Jalapeño Pirate

I guess I put off updating since I feel there isn’t much to say about my life right now.  It’s pregnant, gravid, waiting to pop.  In a way that’s depressing, to see the light just a little bit of a distance off.  It’s getting closer every day,  and I think this last weekend was the tip of the dip of my depression surrounding it.  I’ve started moving stuff over to Vancouver and getting the apartment ready to move in, started planning a budget, thinking about what I’m going to do with my free time over there… it’s starting to get palatable.My future is right on the doorstep.  I’ve invited it in, offered it tea and biscuits. Sadly, all it wants me to do right now is buy some Girl Scout Cookies, and isn’t it creepy I keep inviting it into my house?

This last weekend I went to watch the Hockey game in Vancouver, the Men’s Gold Medal game.  While I didn’t get to see it in person (Scalped tickets were going for about 2,000$.  I don’t like Hockey that much), I did get to see it with a group of people, some friends, some strangers, at a pub in Kitsilano, a… suburb of Vancouver.  I guess it’s a suburb.  Anyway, it was really great, not just to see the game and experience the after party, but to meet so many new people.  I’m really looking forward to meeting them all again and establishing some new friendships.  One of the hardest parts of moving to a new city is leaving everyone behind, and at least my transition won’t be as challenging. It’s tough leaving people behind, especially those I’ve really reconnected with in the last year or so. I wish I’d done so at an earlier date, but so ist das Leben. It appears I will be attending a going away party for myself, something I had never considered would happen.  People caring is one of the most important things to have in this world, and I am glad to treasure it.

The party after the game, with the multi-thousand person march down Granville street was an amazing site to behold.  Canadians aren’t exceptionally patriotic by nature (I believe I may have made a comparison to a duck, versus the patriotism of the Americans being a peacock) but it was nice to see at least a little bit of an outcry.  I was sort of worried (and have seen multiple editorials about this) that the whole “Own the Podium” campaign by the government was giving a bit of the wrong messages.  Canadians don’t display all their feathers and wark in loud voices to attract attention, and I felt it misrepresented the idea behind our subtle form of patriotism.  It didn’t say “I am Canadian.”  Patriotism rarely allows for a tapestry of cultures and ethnicity, it chooses one that is felt to symbolize the leading majority, and sticks with that.  I feel like it’s a step backwards.  While it may have held true in a  world where it was very difficult to talk to someone in a different language, or on the other side of the world, we as a people are all much closer now.  I can talk to someone over the Internet in China, and they can type in Chinese, and I an English, and we can understand each other with no delay.  I can read up about the history of a culture stretching back thousands of years, for free.  All the knowledge, creativity and resources of the human race are basically at my fingertips, all contained in this tiny little junky laptop, sitting on a desk at my work.

What does it matter if I feel apathetic towards my own country?  Anyone who is familiar with the Internet as a whole represents the whole of mankind.  Now that’s a culture I can get behind, the shared experience of everyone who has ever contributed towards it.  It doesn’t look down at you for not painting your face or waving flag.

It doesn’t have, or need one.

Note, this entry was done as my crappy laptop, and while I fixed most spelling and grammar errors, some may have slipped by.  Suck it up, Princess.

Quote:  Our true nationality is mankind.  – H.G. Wells

Two and a half months.  It doesn’t seem like that long of a period of time, but every since January I feel like the passage of time has begun to slow down to a granite crawl, each day passing with a slowness that is bordering of madness.  I see my future staring at me in the face, and only this meager amount of time separates it from I.  It is only natural then that this passage of months would drag on endlessly, to the prolong the suffering.  It’s my last semester at University and since I was so close to graduation, I only needed to take three classes.  Three, simple English classes that I felt would go by quick, painlessly and without a huge massive amount of work.

How wrong  .

It seems to me that I have more work this semester with classes than I had last semester with five. Maybe it is due to sadistic teachers or the fact they are classes on material I am not exactly overly fond.  Maybe it’s cause I’m just done with school, and want to get over to Vancouver and start my life.  I don’t really know, but sitting here on campus right now is draining my will to live.  It’s been a struggle, especially the last few weeks, getting to class and keeping up with the work.  I’m a fairly diligent student, but this material is just so far off my normal beaten path.  Curse you English curriculum for needing a variety of courses!  I should have just done a Medieval Studies Major instead.  Sadly, it is a bit too late now.

I’ve been a bit lazy getting this update out due to having a few teenage children taking up most of my life.  Not my own, thank god.  Two exchange students from China decided to grace our household with their presence, leaving me to feed them, drive them, clothe them and make sure they bathed.  Was I really such a monster when I was 15?  I feel pity for my Mother if so.  They’re gone now, and it really just makes me wonder.  My Mom had me when she was 28, and my Grandmother had her when she was 18.  I realize that was a different era,  but to imagine myself, at 30, with a 12 year old child is just… weird.  I’ve seen it in my friends, and they always seem perfectly content and happy with it.  I don’t think it’d work for me all that well, but it sure was a week for reflection on the topic matter of where my life is right now.  30 is the new 20, I keep hearing, and I understand it.  I feel I would be ready for a child, if that were to happen, but it’d be a struggle.  It’ll come in time, I guess.

I’m not afraid of 30.  Even though the dreaded milestone of a birthday looms ominously later this year and it seems that my once young and virile body seems to be decaying before my very eyes (more on this later), never once has the concept of reaching such an advanced age bothered me in the slightest.  Some of my high school friends are getting rather stressed out about it.  They reassure themselves “Thirty is the new Twenty!”, “I’ll just make new goals for thirty-five!” and such.  In despite of this thrashing and gnashing of teeth from those around me, I am still unperturbed.  While I wouldn’t say I’m exactly rushing forward to embrace the age like I did at twenty, I am preparing to greet it like a friend, with a wave, a handshake, and a casual goodbye as it passes by.  It’s just… not that important, really.  I’ve been asked why I am so unfazed by the concept of turning thirty and I find it a hard question to answer.  After some ponderance I have to say it’s due to basically feeling like I’m still twenty.  Not in the immature way, but in the situation that I feel like a big chapter of my life in unfolding in the very near future.  I’m not in a job where I’m a lifer, or malcontent or really in any static situation.  I feel mobile.  How can one be bothered by something as trivial as age when such feelings wash over every moment?

Still, despite my eager excitement at the near future, I do have to admit that the world seems to be trying to give me a wake-up call.  This week I got reading glasses, and while that may not exceptionally seem like a bad thing, it’s just an acknowledge that my eyesight is not that of a prim spring chicken anymore.  Still, I’m going to make the best of it.  In fact, massive quantities of readers (sarcasm), have a picture.  Consider this an update to beard-a-thon, which is going… beardingly?  I don’t know what other adjective to use. 

Also, a weird thing has happened recently.  Maybe it’s since i’m new to the blogging world, but i seem to be getting a lot of comments on my blog.  Gasp, you say?  I see no comments!  Well, cease your mad rush to check on my old posts, since none of them have made it past my filter.  They’re all in Russian.  Now, at first i just casually began to spam them, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, I began to put them through Babelfish and see for myself that they were, in fact, Russian ads for Viagra or some such.  To my shock, they weren’t.  In fact, many of them seem to be praising my blog (one post in particular, which is odd), and not offering me any sort of herbal remedies for erection problems, Russian brides or… whatever else spam from Russia would be.  I mean, I realize they’re just spam.  It’s just bizarre.  Maybe they’re trying to cozy me up, these poor Russian spammers, hoping that after countlessly praising my masculinity and diverse writing I’ll be more open to accepting whatever dubious product they wish to force upon me.  Well, I checked my desires earlier today, and I’m not in the market for a Russian bride, chaps.  Maybe as well give it up for now.  Check back when I’m forty, or something.  Maybe I will be desperate then.

I seem to be pretty bad at my own quote stuff.  In fact, I think I’ve skipped most of my entries.  Fear not!  I come with one more quote.

“”The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and to watch someone else do it wrong without comment.”" – Theodore Harold White, The Once and Future King.

I think this especially applies to anyone who has tried to help their parents use a computer.

“No, don’t do it for me, I need to learn.”  “ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.”

I know that doing a blog entry on something as popular culturey as Star Wars is probably a bit cliche, but whatever.  It’s my goddamn blog and I’ll cry about it if I want to!  Lucas announced today that with the massive popularity of Avatar in 3D he was considering making more movies in the Star Wars Universe utilizing this technology.  After I washed the fresh vomit from my mouth I sat back for a bit and gave the idea a mental once over.  I have to acknowledge that Lucas is a fantastically creative person.  The Star Wars Universe puts out a HUGE amount of material on a monthly basis.  Between books, comics, action figures, online material and the recent cartoon the evolution of his universe has given many writers and directors the chance to examine their ideas on what he created with the movies.  The problem is that Lucas sort of shat all over his own creation with the most recent three movies in such a way that is exceptionally pedantic to discuss.  Everyone knows “The Phantom Menace” was garbage, Clones not much better and Revenge of the Sith being only a slightly passable shadow of the glory of the original movies.  (Well, imposed glory.  Episode IV and VI don’t hold up so well twenty years later.)  Lucas has always been a fantastic visionary, but, like Vince Russo (Ha HA, obscure reference) he needs someone to heavily edit his ideas, lest the garbage get mixed in with the gems.

The problem with Lucas making more movies is, due to the torrent of material that has been created in the Expanded Universe, is that it’d be impossible for him to make movies following the original story lines unless he wanted to just step all over others work.  He could go back to the Old Republic, but even, a t of that era has been thoroughly covered.  Yes, it’s his Universe and his original creation, but one has to have some respect for those who have spent countless hours producing FOR that Universe.  He could go far into the future, or far in the past, but god only knows what sort of crazy, drink-addled ideas are tossed around in that besotted cranium of his.

My best hope would be that perhaps he finally allows others reign of canon within his stories.  Star Wars canon is an exceptionally complex beast where anything outside of the six movies falls within concentric circles of slowly diminishing reliability.  Maybe finally letting someone else create some movies that can fall within the core canon could breathe some life back into the franchise since, despite the massive output of material, it seems to be slowly gasping for air.  While the Clone Wars cartoon that is on right now is actually quite fantastic at times (Specifically when he doesn’t get his grubby little fingers into the plot lines.  Jar Jar posing as a Jedi!  Hilarious!  Ugh.  More vomit.) it isn’t going to reach a really broad audience.  Which is too bad.  Clone Wars has really helped develop the general narrative and feel of the Star Wars Universe, broadening the characters and allowing for unique and generally hilarious situations.  It creates it’s own problems though.  Watching The Clone Wars cartoon, and then watching Episode 3 the character of Anakin becomes quite confusing.  In the series he’s just an action hero.  Broad strokes, does good things always, helpful, cheery, invincible.  Then, in episode 3, when he is supposed to have matured as a person, you see this petulant, whining character all too eager to do the “bad thing” to fulfill his destiny.  That’s the problem with prequels. You already know he’s going to end up as Vader, and the kids are going to be born.  Where is the dramatic sense of anticipation?

If Lucas wants to make more movies, I’m all for it.  I just hope he falls back into the role of producer more than of director/writer and finally lets some fresh blood tell some stories.

And for god’s sake man, hire an editor.

»Edit: I`ve since found out that he doesn`t want to write more movies, but instead remaster the older movies in 3D.  The idea of Jar-Jar in 3D made bile rise up in throat.

Sometimes I wonder about other people.  By all accounts I have led a relatively normal life.  Up’s and downs, traveling, being stationary.  I’ve got to live in a foreign country for a year, but I also spent six years without leaving the island.  There has been tragedy and good times.  You know, all the stuff that makes a life.  Yet, I wonder about other people.  It seems to happen when I’m sitting in my car, waiting at a traffic light.  I’ll turn, look at all the other people in their cars around me, all with destinations in mind, doing their own thing as if no one was watching.  Some people listen to music, some people sign to music.  Others talk on phones, others talk to people.  Some yell at kids, some pick their own noses.  Some just stare out the window, waiting for that moment when their life can resume it’s momentum.  A plethora of actions on display around me, a dance that lasts between 30 seconds to a minute or so, repeated, several times I feel like going anywhere.

I wonder about those people.  They must all have stories, they’ve all had lives probably of some consequence.  They all have stories.  That guy, did he serve in a war?  He has a verteran plate.  I wonder, has he ever killed anyone?  That woman, yelling at her kids.  Is she a good mom, or has having the children robbed her of identity?  That guy, staring out the window.  Is he happy, or is he using this brief respite to compose music or stories in his head?  Who is she talking to on the phone?  A husband?  Business partner?  A lover?  I’ll never know. Walking down the street is almost disorienting sometimes, all these people, all around me, in a tiny little corner of the world, and all of them with their own relatively unique stories.

A car honks.  The light has changed, the spell is broken.  Time to go home, and forget about all those other lives.
Until next time.

I’ve never been a big fan of internet anonymity. For quite a long time, well, until actually quite recently, I had all my privacy settings turned off on Facebook. What that means is that any random schmuck could come along, type in my name and see all the info, pictures and other random crap I provide there. In online games I have always been happy to provide my name, location, picture, that sort of thing. I’ve been told by a few people this means I am flirting with the ever present danger of identity theft… meh. I don’t see it. It’s not like I’m providing my social insurance number or any really important details about my life. I’ve had my phone number listed on my facebook for close to two years now (Yes, I was one of those very pretentious people who had a facebook account when you still needed a University e-mail to access it) and not even once have I ever received any sort of call from an advertiser. I only actually changed my privacy settings since I was alerted that a rather creepy ex-girlfriend of mine had been e-stalking me on it, following my moves and pictures. Considering how poorly some of my previous relationships have ended, I decided that it was time to move out from under my rock and erect some large fences around my personal property.

I don’t really feel all the better for it.

The fact is, people are getting more shut off. We have an entire generation in first and second world countries who are fairly addicted to the concept of the Internet (Not that this is entirely a bad thing, mind you), but with that addiction comes the social graces that have evolved out of the online medium. The evolution of the language into something that is beginning to resemble Newspeak is a little bit scary to me, but it’s the created walls around individuality that really freak me out. People are being taught to guard themselves at every angle. IF you’re a young girl or guy, every second person on the Internet is a 45 year old fat man wearing a Pedobear outfit. Hide yourself! Once you’re a teenager, especially for women, all they want are pictures of genitalia and number to stalk and harass you. It only goes downhill from there, once you get into the ideas of identity theft. All these perceived threats are accompanied by the teaching that one has to never release any information to anyone else on the internet. How long until this spills out into the real world though? Civilization is getting more shut off from each, more attached to technology. (Once again, not entirely a bad thing) I just worry that from the resulting rise of knowledge and education will lend itself to isolationism, both from other people, and the world at large.

This concept was explored in a movie I saw this summer, called “Surrogates”. Now, I will not even attempt to say that Surrogates was a good movie. It was interesting, how the idea was explored, but unfortunate in it’s execution. The main idea is that people are able to use surrogate androids to enter the world at large, instead of their own bodies. The main character has not even in reality interacted with his wife in a very long time, even through they live in the same house. All functions of society, from work, right down to war are enacted through these androids. To me, this is a very interesting idea, even if one almost entirely unexplored within the somewhat actiony confines of the movie. A surrogate can be whoever you want to be. The movie introduces a murder victim, a young blond girl, who in reality is an older, quite fat man in a dingy apartment. While it was a bit of a stereotype, internet anonymity is the beginning of this surrogate nature. Lead a boring, uninteresting life where no one knows you? Well, you can be a superstar in a MMO, just by putting the time into it to join a major guild. Thousands of people know those characters, the face they present to the virtual world.

Yet, at the same time, they don’t know the person behind it. Our fake faces could one day entirely eclipse the real face. One has to wonder what the impact on society that would have.

This post was a copy/paste from my other, short lived blog.  So, if you read it before, well.  Don’t read it again.