2 + 2 = 5
For very large values of 2

Also,
Seminar Speaker:
[Draws a sphere on the board]
"This is a sphere, commonly known as the physicist's first order model of the cow."
[Draws four stick-legs symmetrically about sphere]
"This is the physicist's second order model of the cow. We call that perturbation theory."

Birthday!!

Today is the twentieth birthday of my biggest little sister. All gather in admiration of her glorious achievement.

A Message to Our Readership

I’ll be having a movie night this Friday (September 29^th) at 7:30pm. Everyone is invited to come and please bring your favorite film. We’ll select a few movies to watch out of all the contributions (I’ll be selecting a comedy or romantic-comedy in case this influences you, and yes, we will be watching my film). If you have someone you’d like to bring please feel free (I suppose this clause is primarily directed at Eric).

Accountability

I was very disappointed to read about the results of this year’s accountability survey in the StarPhoenix. After all of the scandals we’ve had in the last few years it’s shocking that the government is still refusing to enforce the Freedom of Information Act. I really had high hopes that the Conservatives would change things in this department, but it seems the grassroots ideals of the Reform party are now completely dead. This site has an interesting, and somewhat frightening, parallel that’s happening in the States right now.

“French ship designers were cleverer than English ones; French ships were usually faster” (Hotspur, 81). All of these years I’ve thought that one of the main reasons the English Navy dominated the seas was the fact that they had better ships. I could swear I remember reading or hearing about how the British ship designs were more advanced. Though come to think of it, that was in relation to ships of the Spanish Armada. Perhaps the same wasn’t true for French ships.

FMA really must stop having these mysterious to-be-continued episodes. It'll be three in a row next week.

Sitting Alone on a Friday Night

There’s been a question rolling around in my head for the past few weeks about whether our politicians should be our leaders or our avatars. The situation with Paul Martin as PM is what started me thinking about this. As a Catholic, he was instructed by the pope and the cardinals of Canada to implement Catholic teachings, particularly regarding homosexuality, but the press demanded that he put the will of the people above any obligations he may have as a Catholic.

My point is not about whether the pope has any say in the matter or beliefs on homosexuality (it’s just the example that got me thinking), but rather beliefs on the duty of elected officials. Many decades ago JFK said he was the president first and a Catholic second, which was apparently viewed as a good thing. It seems that the argument made by the press is that a politician’s sole job is to parrot whatever the electorate wants. The PM is merely an avatar. But if this is the case then the PM’s personal views, background, or values are irrelevant. If one thinks that an ex-convict will implement popular policy then elect him or her, the person’s past actions are meaningless.

While this point of view may be very democratic, I don’t believe that it necessarily leads to the best course of action. For example, in at least one state in the U.S. a law was passed forbidding tax hikes without the approval of a referendum (my Dad is the source for this). The result is that their school systems fell into utter disarray; people simply failed to grasp what’s good for them and their politicians blindly followed whatever would get votes. You may see this as a silly example, but consider the situation with environmental regulations, renewable energy, or support for the third world. The majority of the population either couldn’t be bothered, or, more commonly, don’t want to spend any money or see their standard of living reduced. Thus, these issues remain because the avatars pouring over their poll numbers haven’t received the go ahead.

If a man is capable of putting aside his ethical or logical judgments and beliefs then what else is he capable of doing? Lying perhaps? Giving the people what he thinks they want to hear? In my opinion anyone who can do this and sleep well at night has no personal integrity whatsoever. Contrary to the belief of many individuals I’ve spoken to, there is no off-switch for religious or moral beliefs and there certainly shouldn’t be one for logically-reasoned beliefs either.

Perhaps it’s just my youthful naïveté and idealism, but I’ve always believed that our politicians should be our leaders, those among us who best exemplify our values and ideals. We don’t elect them to blindly parrot our desires, but rather to seek out innovative ways to push civilization forward. A leader is always on the lookout for problems and seeks solutions before they become so bad the masses are whining about them. A leader inspires by sharing her personal beliefs, using rhetoric (in the good sense of the word) to gather others around her ideas by showing the people why and how they work.

Yeah, I really need to get some kind of Friday night activity.

I could really use a more stable emotional state. Particularly this semester.

So, Update

STM cafe is too crowded to eat in (I normally require a table to myself). My Dad has encuraged me to sit down with random people ("you meet so many people that way"), but I don't like strangers and half the time other people intrude on my table they start a conversation about sex toys. I'll go back in ten minutes and see if there's space, otherwise, I may strave.

Also, my littlest sister now officially has a boyfriend (he's an old friend of her's) so I guess I'm the last single sibling left standing. I'm fairly happy for her as she really needs some good things to happen in her life right now.

This semester is shaping up to be utterly hellish, so please excuse any sulkiness you may see on my part.

Dead Sexy Cheese

Here I am hanging out with some Canadian Marble Cheddar on a Saturday night (in satisfaction of Caitlin's meme tag). Alas, pretty much everyone I know in the blog-o-sphere has already been tagged, so I cannot tag three people. Oh well, more privacy for me and my cheese.

I need a new umbrella. The wind today basically destroyed it.

I've finished watching season one of Doctor Who on CBC only to find out that I have to wait until October for season two. I feel greatly put upon right now.

My heat transfer professor looks like a Muppet. Really.

Three Irrelevant Observations

"Engineering is like sex" - EP 495 (design) instructor

The person beside me in my materials class today had a Media calculator. Seriously, how can you survive into third year engineering with a Media calculator?

The art department is much more confusing than the engineering building.

Scary Monsters

My littlest sister apparently almost got fired today, as Jerry's finance turns out to be a psychopath. This lady just comes up to my sister while she's scrambling (Jerry's on Sunday morning is sufficient explanation for that) and asks if she can help. When asked she introduces herself as "your boss" and within a few minutes is yelling about everything from how my sister's not refilling the coffee properly to how to she's not wiping the edges of the table well enough. It seems that every once in a while this woman just walks in the restaurant, shadows a group of people for a few days and fires most of them. In fact, this is how everyone who gets fired gets fired there. My sister almost quit on the spot (she's been trying to decide when to resign anyway). As it is, at least now she doesn't feel so bad about quitting.

In a completely unrelated tangent, this is my one hundredth post. Yeah me. Uh huh, uh huh.

In today's paper the Lifestyle section featured a segment on a book of photographs. The pictures extensively document the debris of the former World Trade Center buildings. This is all very normal, but one quote from the author struck me. He said "I didn't need to make art, just to make pictures that spoke to viewers and that viewers could connect to". If I have a photo of something and that picture speaks to me (moves me, enlightens me, etc.) so that I form a connection to the subject matter or spirit of what's portrayed, isn't that art? If it isn't, then what's missing? What is in the definition of art that's lacking here? Perhaps the significance of the photographer’s words is located earlier in the sentence when he says he didn’t need to make art, i.e. there isn’t anything in the way he photographed the wreckage that makes it art, the art exists in the scene itself. It is found art (be aware that I have only the most dubious notion of what that means).

Back to School

So most of my classes (there are seven of them, yes, seven) look okay. Machine design is going to be a little scary because of all the prerequisites I skipped (my professor kept asking if everyone in the class had taken all of the prerequisites so I kept sinking lower into my chair). However, I have the ever magical engineering cousins to prop me up.

I feel like partying. Perhaps I should go home and read my textbooks . . . or comic books. It's really going to end up being comic books. Apparently, one of the librarians remarked that she'd never seen someone use the interlibrary loan system to get a comic book before.

It's been six days since Sage died. I still expect her to be blocking every door I walk through, and worry about stepping on her whenever I enter a dark room. Last night I dreamt that she'd come back to life. I never really expected her death to affect me this way. It's not that I'm sad and grieving; it's just that I notice she's gone.