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Too busy with Wii and other avoidance activities to post much these days. On the plus side, I'm up to 54% complete in Lego Star Wars.

EPIC FAIL, Jim Prentice. EPIC. FAIL.

The dumbass MP Jim Prentice introduced a ridiculous piece of shit bill into government yesterday. The Conservatives are destroying Canadian ingenuity, creativity and independence by kowtowing to US corporate lobbyists. Read critiques of the bill at Michael Geist's blog, use a handy letter writer at Copyright for Canadians, join the Facebook group Fair Copyright for Canadians.

Here's my letter to my MP:

June 13, 2008

Ms. Joyce Murray
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Dear Madam,

I'm a Vancouver Quadra constituent who is appalled by the Copyright bill presented by the government on June 12th. Far from being a balanced approach to copyright law, this bill as it stands is simply a US-style, unworkable piece of legislation that caters only to foreign corporate stakeholders, and stomps on Canadian stakeholders and Canadian consumers. It invites frivolous lawsuits and does nothing to improve the protection of artists' copyright beyond current Canadian law.

We need a made in Canada approach to amending copyright law. This means having meaningful and substantiative discussions with Canadian consumer groups, Canadian educators, Canadian artists and Canadian business. Why has this not been done already? These same groups have been clamouring for input on the bill in previous months, yet their cries have been seemingly ignored in the drafting of this bill.

The bill as it stands makes many common consumer practices illegal. I am not talking about the practice of illegal downloading. More importantly, the bill effectively renders format shifting and time shifting illegal by criminalizing the breaking of digital locks. If I want to transfer the contents of a purchased CD or DVD to my iPod, I may break the law by breaking any digital lock placed on the disc. If I want to record a TV show with my Linux-based computer PVR for watching later, I might break any digital locks placed on the program by its broadcaster/creator. Even if the bill states the practice of time shifting and format shifting is allowed, the rules against circumvention or breaking digital locks make those practices illegal. This bill is unworkable, it is unfair to consumers, and it does nothing to protect artists' copyright as it should be intended to do. It only seems to protect corporate interests.

The government needs to amend the current bill to reflect Canadian interests and fair dealing before it can be passed into law. Failing that, it needs to be struck down. I implore you as your constituent to vote against this bill if it is not altered and improved to the point that Canada can be proud of it. We need to be a world leader, not a blind follower.

Sincerely,

Mandy Larson

Good Sustainability Argument

Kelly sent me this great little film to watch:

The Story of Stuff

Have I mentioned I hate consumer culture and the fact I am continually taken in by it?

Wheel of fun!

Please to watch, for excruciating pleasure.



There are even more... can you smell the freshness?

Coen Bros Rule My World

First they do the superb No Country For Old Men, and now they have their next quirky offering. I am all a-quiver.

Trailer: Burn After Reading

Ah, rest!

I'm happy to report I have a good, full night's sleep last night. W00t! I even had enough energy to do some preliminary writing today. I'm now rewarding myself with catching up on some recorded shows. First you rest your brain, then you use your brain, then you waste your brain.

The Sleeper is no longer sleeping

Some time ago I had a bout of insomnia, which I associated with the whole implosion of my job situation. It's a chicken and egg scenario: my health was shit making me hate my job making my health go to pieces making my job impossible. Now I've had little to no sleep the past 2 nights, and I'm worried it'll turn into another hellish insomniac week. I don't feel too bad right now, a little tired but still alert, so it might be nothing. I hope so, since I do not relish the thought of becoming the walking dead, wandering about searching for tasty tasty brains. The cats get nervous about that. As if I'd get satisfied with their little pea-sized brains.

Writer Bits

Update on the freelance negotiations: I got the job. Basically the guy ran out of time to find someone else, so he capitulated. So I'll be writing stuff for the next 3 weeks. Lesson learned: say "no" then wait 'til your opponent gives in.

The Sleeper has awakened

You know when you wake up from dreaming all night, and you can remember that you had a long interesting dream, but when you try to remember details or describe it the images or word just flit away from you? It's like trying to grab something very slippery, or trying to look directly at those protein molecules floating in your eyes. The more you try to grab it, the further away from you it drifts.

So much for last minute plans

We found out about the Sasquatch Festival this week and decided what an awesome thing to do this weekend. The website and ticketmaster didn't have any Sold Out notices, so we planned a 5 hr drive each way to get to the Gorge in Washington.

Then we tried to get tickets.

Ticketmaster didn't have any. Grr. Sasquatch website still has no Sold Out notice, but won't let us buy tickets either. Grr. Craigslist to the rescue! There are two whole pages of Sasquatch sale ads on the Vancouver Craigslist site. Hooray! We email/call all the sellers of Saturday & Sunday tickets. Then the people selling the 3-day passes, even though we only need 2 days. Only 4 people respond, and they each say they sold their tickets. Grr grr grr. Seattle's Craigslist has 3 pages of sellers. Not a single one responds. Why oh why do people leave their ads online if the tickets are no longer available?!?! Use the freakin' edit/delete function, people!

So we're not going to Sasquatch. That really sucks. We figure its not worth driving 10 hrs round trip to try to buy scalped tickets and have the same luck down there. But I was still tempted.

In retaliation for the lame-ness, we bought Pemberton tickets. And Madonna tickets. I shake my fist at the concert ticketing gods!

Now I'm going to see Indiana Jones.

Times they are a changin' (I wish)

I am tired of being pessimistic about the future when it comes to city planning and sustainability. We know as a society that we need to live in vibrant communities that include our workplace, our commerce, our schools and our recreation, in order to live in an environmentally-friendly way. But we don't have the political will to make it happen. Instead, I have to work out a way to lessen my own environmental impact in a region that hasn't planned itself well at all.

The first step was to move out of a completely car-dependent city, to one that actually had a public transit system that works. Then we had to find a neighbourhood that let us walk to get daily shopping and recreation etc done. The trade off was living in a city that priced us out of owning our own detached home. It's a decision I can live with, as is the decision to remain a one car family. Now that we are looking to get a slightly larger place, I have to find a location with similar requirements but try to include a proximity to a new workplace that I haven't yet found. Try looking for gainful employment that lets you work in your own neighbourhood or is a bike ride away or ideally work from home... and get an inkling of how frustrated I am. Sure I can find a McJob anywhere in any neighbourhood, but it doesn't mean 'gainful employment'. And it certainly doesn't help with the larger home affordability.

But stepping away from the environmentalism idea altogether, why wouldn't our population be clamouring for better neighbourhoods in general? A truly vibrant community would mean less crime, better community involvement, nicer places to live and play, more localized business, thus a more thriving local economy. It would feed off itself in so many ways beyond a smaller environmental impact. Why does that kind of place have to be a pipe dream? I hate seeing more and more housing developments being built all around the Lower Mainland without any community planning done simultaneously. All it means is more car-dependent pockets of suburbia where people hide from their neighbours. Hate it hate it hate it.

Writing for fun and profit

I'm doing a bit of freelance writing work. Or trying to. I'm getting stopped up by some legal issues. Perhaps I am being unreasonable, or the client is. I can't tell yet. Basically I figure if I am writing something for a particular project, I own the product and deserve to be paid for its use. It would be completely different if I was a staff writer working as a company employee. In that case, I'd be contractually obligated to provide writing for the company, which the company would own outright at the end. As a freelancer, the product is mine, thus the copyright would also be mine. I could sell the copyright with the writing I suppose, but I think the pricing would have to reflect that. Here I was, pricing my work on the low end of the scale, offering a bargain... but with the proviso if the client wanted the work for different projects, I'd negotiate it separately.

Maybe I should just make them hire me on staff for the length of the project. :)