Planet Zeta

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across a way to create a low-cost interactive whiteboard using a Wiimote. All that was required was a Wiimote (for its infrared camera), an infrared-emitting pen, and a flat surface. The Wiimote would track the pen across the surface and report its coordinates back to the computer program, which could then draw, trigger controls, or whatever you wantetd it to do.

I don’t own a Wii, so I bought a Wiimote alone. I couldn’t get the pen working properly, however (I tried building one myself rather than buying one). So I shelved my Wiimote, where it sat gathering dust, forgotten. Until yesterday.

Often I like to read in my comfy chair that’s on the other side of my desk. I’ll have iTunes playing music, and I don’t like having to get up and go to my computer to adjust the volume or skip a song. It’s even more inconvenient if I‘m outside and playing the music through the window. I don’t have a multimedia remote (when ordering this computer from Dell, I didn’t think I’d ever want one—foolish me).

Last week, Lifehacker published an article about using the Wiimote with your computer. This reminded me that I had a Wiimote lying around doing nothing, and using it to trigger a few commands couldn’t be too hard, could it?

After wrestling with Vista’s Bluetooth setup to get the Wiimote connected, I downloaded GlovePIE and went in search of an iTunes-controlling script. I found such a script at WiiLi.org that was tied to an AuthoHotkey script. I‘d previously heard of AutoHotkey and thought about trying it, but I hadn’t yet gotten around to it. So I installed AutoHotkey, and as a bonus I now have a way to control iTunes through keyboard shortcuts as well. I’ve also set up numerous other shortcuts since then—I‘ve fallen in love with AutoHotkey and can’t see myself going back!

The Wiimote needed a fresh pair of batteries, but otherwise the script worked excellently. I modified it slightly to add in the capability to control my computer’s volume as well as just iTunes’—once I had the script in front of me, figuring out how to adapt it wasn’t difficult.

By far the most annoying aspect is Vista’s Bluetooth connectivity. Every time I want to connect the Wiimote, I need to go through the whole finding devices, installing drivers, etc., setup. It doesn’t take too long, but it’s inconvenient to have to do that every time. I don’t have much experience using Bluetooth devices, so I’m not sure if this is normal, a problem with Vista, or just because of the way the Wiimote works. If anyone has any solutions, please let me know. Otherwise I’m quite satisfied with my accomplishment!

Yesterday, I explained why I was excited about Google getting into the browser game. Of course, no new Google venture is complete without some people taking issue with Google’s privacy policies. In this case, the controversy was around Google Chrome’s EULA, specifically section 11.1. Now, since everything on the Internet happens at the speed of light, Google has already changed the wording of that clause and applied it retroactively, claiming that it was all a mistake by the lawyers behind the curtain. However, this incident reminds us of just how much data Google collects, not to mention privacy issues online as a whole.

I should begin with the disclaimer that I am not a Google fanboy. I love some of Google’s services—I use Gmail, although I prefer to check my mail through Mozilla Thunderbird’s interface, and Google Calendar is my favourite calendar application. However, I’m perfectly willing to criticize Google. I try not to be a fanboy of anything, but if I were, I‘d be a Joss Whedon fanboy. So I’m going to hijack this post to mention that the Dr. Horrible soundtrack is available for purchase on iTunes. That is all.

The Internet is transforming us into a global village as Marshall McLuhan predicted. More and more information concerning our offline personae is being stored in a digital form and then transferred all around the world, whether we know of it or not. Companies that exist primarily to gather data (like Google, a search engine company) always want more. How much are we willing to give?

When addressing the issue of privacy on the Internet, I’ve decided to tackle four questions. Firstly, what do we want when we yell “privacy!” on forums and blogs? It’s a word, but what does it mean? Next, what criteria should we use to determine which institutions to trust with our private data? And who is to blame when that data gets leaked or shared with third parties? Lastly, let’s put on our pragmatist caps and consider the reality of the Internet today: what’s feasible, and what will require major paradigm shifts to accomplish?

I Have Everything to Hide

A typical retort to those who lament the loss of privacy in everyday life is, “If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you should have nothing to hide.” No one’s perfect though, and we all have things we want to hide. That’s why most browsers, including Google Chrome, have some sort of stealth mode (or “porn mode”) that doesn’t record what you’re doing. Everyone can have legitimate reasons for keeping secrets. The point of privacy is to present people with choice: an individual should have the choice of whether or not to reveal his or her private information, right?

But what’s private to us? Well, if anonymity is your goal, then probably everything except a pseudonym, maybe your gender. The Internet is increasingly critical to offline applications, however, and anonymity is no longer always an option. Sure, it’s possible to establish an ephemeral blog with no personally-identifiable information available to the public. However, the site will record your computer’s IP address, which in turn can be traced back (in most cases) to you. Even if you use a public computer, you’ll probably have to give an email address that could be traced back to you—you could use a fake address, but then you‘d have no way of receiving legitimate communications.

As the Internet evolves, it begins connecting our offline personae with our online ones. No longer is the Internet just a network on which we push emails back and forth. Now we’re uploading videos, torrenting television programs, tweeting, blogging, using Facebook—much of this relying on our own offline identities to make it relevant. When I update my Twitter status, it shows up on Facebook and on the homepage of my website. People who want to know what I am doing can look at my status.

But if one is not careful, too much information can lead to problems. Put your credit card number in the wrong form, and suddenly someone has stolen your identity. These are real problems that we as a society are going to have to solve. We have to give our private data to someone, but to whom?

Sell Your Soul For a Fiddle

How do you decide if a website is trustworthy? Friends‘ reviews? Newspaper articles? The number of people on the site? Which services deserve to store our private information, and which ones are untrustworthy for one reason or another?

If you have a bank account, then you probably have access to your finances online. Your bank stores massive amounts of personal information about you from your name to your credit history. What makes a bank more trustworthy than Google? Companies often try to sell themselves by promoting how much experience they’ve had, how long they‘ve been around. My bank, Bank of Montreal, is Canada’s oldest bank, founded in 1817. That’s much older than Google, which will be celebrating its tenth birthday in three days! If age is a factor, then my bank must be a more appropriate institution to trust with my data.

Banks don’t have the best track record for keeping private information private, however. It seems like every couple of months there’s another article in the newspaper about one bank or another misplacing or accidentally leaking the private information of thousands of people. Whoa. When was the last time Google did that? In July there was some concern when a court ordered Google-owned YouTube to hand over some information to Viacom. YouTube’s handling of the situation seems to indicate that Google has our privacy on its mind. And that makes sense. Google is a business as much as banks are, and no business wants to become notorious for disclosing private data.

ScapeGoogle?

So when our data does get disclosed, who is to blame? In the case of accidental leaks, the company often hits the age-old tome of excuses to produce classics like, “The postal service lost the package containing the data,” or “An employee forgot to clean sensitive data off his or her thumb drive before giving it away.” We are all human¹; we make mistakes.

If the court orders the company to share the information with a third party, then we blame the government. And this is an important point: even in so-called free societies, legislation exists that gives the government access to data you store with private companies. If the U.S. government demands that Google hand over some of its data, there is nothing much Google can do about it. Google’s lawyers can fight the case in court, sure, but in the end, if the government wins the case, then it’s not Google’s fault that the government has that power. That is the price Google pays for operating in such deprived countries, much like Google’s self-imposed censorship is the price it pays for operating in China.

Thanks to the networked nature of the Internet, this creates headaches for people who don’t even live in the United States. Any data you send to Google’s servers is going to end up at a machine located in the U.S. at some point, which makes it accessible to the U.S. government. Avoiding such an eventuality requires a great deal of effort². So the options become just accept the inevitable or boycott Google and its ilk³

Let’s All Go Amish

Boycotting Google is an acceptable, if extreme, method of protecting one’s privacy. However, it is impractical to boycott every possible source of privacy infringement. I suppose that one could cut up one’s credit cards, debit cards, government-issued IDs, etc. There are people who do this—but they are not a majority. Most people accept that some level of compromise is required to keep up with the relentless march of technology.

Ah, now the real demon comes to light: technology is evil! Mmm … not so much. We could destroy all of our advanced technology, but that doesn’t eliminate our privacy concerns. Also, it would utterly wreck civilization as we know it—you can go ahead and claim that a more pastoral existence is the paradise humanity requires, but that’s beyond the scope of this entry. The reality is, we are dependent on our technology, and that dependence comes with a price.

Be careful with your private information, of course. You’re going to have to give it out eventually. Be frugal about to whom you give it out. Tools like Facebook are not inherently dangerous; it all comes down to how you use them⁴

If you really are bothered by how society treats privacy these days, then make noise. Don’t just blog ineffectually about it like I am—write a letter to your representative of government (if you live in a “democracy”), form activist groups, make T-shirts, make pies … whatever it takes. Fight for change.

Me, I’m more worried about tethered appliances (such as the iPhone) and companies having the ability to remotely terminate products we “buy” as opposed to the data on those devices. But that’s an issue for another day.

• [ 1 ] Except for Stephen Harper, who is a robot
• [ 2 ] Time better spent drinking tea.
• [ 3 ] Yeah, I used the word “ilk.” I went there.
• [ 4 ] And how much common sense you have when accepting offers from widows of deposed Nigerian dictators.

Google made a splash on Labour Day when it announced the release of its own browser, Google Chrome.

It’s important to note that this is only a beta release, and Google’s made it clear that they are going to make major improvements to it. Check out the comic book that explains Google Chrome for techie details. A comic book—how cool is that?

Of course, Google has set a high standard for itself in the past. Reaction to this “beta” has been negative from some people (particularly those less tech-savvy who are underwhelmed by the interface), and Google has itself to blame for ruining the “beta” label with stable services like Gmail. However, it’s important to look beyond Google Chrome as just a product and examine its significance to users and the Internet as a whole.

For me, Google Chrome is significant because it is open source. Google has a history of supporting the open source community, but this is the first really big open source Google product. I love Google’s other apps, but their proprietary nature has always made me slightly uneasy. By making Google Chrome open source, Google is signalling that it isn’t entering the browser business just to make a new competitor for the other good browsers out there already. As the comic book explains, they’ve built it on a major open source rendering engine (Webkit) and the JavaScript engine they‘ve used is open source and independent of Google Chrome, so other browsers could even incorporate it too.

Google has a history of raising the bar with its inventions. Gmail’s initial 2 GB space, free POP access (and later, free IMAP access!), etc., caused other free webmail providers to step up and increase their offerings. I‘m hoping that Google Chrome does the same thing to browsers. We’re going to see cool new ideas—such as each tab being a separate process to save memory and prevent hanging—and some interesting takes on standard methods—such as the omnibox combining the address bar and search bar.

I love Firefox, and other browsers like Opera and Safari are great. However, all our browsers today are still clinging to the legacies of those that came before them. It looks like Google has stepped back and taken a look at the Big Picture of the World Wide Web, which has evolved at a frightening pace since its inception. The Web is no longer about connecting your computer to a box and slowly accessing text and images from other locations. Nowadays the Web is an interactive, ever-changing media. We have “web applications” instead of “web sites.” Some of Google’s methodology behind Chrome indicates that they’re attempting to turn the browser into something that works well with web applications instead of just a tool for viewing web pages. Because it’s open source, other browser makers can incorporate their innovations into their browsers, and they are now challenged to come up with their own.

This is exciting! Even if you aren’t a die-hard techie, you can appreciate the fact that we’re experiencing a pivotal moment in the development of technology. Interfaces started as a very basic, command-oriented idea. Then came the great era of the graphical user interface: everything is “point and click.” But we can still do better. The next step is truly making interfaces intuitive, moving beyond point and click and seeking solutions like natural-language interfaces. All of us already speak at least one language; we shouldn’t have to learn another just to operate our computers.

Google Chrome is a stepping stone, even if it doesn’t turn out to be the Next Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.

Tomorrow, I’ll have my take on the controversy surrounding Google Chrome’s Terms of Service.

Last February, I drew your attention to Harper Collins’ free online browsing of American Gods. Well, they are doing if again, this time with Neverwhere!

You can read it for free or download it as a PDF. You don’t get to keep it forever (the PDF will self-destruct in thirty days) but it’s an excellent offering nonetheless.

I mean, I could go off on a tangent about how self-destructing PDFs is an example of “tethered appliances” taking over the Internet and taking away our control over what content we can access. Then I could casually mention Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It. But I won’t.

An election looms in my own fine country even as the Americans battle it out for who gets to inherit the Bush legacy. Two and a half years ago, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives inherited the scandal-ridden legacy of over a decade of Liberal government. As usual, getting elected is easier than actually running the country and making effective decisions that improve the lives of its citizens—Harper hasn’t been doing either of these things very well. He blames his inability to perform on his partners in Parliament, our three opposition leaders. They maintain that he refuses to compromise, doesn’t put the toilet seat down, and until he decides to cooperate, they’re moving out and going to live with their mothers.

Er … anyway, now that we have fixed four-year election dates, the next election would theoretically be in October 2009. However, the Prime Minister still has the right to go to the Governor General and ask her to dissolve Parliament if he believes the government can no longer function effectively. Harper has been rattling just that particular sabre lately, and an election looks increasingly likely. He has met with all three opposition leaders now, but I doubt that any of those meetings was very productive.

The Conservatives have been airing an annoyingly obvious campaign ad on television. I mute it every time it comes on. Those of you not in Canada or lacking a TV can see it on YouTube (warning: contains graphic and disturbing endorsements of Stephen Harper). Notice how the Conservative Party has disabled comments and video responses for the video. Alas, this is not a clean jab—admittedly, disabling comments on YouTube is probably a good idea, considering the average level of intellect you’ll see in the other comments.

The ad focuses on how these supposedly “everyday, Main Street Canadians” see Stephen Harper as a leader who is taking Canada in the right direction. I have several problems with this. Firstly, our government should not be about one leader. That’s the U.S. shtick. I’ll vote for a member of Parliament who I believe will best represent my constituency. However, I do admit that I take the leader of the party into account when I’ll vote, and as this entry’s title declares, I will not vote for our Conservative candidate, no matter who he or she is.

It’s at this point that I must admit I’m a hypocrite. I denounce the attack ads aired by all campaigns; I want them to focus on the issues more than painting their opponents as undesirable leaders. Yet here I am, determined to support a party other than the Conservatives because I find its leader undesirable! Yes, I also disagree with most of the stances of that leader. I still feel kind of dirty though. Curse you, Stephen Harper, and your Kobayashi Maru election!

Moving on….

Secondly, that shot of Harper at the end is kind of creepy. Finally, I disagree with the main message of the ad, and I don’t care what these other people say. Unfortunately, I suspect that the Conservative government doesn’t care if they persuade me with their bubblegum campaigning. I suspect they only care about persuading those other “Main Street Canadians” (the four that weren’t included in the ad) who might not otherwise vote for the Conservatives; the party is emphasizing Harper’s pro-citizen reforms: harsher justice, family values, lower taxes, and all that jazz.

Of course, it doesn’t help that our other potential Prime Ministers have the charisma or leadership abilities of a shaved llama. The Green Party still hasn’t had an elected MP—just recently they obtained their first sitting MP by shopping at a discount Liberal MP store. The NDP get closer to pulling it off each time, but they are still a long way away from garnering enough support to form a government. Not living in Quebec, I have trouble understanding the national relevance of the Bloc¹. So we‘re left with the Liberal Party of Canada, just as corrupt as the Conservative Party, but slightly more palatable because it’s not the Conservative Party—just as the Conservatives were slightly more palatable last time because they weren’t the Liberals. It’s how our elections work.

I want an election, if only to kill the horrible copyright bill that’s in Parliament right now. In addition to that, I dislike the cuts that the Conservative government has made to programs designed to promote Canadian culture and Canadian artists abroad. A person more paranoid than me might see these actions as a form of sneaky censorship. It’s a good thing I‘m not paranoid, no sir!

At the very least, if the Liberals form the next government, we can make fun of Dion’s accent. Remember when we used to do that with Chrétien? Good times….

• [ 1 ] Which is not to say that I disrespect the concept of Quebec as a nation or Québécois as a culture. Please don’t throw poutine at my dad’s house.

It’s the 25th birthday of GNU this month, and Stephen Fry recorded a delightful little video that explains about free software in a very comprehensible manner.

Yay free software!

Roll your dice, ladies and gentlemen. After sixty years of continuous gameplay, I‘m sure you’re eager for it to be over, but there’s still a few cards left to be won.

I’m sure that it came as a big surprise to everyone when Russia announced its intentions to absorb South Ossetia after unilaterally declaring it independent. Now Russia has effectively seized control of the territory. Russia’s actions are irrational and somewhat disturbing, but what else is new? Unfortunately, I’m having trouble forming an opinion.

For those of us too young to have lived through the Cold War or the aftermath of the subsequent decades, it can be hard to understand the significance of Russia’s actions. It doesn’t help that—at least here in Ontario—our one compulsory high school history course ends after World War II. Let’s break the facts down and see if we can make some sense of what’s happening.

First, some background. South Ossetia is a region in Georgia that is loyal to Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia became an independent country, but South Ossetia wanted to join Russia—and they were willing to fight for it. Naturally, Georgia does not want to lose a large region of territory. In the early ’90s, violence ensued. Eventually Georgia and South Ossetia reached a tenuous cease-fire. However, other governments have refused to recognize South Ossetia as an independent country.

The current confict is indubitably fuelled by these long-standing tensions. As I understand it, the ignition occurred when Georgia sent soldiers into the South Ossetian region to quell dissidents. Fighting broke out, and Russia saw this as an opportunity to send its own forces into the area under the banner of peacekeepers. This escalated the situation into a global one—Russia invading any country is a matter for concern, especially considering its tenuous relationship with the United States. After all, the Bush administration is full of old war horses who still worry that Russia will set up us the bomb. Furthermore, Georgia is a prospective member of NATO.

Russia, of course, apologized and quickly moved to clarify the situation: it did not care what the rest of the international community thinks. Eventually France brokered a ceasefire that stipulated Russia must withdraw its troops to within South Ossetia—Russia has yet to do so. Initially they insisted they were withdrawing (when they weren‘t), and now they’ve just decided to declare South Ossetia and Abkhazia independent.

So I mean … who’s side are we on? Either way, this sets precedents. South Ossetia is getting what it wants—the very nature of democracy implies that the people should be able to choose their government, and the South Ossetians want Russia. It seems like a pretty clear-cut solution: Georgia and the rest of the international community should accept the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russia must face sanctions, of course—whatever the result, the means were unacceptable.

On the other hand, are we just going to let Russia go in and carve up another country like that? Canada came close to losing Quebec—can you imagine if Quebec separatists had won the referendum and wanted to join the U.S.?

Plus, we know that the U.S. and the rest of the world can’t just let this go. Georgia is but the latest pawn in this Ice-Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Of course, before making an enemy, it is best to ensure that you don’t need them as a friend.

I’m viewing the issue as one of democracy versus the special interests of other countries. How do you view it?

Literacy is wonderful. I love reading. I spent most of this summer reading Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series, fed to me by my coworker. So I went to the library for the first time this summer last week and got out the books you see in the stack on the right. Three of those books are the second or fifth book in a series, however, so I’ll need to read the other books in those series before I can begin reading them. Naturally I made a list of books I wanted to get at the library. However, I forgot the list at home, and I ended up not needing it anyway, because I pretty much took home the New Books shelf, as I often do.

But first, The Pillars of the Earth! I bought that copy for my friend Carly for Christmas. She foolishly¹ mentioned that she was intending to read The Pillars of the Earth, and she did indeed have a copy, although it was a tattered paperback. There’s nothing wrong with cherished tattered paperbacks, but trade paperbacks are wubbly too. Now I’m finally ste—er, borrowing—this from her so I can read it.

The books in the stack below Pillars all came from Chapters. I love shopping at Chapters! Their shipping is amazingly fast. At first I was just ordering The Lies of Locke Lamora, Sundiver, and The Name of the Rose, because my local library does not have any of these. However, that was still under the $34 minimum needed for free shipping, and I figured the difference was small enough that adding an extra book would be a better value—so I bought Foucault’s Pendulum as well. Another coworker has recommended Umberto Eco to me. We shall see!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned Goodreads much yet—I linked to it once obscurely in my entry trumpeting the new site design, but otherwise it’s just been sitting in my sidebar there. For those of you other bibliophiles out there, you can see what books I’m reading on the sidebar, and if you follow the link to my profile, you can learn what other books I‘ve read or plan to read and even read reviews I’ve left on some. Goodreads is a fantastic site; I have a terrible memory, so being able to keep track of my books in this fashion is quite helpful. Plus, it lets me see what my friends are reading. I’ll often see my friends reading something interesting and mark it as to-read for the future. It’s a great way to get suggestions.

• [ 1 ] Never mention to me that you have nothing to read or that you are planning to read book x but don’t have it. Many a friend has realized the error of such statements in my presence.

This is my third day of typing in Colemak. It’s weird. At times I feel like I’m really getting it: my accuracy is great, my speed is better than I expected, I‘m getting into a rhythm. Then I type a QWERTY-ism and all that progress disappears.

To learn I’ve been using Colemak lessons for TypeFaster. TypeFaster itself is a great program, and the lessons are helping. I like to use the hi-games.net typing test, because it uses a large variety of random sentences that better gauge my speed. In addition to the lessons, I’ve been typing mostly in Colemak, interspersed with some QWERTY to keep me in practice.

This has been a learning experience in more ways than one! Until now, I have taken my typing speed for granted—it is so ingrained in me that its just a skill I use, like reading. I never really understood how frustrating it must be for those without typing skills to use a computer—one skill totally changes how one can interact with technology. I‘m used to being able to type almost as quickly as I can think. On the other hand, this new perspective will likely improve my communication skills. I’m ordinarily verbose, and part of that is because my speed allows me to express myself more quickly than a slower typist. Right now, I‘m inclined toward brevity, which can be a good thing! It’s still frustrating, though—hence the title. I’m in the mood where I need some good hard rock with a beat. Or, you know … Mozart’s K-271, Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat … that works too.

My Colemak WPM: 30. QWERTY WPM: 100.

And so I continue!

Partly out of concern for my fingers, but mostly out of errant boredom, I have decided to try to learn Colemak. The QWERTY keyboard layout was intentionally designed to slow down typists, lest their typewriters jam. Now that computers have largely replaced typewriters, such a layout is inefficient, but we still use it anyway. Other layouts, such as the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard, just didn’t catch on.

Colemak is another alternative layout that comes to me highly recommended. I can type 100-150 WPM in QWERTY, so why switch? My humourous little sidebar about shift key abuse is the symptom of an underlying problem; all these hours at the computer leave my fingers strained. A more ergonomic layout may be the solution. Besides, if I can type 100 WPM in a layout designed to slow me down, I should be able to type faster and more comfortably in a more efficient layout (once I master it, of course).

This was my first post (of hopefully many posts) composed using Colemak. It took a very long time, and I‘m finding it frustrating, but that’s expected. I haven’t abandoned QWERTY, but the more I practice, the faster I’ll learn. Wish me luck.

Stargate Continuum was released in the UK yesterday. Like the Ark of Truth, I pre-ordered the DVD so that I’d get it on the day it was released. Unlike the Ark of Truth, however, I actually enjoyed Stargate Continuum. I was quite surprised with how good the movie was, though I suppose it helped that I did absolutely hate the Ark of Truth, so I didn’t have that high hopes for this one.

This won’t be a long review, since, despite the fact I finished watching Continuum 5 minutes ago; I’m terrible when it comes to recalling all of the details of these things. I usually have to watch something 2 or 3 times before I someone can ask me what I thought of such-and-such, and I can reply with “Yes.” So anyway, the movie.

I just generally liked almost all of the movie, so I’m going to start by mentioning what I didn’t like. One of the things which made me feel sad was Don S. Davis, who played George Hammond (Of Texas O_O). Those of you who may have heard the terrible news, he died last month, so it was really depressing when I saw him in this movie. It would have been great if he’d had a bigger role in this movie, being his last venture into the Stargate universe, but I suppose that couldn’t be helped. Still, at the very least it was great to see him one last time.

I am always annoyed whenever a show kills off a major villain for the last time, so seeing Baal, who I thought was a great enemy throughout SG-1, die was a little bit sad, but the good thing about Baal is - we can always hope he’s got another clone somewhere. I just really loved the system lords in Stargate. Farewell to the last of them! It was also brilliant to see Vala (Qetesh) kick Baal’s ass. A badass Vala was just awesome - she’d have made a good system lord in here time!

Other than that, I don’t think I have anything bad to say about this movie. It had a brilliant classic SG-1 feel to it, and didn’t feel nearly as rushed as the Ark of Truth did. I think it would be great to have more of these self-contained stories, where the writers can focus on completing a story without being pressured into a short, 90-minute timeframe.

If you’re reading this, then it means I finally managed to type out this blog entry after 3 weeks of creating drafts for new blogs. Basically, I’m lazy. I had hoped to blog more when I first started my blog, but to be honest, my life really isn’t all that interesting. I’ve got about 10 blog drafts from all the times I’ve started writing blogs, and just never got around to finishing them. I’m like that; I’ll start a project and never finish it. I really need more discipline so I can focus on these things and actually get them done! Especially since I’ll be starting my second year of university in September, and it’s going to be A LOT harder than last year.

Hmmm, so what else is happening? Oh, I agreed to work a 15 hour shift at work in October - wake up at 9am and get home at midnight. I then have the joy of university the next morning - yay!

I’m also REALLY looking forward to season 3 of Dexter which premiers September 22nd. It’s just such a brilliant show - I’ll be buying season 2 on DVD as soon as it’s released. Other shows I’m really looking forward to include Heroes season 3 (Which I believe also starts on the 22nd - that’ll be a big day! :D) Annoyingly, I’ll start my second year of university the next day *stabs waking up before noon*

Well anyway, now that the weekend’s out of the way, I get to look foward to a lovely week of sleep, more laziness,  support tickets and laziness. Yay!

If you just commented on a blog entry and also happen to go to New York University: Don’t post random junk on my blog. STOP ABUSING THE CAPS LOCK KEY LIKE I AM RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THE CAPS LOCKS KEY HAS FEELINGS TOO.

So. I rang the Ultrasound department on Tuesday, two weeks after being sent home from the last.
“No, we don’t have a new appointment for you”
…
How incredibly awesome are they at doing their jobs? Anyway, new one is booked for 9.50am on the 16th of August. I think I’ll just roll out of bed, guzzle a lot of drink and skip down there with my legs crossed. Morning shouldn’t be too back-logged if they get backlogs, so it should be okay.

I am annoyed at something else. I applied for a job at my local doctor’s surgery because it’s within walking distance, I know the doctors (which is a little sad XD) etc. Apparently they don’t want a computer literate touch/auto typist with an A level in ICT who also did a year at University on a computer course? I hate being over-qualified for stuff like that, that’s the only reason I can think of for not getting an interview. I feel like getting a crayon and scrawling “WONT LEAVE FOR SOMETHING BETTERRR” across the top of the letter. I just need something while I do my biology course. Hmmm.

Good news is that I really enjoyed watching the Olympic Games opening ceremony today. It was spectacular, and I thought the whole series of things to do with the large scroll they drew and walked across was a really nifty thing to do. The final part with the guy running around the edge of the rim of the ‘birds nest’ to light the torch looked SO fun.
While I dread what the UK might come up with in 2012, I think I’d really like to go to the opening ceremony, or at least one of the events. I am going to try following these games, I didn’t pay much attention to them in 2004.

Go Team GB!

This is your last chance to turn back now!

I really wanna exercise!
I honestly feel like a slobby hippo lately because I can’t do much due to painful shoulders/back. I can’t use my sister’s exercise bike, I can’t go jogging like I’d planned to…I can’t actually move much without hurting. I hate the side effects of these tablets! But..I’m actually going to ask that the dosage increase again. It was decreased because of the side effects, but they’ve not got any better, so I figure that I might as well do the full dose again. I’ve been getting the odd acne spot or two which is worrying…if I came off them would it just come back that easily?

I honestly feel sooo unfit. Before I started taking the tablets, I was doing situps in the evening. However my choice of not doing situps is actually due to something else. For the past few years (at least 4..probably a lot more) I’ve been getting this horrible…pinching pain to the right of my navel. This year it’s been happening more and more, so I decided to go to the doctor about it. what also led to this decision is the fact that my stomach looks…uneven. I can lie completely flat or stand up straight and the right side sticks out more than the left.
When I saw the Doctor, he got me to lie on the examination bed and prodded my stomach for several minutes, before declaring that it felt a bit ‘fuller’ on one side compared to the other. He suggested that it might be ovarian cysts, which are common, but he referred me for an ultrasound anyway.

Attempted to go for the ultrasound two weeks ago, but due to hot weather I didn’t have a full bladder, which is needed for the scan. Despite drinking a quarter of the water cooler in the waiting room it wasn’t enough for the bitchy sonographer, who treated me with absolutely no dignity at all. She unceremoneously whipped out a large plastic rod and offered a lovely ‘internal’ scan… which would’ve been utterly mortifiying considering I’d just answered her question of “Are you menustrating”.. wow. She was horrible. She also sent a snotty letter to my doctor, complaining that I had an ‘empty’ bladder (actually 10 minutes into the drive home I was rather willing to see a toilet), and that I should make sure I read letters properly when they are sent. I felt so resolved to study to be a Radiographer that day. Some of these people in a ‘caring’ profession are just so..horrible. I could have something more serious than cysts and her attitude just doesn’t help.

I saw the letter when my doctor called me in for a checkup.. “just to see how you’re doing”. Up on the table again, more prodding “Yeah that definitely feels swollen”.
Tomorrow I am phoning the hospital about the appointment because 2 weeks is a stupidly long time to wait for one.

I went to the doctor the same day as when I decided it was time to see one about it, because I was wandering around the supermarket when I got it extremely painfully all around my stomach area. I felt very lightheaded, and I thought I was going to faint in the aisle. I felt dreadful, and my Mum even inquired so maybe I looked a bit pale, dunno.
It happened last Monday when we were in B&Q (DIY store), too. I felt like I wasn’t really there, lightheaded, and a pain in my stomach by my navel.
It happened again the next day… also in the supermarket We joked I must be allergic to the place.
Happened again last night when I was trying to sleep. It was a horrible sensation. I felt really chilly, drained.. and my stomach had more sharp stabbing pains.

Weird. Thus, looking forward to the Ultrasound. I’m not really one for “I hope nothing is wrong!”.. Honestly, I hope it’s anything, just so there is an explanation. All through my life I’ve had things my doctors have never been able to completely solve. They think I sometimes have a nerve trapped in my ribcage to get piercing pains in the left side of my chest.. that’s happened since I was 5. Trick to stop it is to breathe in deeply, expand the rib-cage.. which requires a few seconds of intense pain.. but it’s tolerable. Can’t do anything about it.
Even if it’s “You have an umbilical hernea” I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m told I was born with one, so.. yeah. My belly button is a freaky little thing so it wouldn’t be much of a shock if something was wrong with that general area.

So.. I wish I could exercise If anyone has an ideas (other than swimming. Chlorine + dried out roaccutane skin = not a good idea) on what I could do, please feel free to suggest ^_^

I just spent about half an hour at least trying to post a comment on Youtube. Reminds me of the time a website didn’t let me post something because it contained ‘bad words’.
The bad word turned out to be ‘Hitler’, despite the article being about Hitler. That figures?

Anyway, I ended up trying to post this comment.. so many times. I removed smilies, I removed excessive letters and !!! exclamation… in the end apparently it seemed too long.

It seems to me like the mindless drivel that gets posted on youtube videos is allowed, but coherant sentences is not.

“lol hi babez i wub u wooo !!! plz BE MY FWREND £$£$”£ ~ D:D”

^ comments like that are allowed, are rife. Appear lots. Annoy me (but they’re fun to type, oddly)..

“I think you’re a great singer and wish you all the best”

^ Not allowed!

Luckily I do most of my Youtube surfing via my iTouch, but I’ve not tried to comment on anything before. Mostly because my laptop lacks sound *sniffle*

Life update:
- College course booked.. not heard anything from them yet which is worrying
- Sonographer at Southampton General is a rude, patronising cow who needs to hunt for a bedside manner on eBay since she lacks one.
- My shoulders hurt… still.. and I have a spot Which is not meant to happen. I just remembered I need to take my Roaccutane tablets for today, lol.
- It feels like 40′c in my room right now.

Israelis had braced themselves for the inevitable celebrations that were to take place in Lebanon to mark the return of Mr. Kuntar, who was part of a cadre that in 1979 raided Nahariya from the sea, and was convicted of fatally shooting a policeman and a civilian, Danny Haran, then smashing the head of Mr. Haran’s daughter, Einat, 4, killing her.

Shlomo Goldwasser, the father of Sgt. Goldwasser, said the celebrations made him feel sorry for the Lebanese: “What are they celebrating?” he asked on Israel Radio. “They lost almost 800 of their best fighters, thousands of buildings were destroyed, the economy was ruined, civilians were injured and killed. This is a cause for celebration? Pity these people,” he said.

- New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

I am sorry for not blogging, not posting, not leading, not chatting, and such. I am currently trying to focus. I realized the other day that 6 days from now I will be traveling to New York, New York, learning about business in a summer program. I do not know how much time I will have when I get back, either way I would like to relax and do solely what I love, forums and photography.

These past two days have been spent helping out my little sister as she celebrates her birthday and turns the house into a party place, but I have been trying to focus on summer reading, specifically my first non english non hebrew reading. This book in Spanish is taking me forever, it makes me physically tired as I try to understand it. I have 30 pages left or so, I would like to finish it, get it done with.

I also got my camera back. I try to take pictures everyday. If you would like to have a peak, click here.

As always I would love to hear what you think, interaction is what makes this all worthwhile.

I’ll start off by saying I survived my week with no parents…

Now that that’s out the way, time to discuss something far more interesting. Sci-Fi!

On my little sci-fi site I run, I like to post a list of some of the upcoming sci-fi (And fantasy, I suppose) TV that’s due to air in the next few months. Since I know there’s quite a few sci-fi fans on ZB, I thought I’d share with you my list covering the next few months:

July

11th - Stargate Atlantis - Search and Rescue (Part 2) - 5×01
18th - Stargate Atlantis - The Seed - 5×02
25th - Stargate Atlantis - Broken Ties - 5×03
29th - Eureka - Bad to the Drone - 3×01
29th - Stargate: Continuum - DVD Release - US

August

TBC: - Star Wars: Clone Wars - Premier
1st - Stargate Atlantis - The Daedalus Variations - 5×04
5th - Eureka - What about Bob? - 3×02
12th - Eureka - Best in Faux - 3×03
15th - Stargate Atlantis - Ghost in the Machine - 5×05
19th - Eureka - I do Over - 3×04
22nd - Stargate Atlantis - The Shrine - 5×06
26th - Eureka - Show me the Mummy - 3×05

September

TBC: - Sarah Jane Smith Adventures - Premier - 2×01
TBC: 2nd - Eureka - Phased and Confused - 3×06
22nd - Heroes - The Butterfly Effect - 3×01
29th - Heroes - DreamTime - 3×02

October

6th - Heroes - One of Us, One of Them - 3×03
13th - Heroes - The Year of Our Lord - 3×04

Other News

- Torchwood season 3 confirmed - Early 2009 Premier
- Sarah Jane Smith Adventures season 2 confirmed - The Rani are also expected to return - September 2008 Premier - awaiting details.
- Sanctuary: TV show in production following eight webisode series. October 2008 Premier - awaiting details.
- Star Wars: Clone Wars Awaiting more information on this. Premiers in cinemas August 2008.
- Doctor Who season 5 will air in 2010. A Christmas special will air this Christmas, with 3 more specials to follow in 2009. Awaiting details.
- Sarah Connor Chronicles season 2 is also meant to start at some point. Looking for details on this. O_O

Yeah, it’s incomplete, probably got some errors, and most of you who’ll find this information useful will probably have to live in America (Where most of these shows air first) or be as illegal as I am.

</nerd>

Sorry I have been unable to keep my word and stay consistent. It’s been quiet a few days. The other day, our power was out for most of the day but I still did some web design work (special thanks to Ryan for his help and insight). Today I did my best to finish those things off and I met with someone from my high school and had a two hour talk with her and my parents about my college future. I went from feeling fairly weak about my stats to a bit stronger, but much weaker about actually being able to afford to go to these expensive, almost name brand, higher tier schools I have had my dreams set on. I need to look up Obama’s position on more public funding for higher learning. Obama was here the other day but I didn’t have my camera so I decided not to stalk. I will finally be getting it tomorrow.

This has been mostly a rambling so I leave you with a quote I found today:

Hope everyday to do something foolish, something creative, and something generous.
- Benjamin Graham