MATTHEWGOODONLINE

I found this video of one of the potential candidates for the president of the United States. Obviously race might be a bit of an issue for his campaign, but after a careful analysis, I strongly believe this is the best candidate:

Here are a few of the reasons why I think this candidate is the best choice:

1. Let’s be honest, this president is fairly predictable. It’s fairly unlikely there will be any last-minute invasions, or any unilateral decisions being made.
2. Environmental awareness - this candidate is very aware of the environmental impact of his actions, and will be an advocate for helping other nations obtain clean water. In addition, this candidate believes in the importance of the protecting all forms of life, even artificial ones
3. This candidate is a firm decision maker, demonstratively nodding yes to important measures from both congress and the senate. Vetoes simply aren’t an option.
4. While this candidate hasn’t made his nuclear policy entirely clear, it seems unlikely that this president would ever press the button and launch a nuclear assault. The lack of hands probably has something to do with that.

Therefore, it is without hesitation that I fully endorse the drinking bird for president of the United States. The world would be a safer place with his watchful eyes at the cup.

Sleep. It comes easy to some people. Head down, eyes closed, a couple jumping sheep, second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning. Those people have always amazed me, like they have some gift or talent that I’ll never be able to replicate, no matter how hard I practice. I am constantly amazed that there are people that I work with that go to sleep at 2am every night and somehow wake up at 6am completely rested. And yet everyday I stumble into work around 10am, bags under my eyes and normally some type of dull headache to remind me how little I slept the night before.

The problem is of course cyclical. To battle the lack of sleep I am usually forced to hook up an intravenous of caffeine to myself during the day. That usually makes my brain function better, but sometimes makes the headache worse. I used to get massive migraines as a kid, many of which would force me to stay in bed all day. The only way to get rid of them was to take four or more extra strength tylenol back in the day, and do my best to sleep it off. Nowadays I’m pretty much immune to over the counter pain killers, so getting rid of a headache with medication isn’t always trivial. Most of the time I don’t even bother, and just put up with it all day.

My doctors have never really understood why I can’t sleep. Most of them just throw bottles of sleeping pills at me, but it’s obviously not a real solution in my mind. I have some on hand for special occasions when I really can’t afford to be super sleepy the next day, but other than that I just do my best without them. I’ve debated keeping a log of how often I wake up in the middle of the night, but I think the knowledge of that might somehow cause my brain to work harder and skew the results.

One of the reasons I know why I don’t sleep very well (other than the fact that I wake up every sixty minutes or so) is that I rarely dream. My understanding of sleep is that it means I rarely make it into the REM portion, which is where your body does most of it’s work during the night, and where dreams generally happen. It’s a strange thing not to dream, really. Compared to when I was a kid, it’s pretty rare that I actually wake up having some memory of something I dreamt about.

A lot of people take dreaming for granted I imagine. It’s just something that happens when you sleep, and you sort of grow to ignore them. For me though, because I dream so rarely, mine always seem to be very vivid and confusing. In fact, I often have a hard time in the morning figuring out if I actually dreamt, or if the images in my mind were from some event that I just recently remembered about. Maybe I should just go join Neo in the Matrix and be done with it.

My parents split when I was around seven years old, and for a period of time there we sort of bounced between my grandma’s house and some of my mom’s friend’s houses. As a kid none of it made sense of course, but I found myself sleeping on various couches for a year or so, often falling asleep in one and waking up in another. Truthfully, there was a period of time when I was around ten years old where sleeping on a couch seemed more natural to me than sleeping in a bed, and I often would curl up on the couch in the living room next to the window and fall asleep to the sound of cars driving by.

Which is why last night at around 3am, I grabbed a blanket and a pillow from my bedroom and took refuge on my couch in the living room. Having been trying to sleep since around 1am, I caved in and took a shiny blue zopiclone and forced my brain to turn off for a while. I slept in until noon today, which is a nice change from the normal. And the best part was I even had a few dreams last night.

You know, there are many kids from my generation who were big fans of the Beatles growing up. I wasn’t one of them. That’s not to say as a kid growing up in the country that I didn’t know who they were, but I just had never spent any time listening to their music or getting to understand what it was they were singing about. Truthfully, it wasn’t until I was probably 23 or so that I actually sat down and listened to my first Beatles song without any prejudice.

That moment actually occurred one evening deep in the suburbs in Ottawa. My friend Mike had just invested about six months of savings into a sound system, and invited me over to take a listen. He had built it with speakers from a Montreal company called Totem Acoustics, and it was pretty much the only home sound system I have ever heard that was THX certified. The first CD he put on was of the Beatles, and on that sound system, with the lights turned down a few notches, it was one of the most amazing pieces of music I have ever heard in my life.

One of my dreams as a young adult was to visit New York City. So a few years ago, I booked a four day long weekend and headed towards the Big Apple all by my lonesome. I spent the weekend there wondering around, checking out the sites and visiting all the major attractions. Without a doubt though, my most memorable moments in New York City were spent walking around Central Park. While I love Stanley Park here in Vancouver, there’s something majestic and magical about Central Park, especially in the fall.

As most people know, John Lennon was shot and killed just outside Central Park. Today there is a permanent memorial in his honour not far from that location called Strawberry Fields.

Even though it’s been 28 years since John Lennon was murdered, people still gather at that spot each and every day to remember John Lennon. Despite being cleaned nightly, the memorial is usually blanketed with flowers by the end of the day.

In 1969, a young 14 year old boy named Jerry Levitan managed to sneak his way into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto. Armed with nothing more than a recorder, he somehow convinced John to give him a 40 minute interview with some thoughts regarding the world and peace. Given the events of the last few years, and more so of the last few days, I thought it might be pertinent to include a video of some of the content of that interview. Released in 2007, this video (entitled “I Met The Walrus”) has since been nominated for many awards, including an Oscar.

Despite the fact that I write on this website on a daily basis, I’m rather out of the loop when it comes to the ‘blog scene’ here in Vancouver. That said; I was unaware that Blogathon 2008 was even taking place or I probably would have participated.

Thankfully, through my friend Rebecca Bollwitt, I was able to contribute at the last minute. Rebecca’s charity of choice is The Union Gospel Mission, a non-profit organization that has been active in helping Vancouver’s homeless since 1940.

At first, Duane asked me if I would be willing to contribute a signed CD, which I immediately agreed to. But as I thought about it, it seemed too little an effort. So I decided the best way to raise money to help Rebecca and Duane’s cause of choice was to hold a private listening session for the highest bidder.

As many of you are aware, the tracks that will be previewed are only demos, and the record that they will eventually appear on will not be released for some time. But it seemed to me to be the best course of action with regards to helping raise money, so I went with it. Of course, it will be held in a very private setting and I will be there to answer any questions the winner might have about the songs, the album’s theme, and so forth.

As of this morning I am being told that the bidding has reached $4,000 dollars.

On September 12th, 1962, John F. Kennedy took the stage at Rice Stadium, and made one of the most ambitious pledges of any presidency - in less than ten years, the United States would put a man on the moon:

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. [JFK]

Today, nearly fifty years later, former vice president Al Gore took to the stage and asked Americans to join together with a new pledge, a ambitious goal that will ultimately better humanity. He has asked everyone to pledge to move to a 100% renewable energy system in the United States within ten years.

I’m proposing today a strategic initiative designed to free us from the crises that are holding us down and to regain control of our own destiny. It’s not the only thing we need to do. But this strategic challenge is the lynchpin of a bold new strategy needed to re-power America.

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years.

There are those who will undoubtedly think that such a goal is unattainable, or that the economic burden of such a feat will simply be too large. And yet history has shown us that when people band together with a collective goal, nearly any feat is possible.

While Kennedy didn’t live to see it, the United States made it to the moon, only eight years after his initial pledge. There were those who thought it wasn’t possible, or that the moon was a place we should not go. And yet everyone from that generation can tell you exactly where they were when Neil Armstrong touched down on the surface of the moon for the first time, and what it felt like to be an American that night.

Most people would be surprised to learn that alternative energy sources are already available, and within economic reach of most individuals. Ireland just launched a tidal generator that can power over 1000 homes using the power of the tides. Wind power already exists in many parts of the United States, especially along the windy corridor in the midwest. Solar power, which today costs around $5/watt, is expected to reach the coveted $1/watt range sometime in the next 18-24 months, making it as cost effective as fossil fuels, and obviously much cleaner.

To convert an average home to use solar energy would be around $20,000 today. In a few more years, that number will come down drastically, most likely being obtainable for around $5,000 or so. Considering most provinces and states already have government grants available for clean energy initiatives, the economic disadvantages of going green are disappearing rather quickly.

Gore’s right, the time to act is now. In less than ten years, the United States took the space program from virtually non-existent to an historic mission that put a few men on the moon. Given the advances in alternative energy that have occurred, and will occur in the next few years, I think what Al Gore is proposing is certainly obtainable, and like the moon mission, for the betterment of all humankind.

If you would have asked me a few weeks ago whether or not I was going to get an iPhone, I would have laughed and said absolutely not. The original plans offered by Rogers wireless in Canada were, in a word, pathetic. Not only were they asking customers to lock into a three year contract, but they also didn’t offer an unlimited data plan, something nearly every carrier in the entire world has offered with the iPhone.

Rogers received an incredible amount of negative publicity regarding their price plans, and was covered by most of the major news outlets (only those, of course, that weren’t owned by Rogers Communications). An online petition quickly formed that received over 50,000 signatures, all protesting the price gouging by Rogers. And thankfully, at nearly the 11th hour, Rogers caved in to pressure and decided to offer a 6GB/month data plan for $30/mo, which for all intents and purposes, is unlimited.

Understand that the iPhone is not a typical cell phone. If anything, it is a powerful internet device that just happens to have a phone on it. That is why having a reasonable data plan with the phone was absolutely necessary.

Shortly after Roger’s change of heart, I found myself in a line in front of the Rogers store on Davie street last Friday. Truthfully, I actually only swung by so I could grab a few photos of all the crazies standing in line for my Flickr account. But once I realized they actually had enough units for everyone in the line, I decided to join the party.

The iPhone launch that day was a worldwide debacle. Not only did Apple’s activation servers go offline for the better part of the day, but Roger’s entire computer backbone also fell down dead due to the sheer volume of people trying to activate their new iPhones. In addition, the free breakfast that Rogers promised everyone at their Broadway store in Vancouver turned out to be Presidents Choice drink boxes along with a bin of granola bars. Way to go all out for the launch, Rogers.

It only took me 45 minutes or so to get from the back of the line and into the store, but I spent another four and a half hours on a chair waiting for the computers to come back online long enough to activate my phone.

For those of you wondering about the specifics of the iPhone 3G, here they are. Rogers originally offered a few plans that started at $60/mo. These plans had very few airtime minutes for phone calls, and offered only a measly 400MB of data transfer a month. After their change of heart the other day, they decided that you could pick and choose any plan from their current repertoire (most of which are reasonable), and simply couple it with the $30/mo 6GB/mo data plan, which is basically what every single person in the line-up ended up doing.

The 6GB/mo data plan is only available up until August 31st, after which (presumably) it will disappear, leaving only the original (insufficient) data plans that Rogers originally offered. For those of you on existing Rogers plans, you should be able to simply add the $30/mo plan to your phone and keep your current telephone rates and packages. For new users, you can walk into a store and choose which plan and extras (voice mail, caller ID, etc). you want, and then add the data package to it. One thing I’d recommend is splurging the extra $4/month and getting the visual voice mail. Most voice mail systems work by having you call in to receive a message. The visual voice mail system on the iPhone actually just has an icon on the phone that shows when you have a voice mail. If you click it, you can see a full listing of every voice mail you have right on your iPhone, and simply click the desired entry to listen to a MP3 of the call. No more calling in to retrieve a message.

I’ve been using my iPhone 3G since Friday, and it’s truly an amazing device. It’s a strange thing to be able to access the internet from basically anywhere. I was at the beach the other day wondering if the tide was coming in or out. Instead of wondering, I simply fired up the iPhone and a did a quick Google search in Safari for the appropriate tide chart. Thirty seconds later I knew exactly when high and low tide would occur.

Also released at the same time is Apple’s new Mobile Me service. It effectively replaces the old .Mac service, and adds a host of features (Email, Calendar, Contacts, etc) similar to Google’s Gmail and Calendar offerings. The coolest part about it in my opinion is that it supports PUSH email. Most email systems (IMAP, POP, etc) all use polling to figure out when a new message arrives. For example, I have my iPhone configured to access my Gmail account. To determine whether or not I have a new message, my iPhone will access Gmail every 15 minutes and check. With Mobile Me, the service actually contacts your phone the moment a new message comes in. So you basically get new mail the very instant it’s sent to you. I tested this a few times, and it takes about three seconds from the time I click send in gmail until the time my iPhone chirps letting me know there’s a new Mobile Me message on it. In addition, Mobile Me will also synchronize your contacts and data between all your Apple computers and devices, using PUSH when it can.

There’s also built in GPS on the unit, so you can simply press a button to see exactly where you are using Google maps. It sure makes navigating a breeze. Once a few more applications are released, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can simply SMS your GPS coordinates to a friend, and have them magically show up for a beer at the bar you are at. No more having to explain to someone how to find you.

So, while it’s not the cheapest toy in the world, it really is a revolutionary device. I’ve only just scratched the surface with what it can do, but I think it’s a fairly good primer for those of you looking to get one. I picked one up on Friday, and Dale got his today. Hopefully Matt’s not far behind.

First, a big thanks to everyone who came out to the pre-show meet and greet the other day. Most of you probably saw me walking around with my camera at one point getting little video clips of people. Well, here’s the end result, plus a couple of additions from a few familiar faces.

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A few people expressed some interest in the comments a few weeks ago about possibly trying to get together for a meet-up prior to show on Thursday night. Pitt did a bang-up job organizing two Toronto based meet-ups this last year, so I thought I’d try my best to rally some Vancouver fans and website members together.

Given that it’s supposed to be a nice, sunny day on Thursday, it makes sense that we should probably shoot for a patio. To that end, there’s a little pub with a fun, rooftop patio about a block away from the venue called the Kingston Taphouse And Grill. So, unless there are any objections, I’m going to propose people meet there around 6:00pm for a social beverage or two and some appetizers before the show starts. Doors open at 7:30pm according to Ticketmaster, so that gives everyone a little over an hour or so to mingle and get to know each other.

The address of the Kingston is 755 Richards Street, and a map to it can be found here (it also shows the Orpheum). If you plan on swinging by, please drop a comment so I can get a rough idea of who is going to show up. I’m not sure if they take reservations, but I’ll see if I can sweet talk my way into getting a few tables on the patio.

I’m sort of well known amongst my friends for my nacho making/eating ability, and out of all the places I’ve been on my lifelong nacho quest, the Kingston scores near the top. So if you’re going, I highly recommend sampling some of them.

Also, if you see Dan Lilly and his wife out at the meet-up, make sure you congratulate them on their anniversary, which I believe they are celebrating that night.

**Update - Just to be clear, this is just a gathering of friends, fans, and members from the website — Matt will not be showing up at the Kingston, as he will undoubtedly have his hands full down at the Orpheum preparing for the show.

You know, I remember back in the good old days when you could cross the US/Canada border relatively easily. The worse thing that would typically happen was for you to have your car searched, or get asked a pile of questions from a border guard.

That changed a few years ago when the border agents were given the ability to search your laptop for child pornography. And while I think the end goal (cracking down on pedophiles) is a good one, I have to say that I’m against the current method of blindly searching through digital content.

Luckily I’ve never been searched at the border, which is rather strange given that I actually do a fair bit of traveling with my current job. My friend Jason however got searched in the Ottawa airport last time he landed there, and was forced to sit in a chair and watch as a security person went through every file on his computer. He was even forced to give up his personal passwords for any content that was protected.

In the last few days some documents have leaked out here in Canada about some secret (and extremely alarming) negotiations going on in the area of copyright:

The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.

The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order.

Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see Canada join other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

The agreement is being structured much like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) except it will create rules and regulations regarding private copying and copyright laws.

Federal trade agreements do not require parliamentary approval.

The deal would create a international regulator that could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that “infringes” on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.

The guards would also be responsible for determining what is infringing content and what is not.

The agreement proposes any content that may have been copied from a DVD or digital video recorder would be open for scrutiny by officials - even if the content was copied legally.

“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close,” said David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. “The process on ACTA so far has been cloak and dagger. This certainly raises concerns.”

The leaked ACTA document states officials should be given the “authority to take action against infringers (i.e., authority to act without complaint by rights holders).”

Anyone found with infringing content in their possession would be open to a fine.

They may also have their device confiscated or destroyed, according to the four-page document.

The trade agreement includes “civil enforcement” measures which give security personnel the “authority to order ex parte searches” (without a lawyer present) “and other preliminary measures”.

In Canada, border guards already perform random searches of laptops at airports to check for child pornography. ACTA would expand the role of those guards.

On top of these enforcement efforts, ACTA also proposes imposing new sanctions on Internet service providers. It would force them to hand over personal information pertaining to “claimed infringement” or “alleged infringers” - users who may be transmitting or sharing copyrighted content over the Internet.

Currently, rights holders must collect evidence to prove someone is sharing copyrighted material over the Internet. That evidence is then presented to a judge who issues a court order telling the Internet service provider to identify the customer.

….

Fewer expressed concerns about the part of the proposal that calls for ACTA to operate outside of accepted international forums such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.

In the discussion paper, it is proposed ACTA create its own governing body and be overseen by a committee made up of representatives from member nations.

“This initiative is unprecedented,” he said.

There are so many alarming things there, I’m not even sure what to focus on. Even the courts these days have a hard time determining what constitutes copyright infringement with regards to digital content, and yet the government now wants to give border agents the ability to make that determination on their own? Forcing ISPs to pass over personal information just on suspicion of copyright infringement? So much for privacy and due process I guess.

Let’s hope this measure doesn’t get passed. If it does, it would be a monumental step backwards for Canadians, and bring us that much closer to a police state.

A few months ago I talked about Megan Meier, a young girl who encountered abuse from a classmate’s mother via MySpace. That abuse eventually led to Megan committing suicide, and sparked a whole series of internet debates about where the fault for something like that lies and how accountable social networks should be for the actions of their users.

Today Facebook announced that they will be implementing over 40 safeguards to help protect its users from sexual predators and online cyberbullying:

Facebook, the world’s second-largest social networking Web site, will add more than 40 safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said Thursday.

Facebook and officials in 49 states and the District of Columbia agree to safeguards to protect young users.

The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users’ ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and building a task force seeking ways to better verify users’ ages and identities.

“The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the agreement Thursday with his counterparts in several other states.

Obviously I think that’s a huge step forward for the internet, especially since both Facebook and MySpace have agreed to adopt the guidelines set out in the agreement. And while it’s impossible to protect everyone from harm on these networks, I definitely think it’s a move in the right direction.