My first foray into the Android smartphone universe was an HTC Magic. This was the first Google Android device publicly available. While Android hit its stride with new phones running 2.0 or Rogers lagged behind keeping the Magic at version 1.6… getting to the point where I couldn’t even use all the apps available in the Android Market. When the Magic’s wireless antenna stopped working I ran towards a Blackberry Bold 9700 instead.

Shortly afterwards Google teamed up with HTC and launched the Nexus One. This phone received the latest Android updates before any others. It was revolutionary for offering the latest hardware and software outside of a contract. Before the Nexus One carriers and manufacturers preferred the stability of keeping the phone the same forever. Unfortunately the Nexus was only sold online and never made it to Rogers. A friend who works for Virgin Mobile told me it was “the best reviewed phone that totally failed.”

Google’s back with the Nexus S – this time made by Samsung – and now available at Roger’s on a contract.

Fragile, plastic, and sexy

Coming from the Blackberry I knew I was going to sacrifice two important advantages – drop proof hardware and long battery life. Blackberry’s take a beating; you can drop it on pavement with maybe only a small scratch to show for it. Amazingly it would go up to 5 days without needing a recharged.

The Nexus is is definitely more fragile. It’s beauty makes you mindfully aware of taking extra special care with it. While being made of plastic it still feels sturdy and expensive. It feels great to hold in the hand but I’m honestly worried about scratching the vibrant 4″ screen by putting it into my pocket.

The only physical buttons are for power / sleep and a volume rocker. Speakers can be found at top, on the back, with the microphone on the bottom. A 5 megapixel camera with LED flash is on the back and a .03 megapixel on the front for portraits or video chat. There’s subtle “Google” and “Samsung logo’s branded on its rear. Thankfully the Nexus is charged via micro-USB that’s next to the headphone jack.

The star of the hardware is its screen. I have never seen a cellphone screen with such rich colours and contrasts. Because the Nexus is a touch device the backgrounds pop out buttons look gooey and shiny, with text refined and readable. Amazingly you can even see outside in the sun. I always loathed my Blackberry’s small screen but the Nexus S is a luxury to look at.

I would have preferred less plastic and more metal but the Nexus S is sturdy and gorgeous. It feels much more natural to hold then an iPhone 3G or iPhone 4.

Listen to what I have to say!

My Nexus shipped with Android 2.3.3, the only phone that currently has Gingerbread. Because Google controls the software there are no special interfaces, no special apps, and no limitations as to what you can install on it. It’s a pure version of Android, akin to installing a clean copy of Windows 7 on your PC. Samsung or Rogers doesn’t control the show here so we can expect regular updates pushed down as they arrive.

Currently I’m awaiting a software update that enables video chat on Google Talk. Before any other phone it is being pushed down to Nexus S users first. I like that.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread has come a long way from the 1.6 version I used on the HTC Magic. Backgrounds are animated allowing you to have a watery pond amongst other options. There is no lag when tapping, swiping, or pinching around the interface. The phone is fast and responsive towards any task you throw at it.

You can read about the other features Android offers elsewhere but the one I’m excited about is unique to Gingerbread – voice commands.

By tapping the microphone button on the home, messaging, or text boxes you can tell the Nexus what to do. For example, “Text Mom. Happy mothers day.” The messaging app will launch, address it to your mother, and accurately type out your message. Or another cool one is for calling an organization who’s number is not programmed in your phone. Instead of going on Google to hunt for it you can just say, “Call Futureshop.” The Nexus S will go onto the Internet, get the local number, and dial it for you. Or if you need directions you can say, “Directions to Futureshop.” Google Maps will load and display the route. If you need turn by turn voice directions while driving, simply say “Navigate to Futureshop.”

Voice commands on the Nexus S are amazingly accurate and hella cool. The future is now.

If you need to type then you won’t be frustrated with the on-screen keyboard. I hate picking away one finger at a time which is why I had always preferred Blackberry’s. However the Nexus is supremely accurate – just tap in the general location of the letters that make up your word and Android will guess what you meant anyway. Practically speaking you just tap away mindlessly and the words will work themselves out. Finally a software keyboard a Blackberry person can use!

Why I Need a Dock / Take more Photo’s

Using the device heavily will last you an entire day but expect a nightly recharge. Casual use will get you maybe two days. There are many things a person can do to improve battery life – turn off WiFi, switch to 2G, turn off live backgrounds and GPS etc buts a pain to constantly turn things on or off. The Nexus S ships with a wall charger but I’m craving a dock next to my bedside.

I cannot emphasize how cool it is to have a camera on a phone that’s actually usable. With 5 mega-pixels and flash the Nexus S takes great pictures.

That is if I didn’t spend most of my spare time in pajama’s!

Conclusion

The Nexus S is available on most Canadian cell networks. The current price on Rogers is $99 with a three year contract or $499 outright. While the Nexus S is the first unlocked phone in Canada the carriers are demanding you sign up for service. Most cell phone plans for smartphones in Canada average $45 – $70 a month for voice / data package. You pay a high price here for the convenience that modern technology offers. Over time I expect the price of the Nexus S to go down. There are already “dual-core” Android phones that will take the top tier pricing and push the Nexus down.

Even with faster phones the benefit of getting a Nexus is that your Android phone will not be out of date. The original Nexus One is still getting Android updates faster then others.  In the years ahead the Nexus S will still be relevant.

If your looking for an Android phone then there really is no other choice then a Nexus S. You will be pleased, often surprised, and delighted at what the engineers at Google are pushing down for at least a couple of years.

It’s not though.

If you allow the book to stand on its own merits – without hype or celebrity promotion - it fairs quite well. Best Laid Plans is funny, unique, and an enjoyable read. In the opening chapter you’ll find this gem of a sentence: “Let’s just say she was rather enthusiastically lobbying his caucus.” Yeah, Terry Fallis went there.

I’m kind of glad Terry did too. Living close to America, some Canadians believe our politics to be boring in comparison to the antics of the Tea Party or the inspiration of Barrack Obama. It’s not true. We have just as much quirkiness, just as much sliminess, and more then enough “huh?” moments.  Most of it just goes unnoticed.

The novel takes place in the Ottawa area and centre’s around a Liberal party political aide. In an effort to escape the party gives him one last assignment – to find a candidate for a riding that never votes Liberal. A few whips and chains later (!) the chosen candidate ends up being elected to office and we follow a rookie MP who just doesn’t care about being re-elected or pleasing the party leader.

For many this book could be an introduction to Canadian politics. I wish there were more books like Best Laid Plans out there. But it’s not grand or moving on the scale of “essential Canadian  novel of the decade.” It’s just an entertaining and average read. Reading this will not change politics in the country as some claim.

Terry’s main character, the political aide, is unfailingly whiny. He whines about leaving politics, he whines about a new relationship, he whines about falling into dog poop… you get the idea. A rookie MP changing politics is laughable as well. The perfection portrayed by MP Angus McLyntock is unrealistic, contrived, and equally as annoying. Its good that the books is about 350 pages because if it were any longer I would have said, “enough.”

Indeed the only character flaw of the rookie MP is that he farts loudly. On that previous sentence, which aptly sums up Best Laid Plans, I end this review.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Average

Enjoyed: Funny, an easy and quick read, rare Canadian fiction about Canadian politics

Disliked: Main character is whiny, unbelievable

Sometimes a book is just entertaining… it doesn’t have to be based on something real to enjoy it!

The Lost Symbol was interesting and fast paced. The story revolves around a disturbed and over-tatooed gentleman called Mal’akh. Mal’akh is to occultism as Jerry Falwell is to evangelicalism – which is to say out of his freaking mind. Part fascinating tour of Washington D.C. and part introduction to the religion of esotericism the novel has a lot of ground to cover in a short time.

Brown investigates topics like Masonic rituals, the Ancient Mystery religions, human sacrifices, and general American history as if they fit together like a fat man does McDonalds. Unlike the Davinci Code most of what he writes is based on fact in the Lost Symbol. Brown accurately describes existing Masonic rituals and exposes an alternative religion held by most of America’s founders. A religion most people no nothing of.

I can see for many the information revealed in the Lost Symbol is groundbreaking. Don’t expect a full expose of Masonry here though as the book wanders away from it pretty quickly. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a lazy introduction into topics that are rarely brought out in public.

He handled them well and fairly.

The Lost Symbol isn’t perfect.  Not only is Brown trying to introduce you to esotericism but he becomes its cheerleader! Near the end the Lost Symbol becomes a blatant propaganda piece. Hell he’s practically begging you to read the Bible from a mystical point of view. It gets preachy folks.

The effect was weird and out of place. It comes out of left field.

However, if your looking to waste some time then the Lost Symbol is a good buy. The Kindle price was $3.99. But please… remember its only fiction people.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Above Average

Enjoyed: Very interesting, page turner, exposes things not normally discussed in the open, excellent history of Washington landmarks

Disliked: A propaganda piece of esotericism, forces weird beliefs on its readers, tries to be grand when it shouldn’t be

Now I know what your thinking. “You obviously dropped it dumb ass. How else would a crack get there?” After working in retail I understand the sentiment – so many people pull a fast one like this. Truly it just got there. I think it started as a small minuscule crack and over time got larger and larger.

I was heartbroken that my beloved Kindle was no longer perfect.

So I went hunting for a way to get it fixed. On the Amazon home page there is a link called “Help.” On their help page there is bright yellow button labeled “Contact Us.” This takes you to a page where you can arrange Amazon to call you! This is great if you live in an international country where calling the U.S. would mean serious cash.

Amazon’s customer service people are good. There seems to be a philosophy going on where they’re allowed to talk like real people. They even say “sorry.” Hating call centers, I appreciate speaking to a person that is given the freedom to be themselves.

Surprisingly Amazon would replace my Kindle at no charge! Well… kind of. For every country outside of the United States you have to buy your replacement Kindle so they can generate the export documents to get it through the border. Essentially they charge you right away and then refund you within hours. It then takes 3-5 days for the refund to show up on your account, thanks to the banks.

I did run into a kind of disturbing problem though. I once used my spouse’s credit card but had removed it from my Amazon account when I got my own. I obviously used my card to process my Kindle replacement but they mistakenly refunded it to my spouses! I was under the impression that once you removed your credit card the number was destroyed. I was very wrong. It took two calls to get them to refund the money to the credit card they initially charged and reverse the credit on my spouses.

Here lies the Kindle’s Achilles heel. There is no local representative for Amazon so your dealing with shipping times and call centers. Owners of a Nook or Kobo can walk right into a store.

I also have to mail my old Kindle back using my own money, but they will refund it. It’s all good but a lot of extra steps are needed that you might not have to deal with when using a Kobo or Nook.

So if you are an international Kindle user and were wondering what it’s like to have a broken Kindle – now you know.

Even the cross is borrowed

One of my interests is watching organized religion from afar. My latest object of fascination has been the implosion within Scientology. Ah yes Scientology – the church of Tom Cruse and John Travolta.

Most think Scientology is a cult. However, they used to call Christianity weird and cannibalistic (i.e. communion) back in the day. It’s no less strange then other belief systems out there.

L. Ron Hubbard’s genius was organizing the best self-help techniques of his day, packaging them into user friendly courses, and offering them to the public. He was among the first to de-institutionalize pop psychology. From improving your communication, your marriage, or your confidence… Scientology fulfilled a need out there to” fix yourself.” The rest of the religion is a messy collision of science fiction, esotericism, cognitive behavioral therapy, and crusade.

I have no doubt that Scientology has helped people address their problems in a spiritual context. Part of the problem for committed Scientologists is the disconnect between how much those early courses changed their lives and how the higher ones lead to personal ruin. Where I do have doubts is the assertion that anything L. Ron wrote was unique.

The leader of Scientology

Recently Scientology’s head administrator, David Miscavage, has been smeared with accusations of violence, tyranny, and almost schizophrenic behaviour. From slapping around church executives, using donations on lavish gifts to himself, restricting the basic freedoms of employees… its a nasty picture.

Marty Rathbun – a defected church executive – leads the charge against organized Scientology on his blog Moving on Up a Little Higher. He’s like Martin Luther but instead of nailing his thesis on a church door Marty’s disagreements are online. His blog has become a homing beacon for those who have been abused and misused. There are many.

His entries are part personal therapy and part protest. Some of it are pictures from the inside – David Miscavage’s personal gym, Tom Cruises fancy airline hanger, and inside stories of those who were involved in the early days. It has peeled back the curtain and revealed the wizard beyond.

I feel sorry for Marty and all disaffected Scientologists like him. Having escaped evangelicalism myself, I can understand how hard it is to suddenly lose all your friends and beliefs. However he has taken the wrong path to wholeness. They should be rejecting Scientology and Hubbard to investigate the sources he stole from to form his religion.

There is healing, answers, and fulfillment there.

Why use auditing when cognitive behaviour therapy is the same thing? With some 40 years experience CBT offers updated results too. Why cling to meaning of life questions inside Scientology when ancient philosophy offered the texts that Hubbard took from? Why accept reincarnation, “thetans”, and the study of the mind when you can just study Tibetan Buddhism?

L. Ron perverted these things for his own financial reasons.  This is why the religion gives half assed results and “doesn’t work” in the long run.

I understand that former Scientologists feel a debt of gratitude for the “gains” they achieved while taking his courses.  But their gains are not owed to Hubbard or any organization; they come from the sources Hubbard used.  Anyone with a background in psychology, esotericism and Buddhism understand that Scientology is not unique or even profitable for the soul.

Scientology isn’t failing because of bad behaviour from inside  - its failing because people know better.

Go to the source and dump the bull!

After reading Decision Points – the new memoir by George Bush – I learned that he would never have been president without belonging to a family of privilege. The media seem only to care about a miscarried fetus in a jar… but there is much more here than salacious strangeness.

I’m not conservative and certainly not a fan of George Bush. However his memoir was compelling. In it you will learn of details that only he is allowed to tell. For example, did you know that an unnamed Arab nation offered Saddam Hussein a couple of billion to run away from Iraq?

Decision Points did change my perception of him, but not always for the better. I understood and sympathized with his reasoning of getting into the Iraq war. For months he was barraged with intelligence reports that Saddam was posing a real threat to American security. Every intelligence agency in the world agreed Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction. Hindsight tells us that all of it was bunk but for someone trying to avoid another 911 it was certainly a tough call.

However, my own Prime Minister at the time, Jean Chretien, chose not to join the invasion. It was a matter of political principle.

If anything this memoir clarified why I disliked his presidency. George Bush seems to trust the aids around him when he shouldn’t; willing to go down paths when evidence says otherwise.

I think Decision Points is meant to show the public he is a leader who can make tough decisions. Instead it paints a picture of a troubled young man who had the presidency placed on his lap. There he made bad decisions in the fog of fear. No one with his background, life experiences, or philosophy should have made it so far.

Through it all he keeps telling himself there was never another 9/11 on his watch.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)
Average

Enjoyed:Understanding the reasoning of his decisions, revelation of new details behind world events

Disliked:Loses steam near the end, becomes a bunch of random anecdotes strewn together

One could easily conclude that 3 out of 4 Canadians call themselves Christian but, in reality, never actually go to church. Three quarters of Canadians agree – organized religion is bullshit.

While the insane history of these ideas make us sick inside we can agree they’re fascinating. A survey of my own religious journey has seen devotion to new age (8 years old to age 18), conservative evangelicism (18 - 23) , atheism (23 – 27). I approached Diarmaid MacCulloch 1300 page tome as someone interested in religion but committed to none.

So I did not seek to learn more about that faith but rather simply curiosity. Like it or not Catholicism and Anglicanism determined much of our culture and history. Only within the last 30 years has their influence waned and Money become the new God.

The promise of Christianity is a concise 3000 year overview of Christian history. Before opening the book you imagine reading about purges, inquisitions, wars, popes and kings gone bad, saints and sinners. Unfortunately Diarmaid doesn’t deliver. Instead you have topics bouncing around all over the place under loose association.

It was so bad I couldn’t even finish the book. If your looking for a good history book on Christianity look elsewhere. I’ve already wasted enough time on this tome doing this review.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Below Average

Enjoyed: The concept – 3000 years of Christian history in one book

Disliked: Meanders along with ancient theological terms that are not explained nor can be remembered, constructed haphazerdly

World Without End is just as good. Any criticisms have to do with beating the same horse twice. If you’ve never read the first novel -which isn’t necessary to enjoy the sequel – then none of my criticisms apply. It will be fresh and unique for you.

The town of Kingsbridge is a bustling city about to undergo the Black Death. Instead of building of a Cathedral its characters revolve around the plague. The same themes from Pillars are trotted out – the cruelty of Medieval society, the oppression of women, the abuses of priests and lords – with new characters and twists this time around.

More of the same.

While I understand that historical fiction isn’t accurate it’s hard not to roll your eyes throughout World Without End. One female character becomes the lightning rod of feminism: freeing herself of the burdens of marriage, overthrowing bishops and mayors, and eventually running Kingsbridge herself. Indeed all the protagonist characters have 21st Century intellect while the antagonists are stuck with a 14th Century mind set. It’s not a fair fight. Follett goes so far to infer that one of the characters is the first to receive the honorary ”key to the city.”

Amazingly, all the characters that matter are smart enough to figure out how to avoid the plague. Sigh. It’s just not believable.

World Without End is also extremely sexual. Rape, after rape, feel after feel, sex act after sex act, it gets tiring and slutty. Follett also spends 100 pages worth reminding you of things that already occurred - as if too stupid to remember.

If you can brush aside these things then World Without End is a satisfying read. However, I’m of the belief that the author should have just left Kingsbridge alone.

Rating (Gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Average

Liked: thoroughly entertaining, holds interest throughout 1000 pages, details of the Black Death

Disliked: lewd sex acts every other chapter, repetitive themes, not believable

Is the Buddha in a chariot any different then us in a $30,000 car?

Religious figures are pretty hard to relate to. Either their cult figures – made larger then life through hype and devotion – or they have supernatural powers. It’s pretty hard to relate to someone who can dissapear on cue or bring on the end of the world.

One figure that remains relevant is Siddhartha Gautama.  Even though he lived 2500 years ago his life resembles the average lives of Westerners today – living in luxury while having no contact with the suffering of others.

Like Siddhartha we live in our palaces doing our pleasurable things while the old, the poor, and the retarded are pushed from sight. The ghetto is someplace we are not encouraged to go. Most of us try very hard to make sure it does not become apart of our life.

In curiosity the Buddha eventually left his palace to explore the wider world and was shocked with what he found.

The first thing he saw was an old person. He inquired about aging and was informed that everyone gets old eventually. This is much like how we encounter aging in our parents – over time we witness them getting old and it disturbs us because we know it will happen to us as well.

The second trip revealed a sick person. We don’t think about sickness while were young and healthy but eventually either we get sick and we encounter the reality of illness. Disease is just as shocking for us now as it was for the Buddha.

The third trip revealed a dead person. In our lives death confronts us at a funeral of a friend or loved one. The Buddha saw a rotting corpse unlike the prepared bodies we see today. While death is universal its effect is still shocking enough to make us question our purpose and meaning.

The last trip the Buddha encountered a religions person – someone who gave up the middle class life in search for answers to eternal questions. Anyone is a religious seeker if they have experienced the universal sufferings of old age, sickness and death.

But why are these areas the birth of a religious impulse?

We are seeking a way to make things right again. The Buddha felt the same after coming to terms with reality.  Siddhartha went as far as to give up his home and possessions, cut off his royal hair, and trade fancy clothes for rags. While we may not have to take such drastic outward measures we do have to take internal mental measures. By searching we are ready to have a change of mind that leads towards a better future.

The religious desire for answers and resolution leads one to shop for spirituality. The Buddha did the same; joining and investigating the religious movements around him. In society today we have the choice of every religion that has every existed. In the end Siddhartha discovered that no matter what spiritual practice he undertook nothing was answered. He gave up his search when he realized it’s all about the mind, not some external thing forced upon it.

Only after sitting under the bodhi tree for years, growing in wisdom and compassion, did he become the Buddha. At first Siddhartha did not want to teach what he learned until others demanded it. After his first teaching the Buddha only had five converts. From this small beginning Buddhism became a world religion.

The first followers had realizations and shared them with others. Small starts have big impacts; a wonderful lesson. Over 45 years the Buddha gave his teaching to different audiences, using different methods, and stressing different teachings. To educated people he taught one way, to the simple another. In time all the major points of his teachings became known and brought together to what we call Buddhism today.

There are many superstitious things in Buddhism but its basic lessons reflect our own existence in middle class America.

How do you follow-up to a masterpiece? Year of the Flood is not as good as O & C but it comes damn close. This time the story revolves around a green cult named “God’s Gardeners.” These people have given up on buying and taken up recycling. If you think the Hare Krishna’s are weird in public imagine a bunch of people who wear clothes only recycled from other clothes. Fashion takes a back seat. Instead of XBox their youths learn survival skills.

The title is a bit deceiving – there is no flood of the Noah kind here. Rather it’s a term used by the Gardeners to denote a time in the near future when humanity will wipe themselves out. Atwood has created a religion that is somewhere between new age, evangelicalism, and quantum physics. The book itself is separated by short sermons and hymns. Where O & C dealt with characters on the inside of society, the Year of the Flood deals with those on the fringe.

The first book was driven by a character study of Snowman but the follow up is far more documentary. It is less dirty and disturbing as well. The poem at the end is a lament for civilization unlike I have ever read before.  The Year of the Flood is engrossing from start to finish.

I can’t help wonder, as Atwood ages, if she is writing our eulogy before the funeral. If so it resonates deeply.

Rating (Gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Above average

Liked: probes at the role of religion at the end of civilization; continuation of the story that started in Oryx & Crake

Disliked: ended with a cliffhanger for the next book; sometimes the religious content is a bit much

He could most recently be seen yelling “bastards” towards some political party or another during the election. Disturbingly his language was a little filthy for families and children wandering around.

I think everyone cherishes the freedom each of us have to protest. Besides cursing in front of kids I think Charles can protest all he wants. There’s a problem here though: while we face deadlines at work and struggle to pay the bills Charles is living off us, the tax payer.

From his YouTube videos he explains he may have a disability. According to NB standards a person is eligible for disability if they have a long term mental or physical impairment. We support them because their unable to work.

Charles does not meet the standards we as a community have set for each other. While he may a little aggressive he is obviously not disabled. He is able to walk and carry a placard any hour of the day, engage with political or complex issues, fluently bilingual both spoken and written as his blog proves, and can take care of himself.

What set me off was I was on the north side Wendy’s and I was served by a wonderful older gentlemen who clearly had a stroke. He took my tray after I was done my meal. An honest gentlemen with real difficulties doing one hell of a job. There are some real heroes everyday who work real jobs in the face of far greater disabilities then Charles will have.

Charles LeBlanc's beer, paid for by us

Shame. In comparison with Charles we have a picture from his blog – a fridge full of beer he says he’s gonna drink. We paid for that.

It’s time Charles joined the work force. He’s ready. Enough with the scam.

I was very wrong.

Oryx and Crake doesn’t sit well after your finished. Something has struck a disturbing chord in the soul. What’s bothering you isn’t the plot or even the characters… but the kind of future Atwood has envisioned. It’s hauntingly plausible.

The novel takes place perhaps a generation from our own. Corporations have grown in power to such an extent that there are no longer towns. Instead the most educated and wealthy live in compounds near their job. These gated communities have their own luxury schools, malls, and housing. Instead of a police  force they have corporate security. If you don’t live in a corporate compound then you live in the “pleeblands” a place filled with drugs, violence, and sadness. So pervasive is the corporation that you won’t hear the word “president” or “government” in Oryx and Crake.

I won’t reveal anymore but suffice to say Atwood’s schizophrenic protagonist is surrounded by ghosts of consumer past. It alternates between the aftermath of such a society and flashbacks that reveal how it came to be.

There is a lot of social commentary. Child pornography is a central theme; something that bored teens look up on the net in an effort to shock themselves. People who distrust corporate society are labeled extremists and hunted down. The weather has become dangerous every single day.

The world of Oryx & Crake is just around the corner. The book is at once engaging, shocking, disgusting, dirty, and even repulsive – in other words perhaps one of the best books you’ll ever read.

Rating (Gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

More please

Liked: realistic future that no one has thought of before, shocking content, the character of Snowman, well structured and planned out

Disliked: nothing

We truly stand at a crossroads. I’ve never witnessed such an important opportunity to determine the direction of a province.

Cynicism runs high

People are sick of politicians pointing out failures, promising things, or making mistakes. I ask the question when did it become acceptable to think of yourself as separate from your own government, to give up on democracy, or sow division instead of unity? Where is the sense of civic duty that no politician should ever take away?

Were talking about your neigbours not a foreign enemy. The rhetoric is ridiculous. I would like to see the return of community politics where people got voted in because they worked hard not because of a party or a leader. This can’t happen through whining, but actually giving a hoot and participating.

My salute to those who engage in the process.

The common person holds resentment stowards a politician. Let’s burst the bubble. As a representative every day of the week you must listen to people who expect something out of you. You must deliver on those expectations or lose your job. You find out about losing your job publicly – in real time – on the television in front of everyone. Imagine you had to go to things every weekend because if you didn’t people would be insulted. Your time is their time. Your life is no longer yours.

While usually paying well - with a good title to boot - politics is actually lonely and time consuming. A 40 hour work week doesn’t exist. Just walking down the street is work. There was a federal conservative politician – Dave Batters – who actually committed suicide.

It’s time to start looking at them like what they actually are – your neighbor and your representative in your government. Forget all this yelling and cynicism. You should vote for the person who can communicate your communities needs and that will actually call you back.

If you don’t like the way things are you really can run yourself. It’s not that hard or special.

Welcome Ocean Spray... and the other 6000 net new jobs

Is it a nasty debt burden or an investment?

Debt is a huge issue in this election. The media trumpets promise after promise and people wonder how are we going to pay for it? I think that’s a right way to think for an established economy like Ontario or Quebec. However this kind of thinking is dangerous for a developing economy like New Brunswick. Why?

Think of NB as a new business. No one would argue that business opportunities and the economy here is developed. Would you open a new business like NB without a loan? Would you expect to break even every quarter even though your just a new store on the block? Or would you know that your new business is a risk until you pursue all oppurtunities and break even?

This is our situation. We are not a profitable province. But we can be and its gonna take some business loans and smart investment for it to be successful. At this point people should not be angry about having a debt – because it’s necessary to maintain services - but where the government is investing. If you want a balanced budget before we’ve developed then what do you want to cut? A hospital, a long term care facility, a school, a government department, no longer maintaining a road here or a bridge there?

If you are angry about the debt imagine if services were cut! You cannot have it both ways. However you should demand that the government do everything it can to get us in the black responsibly.

For a long time New Brunswick has had a government with a case of short sightedness. There was no long term plan for anything – education, health, and certainly the economy. I often joke new jobs under a conservative plan means a new call centers. New Brunswick was the only province in the recession that did not lose jobs – it gained them. In my riding alone we now have RIM (Blackberry), Q1 Labs, Radian 6, Xplorernet. The rest of the province has Ocean Spray and other initiatives. We are actually seeing for the first time new real jobs that are here to stay!

Even better there is an actual plan in place to get more. New Brunswick is open for business. There’s opportunity here to set up shop and make money. It doesn’t happen overnight but New Brunswick is starting to boom. We will see a time in the near future where tax revenue from these jobs equal the amount needed for basic services.

That’s the bet. Anything else is giving up.

I gonna cost you billions on your Hydro bill real soon - Point Lepreau

Don’t take my NB Power!

If there is a single issue that will sink the Graham government this is it. People hate that out of the blue came an announcement that NB power would be sold to Quebec. It’s our utility, you can’t have it!

Problem is we can’t afford our utility. Mactaquac and Point Lepreau need major renovations – soon – to the tune of billions of dollars. Its retrofit or no power – a dire financial situation that no one wants to talk about. Under the sale Quebec had to pay for these renovations while at the same time contractually selling us power lower then what we pay now. It’s true we had to give up these things but we can’t even afford to repair them.

Without another deal your looking at your power bill going up drastically to pay for it. A lot. We need a responsible course of action that deals with reality.

If ever there was a lessoned learned by a government the Liberals learned it. Now they do everything with some sort of consultation be it a mental health strategy, a new property tax regime, poverty reduction plan, health care reform… hell they got an entire Minister devoted to “engagement.”  Every government makes mistakes because there people like us. You have to look at the larger picture not just the one thing that pisses you off.

Without rennovations the lights are going to go out… now we’re left with the question of how the hell do we pay for it?

You pissed me off, so now I’m gonna put in this guy

By all means punish a government… but keep in mind what your gonna replace it with. Sometimes there is no other responsible option. This is the case before New Brunswick voters.

I am shocked that a guy like Alward – who closed a hospital in his own riding – ever made it to the Progressive Conservative leadership at all. Can you imagine a PC in Ontario running for leadership with a record like that? It’s kind of stupid.

If a man can shut down a hospital in his own riding – without the fear of being tossed -  then this guy has no fear of anything. Looking beyond politics this is just a shitty job of representing your constituents.

Even more important then a responsible record is a responsible plan. Alward doesn’t make the cut their either. He’s got all these promises but hasn’t had an accountant or economist actually look at them. The entire platform is not costed or budgeted. This is a basic principle that parties all across the country adhere to. Will NB elect a man without a costed plan? All the other parties here do.

Quite frankly if the current regime of PC”s in New Brunswick could attract real jobs and people they would of during the heyday of the 90′s when everyone else did. Epic fail.

I’ve seen the ads for the “Liberal” pill that wants you to remember NB Power or Acton when you vote. Those were some nasty issues and certainly black eyes for the Liberals.

But how about a pill that reminds us of a crappy health system with huge wait lines, student scores at the bottom of the country, call centre’s making this place thier mecca, New Brunswickers leaving in the thousands, and no major new companies coming in.

That my friends is one bitter pill. I’m not telling you to vote a certain way but just be responsble where you put that X. There’s a lot at stake.

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It’s just an artsy kind of fantasy novel.

The story revolves around a girl who was found abandoned in a river. Auralia is surrounded by a culture devoid of colour and art. The king of Abascar duped the people into handing over their colourful belongings so that his kingdom would outshine others. Everyone wears drab uniforms and owns utilitarian posessions. Anything of real value or beauty is shoved under the castle. Even childhood dreams are discouraged in  the kingdom of Abascar.

Sentimentalism and fatalism runs high in Auralia’s Colors. There is yearning for beauty that expresses itself in poetry throughout the novel. Overstreet is clearly trying to create a longing for a child-like state of mind where everything is new and colorful. He contrasts this with the harshness and faithlessness that adulthood can bring. The abandoned infant, Auralia, is that reminder.

You will be enthralled in the first half of the novel as Overstreet introduces you to the Expanse – a land of four kingdoms bound together by a common past. It was wonderful to learn about how each House got to be the way they are. However the interest fades when the book just becomes an apocalyptic bore.

Why yearn for beauty or long after the simplicity of childhood – have a character to represent that – and then destroy everything? Truly depressing and fatalistic. It reminds me of when an artist is creating something wonderful, then starts to hate it, and wrecks it.

Very weird choice.

Rating (Gouge My Eyes Out, Below Average, Average, Above Average, More Please)

Average

Liked: Backstory to The Expanse and the House of Abascar, unique fantasy world

Disliked: Fatalism, determinism, and apocalypse

A new Kindle 3G is on its way to my home.

The Kobo eReader never worked as advertised. Even after a firmware and desktop app upgrade there are some glaring holes in functionality. Often syncing quits before a book is transferred, the sync time is desperately slow, bookmarks are incorrectly saved, you  have zero control over the content on the device, and the books themselves are irregularly formatted.

I still think the Kobo eReader is good for casual to medium bookworms but definitely not for hardcore people. If you read a lot your going to want something that’s polished and holistic. Kobo still makes the best apps but doesn’t have the resources to devote towards its own e-Ink device.

The marketplace is about to be flooded with “Powered by Kobo” readers like the Literati. It’s gonna be a hot mess.

So what drew me to the Kindle? Well Amazon’s only focus is the eReader. Sure they have apps too but the Kindle remains their baby. They care about it. Now on its 3rd generation the Kindle is made for bookworms. I’m looking forward to never having to plug my eReader into a computer again. Kobo likes to make a big stink over the closed nature of the Kindle but I just want the thing to work!

My only concern was the 20 Kobo books I’ve already purchased. The Kindle does not support ePubs like every other reader. Kobo books themselves are wrapped in digital locks so it makes conversion difficult. With some Googling and hacking I was able to convert all my Kobo books into the Kindle mobipocket format.

I tried to get a refund out of Kobo for the device itself - because the device never performed to spec – but they refused.

At first I was suspicious of the eReader movement. Why pay hundreds of dollars to read on a device? Just read a paper book! I also had serious confusion about the screen. Is it like reading on a laptop? The thought of reading longer then 15 minutes turned me off.

With the launch of the Kobo eReader I started reading digitally. Home grown in Canada, Kobo is the only global service besides Amazon that provides apps and eReaders for its users. Given that it’s been in business for less then a year their progress is extraordinary.

So let’s take a look at their eReader!

Screen & Battery

First the technology. It’s not a laptop screen. The display is called “e-Ink” and can best be described as a high tech etch a sketch. This serves two purposes: text clarity and long battery life.

An example of how a typical page looks on the Kobo reader

The Kobo uses the last generation of e-Ink technology but is still a pleasure to use. In the case of mass market paperbacks – where font clarity is not important – reading books on the Kobo is better. They have really thought out the design adding nice touches like small literary quotes when books are loading. Their menu’s are beautiful and clean giving it an almost Mac-like simplicity.

Unfortunately eBooks purchased from the store can be formatted irregularly: such as no line breaks between sections of a chapter or references towards missing diagrams or images. Things are improving week by week but your pleasure will vary depending on the actual book. By and large though its a positive reading experience.

You have the choice of 5 font sizes that range from from “Smallest” to “Largest.” There are also two font choices: Serif (think newspaper font) and Sans-Serif (think modern). The Serif font is darker but I find Sans-serif easier to read.

The Kobo eReader has amazing battery life. Since there is no backlight you must use natural light as all other eInk devices. I read for 2 hours before bed and a single charge lasts a month. Even under heavy use I get 2 weeks. Power management features will put an unattended reader to sleep in 15 minutes. Eventually it will just shut off.

The Design

The four buttons that give you access to menu's

The Kobo comes in either white or black. The display is surrounded by a white plastic frame with a prominent logo on top. Below the screen is a brightly coloured directional pad for changing pages. Around the sides their are buttons to control menu’s, a USB port to connect with a computer, an SD card slot to expand storage, and a power button.

Holding the Kobo is fantastic although just a little flimsy. It’s defintely plastic. The back however is made from thick grey rubber that achieves an awesome comfort level. Whereas the Sony Reader feels cold and mechanical the Kobo feels warm and natural. It’s more comfortable to hold a Kobo then a large clumsy hardcover.

My only critique on the design is that the white model isn’t the most sexy looking gadget. Some wonderful skins can improve the aesthetic. Skins may also be available where you bought the Kobo. Expect to pay $19.95 – which is expensive – considering they are like those plastic cut-outs of snowflakes you put on windows during the holiday season. Covers and night lights are also available.

Your First Power Up

We've got power captain!

When you first press power the Kobo will ask you to plug it into a computer. From there you enter the date and time on the device. Strangely nothing else is required! You could unplug it right there and start reading the 100 classics that come pre-loaded.

There is actually no easy way to access the time though. Showing the time on either the display or menu pane would be a great way to keep track.

Simplicity at its best.

The actual reading experience is simple. Turning pages forward or backward is done by clicking the blue directional pad. The up and down arrows of change the font size. You press, it clicks, the page turns… though I would have preferred if there was no clicking sound. When changing pages the screen will go black for half a second and a hidden light will turn blue.

Typical reading list

If you got an hour, I’ll sync your books. Maybe.

Using Bluetooth Kobo can sync books to the eReader from a BlackBerry smartphone. This is great for those trips when you don’t have access to the net and want a new book. The process is just a matter of turning on Bluetooth for both devices, entering a passcode from the eReader on the Blackberry, and choosing which books to sync.

Sounds great huh? Except syncing is functionally useless. Here’s why:

All purchased books on the reader will be deleted unless you select them to be synced on the BlackBerry. Sync time is also very slow; only usable to transfer two titles.

Sync time between the desktop and eReader itself is dodgy. Often the sync will quit before its done or take hours.

Burn that bookshelf

Get rid of the stack of books on your nightstand! Kobo says the reader can store 1000 books. While I don’t know about that – it depends on the file size of the books – it can surely hold a lot. If you ever run out of space you can pop in a 4 GB SD card and forget about it.

How do I spends the money?

Screen that notifies you of the firmware upgrade.

How do you get new books on the Kobo? Plugging in the included USB cable makes Mac or Windows think it’s just another flash drive. If you have books in the ePub format you can drag and drop them onto the device. When you disconnect the cable Kobo will process the new files. That’s it.  

In the box are directions for installing the Kobo software. Essentially the installer is loaded from the device memory from a Kobo Dekstop Installer folder. The desktop software will ask to create a new account or sign in with an existing one. Placing titles onto the eReader is as easy as pressing “Sync.”

A big warning: you have no control over the titles placed on your device! The 100 classics that come with Kobo cannot be deleted, only hidden. Sigh. Such a pain in the butt.

Argh matey, will the Kobo help me plunder?

So now the question of piracy. How will Kobo handle PDF books on torrent sites? Out of the box pirated content won’t render well. Although the eReader will handle PDF’s they display in small font. None of the font size options work with PDF’s. This is a problem that plagues all eReader’s from any brand though.

Your best hope is to convert Adobe files into the ePub format. Calibre is the best tool available.

Price & Competition

Prices are around $130 – $150. Sometimes there’s a gift card involved. With the Kindle now having more features and a lower price the Kobo eReader is barely a contender. However the vast content Kobo makes available for sale and the nice touches here and there can make it worthwhile. Competition in summary:

Sony Reader While their desktop application grants far better control, the Sony Reader remains more expensive. It’s new base model is $199. Recent comments in the press suggest they won’t be lowering prices. Instead they wish to focus on “quality”; which is Sony speak for overcharging for a gadget that works great within warranty… but will bust soon after. I apologize for my anti-Sony bias but I have been selling electronics for 7 years and they are a horrible company. The Kobo matches their “quality” at a better price.

iPad The iPad is a tabet that happens to have an app for reading. The base model of the iPad is $549 Canadian and uses the LCD screen of a laptop. Note its 10 hours of battery life. If all you want to do is read then skip the iPad. Kobo provides its own iPad app though which will give you the best reading experience - by far - on any device. They did a wonderful job.

Kindle For $139 - $10 cheaper then a Kobo in Canada - you can order a new Kindle that has WIFI included. More importantly you get an established platform that will accurately save your bookmarks, have properly formatted eBooks, wirelessly deliver your titles, and not suffer from performance problems or bugs. The Kindle also has some useful features – dictionary, annotation, text to speech, wireless firmware updating, a simple web browser. With their new pricing and mature product the Kindle is hard to beat. However Kobo beats Amazon on sheer amount of content available to countries across the world. In Canada you pay for Kindle books, or the Kindle iteself, in US currency. Yuch.

Should you get a Kobo?

The true test of any gadget is if it becomes an essential part of life. Will it be something used everyday? Few things are of that standard. Most gadgets are just objects of lust to be used and forgotten.

If your hobby is reading then the Kobo meets that standard. Kobo is pregnant with promise but does have some quirks will leave you frustrated.  If you read casually then Kobo is right for you.

If you are a hardcore bookworm skip the Kobo. Using it everyday with its faults will just make you angry.

I suspect these questions arise because many Tibetan Buddhist practices are unfamiliar to the Western mind. However, you should not confuse unfamiliar for culty. Calling a group a cult implies that it’s dangerous; so its useful to use Wikipedia’s characteristics of a dangerous cult in relation to Shambhala. What you discover is a group with a dodgy past but has become mainstream and completely safe.

2. Offering simple solutions to complex problems. All problems – not to mention your own personal issues – stem from not “being awake” or “present in the moment.” Meditation is proposed as the prominent solution. I have heard the goal described as training your mind like you would train a wild horse. People are encouraged to take their problems “to the cushion.”

3. Love bombing visitors or new members. Realistically there isn’t much opportunity to get to know others while meditating in silence. You can attend a Shambhala meeting and never say a word. If you make an effort you will discover disciplined new-age types with liberal/activist dispositions. The organization itself is non-political, does not differentiate between the sexes, or harass homosexuals. Everything goes. Love bombing did not occur at the centre I visit.

One of the best books I've ever read!

Lately I’ve been on a big book binge and Pillars of the Earth qualifies as a full meal. Actually Ken Follett’s classic from 1989 is more of a buffet then meal. Once your done you’ll leaved stuffed and content.

If religion and church is not your thing, don’t worry, Pillars of the Earth has neither. The cathedral is merely a backdrop for the real story - the lives and aspirations of the characters who depend on it. To give you a sample there is a mastor mason who’s dream is build the most beautiful church in England, an independent forest women who could be a witch,  a prior who seeks justice over politics, and an earl who’s greatest accomplishments involve rape. These characters intertwine, weave togther, and delightfully collide.

Ken Follett – who is better known for writing thrillers – wrote Pillars of the Earth because cathedrals have always fascinated him. While not religious he explains that he has spent several hours detailing and deconstructing their architecture. There lies my only complaint. Follett spends countless paragraphs writing about the design and construction of cathedrals. The effect is disasterous. Not only will you not understand the terms “transepts” or “nave” but the average person cannot even begin to know what a cathedral looks like. These little side journeys are unneccessary. When they occur, it’s best to skip over them, and enjoy the story once more.

Revolving around the building of a medieval cathedral the story sweeps through decades of time faster then the Dolorean. One would expect to get lost in such an epic tale but rather this is one of those books where pages melt quickly. It’s a book that was once an Oprah selection but was popular enough to not keep advertising it.

Pillars of the Earth is the first book that has earned my highest rating. I’ve already purchased the sequel.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)  More please

Enjoyed: massive scope of time populated with interesting characters, details of the inner workings of medieval politics

Disliked: journeys into the specific design concepts of cathedrals

Evangelical Christianity is a new expression of a 2000 year old faith. Unfortunately for minorities the new neighbor on the block is a bully. Since its founding in 1730 Evangelicalism has caused pain for blacks, women, Communists, divorces’, and now homosexuals - in that order. It is the black sheep of the Family of God.

The current evangelical mindset regarding homosexuality is that the Bible says it’s an abomination, God will send homosexuals to hell, and you can pray the gay away.

They base these conclusions on the Jewish holiness code found in Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13; the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19:4-5; and the Apostle Paul’s references in  Romans 1:26-27 / 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; and finally 1 Timothy 1:9-10.

A definition that just doesn’t fit

Evangelical mind set of Jesus?

Many young evangelicals  have a gay friend. These experiences have taught them that what they hear from the pulpit doesn’t often relate to life outside of pews.

When eventually confronted on their mixed feelings their only response is, “Sorry, the Bible says so.” However a quick greek word study shows the Bible does not say so.

Since the New Testament was written in Greek the Apostle Paul used the word “arsenokoitai.” ”Arsenokoitai” can equally mean the following things in ancient Roman society:

1. As a verbal insult directed towards straight people who cheat on their spouse with someone of the same-sex
2. Prostitutes in ancient pagan temples that would sell sex to parishioners to excite the gods.
3. A pimp – someone living off the sexual prostitution of another.
4. Someone who masturbates (as Martin Luther thought)
5. A rich man who bought poor boys and engaged in pedophilia

Arsenokoitai cannot be translated into the word “gay” or “homosexual” as we understand it today. These terms didn’t even exist until the 19th Century. No one can be sure which meaning the Apostle Paul meant. But after seeing what arsenokoitai means anyone can see they don’t come close to what we define as homosexuality.

It’s not the Holy Spirit, its just your fears

Before we get to a bombshell – that Jesus himself talked about gay people – it’s important to point out that evangelicals are selective in their interpretation of the Bible. Evangelicals select certain texts at certain times based only on their emotions.

Here are some important passages in the New Testament they choose to ignore:

1 Timothy 2:15 “But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.”

Mathew 6:5-6 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”

1 Timothy 5:23 “Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”

1 Corinthians 14:34 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission.”

Imagine if pastors decided to focus on these passages instead of those that contain arsenokoitai. Evangelicalism would look quite different: women would not be involved in the church, Joel Osteen would sell wine as healing balm, and real followers of Jesus would only pray in their closets.

The queers of ancient history

Would a straight man where this?

It’s because of this emotional selectivity that Jesus’ words on homosexuals have been completely ignored. In a chapter where Jesus explicitly discusses marriage and divorce, he mysteriously throws this in:

Matthew 19:11-12 “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Remember that there was no definition for sexuality in the time period of Christ.

So who were eunuchs? In Jesus’ society eunuchs were men who had their genitals removed. They were used exclusively by governors to serve in their royal courts. The three main areas of service for eunuchs were administering the governors harem, personally bathing and clothing officials, or singing high notes in the court choir. A good candidate for castration, therefor the role of a eunuch, was a teenage boy who was extremely effeminate and not interested in the opposite sex. The governor could intimately trust an effeminate man because he would not sleep with his whores or have the “manliness” to take over.

So Jesus is talking about a group of effeminate men interested in serving people in high positions, organizing orgies, dressing the royals, and hitting the high notes. Yes, boys and girls, Jesus was talking about what we call “queens” today. Some were born that way, some were made that way by society around them, and some renounce marrying women to serve God.

It seems clear doesn’t it? However this is just the New Testament and we still have an entire Old Testament to address.

You did not just quote Leviticus at me!

A tablet from 1000 BC embellishes the successes of an Egyptian Pharaoh and mentions for the first time in history a tribe of 55,000 in the Middle East. They are known today as the Jews. The archeological record shows that this tribe made two innovations in ancient history – egalitarianism and monotheism.

Dig sites in Israel point to an ancient society that even the Bible could not capture. In the beginning, the Hebrews were a people who lived in small settlements. It’s people had just overthrown the existing powers and rulers of the land. What they established were houses that were equal with each other, with no king, no palaces and no divisions of society into different classes. They also were the first to believe that there was only one God that could not be described, imaged, or even mentioned by name.

Their new ideas, planted in the middle of the world and between empires, faced extinction at every turn. The fight for survival was on.

These common peasants established rules that governed their new experiment and made them distinct from their neighbors. It’s these tribal rules that Evangelicals use to demean a people who Jesus requested they try to understand.

Unlike the New Testament, there is no mistranslation. Rules in Leviticus don’t describe groups they describe behavior. For a small tribe on the brink of extinction, wasting sperm on anything but making babies, was a huge no-no.

Again, emotional selectivity exists. Before the prohibition against homosexuality are rules against sacrificing your children to other gods, sleeping with animals, sleeping with your daughter in law, or marrying a women and her mother at the same time. Other sections in Leviticus prohibit people from touching pig skins, cutting your hair, touching women during their period, and barring the disabled from religious services.

Even in Jesus’ day, some 500 years after these laws were written down, they caused serious confusion. Here was his answer to following all these ancient rules:

Matthew 22:35-40 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Sodom & Gomorrah

The meaning of fire and brimstone

Can you imagine calling a city “blow job?” This is the case when it comes to the city of Sodom. A city named after bum sex. Even after addressing the Greek meaning of arsenokoitai, exposing Biblical selectivism based on emotions, and pointing towards Jesus’ meaning of the Leviticus laws this will come up as a last resort.

Didn’t God destroy Sodom because people were committing sodomy?

The story goes that Sodom was a city morally much like Las Vegas or Amsterdam. Far worse, it was a place where people committed violence against each other and the plight of the poor was ignored. One of Abraham’s sons left rural living for the excitement of the city. God sent angels to get Lot out before he would destroy the city for its crimes. When Lot’s neighbors saw the angels were hot, they tried to rape them. Destruction ensued.

There is no doubt that the Hebrew people loathed Sodom’s open homosexuality, even when it did not involve rape like in the case above. But was sodomy, or open homosexuality, the ultimate cause of God’s destruction of the city?

Not according to the Old Testament itself. When the Bible speaks of the destruction of Sodom (Isaiah 1, 3)  it’s usually with verses denouncing injustice towards the poor, corruption of officials, disbelief in God, excess of wealth, and abandoning Hebrew values. The sin of sodomy isn’t mentioned. In Deuteronomy 29 God warned his people that he would turn their civilization into another Sodom. What was the cause?

Deuteronomy 29:  And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

Homosexuality, as we know it today, was not an honorable mention.

Blinded by the light

A surprise to some!

All of this may be of great shock. When I first found out the Greek meaning of the word arsenokoitai I was at an evangelical school studying to be a pastor.

If evangelicals can get this wrong, what other things have been perverted?

It turns out the anwser is a lot.

Movie rights have already been sold to Ridley Scott and the publisher has paid the for two more books. It’s rare to see so much buzz for a book aimed at adults.

This excitement has something to do with The Passage melding two subjects high on the zeitgeist: vampires and the apocalypse. Thankfully Justin Cronin’s tale is more Stephen King then Stephanie Meyer. Actually it’s a lot like Stephen King.

The Stand is an epic tale revolving around a government created virus that wipes out most of humanity. Its survivors band together and try to rebuild their lives only to find themselves representing sides of good and evil. Add to this that the government virus turns people into vampires and you have The Passage.

Unlike King, Cronin has kept supernaturalism to a minimum, although it’s still there. Instead the Passage is a grim tale of lost people looking for answers. The vampires themselves are neither Twilight nor Dracula – their dangerous animals with only a hint of humanity left. Even so Cronin requires you to both fear and sympathize with the enemy.

Where Cronin excels is the creation of alternate realities. Consider that Rowling created one complete world for the Harry Potter series, with its own rules, culture, and personalities. The Passage has at least 5 (!) complete worlds. As such, don’t get too attached to the characters as they will probably die or time will shift so quickly that they are no longer relevant.

It’s in the details of these post-apocalyptic worlds, where you will be totally enthralled, that chapters will melt away. For example, you encounter the details of a government experiment gone wrong and the details of a small village whose worst fear is the dark.  Along the way are characters who all just want one thing: to live everyday like we live now.

The Passage is not a perfect book. Cronin’s willingness to throw major characters “under the bus” will leave you frustrated. The change is so rapid between Part 1 and Part 2 that it feels like an entirely new novel. You can sense the author is trying to create something grand but The Passage is not grand. It’s a popular tale, based on popular subjects, with just a few paragraphs or art thrown here or there. The Passage is not original.

It’s still an excellent read though.

Rating (gouge my eyes out, below average, average, above average, more please)

Above Average

Enjoyed:

complete alternate realities of a post-apocalyptic society, deep characters

Disliked:

veiled supernaturalism that threatens to turn the book into a joke, rapid changes leave you lost

The only credential for a person to become a journalist is that they actually be there to film it.

People with camera phones are not real journalists. As such they should expect to be violently detained if they are located near unlawful activity.

Such is the opinion of Christie Blatchford in the Globe & Mail.

Some quotes from her piece:

“Journalism is not merely a collective of the self-anointed. For all that it may not be a regulated profession, neither is it just a coming together of people with cellphones, video cameras and blogs as receptacle for an apparently endless stream of unfiltered, unedited consciousness.”

“Their work isn’t subject to editing or lawyering or the ethical code which binds, for example, the writers at The Globe.”

“Thus, in the G20 protests, journalists, real or self-appointed, traditional or otherwise, had no special rights to go where we wanted and no special badge of protection against arrest.”

The article is entitled “Self appointed G20 journalists should get real.”

The problem Christie is that younger citizens no longer view corporate media as real!  The success of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert among this demographic prove the old guard is kind of a joke. Why?

Journalists have stopped investigating their power structures because they are now owned by them. Only the Toronto Star comes to mind as a newspaper owned by a newspaper company. In Fredericton the Daily Gleaner is owned by Irving. Irving just happens to be the wealthiest company in the province.

Our only option to get a “real” story is from the direct video of people witnessing it. 9/11 caused this form of journalism to take off. CNN is taking advantage of it with a thing called iReports. Old media in Canada should do the same thing.

The newspaper industry likes to blame falling subscriptions on the Internet. Articles are free now. However, the problem isn’t free access – it’s value.

Subscriptions are falling because what newspapers print is worth nothing. The new journalism is coming into the office in the morning, pouring through press releases in your Inbox, and choosing which one to trumpet. We know this and it’s just plain boring!

Investigative pieces are now called “Special (!) Reports” and only the top journalists are entrusted to write them. So once a quarter you get 5 articles by a voice you’ve heard from thousands of times before.

At best old media will become the Senate of new media – a place for sober second thought.

The citizens posting on YouTube are doing a better job of getting “real” stories then the papers. Their opinion does not depend on job security or the interests of the company that employs them. They just want to film shit while it’s happening.

The only credential for a person to become a journalist is that they actually be there to film it. Perhaps we need new laws to protect people who record events.

I admit there’s a problem with truth in this new paradigm. The whole new world order / Alex Jones thing is proof of that. How can you trust reports that are not accountable to ethics orgs? Naturally you can’t but there is a natural antidote to this problem. I’ve found the shear amount of multiple viewpoints can lead to a correct view. The consumer should be responsible for determining accuracy instead of having it dished out to us.

Old media won’t allow diverse views because it’s uneconomical to print them all. Old media will not go away, and it definitely has an important role in society. Just prepare to surrender a lot of ground you’ve been used to holding.

Perhaps I should have called this article, “Old media reporters should look beyond Outlook to get real.“

Just saying.

As a side note…

I was disgusted with both “sides” at the G8 /G20 for their actions.

The protesters where wrong in destroying public property (CBC vans, police cars etc). We now have to pay for their damage from our taxes. Take some more meth why don’t you.

The politicians were wrong by sitting in their customized G8 leather chairs acting like Kings instead of representatives. Not to mention the illustrious fake lake. They could have met at the Governor General’s mansion instead.

Gripes & grievances

After using Kobo since May 1st one thing has become clear… it wasn’t ready for prime time. After its initial release in Canada blogs lit up with complaints.

However, people want to love this product: reading with Kobo is enjoyable, the concept of reading on any device is sound, it’s Canadian, the company is transparent, and they care about our reading experiences.

Kobo will be a major player in the eBook world. Before owning a Kobo eReader I bought 3 physical books a year. I’ve now purchased 10 in the last two months! So don’t let the following gripes confuse you, Kobo is an excellent way to go.

Here were my frustrations with the Kobo eReader before the update:

• The Kobo didn’t deliver on battery life. The eReader is plagued by returned devices, weird charging behavior, and general confusion whether the device is on or off.
• Reading non-Kobo books suck. Only store books can have their font sizes changed. PDF documents are unreadable because the text is too small to see. When zoomed in you have to shift left and right on the d-pad, which is very slow. Granted from what I hear reading PDF’s on any reader is horrible.
• No control over syncing. The 100 classics are always there, the “I’m Reading” list is clogged, and there is no iTunes like program to control your books.
• eReader syncing via Blackberry is useless. Only books chosen to sync from your Blackberry will remain on the eReader. The others disappear until you sync with the desktop app. Slow transfer rates cause you to give up all together.
• Bookmarks do not reliably transfer between devices. Read a couple chapters on your smart phone, sync the eReader with the desktop app later, and you may find yourself at the beginning of the book. Bookmark syncing is spotty; results may vary.
• Design of purchased books is inconsistent. You may get a well thought out and structured book. Or a book that doesn’t indicate scene changes within a chapter. Often content is not organized in clearly defined sections or parts.

Kobo has announced that software updates can be expected to address these issues. The first, version 1.4, will be released on July 5 2010. Having already played with it here are my thoughts on the upgrade.

Pay no attention to the red light

Software on devices is often called “firmware.” Firm as in to “stay the same for a long period of time.”

Screen that notifies you of the firmware upgrade.

Upgrading firmware is dangerous as there is a risk of “bricking” the device.

Most will be upgrading their eReader by downloading a new version of the desktop app. You will be notified through email. When you plug your Kobo into the computer this new app will notify you of firmware 1.4. If such a process makes you queasy – and you live in Canada – you can go to a Chapter’s store and have staff do it for you.

The process is simple: 1. You press and hold multiple buttons to place the eReader in an “upgrade mode.” 2. You plug-in the device and the desktop app will download the new firmware. 3. Take a paperclip and press the small reset button. 4. Unplug the reader and let it upgrade.

I encountered confusion with the paperclip part. There is no feedback from the device when pressing reset. There is a wait when the eReader does nothing except show the red light. Scary. Eventually the screen will flash, tell you it’s updating the firmware, and then your good to go!

If you just leave me, I will leave you!

Kobo 1.4 will not give you more control. It will give you more power.

Gone are the questions about charging the device. Before 1.4 the red “charged” light came on too early. Sometimes in twenty minutes! We were left to guess if Kobo was charged or not.

Now the red light is to indicate when it is charging. Strangely a violet light means the same thing. Why we need two colors for the same status is weird. However, a full charge is now announced by a blue indicator. The screen now informs you when the unit is charging or when you are soon going to run out of battery.

Regular users prepare for an adjustment to how you’ve used Kobo before: the eReader will now sleep / shut down automatically after 15 minutes without use. Which means that you must endure a boot up before you can read. The firmware engineers should have chosen a longer sleep duration before turning it off completely. This is going to annoy a lot of people. But you will get used to it.

Having used the new firmware for a week I have achieved dramatically better battery life. Consider this issue solved.

Resize THIS. Whiners!

With 1.4 you can change the font size of any ePub. Hurray! Canada Day fireworks! End of WWII hugs and kisses.

Sorry for the overkill but anyone who access ePub’s from local libraries know what this means. I tested out the fix on David Boultbees’ The Gender Divide. Fonts resized as if there never was a problem. Good job team Kobo.

Honorable mention

The contrast seems noticeably darker. This could be my imagination though.

Last but not least,  you now have the option of hiding the 100 classics that come pre-loaded.

When in the “Books” menu, pressing the DISPLAY button gives you the choice of seeing all your books, only the ones you’ve transferred, or just the pre-loaded ones. No one actually asked for this improvement though. Rather we want an iTunes like app that will give us control over our library. How am I supposed to fill my Kobo with $.79 erotica – whoops I mean Globe and Mail bestsellers – if these classics are taking up space?

So there we are. The team has taken a good swat at the bugs buzzing around us Kobo-ites. Overall 1.4 is a very small update.

There is still much work to be done and I think Kobo understands this. That’s what keeps me with them.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments.

I’ve had such experiences with Apple, Dell, and RIM. I have not had this experience with Sony. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

No one likes their product to break. Even though we are well warned of the limited 1 year warranty, the public’s expectation is that things should last. Every purchase is a risk. You could be swindled by a large faceless corporation.

In April 2008 I paid $399 Canadian for a Playstation 3 and I got hosed.

The PS3 is a tempting package: it’s a Blu-Ray / DVD player, web browser, multimedia streamer, and gaming machine. Over two years I have enjoyed the multimedia functions. However, even though the features are useful, my advice is to avoid the PS3. Your disc drive will break within 2.5 years and Sony will charge you $155 Canadian to get it fixed.

Out of the 4 friends who have bought the PS3, 3 of their disc drives are defective!

Eventually – all of a sudden – the disc drive will no longer read discs. You can read about this common issue here, here, and here. This is just a small sample of the 54, 600 results when you search “broken PS3 disc drive.” Many of these are a result of Sony’s own firmware upgrades!

People love to make fun of Microsoft. However, I remember when the red ring of death was beating up every other XBox 360 and how they handled the issue. They extended the warranty and covered it free of charge. Microsoft cared about the gaming experience and they cared about what they were trying to build with the XBox.

So if such a big company like Microsoft would back up their product… how does Sony? I called their technical support line to troubleshoot my system. Like so many others my PS3 drive was broken. Since it was 2 years old and out of warranty there is a $155 repair fee. Keep in mind a brand new Sony Blue-Ray system is $149.

I fired off an email to the President of Sony(no response) and filed a formal complaint with the

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...

Better Business Bureau. In a couple of days a nice gentleman named Anthony called and said that there was no way they would replace the drive for free. He even denied that there was an issue with the PS3 disc drive. It’s amazing that in the age of Google and Bing Sony would try to deny such a thing.

The most he could do is offer two free video games if I went ahead with repairs.

Further conversations were useless. Thankfully, if you live in Canada, Rochen-Genova is gathering information for a possible class action lawsuit. If your having this issue please contact them.

Consider yourself warned my fellow Internet friends… avoid the PS3.

It’s a lemon.

Alas, only Betty White remains.

Long live Betty White!

As for Beatrice, Estelle and now Rue … thanks for the laughs. Truly.

Here’s some bloopers to jog the memory:

We are told they want to bring a “New World Order” where the government  rules over people with an iron fist. It’s a dictatorship aided by snooping technology that turns us into slaves. These elites are free to do with us as they will.

Often this group has been given the label “Illuminati.” The largest target for conspiracy buffs, at least for religious conspiracy theorists, is an organization called Lucis Trust. They say Lucis stands for Lucifer and this small group of new ager’s are behind a world-wide plot.

Old prejudices with new targets

The threat of tyranny is not from some religion, including Lucis Trust. The threat comes from rich white men who never got over being teased in grade school.

I can’t think of one instance in history where a dictatorship came from a group like Lucis Trust. This small organization promotes mutual understanding, strength in diversification, universality of morals and religion, global responsibility, and spiritual improvement.

Tyranny always comes from the group that espouses mistrust, conspiracy theories, hatred of minorities, while riding on the back of the most popular religion of the time. These conspiracy buffs, by making these videos and publishing their blogs, may be conditioning the public to accept radical solutions.

Imagine a strong leader, who stands for traditional family and Christianity, who blames these

Promotional poster for Hitler the traditionalist

Luciferians and their plots for all of America’s problems, plays on a horrible economy, and promises to bring America back on the path of glory.

Sounds awfully familiar right?

New World Order conspiracies have existed before. The last target were Jews, liberals, homosexuals, the lazy and the sick. Instead of the Illuminati people believed that Jews controlled all the banks, media, and governments.

Replace Hitler with a new strong man and you have another dictator.

Is there anyone behind the curtain?

The Illuminati does exist. They have been telling the public since the 1800′s. Far from being powerful they are just another alternative religion, albeit one that has been kept secret for most of civilization.

In truth, Illuminist’s (meaning “bringer of light”) have never went by that name. A German group that used the term were influential men who wanted to destroy the monarchy and religions. They held no secret knowledge. They were just one more political party that wanted power for themselves.

However, there are real “bringer’s of light.” They can be identified because they use the words “service” and “goodwill” publicly. What was supposed to be some “secret” knowledge has been available in books since the 1950′s. With the advent of the Internet these books are now accessable. Yes the information is hard to find, and even harder to understand, but in the 21st Century Illuminists are out of the closet.

The truth is most people don’t care.

True Colours

Alex Jones, prominent conspiracy theorist, needs lithium

Illuminists practice an alternative religion. For this reason secrecy was needed. The existing powers stood ready to kill anyone who held different political or religious beliefs. Secrecy meant the safety of yourself, your livelihood and your family.

Secrecy did not mean conspiracy!

Does this group want to control everything? Will they do it through deceit and violence? The one’s who invented human rights are the last to abuse them. For example a foundational document of Lucis Trust says this on the subject of war:

“It must be recognised that the cause of all world unrest, of the world wars which have wrecked humanity, and the widespread misery upon our planet, can largely be attributed to a selfish group with materialistic purposes, who have for centuries exploited the masses and used the labour of mankind for their selfish ends . . . This group of capitalists has cornered and exploited the world’s resources and the staples required for civilised living; they have been able to do this because they have owned and controlled the world’s wealth through their interlocking directorates, and have retained it in their hands. They have made possible the vast differences existing between the very rich and the very poor; they love money and the power which money gives; they have stood behind governments and politicians; they have controlled the electorate; they have made possible the narrow nationalistic aims of selfish politics; they have financed the world businesses and controlled oil, coal, power, light and transportation; they control publicly or sub rosa the world’s banking accounts.”

Does this sound like the group looking to enslave humanity?

They are a small group. They are secretive as no one will tell you their spiritual status. There is no “one” group to join. They are diverse – rich/poor, powerful/weak, Atheist/Christian, gay/straight – but what unites them is a common desire to improve the human condition. Being initiated is an intensely personal and private journey.

As a group they are selective in that they only admit those who care. You must have a strong mind, strong discipline, and a big heart.

Each person must seek them out on their own.

Not a Creed of Belief, But a Creed of Service

The secret is not that there is an Illuminati but that a war is going on. You have two forces – light and dark – in full battle for control of how we should live our lives. In the middle are just everyday people.

Bloggers are confusing these two sides as one entity, when really they battle each other and hold opposite values.

It is true a great many musicians are Illuminists, as are many actors… and yes symbols are used. Art is used as protection from authorities – only those taught the language of symbols can learn the knowledge. To an outsider your just reading or looking at art.

In 2010 most Illuminists are public, preaching against materialism and the path of power that is ruining our world. They are influencers, not leaders. Enablers, not destroyers. A keystone of their religion is the refusal of power. They realize that only through service can true authority be realized.

As for members of the Arcane School of Lucis Trust, each one starts their day reciting:

“I am a point of light within a greater Light. I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine. I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.

And thus I stand.

I am a way by which men may achieve. I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand. I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.

And thus I stand.

And standing thus, revolve. And tread the way of men, Knowing the ways of God.

And thus I stand.”

There is a conspiracy of evil men that pose a threat to liberty. However, the people you persecute and knock down as Satanists could be one of the greatest tools you have in defeating the real enemy:

Rich white men who never got over being teased in grade school.