so what...

yeah, so i havent put anything on here in a while.
twitter is way easier.
but every once in a while i come across an article that makes me think. if you have 2 minutes, read THIS one and let me know what you think. its short. i promise.

heres a snippet from it so you can decide if it is interesting or not.

"Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife," he said.
"And, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it's the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it's an abomination.
"It's completely insane."

what do you think?

i came across THIS article talking about pat robertson and some of the things he has said over the years in regards to terrible tragedies such as haiti, katrina etc...here is a line from the blog...

"The likes of Pat Robertson never tire of pretending to know the mind of the infinite being conjured from their imagination. Let’s see how we’ve fared over the past 150 years..."

to find out how we have done over the past 150 years youll have to go read the posting by Jeff Schweitzer. One line written by Dr. Schweitzer that caught my attention was:

"the power of faith to overwhelm rational thought is not to be underestimated"

what do you think?

poor mr. braid

if you like to see people get embarrassed, then go watch THIS video.
its about 4 minutes long. is pretty funny and may make you think twice about the mailout that will probably end up in your mailbox in the coming weeks.
i found it via rick mercer's twitter.

rick mercer on proroguing

"There's a very good reason why the word prorogue doesn't come up that often in our society. Why would it? The word has absolutely no resonance with anyone in Canada because the notion that you can shut down anything for months at a time is a total fantasy. That's the thing about life; it's relentless. If you are an adult and live in the real world, proroguing isn't on the agenda, in much the same way levitating isn't."

read the rest of Rick Mercer's article

HERE

dont expect any insight here.

its been a sweet 2009. yeah i know, there is still about 9 days left this year. but its effectively over in my books. everyone seems to look back during this stretch of the year. back to the things that took place in the last 350+ days. some good and some not so good. tsn is doing a year in review show on xmas eve, countless bloggers write about their years, and tabloid magazines talk about the lives of the rich and famous to make the ‘normal’ people that read them feel better about themselves.

some of the highlights of my year include hanging out in montreal with nic for a week or so, watching some unreal tennis, buying and more importantly riding an 03 v-rod. If you haven’t seen this thing yet, its pretty sweet. a couple sweet rider games make the list for sure, a few bachelor parties, playing music with some of my good buddies up here in saskatoon, then theres the boring stuff like finishing school, getting a sweet job and buying a house. my list could be much longer, but if you really care, buy me a drink sometime and ill tell you more stories.

anyway, 2009 is over. or at least on its way out. for some reason people feel the need to have a celebration on dec 31st. sort of another thing i dont understand. but at least its a good excuse to hang out with good people even if you have to pause for 10 seconds, count down from 10 and listen to everyone cheer obnoxiously. but ill likely be right there, feigning interest alongside the rest of them. or maybe ill just go out on the sidewalk and smoke a cigar by myself and watch other peoples fireworks like i did on the streets of brooklyn a few years ago. it really is too hard to say...good riddance 2009

what do other countries think of canada?

apparently not much. or at least this guy doesn't...

"When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world's peacekeeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country's government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee's tea party...

Until now I believed that the nation that has done most to sabotage a new climate change agreement was the United States. I was wrong. The real villain is Canada. Unless we can stop it, the harm done by Canada in December 2009 will outweigh a century of good works."

read the rest of the article HERE

worldfest 2009

as part of the World Junior Hockey Championships that are coming to Saskatchewan this year, they have put together a Worldfest pre and post game party in both regina and saskatoon. HERE is a link. anyway, the exciting part of it all is that my band gets to play at it on january 4th up here in saskatoon.
should be a good time. go listen to a few tunes at our website or hereif you havent heard them yet.

are you serious?

i found this ad on a classified website today. sort of funny. i cant believe people actually do this.

"Hi. I'm looking for a pet sitter for my cat while I am away at Christmas. He requires 2 pills per day (one in the morning and one in the evening) but this is very easy to do. He is friendly and gentle elderly cat. I will be away for approximately 2 weeks. Please email me with what you would charge per day and what experience you have."

now watch, im gonna catch it...

i feel like im in a zombie movie lately. pretty soon Woody Harrelson will jump out from around a corner and start shooting everyone with swine flu. friends are gonna turn on each other soon and a complete irradication of the “infected” will begin à la 28 days later, or zombieland. someone has to be getting rich off this whole swine flu thing. if only i visited my fortune-teller earlier to learn this awful pandemic was coming. I could have developed an iPhone app or came up with a magic “cocktail” containing silver “nano”-particles that would guarantee immunity. i would be swimming in money along with purell and all the other hand sanitizer companies. maybe i should develop some fancy hand lotion that people are gonna need after washing their hands raw. or a sleeve cover, so when people sneeze into their elbows, they can tear the cover off and throw it into the incinerator along with everything else they touch. keep your eyes open for my new products that are gonna take advantage of the fear that has been ingrained in you...

weekend

on friday tim brought a crew consisting of nic, jason and cody up to help him load his uhaul to take down to regina. the evening consisted of fuddruckers (which took a long time cause someone had to order chicken), hauling some boxes and watching the rider game.
it also included reminders of "dont forget the christmas lights". thanks tara.
had some good talks about life, football, books we've been reading, ways to make money, how awesome the Canadiens are and good acronyms for TSN signs to take to the rider game on oct 10th.
watch for us. our signs will get us on tv for sure. that and nic wearing his birthday suit. it will be his birthday after all.

i went and saw Dragonforce last night here in saskatoon. it was unreal. dueling key-tars (apparently thats how nic says your supposed to spell it). green tights, plenty of long hair all make for some good laughs. check out this video. seeing these guys play there guitars like that was sick.
if you dont want to watch it all, at least fast forward to the 2 minute mark to see the solos. wow

september

a lot has changed for me the past few months. got a job, bought a house. ok, so only two things have changed. 2 is a lot in my opinion.
anyway, its september now. starting to get into the new routine and almost feeling used to showing up to work everyday. i dont miss school. lets not lie. it was a good run, but i dont miss it.

september is a sweet time of year. the US Open just finished in dramatic fashion, baseball season is wrapping up and the push for the playoffs has begun. hockey season is just starting and i cannot wait. plans are in the works to get to at least one Canadiens game in montreal this year. the riders absolutely destroyed the bombers last weekend. life couldnt be better.


a few books ive been reading lately are from a pretty different point of view from a lot of books ive read in the past. dont get me wrong, ive read some great ones-donald miller, brian mclaren, anne lamott, blair roberts. people like that. with great stories that have made me think.

more recently however, i picked up a book by richard dawkins called 'the god delusion'. the guy is a world renowned scientist so at times it can be a tough read, but it made me think. if you actually do read it, which i expect none of you will, chapter 7 was the one that caught my attention. that and the first line in chapter 2. ouch. id be interested to hear your opinion(s)

the book im currently reading is called 'american fascists' by chris hedges. so far this one is really good. easier to read than dawkins but just as hard hitting. he went to seminary at harvard, but is writing from a very similar place to where i find myself these days.
so there it is..the point of my blog. a challenge...pick up something you wouldnt normally read. something that will make you think and challenge what you have grown up thinking is true. its good for you.

i just realized i have nothing profound to say and this blog is a complete waste of your time if you are reading it. i apologize.

2 years and 8 months later

in january 2007 i moved to saskatoon to go back to school. my job in yellowknife was ok, but it didnt really challenge me. doing the exact same thing day after day got old after about 10 months and i decided i needed something to push me a little bit more.

i didnt know what i was getting myself into when i signed up for grad school. i figured it would be a shorter version of my undergrad degree and i would learn some new concepts and enjoy the life of a student again.

the first few months were awful. it was so different than anything i had expected.i wanted something that would push me a 'little' bit more...not to the brink of quitting. the courses were noticeably more difficult, the expectations were that much higher and every person i met in the hallways was a hell of a lot more intelligent than i was. i wanted to quit everday for the first few months.

jackson and tressia were the two people i would work with everday for the next 32 months and were also a big part of the reason i stuck with it. they were both super patient and friendly and sort of taught me the ropes about working in a research setting. i enjoyed getting to know them better and learned a great deal from both of them, not only about chemistry but about life as well. you dont get a chance to meet such quality people all the time, and it was more than a privilege to get to work with these guys.

anyway, my time in the Foley lab has come to an end. a new chapter starts once i walk out the door at the end of today. a new chapter that i am super excited for. however, its still hard moving on. even though my new workplace will be within walking distance of where ive spent the last few years, it wont be the same. ill miss the surroundings that have become so comfortable.

maybe thats when its time for things to change..when things become comfortable?

unemployed no more

so i got a job at the Canadian Light Source (sometimes called the Synchrotron). im pretty excited about this opportunity, and excited to be able to stay in saskatoon for a while longer. check out
THIS video cause it explains what happens in the building much better than i can.

a week in Montreal

After a week in Montreal the time has come to head back west. Montreal was unreal, but before I get to that, I have to say how bad the Winnipeg airport is. It would be worth driving to a different city like Regina or Minneapolis to avoid this building. Now that I have that out of the way...

Montreal is a sweet city. Go read Nics blog for what he thinks. It is written far better than mine will be. Growing up I always thought I hated large cities but that's because the only ones I had seen were calgary and Edmonton. No wonder I had a bad taste in my mouth. I've been a few more places since my younger days and have learned that a lot of bigger cities actually have things put together in a much more logical manner. Montreal is one of those. 

Besides that, the history and architecture are great in this city. We watched tennis for a week straight, ate some amazing ethnic food, and of course it is home of the greatest franchise in pro sports. The only thing it is missing is the Expos. If we could have seen a baseball game there, our week would've been entirely complete. We did however manage to find an unlocked door in Olympic stadium to take in the place that would have been home of the 1994 world series champs had there not been a strike. I still blame this strike on the demise of the MLB in this city. 

We had a blast, met some sweet people and watched some unreal tennis. Thanks to Jacynthe for letting us crash in your living room. We will be back when the Canadiens begin pursuit of their 25th Stanley cup. Until next time..

from a nobel laureate

"the main thing you need to learn is doubt. Don't believe anything you're told without good reason and argument. Doubt underpins science." Sir Harold W. Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996


he was speaking in scientific terms, but i think it is a good principle in general. any thoughts?

past its prime?

so i came across THIS article on macworld.com, who apparently found it on PC world. its about facebook. read the whole article if you are interested. its not that long. but ill pull out the five headlines from the article for those of you who are too lazy to click the link.

1. Facebook Veterans are Defecting to Twitter
2. People Who Actually Have Lives Don't Use Facebook
3. In the Real World, People Often Have Good Reasons for Losing Touch With Old Friends
4. Having too many friends takes the edge off facebook postings
5. After That ‘25 Things’ Note, There's Not Much Left to Say


I don't really know what points 4 & 5 mean. but I can tell you that 2 & 3 are bang on. anyway. found this article interesting. especially since i have been making similar points for a while now. things that support your own view point are always entertaining, no?

in other news. Stephen Harper thinks ?all taxes are bad taxes? this could get ugly.

making the news.

its sort of funny what kind of stuff makes the news these days. heres a couple of the ones i found humorous while reading the globe and mail and drinking my morning coffee:

-stephen harper puts communion cracker in his pocket.
doesnt matter if its true or not. who really cares?

-a guys guitar got broken on United Airlines, writes a song, gets famous
check out youtube for "United Breaks Guitars", especially if you like
TAYLOR guitars. Tim this one might be for you. Pretty decent video
and seems like a great marketing strategy for his band


in other news, i went to A&W last nite for supper cause i had a coupon. i dont usually eat fast food like that cause i end up regretting it the minute i finish. last nite was no different. the story gets worse. so im ordering at A&W and they asked what i want to drink. of course i said root beer, its A&W "world famous rootbeer" after all. but they were out. A&W out of rootbeer? what? must be global warming.

news

for those of you that still follow this...in recent news, i have successfully defended my thesis. and more recent news, once Nic's nose heals he will likely be married off faster than...well, just really fast. i was gonna write something witty, but would likely offend someone. he is gonna be one good looking dude. watch out ladies.

in other news, check out CBC Radio3, today June 23 and check out their selection for New Music Canada's Track of the day. if you dont get to check it on june 23, or you do and you cant find it, follow THIS link and it will take you to the correct posting.

2 days

this is what my desk currently looks like, as i'm studying for my defense which is on friday. its amazing how much stuff i am still learning. running out of time to learn anymore but excited for the challenge that lies ahead. i imagine that my pit stains that day will possibly exceed the ones i had while taking pictures at melissas wedding. and those ones were impressive. ask her.