Spring has Sprung.

So, recently I got an acceptance letter from Queen's law, after all that LSAT prep. They had an orientation get together this weekend in Kingston, so I ended up driving there Friday morning for the meet and greet. With a free breakfast and lunch, along with the Kingston Film Festival going on over the weekend it really was a no brainer to go back to the place of formal/former education. Moreover, Jer was going up as well, and this was another opportunity to visit with my cousin Justyna who is schooling in her final year at RMC.

I got into Kingston around 9 and walked down to MacDonald Hall (Queen's law building) -- after changing my floor hockey shirt/brushing my teeth in the car -- early, and introduced myself to about 4 prospective students, 6 upper year students, and 3 coffees, not necessarily in that order. So far, all good news.

Musical interlude time! Decide, decide, it's decision time, so make up your mind and move along.



D
People do good, people do bad
A
Open up the church to see what they had
D
Pine, pine all of the time
A D
That's the story of our lives

D
There's the steeple, but where's the catch?
A
It's underneath the highway overpass
D
Pine, pine, pine all the time
A
That's the special of the day

G D
You meet, you cheat, and you lay down a beat
G D
You reap what you sow and you are what you eat
Bm A G D
And you go where you go on your own two feet
Bm A G D
You go where you go on your own two feet

D
People do wrong, people do right
A
I've done both in the same damn night
D
Pine, pine, pine all the time
A D
I'm tired of hearing it myself

D
You can go left or you can go right
A
You can get dim or you can get bright
D
Decide, decide, it's decision time
A D
So make up your mind and move along

G D
You meet, you cheat, and you might drop the beat
G D
You reap what you sow and you are what you eat
Bm A G D
And you go where you go on your own two feet
Bm A G E
You go where you go on your own two feet

E
You can make hay or you can a mess
B
You can make hell on earth I guess
E
Misery, misery, company store
B E
I owe my soul and more

A E
Footloose and fancy free
A E
Don't come callin' cause you can't catch me
C#m B A E
I go where I go on my own two feet
C#m B A E
I go where I go on my own two feet

Um, I wanna say this as well; I loved my time at Queen's and in Kingston. I have always felt an association to the small town feeling there. Everything, simply EVERYTHING you need is within walking distance. When you rent a place to live at Queen's it is practically impossible to be more than a 15 minute walk away from your 8:30am classes. Distance doesn't make for a good community, and makes you miss your classes.

I don't really want to go to a university where there's an hour or two between classes and you need to 'hang out' or drive/bus to and from. I think part of the reason for this feeling (amongst so. many. other. things.) is my job at PHD. It's far. It's a 25 km commute, and not easy by any means of transport to get to, nevermind bike. But, I found a family there. Robert has always treated me like a member of his family. He lives approximately 5 meters from the office (his house was built on the premises), so 80% of the time I take my lunch with him, his family, his mother, and his children at his place. There is a fridge, a couch and a tv, there are kids running around, and there is a loving, home cooked meal by his mother on most days. It is pretty awesome, and a feeling that is so intertwined with work that for me it has pretty much become a spoiled, downtime requirement.

Somewhere like Osgoode Law can't really compete on that level. I don't want to commute if there is no reason to. I love/need that community feel; a home. I want/like to know that everyone is working toward a common, unifying, a relatively easy achievable, mutually beneficial goal. Small spread out group projects are fine, but key large projects within a focused tight group is where I get off.

Justyna and I talked about this; in some ways I'd fit right into the military lifestyle. I remember discussing this with Andrew, a high school friend who enrolled in the military. The regimentation and goal orientation is something that I think I lack in life a bit. But, I like only certain aspects of that; the structure, the common goal, cooperation, small, focused groupings. There is also too much structure; rebelling comes to mind. I feel one is always working under someone's command and not necessarily within a guidance role, cooperation or partnership. I fully admit, can adhere to, and endorse the idea of partnership and/or mentorship and the need for that, but it gets complicated sometimes. Anyway, this is the story of anyone's life I guess, and I can wax on about this but won't.

SO, back at the law orientation. After an introduction to the Dean of Law and some other sales stuff we had a sample lecture by Associate Prof Michael Pratt, who also has a cross-appointment at the Philosophy department.

So, Mike Pratt is (seems?) pretty awesome. He has a philosophy degree, and math degree, and a law degree. With full realization that he's just one prof, the man did did give'r, and it really was quite a great sample lecture. First, I remember him mentioned the name Isabel and Alfred Badel. Most Torontoians will recognize the name from the Isabel Bader Theatre.

Alfred Bader escaped Austria at 14 (from the German invasion) to England, was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer and deported to an internment camp in Canada, released a year later, attended Queen's and Harvard, started his own chemical company, got kicked out, then got asked to come back, becoming quite wealthy in the process.

When asked his greatest achievement, Bader answered that it was twofold, one for his business achievement, and the other was meeting and marrying Isabel.^[12] His romance is detailed in his second autobiographical book; it involved a shipboard meeting and courtship, some 400 love letters, a twenty-five year separation, and finally a happy and fruitful marriage.^[13] (Wiki)

Anyway, Bader is just another one of those names that seem to connect Toronto and Kingston, UofT and Queen's... I can't quite remember why Pratt mentioned them though.. haha... whateves.

Ok, second musical interlude.



Both album versions are fantastic. All chords are relative to a capo on the 2nd fret.

G-Riff
G G Gadd9 Gadd9
+==+=========+=========+=========+=========+
| 1 ' 2 ' 3 ' 4 ' |
+==+=========+=========+=========+=========+
e |--3---------3---------x---------x---------|
B |--0---------0---------0---------0---------|
G |--0---------0---------2----h4---2----p0---|
D |--0---------0---------0---------0------h2-|
A |--2---------2---------0---------0---------|
E |--3---------3---------3---------3---------|

The final hammer on this riff is only played on even numbered
riffs when they're done in pairs.

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

INTRO:
G Gadd9 G-Riff
G Gadd9 G-Riff

VERSE 1:
G
Well I know we don't talk much
C C D
But you're such a good talker, oh whoa
G
Well I know we should take a walk
C C D
But you're such a fast walker, oh whoa
G-Riff G-Riff
Well, all right

CHORUS:
C D G-Riff G-Riff
I know where I'll be tonight, all right
C D
Outta mind, outta sight

VERSE 2:
G
Well okay, I know you don't love me
C C D
But you've still been thinking of me, oh whoa
G
Well all right, I know you probably hate me
C C D
That's okay with me
G-Riff G-Riff
Well, all right

CHORUS:
C D G-Riff G-Riff
I know where I'll be tonight, all right
C Em
Outta mind, outta sight
Bm C7
Outta mind, outta sight
G-Riff G-Riff

BRIDGE:
Am G-Riff G-Riff
You don't see me now
D C G-Riff G-Riff G-Riff G-Riff
You don't want to any-----how

VERSE 3:
G
Look out, here I come again
C C D
And I'm bringing my friends
G
Look out, here I come again
C C D
I'm bringing my friends, okay, all right, okay, all right
G-Riff G-Riff

CHORUS:
C D G-Riff G-Riff
I know where I'll be tonight, all right
C D
Outta mind, outta sight
C D
Outta mind, outta sight
C D
Outta mind, outta sight

FINALE:
G-Riff (4x)


So, Prof. Mike Pratt. He continued his lecture with a brief explanation of common law. I'm guessing you do, but I have no idea what the difference is between common and civil law. He broke it down this way: Common Law is based on precedent, Civil Law is based on the rules. Canadians practice Common Law except for in Quebec. So, what the means, and I'm really not paraphrasing him much here, the law we practice in Ontario is based basically on two things: story telling and reason. Two of my favourite things; I got sucked in a bit here...

He went on to explain the "classic" case of Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company.


The defendants, the proprietors of a medical preparation called "The Carbolic Smoke Ball," ran an ad in which they offered to pay 100 pounds to any person who contracted influenza after having used one of their "smoke balls" in a specified manner and for a specified period. The plaintiff, on the faith of the asvertised claims bought one of the balls, and used it in the manner and for the period specified, but nevertheless contracted influenza (Wiki).

Anyway, without boring the shit out of you, this seems to be the classic precedent within contract law, of binding law, and of moral vs. contractual obligations. The class went on from there discussing the differences between the two obligations, and what happens when they don't align. Also, what the main purpose of a contract is, the cooperation involved, and the distinction between it and the (social contracts) laws imposed on us by the government. I'm pretty damn sure that not all of law school is gonna be this interesting, but the man sold it here.

As an aside, I think the only reason I got into Queen's Law is because of the recommendation letter from my Queen's cognitive psyc prof, Dr. Merlin Donald (Merlin Donald is widely known as the author of two books on human cognition, Origins of the Modern Mind and A Mind So Rare.) Wiki. He's the brilliant man who came up with the theory that human language developed primarily within the realm of gossip; people, mostly women first, needed to discuss what was happening within their cohort - current coordinations of food and people in a group dynamic, where everyone was within the group at certain times, what (and who) everyone was doing at the time (I'm obviously paraphrasing and minimizing). To minimize further, basically, language came about because there was a need to organize and gossip. On top of that, language gave birth to the consciousness, the mother load of humanity, through language first(!), because of the organizational requirements involved.

This had very little to do with my study; Merlin was/is also involved in visual perception, and that's where my focus came into play, but that's all coming in a later post about perception that I've been working on lazily for about a month now...

More to the point, I explicitly acknowledge, and thank him endlessly, that without his help and guidance I would not be how/who/where I am today.

So, back to the weekend. I really enjoyed everything I pulled from that orientation, and now have no hesitation about going there, or any other law school for that matter (easily convinced?). I know this may sound like cheese, but it almost feels like a second opportunity to go through university without the constant drinking binge/hangover. I'm talking shit really, but yeah... First through third year were a blur for too many reasons.

Anyway, who the fuck knows. More discussion left to an actual discussion, ummm, over beer.

Ok, back again to the weekend for real this time. After the orientation I walked around Queen's campus a bit, and then met up with Justyna, who gave me a tour of the RMC campus. During my years in Kingston I never visited RMC, and it is quite nice!

Vic Hall, 1st year residence.


Physics building; 1st year crappy marks.


Pulling into the res at RMC, there were boys and girls in uniform training for a parade!


Until recently, all students at RMC were forced to room on campus. They have opened it up a bit to fourth years, but still most live on campus. This is what an RMC dorm room looks like.


They had a 24-hour cycling competition on that weekend, not unlike the one at the Toronto Spring Bike Show.




On campus pub.






View of downtown Kingston.



Just in case.


Justyna mentioned that pranks were a big part of leaving class rituals. One year the students placed remote charges in the river along with blank charges in the cannons. They then began to 'fire' on the island ferry until it apparently u-turned back to the opposite shore. Awesome.



More walking and talking...



As mentioned, The Kingston Film festival was on as well that weekend, and my friend Ryan had two movies playing. The first one, The National Parks Project: Gros Morne played Friday night. We showed up about 5 minutes before the film and found it was sold out. So, we missed it... ugh... Incidentally, The National Parks Project got picked up by Discovery Channel Canada and the boys will be going across the country this summer filming a national park in each province and territory! I'm currently trying to sneak my way into production.

On the Saturday night, No Heart Feelings played, which I hadn't seen yet. Jer lined up early to ensure we all got tickets, and it was a great movie.

Take a look at the trailer!:

No Heart Feelings from Ryan Noth on Vimeo.

Both nights Ryan and Geoff got us into the KFF hospitality suite (free booze), where we chatted and chatted. Also, one of the nights included an almost emotional discussion on the merits of the TTC at Simon's (Jer's brother, who is doing his PHD up there), but I'll leave those kinds of details for later...

--

No, this post isn't done yet (I'm not sure why I didn't split it up. One weekend I suppose.. anyway) Sunday morning rolls around, and Jer and I take off for Toronto to catch his under-14 team play in the North Toronto Championships! If you'll remember to last weekend, his fourth placed team beat up on the first overalls just before Canada won their Olympic hockey gold.

The Big Game!




The National Anthem was sung beforehand...


... and a pep-talk to rally the troops was given.






Despite scoring the first goal of the game, the Spokes seemed overmatched by the Agency 59 boys on this day.




The final was unfortunately a 3-1 loss, but the Spokes were still smiling.






The last walk around.


Sunday night then rolled around, and I headed over to Chris and Donna's place for dinner and Oscars. After nearly falling asleep I met up with Adam at the Cadillac Lounge where we topped off the weekend with The Rattles (first seen here), a Beatles cover band that plays every Sunday night at the Cadillac.

They were pretty good, and a perfect cap to a great weekend.

Ray Kurzweil - movie reviewer

Remember Ray Kurzweil? Well, he recently ripped apart Avatar based almost solely on the battle technologies used within the movie. That, and he "thought the story and script was unimaginative, one-dimensional, and derivative."

No. way.



I suppose it's difficult for an "artificial intelligence, transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism" (Wiki) genius to look at it any other way, eh? Kinda funny.

I mean, this kind of perspective is, hmmm..., is peculiar when applied to a blockbuster-orientated movie. I can't say I disagree with him on a lot of his points, but there is something in me saying that he kinda didn't get (or address/acknowledge) all the ideas and perspectives behind the making of the movie. It just seems like a fairly narrow review, is all I'm saying. For example, Cameron's cultural, battle, weaponry, and futurism choices/references may have been deliberately "incorrect" - though perhaps lazy and formulaic - for reasons such as familiarity, association and simplicity in order to reach a wider money, umm.. audience.

Of course, Mr. Kurzweil's next blog post was "How to build a superluminal computer", so what do I know.

Update: Not incidentally, it seems Ray has surprisingly ;) thought about Cameron's limited choices as well... However, I just don't remember Mr. Kurzweil forwarding his review of Star Wars, like my friend TheDurkinKnight.

My favoutire Cohen song.

full of, changing of, and lack of time.

Second favourite:



If I haven't recommended this before, just double click on the youtube video and watch it large.

Third? A greatest story.



More? Yes, I agree.



I know there's a lot here, probably too much without touch.

One more, with some of my favourite lyrics of Cohen's to lead.

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone.



His old teacher (CBC Retrobite with Adrienne Clarkson)

Super Sunday!

Big games on Sunday. Jeremy's team was in the hunt for a finals birth, and I was lucky enough to have the connections to attend. North Toronto Hockey Rink, just north west of Eglinton and Yonge, is where Jeremy brought his under-14 year old boys, the green "Spokes", to the North Toronto Hockey League semi-finals.





Right off the bat you could tell that Jer's team was a bit weaker... The "Avenue Road Pool Service" was stacked, but Jer's "Spokes" just had something about them that day..


A shot off the top of the glove and off the crossbar. Beautiful.



Top corner goal by #14.


At about 7 minutes left in the third, another top one, this time by #15! Ricocheting off the top corner post, the Spokes took the lead 5-4, and ended the Pool's goalie frustration.



Anticipation..

The Pool's try a "daring" move and pull their goalie...

...only to have the empty netter seal the deal.


The last faceoff. These boys earned it.


Yes!

There were no on ice celebrations, mostly because the Zamboni came on the ice about 2.3 seconds later, but the post game locker room speech no doubt gave these boys the hunger for one more. After a flask of Champagne we all sprinted down in the convoy to 801 King W, where we caught the end of the CAN-USA 2nd, and pretty much a perfect Canada Super Sunday sweep, day to night.

Such a gorgeous song.

I never really was, or am, into Hawksley Workman, but this song is so devastatingly perfect. Thanks for the link, Angela.



So much in so few words.

Cross country

Friday afternoon, a few of us went out to enjoy the new southern Ontario snow, and tried cross country skiing for the first time. We headed up to Albion Hills, only about 45 minutes north of the city. But first, a little breakfast/lunch.





Chris not only cooked up some omelettes, but being the only one who's actually cross country skied before, also offered up some pointers.


It turned out to be a perfect day out...




While getting the ski pattern down wasn't too difficult, staying balanced on those thin skis was.






But, we all eventually got the hang of it!



















Justyna, looking more like the other Justyna...









Costs ran about $23 per person after all rentals, park fees and taxes.



An awesome experience, and I would definitely like to go back there again this winter; maybe this time for a full day instead of just the afternoon. We were a bit pressured for time as we got up there a bit late, but with light flurries and no wind, the afternoon was pretty perfect.

The old Eels.

They're new album is absolutely fantastic, but, for some background...

Mr. E covers Prince.

Love.

Mr. E's father provided the gift of the parallel worlds theory, btw...

Ron Hawkins? Billy Bragg? Ron Sexsmith? Raw. Mr. Everett.






Below is my favourite Eels song. The video doesn't fit. Listen once, if I could recommend, with your eyes closed. And then listen and watch. It's not the video.

Umm, cut that. I'll go with a live version. For some reason(?!) it fits better. Performed 12 years ago.


And really, below, this is the perfect song. I really don't care who sings it. Even this aloof in love guy.

Gorgeous.


It's too easy to keep on going....

Song of the Day: Weezer - Butterfly

I listened to Pinkerton twice yesterday. Then I started thinking about songs with the a river analogy... so many! Then I started thinking of songs with the word sorry. This is the ridiculous shit that happens when I try to clean a house.

Posted by: ohwellwhatevernevermind94@gmail.com
Tuning: Standard

Riff 1:

e|-------------------|
B|----4-2------------|
G|--------4-3-1-3----|
D|--4-------------4--|
A|-------------------|
E|-------------------|

RIFF 2:

e|-------------------|
B|----4-2------------|
G|--------4-3-1-3-4--|
D|--4----------------|
A|-------------------|
E|-------------------|

RIFF 3:

e|-------2-1-1----------|
B|--4-4--------4-3-4----|
G|-------------------3--|
D|----------------------|
A|----------------------|
E|----------------------|


Verse 1:

F# Ebm B
Yesterday I went outside
C# F#
With my momma's mason jar
Ebm B RIFF 1 (Or play C#)
Caught a lovely Butterfly
F# Ebm B
When I woke up today
C# F#
Looked in on my fairy pet
Ebm B RIFF 2(then back to B for a moment before going to C)
She had withered all away
C#
No more sighing in her breast

Chorus:
F#
I'm sorry for what I did
Ebm B
I did what my body told me to
C# F#
I didn't mean to do you harm
F#7 B RIFF 3 C#
Everytime I pin down what I think I want
F# Ebm B
It slips away - the ghost slips aw- aaay


Verse 2 (same chords as verse 1):

I smell you on my hand for days
I can't wash away your scent
If I'm a dog then you're a bitch
I guess you're as real as me
Maybe I can live with that
Maybe I need fantasies
A life of chasing butterfly


Chorus:
F#
I'm sorry for what I did
Ebm B
I did what my body told me to
C# F#
I didn't mean to do you harm
F#7 B C#
Everytime I pin down what I think I want
F# Ebm B
It slips away - the ghost slips aw-aaay


(Stay on B)


Verse 3 (pretty much the same but slower):

F# Ebm B
I told you I would return
C# F#
When the robin makes his nest
Ebm B RIFF 1 (Or play C#)
But I ain't never coming back

F#

F#
I'm sorry
Ebm
I'm sorry
B F#
I'm sorry


Waste my days (and get a job).

There are few better sounds. The drumstick against the trap. Feedback. I once tried to catalogue a chromatic feedback list. Starting with feedback in the sound of A minor.

Bike Police

Poland, apparently. They tried to talk him down.
(http://bikelanediary.blogspot.com)

Toronto's streetlights

I posted an article this morning on google reader from the Toronto Star about how Toronto is to pay $420 million in rental fees for streetlights they just sold for $60 million. After I commented with distaste, Chris pointed out that maintenance fees weren't included in those numbers and weren't mentioned in the article at all. Basically, the numbers may just look a lot worse than they actually are. I did think about that initially, but a hot head reaction and post was later brought in by Chris' comment. SO, can we get closer to the real numbers here?



For the life of me, I can't find how much Toronto spends/spent on streetlight maintenance each year prior to their sale. I'm not surprised, but, that is going to be a problem. So, I'll try to work around that a bit. Below is a very rough numbers calculation based on old facts and unreliable figures.

Hamilton, who debated roughly the same topic in 2003, actually posted their discussions online without any attempted lawyer cover-up (how about that!), had about 35,000 streetlights in 2003 (link is a pdf).

By Toronto Hydro numbers, Toronto currently has about 150,000 streetlights.

So, roughly 5 times the population, and roughly 5 times the number of streetlights (by the numbers I saw.. ). Makes sense, downtown density aside.

Hamilton, in 2003 spent just under $500,000 for streetlight maintenance (in that pdf above). So, let's say there's an increased of about 20% from those numbers to 2010, and I'll concede an additional $100,000, just guesstimating. (For comparison, Toronto Hydro is just adjusting their 30 year fee with inflation.) That means that if I had to guess, Hamilton is spending about $600,000 a year on streetlight sustenance. Converting these numbers to Toronto (x5), streetlight upkeep should currently cost us about 3 million dollars a year.

That means that over the 30 year rental agreement with Toronto Hydro (estimated at about $14 million a year), we're in the hole about $11 million a year. For 30 years that's $330 million which we could have saved. Subtract from that the initial $60 million received, and we're in the hole $270 million over the length of the contract, give or take. Or, to put it another way, what would be costing us $90-100 million, is now costing us $420 million.

Now, maintenance doesn't include administration (turning lights on/off/handling complaints, etc...). I have no idea what the costs are, and I assume it's fairly automated, but seeing as it's Toronto, let's say another $2 million a year? That saves us another $60 million.

So, you're right; the hole isn't as bad as it was made out to be. And my numbers are really just coming from anywhere 15 minutes will allow. But, it does still seem ridiculous, significant, and inexcusable. Moreover, ownership does have its privileges, and incentives.

Given that Toronto is still paying for the hydro it uses for these streetlamps (I assume that's not in the deal - otherwise it would be pretty sweet), there is little incentive for Toronto Hydro to replace bulbs with high efficiency ones. Further, I doubt Toronto Hydro will put forth the initiative to proactively replace street lamps with something that Toronto citizens may want 10 years down the road. What I'm (poorly) trying to say is that it's just another example where Toronto is selling off its public assets and image for short term gain, and those numbers aren't yet included in the sell-off monetary shortfall.

As an aside, here's a slideshow of what San Francisco may be considering in their streetlight efforts (pdf again).

--

As another aside, didn't Toronto Hydro have some massive wi-fi plan it was supposed to implement on these streelamps? Is that what One Zone is? Well, that seems to have worked out pretty well for them...