I'm writing this from Internet provided by Aliant FibreOP. They were in this week and did the install on Thursday. It's been working well so far. I was thinking of switching and there was a deal with a 42 inch TV to switch so I made the jump. Nice intro price $99 for the first three months. Then it just goes to what I had to pay Eastlink so no cost increase. The TV should be in by Christmas.
It's nice having some HD channels now. It will take some getting used to the new channel numbers but everything I cared about from the past is still there. The PVR is something that I've heard about but never used. Another nice throw in.
I now have a landline number again for the first time in many years. I still have to get a phone for it though. I don't need an answering machine as there's voicemail thrown in. It will be nice to have a reliable number again the cell can be sketchy where I live. I'll have to think about the phone. I might get a cordless.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk
I finished another Palahniuk title Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey. it was pretty good. it's the posthumous story of an oddball named Rant Casey told by his friends and others who knew him. Rant becomes famous after his death for being patient zero in a major epidemic of a new strain of rabies.
the book was a bit hard to follow as there are symbols such as moon and sun next to the writers. the book is written in world war z style from the perspective of those who knew Rant. also there's reference very early on to things like party crashing and boosting which aren't explained until later. and important characters like Echo are intermingled early on with filler childhood friends. so you have to untangle things as you go.
as the story unfolds there are some major reveals which are done in a satisfying way. Palahniuk uses this major reveal technique well as he also did in Fight Club. the author was probably on to something with the ability in the ability to record and playback your sensory reality as you perceived it at the time. with Google glass we're moving in that direction now. so no need to climb Mt. Everest just do a playback from someone who got there and experience for yourself what it's like to reach the summit.
like all of the Palahniuk stuff I've read it makes you think. he touches on some deep topics like social segregation, fitting in, duty. I'm continuing chipping away at Chuck's work. will read some more when I get another chance.
the book was a bit hard to follow as there are symbols such as moon and sun next to the writers. the book is written in world war z style from the perspective of those who knew Rant. also there's reference very early on to things like party crashing and boosting which aren't explained until later. and important characters like Echo are intermingled early on with filler childhood friends. so you have to untangle things as you go.
as the story unfolds there are some major reveals which are done in a satisfying way. Palahniuk uses this major reveal technique well as he also did in Fight Club. the author was probably on to something with the ability in the ability to record and playback your sensory reality as you perceived it at the time. with Google glass we're moving in that direction now. so no need to climb Mt. Everest just do a playback from someone who got there and experience for yourself what it's like to reach the summit.
like all of the Palahniuk stuff I've read it makes you think. he touches on some deep topics like social segregation, fitting in, duty. I'm continuing chipping away at Chuck's work. will read some more when I get another chance.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Fracking in Nova Scotia
So there's an election coming up in Nova Scotia. One issue that's discussed is about energy and related power rates.
There seem to be a couple schemes being floated. one is to pipeline oil from Alberta to the east. another is to build an undersea cable from the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador to deliver electricity to Nova Scotia. also seems to be some Quebec power scheme lurking in the wings
these ideas to me all sound crazy. it would cost many billions to even set this infrastructure up before the first watt of power actually arrived here. and after what happened in Quebec I don't know why people are so eager to try to move oil such a vast distance from Alberta
there seems to be an agreed code of silence between the political parties and the media about fracking in Nova Scotia. the NDP has made it clear by their actions they don't want fracking, and that's their mandate. but what about the other parties? and why doesn't the media at least ask?
it's crazy to bring power from Newfoundland and Alberta when the same energy is sitting right here in our own land. fracking is safe, mature technology. they've been doing it in Michigan for over 50 years and their lakes and rivers are still pristine.
if this election like every election is allegedly about jobs and growing the economy as the politicians claim blah blah blah then why not frack and actually do something that would create the high paying industrial rural blue collar union jobs right here in Nova Scotia instead of in other provinces or overseas?
There seem to be a couple schemes being floated. one is to pipeline oil from Alberta to the east. another is to build an undersea cable from the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador to deliver electricity to Nova Scotia. also seems to be some Quebec power scheme lurking in the wings
these ideas to me all sound crazy. it would cost many billions to even set this infrastructure up before the first watt of power actually arrived here. and after what happened in Quebec I don't know why people are so eager to try to move oil such a vast distance from Alberta
there seems to be an agreed code of silence between the political parties and the media about fracking in Nova Scotia. the NDP has made it clear by their actions they don't want fracking, and that's their mandate. but what about the other parties? and why doesn't the media at least ask?
it's crazy to bring power from Newfoundland and Alberta when the same energy is sitting right here in our own land. fracking is safe, mature technology. they've been doing it in Michigan for over 50 years and their lakes and rivers are still pristine.
if this election like every election is allegedly about jobs and growing the economy as the politicians claim blah blah blah then why not frack and actually do something that would create the high paying industrial rural blue collar union jobs right here in Nova Scotia instead of in other provinces or overseas?
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney
I finished up another zombie book. It was Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney.
It was a good book. A typical McKinney fast and compelling read. This book is the origin of the dead city series. The story of where it begins in Houston. After 4 major hurricanes in two weeks Houston is badly flooded. Among all the death and rot and oil refinery chemicals stewing in the water the necrosis filovirus emerges.
The book is the story of two police officers in the Houston PD working in the emergency task force and their families. Sergeant Eleanor Norton and her boss Captain Mark Shaw. They are working together at the command centre at a Houston University. As the zombies emerge and overrun the university and the city it's a struggle to survive and get their families out and try to help the dwindling and desperate survivors as best they can. In the McKinney style their paths intersect through the story.
The McKinney zombies are interesting. They aren't the "undead". only a living person who is bitten by a zombie and then turns before dying of some other cause becomes a zombie. which makes more sense if you think about it; it's a bit like rabies or ebola in that sense. after all how can someone who is dead get some infection or virus or any condition.
I got the book at the library. they ordered it in for me. it's always a treat to be the first person to read a brand new library book. so I checked and I guess there's still two more in the dead city series to read. I'll definitely be looking for them to finish off this great series.
It was a good book. A typical McKinney fast and compelling read. This book is the origin of the dead city series. The story of where it begins in Houston. After 4 major hurricanes in two weeks Houston is badly flooded. Among all the death and rot and oil refinery chemicals stewing in the water the necrosis filovirus emerges.
The book is the story of two police officers in the Houston PD working in the emergency task force and their families. Sergeant Eleanor Norton and her boss Captain Mark Shaw. They are working together at the command centre at a Houston University. As the zombies emerge and overrun the university and the city it's a struggle to survive and get their families out and try to help the dwindling and desperate survivors as best they can. In the McKinney style their paths intersect through the story.
The McKinney zombies are interesting. They aren't the "undead". only a living person who is bitten by a zombie and then turns before dying of some other cause becomes a zombie. which makes more sense if you think about it; it's a bit like rabies or ebola in that sense. after all how can someone who is dead get some infection or virus or any condition.
I got the book at the library. they ordered it in for me. it's always a treat to be the first person to read a brand new library book. so I checked and I guess there's still two more in the dead city series to read. I'll definitely be looking for them to finish off this great series.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
The reducto ad absurdium of government health care in Nova Scotia
It would be comic if it wasn't so tragic. This week a series of errors were revealed in Nova Scotia cancer treatment. highlights include one person getting a needless mastectomy while another who was supposed to didn't get the operation. Also there was apparently a mixup around biopsies between two other people and someone got scheduled for another person's procedure.
The whole thing is pretty unsurprising, given the money line from the article "no one will be disciplined as a result of these incidents". yep see you tomorrow, hey it's just cancer and everyone dies eventually of something so whatever.
the quote was hardly necessary. the media has been so passivized and cowed by the monopoly health care system that I haven't seen a single call for accountability for this or anyone to be fired or even disciplined. not in the herald and not on atv news either. just vague calls for more spending.
The whole thing is pretty unsurprising, given the money line from the article "no one will be disciplined as a result of these incidents". yep see you tomorrow, hey it's just cancer and everyone dies eventually of something so whatever.
the quote was hardly necessary. the media has been so passivized and cowed by the monopoly health care system that I haven't seen a single call for accountability for this or anyone to be fired or even disciplined. not in the herald and not on atv news either. just vague calls for more spending.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Picked it up at a yard sale I happened by with the kids one day. The guy wanted $2 for it. I offered a quarter. He said I could have it for free.
I'd heard of it but never read it. It was interesting. Only 35 pages and not too hard to read. The major points seem to be the workers seizing control of the means of production, abolishing of private property, and ban religion.
In chapter 2 there's a 10 point plan for the proletariat. Interesting that at least some of those items have been implemented.
In chapter 3 there's a survey of various other socialist and workers parties at the time of the writing in 1848. Later in a forward to a 1872 English translation Marx and Engels point out that "... the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated". That remains true to this day. Marxism undeniably lives on while political parties and even countries have come and gone.
I'd heard of it but never read it. It was interesting. Only 35 pages and not too hard to read. The major points seem to be the workers seizing control of the means of production, abolishing of private property, and ban religion.
In chapter 2 there's a 10 point plan for the proletariat. Interesting that at least some of those items have been implemented.
In chapter 3 there's a survey of various other socialist and workers parties at the time of the writing in 1848. Later in a forward to a 1872 English translation Marx and Engels point out that "... the progress of history has swept from off the earth the greater portion of the political parties there enumerated". That remains true to this day. Marxism undeniably lives on while political parties and even countries have come and gone.
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