Yale Shmale, YOU FAIL!!!!

I don't really care about this incident, since it's regarding a university of a lower order than U of T, but I care at the same time since it concerns our good friend George W. I'm not a fan of the antics of Dubya, and I'm not very pro-Republican either. As a matter of fact, I believe that the Democrats are the only good leaders of the US, and that the Republicans are only and only concerned about the corporations that they receive campaign contributions from. The Democrats have the same problem, but they seem a little more benevolent than the GOP.

So anyways, back on topic, I saw these posters on campus that had a picture of Bush and on them said "Yale Shmale". They were ads for Lakehead University, a small university up north in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I personally thought that the ads were quite interesting and eye catching, since they caught my eye, and I don't pay attention to ads anymore. Anyways, I don't know what the fuss should be about. Dubya graduated from Yale, big deal! His father was wealthy, it doesn't mean that because you're wealthy, you're gonna be smart. Lakehead University was showing that an elite institution doesn't automatically make you the best. Maybe I have the rose goggles on, but I bet that even a guy who was educated in Ryerson or York can become president and beat the guy from Harvard or Yale or Stanford. No offence to the Ryerson or York people and equally no offence to the Harvard or Yale people!

Now Clinton, he was an inspiration. Bill Clinton was born into an uneducated family, or a family with no postsecondary education (I'm not sure of which one) in Arkansas. He was from a regular, average joe family. He studied his ass off to become what he is today and I admire him for that. Not only that, he was able to lobby for the poor of the US. In a land of so much wealth, there is very little equality when it comes to healthcare, education and essential services. He worked to change that, although he could've done better regarding a universal medicare coverage. If I were to ever move to the United States, I would join the Democratic Party there just because they're a little more diplomatic with the so called 'rogue states' and they have no desire to spend all the money they have on military but rather on social services.

I heard today that the government of Ontario is planning to put money into bursaries and scholarships for those whose parents or family never had a post secondary education. Now if only they would do that in the states, so that at least there would be equal opportunity for everyone. Everybody might not go to university, but at least they would've had the opportunity to go. Back when my life ends...

Accepted racism in small town America...

I've just been through an arduous road trip through the US of A and I'm here in N. Kentucky. People are very nice to outsiders and they welcome us very nicely. I guess that Southern Comfort is referring to South of the Border, since I was only in Ohio when the niceties came my way. An example would be that after seeing me wear a U of T hat, and my overall foreign look, the girl at the McDonalds I was at gave me my salad with no tax. So many nice things from people. Canadians are always welcome since we're the peace loving neighbours. I don't want to be in the mindset of Blanche DuBois and put my faith in the kindness of strangers. I've learned that people everywhere are nice to foreigners and they expect it when you're in their shoes. As Atticus Finch would say "you never understand a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it".

And God bless the person that Atticus Finch was derived from. People are nice, that's nice! But only when you're a foreigner. While I was munching on my vegetarian lunch (I've turned a new leaf!), I overheard an old couple talking together. I really didn't care what they were saying until I heard the old lady say that she doesn't want "that African American guy" to be principle of the local high school. She once worked with an African American and he was "very dumb", according to her. I wasn't sure how to react. I know that it's none of my business but this gives you a sense of what type of people small town Americans can be.

Of course, that was an older and more conservative woman. Being a "nigger lover" these days, as Bob Ewell would've said, are in style! I'm sure that people are less conservative and are willing to be friends with just about anyone who shares a common interest with them. I've got friends who are Chinese, Sri Lankan, Indian, Canadian, American, Iranian, Arab, African, Jamaican and the list goes on. I can't stand it when someone says that black people are all gangsters and lazy. I knew two guys who worked at a call centre and doing surveys just so they could pay for medical school tuition, which they were aspiring for. They were both black.

9/11 conspiracy coverup...

What a big joke! As we're approaching the half decade mark of a very notorious terrorist attack, I watched a video called "Loose Change 9/11". OK, so it raised alot of eyebrows. I was thinking of how the US government could have covered up such a thing and have so many holes in the so called evidence and then it dawned on me: if there were so many holes in the evidence, the greater public would've realized this by now and the Democrats would have called for Bush's ass on a platter. The fact is, it wasn't the government, otherwise there would be a lot of people (at least a lot with enough common sense) to demand this. After viewing the film two or three times, I made these observations:

#1. There is no interview at ALL with an expert about the topic. Anything that is talked about isn't talked about by experts but rather by onlookers, who are experts in another field.

#2. Every sort of evidence they point towards a bomb or an explosion in the towers are used from similes (ie/ 'such as', 'like so', etc.).

#3. The towers did NOT pancake onto each other completely. They collapsed but the debris rained on the rest of the area, which led to the collapse of 7 WTC later that day.

#4. The towers were completed in 1973. Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 were created and used in the 1980's and 90's to fly farther and faster, thereby, taking on more fuel. The rest is pretty easy to understand...

#5. When Bush claims to have seen the first plane hit the North Tower, he was wrong! It is after a long and traumatic event that causes you to think of one thing that may be similar to another and interpret what you think as THE one. In layman's terms, your memory is altered after witnessing something terrible to something else. The footage of the planes hitting the towers after that day were being played over and over and over again that it gets ingrained in your memory.

#6. Last, but not least, and there is a lot more, but I'm too lazy to write on, is the fact that they showed different building fires with the result being that the building didn't collapse. Dylan Avery, the Twin Towers were hit by planes, significantly weakening their structure. You, my friend, are comparing a bullet wound to the common cold.

That's my little spiel, thanks for reading and letting me vent!

First it was goats, now it's snakes...

Snakes on a Plane. Snakes on a Plane. Snakes on a Plane. Ok, so there were Snakes on a Plane. I've seen people bring boa constrictors onto airplanes, or, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, "I've seen motherf***ing people bring motherf***ing boa constrictors onto motherf***ing planes". That's all I'm gonna write about this overrated, par B film. I don't think it's even worth sneaking into a theatre to watch let alone paying.

I read the National Post on Thursday. Now people would ask "Sheiban, why the bloody hell would you read the National Post, especially since you don't read the newspapers anymore and rely on reporting from all sorts of different angles?". Well, this is one of the angles. Anyhow, I check for usual interesting reporting that you wouldn't find anywhere else . Now, it just so happened that the paper has a part where people submit what they have overheard and one of the most interesting things I read was a quote saying, and I am not altering it in any way

"of all the barnyard animals in the world, the goat has to be the most exciting one".

Whoa! Whoever said that really, REALLY REALLY had issues! I'm not sure what to say, it sounds so wrong...

JonBenet Ramsey murderer caught. I hope you parents have learned a lesson...

On my 10th birthday, a little girl in Boulder, Colorado, a long way away from me, was murdered. Why have I heard about this? Simple. The media made a big deal of it because:
#1: She was white, blonde hair, blue eyes and very pretty (without the makeup of course)
#2: Her family was white, upper middle class, two cars in the garage, the real American dream.

JonBenet Ramsey and the rest of her family were victims, but not of a 41 year old school teacher arrested yesterday, but of the media. The media portrayed her as a beauty queen who had won numerous awards the year before, at the age of 6. They portrayed her as a sexual desire by showing all the clips of her walking on stage in cowgirl outfits and all those other things, and as a child too. In my opinion, that's quite disturbing. Her family, more specifically her parents, on the other hand, were portrayed by the media as not the killers, but THE KILLERS; no ifs, ands, or buts.

I have been conditioned by the media for the great majority of my life, but I'm starting to see things as more than black and white in the way that the media paint the picture. I remember watching the news programs on Fox (I shudder about it now) and MSNBC after the murders, when they were interviewing absolutely everybody in the town from the district attorney to the guy who delivers the mail to their house. When I think about it now, why weren't they covering the murder of someone else in this sort of light? I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Another point that I would like to put is putting a 6 year old in a beauty pageant. Now, I have my opinions about beauty pageants, but when you put a child, not even at the age to go out on a saturday night with her friends, on a stage with a boatload of makeup and hair gel and all that other stuff on them, they're bound to become an object of desire to pedophiles. Parents, you can only protect your children so much. Also, hasn't it occured to you that child beauty queens, or beauty queens in general tend to come from higher income families, so therefore, they would live in a more spacious house? That, therefore, gives advantage to the rapist who wants to get in, complete the deed and get out.

Anyways, maybe this guy is the person who killed her and maybe he isn't, but I would rather see a stick thin, petite, 20 something woman at a beauty pageant rather than a small, 6 year old girl. When you're 6 years old and a girl, you're supposed to be at school and try to give cooties to all the boys in your class!

The Unintentional Flashmob of ROSI and steps to take to get into the courses you want!

For the record, it was completely unintentional, but the Repository of Student Information (AKA: ROSI) was flashmobbed today, in computer terms. For those who don't know what a flashmob is, Wikipedia is your best friend. Although, what happened is, it was for a website. At the university I'm at, and I'm sure it's for others as well, you apply for courses online through a student repository that is totally automated.

I had applied for my courses already, but for some other courses which were reserved for specialists (*cough* HMB303 *cough* HMB304). Anyhow, the priority to specialists were removed at 6AM today and anybody could apply for the courses now.

Now, when it came to applying, oh lordy! Firstly, I log into ROSI a few moments before 6AM, and knowing that there could be a backlog, I copied the course code so I could constantly paste in the code over and over again until I got it. The spaces in the course went from 13, right before 6AM to 7 spots, when I was able to get through. I took one spot and by 6:03, there were no more spots left.

Next up, HMB304, the course with only 3 spots left for the taking. I repeated the standard procedure now to make it through and took my spot. It was then that I took my fist, raised in victory like Kimi Raikkonen winning the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix after going from worst to first! It felt like a true victory for me.

Anyhow, the videos about the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix are up on Youtube, and I realized that it's best to watch an F1 race in Spanish since they go wild at any passing, and not the British sort of wild, which I find immensely boring (Since they just let out a big "OH!!!")! If you're interested in the slightest of seeing an F1 race in Spanish, check out this clip.

Congratulations Jenson!

Haven't posted here in nearly 2 weeks! I'll start off by saying that this weekend is a long weekend here in Canada so I don't have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, luckily! I have an exam later this week, so I'm hoping to make a big dent in that, and then I can enjoy one solid month of summer (August 11-September 11!).

I woke up early this morning to watch the F1 from Hungary and was hoping to see Kimi Raikkonen win it all! Unfortunately, he crashed about halfway through. What got me happy though was seeing both Renaults out of the race with Fisichella having problems and the same with Alonso. I was thinking that this was going to be a very close championship with Schumacher against Alonso, if he were to win it. However, there was an amazing pass on Schumacher by Pedro de la Rosa of McLaren Mercedes (YAY!!) and eventually another pass with Nick Heidfeld of BMW and Jenson Button of Honda inheriting the lead after Alonso's shunt. The Ferrari of Michael Schumacher eventually retired after he had steering problems, so that meant that Ferrari really took home nothing from this race. However, Jenson Button's first EVER win as an F1 driver in 113 races was the real highlight. This was the first time in over 3 years that a Brit won an F1 race, even though Formula 1 is a primarily British sport since most of the teams have their facilities located in the UK.

I have to say, Jenson really deserved the win he got and the smile on his face was that of a genuine winner! I'm glad he won.