Owwwww-uh

I just fell down my basement stairs. Don't laugh, it really hurt. I've never fallen down these stairs before, and I've lived in this house for nearly seven years. I think I bumped my head, but on closer inspection, I don't sense any permanent damage.

The same-sex marriage issue

Soon, there will be a vote in Canada's Commons that will essentially set out a country-wide standard regarding the legality of same-sex marriage.

Now, if you believe the newspapers, and television, and radio, and just about any other media source, you're probably assuming that the legislation is going to get shot down, burned, spit on, and used to line bird cages. In fact, it's probably safer to assume the legislation will pass, probably with about 50-55% of the vote, but not much more.

However, the people that are opposing it are generally much louder than those who support, you know, equal rights.

Their arguments basically focus on the fact that legalizing same-sex marriage who harm society, devalue the concept of "marriage", and create a harmful environment for children (in fact, "Hey! You! We just decided you can't have kids! In fact, don't go near them!"). The farther right also argue that it's a moot point anyway, because no one's actually homosexual, they just choose to be and are doing it for attention.

Now, in a time when about 52% of marriages end in divorce, countries like the States can't understand why teen pregnancy and STD infection is on the rise (we teach abstinence, why isn't it working?), and people can be married by Elvis, how much farther is there to go in devaluing the concept of marriage?

Basically, what this comes down to is equality. Quite simply, it's not morally or ethically right to deny something to one group of people that everyone else can have. This is going to be the kind of thing that, 60 years from now, people will look back on and say, "Wow, I can't believe they had such an argument about that."

You know, like, "Wow, they actually burned people at the stake?"

Or, "Wow, I can't believe women had to go through such a long fight for suffrage."

Or, "Wow, I can't believe people argued to keep black people as slaves."

Captain Parking Lot

Remember how I've complained in the past about the parking situation at Georgian? Well, today I feel slighty vindicated.

I came out of my last class and went to my car, and noticed an SUV in a non-parking spot that I was essentially blocking in. My first thought was, "Wow, how in the hell did she even get in there?"

As I approached my car, the woman in the SUV got out and said, "You're blocking me in!" She wasn't upset or anything, it was more of just a statement of the situation. I apologized profusely, and she told me that she had called security, but that they were unable to do anything since my license plate wasn't registered or something weird like that. As it turns out, I'd actually been blocking her in for about an hour.

Again, I apologized, but just drove off. Was I callous? For the following reasons, I feel I was justified:

1) If she had to park in that particular spot, that would have implied that the lot was full. As such, she must have been able to get in, so why couldn't she get out? For the record, I think she could have, it would have just been about a 10-point turn.

2) She was driving an SUV. I find it very difficult to feel sorry for people in SUVs.

3) I was in a parking spot. She was in a no-parking spot.

I rest my case. I feel I have struck a blow for everyone that has ever been late for a class because they were trying to find parking, and for everyone that has cursed at someone for double-parking, or parking across two spaces, or parking in non-parking zones.

I am Captain Parking Lot. No SUV is safe!

A Weird Time of Day

I had two tests today, so, in order to do some last minute studying, I got to school around 8:00 this morning. There is something very odd about being at school that early in the morning, when there really aren't a lot of people there. Carley might agree with me, but I suppose that after a semester or two of 8 a.m. classes, the magic of the moment is lost.

I first experienced the early-morning-no-one-at-school-but-scary-janitors moment when I was in Grade 10 and on the basketball team. The coach had a thing for 6:30 practices, so I got to know the darkened halls of the school very well.

There's just something about the tranquility of it; it's still dark out (which happened until about 10, but still), the halls are not overrun by slow-moving people and old women with wheelie bags. It really is the only time of day that all the conditions can be recreated. Sure, by six at night it's dark and the halls are mostly quiet, but by then you're so exhausted from the day, that everything's lost on you.

It's a really good time to just sit and look out a window. Good poetry time. It's a shame to waste it on studying.

Stars

I've only really noticed them a few times, but when I leave Carley's house at night (which, God love January, now comes at about 4:30 in the evening), the stars look incredibly bright. She's only 30 seconds outside of town, and there are streetlights probably 500 metres, but that lack of light makes all the difference, and the sky looks amazing.

Not a good argument...

I don't know if anyone's been paying attention to the progression of the trial of the American soldier charged with abuse after the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (probably not, it's been relegated to page 12 of the newspaper due to the media storm surrounding the tsunami and its related happenings and non-happenings).

But, for those of you who have been keeping track, you've probably noticed by now that the soldier and his lawyer are raving lunatics. Basically, he admits to doing everything he is accused of, but that he shouldn't be found guilty for two reasons:

1) The prisoners hate America, thus they deserve it
2) He was only following orders

Now, I don't want to belabour this last point, as it is blatantly obvious, but claiming "I was only following orders" as justification for torturing and abusing people because they are of a certain religion may not be the most original idea. Or the best.

----------------------

Charles Graner was convicted of all charges, and could face up to 15 years in jail. With any luck, every prisoner he abused will be waiting for him.

The Nominees Are:

OK, so I had hoped to have this done by the new year, but it didn't quite pan out. But here, now, are the nominees for the First Annual Mike Statement Radio Awards:

Whiniest Song
"Broken" - Seether f. Amy Lee (or, more accurately, Amy Lee f. Who the Hell is Seether?)
"Fall To Pieces" - Velvet Underground
"Welcome To My Life" - Simple Plan
"Reason" - Hoobastank

Most Overplayed Song
"Vertigo" - U2
"American Idiot" - Green Day
"Fall To Pieces" - Velvet Underground
"We're All To Blame" - Sum 41

Most Overplayed Band
U2
Green Day
Nickelback
Tragically Hip
Sum 41

Most Overplayed Band That Hasn't Done Anything Recently
Our Lady Peace
Tragically Hip
Sam Roberts
Lenny Kravitz

Most Underplayed Song
"Slow Hands" - Interpol
"Predictable" - Good Charlotte
"Pretty Life" - Jackalope
"A Crow Left of the Murder" - Incubus

Most Underplayed Band
Good Charlotte
Incubus
Pre-suck Nickelback
Anything resembling emo
Or ska

Worst Cover Song That The Radio Refuses To Admit Can't Hold A Candle To The Original
None. This one seemed like a good idea at the time...

Worst Radio Personality
Josie Dye (Edge 102)
Bookie (Edge 102)
The Woman That's Always On (97.7)
Andy Frost (107.1)
Mindless Banter-Bot 5000 (103.5, or, really, any station that played hip hop and R&B and employ guys who spend the whole time talking too fast to no one in particular)

Worst Commercials
Mini Cooper commercials ("You want to touch my..." "NEW SIX-SPEED TRANSMISSION")
Harvey's commercials (deep baritone mumble"BEEF"deep baritone mumble"HARVEY'S")
Spence Diamonds ("This is Seeeeeean, from Spence Diiiiiiiamonds")
Edge at the Kingdom commercials ("THERE'S AMERICAN GIRLS IN THE BAR!")

Sports Show Hosted By Myself And The Urban Zombie That You'd Like To See Back On The Air
No contest, we know who's got this wrapped up.

So, there you have it, the nominees. I'll probably get around to writing the show up.

On Second Thought

Come to think of it, Matt's probably the best example of this; he blatantly ignores what you're saying and does the opposite, instead of just pretending he didn't hear you. But I'm sure there's a Blockbuster policy stating that he is the center of the universe, so maybe he's got a loophole.

Talking for the good of my health

I talk a lot (and loudly as many people point out), and I generally don't really have anything too crucial to say. But, when I'm saying it, at least give me the impression that the words are permeating your ear drum.

I work with someone (well, not for much longer, but that's beside the point) who suffers from this problem. Not only is he a terrible interrupter - you're lucky to get two words...oh, sorry, he interrupted - but he really couldn't care less what you say in between him talking.

An example:

Guy: Well...it's my last week...damn, I only work one day, I won't even be able to get my discount after then.
Me: You're an employee until Saturday, you get your discount until then.
Guy: That's really unfair, I mean, we couldn't get it at all last week, and now I won't be able to get it this week.
Me: You're not out of a job until Saturday, you have all week.
Guy: Because there's a lot of games I want to buy.
Me: You can buy them, Frank's in all week.
Guy: Damn, maybe I'll just buy them at Future Shop.

At this point I have accepted that I'm basically just there so that when he speaks, there isn't an echo. Essentially, I am a piece of foam padding. Please, don't pin anything to me, it ruins the noise absorption.

I've noticed there are quite a few of you out there (he's just the most flagrant example I have, although I'm guessing our plot-pointers probably fall into the same category). To all of you, please, please try to at least feign interest in what other people are saying. Unless you're a writhing ball of hydrogen and helium being relentlessly fused together until you burn out in 6 million years, you are not the center of the universe.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Carley and I have both managed (through exemptions and timetable manipulation) to have two days off per school week. We both would like to try and pick up another course for this semester, since it'll give us more choices in the last couple of years of our courses. Hopefully the changes won't overload us with work, but I think we should...

Wait...what? You mean the only way to take that course is to go in from 8-9 am on Friday? But I have Friday off! Aw, screw that.

OK, how about...7-8 pm? Ha! Yeah right.

Oooh, this one's taught by four different professors, plenty of options here. Monday. Monday. Monday. Monday. Oh...that helps.

Basically, it's not quite as easy as we had hoped. We almost managed to get into the same microeconomics class, but it interfered with one of her courses. I want to take Human Resources Management. The only time where there is no conflict and I would not have to lose a day off is example #2 up there.

Georgian hasn't exactly proven to be too accomodating in the course changes department. Carley actually found out that not all of her optional courses will be available from semester to semester (which makes me curious about mine), so it kinda makes it hard to decide where you're going to go from year to year.

Ocean's Twelve and rude people

Carley and I went to see Ocean's Twelve on Saturday night (our first date in a while), and, depressingly, it didn't exactly go great.

Point one: The movie was...enh...not so great. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it couldn't hold a candle to the first one. First, it's very easy to tell that the script was not initially written with Ocean's Twelve in mind. The story was very convoluted, and there was not nearly as much interaction between the characters as in the first. In fact, with the exception of Pitt, Clooney, Damon, and Roberts, the characters from the first movie are reduced to bit parts. Hell, Bernie Mac is in jail about a quarter of the way in (not that that's a terrible loss, but...).

And then there is the direction of Steven Soderbergh. Here's the deal with Soderbergh: he gained a ton of notoriety early in his career for his raw edgy style, and his use of handheld cameras. Now, he is an Oscar-winning director, so, may I just say, get off the handheld kick. And, failing that, the zoom button must be used sparingly. Spar-ing-ly. Instead, much of the movie had this creepy 1950's beach movie vibe as he zoomed in and out on characters.

Now, the real reason the night wasn't great (although it did provide some humour): The couple behind us had apparently never seen a movie before, and felt it necessary to reveal plot points. Loudly. And the revelation of these plot points resulted in the back of Carley's seat being kicked.

To illustrate my point, here are two of the myriad times the guy revealed intricatly disguised plot points (points which, I think it can be said, the entire movie...nay, the entire movie industry hinged on):

One of the characters (who came out of nowhere, by the way), told Brad Pitt's "assistant" Catherine Zeta-Jones to tell Pitt that the notion of a sexy assistant is terribly cliché. As he hangs up, his own sexy assistant emerges from a back room.

Guy behind us: "That's funny, because he has his own sexy assistant."

In order to get more men assigned to her case, Europol inspector Zeta-Jones forges her supervisor's signature on a form. Later in the movie, an official approaches her and says that she would like to speak to her about some discrepancies in her paperwork.

Guy behind us (15 minutes after the confrontation with the official): OH! That's because she forged the documents! Remember? Earlier on!

Yes. Yes we do. Thank you.

It was an enjoyable night as I got to go out with Carley, played some Mario Party, saw a movie, and she even suggested a new book I could read. It's just a shame that the movie and the movie-going experience were less than spectacular.

Making Amends

In my post from Thursday, December 16, called "My Ode To Aaron Hayward", I might have made a bit of a comprehension error, and, as a result, kinda flew off the handle at someone who didn't really deserve it.

Carley pointed out that I probably misinterpreted a statement on the blog I referenced, and took it as a negative rather than a positive. I still stand by the established position in the post, but it looks like I dug up some inconclusive evidence.

So, apologies, let's try to start the New Year off right, shall we?

Late Night Poetry

I haven't written anything in a few months (not that that's terribly surprising), but I guess it's good to get the New Year off to a rousing/sputtering start.

I re-wrote this four times, which I never do, so I hope it turned out alright.