The light and the myspace

So I've joined myspace. I had to join to post on some other myspace sites liked. My myspace site is at http://www.myspace.com/halpgr. Feel free to drop by and add me as a friend. Right now I'm a loser with only Tom the default friend you get for signing up. LOL.

myspace is an interesting site. It is kind of sticky, as there's stuff to explore and poke around. The user interface is, well, extremely busy. I think some in the younger crowd like it that way with links everywhere. I don't know how much time I'll spend on my site or hanging around there. But it is kind of appealing.


Update: April 2007.

I've cancelled my myspace account and switched to Facebook, which is much better. On Facebook I connect with real people that I know. On myspace it seemed I only ever heard from scammers and spammers and adult webcammers. Everyone trying to sell something. Facebook profiles look nice, and everything always loads quickly. My Facebook profile is here.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper

That's something I've always enjoyed hearing. I voted for Harper and I'm glad he won. I think he's done an excellent job in his time as Prime Minister. Based on his record to date, he deserves a majority in the next federal election.

I've been a conservative for the last several years, after kind of finding it back in university. I was with the original Reform Party, so naturally I support the merged Conservative Party. It's great to see the old Reformer Harper now Prime Minister - we did it!

I remember going to see a Preston Manning speech back around the summer of 1992. It was in Halifax in the Queen Elizabeth High School auditorium. I recall there were around 100 people there. We opened the evening singing Oh Canada. Preston was greeted very enthusiastically and got a standing ovation after his talk. His speech was right on, the small c conservative line we all wanted to hear. I didn't walk up to the front afterward to try to meet him.

I don't think Harper has really been given the credit he deserves for what he has accomplished. Consider the situation Paul Martin inherited when he finally wrestled the Liberal leadership from Jean Cretien. He had a healthy majority. He had overwhelming support within his party. He had strong support and goodwill in the general public. He seemed a lock for another easy majority, if not a second one.

So given these tall odds, look what Harper accomplished. He took the Martin Liberals from a majority government, to a minority government in the first election, followed by defeat and official opposition in the conservative minority government in the next election. All in around a year and a half. Sure Paul Martin had a lot of inherited distractions from the Chretien regime, but Stephen Harpen just had his number and was the better man.


So all's well in conservative land right? Well unfortunately not quite. I'm increasingly concerned about the religious right. Based on recent US gambling legislation, they seem increasingly influential. I feel they are overly concerned with the private affairs of other people. As a libertarian, I feel their agenda is dangerous and regressive. The religious right is most active in Canada in the Conservative Party. So I need to reevaluate before the next election which party today is best aligned with my interests. It's probably still the Conservatives, but I will think about it.

Practical Bible advice, tithing and the Sabbath

I had a nice talk with my mother a little while back. We got talking about the Bible. It came around to just how everyday practical some of the stuff there is. Two specific things are the Sabbath and tithing.

Now observing the day of rest may seem like a hassle, a constraint. Actually it is in your best interest. If you don't take break you will get sick and die. Also the Sabbath limited the powers of landlords or slaveowners to extract work from their subjects. The Sabbath was for the common workers protection, giving them one day off each week that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Regardless of whether you go to church or even believe in God, the advice about the Sabbath is right on, and you should observe it, for your own good, not necessarily God's.


Now tithing. So suppose you have to tithe. What does that really mean. In order to tithe you have to know how much you're making. Then you have to set aside a specific amount of that. Well once you do that then basically you now have a personal budget! Having and sticking to a budget is probably the most important aspect of being solvent and sustainably financially prosperous for your lifetime. So the benefit of tithing is that it forces you to have a budget and stick to it, and that is massively in your best interest to do, well worth 10% of your income. So again what may seem like a burden the Bible imposes is actually something that is in your best interest.

Rolling Stones again

The Rolling Stones are coming to Halifax. I haven't bought a ticket. I'm not planning to go. There's a few reasons not to go.

I saw the Stones last year in Moncton. That was an awesome time. The best time I had in how many years, 5, 10, 20, ever? I was a bit concerned seeing them again this year would somewhat detract from those larger than life memories from last year. It wasn't just the concert itself, which was mind-blowing. It was the reconnecting with old friends too. But I could just view it as just a separate fun thing. It wouldn't have to live up to last year.

The reality is I just can't afford to go, which sucks. But I'm not too disappointed. I did get to experience the awesome life memory last year so I'll always have that. Paint it Black live was incredible.

Idiot play

A little while back I did something I shouldn't have. I experienced an unexpected disappointment, a setback. I reacted by being rude to the person who delivered the bad news.

So for a moment I became an idiot. That's what idiots do. They lash out and unload when things don't go their way. I will say that the issue I was upset about is totally unfair and unjust to me. Yes I should be angry, resentful and frustrated about that situation. But that doesn't justify how I acted. That's what idiots do. They make excuses after the fact for their actions. They insist they were "reacting", or "provoked" or "stressed about other things". So I don't have a valid excuse for what I did because there is no valid excuse.

I don't claim to be a "nice" person. I don't have to be or want to be. I don't want to go the other way and be an idiot. If you act like an idiot then you are an idiot.

What I need to do is to address and fix the problems that I lashed out about.

Summer in Nova Scotia

It was nice out today. A sunny summer day. I tried to take it in and enjoy it on the drive home from work. Summer in Nova Scotia. That's pretty nice. It's good to be in Nova Scotia in the summertime. I'm glad to be here. I'd rather be here than somewhere else.

In the evening we played road hockey on the street with my sons and my older son's friend Dustin. We played for a while. The flies were bad but we had a nice time.