GET SULKY

Despite living in a small town there is never a shortage of interesting things to do around here, especially during the summer months.

Two weeks ago was the 33rd Annual 'Threshing Festival', which while paying tribute to the agricultural history of the area is really just a big excuse for a piss-up. I'll never forget when we first moved to town, it was only a few weeks before the festival that year and I remember someone trying to convince me to go to the beer garden with the argument "No matter how drunk you get they never cut you off". I'll give you more details about this event in a separate post.

Another fun summer activity is heading into Dresden, which is about 15 minutes away, to spend a Saturday afternoon at the track. When I was younger I would stick to the slot machines and stay away from the horses. I probably was trying to convince myself that horse racing was for old men or something, but in truth I was most likely just scared and unsure about strategy, placing bets, etc.

That all changed one afternoon after placing a $6 bet. It was one of the first times I had bet on horses and I almost hit the Trifecta (correctly guessing the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place horse). I correctly guessed #2 and #3. I don't remember how much money I won, it was not very much, but the adrenaline rush of excitement I had when those horses came thundering around the final turn was WAY better then the flashing lights and ringing bells of a slot machine.

The Dresden area is no newcomer to the world of harness racing, with the first organized races run in 1889 under the banner of The Dresden Driving Club. Horseracing has come a long way since the days when my Grandfather hung out at the track. In those days it was almost a private men's club. These days horse racing, and especially harness racing is being rebranded as a hip and happening sport for both the young and young at heart.

Part of this re-branding can be seen in the new GETSULKY website that is being promoted by the Ontario Harness Horse Association. The site even features a cool little flash animation harness racing game, hopefully to get you over the fear of placing that first bet.

Internet gambing is a huge industry and I'll admit to playing a little poker online every now and then. The problem of course is that no matter what, you are still sitting on your ass indoors. Our Canadian summers are short enough as it is, so why not get outside and get some sun and fresh air as part of your entertainment dollar?

CANADIAN AMERICAN RELATIONS

Today is July 1st, known as 'Canada Day' around here. Technically we celebrate the anniversary of Confederation, July 1st 1867 when the three British Colonies of Britsh Columbia, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada joined together to create a nation.

Some historians argue this event occurred mostly because the American Civil War had recently ended and American armies were turning their sights North. The creation of an organized state out of several separate British Colonies was a good way to secure British control over land north of the 49th parallel. The rush to build a railway across the vast Canadian prairie from Ontario to British Columbia was seen as another important means of security British sovereignty.

Regardless, Canadians celebrate Canada Day pretty much the same way Americans celebrate July 4th. Family, Alcohol & Fireworks.

Which brings me to todays news. A recent survey on both sides of the border came to some suprising results. It could be the impact of 8 years of George W. Bush, or it could be something else, but here are the results:

• Canadians overall are "happier" then Americans
• Canadians live longer
• Canadians have fewer diseases
• Canadians are more adventurous in bed
• Canadians drink more
• Canadians take more vacations
• Canadians spend more time with family
• Canadians have their debt more under control
• Average Canadians are 30% wealthier then your average American

How you like them apples?

NEIGHBOUR HEADLINES

A full week since my last post. The day job has been busy recently and I could not bring myself to do anything other then drink beer and sit in front of the television like a vegetable when I got home from the office every night.

Even this weekend was shite, our Director had the brilliant idea that I should attend three difference conference calls on Saturday and two on Sunday. So now the weekend is over and I don't even fell like I had one.

However I stumbed across a couple stories worthy of posting and I even went and checked my traffic reports. Not a single update in a week and I still averaged over 50 visitors a day.

So on to the unbelieveable stories...

A New York State man has been charged with felony assault and assault and battery after stabbing his mother with a fork and then attacking his neighbour with a frozen chicken.

A really interesting story from Scotland. A man who was sick of the noise coming from his downstairs neighbours decided to get his revenge. He rigged up a complicated system of timers connected to home applicances. While out of his apartment for the evening the plan was the timer would create an alternating sequence of one-minute bursts of noise from a vacuum cleaner, air compressor, radio, television and stereo. Unfortunately the timer malfunctioned and all 5 devices went off at once, creating a sound described by witnesses as "like a jet engine", which didn't just disturb his downstairs neighbour but every residence in the apartment block.

Victoria Writes:

I've owned my townhome since 2005. When we first moved in my female roommate always said hello to the older couple who lived next door. They always had their grandson over and at the time my dog was 6 months old and in the process of being housebroken...so we were outside quite a bit. Well, we share a plot of grass between our two driveways and the path way leading to the front of our home is shared with the elderly Polish neighbors. It all started here on this grass, which is owned by ALL residence.

I have my Masters in ESL, so I work with many foreign non-english speakers on a daily basis. In fact my own parents are also immigrants. So, I approached these neighbors with respect and always tried my best to be cordial. Well, at night even though a safe neighborhood, the dog always had to go out, sometimes 4-5am, and the easiest place to go was the grassy area outside our front walkway. In the beginning the grass was soooo dry, it began to die quickly and sometimes where the dog went to the bathroom it would leave a ring....well, even before anyone complained I called my association and asked them what I could do to fix the grass. They asked me to notify the landscapers and if it persisted, they would ask me to replant the grass. Fair enough. Literally the same day, my roommate was taking the dog out and she went to the bathroom on the grassy side closest to their driveway. The polish woman opened her door and just stared waving her finger at my roommate. She just waved and tried to go up to the door to say hello. The woman must have gotten nervous and shut the door. After this instance, she would peek through her blinds every time we were outside, whether it was front out back...she would always watch us. Her husband seemed quiet and not as paranoid.

Eventually if our cars arrived at the same time hers did, she'd stay in her car and wait for us to go inside....or if she was taking groceries in, she'd stop in the middle, lock her car, shut her trunk and go in until we were done. Then finally, one day I went through the garage and her whole family was sitting in the driveway with lawn chairs having a picnic. We do have our own patios..but whatever, well as I started to walk the dog she started to yell in polish at her family and pointing at me. So I walked up and asked, is there a problem. She started saying broken grass i no dog...over and over. So again I asked her can you explain to me again. And then her husband said take dog to the other yard....I said excuse me? She wanted me to go to the yard area next door. To which I replied, this is a common lot and pets are all over the neighborhood, we all share the grass. They said to me, no this is our side, stay on yours...well by now I was annoyed, so I called the association and asked them if I could get another letter to give to the polish people stating, I'm not doing anything wrong by taking my dog on public grass as long as I pick up her poop. They mailed me a copy which I gave to the neighbors the next week. I rang their doorbell and tried to explain to them the letter and just so they know there are many dogs in the neighborhood they were still not happy with the letter.

Well, I rented my house out for 2 year and now we're moved back in. I resolved this time to be cordial and try to be a better neighbor by saying hello and starting over. I'm married now so my husband lives here and I only said to him, when you see the neighbors always say hi no matter what. Well last week she ran after me after I brought the dog back to the grassy area. She's older and we have no problems with the grass being damaged. She followed me up our walk way yelling...to which I said I don't understand, and she said you break grass again. I said we've been here 3 weeks, this is the first time that I've taken her out here, and she said no husband take out 11 times. Apparently her and her daughter have been counting and watching us. So she called her daughter who speaks better english to come over. And basically she said my mother has been upset about this and she just yelled at you because she's so angry. I said well, if she saw my husband out there, she can come out and explain in a civil manner. I mean she yells and she scowls. I told her daughter, we are respectful and we don't want to cause problems but yelling at us and peeking out of blinds does not help, it's annoying. She said well the other people were nice and this and that, I said we have been nice too, we've brought chocolates for Christmas previous years we've said hello etc...

Well, she's starting again. Yesterday we had a family BBQ, she was reading in her driveway when we pulled in. We started getting our grill ready out back and she came on her patio, and put her back towards us facing a wall. She sat outside the whole time we were out, when we went in so did she. I went to meet some new neighbors across the way, and the woman said that over the years my neighbors have built some enemies because they always spy and are paranoid. Tonight she watched me from her driveway with my dog down the block. I could see her peeking around the corner until I got in my own house. I have never detested someone sooo much. I've tried to talk to them and let them know, please if there is a problem come speak with us instead of hiding and yelling at us from afar....ugh, I had to get this off my chest. We enjoy living here, but seriously, I'm also disappointed these neighbors have to be like that....I would like to be friends, but if we can't do that, than I just want them to mind their own business!!!! My husband isn't as nice, he said if they say something to him, he'll say something back...but I try to be civil and explain....well I'm about done doing that. I finally said when we have a pet sitter again out of respect I will tell them to use other grassy areas, but I asked if they would refrain from spying or yelling. And if out sitters do happen to take the dog their they can let us know and we'd take care of it. So we shall see....

+10 CLOAK OF SILENCE

This is awesome! It could be the end of all noisy neighbour complaints forever. Imagine the end of banging on apartment walls. You could crank your stereo to 11 and not feel even the slightest bit guilty. The technology, which Scientists have dubbed an 'acoustic cloak' or a 'cloak of silence', is outlined in the latest issue of the New Journal of Physics.

CANADIAN COPYRIGHT LAW

So the government introducted new copyright legislation today. If you are in the dark about the changes to Canadian copyright law here is a brief outline.

The Canadian government loves taxes. Always has. Quite some time ago they introducted a tax on all blank media. It used to be blank VHS and cassette tapes, then blank CD and DVD's, and eventually they extended it to include blank hard-drives and MP3 players.

This little tax on blank media had an unintended side-effect. Courts in Canada went and ruled that because consumers have paid this tax they possessed the right to copy any recording from the original copy even those they do not personally own. This right was extended to include P2P downloads, effectively making the downloading of pirated music legal in Canada. Uploading technically remained illegal but has not really been inforced.

The money raised by this tax was distributed to music publishers via some complicated formula that had nothing to do with the popularity of an artist and mostly to do with the whim of some idiot bureaucrat and the lobbying powers of various record labels or industry insiders.

Today the Conservative (business friendly and in love with all things American) government introduced new copyright legislation in Canada. I'm not going to get into the details around rights for educational uses, libraries, etc. because frankly they seem pretty well thought out and fair. (The publishing industry hates them so you know they are probably balanced)

The scary part of the law involves new technologies. The internet, personal digital music players, etc. The law contains provisions regarding breaking digital "locks" and fines for downloading pirated music or movies for personal use.

If music or movies you legally purchased contain no locks you are legally allowed to copy/transfer the content to any device you own. So you can buy a CD and copy it to your iPod (something technically illegal in many jurisdictions including the USA) without worry. You can purchase a movie and copy it to your computer or purchase a movie online and create a copy to watch on your DVD player. You can copy your old vinyl album to mp3 or to CD if you want.

What you can't do is copy the CD or movie to another device if it contains a digital lock. "Breaking" or circumventing this digital protection is a serious offence, and can carry huge fines, even if you are only doing it only for personal use. The creation or use of software that can be used to break these digital locks would be illegal.

So technically I could legally purchase a music CD at Wal-Mart, and if it is digitally locked, I am not allowed to put a copy of that music on my iPod, forcing me to carry around a bulky and very unsexy portable CD player circa 1995 if I want to enjoy my tunage. I have to buy the "digital" version as well. I have to pay twice for the same music.

This is the same as me purchasing a t-shirt and the designer of the shirt and government telling me I can only wear it on Saturdays. If I wear the shirt any other day of the week I can go to jail. Sounds stupid doesn't it? That is because it is.

I'm not an advocate of software or music or movie piracy (at least not on this blog and publicly), but if I legally purchase something I should be allowed to do whatever the hell I want with it. This includes copying it to my iPod, making a backup copy in case the original is damaged, loaning it to my friend, selling it on eBay, etc.

More information is available from the following sources:

Canadian Copyright Law from Wikipedia. Covers the basics, an introduction to the law.

Fair Copyright for Canada - Lobby group started by copyright lawyer and University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist. Start here if you want to fight the government and industry attempt to limit consumer rights and personal choice.

Canadian Music Creators Coalition - Industry group that opposes DMCA "locks and lawsuits" style copyright legislation. Members include Canadian artists such as Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlin, Broken Social Scene, Avril Lavigne, David Bidini (Rheostatics), Matthew Good, Metric, Raine Maida, Randy Bachman, Richie Hawtin (Plastikman), Sum41, etc. Basically anybody who actually creates and sells great Canadian music. Does not include the shite artists that are created by stupid television shows like Canadian Idol.