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Friday, October 7th, 2011
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8:18 am
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Hi LiveJournal,
I realise hardly anyone reads LiveJournal anymore, and I don't think Donny and I even had many mutual friends, but I have to do what I can to get the word out...
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.6) nekidwhiteboy is dead. His funeral is today at 2:30pm at Laurel Lands Funeral Home, 6000S RL Thornton, Dallas. His family don't know how to contact his friends, and they couldn't find his cell phone, so they want people to spread the word.
I realise this is late notice for anyone not in the Dallas area, but it's not too late to send condolences.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, July 25th, 2010
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11:46 am - Greeting friends
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If you're female, greeting friends is easy. You give them a hug.
If you're male, it's a little trickier. If you're a gay man, it's yet trickier. If you're an anglophone living in Quebec, it's yet trickier.
As a gay male anglophone living in quebec, this is what my decision tree for greeting a friend looked like:
if (friend.is_female()) {
hug();
} else if (friend.is_french_canadian()) {
kiss_twice_on_cheeks();
} else if (friend.is_gay()) {
hug();
} else if (friend.have_not_seen_in_long_time()) {
hug();
} else {
handshake();
}
This isn't even including those punches and weird handshakes that men sometimes give each other. Touching fists ("fist-punching") seems to be big now, but I stay away from them since they seem to be highly age-specific and location-specific. Gently punching a man's arm or shoulder seems to always be popular, but I'm still not clear on the etiquette.
If a straight man could publish a decision tree like this, that would help.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
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1:02 am - Memeage
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| Friday, August 28th, 2009
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12:22 am
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| Friday, August 21st, 2009
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1:50 am
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So, I guess this is what Al Gore warned us about.
Tornados hit Toronto tonight, which is pretty crazy since we don't usually get tornados here. There are reports that one man is dead.
Actually, the tornados didn't hit Toronto proper. They hit the suburbs immediately surrounding Toronto (the "Greater Toronto Area"). But the storms we got here were still unlike any I've seen. I was on my way to my friends' place around 7pm when I saw giant green clouds rapidly moving in and eating up the western sky. I got into their apartment building just before the storm hit us. I said to them, "I don't know if you've seen outside lately, but it looks like the End of Days is coming on the horizon."
Still, as far as crazy weather goes, this isn't as crazy as the fact that it frickin' snowed in Vietnam last year.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
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8:20 pm
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So, Health Canada have announced that they're now only going to release swine flu statistics once a week instead of daily. (Now how will I get my daily dose of anxiety?)
For those who are wondering, the incidence of swine flu in Canada is now high enough that we're having deaths daily. The death tally is currently 30. A week ago it was 16.
The death rate appears to be about 0.4% at the moment, which doesn't seem too alarming. However, for every person who dies, there's another 10 who are being kept alive by respirators. The fear is that we're eventually going to run out of respirators, and then the death rate could shoot up.
The good news is that they say a vaccine will be ready by September or October. So hopefully the vaccine will become available before winter hits.
In the meantime, avoid crowds, and don't touch your eyes, nose, or mouth without first disinfecting your hands with an alcohol-based sanitizer.
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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10:13 pm
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I feel weird because everyone around me seems upset about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, and I'm... not.
It's not that I don't care about celebrity deaths. It's just that these two celebrities didn't mean much to me personally.
Farrah Fawcett was a little before my time, and for whatever reason, it seems I never discovered her stuff or learnt much about her signficance. She seems like a nice person. I just didn't really know her.
I'm aware of Michael Jackson, of course, and I remember that Thriller was the only album my mother owned on vinyl. But I grew up during the later part of his career. I only cared for a few of his songs ("Smooth Criminal" is the only one I think was brilliant), and that was more than outweighed by what a dick I thought he was. (Apart from his well-publicised weirdness, he also had a penchant for aligning himself with anti-Semetic groups.)
The strange thing is that I really did develop an interest in 80s music later, but Michael Jackson was so over-exposed that I never thought to look into his stuff. Maybe I would have like him more if I had.
I still recognise "Don't stop 'til you get enough" as a disco classic, though.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, June 4th, 2009
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3:15 pm - The state of Canadian bilingualism.
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Yesterday, I bought a can of wasabi peas. In English, they were labelled as being "Cholesterol free".
In French, they were labelled "Le cholestérol libère".
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, May 24th, 2009
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10:32 pm - Ingenious.
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| Friday, May 8th, 2009
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8:45 am - Deadpool is getting his own X-Men spin-off movie!
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And I haven't seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine yet, so don't tell me how bad Ryan Renold's portrayal of him was.
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(comment on this)
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| Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
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10:59 am
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I've been keeping an eye on the number of confirmed swine flu cases in Canada to try to get a sense of whether this thing is going to grow exponentially or not. It's hard right now because the numbers are so small, and there's great variation in the amount of testing being done.
On Monday, the number of cases was reported as 6. On Tuesday, it was 13. Wednesday was 19. Thursday was 34. Friday was 51.
The next couple of days will be very telling.
Update: And today the count is 80 85. It looks like it's increasing by about 70% per day. That's exponential, folks.
If any one wants me, I'll be stocking up on water and non-perishable food.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
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9:50 pm
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The World Health Organisation has raised the pandemic alert for swine flu to Phase 5. There are only 6 phases. Phase 6 means that it's a pandemic.
I don't want to panic anybody, because this isn't smallpox. It's not airborne, and it's not mysterious, and it's not particularly lethal. It's the flu, and we know a lot about the flu, and we know how to make vaccinations for the flu, and we have drugs that interfere with the spread of the flu.
But still. It never hurts to have basic preparations for an emergency. Everyone should have 72 hours worth of food and clean water, as well as batteries, a battery-powered radio, one month's worth of any medications, and a flashlight (electric torch).
I'm not suggesting that people will die en masse. But it's reasonable to expect that you may be stuck at home due to fuel shortages, or simply because you want to avoid other people. Or maybe the local shops will be closed, making it hard to get food (just like what happened during the big blackout a few years back). And even just a few deaths are enough to cause a panic (and panic itself can be dangerous).
In the event of an emergency, your government will be doing all it can to help you. But governments are big, clumsy, and slow. It will take them a while to get to you. (Remember the U.S. government response to Katrina?) That's why you need 72 hours worth of food and water.
Just get a case of bottled water and box of energy bars and store them in the basement, next to your batteries, flashlight, and radio. They can live there forever, and you'll have peace of mind.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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12:54 am
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You know what's a fun English suffix? '-ster'.
In old English, it referred to occupations performed by women. A woman who weaved was a webster. A woman who brewed was a brewster. A woman who baked was a baxter (bakster). A woman who sang was a songster. A woman who sewed was a seamster. A woman who spun was a spinster.
Over time, the suffix lost its meaning and the derived terms became gender-neutral. Webster, Brewster, and Baxter became masculine enough to survive as surnames. Songster and Seamster gained the additional feminine suffix '-ess' to become Songstress and Seamstress.
And Spinster, somehow, came to mean an old, unmarried woman. The remarkable thing to me is that it managed to remain gender-specific.
In other news, LJ is dying. Three of my friends just posted about defecting to Twitter.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, March 27th, 2009
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12:17 pm
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I'm sitting in a café in Windsor, Ontario, and they're playing "Labour of Love" by Frente! on the sound system. It's like being back in Melbourne.
I'm curious about how Google Maps determines what the centre of a city is. Like, if you type in a city name with no other information, what intersection does it take you to?
In Toronto, it takes you to Yonge and Bloor. That kinda makes sense to me, because it's where the main subway lines intersect, and when I first came to Toronto, I assumed that would be the centre of town. But now that I've lived here for a while, I think the centre of town is more likely to be in the vicinity of Yonge and Queen. Or maybe Union Station.
In Montréal, it takes you to St-Denis and Autoroute Métropolitaine (where Crémazie Station is). That seems clearly wrong to me. I never went that far north. I would have thought the centre would be St-Denis and Ste-Catherine. Maybe I'd be more familiar with the autoroute if I had a car, though.
In Brisbane, it's Queen St and Anzac Square. I guess that's fitting. I would have expected Queen and Edward, or else King George Square on Ann St.
In Melbourne, it's Bourke and Elizabeth. That seems completely right. It would have to be that, or Flinders Station.
I imagine this post was dull for anyone who doesn't live in one of those cities. Why don't you try it with your own city!
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, March 26th, 2009
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9:09 am
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| Friday, March 6th, 2009
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12:38 pm
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I find it strange when people advocate Communism in a dispassionate, abstract way.
Let's be clear on what Communism is. Communism is not sitting around in a Starbucks and expressing concern for the poor. Communism involves guns. Lots and lots of guns.
And you will certainly not be drinking $5 coffees under Communism. You will be drinking the same government-issued coffee that everyone else is drinking. It will probably be freeze-dried.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, February 27th, 2009
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10:48 am
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You know the clothing store Kingsport?
Is that supposed to be pronounced "King Sport" or "Kings Port"?
Either would make sense.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Monday, February 23rd, 2009
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12:17 pm
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| Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
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8:54 am
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| Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
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11:29 am - Australian English
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In Australia, the word "due" is usually pronounced the same as "jew". "Dual" is pronouced the same as "jewel", and "deuce" is pronounced the same as "juice".
This is why I'm afraid to say the word "duopoly". I'm worried that if I don't say it carefully, people will think I'm being anti-Semitic.
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(comment on this)
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