Just Differently Intelligent...

KAT! Productions Presents: Hacktivista--The Movie

Full Size version of the cover...

Too busy to breath... ah, the easy life.

Simsim, Pazuzu, JuliaD over for Za with me and Yuka on Thursday. Ken came in last night for the weekend. Arun's coming in next week to get his 17" powerbook... Finishing off a book chapter with Rhonna. Oh, and Ken and I are over to Steve Mann's this afternoon for some strangeness... will have pictures, I think.

Comments are not working, yet. Some mysql error I've not had time to look at.

Finding your grade 4 teacher...

Saw Mr Baxter, my grade four teacher from 1972. I remember him very well, he taught us swahili, if I remember it correctly, having moved over from Kenya in 1968. He was an inspirational teacher, one of the few I remember as being supportive when my other teachers, such as my grade 5 teacher, told my parents I was a brick or two short of a full load. Well. Saw him on the news tonight, as Elvis Priestly. Some faces you never forget. I'll scan some pictures tomorrow.

Sunny Sunday...

Had a great dinner last night. JuliaD, BernieHogan, Hossein and his wife (Hossien how do you spell her name? My apologies.), and Chika-chan joined Yuka and I for 'za and whatnot. It was really nice and relaxing, so I can't remember what we were talking about at all.

Found a great new beer from Unibrew called "Terrible". It was a somewhat dry russian imperial stout type @ about 10.5%. Everyone liked it. Which is strange, when it comes to a strong beer. And then there was Julia's tasty collapsing dessert... what was it though?

Finally yuka was falling asleep and it was just Julia and I jawing...

Today... job applications.

Vote Hoder

Hoder's running for parliment, in Iran. If you can vote for him, do it. Hoder's Mr. UofTWeblogs, and an all around nice guy..

Dave Goulden Rulz

Dave Goulden, pictured above in his camping glory, sent me a package. Spontaneously sent me a package. A heavy package with IAIN BANK'S NEW BOOK IN IT! The book "Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram." For no reason. He just thought it up and did it. All the way from England!

Thanks Dave!!!

Dad's Birthday...

Was with dad (on the left) and the crew at the Top of the Senator for his 67th birthday. I'm still recovering. Sisters (Kelly, Siobhan, Cats) and about 30 of his friends were there.

As per Yuka's request

Yuka told me that I need to blog something about this woman. O brave new world that has such people in it.

Obit: Neil Postman

From steve jones on the aoir list:

It is with deep sadness that I inform the list of the death of Neil Postman. Professor of Culture and Communication at New York University, Postman was a leading figure in media ecology and has greatly influenced many media scholars across many disciplines. I am sure that innumerable newspapers and journals will carry well written obituaries and that I cannot hold a candle to those, so I hope that it will suffice to say that I mourn his passing and send my condolences to his family, friends, colleagues, correspondents and readers.

I knew he wasn't well, as he'd said so when he passed up our request to contribute to our handbook.

They're dropping like flies.

Weekend entertaining...

I finally got to meet Hossein who runs UofT blogs, as well as some Persian language sites. Always nice to meet people you only know of online. And I got to learn more about the trials and tribulations of blogging in Persian. Which nicely compliments my reading of Salam Pax, which I'm really enjoying!

We were down at John's Italian, chatting until my next meeting showed up. Elizabeth from Sheridan... and something mysterious we talked about.

Saturday JuliaD, and Amy who has not net presence, came over for pizza night, and to talk about some jobs Amy's applying for. Yuka and I did some power shopping at the St Lawrence Market and got some great stuff... For Pizza: fresh peas, wild boar, goat chedder and sheep cheese called Ramenbert (think sheep brie). Julia showed up for an attempted repeat of Ken's great sheep feta and green pea salad, and my attempt was found wanting.

Julia brought a wonderful cake which we sprinkled with the last of the year's fresh blueberries, as well as a bottle of cranberry infused wine that I think was banished from her house.

Sunday morning, trouble caused, and we're out for a march about town.

Obit: Edward Said

Edward Said, dead at 67.

Read the story...

They don't come brighter than this one, it seems.

The 'homeless hacker' talks |CNET.com, and I get a sense that they won't be showing him off as a reformed hacker. They'll probably do things quietly. The lad will make them look like fools, I think.

Blast from the past

On a whim, I googled "Lenny Hoeks" and found a web site. Left a comment on her guest book saying "Did you live in Eindhoven and play rugy?" And found out that yes, it was the Lenny I knew. I travelled around England with her and her friend back in 1985, and then visited her in Eindhoven for a few days at the end of my 5 week trip through europe that year. My first time to Europe, and first time travelling alone. She still has the photo I sent her over a decade ago of me and Yuka, after which we lost touch. And I'd actually thought of her after I came a cross my old pictures from that trip.

One of the great things about having a particular name, is that there is a smaller chance of there being a billion of you out there.

Wow. Seriously.

National Story - canada.com network

"1 cigarette can get you hooked, study findsResearch refutes belief it takes time to become addicted."

Time to move the use of Tobacco from a lifestyle choice to a medical condition, and stop stygmatizing smokers as self-destructive, and start stygmatizing them as... take your pick.

Personally, I have equal sympathy for someone addicted to drugs or tobacco, as I do for someone, like my mom, addicted to healthy amounts of exercise. And no, I'm not being silly, if you think about it.

Today in Literature....

William Blake died on this day in 1927...

"Blake's last years passed more or less as his others, in such poverty and obscurity that his burial in Bunhill Fields was largely unnoticed and on borrowed moneyónineteen shillings for an unmarked grave, the body nine feet down, stacked on top of three others, and eventually followed by four more."

Meeting the locals...

Barry Wellman email introduced me to Shyon Baumann a while back, and Shyon and I finally got together for lunch at Momo's on Harbord yesterday.

Shyon's a new sociology prof out at UofT's Mississauga campus, and his thing is the socio/cultural aspects of cinema, and the conceptualization of cinema as art in North America (read Hollywood).

I'm usually too shy to just email people and just go out for lunch as a social thing, but I should do it more... the things you learn.

Cats - the sibbling

A picture of my little sister Cats, unrelated to KAT! who's linked on the right hand column.

I think that she's just finished a swimming competition in Montreal and is on her way home.I realized that I never post family pictures... and isn't that, in part, what blogging is all about?

Saturday Summer Feast.

Jack, Julia and Gary joined Yuka and I for dinner last night. We toasted to Rochelle's birthday in our hearts. Jack, Julia and Gary are all OISEites, but I got to know them at different times. Jack Brown and I went to teacher's college together 1990-1991, and he's just finishing up his PhD studying why educators leave the teaching profession. Gary and I started at OISE together as students in 1994, and after graduating in 2000, he's been teaching at a variety of universities in the cold parts of the US. Now he's off to Duluth, Minnesota to teach at UDM. Julia is someone you all know... and is in the midst of her PhD at OISE. Three generations of OISEites, all bitching about the place... it was a site to see. And they're all involved in blogging, against their better judgements, under my hegemonic influence.

Gary, Yuka did most of the cooking. Gary and I did the shopping. I did the cleaning. Yuka's amazing ribs and saussages from the market. BBQ asparagus, shitake mushrooms and peppers. Julia's amazing white wine (I usually hate white wine), beers and rosÈ, AND what Gary liked, my invention of a raspberry gin and tonic.

I love pizza nights, but with all the food flying, I love BBQ season too.

Rochelle Mazar!!!

Happy birth day Rochelle!!!! AND congrats on the new blog!!!

Entertaining Weekend...

Yuka, with some help from me, cooked vegetarian Japanese food last night for ourselves, JuliaD and Amy (who has no web presence). The hard bit was veggie gyoza, which we've never made. Yuka choose to add shitake mushrooms, and I voted for Nasu (Eggplant), in place of the meat. Worked out amazingly. First of all I couldn't tell it didn't have meat, and secondly, you didn't care. It was an interesting evening, not having seen Amy since probably november, and Amy/Julia D never having met. We'd expected Pazuzu and Simsim, but they were no shows through no fault of their own.

Tonight is Za night with the Romanovska family.

Mom...

In honour of my birthday, I give you a picture of mom... who is kayaking in georgan bay somewhere... and my niece.

PhotoOp.

Here are a couple of photographs of wonderful Toronto that Yuka and I have taken over the past week or so... Mostly from the Toronto Islands...

Kayaking, blossoms, the ugly building going up across the road at OCAD.

And some family shots. The BenCam, and Rochelle and Jason's Apple Computer menagerie.

Cosmo!

Just added Cosmo's journal to the blogroll on the left. Cos' has been with me working on online stuff since the mid-90s.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

re-membering the future - an improvisational dance event

A performance by my buddy Ken Emig, for any of you in the Ottawa area.

Do you remember the future?

Four on the Floor Dance presents:

re-membering the future - an improvisational dance event

Dance Network
111a Rideau Street, 3rd Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
Friday, June 20, Saturday, June 21, and Sunday, June 22 at 8:00 pm
For tickets and further show information call 613-237-0790

Ottawa (June 11, 2003) ? Do you remember the future? Are you surprised when you do? This is not a self-help course for the absent-minded. This is an exploration.

Ottawa?s Four on the Floor Dance has been investigating dance improvisation for over 5 years. They use a multi-disciplinary approach to their work including dance, sport, theatre and visual arts. The performance, ?re-membering the future?, explores the notion that events that happen to us often have their roots in the past. To ?re-member? is to put together the details of the future as they happen ? something that lies at the heart of improvisational performance. The performers challenge is to recognize recurrences as they happen, in the moment, and to do more than simply repeat them, or let them pass us by unnoticed. These fleeting images are woven together to forge a physical expression of ideas and emotions.

?The goal for the group over this research period has been to notice our own patterns, habits, and preferences, and to build upon them to create more complete versions of who we are, alone and in relation to others,? says artistic director Peter Ryan.

?Re-membering the future?, an improvisational dance event featuring solo and trio works will take place at Dance Network Studios on Rideau Street from Friday, June 20th through Sunday, June 22nd at 8:00 pm each evening.

Four on the Floor is Julie Cezer, Kenneth Emig, Elizabeth MacKinnon, under the direction of Peter Ryan.

For more information contact:
Kenneth Emig
telephone: (613) 231-2238
e-mail: kengela@cyberus.ca
-30-

Barry Wellman's Sars Report (UPDATED)

[Barry said that I could post this. If you don't know Barry Wellman, for shame. Barry's the ranking d00d on Internet sociology, publisher of the major studies, editor of the major works (like Internet in Everyday Life), consultant to the sultans, yada yada. And an all around learning experience all packed into a single office at the corner of Spadina and College streets. He originally wrote this for the AoIR exec, because we're holding the AoIR conference here in the fall. Thought you might like a sober view of the situation.]

The SARS Situation in Toronto [Updated and Edited]

Barry Wellman, Tuesday, April 29, 2003

PREFACE

In the past few days, Bev Wellman and I have dined out in some lovely
restaurants, walked the streets in a nice spring day, and went shopping in
some normally crowded areas. In short: life as usual. We would not know
that there is a SARS epidemic in Toronto except if

(a) we tune in to the news media,
(b) didn't get concerned messages from friends, or
(c) passed by hospitals whose employees are masked.

(a) and (b) are instances of poor news reporting -- what is often called a
"media panic" -- although (c) is a real, but marginal concern.

In the beginning, we too were concerned. Now, as the facts and experience
accumulate, we are confident that SARS is both limited and contained.
Right now, I take SARS seriously but as a watching brief, not as a panic
or action item.

I am more concerned about the concerns of my friends and colleagues
elsewhere than about getting SARS myself. They've listened to CNN and
heard about the World Health Organization advisory, and they have
questions. (I address the now-rescinded WHO advisory at the end.)

To address the concerns of friends and colleagues, I've put together what
is known about SARS in Toronto, based on my observations, responsible
reporting (the Toronto Globe and Mail is the best
[http://www.globeandmail.com/]), and discussions with a friend at the
(quite professional) City of Toronto Department of Health. I think I got
things right, but of course, our information is developing (right now, for
the better). I take responsibility for what I say, but do want to
acknowledge the advice of Helena Fil, Emmanuel Koku, Monica Prijatelj, and
Beverly Wellman.

THE DISEASE

SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The U.S. Center for
Disease Control calls it an "atypical pneumonia". It's a disease of the
breathing system, and not of the nose, stomach, etc. When coupled with
fever (38C; 100.4F), the key indicators are dry coughing and shortness of
breath. Sneezing, stomach aches, etc. are more symptomatic of routine
colds or allergies.

SARS is probably a coronavirus, similar to a cold virus, although
obviously more serious. There has been some debate about this, as not all
cases seem to have the coronavirus.

It starts in the upper respiratory tract and then migrates to the lungs.

SARS may weaken in its impact as it passes through a population. This is
what Hong Kong experts report, and what Toronto may be experiencing. Thus
the first-hit in Toronto were hit hard, and died. Moreover, these two
initial cases each infected about 30 others. In social network analysis
terms, they were "hubs".

Only a small minority of cases are fatal. For a while, it looked like 4%.
I am sad to say, it is a bit higher in Toronto, about 8%. I caution that
these numbers are changing daily and subject to definitional issues as to
what cases are SARS or other forms of influenza, pneumonia, etc.

I believe that the majority of those who have died are health care
workers, from physicians to room cleaners, or their family members.

Given their risk, long hours and difficult working conditions (masked,
gowned and goggled), health care workers in Toronto are heroes.

Although I grieve for the people who died (and am distressed that good
protective and quarantining measures were not used early enough), I want
to emphasize that for the great majority of people who actually have SARS,
they experience an unpleasant pneumonia, get better, and recover fully.

The majority of the Toronto cases who have had SARS have been discharged
from the hospital and gone home as cured.

TRANSMISSION

Transmission apparently needs intimate contact. My reading of the
incidence accounts suggests that this means that two persons have to
breathe together in close contact. In practice, family members have given
SARS to each other, patients have given it to health care workers and to
other patients, and members of a closely-knit religious sect have passed
it around (one of them was a health care worker). You don't get SARS from
walking the streets, shopping or eating in restaurants. However, I have
stopped riding one densely packed streetcar (tram) line for a while. Now
that the scare is subsiding, I may resume soon. Fortunately, it is nice
weather for walking and bicycling.

SARS is spread through droplets from coughing. It is not a fine aerosol,
and it is not "in the air". It is direct transmission only.

It does last for 24 hours on handles, banisters, etc., but reportedly is
not actively infectious in that state. Nevertheless, we try to use gloves
and paper towels in public places, and we wash our hands a lot.

It seems that you have to be visibly ill to transmit it. Although SARS can
have a prolonged incubation period of up to ten days, the only
transmissions have happened when someone who already was coughing, etc.
transmitted it. This means that potential cases (and transmissions) are
easily identifiable. There are no "sleepers" wandering around who are
spreading SARS inadvertently.

All Toronto cases are traceable to the original woman who came back from
Hong Kong with it. She gave it to family members; she and they gave it to
health care workers and fellow patients, who passed it on in some cases.
Mistakes were made at the beginning: not enough isolation of those already
sick; not enough quarantining of those potentially infected. These
mistakes are not being made now.

These transmission details are important because they mean that SARS has
not gotten out to the general public. There is no SARS "in the community"
(to use the term of quite reliable Dr. Sheela Basrur, Toronto's Medical
Officer of Health). No new ones are springing up from unknown sources.
Anyone who might have been infected from the traceable cases is now under
strict quarantine.

NUMBERS

The cumulative number of "probable and suspected cases" is 265 on Friday,
April 25 2003. Of course, this number almost has to be increasing because
it is cumulative. However, it did go down by 10 between Thursday and
Friday because some cases were found not to be SARS, but other forms of
pneumonia, etc.

It is important to note that the actual number of cases is undoubtedly
lower than 265 because the medical authorities are quite properly being
overly cautious in defining all suspected cases as SARS. On Friday, April
25, there were 107 active cases in the greater Toronto area.

Indeed, the number of active cases is now decreasing, as quarantining has
worked and the spread has stopped.

The rate of new active cases of SARS is zero, or close to it.

I understand that more than half of those hospitalized have been
discharged.

A few more deaths are anticipated than the current number of 20 (as of
Sunday, April 27). The total might hit 25. These are people who already
are known, critically-ill cases. They are not new cases.

As in many medical situations, all but one of those who have died are
frail, elderly, or have had serious pre-existing medical conditions. The
others got sick, and then got better.

The greater Toronto area has a population of about 5 million.
265/5Million = 0.0053% of the population
107/5Million = 0.0021% of the population
25/5 Million = 0.0005% of the population.
This is Not the Black Death or the Plague, despite the alarmist reporting
of CNN, etc.

Think of it this way:
About 3 people per Week have been dying from SARS in Toronto.
Another one person per Week is murdered in Toronto.
Contrast this with a large American city, such as New York, Los Angeles or
Chicago, where at least 3 people per Day are murdered. As of yet, these
have not had SARS deaths. Do the math:
In Toronto, the death rate from SARS and murder are 4/Week
In Chicago, the death rate from SARS and murder are 21/Week, more
than Five times greater.
Yet people travel to these American cities all of the time, even though
their lives are at greater risk.

Moreover, SARS is not randomly distributed in the Toronto population. It
originally was confined to people (and their families) who had been in
Hong Kong. As they lived in one suburb (Scarborough), they went to
hospitals there, and that's where patients and health care workers got the
disease.

This means that SARS is generated through social networks and not through
random contact among strangers.

We do not know about any cases in the centre of Toronto -- where we live
and work, and where all the tourist and convention activities are. Yet,
this is the most crowded area of the city.

No one we know has SARS. Nor have we hard of anyone who knows someone who
has SARS. This is very epidemiologically clustered.

QUARANTINING

The best form of prevention has been quarantining. As a precaution, entire
schools, offices have been told to stay home because one person is
suspected of having contact. We are taking this seriously, and our
municipal health departments are reporting straight news. (Fortunately,
the health departments, and not the politicians, have been in charge.)

As of Friday, April 25, there were 663 people quarantined in the province
of Ontario, almost all in the greater Toronto area.

There have been even larger numbers quarantined in the past few weeks, for
example an entire elementary school and an entire high school. However,
when no one at these places got SARS during the potential incubation
period, the quarantine was lifted. Thus the number of people quarantined
is much larger than the number of people who will get SARS.

Quarantining is hard, because there is a symptom-free incubation period of
up to 10 days. Hence, people wonder why they are being told to stay home.

As Canadians are more collectively minded and less individualistic than
Americans, quarantining has been largely effective. (Where the Preamble to
the American Constitution has "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
as the national goals, the Canadian constitutional equivalent is "peace,
order and good government.")

Because quarantining cuts off livelihood of some people, compliance is
difficult, especially for people at the economic margins. Even a few
normally obedient Torontonians have broken quarantine, gone to work or
school. The province has just announced financial aid for the quarantined
needy; this should alleviate the temptation to sneak out to earn some
money.

Quarantining is principally enforced by making random phone calls to
people's homes.

A few Torontonians have been charged with violating quarantine and are
under more coercive control.

Toronto may -- and I think should -- go to "house arrest" bracelets.
Singapore has put webcams in quarantined homes and may use bracelets.

I go about my life as normal, except for more frequent hand washing and
using a paper towel to grab handles in washrooms.

Outside of the hospitals, I see only one person a day wearing a mask (out
of the 1,000 or more I encounter on the street, on public transit, at
work, and in restaurants).

Hospitals are a different story. All workers in them are masked and
gowned, with those in SARS areas being doubly protected.

Contact between the hospitals and the outside world is minimized. Routine
visits to doctors, non-emergency surgery, and visiting hospitalized
friends have all been severely curtailed. My medical researcher friends
now have their meetings in Starbucks.

Indeed, for the general public, the most serious current impact is that it
is harder to get medical treatment for anything else, because of these
preventative measures and because the system is concentrating on SARS. For
example, transplant operations have been postponed, and I have a routine
medical checkup postponed because my doctor's office is in a hospital.
This is more of a concern for residents than for visitors. However, with
the improving situation, hospital access should go back to normal soon.

THE OUTSIDE WORLD

The World Health Organization travel advisory of April 22 understandably
caused widespread concern. Paradoxically, it came just as the situation in
Toronto was coming under control. Having just heard (April 27) WHO head
Gro Brundtland interviewed, I understand where the WHO came from.
They are mandated to be concerned about epidemiological spread. They are
not really worried about people from developing countries, but are
concerned about a spread from Toronto to developing countries that do not
have good treatment and quarantine facilities. (Toronto, as a highly
multicultural city, has many links with many countries.)

However, the spread of disease is a worldwide concern about all illnesses,
and I think Toronto was unfairly singled out. Some WHO statements suggest
that they may have acted on out-of-date information, but I understand why
they were overly cautious to contain the spread of SARS. The WHO's
advisory was originally announced for 3 weeks. The good news is that it
was cancelled much sooner (April 29) as Toronto's evidence of containing
SARS was digested.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control is not nearly as alarmed (see
http://www.cdc.gov/travel/other/sars_can.htm). My analysis and the CDC's
are quite similar. (I developed mine independently.) On April 23, after
the WHO alert, they pointed out that there are no cases in the general
population, and that people should avoid hospitals or contact with
quarantined individuals. "SARS transmission in Toronto has been limited to
a small number of hospitals, households, and specific community settings."
CDC also recommends washing your hands frequently, which is just plain
good advice. Most importantly, CDC DOES NOT recommend avoiding Toronto or
that travellers from Toronto be shunned.

And then there is CNN cable news network. They spread the alarm on April
24, just as things were getting under control in Toronto. They don't
report news in perspective; they report events. They have pocket
calculators, Google and brains. They just don't appear to have ever used
them.

Many friends have asked me about our mayor, Mel Lastman, who embarrassed
us during a CNN interview on April 24. Mel has been embarrassing before.
He formerly headed a chain of discount appliance stores. He is retiring
soon, has a chronic illness, has been spending most of his time in
Florida, and has been on the job too long. Fortunately, he doesn't have
anything to do with dealing with SARS.

To sum up, SARS is real. Yet, it is contained. Residents and visitors are
extremely unlikely to get it. If they do, almost all will recover fully.
There are many other, more likely ways to die in big cities around the
world. I do have continuing concerns that SARS may continue to travel from
developing countries, but that is a problem that all cities would have to
worry about. New York, L.A. and London are as likely to be hit as Toronto.
Thanks to the Toronto experience (and expertise from other countries such
as Singapore), we all have a better understanding about how to deal with
it quickly, firmly and competently.

Za night in Toronto...

This year has seen a paucity of parties at our house. But last night we had the chance to change all that. Julia D, Salmon, Simsim, EvaB, Billibus and Aideen graced our table for some Pizza. Kat! and Muddy sent their regrets. And I must have gotten Valdo's email addy wrong. Usually we go for strange stuff, like wild boar pizza. This time it was meat and fish free, focusing on goat cheese, pesto, sundried tomato/olive paste, peppers and asparagus Za. Sumputous desserts and wines were brought. And someone left a nice mustard coloured cartigan with roses on it. I think it was billibus' but he isn't telling.

Charlotte Aldebron via Japan

Yuka found a reference to 12 year old Charlotte Aldebron on the Asahi New web site. She seems to be getting a lot of press for her view on war. Of course, it took us forever to find her web site, as names are written different in Japanese, and we had to guess... Charlotte's Peace Rally Speech is interesting to me, as it is something that gets heard in the media in times of trouble... young people taking the future by the horns and making an impassioned plea for peace/the environment/willy the whale. I'm a teacher, so of course this is good. But what triggers the ever close to the surface cynic in me is how great a sound bite it makes in the media, and again how easily it is dismissed by most people with the condescending "children just don't understand the issues" retort..

Glogging (video blogging) SXSW

Yes, I have my cam running on the right, showing SXSW participants.

Camping with Kenny.

I've been going camping with Kenny for almost 20 years. Most always to Algonquin Park, sometimes to my mom and larz' place at Eagle Lakes. Sometimes even with our partners, though Yuka and Angela have supreme good taste and usually prefer that we go off on our own.

Well, it has gone too far. We're sitting in my apartment in Hokkaido, Japan. And we realized it was back to our old camping lifestyle. Which means sitting around, making coffee by the fire. Hanging the bear bags. Foraging for firewood. Making stupid comments to one another from our sleeping bags in the dark. This morning, we're drinking 'Blendy Coffee' from bowls, eating Hokkaido camembert with baguette, and oranges. Ken looks supremely relaxed. Or asleep.

Last night we went out to an isakaya (Japanese pub/eating place) and had this strange stuff in a pot. I forget what it was called. But chicken, leeks, fish, shellfish, cabbage, mushrooms. Plus a big plate of yakitori and other yakiStuff (yaki == BBQ). (see previous entry for picture.)

Yesterday we went up to the university, and Larry gave Ken the tour while I played (skip to next paragraph if you don't want compspeak) with the bits of Redhat/Linux 8.0 that are totally wacked. It has changed a lot since system 7.2, and some of the tools I'm used to using aren't there, like linuxconf. And some don't work, like the firewall setting tools!!! So, the frigging firewall's up, and I can't use the tools I'm used to to reset it. Can't even find tripwire!!!!

Luckily, Hillel brought professor Nakauye to visit. He's from Mukogawa Women's University's Department of English. And we talked about MOOs, Blogs, and Slashdotty things. It turns out that he's teaching unix tools to students as tools of learning and reflection. Teaching text editors (not word processors), grep functions and FTP. To English majors. So very cool. Anyway, he wants to get involved with some of our projects, and was helpful when Hillel went off to a meeting with the system admins about getting them to support some of our projects.

Kenny had brought some of his strange distractors. Like his "Listen to the Paper" activity. You'd know about it if the doof would get a web site up. That an some of his other acoustic ecology projects. Larry and Hillel are interested in adopting the ideas for some of their projects. I was expecting them to find kenny's stuff interesting.

Today's a national holiday... though about what, I don't know. It's 9:45am, and kenny and I will soon head downtown, probably walking the 6k, if bus service is too slow. Not wanting to pay 2000 yen for a cab. I am so cheap. Then we'll hook up with larry this afternoon, and perhaps go out for a bite.

Who knows. I may even find an internationally able phone, and give yuka a call!!! If it wasn't for instant messaging on the computer, I'd have had no contact with her at all. Sad. But the trip's 40% over, and a lot has been accomplished. Enough to consider the trip both a success and worthwhile.

Kenny in Hokkaido...

Well, kenny's here, and it seems as if he's not sent angela enough pictures. So here's some. kenny and the hot pot. kenny at breakfast. kenny with some art similar to his. kenny walking up to the old town meeting hall...

Japan has people!

Will it ever change? I'm at larry's office. It is sunny and snowing outside. Still playing with MySQL, MoveableType and now SlashCode. He wants it all... But I have revenge... first of all I put up a small web site: FUN (Future University) with Larry. And second, I'm making him download Linux 8.0 and install it on his dell server with only my words of encouragement, while I blog and eat green apple Mentos.

Cooked for myself last night. First time I've had the chance since I was here... so, it was yakisoba! (Fried soba) with green peppers, garlic chives and bokchoi. And larry lent me a Python DVD.

Oh, and someone, aka Yuka, said that I didn't have enough pictures of people on the site. So here's Larry and his daughter Ayaka, and Atsuko.

Who thought Brin could do this?

Brin is capable of many strange things, but Wow. Brining a turkey takes this to new heights.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Fifteenth Wedding Anniversary Yuka!!!
Jason and Yuka were wed at 3:15 pm, January 22, 1987.

Yuka has such a good sense of humour that she's kept with the status quo.

Yay!

We had a great dinner at Le Select Bistro on Queen... minutes after I got back from a wonderful day visiting the department of education at Trent U.

Dad and Sis

Here's a picture of my dad and sister Cats (Cats is no relation to Kat!) at the Father and Daughter dance last spring. Just got the picture from Cats' mom. I just want to go on record to praise dad for doing the 'right thing' and going, even though there was no complimentary bar or cigar smoking.

Unvoicing the bloggers...

Some people don't have comments on their blogs because they don't know how to add them. Easy to figure out whom... people who use Blogger for instance. They have difficulties adding comments functions without knowing how to edit html and the like. Others don't. If you use moveable type, you have to turn off comments. And that's interesting to me. If comments are off, it means that you do not want to engage with readers. You do not want to hear what people have to say. You do not want to be challenged. That's well and good. All of us get tired of having to defend what we're saying.

But it also means that you're part of the broadcast culture... the old paradigm. The technology that silences the many for the betterment of the few. And I can't but wonder why... would it be a disinterest or a disrespect for the reader? Or a heightened sense of self-valuing. It is an open question, because I still think that the real value of computers is in their ability to put people in touch with people. using them to isolate yourself from them (beyond the use of it as a broadcast medium) is problematic in the least.

Steve Mann announces Glogs

Cyborglogs ("glogs") is what Steve's using to describe what he and Joi Ito, and others, are doing in the blogging world... He's always got something new up his sleeve... collecting intel.

And he'll be doing, I think, his first public lecture on Glogging in my KMD1000 class this week. Don't miss it...

As Steve puts it: Cyborg Logs (also known as cyborglogs, or "glogs" for short) are timestamped stream-of-deconsciousness personal diaries often made public in realtime on the World Wide Web. Unlike Web Logs (weblogs, blogs) that are done from a desktop, glogs invite the public inside the life of the glogger, and allow others to communicate with the cyborg by modifying his or her visual perception of reality in realtime.

Why Kat Should Be Institutionalized

Catspaw's Guide to the Inevitably Insane presents Extreme Sledding. Of course this is something Julia's been whining about not doing. I think she and Kat should hang out.

Watch Julia Think...

If you don't already, you should be reading Flailing in the Surf! That's Julia's blog (link down on the right). First of all, she thinks no one reads her blog. Second, she says lots of interesting things and has a snarky attitude about things that should be snarked at. Third, there is no #3. Two is enough.

Yuka says, "Ben is famous"

Yuka just emailed me this URL L.M. Montgomery Institute - Research - Conferences. No, I'm not at home, and she didn't email it from one side of the table to the other. Have a look. Our famous Ben is pictured hobnobbing with all the big-wigs.

See it soon, before ben finds out and makes me remove the link. Nice goatee ben!

passing the keys

I was up at the office yesterday, preparing a presentation for Jan 8th. Had gone up to the library to get some books, and had had to take my key off its chain in order to get it swiped. My office key is my library card, you see. Well, that meant that back at my office, my key was laying next to my computer, not on it's chain, which I have around my neck. The chain binding me to the office on a wintery day. Though an unforeseen bonus was that I still have a 6 week allowance for borrowed books. Can't complain about that.

I rush off to the washroom, and what should happen but that I'd left my keys in my office. Woe is me. Luckily a nice student in the lab close to my office let me in to use the phone to call UofT police, gave me a place to sit, and a cookie.

The officer arrived after about 20 minutes and asked me for photo ID. That of course would be my library card/office key. We worked that out, and she was on her way, and I was back in my office quickly putting my key back where it belongs.

An hour later, I'm on the first floor heading to the post office when I hear. "Excuse me, sir?" I ignore things like that, not having reached the 'sir' station in life, except when teaching highschool. Then, "Sir? Can you help me?" at which I turned to find someone running down the hall towards me somewhat frantic and relieved to find anyone else in the building.

"Er, I've locked my keys in one of the classrooms, and I don't have any money for the payphone to call for help. Can you let me in?"

Well, my keys don't work down here, as this is an engineering and computer science building, and I'm the lonely humanities geek, privy to nothing. But I offered to try. Lo and behold! The card is swiped and the door doth open. After a grin and a wave, I made my way back towards the post office, hearing him mutter, "You're a god."

Well, it does seem that I do have some faculty clout that I didn't think was attached to my card any more. If that's divine intervention, I'm all for it.

Day to day

Interesting day... spend a chunk of it emailing back and forth with Steve about blogs and what it means to publish within academic institutions. Then Elizabeth Miller came over to plan our trip to Romania and Hungary that she, yuka and me are doing. Finally Landro Kalrizian came over. He's up from NYC, visiting his mom, Styrine. Had some scotch and beer and tea and scrabble. And we talked about how there's nothing better than tom waits. And he just left. Now I sleepy.

Dinner with Charlie

Had lunch with Charlie my sister Kelly, Yuka, Lynn and Lars. Yuka paid me lots of money to not put her pictures online.

New pictures!

Here's the pictures of Jason's 40th Birthday and Graduation Party, which took place last November. Though since my birthday was early July, and I graduated in January 2001, I don't feel so bad taking a month to get them online.

Blake's fault

When you hang with blake, strange thing happen. Started with he and Yuka for Thai at the Queen mother. Then we walked down queen street. Looking for a club to visit. After passing the Riv, noting that Ric Emmet would be there, I asked blake what Emmett was up to. Blake turned to the person walking up behind us, and asked him. It was, of course, Ric Emmet. And he told us something.
Then off down Queen. Blake noted that a women in a second story window was naked, and brushing her hair. I nodded and walked on. He dragged me back there 3 minutes later to watch. And she was still there. So we went into the "Ancient" for a pint. And he watched out the window as a crowd gathered to watch. Not us, but outside the women's window. Then an ambulance appeared. In front of her window. Our pints were finished and everyone was gone. But not before Ben Johnson walked by the window. So we went to the Horseshoe. As something was happening. No cover, but there were many people who seemed to know eachother. So we stayed. And had many Scotches. And waters. And then Scotches, with beer. Some how something was happening that we were not privy to. Musicians played who were not announced. Such as: Spirit of the West, Sarah harmer, gordie Johnson (big sugar), the headstones, staggered crossing, stabbing westward, some folks from tragically hip. We were taken abak. This sort of serendipity was beyond our collective ken. But it was the sort of thing that happens when you hang out with blake. Would that Salmon were there.

You must watch this video!

If you've seen the APPLE 'switch' videos, then you'll love this: John's Switch to Canada.

And ifyou haven't seen them, go here Apple - Switch first.

Thanks to TabiWallah for sending this to me.

Workstudy Rulz

I just got the paperwork done for three workstudy students this year. Kat is going to work on building some special gizmos for the Project Achieve CVE. Muddy's going to finally get a blog, and research Jeff Noon and some dracula stuff, as well as help out with the triangle project. And Jasjit is going to help research appropriate digital technology and the digital divide.

You just have to love government funding.

Akage no An

Here's the rough pictures that I took, at Yuka's request at the Japan Foundation today, for the symposium on the 50th Anniversary of the translation of Anne of Green Gables into Japanese.

We'll add text soon.

Pazuzu!

Yuka and I were on our way to pages so that I could buy some books. And between our house and Queen Street. We saw PAZUZU!
Haven't seen Pauzu for months, as she's been doing an archaeology dig in northern manitoba, and has recently returned. Plans to get together with her and Simsim.

[Newbie alert: Simsim and Pazuzu are ex-students and research assistants, and dangerous women in their own right.]

Oh, books

A reader's Manifesto - BR Myers
Aesthetics of Dissapearance - Paul Virilio
Pataphysics: the poetics of imaginary science - Christian Bok
Nostalgia for teh absolute - george steiner
Simulacra and simulation - baudrillard
Book Business - Epstein
Flesh Unlimited : Surealist Erotica - Apollinaire/Aragon
Martyrology 1/2 - bp nichol
Paradoxia: A Predator's Diary - Lydia Lunch
The poetics of space - Bachelard
Literature and Evil - Bataille
Postmodernism Explained - Lyotard
Narratives as Virtual Reality - Marie-Laure Ryan
Cyber_reader - Neil Spiller

These are the ones I bought. I'm so happy.

Just Happy

A strange adventure. How could I have imagined tonight. Something was up. Obviously. Dad was totally planned. Limo picked me up at 6:15, and I didn't have to do my usual, which was to take the bus, as I prefer.

It was totally overwhelming: Blake, Kenny, Diana/Rod, Richie/Mr Woodall, Tula/Marika et al., Richard/Susie, Gokiburi Sue, Jack B, Dad & Cheryl, Cats and Emily, Kelly/Siobhan/Charlie, Mom & Lars, Irene. All in attendance for dinner at the four seasons room of the Inn on the Park.

Like I said. Something was up. The biggest hint was that as we got into the hotel, I could hear something going on in the four seasons room, and across it all, I could hear my mom and dad's voices. The last time they spoke at a social gathering was 1995. So, you know somthing's up.

For the entire night I spun around the room, chatting with people I love, but never get to see. Totally unexpected. Totally over the top.

It was the best birthday party in my life, even if my birthday 40th birthday was really July 7th. And it was the best graduation party I ever, even if it was 18 months after I graduated. Don't get me wrong. That's not snarky. It was even better for being out of time. And that everyone would show up. I can never thank everyone enough. Goodnight!

LMM

Spent the day with Ben and Yuka at the Leaskdale manse. We were invited guests for the opening of phase one of the manse resstoration project. Lucy Maud Montgomery lived in the manse for a number of years, and it is being restored as a national monument to LMM. So far, they've removed the stucco, and replaced the door. And the budget is gone.

I took 107 pictures. Yuka's processing them, and a site will be up soon.
addendum
Pictures are up. And I might add, that I did spend a couple of minutes having coffee with The Honourable Janet Ecker, Minister of Finance. I didn't tell her that I was a crypto-postmodernist-ivory tower academic. But then again, she never told me that she was Minister of Finance. And we had a nice chat.

Oh, I have a family?

It was Emily's 8th birthday yesterday. She's my youngest sister. And as cute as possible. A little barrel of horse fanatic. So, we're at the Inn on the Park, in the Four Seasons room, which is about 20' wide and 80' long... one of those attempts to have an elegant private dining room. The crew included dad and step mom (cheryl). Her parents Wendal and Joyce. Yuka My sisters Kelly (42) and Caitlin (12). Kelly's husband and two kids, Siobhan and Charley (aka Duncan). Emily's regular riding buddy Dani and her mom Tula. They are official family, as Dani lives with Emily during the summer riding season. So, long table for 12 guests plus Emily, and the kids are running around and around and around. And no one worries, because of the heavy doors. Actually not a bad place to have a party.

But don't ask me about the food and wine. moan.

Slavish Promotion

Catspaw's Guide to the Inevitably Insane has gone over the top. She's split the whole program with her new flash movie. Of course she's getting intertextually self referential, and pandering to the EntertainmentTonight mentality by having guest shots of a bunch of B actors so that they'll slavishly promote her work. Like me!

Hildegarde/Rochelle

Rochelle has a new blog: Love Me. Everyone must love her and despair.

Ah, my stressed out childhood it the reason...

The Globe and Mail: Breaking News

As many as one-third of his teen patients come to him complaining of stomachaches or headaches, but usually he is able to rule out any organic problem. Stress is what's making them feel sick.Many children wind up with weight problems - such as the seven-year-old boy who had chicken nuggets washed down with Coke for breakfast. His father was a guy who lived on the edge, who gets financing for a new car and then immediately gets it repossessed. The kid knows about the financial problems, and eating is his way of dealing with it. As well, poor children appear to be more stressed than rich kids.It's no secret that social status has a direct impact on health. People with low incomes suffer from much higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and a host of other lifestyle-related conditions. They also have a markedly lower life expectancy. Dr. Lupien also has found intriguing evidence that stress may make it harder for children to learn because it shrinks part of their brain. In several experiments with adults, she established that cortisol plays an important role in memory. But at high levels over long periods of time, its role reverses. It impairs memory and learning by actually reducing the size of the hippocampus, the part of the brain that turns short-term memories into long-term ones.

I love Sundays.

Crazy day. Not only to I have to finish writing my lecture for next thursday's KMD1000, and have to clean up the apartment, and have to take Ben to get a new laptop and printer, cause UofT's oh so much cooler a place to buy a laptop than anywhere else. But after that I get to feed Ben, Yuka, EvaB, and Elizabeth Miller.

Life doesn't get much better than this.

---

To continue... Ben
showed up around 2pm at the UofT Computer shop where we picked up his new iBook and printer. I got to pay for it cause you just can't take that much money out of a bank machine any more. Good fun, as ben would say. I let him carry everything down to my place, stopping on the way so I could get some veggies for dinner, where Yuka had been cleaning the apartment (read lounging and chatting on the phone). Some how the apartment was wonderfully clean despite all her cleaning, when we got there, so I didn't have much to do. (Cleaning had been my job.)

I cooked, yuka helped, while ben installed software on his BuddyJr (read iBook). Until EvaB and Elizabeth "bloofer lady" Miller got there. This was the first time Elizabeth had met any of my friends, but since Evab's an ex-vampire fan, and ben and I are writing a paper on 12th C English vampire stories written in Latin for a conference she's organized in Romania... so it was good that they all met.

I got forced to explain my "Anne of the UnDead" thesis (why Anne of Green Gables is really a Vampire) to general agreement, and we discussed how Elizabeth's going to move her famous Dracula's home page from Memorial University to Toronto, when she moves to Toronto full time this November.

Finally everyone puttered home, and I fell over in a heap.

St Jason, Patron of Converts

Jason: there is a Saint Jason!!!
Catspaw: Other than your own miracle-causing self?
Jason: Yep... Acts 17:5-9
Jason: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj93.htm
Catspaw: St. Jason is the patron saint of Converts

Catholic Online - Saints - St. Jason
Saints of July 12 - Jason