Crazy Christmas Lights – Day 4

Late again, but not by much. Once again, I modified the time stamp.

Crazy Christmas Lights – Day 3

So, it’s only three days late. Oh well. I modified the time stamp.

Crazy Christmas Lights – Day 2

Crazy Christmas Lights – Day 1

Okay, so this is really late. I’m sorry about that. I had my last two final exams yesterday, so now I can do fun things. Sorry for the quality of the pictures to come. They were taken out of a car window at night, so even with VR, they are still pretty sketch. Enjoy!

Sign the Petition

You can go and join with over 65 000 other Canadians in saying no to this coalition government.
http://www.petitiononline.com/CANADIAN/

Write the Governor General

Here is a nice form letter that you can send and read to help understand the situation. Her email address is info@gg.ca. If the Governor General allows this coalition government, it will drive a huge wedge in this country. Western separatism will be alive and well. I’ll support it. This coalition government won’t last long. It really bothers me that Stephan Dion, the man that his own party doesn’t want to be its leader, let alone Canadians, will be Prime Minister. His carbon tax would devastate the Canadian economy. The man is totally incompetent. I don’t know how many times since he became Liberal leader I read about him saying that he doesn’t support the motion, yet will vote for it anyway. The Conservatives were in power for 3 years before now and had many important votes, like Afghanistan. It is quite clear to me that these buffoons do not have the interest of Canadians in their mind. They are power hungry and bitter.

Then there is Jack Layton. The man that wants to shut down the Alberta Oil Sands. The man is a nut. He should not be given any power. Oh, and then there is Gilles Duceppe, who will hold the balance of power. The Quebec separatists will hold the balance of power in the Canadian national government. How does that make sense?

Here is the letter. You can send this one, or write your own. A coalition government is not good for Canada. Write the Governor General and let her know how you feel.

To Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.. Governor General of Canada,

I would like to voice my concern over the current events that have transpired within the House of Commons. Within six weeks of a federal election, the current opposition parties have decided to hijack our democratic system and put their own concerns ahead of the concerns of our nation. It is clearly evident given the current timelines and the recently leaked tapes of Mr Layton’s back room deals that this has been planned for some time. It has nothing to do with the Conservative Party’s economic stimulus plan; The House has not lost confidence in the ruling party, they are merely trying to overthrow the government. In light of the economic situation being faced by not only Canada, but also the entire world, it is evident that this is a self serving maneuver and it has little to do with what is in the best interests of Canadians.

I performed my civic duty, and I voted. I was under the impression when I cast that vote that it would count for something, and that the government in this country is responsible to the public which it governs. The Conservatives won a clear mandate to govern, they were the only party to post significant gains, and they picked up one of the highest percentages of the popular vote in recent history. The NDP, the Liberals and most importantly the Bloc have no right to usurp the authority of the general population of this country and ignore the will of the people. A coalition government will not represent equally and fairly all regions of this nation. The Bloc holding the balance of power in this new coalition with full veto power is unthinkable. This is a dedicated separatist party with no other motive than to destroy national unity. The Liberal Party of Canada received the lowest percentage of the popular vote in the history of the party, and lost seats in every province or territory but two, and yet they feel they have the right to govern. The NDP are asking for cabinet seats in a parliament in which they never even earned the right of official opposition. This is unthinkable.

We are now suffering immeasurable damage economically, the TSX crashed today, setting an all time record for losses, despite recent gains and news stories saying that Canada was weathering this international storm. The world has obviously lost confidence in Canada. How foolish we must appear to an international community that looks to us as “peace keepers” and “defenders of democracy”. We send our soldiers to other nations whose governments have been hijacked by coups and uprisings such as this to defend the very freedoms that this coalition will strip us of. It is very embarrassing that our country is trying to promote the democratic process internationally, yet we are making a joke of the process on our own soil.

If there is to be a change of government, the decision must be taken to the voters of Canada. It is imperative that the people be allowed to decide. That is what Democracy is, that is what Canadian soldiers have died for, and are still laying down their lives to protect.

Leave it alone, or let us decide…

Time Lapse – Dashboard Lights Swap

This is a time lapse of me changing out the light of the instrument cluster in my 1996 Toyota Tacoma. In total, it took about an hour to an hour and a half. This is the second time I did it. The first time I put in blue LEDs that weren’t bright enough. I bought some super bright lights from Japan and put those in this time around. They are much better.

This is 504 shots that I took with my Nikon D80. I used Nikon Camera Control Pro to control my camera. I told it to take a picture every second, but with processing time, I think it ended up being once every four or five seconds.

The music is part of Morning Rain by Joel Steeves (me). I know it doesn’t fit the best, but this way I don’t have to worry about copyright.

What’s really fun to watch is the screws on the right hand side. There isn’t many pictures of me putting them there or taking them away, so they just kind of appear and disappear.

I’m working on getting the high res version up on Vimeo, but it’s not liking me right now.

EDIT: HD Version – http://www.vimeo.com/2263676

It Happened Again

Remember how I said that the new design would take a while? Yeah, it didn’t. As with my photography site, I started working on this one and couldn’t stop. I really like it. Again, as with the photography site, I didn’t design it. The design is from Aaron Ganschow and is called Tidy Blog.

I have added lots to the design however, like the Recently Dugg and Recently Played in the sidebar. Plus, I had to make it play nice with Wordpress. At the bottom you’ll find my recent flickr uploads. You can also find these on the “Photos” page. The search works too. I decided to include it this time around, which required me to make it work. I’ve never bothered with search before, but the bar was already there.

I’m still not sure about the logo I created, so that may change. What do you guys think about it? There are some other things that will probably change in the near future. What do you think of it so far? I hope you like it.

Digg Problems

I actually wrote most of this last night, but I didn’t publish it. I now see that Lahni wrote a very similar post, which is strictly a coincidence.

If you know me well, you know that I love Digg. I am constantly checking Digg throughout the day. I would bet that I spend hours on Digg everyday. I find everything on Digg, from hot news items to hilarious videos/pictures to cool science stuff. Lately, however, Digg and I have been having some problems. Really, it boils down to one thing: the other Diggers. I am so sick of the hypocrisy that runs rampant in the comments. I have found most diggers to be left leaning atheists, which is fine. The problem, however, is that many of these fine souls do not practice what they preach. They love to think that they are open-minded and respectful of others. They aren’t though. Any story that mentions religion is immediately filled with comments that basically say that if you believe in God you are a complete idiot who deserves no respect. They lump anyone who has any believes in God into the same category as the religious zealots. They have become very much like the religious zealots whom they despise so much. They are closed-minded individuals who can’t see past their own beliefs. They are egotistical in their belief of the non-existence of God. They label anyone who does believe an idiot, a sheeple, a nut etc. It really bothers me. I agree that there are some people out there who are religious zealots that are rather extreme, but to lump all religious people together, as the comments on digg frequently do, is unfair and wrong. And if you try to explain that to them, they will quickly point out that they are not trying to convert people and digg you down. However, a lot of the comments are about how people have been fed lies by organized religion and telling them they’re wrong. I’d say that that is the same thing.

On a related note, I really dislike how one-sided digg can be and how quickly allegiances can change. Take for instances the American election. First it was Ron Paul. It seemed like every story was about Ron Paul and everyone loved him. A story that brought up some bad points about Ron Paul was immediately buried. Then, when Ron Paul was no longer in the race, Digg switched to Obama. No story could bash Obama. Anything that bashed Hilary or any Republican (except Ron Paul as I pointed out earlier) during the primaries was dugg straight to the top. No pro-Hilary or pro-McCain/Romney/Huckabee article could do that. After the primaries were over it was the same thing, except it was all against McCain and Palin.

The other thing that bothers me is that, no matter what the story is about, someone will turn it into a political or religious discussion. Not only that, but it will end just as I described above. I mean you could have a picture of a cute puppy and someone would say “Palin will probably shoot it from a helicopter” or “The religious right want to ban puppies too! Watch out!” You get the point.

I think the last verse of the song Angry Mob by the Kaiser Chiefs describes digg very well.

We are the angry mob
We read the papers everyday day
We like who like
We hate who we hate
But we’re also easily swayed

If Only