A Solution!

Longterm sharers of my PDA pains will recall that I:

• Have a Treo 680 that still syncs with Palm Desktop and runs Palm OS.
• Have tried Windows Mobile, but hate it.
• Grudgingly accept that I will have to migrate away from Palm OS as the need for a better PDA arises.
• Really enjoy Palm Desktop as my PIM
• Really don't like using Outlook as my PIM
• Tolerate Google Calendar as a viable mobile solution for my calendar-based PIM needs
• Grudgingly accept that Outlook will have to be an increasing part of my life

So the problem has always been:

• While I still use a Palm OS device, how do I begin the slow migration to Outlook and Google Calendar without a real loss of data?
• How do I slowly get myself used to the hell that is Outlook?

Most people's solution has been to simply start using the new software without caring about the old items in their calendar or contact list. I'm anal when it comes to data, and want everything preserved all the time.

Also, most people used a basic third party application, like Pocket Mirror, to sync their Palm device with Outlook. Or, using the new Palm sync utilities, sync their Palm directly with Outlook. The problem for me is that:

• These solutions don't solve my need to archive old data, as Outlook doesn't look back as long as Palm Desktop; and
• The migration is not perfect. Outlook sometimes loses some data, such as notes, web addresses or photos.

Finally, I think I've found an interim solution in the form of two pieces of software: Doublelook for Palm Desktop and Google's free Calendar Sync utility.

While I continue to use Palm Desktop as my primary PIM, Doublelook runs in the background, automatically updating Outlook to match all the content of Palm Desktop. Meanwhile, Google Sync does a scheduled run every few hours to update my Google calendar with all the data from Outlook. The outcome: Google Calendar is regularly updated with my Palm Desktop data, and all I have to do is continue to use my Treo and Palm Desktop the way I always have.

Now, when I do decide to migrate to a Windows Mobile device (sigh), everything is sitting there waiting for me to sync, (presumably) hassle free.

There's another solution I've been using on the side, one that is less big name but far more elegant: Airset.com.

Airset is a virtual desktop computer that reproduces your true desktop as a website. The best part is that it has an automatic sync utility for most PDAs --including ones that run Palm OS!! And it's so robust and user friendly that it actually emails me daily all my calendar items for that day, in digest form. Surprisingly, I find it to be a very useful and convenient utility. And it's free!

Okay, that's enough geekotry for today.

What? You Want A Title, Too?

This is pretty cool. I got it from Dawn's Facebook page. It's a list of history's weirdest cases of mass hysteria. People are so lame.

Also in the cool category, Richard sends us this video of something called "Red Bull Crushed Ice", which is a sort of extreme skating event:



It gets better. Nasty Nicky B points out that I'm not the only one noticing the clearly Irish origins of President Bartholomew Paddy O'Bama, with the song, No One As Irish As Barack Obama.

Check out the following drawing by artist Dusty Abell, showing all the skiffy icons from the 70s. Amazing how a crap decade can seem some awesome in retrospect, no?


What to hear something fascinating? It's something I've noticed about my own records keeping practices with respect to this and my other websites. In the digital age, content is updated so rapidly that there is little or no record of what came before. In other words, for the first time in history, the written word is no longer a record of history. One fellow is taking it very seriously, and is taking steps to combat this trend. But it's an aspect of the paperless revolution that few saw coming.

Lastly, in a sign of the arrival of the genre, The Guardian has a list of the science fiction novels "everyone must read". Some questionable choices there, such as Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin, a lot of books I've never heard of, and a saddening tendency to confuse space opera and fantasy with true skiffy. Oh when will they learn? IO9 takes a crack at them here.

International Development Week

In one of my many roles at the University of Ottawa, I'm a faculty advisor to the student run "international development week", which happens this year from Feb 2-7. Our theme this year is, "Development: A Basic Human Right?"

There's a whole host of (mostly free) events planned, all of which will be posted on the website at www.sdi-idw.uottawa.ca. The key events, however, are held each evening at 7:30pm in Alumni Auditorium:

• Feb 2: Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.
• Feb 3: Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor to the UN on Water
• Feb 4: Lloyd Axworthy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Feb 5: His Excellency S.M. Gavai, High Commissioner of India
• Feb 6: Alexandre Trudeau, Journalist

Please note that Mr Axworthy will speak at the National Art Gallery, and that his event will cost a modicum fee.

The Indian High Commissioner is attending following a personal plea from yours truly, so I really really hope he gets a good turn out. If you're in town, please come on by!

For more information, contact hpihc@uottawa.ca.

Obama's Free Ride?

First, some pretty pictures... or things that look like pictures...

From Nasty Nicky B, a shameless uber-geek:



From The Other Ray:



Speaking of President Jesus, EK Hornbeck points out some interesting ways in which the new President has dragged the White House kicking and screaming into the late 1990s. First up is the new President's weekly web video address!

And next is the White House blog... complete with its own RSS feed!

Bartholomew O'Bama has certainly been busy in his first few days in office, doing such progressive things as "reclaiming the moral high ground" by re-examining the travesty that is the military prison in Guantanamo. Good for him. Close that bloody place, already!

Now, he is an American President, which means he's reflexively going to be pro-war, pro-Israel and irrationally pro-American (the latter being his job, after all); one just hopes he will be less of those things than his rabid predecessor was.

That having been said, it's funny to watch his detractors scurry to prove how much easier of a ride the press has been giving him than they did Bush. This suggestion, by the way, is the very worst in historic revisionism. Anyone who was sentient during the 3 years after 9/11 surely remembers how the American press bent over and presented its hindquarters for Bush to penetrate, as any criticism of President-in-Chimp's policies, however minor, was painted as traitorous by a rabid right wing punditocracy. There may be unabashed love of Obama today by some in the press class, but back then there was palpable terror of Bush. Love is far more conducive to a functioning democracy than fear ever will be.

The current favourite example is the launching of predator drones by US forces onto Pakistani terroritory earlier today. This is touted as evidence that Obama is just as hawkish as Bush, and has started his own war against another country, yet suffers none of the bad press that Bush did after the invasion of Iraq.

Where do I begin with this?

First, upon the invasion of Iraq, Bush suffered no bad press in mainstream America. The foreign press attacked him, the alternative American press was incensed, and Americans by the millions marched and protested his actions. But the mainstream press was pretty much silent, preferring to just "report the news" rather than to take a stand on the fragility of Bush's evidence for war.

Please, let us not forget ever that George Bush rode his manufactured state of war-induced forced patriotism into war-without-end, effectively immunizing himself against media criticism by milking the "must support the President during wartime" sentiment. It wasn't until the campaign leading up to the 2004 election that any mainstream American journalists, like Dan Rather, found enough of their balls to begin to speak out against Bush's policies. Dan Rather was a buffoon who did it clumsily and with weak evidence, but he did speak up... and was ripped to tatters for it.

That fate befell lesser crtics, as well. Bill Maher, a lousy comedian, for Pete's sake, was relegated to the tundra of cable TV after his poorly timed anti-Bush remarks. Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas was banned from Bush's first post-invasion press conference because she had had the nerve to criticize the retarded boy king.

Do not let your recollection of events be revised by those wishing to re-tell the history of Bush's legacy! That legacy includes a profound and almost criminal failure of American journalism to do its job. This LA Times article from 2004 discusses this phenomenon, as does this 2003 article from the New York Press. Living in Washington, DC, at the time, I was starved for any critical coverage of Bush shenanigans. In the heart of the American imperial capital, I had to turn to Canadian and British news to get any balanced coverage at all!

Second, the Obama administration did not launch these attacks anew. This is not new policy. They simply decided not to stop the ongoing, extant missile launches into Pakistan. The US, under Bush, had been launching missiles into Pakistan since at least November of last year. This is not a new offensive. The only thing different about today's launches is that they are the first ones since Obama officially became President.

In terms of evidence of Obama's hawkishness or of media bias towards him, these launches are about as newsworthy as any ongoing actions in Afghanistan or Iraq. Those actions were going on before Obama took office, and they continue now that he is in office. In short, these are Bush military policies and plans that were hot and underway during the Bush days, and continue on now during the Obama days.

Yes, Obama could have chosen to halt the missiles. He chose not to. So today's military actions are Obama actions. "Obama actions" include the missile strikes in Pakistan and every last little skirmish in Afghanistan and Iraq --none of which made front page news, since skirmishes are no longer newsworthy. But this is all in keeping with his campaign promises. He promised he would slowly disengage from Iraq and rapidly re-engage in the Afghanistan-South Asia region.

Personally, I don't like the idea of escalating in South Asia. But remember that Obama was elected on specific promises to vacate the Middle East and to re-engage in South Asia. He also specifically mentioned his willingness to attack targets in Pakistan; it was a major topic in the debates with John McCain.

So why are people not howling for Obama's head? Because he's doing what he promised to do, and what an overwhelming majority of Americans voted him to do. This is not a matter of me or other anti-Bushites supporting Obama's hawkish moves --I do not!-- but rather a matter of recognizing that there is no duplicity or surprise here. With Bush, such attacks would have been couched in secrecy and duplicity ---Bush had earned the public's distrust and disdain with the manner in which he suppressed dissent and ignored the very loud pacifist pleas that were inconvenient to his philosophies.

Third, if we're going to compare media responses to Bush and Obama and claim that somehow Obama gets a free ride on his military decisions, let's recall that when Bush began his missile assaults against Pakistan... no one in America noticed. It was reported in the world media, but I certainly don't recall it being discussed on prime time US network news. CNN mentioned it because they have 24 hours to fill, but that was about it. In fact, the missiles of today (well, yesterday now) are headline news simply because they happened on Obama's watch. So once again, I call both revisionism and analytical shenanigans.

Fourth, and last, is the complicated reasoning behind objections to the missile attacks. They are illegal violations of a foreign nation's sovereignty, which is especially troubling since this particular foreign nation is a close US ally on the "War on Terror". The problem, as we all know, is that while the Pakistani government might be a US ally in this war, senior elements in the Pakistani intelligence and defence sectors are sympathetic towards Taliban interests, thus hindering them in prosecuting the war the way the Americans would like.

So was this simply a matter of the US finally getting fed up with Pakistani dithering and taking matters into their own hands? I doubt it. Knowing what I know of the weirdness and duplicity of South Asian governments, I'm convinced that the current Pakistani government gave tacit sanction to this attack (and to the attacks during Bush's watch), and probably even provided the intelligence necessary to prosecute the strikes accurately. This allows them to win cooperation points with the US, to take out some pesky thorns in their backyard, and to be able to simultaneously play the hypocritical, wounded anti-imperialist victims in their own media.

Thus, while I detest these attacks for their killing of civilians (the ultimate cowardly act, if you think about it: unmanned drone launched from thousands of miles away, killing a handful bad guys and a bunch of poor villagers), given their likely launch with approval of Pakistan, they probably do not consitute the truly offensive global crime that had come to define George Bush.

In short, Obama is not judged as harshly as we would have judged Bush because he did nothing nearly approaching the depravity, arrogance and criminality of Bush's regular, reflexive actions. This is hardly "bias" on the part of either the media or the publc. Rather, it's rational human behaviour.

Space Nuts. Yes, Space Nuts.

It's no secret that I consider Alan Moore's Watchmen to be the finest "graphic novel" (i.e., comic book) ever written. I've mentioned it here, here, here and here. Most of you are probably aware that the long-awaited film version of the book has already been filmed and, as the smarmy types say, is "in the can". What you may not know is that a bloody battle has been ensuing between Warner Brothers and Fox Studios over who exactly owns the film, putting its release date in jeopardy. Well, the powers came to an agreement recently, and Watchmen is slated to adorn cinema screens sometime in March.

If you don't know the story, it's ostensibly a mystery about someone killing off the world's superheroes. But it's more of an exploration of what it means to be a hero --super or otherwise-- and, most interestingly, what it means to be a costume-clad human vigilante when a real, honest-to-Zod superhuman finally arises.

The following is a "leaked" clip meant to serve as viral marketing meme for the film. It shows a 1970-esque news clip celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the "birth" of Dr. Manhattan, Watchmen's erstwhile sole superhuman. It's done quite well:



The most memorable part of the Watchmen novel, for me, has to do with a line spoken in the above video. The newsman says, "The superman exists, and he's American." In the book, it's revealed that this was edited. Before being censored by his uppers, what he'd meant to say was, "God exists, and he's American." This is the essence of Watchmen, that a truly superhuman being is essentially a god. And if a god walks among us, what then can define the extraordinary for we mortals?

If you haven't already seen it, here's the excellent trailer for the upcoming Watchmen movie:



While we're on a science fiction theme, ever heard of the skiffy porno classic Space Nuts? Well here's the best scene, leading up to sex with the blue alien babe:



Ahh, what acting! Oscar worthy, to be sure.

And just because I love you all, I leave you with today's Daily Perv Link (TM): a special toy for Fido.

GTFO!

And don't let your ass hit the door on the way out.

Disrespectful? No freakin' way. I don't care how much he may or may not have done for HIV in Africa. I don't care how many piddling positive programmes he may have initiated. I don't even care that he found a giant surplus and left a gaping deficit; that's not why I hate him. What I care about is 500,000 dead, innocent Iraqis, casualties in a disingenuous war for oil. George Bush, to Hell with you, you mass murdering, lying, bullying son of a bitch.

...And welcome to that nice Irish fella, Barry O'Bama, who's got the world fooled into believing he's a half-Muslim, half-African dude named Barack. I was not able to watch his inauguration live, as I was zipping about Ottawa running errands. But I caught most of his speech on the car radio, and part of it on CNN when I was in a little Iranian shop waiting in line for a submarine sandwich.

Everyone in that shop was mesmerized by the man's bearing and words. The shopkeeper, an old Farsi-speaking gentleman, was moved to tears by the moment. But of course in every brief, rare moment of wellness, there is always a pimple of pustulence. A fat dude with a lisp kept shouting for all to hear, "I'm sick of his monotone voice! He's gonna come looking for our money! He's coming to Canada to ask for a loan!"

President Obama's speech touched on everything I wanted to hear. I perked up when the words, "data" and "statistics" were mentioned. This is a man who wants to push aside 8 years of official anti-intellectualism.... Thank God! I mean.... Thank Darwin!

Speaking of God, I perked up again when he said: "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers." OMG! A President who acknowledges that his nation is no longer a Christian bastion.... and who even makes room for atheists! Now this is progress.

"To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."

Yeah, baby!

"...the time has come to set aside childish things."

Um, are you listening, Georgie Boy? He's talking about you.

"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations."

Are you listening, Darth Cheney? He's talking about you.

"They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."

All you freakin' warmongers out there, and especially the chickenhawks.... He's talking to you.

Words have power, words are important. But words are cheap. (Unless you're using an overpaid Washington speech writer, that is.) Let's remember these words, and let's see if the actions match the rhetoric in coming months.

(PS, I talked about the Bush Legacy a few months ago, if anyone is interested.)

One Man Come In The Name Of Love

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today."

Happy MLK Day: ever more special this year, because of what tomorrow holds.

No Time! No Time!

My droogies, I sooooo want to blog, I really do! I just have no time right now. Bear with me, though, I'll be back in a day or two. In the mean time, here are some goodies worthy of a Daily Perv Link (TM) or two...

The Last Cylon

Obama about to take office, war in the Gaza strip, Russia freezing out Ukraine, enormous military movements in Sri Lanka, the world economy tanking.... so what will I blog about? Well, Battlestar Galactia, of course.

I have long held that the reborn (or "re-imagined", as the Powers like to say) series is the single finest current television show in the world. I am not alone in this assessment (see here, here and here.) Few other mainstream entertainment products offer such dark assessments of the human soul, drawing fairly obvious analogies to modern American military policy, primarily the "war on terror". It takes courage to present a universe that clearly mirrors our own, North American world, but in which the polytheists are the ostensible good guys and monotheists the bad guys. It takes further courage to miraculously get us to sympathize with the mass-murdering, robotic bad guys-- and yet somehow the show manages to do this.

There are many ripe philosophical fruits to be plucked and devoured in this show. Among my favourites is the anti-heroic path of Dr. Gaius Baltar. He is demonized as a villain for having made some selfish, but very human, self-serving decisions. But if we are honest with ourselves we recognize in Baltar (in all but his genius intellect and creepy narcissism) the truth of our existence. He, unlike other impossibly and predictably heroic members of a typical TV show, behaves pretty much how a normal human being would behave, given the truly extraordinary circumstances in which he finds himself.

Baltars quest for redemption underlies, for me, the lesson of the show: that everybody is both good and evil, that everyone both deserves life and deserves death, and that only the honest among us can embrace this truth and thus seek justification for our continued existence. Dark? Of course; it's Battlestar Galactica.

The other, more accessible philosophical plumb presented by the show is the number of models of "skin jobs", or human-form Cylons. There are exactly 12 of them. Why? It is never expressed explicitly, but the implication is that the race of mechanic Cylons took a good, long look at humanity and saw only twelve of us. There are only 12 archetypal human beings, so simple are our motivations, so predictable our behaviours and responses.

Others have discussed this aspect of the show's mythology. The show's producers have encouraged this discussion, and most have landed upon a summary of the archetypes, as summarized well by a poster on nightly.net:

The innocent
The regular guy
The warrior
The caregiver
The explorer
The destroyer
The lover
The creator
The ruler
The magician
The sage
The jester

Now, as fans of the show know, while there are 12 archetypes, there are only 11 Cylon models so far identified. The lasting mystery is, of course, the identity of the final Cylon. As shown in the image below, Cylon D'Anna glimpsed the faces of the Final Five Cylons, four of whom are now known to us as occupants of the Colonial fleet.



The producers have fed the speculation, most famously by issuing the following manipulated photo, based on "The Last Supper", with the message that none of the characters portrayed is in fact the Final Cylon:



A series of snippets were also released by the producers on a website called YouWillKnowTheTruth.com, that further fed speculation and planted clues (or, more likely, misdirections). A summary of those clues is given here.

For a lot of reasons, I believe the identity of the Final Cylon boils down to two candidates: Felix Gaeta and Anastasia Dualla.




Now, I know that I have discussed this several times in the past. And I have linked to at least one thorough analysis of the clues. But I love a good mystery. I am so satisfied that the Final Cylon is one of these two individuals that I'm even willing to put money on it.

Part of the charm of the mystery is the bizarre, almost secretive, evolution of Felix Gaeta. If you're a fan of the show, I doubt you will ever be able to forget the haunting, creepy yet beautiful song sung by Gaeta as his leg was amputated. The composer of the song talked about it on his blog, and called it both "Gaeta's Lament" and "The Stump Serenade". Much analysis has surrounded the eerie song, as it supposedly contains clues to the identity of the Final Cylon, to whom God (or the gods, depending on which of the show's faiths you subscribe to) has bestowed a special fate relating to the dispositions of both races, the humans and the Cylons.

This post has, for my money, one of the more intriguing analyses, specifically that Gaeta's secret is his transsexualism. The theory has some appeal to me, since the nature of the hidden Cylon(s) has been something of a bridging of gaps or paradigms. Much the same way that the "skin jobs" cross the divide between men and machine, a transsexual Cylonic Gaeta would cross the divide between male and female.

Then again, for all I know, the Final Cylon is the dead cat formerly owned by Apollo's lawyer buddy. It's just a TV show, after all. The identity of the Final Cylon will be revealed to all in a matter of weeks.

Rebirth of the Podium

Sorry for my absence. Been wayyyyy busy. Still have loads of work to catch up on, sheafs of papers to write, several taxmen to dodge, and a gigabyte of emails to respond to. I even started teaching a new class this week. I wonder how many of my new students are reading this now? Hmmm, interesting.

I will catch you up on one of my procrastination projects, though. Remember The Podium? That free speech brainchild of myself and Ed Wong was born almost exactly a decade ago and sort of fizzled out after a couple of years. It became mostly a repository for my own journalistic writings.

Well, I intend to kick some life back into the old girl. The first step is to migrate the old articles to a new, modern format. I've managed to move about a year's worth of content so far. When the finished product is up and running, I'll be sure to let you know. In the mean time, you can follow the Podium's slow rebirth at it's new temporary home, podiumca.blogspot.com.

That's all for tday. See ya!

A Good Day.... Or Is It?

It's been a weird day. For one thing, by "day" I mean yesterday. See, it's 4:30 AM and I haven't gone to bed yet. So the current "today" is still "tomorrow" to me. "Yesterday" is still "today", and it will remain so until either the sun comes up or I pass out.

I'm up working because I need to catch up on all the stuff I should have been doing over the last two weeks. Ahhhh, discipline, you're a fickle bitch.

I thought it was going to be a good "day". How do I define a good day? How's cleaning out the pockets of a jacket you haven't worn in months and finding $600 in cash? That's a good day.

But then this evening I was brushing my teeth and the toothbrush actually snapped in two! ('Cause, see, I'm a burly, muscly he-man). The force was so great that the brush portion jammed into my gums. If this were a short story, I would need reconstructive plastic surgery costing --you guessed it-- $600.

But this isn't a short story, it's Ray's life living in Ontario with full public health insurance and an excellent supplemental medical plan. And no, I didn't hurt myself, so please don't send condolences. Broken toothbrushes (teethbrush?) are no laughing matter. Check this out.



Clearly, the lack of sleep is affecting my brain.

I will add that the past 3 days have seen me suck back so much bread and sugar that just looking at me is likely to give you diabetes. Tomorrow: back to the low carb discipline. Sigh.

I've been cleaning crap off my laptops and PDA. One little item I've been carrying around for 7 years is something my gorgeous Belgian friend Tine once said to me. Since I'm deleting it now, I thought it best to immortalize the quote in blog form. Something tells me it will end up on my gravestone:

"You know you're handsome, you're smart and you have all these talents, and yet sometimes you just go to sleep in the middle of the day."

Those Belgians do have a succinct way with words.

New Who

We fans of the iconic Dr Who were saddened when Christopher Eccleston stepped down from the lead role in the revivified series almost four years ago. Many were disappointed when floppy-haired David Tennant stepped into Eccleston's veteran, steeled void and re-imagined "the Doctor" as a foppish but likable hipster, eschewing his predecessor's German submarine commander look. But Tennant grew to own the role, and I am surprised to hear myself voicing the opinion that he has been the best Doctor ever. That's right, even better than Tom Baker and John Pertwee.

Mind you, Baker and Pertwee never benefited from the enormous budget of the new series, nor from the more thoughtful and adult-oriented writing. Nonetheless, Tenant has come to personify for an entirely new generation the physical incarnation of the most important science fiction character in British history --perhaps in television history overall.

So we were saddened again to hear that David Tennant would be stepping down some time in 2009, after a mere four performances, to make way for yet another actor to play the mighty Doctor, genius Lord of Time who vanquishes foes and defends the weak without ever taking a life or even striking a blow. Note that the evolution of Doctor Who was listed in Skiffy's top 2008 stories in science fiction.

Speculation was rampant in the British press about who the new actor would be. Perhaps a woman this time? Some even suggested Catherine Zeta Jones! But I was more excited by the prospect of Black actor Paterson Joseph. There is, in my belief, something innately masculine about the Doctor character, but not necessarily something innately caucasian. (Especially in the recent seasons, the Doctor's sexual tension with his female companions --notwithstanding Captain Jack's omnisexuality-- sort of compels the Time Lord to remain male, at least so long as the various nubile female companions remain in the present literary universe; otherwise their quite touching "lost romance" vibes would be overshadowed by the lesbian overtones. )

This is Paterson Joseph:



Woman or non-White man, it would have been interesting to see the Doctor blend into scenarios throughout Earth's history. A Black Doctor materializing during the European slave trade? A female Doctor appearing in an orthodox Muslim community? The possibilities are intriguing.

But the BBC woosed out on us. It was leaked today that the new Doctor Who will be.... Matt Smith. This is 26 year old Matt Smith:



Now, I am certain that Mr Smith is an excellent actor. (The irony here is that The Doctor often goes by the monicker, "Mr Smith"). My objection, beyond the disappointment of not seeing a woman or a Black man, is that Smith is young. Tenant was on the verge of looking too young for a world-weary 900 year old alien who'd seen it all, and he was in his late 30s when he started the role! I really dislike this trend of casting younger and younger actors to play roles of great gravitas.

Plus, as one commenter put it, he looks like the singer of a pointless emo band.

Well, the Who team gave us two excellent initial choices in Eccleston and Tennant. So I'll give this fellow a chance. But, David Tennant.... why? WHY?

Things For Which I Am Thankful

Well I begin 2009 with a gastric disorder best left undescribed in this public space. In some ways, I'm glad I got sick because it gave me the excuse I needed to stay home in bed, rather than feel compelled to brave the traditional cold of New Years Eve in Toronto. Before we begin my traditional Jan 1st post, lest get some links out of the way first.

Andoo sends us Five Drinking Myths That Can Kill You, while EK Hornbeck sends us this article about how successful Irish women are settling for loser men they would not have even noticed years earlier. As I've tried to explain to others: as a man, dating gets easier as we age; as a woman, I imagine it would get harder. From the article, I really need to meet this woman:

"I ironed his shirts, made him dinner, wore sexy lingerie, and alphabetised his porn collection."

And while this quote is attributed to a woman, it can also describe some of my experiences and those of many of my single male friends:

"I'm sick of having to spend evenings listening to losers, paying for a meal I didn't enjoy."

But enough whining. Time for my traditional look back on the year past, and to make note of things I was thankful for. In no particular order...

My family. Yes, they drive me nuts, but they're the only ones I have. As the youngest, I may one day be the last one, so I'd better appreciate them while they're all still around.

Bittorrent. Torrent technology released me from my addiction to television, and thus to my vulnerability to advertising. With torrent technology, people took back control of their airwaves. We no longer need to watch a show when the broadcaster deems fit. We no longer need to sit through hours of pointless commercials. And we need no longer pay inflated fees for questionable content. The technology is also forcing companies to re-imagine business models for the new age, and that's never a bad thing.

My websites. Yes, we're on a technology trend. This blog continues to evolve, well into its 13th year. It's now older than some of its readers! Joining the Deonandan.com family of sites were The Podium Online Magazine and Skiffy.ca. Coming in the new year will be a brand new online offering in the world of South Asian literature. I won't spill the beans yet, but wait for the announcement! Also coming soon will be the relaunch of Deonandan.com, version 4.0.

The many women I dated. I even manage to squeak out a couple of brief, monogamous relationships this year! It's nice to have my heterosexuality reaffirmed by an undeniable attraction to the ever more alluring qualities of the other sex. (I don't use the term, "fairer gender." Yecch.)

Barack Obama. Sure, ultimately he's going to turn out to be just like every other American president, a servant of: big business, the inward-looking free market ideology, military pugilists, the Israel lobby and the Christian Right. But until those eventualities surface, I am enjoying the brief moments of hope. I never thought I'd see an American election that would drive me to tears of joy.

Canada. I hate patriotism and nationalism; I find that they are concepts that appeal to the thuggish and least wise amongst us. So when I say that I love and am thankful for my country, it's not so much an expression of patriotism, but a realization that people can self-organize themselves in a thousand different ways; it's thus remarkable that some have chosen to do so in a manner as accepting and comfortable as Canadians have. Other nations have different strengths and weaknesses. But there's no denying that this particular immigrant boy would not have flourished had the nation of Canada not accepted his family 38 years ago. Thus I am grateful to be a citizen of Canada, and unless its political tone changes radically in coming years, intend to continue to dedicate my professional life to improving the quality of life here.

The University of Ottawa. For the first time ever, I am gainfully employed in a station that I enjoy with 100% of my being. I love being a university professor. Who knew I'd find a job I'd want to ride out to the end? While I do whine about them on occasion, I actually adore my students. I don't have any children, thus I guess I extract a modicum of pride in seeing my students progress in their ventures.

Western science. Yes, it has failed us monstrously at times. Yes, science brought forth the nuclear age, global warming, the machine gun, CFCs, trans fats and crystal meth. But without Western science, perhaps 80% of us would not be alive today. The very existence of human civilization is founded upon the tenets of science. A more detailed post on this theme will be forthcoming.

George Bush. Yes, I'm grateful for George W. Bush this year. I'm thankful that he was not a tad cleverer than he is, lest he managed to fool the world just a tad longer into believing his cockamamy delusions. And I'm thankful to him for finally revealing the fragility of American liberty, allowing us to reconstruct it in a more humanistic and meaningful fashion. I'm further thankful for him for providing a polar example of all that I do not believe in. For there are few better opportunities to define oneself than when presented with that which one is not.


Is that enough? Feel free to add your own to the comments below.