The Darkest Evil

I wanted to make sure that I made a post today, considering what today is and all. After all, it only comes once a year. So prepare to read my first tribute to this glorious 4/20. What am I talking about? For those who don’t know - 4/20 or 4:20 refers to marijuana. It is widely accepted that in 1971, a group of teenagers at San Rafael High School in San Rafael, California, calling themselves “The Waldos”, used to meet every day after school at 4:20 PM. to smoke marijuana at the Louis Pasteur statue. To this day, many pot smokers continue to observe 4:20 as a time to smoke communally. By extension April 20 has evolved into a quasi-holiday, where people gather to celebrate and smoke pot. (more…)

I don’t know if your read the blog or if you have the same e-mail address anymore, but I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Eat lots of cake, harp on your teachers, and create havoc! Okay, this doesn’t qualify for today’s post but I wanted to give my little sister a shout out. Sue me!

So, it’s another holiday and fortunately - it’s a non-secular holiday! People drinking their asses off, wearing the ONLY thing they have that is green resulting in a human gallery of the ugliest shades of green in the world. You also have websites like Google producing St. Patrick’s Day header images solely for the purpose of celebrating the holiday. Oh and you see ugly ass decorations and you find that people are finally putting candies and easter stuff on the shelves if they haven’t already. I am about to go out and get some groceries so I’ve taken a self-portrait of myself wearing the only green thing in my closet. (more…)

I hate the idea that people make resolutions that they have no intention of keeping only when the earth’s odometre rolls over. It seems that it is enough to make people believe that they have a new lease on life. Personally, I believe the route of change should happen throughout the new year, especially when one realizes it is needed the most. However, I have reviewed what I want out of life and this is what I have come up with:

1. Gain a bit more notoriety on the web/in my new home - I would like to be as big as Bryan Veloso, Mr. Fab or Shaun Inman. My weblog has been getting a bit more activity since I have been writing more often and using traffic services like BlogMad, but that is not enough. I need to do more to get my name out there. I would also like to be recognized in Calgary for my blog so I am also going to write replying to more local news.
2. Finish up Blackthorne - Blackthorne (for the uninitiated) is a themeset that I have been working on for the past month. I am confident that I can get it done and coded before February 14th, especially since I cannot afford the bus pass for this month so my mobility is going to be dramatically hindered. Doesn’t mean that I can’t go to crowfoot and cash in my bottles to buy bus fare to get to the college to return some books. I should probably do that on Wednesday though, it will save time and money in the long run.
3. Get into a serious relationship - I would like to get into a serious relationship. Need I say more?
4. Fully convert to Buddhism - I would like to convert to Buddhism and seek a path of reason and truth. Right now, I could still be considered a Christian that just doesn’t go to church. I would like to be so much more than that and I would love to convert to Buddhism so I can clean my mind of my past practises and strive toward a brighter future.
5. Get my work permit - Nicholi, if you are reading this, please submit your company to Alberta Registries. Now.

Those are my five new years resolutions. This is what is truly important to me right now and I would personally like to thank you for reading through my sappy drivel but hey, it was enough to spice up my life.

Okay, as of this week, Saddam Hussein was executed in Iraq by the gallows. I am not too happy about this, considering that it was televised and it was a murder. Not only did they violate Saddam Hussein’s rights as a human being but he should have been executed in private so that he could at least go with a bit of dignity. People on death row in the United States are usually alone or with those that they select to be in the viewing room when they are to be executed. Two wrongs do not make a right and murdering Saddam Hussein was not right, because all it does is increase the blood on our hands.

It is never right to take another human life. No matter how bad they were, it is not right to take away their life. And for people to be cheering at the death of another human being is just disgusting and wrong. Would you want people cheering at your funeral? If you were being executed with the death penalty, would you want all those who hated you, your exes and everyone that stand against you cheering on the executioners in the waiting room? How can people possibly cheer at this?

Edit: I edited the words to convey my true opinion

Why is this bad? Well, the Internet is a very social network and it was built to be decentralised and an open standard. However, this bill will make it more impossible to run a website with the truth. How so, you ask? Well, here are the reasons MY blog and site would be effected if Net Neutrality were to fail in the states.

1. I tell about my bad experiences of Charter Cable, AOL, Microsoft and all those mother fuckers so once Net Neutrality fails, they will have the power to block my content or make it slower.
2. Advertisements and advertising partners will make less payouts to webmasters and give the ISPs and Telcos more money to prioritise their advertisements. Content is king and it is the reason why the Internet is so successful. Would someone watch 30 minutes of television to see 29 minutes of advertisements as opposed to just 6 minutes of advertisements? Of course not! We would get out a bit more and enjoy life and do other things. And eventually, since we wouldn’t be able to see the benefit of having a “high-speed” internet connection, we’d cancel it in a heartbeat.
3. Do you really think we’d be able to use Instant Messengers from other ISPs? Like if I were using Yahoo!’s DSL programme in the states, do you think that I would be able to gain the same level of connectivity with MSN Messenger, ICQ and AOL IM that I would gain with Yahoo!? Of course not, because Yahoo! would love to try to drive people to help improve it’s market share.
4. Great sites like The Pirate Bay and Boxtorrents would drastically be reduced in popularity as we would probably have an even lower level connection to bittorrent.
5. Firefox is gaining considerable steam and market power. Now, if Net Neutrality fails, it may be that the only browser you will be able to use (if you use MSN or an ISP that works with MSN) is Internet Explorer. That sucks, doesn’t it?

So I approve of Net Neutrality.