Category: General

Last night I submitted my application for dispute resolution with the Residential Tenancy Branch. As some of you know my last landlord did not give me my damage deposit.

your Application for Dispute Resolution has been approved. An Information Officer will contact you with a hearing date, and send you your hearing package.

Exciting times! I’ll keep you posted because I know you care.

Boing-Boing via Tony Marsh brought this to my attention:

Talking points for Canadians speaking to their MPs about the Canadian DMCA
Posted by Cory Doctorow, June 17, 2008 5:18 AM | permalink
Brendon sez, “With the tabling of Bill C-61 in the Canadian Parliament, there has been a lack of a concise set of ‘talking points’ that summarizes the ramifications of the bill in plain language. This document attempts to capture such a set of talking points for review by the copyfighter community at large. Keep in mind that this document must provide a rational argument against C-61, as a fact-based, non-emotional debate is key to our success in defeating C-61.”

This bill is bad for Canadians for a number of reasons:

1. It reduces your rights: Consumers will continue to be able to use copyrighted materials for research, private study, criticism, review or news reporting, but will no longer have the means to exercise those rights when the copyrighted materials are protected by DRM.

2. It reduces reduces the usefulness of your media: Consumers will no longer have the right to take commonly purchased physical media, such as DVDs, or downloaded DRM-protected files, such as digital music, and make copies for their personal use.

3. It forces you to buy media you’ve already purchased: Consumers will be unable to unlock media they’ve legally purchased in the past for use on new devices, and hence will be forced to buy the same content again and again.

4. It makes your devices less useful: Consumers will be able to do less, not more, with new devices they purchase, as many of these devices may, at any time, limit the user’s access to media they have a legal right to view, modify, or redistribute.

5. It reduces competition and innovation: Consumers will be unable to influence the market by finding new uses for their existing media and copyrighted materials, limiting the application of ingenuity that can lead to the creation of new applications and markets for Canadians and the world.

6. It makes public domain works inaccessible: Consumers will have the right to re-use works in the public domain, but in cases where those public domain works are protected by DRM, consumers will not have the means to exercise those rights and hence will lose access to their own heritage.

This coming weekend is my 20th High School Reunion. Let me sum up in zero words how interested I am in attending:

I read these. They’re good, but I don’t really need to keep them:

Top 10 volume 1
Pride of Baghdad
Astro City: Life in the Big City

Maybe you have some similar books that you might want to trade?

I got an email in my inbox today which read:

Hi Toren,
I’m writing an article about the rising consumption of shark fin soup and the declining number of sharks in the world. I’m interested in seeing if there’s more of the stuff being eaten in Lower Mainland restaurants, would you happen to know if that’s the case? And why did you start a list of restaurants that serve shark fin soup?
Best,
Bryan Zandberg
Reporter
The Tyee
www.thetyee.ca

The list (here) was lifted wholesale from benthic.ca, as noted in the title of the post. But I talked more personally about the irresponsibility of shark fin soup in my post “No One Wants To Talk About Shark Fin Soup.”

I’m not sure if I ever blogged about my more recent encounter with it, which I will now relate:

A couple months ago Geisel and Deanna and I were looking to get some sushi here in Kitsilano. Now everyone knows that the Eatery is one of the best places for sushi, so I suggested we meet there. As usual there was a big lineup and I hate lineups, so I suggested that we go to the place across the street, which was empty. I can’t recall the name but it is quite literally right across Broadway. We looked at the menu and spent about 5-10 minutes putting together a list of what we wanted before I noticed they had shark fin soup on the menu. I felt bad for wasting Geisel’s time but I did not want to patronize that restaurant, so we went further down the street to yet another sushi joint, devoid of shark fin soup, but increasingly burdened with the Eatery’s overflow.

I am not one to lament over another animal’s pain if it’s being killed for the purpose of food, but shark harvesting is incredibly wasteful, devastating to the environment and completely unnecessary. That’s all.

I’ll see it, for obvious reasons.*

*Like most people I enjoy hearing my personal beliefs touted/endorsed/validated by others.

Budgies Burritos, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a place directly below my studio space where one can get huge, delicious, sloppy, cheap, vegetarian, hipster-made burritos. They also have nachos but when I order them I have to tell them this menacing laundry list of modifications:

-no jalapenos
-no sour cream
-yes cheese is fine
-add quacamole
-add black beans
-fresh salsa, not hot or green
-nothing on the side, everything on top (reduces plastic use)
-no lid

Maybe I should print that out and they can pin it to the wall as the Toren Special. Last night when I went to my studio Budgie’s was closed, so I puttered around the neighborhood looking for dinner. No Chinese Bakery egg tarts at 9:30pm. Our Town Cafe always has paninis but I’m bored of them and I am not thrilled with the service after a couple of annoying instances.

There is a pizza slice joint next to the Wet Wizard bookstore. The pizza didn’t look very appetizing but I noted they had lasagna for $7.50. They said it would take 30 minutes so I walked to Cuppa Joe for an oat fudge bar and to the convenience store for some pineapple-coconut juice so I’d have desert and a drink.

The thing I learned about the pizza joint when I returned is that’s it’s licensed and icky. When you go in the food grabbery is on the left. To the right is an open area where lots of grody douche bags drink their beer and yell. It was difficult to read my Dungeon magazine without feeling like a chair might be smashed over my head at any moment. At least the ants were small enough that if they got in your food you wouldn’t notice.

Anyhoo, the moral of the story is that lasagna made at buck-a-slice type business are made out of cheap pizza toppings and if your stomach can take the punishment you still have your colon to wrestle with (picture that in your head).