for children online, in the hands of parents; where it should be.

poked and prodded

June 21, 2004 — Leave a comment

today i started the process to get involved with a clinical trial. i feel rather strongly about it. i`m not a great taker of medication and don`t particularly love visits to the doctors, so the concept of being poked and prodded for the next 15 months is a great leap for me.

in light of my cynical and conspiracy theorist nature doing this is also a great leap of faith for me but there are times when something feels so right that you just have to go with it. this is one of those times, from the time i saw the posted asking to volunteers to the initial interview this morning, i feel good about it on a gut level.

vic needed some reassurance and i think the consent forms and information packet has mostly sold her on this. there is also a small fee for participating the programme, but vic and i decided to donate the money to a worthy cause.

firstly, happy father`s day to all the parents on js; the fathers that are there for their children; physically, emotionally, however they can, the mothers doing the job of both parents, because they have to or they want to. happy father`s day to you all.

in news of parenting, it appears that our resident morality maven has taken leave of us; either fed up of our wanton and debauched nature or licking his wounds and planning for another course of attack; whatever the result, his journal in it`s last form is no more. i`m not celebrating, i`m not gloating, because that was never my intention, i`m just relieved.

today we cleaned the house top to bottom, including the boychick`s closet; he`s eight and his idea of organised and our ideas are radically divergent. we`re exhausted and we still have to tackle lunch and vic is planning on making bread and granola before the day is out. the boychick, a friend of his and vic`s mother are with us this coming week and operating on a limited budget, making what you can from scratch is always cheaper.

and finally my good news, on Friday i was supposed to trek out to Memphis in the wee hours of the morn to apply for a temporary employment authorisation because the USCIS hadn`t issued my employment authorisation after the prescribed 90 day period, however on Wednesday night, i came home to find and email stating that my application had been approved and mailed out to me. so no trek to Memphis and i`m soon to join the rank and file. that just leaves the somewhat miniscule task of finding a job. i`ve been sending out resumes since i got here, but i`ve been unable to follow up because i couldn`t work legally, well all that is over now, look out Nashvegas.

word wars

June 19, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`ve been a scrabble player since i can remember. my mother had that tiny travel scrabble that we used to take on the plane and she used to whoop my ass coming and going.

just after i got into high school we discovered a scrabble club in Port of Spain and thus began my experiences in competitive scrabble and my ability to beat my mother.

one of the keys to my skills was the two and three letter word list, the weekend after we received the list, i record all the words on a cassette and went to sleep one sunday afternoon, my young and impressionable mind retained it all.

since then i`m played with some regularity, not every friday like i used to tagging along with my mother to the scrabble club. i lost contact with the people in the club as i grew older and found less geeky past times, or so i thought.

i used to play occasionally, not with the skill and knowledge i used to as a younger man. scrabble is a game based on knowledge of language and like all language it`s ever evolving. i tried playing at a tournament last year and had my ass handed to me by a young man; who in a number of years will be in the same place i was sitting across the board from him, wondering what happened to all the skills he had. it was nice to see some of the faces i had grown up with.

scrabble i`ve come to realise holds a strange place in the geek hierarchy. there is no scrabble port for the mac, but i have a version i bought for the palm which i play with some regularity. and since i`ve been here, i`ve managed to get quite a few games in, i`ve kept my winning ways to some extent, but vic who shares my passion for words is a skilled player; not necessarily relying on the two and three letter words but her food vocabulary; and in recent days has managed not just beat me, but soundly trounce me on more than one occasion.

Word Wars is unflattering documentary on competitive scrabble, which is opening soon at the independent theatre here. i want to see this film. it may not be as charitable or understanding as Stephan Fastis` Word Freak but i feel an affinity to the people in this movie. i know who they are because they are the same people featured in the book, even though the book and movie are only related by their choice of subject matter. the other reason i want to see this movie is that i haven`t found a sanctioned scrabble club in Nashville, yet and i`m sure this movie is guaranteed to draw all of of us word freaks out of the woodwork.

y tu mama tambien

June 18, 2004

it`s friday and foamy is god. enjoy some sick humour courtesy ill will press, particularly small, medium, large and non-holiday special and sitcom silliness.

this animations contain language frowned upon by most employers, so be advised.

Viva Nashvegas!

June 17, 2004

i lost my virginity last night. well of a sort.

I`ve been Nashvegas for three months now and i attended my first live show at the Ryman auditorium.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nashvegas it is one of the premiere live music towns in the world. there at least four stadium venues; the Starwood amphitheatre, the Gaylord entertainment complex, the Ryman auditorium and of course the Grand Old Opry, plus a myriad of smaller venues and it`s not just country music. Nashville is a must stop on all tours, from OzzFest, Dave Matthews and Prince to Hillary Duff and Simon & Garfunkle. Plus there are all this up and coming indy bands playing at bars all over the place. This weekend, the $5 music series, Dancin in the District kicks off with Cake.

I had the great fortune to start my Nashville live music experience at the Ryman with Keb` Mo`. It rocked. From the opening act to the final encore, I can`t remember the last time i enjoyed a show so thoroughly. the lights, the sound engineering, the performances, the professionalism.

i`ve always said, if i had to take up a second career path it would be sound engineering and not in studio, but live. there were a couple of minor hiccups during the opening act; Shelby Lynn`s first couple of songs, but for the rest of the night, the sound was perfectly balanced.

professionalism at a stage show is something that i always admire, i mean you already have the patrons there, you could just play an hour and leave and we, the patrons would just have to live with it. Keb` Mo` played for close to two and a half hours, interacting with the crowd, trying to acquiesce to all the requests shouted at him. what was also interesting to see was everyone was taking care of their hearing, ear plugs all around, none of this getting older and not being able to hear because of too many loud gigs.

all in all i would i have been glad to spend the night doing anything with vic, but being at the concert was icing on the cake. and we got home to more good news, which precludes me having to drive to Memphis at some ridiculous hour tomorrow morning.

edited for subject change.

what price freedom

June 14, 2004 — Leave a comment

i`m hoping this is my last entry about/to odorone. i had intended to do a step by step analysis of all the things he`s said about my journal, but i`ve decided there is no point.

odorone is not interested in logic or legality, he is, as i`ve pointed out before a bully. he`s ignored many well thought out arguments on journalspace, some of mine included because at the end of the day it`s not what he wants to hear. he`s deluded himself into thinking what he`s doing is right and worthy, the law and good sense be damned and he`ll malign and make all manner of assumptions and incorrect statements to back his argument.

my posts haven`t been about him, per se, it`s about the principle of what he`s doing and my inability to sit and let more personal freedoms slip away because of apathy.

i will not sit idly by and let someone else`s idea of morals be the benchmark for my children. i`m resident in a country where the library association publishes a list of children`s books that people called for to be banned.

the campaign that`s started here is only a small step down a slippery slope. if we give in now, when are we going to make our stand, when you can`t find I know why the caged bird sings, Catcher in the Rye, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mocking Bird on the shelves of the library because someone started a campaign to `protect the children`?

by then it will be too late.

as parents you have one simple job, be responsible for you children. don`t rely on school or television or the internet or video games or the government to tell you what`s best for you children. take the time to know who your children are, what their interest are and what they do. it`s not society`s job or the school`s job or the media`s job to teach your children, it`s the your job as a parent.

i have adult content on my journal and if some child find their way to my journal i`ll be upset, but not with the child, but the parents that let them roam about unaccompanied. the simplest analogy i can find, the internet is a like a giant mall, you wouldn`t let your child roam about the mall unaccompanied, would you?

the other point about taking responsibility for you children is when faced with situations that you wouldn`t approve of, they will have your moral compass ingrained in them so they will know right from wrong and very rarely disappoint you.

i don`t need odorone tell me what my children shouldn`t see, i know what i don`t want them to see and ensure that they don`t and if they`re not in my immediate sphere of influence and they see or hear something that`s inappropriate they will behave appropriately because they`ve been taught right from wrong by us, their parents.

We went to see Chronicles of Riddick last night. for free, no less. we had to stand outside for a while and of course yesterday was the muggiest day of the year, thus far. We also had to sit through Regal Entertainment`s The Twenty which i firmly believe is the reason the floor of movie theatres are sticky; it`s your brain leaking out of your ear. the twenty featured ads for the new Universal Studios Mummy themed ride, Evercrack 2, oh sorry Everquest 2, some new limited series on TNT about terrorism closely followed by an ad for the US Army. It boggles the mind, but we`re not here for that.

After the obligatory ad for Pioneer and the competition they`re hosting; what you didn`t think we got in to see a sneak peek of Riddick on my good looks and charm alone did you?

What can I say about the movie? It`s not high art and in light of some of the other crap that we`re being offered as entertainment this year, we could have done worse, plus it was free. It was entertaining, Judi Dench was great, wasted but great. Most of the special effects were quite good, particularly the matting for Dame Judi`s character. Vin Diesel looked good, did some cool shit, kicked some ass and in at least one scene had every woman in the audience`s panties soaked. Thandie Newton put in her best performance since… well ever, I don`t particularly like her, but I suppose seeing her in costumes that relied on an over abundance of cleavage and smouldering looks, she was damn near perfect. The end is pretty much what you expect when you walk into the theatre, the plot is fairly straight forward and the gaping holes are kept to a minimum.  

Chronicles of Riddick is not high art, it`s summer entertainment and could help you pass some air conditioned hours in the company of friends on afternoon, I should warn you however, if you have motion sickness problems or are in danger of psychotic flashbacks when strobes are involved I`d advise you to avoid some scenes in this movie.

I have the power

June 8, 2004 — Leave a comment

well i have the power now. NES changed the power lines outside my house today, leaving me without power until mere moments ago. it`s just one of the many things that have infuriated me today. i can`t say that i didn`t know they were cutting the power, they did come and say 8:30 – 11:30, but we didn`t have power and that`s just irritating.

coupled with that i discovered the cheque for which we`ve been hovering over the mailbox and waiting with bated breath hasn`t even been mailed yet. that`s right, one week later and it`s not gone out yet. as i said to vic, when you freelance, you get accustomed to being shat upon from high places, you don`t  have to like it, but you fucking well better learn to accept it.

but it wasn`t my intention to be whiny today, i had big plans for today and it involved the late, great, St. Ronnie. for those of you unfamiliar with that, it was sarcasm. I just finished writing a magnum opus and then thought, my status here is still tentative is it not. i can think it but for a while yet, i may not commit it to any format.

does anyone else notice what`s wrong with that sentence? isn`t this the land of the free, the home of the brave? or has than been trademarked by the department of homeland security with fine print that reads `void where prohibited`?

when did it come to this? the chipping away of the freedoms that bring so many people to these shores? i didn`t come here to breathe the sweet air of freedom, i came here for love and as happy as that makes me there are day when i awake chilled, because the freedoms i grew up with and have grown accustomed to, i can no longer take for granted. i have to censor my thoughts and my speech on a daily basis. there is no way that can be right.

and in some sort of circuitous way i`m find myself back to where my original train of thought; how long has Ronald Reagan been really dead and what is he being paraded before us one last time to hide.