Lovin' the H-Ween

Happy Halloween everybody! This is the story of how the big day went down at my place.




I don't understand why but there are 10 seconds of black at the end of the video. I'm not trying to be clever or anything.... Who knows. Anyway, today I wore my demon mask as I walked home from school. I scared a lot of kids on the way and handed out a lot of candy. At the McGill metro a cute little girl was holding her moms hand and trying to look at me without drawing my attention. I walked over and opened my lunch box. She was caught between her greed for candy and her distrust of monsters. She looked to her parents for advice. Her mom gave her a "Don't ask me... kind of shrug" Needless to say, the little girl took 2 kit cat bars. We both won I suppose.

Hope you all had a safe and happy Samhain, all saints and whatever other reason you need to justify your lust for candy and fun costumes.
-

Hampton House BBQ Roast 2007

Because this is exactly what my life is like. Thanks for the virtual soup Veronica. have some virtual roast beef.

The Golden Rule

I got to talk to Seymour Schulich today. For those of you who don't know, hey's the guy who donated 20 million to McGill and built the music library. In his ongoing quest to help young people he was doing An interesting character indeed. I've never met a person who was so generous with his money. Even though is book is a best seller, he is giving 100% of the profits to a charity that gives books to libraries in inner cities.

I learned a few interesting things from him today.

1. When you are young, donate time and talent but keep your money until you don't have the energy to give the first two.
2. Pay your dues and wait for opportunity.
3. Find a mentor in your field.

Good guy. Straight up and good advice.

Oh yeah, the golden rule. Schulich made his money in gold and gold shares. So the saying means a bit more coming from him. Funny.

-Eliot

ZOINK! Smells like Bacon!

The torrent server OINK got taken down today. It is difficult to see the media trying to cover this story. Their language and and spin put the truth on its head. They make out like this guy was charging subscriptions to access pre-released albums and movies. Here are some of the facts as I know them to be.

1. This was a free site and a community of users, not a pay site.
2. None of the copyright materials were ever on his website. They were spread out amongst the users of the site.
3. Although this site did help people access popular music, the site also had very rare and obscure things that you would never be able to find anywhere else. Library archives of public domain music. All the completed works of all the great composers a few clicks away. An amazing resource that would make any library jealous.

One day in the future libraries will embrace torrenting. Imagine accessing any text from any author? Any music? Any Score? Any painting? I am torn between my willingness to support the livelihood of professional content producers and my desire to have access to all the information. Sadly, the police are keeping me from having access to my public domain music scores in the interests of SONY BMG and EMI and TIMEWARNER. I don't like being a conspiracy nut but it seems to me like the American ruling class would rather keep people away from all that information.

CH 7 Monteverde ZipLines!

I figured out how to use the movie thing on my laptop. I thought it would be fun to share this crazy memory with all of you. I'm not sure if you will be able to read any of my text because I have no control over the video size and resolution.

I've done nothing like this before, I hope I get the chance to do more of the same. Not for the faint of heart of those who are afraid of heights.