so adam recently asked me why i don’t update my blog more often

it’s a good question

i think it’s a combination of the fact that few people read it, there’s too much spam on it, and that i don’t know what to say

of course, most people who know me know that i have plenty to say

i suppose when i started the blog it was because it was a cool thing to do and because i needed a place to rant

the latter role has been taken up more and more by friends, with whom i engage in discussion and to whom i make long-winded rants (mostly on msn)

that is, just a couple of people, mostly sanjeyan (when he’s on this plane of existence) and yaser

having said that, i will copy here a post i made on a message board about the loss of suprnova.org:

i am shocked and dismayed at the news of suprnova going down

there is really little any of us can say that could sum up this loss

it was suprnova that gave us the bittorrent outlet — it took us in after kazaa and p2p became slow and onerous

it was suprnova that gave us our first comics and introduced us to z-cult

it was suprnova that embodied many of our hopes and dreams of a free planet ruled by the people and not the corporations

alas, another blow, but “we must go forward, not backward, upward, not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom” (simpsons)

amen

(z-cult is a comics bittorrent community)

the mpaa and riaa have been going after bittorrent sites now that they’ve taken care of kazaa and other p2p networks

they simply don’t understand that they can’t stop the revolution

something funny that the mpaa’s director of “antipiracy” operations, john malcolm, said:

These people are parasites, leeching off the creative activity of others…

for a second there i thought he was talking about the bloated corporations that garner insane profits from motion pictures and record sales, the ones that stunt creativity and undermine independent creators

i guess he didn’t see the irony of his statement

the federal government announced a surplus of 9.1 billion dollars that will go toward debt reduction (the debt sits at about 500 billion dollars)

meanwhile, ontario hospitals face a shortfall of 600 million dollars this year

600,000,000/9,100,000,000 = 6.60%

i can imagine how many social programs around the country could use just a little bit of those 9.1 billion dollars

i want my tax dollars to bail out my hospitals and my tuition fees rather than marginally affect the amount of years it takes to pay off the debt so that rich people can get richer

Near where I live there’s a viaduct,
Where people jump when they’re out of luck,
Raining down on the cars and trucks below.

They’ve put a net there to catch their fall,
Like that’ll stop anyone at all,
What they don’t know is when nature calls, you go.

when you take the eastern half of the bloor-danforth line subway for the first time (presumably to the university of toronto), and pass on the underside of the bloor street viaduct over bayview avenue (on its west side) and the don valley parkway (at the east) and the rosedale ravine, there’s something that makes you gaze in awe and wonder at the sight over a hundred feet below you

it’s not the same kind of awe that you feel when you’re standing over a thousand feet above the ground in the cn tower, the viaduct is much more intimate — there, nature is situated side-by-side with the work of humans as you travel over a feat of engineering — there’s an almost primal draw from the ground below you

over time, you learn to suppress the wonder and bury your nose in your book or your thoughts as you pass over the viaduct, but every once in a while it calls to you and you turn your attention to it

on thursday night, i took the subway home from the university, as i’ve done hundreds of times before
this time i decided to stop at castle frank and walk across the bloor street viaduct, to broadview

when i exited castle frank station and was crossing a street to the viaduct a homeless man was also crossing the street from the other side and was asking motorists for some change

after crossing the street i noticed a park with a concrete circular seating arrangement, trees, and carefully tended pink flowers — the park was strewn with garbage as well, the concrete seat spray-painted with useless graffiti

as i approached the bridge i noticed a sign that said “distress centre” and had a number and a guarantee that they listen twenty-four hours a day, beneath the sign was a telephone booth (ironically the number they gave wasn’t toll free) — across the street was a similar sign and phone booth

once i started walking across the bridge, i noticed the barrier they had put up to prevent people from jumping, steel rods spaced close to each other so that they would prevent most people from slipping through … i also noticed that if someone truly wanted to circumvent the barrier and plummet to their death it wasn’t difficult

it’s easiest at the east side of the viaduct, because the don valley parkway is close to the end of the bridge (on the west side, bayview is a bit further from the end of the bridge) … it is at the end of the bridge that you can climb onto the stone and get around the barrier and holding onto the steel rods inch your way across until you’re above the don valley parkway, and then let go

you could do the same with bayview but, as i said, it’s further away from the end of the bridge

after walking the half kilometre, i reached broadview — there was a pizza pizza there and i purchased a slice

then i went home

They say that Jesus and mental health
Are just for those who can help themselves,
But what good is that when you live in hell on earth?

And the very fear that makes you want to die,
Is just the same as what keeps you alive.
It’s way more trouble than some suicide is worth.

Won’t it be dull
When we rid ourselves of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company?

Won’t it be odd
To be happy like we always thought we’re supposed to feel
But never seem to be?

– “War on Drugs,” Barenaked Ladies

so i get this message in my e-mail today:

Subject: Nokia Offer
Sent: October 12, 2004 4:17:49 AM
Dear all,

> > Please pass on to all your friends & relatives the
> > following e-mail
> > from Nokia. Nokia is giving away phones for free.
> > Nokia is trying
> > word-of-mouth advertising to introduce its product
> > and the reward you
> > receive for advertising for them is a free phone
> > free of cost. To
> > receive your free phone all you have to do is to
> > send this email out
> > to 8 people (for a free Nokia 6210) or 20 people
> > (for a free Nokia
> > WAP). Within 2 weeks you will receive a free phone.
> > (They will contact
> > you through your e- mail address). Please mark a
> > copy to: –
> > anna.swelam@nokia.com

here are some other things that will happen if you send that e-mail out to eight or twenty people:
– john kerry will become president
– canada will invade america, and win
– you will get bitten by a radioactive spider and get its proportionate strength, speed and abilities
– the little drummer boy in an under-developed nation who’s missing an arm and a leg will get twenty cents per forward which will accumulate and contribute to treatment for his colon cancer
– you’ll get eternal salvation, because now, and only now, does jesus truly love you
– you’ll finally pass a course that actually requires you to think

i hate it when (non-brown) girls, many friends of mine, say to me, “you’re good-looking for a brown guy” or say that about other brown guys

what the hell is that statement saying?
essentially that brown guys aren’t worth shit and the only ones that look good do so relative to the ones that aren’t worth shit (except, of course, for the rare one who’s so hot that he burns out your worthless retinas)

no one ever says “he’s good-looking for a white guy,” or “he’s good-looking for a chinese guy” — though i can point out several of them who look like they just stepped out of an ugly competition

and therefore i am pissed off

so, to the next non-brown chick who says “so-and-so is good-looking for a brown guy”:

FUCK YOU!

Beaucoup de mes amis sont venus des nuages
Avec soleil et pluie comme simples bagages
Ils ont fait la saison des amitiés sincères
La plus belle saison des quatre de la terre

Ils ont cette douceur des plus beaux paysages
Et la fidélité des oiseaux de passage
Dans leurs coeurs est gravée une infinie tendresse
Mais parfois dans leurs yeux se glisse la tristesse
Alors, ils viennent se chauffer chez moi
Et toi aussi tu viendras

Tu pourras repartir au fin fond des nuages
Et de nouveau sourire à bien d’autres visages
Donner autour de toi un peu de ta tendresse
Lorsqu’un autre voudra te cacher sa tristesse

Comme l’on ne sait pas ce que la vie nous donne
Il se peut qu’à mon tour je ne sois plus personne
S’il me reste un ami qui vraiment me comprenne
J’oublierai à la fois mes larmes et mes peines

Alors, peut-être je viendrai chez toi
Chauffer mon coeur à ton bois

РJ.M. Rivi̬re & G. Bourgeois, performed by Fran̤oise Hardy

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

– Robert Frost

the following is an excerpt from a conversation that took place between sanjeyan and me concerning our friend who is currently in china …

nomes: china’s communism and moral depravity is corrupting shawn
ksnite: <high five>
nomes: <high five>
ksnite: THREE CHEERS FOR SHAWN!!!
nomes: i could use more communist friends with no morals
nomes: just like stalin
ksnite: damn, stalin may not haven’t known a lot … but he could maintain a moustache like there was no tomorrow
nomes: in my books, that is a lot
nomes: that moustache is what every man aspires to
nomes: george bush
nomes: saddam hussein (who came close)
nomes: tony blair
nomes: everyone
nomes: elton john
nomes: john mayer
nomes: jesus
ksnite: i bet on good moustache days, he executed less men
ksnite: he had a heart of gold
nomes: just like jesus
nomes: yet so much more
ksnite: some consider that jesus was a little stubborn with the cross
ksnite: complaining about how heavy it was like every 10 minutes
nomes: did stalin ever complain about managing the largest country on earth? about world war two? about america’s nuclear capability? about rebellions and the immense material cost of perpetrating genocide?
nomes: no my friend, he carried that cross
nomes: and did not shed a tear nor ask for any sympathy
nomes: which is more than what we can say about jesus there, some reports allege someone else carried his cross — can you believe this guy? he’s GOD and still someone ELSE carries his cross
ksnite: i heard he was walking in all directions…couldn’t walk a straight path
ksnite: broke some vases, broke windows, snapped a few power lines
nomes: were there ever power outages under stalin?
nomes: NO! never! nein!
ksnite: he made sure to electrocute men on days when energy use was low
ksnite: he cared for his people
nomes: i think the world’s been worshipping the wrong guy for the past fifty years
ksnite: i propose we start STALINISM!!!

so yesterday i went out and actually bought a CD

yes, that’s right, i paid money for music

and it’s a great album, has some wicked tracks
it’s worth it

most people have heard everlast’s “what it’s like” and they probably like it, but don’t find themselves liking much of his other music

well i think the problem might be that most people don’t know about much of his other music, and besides that his voice — the raspy voice, can be kind of unsettling if you aren’t used to it

oh well

it’s an awesome record

When people look at the options, they’re saying that Stephen Harper looks like Paul Martin in a hurry.

– Jack Layton, NDP