no_orochi

My thoughts on the matter

2009-08-26T07:03:08Z

"I drink... and I drive... I'm the only one in my car who gets out alive - Ted Kennedy"

Deferred

2009-06-16T20:43:20Z

So, due to illness, I deferred my solicitor exam. That means I'll be back in November, at the very least, for 1 day.

That is all, resume your normal activities.

Wah!

2009-06-14T21:54:43Z

So...

I don't know who the source was (tho, I said I'd blame Dra), but I fell ill with a nasty flu. It seems to be clearing up some, but I'm still in pretty poor shape.

I am now considering my options for postponing the solicitor exam, as I am presently losing a lot of valuable study time due to lack of concentration.

Rrf.

Good riddance to bad rubbish?

2009-06-01T05:26:24Z

Hiyo, been a while since I last posted. Just dropping a note, I am moving out of Ottawa in something like 22 days. June 23, I write my solicitor exam then I leave for Toronto. June 24, I graduate and spend the night. June 25, I move to Thunder Bay, arrival not certain.

I'm not going to be available between now and the 9th. Setting aside that entire block of time to finish prepping for my barrister exam, with maybe one exception over the weekend. But, between the 10th and 14th (not too early on the 10th, I have a dental appointment in the morn) does anyone want to hang out?

Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3D

2009-04-23T01:29:26Z

After having seen it, I must say, the movie goes to passable quality. In 2D, the camera work sucked, but 3D makes it work.

Quick Note

2009-04-06T12:51:42Z

I got Microsoft to apologize to me for the abomination that is Windows Vista.

That is all.

By The Way

2009-02-17T21:45:00Z

I passed my fall term courses, completing all of the requirements to graduate.

I am now expecting to graduate with a Juris Doctor in June.

A Letter I sent to the Governor General in my capacity as a constitutional scholar/expert

2008-12-17T11:54:05Z

Excellency,

I, as a scholar of constitutional law in Canada, have taken several days and reviewed the material available to me since you rendered your decision to prorogue Parliament on the advice of Prime Minister Harper, and I sincerely doubt Her Majesty, whom your position purports to represent, would have ruled in the same manner.

The overriding principle in this case was the one of responsible government, thus I deem that you have done your office a grievous disservice in allowing the Prime Minister to avoid the application of that principle.

I bear you no ill will, however, you have compromised the office of the Governor General in Canada. I state that on the fact that you, as the Governor General, shall not issue a ratio dicidendi or an obiter dicta on your decision. Should you decide to do so, my opinion of your decision may change.

Despite as such, I remain a loyal subject of Her Royal Majesty and accord you the same respect as accorded her representative,

Thomas P. Cromarty

R.I.P. Democracy

2008-12-04T17:32:33Z

Well, the meeting went in Harper's favour. Democracy is dead until the next session of Parliament.

I see

2008-12-02T08:51:46Z

Your rainbow is shaded indigo.

What is says about you: You are a proud person. You appreciate cities, technology, and other great things people have created. Friends count on you for being honest and insightful.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

Hrmm.. thoughts on the CTV coverage of the coalition

2008-12-02T08:39:01Z

I notice that CTV.ca/news decided to exclude my comment from their comment boards, even though I elevated myself over the partisan hackery and gave a clear statement on the constitutionality of everything, and even gave an assessment, on historical facts, of who would come out on top.

(The basics - Conservatives were wrong on the Constitutionality of it all, but would eventually come out on top)

Well, it is clear they want nothing but partisan hackery on their boards, and not a comment from someone who can present arguments both for and against every argument made for or against either side.

Who knew?

Least we could count on the CBC, even in the midst of the 1995 Quebec Referendum, they could be counted on to be impartial. (Seriously! The government was complaining that they were not biased towards the federalists)

And damn it, I wanted to boycott the CBC over their Heather Malick articles.

I hear some grumbling

2008-11-29T23:47:41Z

People are complaining about the confidence vote being pushed back to December 8. I know I'm eagerly awaiting it, but if you think everything through, it makes perfect sense.

After all, it is the first business day after the return of the Governor General to the country. If the government were to hold the vote and lose on Monday, they'd have to turn to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

I could see why Harper would be uncomfortable with the idea of turning to Chief Justice McLachlin... she was elevated by Jean Chretien, who is one of the party elders brokering the deal. Though, that is not to suggest that I doubt her ability to be impartial.

So, Canadian politics is in a standoff until December 8, which also happens to be the date of the Quebec provincial election.

I'd love a coalition government formed that day, plus the Liberals regaining a majority in Quebec. Would make a nice one-two punch for me ^_^

I saw this on a news website, so I decided I'll post something similar here: Quiz - can you explain to me why Harper has shown a fundamental misunderstanding of our political system? Bonus points if you can sift through the news and give me the big three points of hypocrisy on his part.

Canadian Politics finally got interesting

2008-11-28T17:31:04Z

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/28/fed-govt.html

I'm still wondering how well this would work. I have said time and time again that I don't want Jack Layton anywhere near the nation's finances, but after the recent assault on democracy by the Conservatives, I think I might have to go with the lesser of two evils.

People are complaining about the coalition depending on The Bloc. Personally, I respect Gilles Duceppe more than any leader in the past two decades, so I believe the interests of Quebec may be well represented. People might say they are not working in the interest of Canada, which is a fair charge, but I see them as working in the interests of their constituents, which theoretically are what the MPs are there to do.

This has shades of Joe Clark all over it, who more or less said "they wouldn't dare topple the government" or something to that effect on the tax bill in front of the House. Lo and behold, the NDP and Liberals toppled them, an election was called, and the Liberals got a majority.

Thing is, Dion is damaged goods in Quebec, particularly after his work in the Intergovernmental Affairs portfolio, so he can't rely on a majority government being formed. In fact, he so rankled the separatists in that position that the Bloc are saying outright that they will not support a coalition with Stephane Dion at the helm.

I also see the pro-Conservative commenters are posting in the ctv and cbc comment boards (yes, I know, I went back to cbc even after I decided to boycott them for the Heather Mallick (sp?) column on white trash - I couldn't help it... CTV.ca seems to be struggling today). However, I would like to point out that the Conservatives were not given a mandate to govern. The only mandate that Canadians gave was for Parliament to work together. It appears that through this coalition, Parliament may just be doing that.

[Edit - added the following]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/28/tories-fiscal.html

And the Conservatives have played their next card, removing the funding removal from the fiscal update. This pretty much forces the opposition to topple the government, because if they don't, the Conservatives can easily point to the fact that it was about the money, and not the governance.

Thoughts

2008-11-27T05:25:12Z

Given the crap that CUSA pulled, I am not donating a single dollar to Carleton University until CUSA, in its entirety, is disbanded. If it is still functional, in whole or in part, I will not donate a single dollar.

Augh!

2008-11-06T16:32:42Z

So... there is a strike at school. Classes are temporarily cancelled. If it lasts longer than 7 days, the overall schedule may have to be adjusted.

Lovely.

And people wonder why I hate unions.

Well, that was fun

2008-11-05T13:14:51Z

Not only were my projections spot on; but my projections of when the networks would make their projections were correct as well. Seemed odd to remain at least 15 minutes ahead of the networks in calling states.

Also had fun with an online friend who wasn't paying too close attention and had CNN on in the background. I told him "In 2 minutes, CNN is going to call the Presidency for Obama." 2 minutes later, they did. He freaked out and I had my fun with him briefly before fessing up and saying it was obvious because they were going to insta-call California when the polls closed.

Seems only slate.com was willing to jump the gun and call the race for Obama when McCain lost Ohio.

Sucks bout proposition 8 in California. At 91% of precincts reporting, I called it to pass.

Interestingly, Washington voted in Doctor-Assisted Suicide. hrmm.

Update

2008-11-04T06:12:38Z

Thanks all for your kind wishes and your concern; things are going a step at a time, except well, I can't get any work done because these painkillers cause a heavy fog to descend on my mind. Its sickening, can't do any high level thinking or concentrate very well.

But, my prescription runs out soon and I have my outpatient appointment on Wednesday; so I should be back up to full speed by the end of the week.

The countdown is on! 5 weeks till I'm done work on my degree.

I hate to admit it

2008-11-04T06:05:33Z

But for this election, Fox News was the closest out of all of the major news networks to being unbiased.

How sad is that? The fringe right actually providing more balanced coverage than the mainstream?

Update

2008-10-30T23:06:52Z

Heyo,

just got out of the hospital. After 4-5 days of symptoms, subtle ones at first, the ailment hit a crisis point and I went to the hospital. Turns out it was appendicitis, a case that lasted for an abnormally long time.

One look at the CAT Scan and they confirmed it. The surgeon told me that when they operated, my appendix was so inflammed and so distended that they literally could not tell if it perforated or not.

Now... I wonder if the 6 hours I spent in the ER because I caught the downside of the triage process would have made a difference. To picture me in the ER waiting room, just picture me, and then picture me slumped over and holding my stomach. There you have me, for 6 hours, plus vomit.

On antibiotics, just in case it did burst.

...

Just, well, that's another 2 weeks out of law school >.<
Going to have to make a few quick proposals for my profs tomorrow.

Election Day Tomorrow

2008-10-13T15:50:28Z

So, with all the aargle baargle and fooferaw out of the way, this campaign is more or less over. Now all that's left to do is to vote.

No surprises in my projection; Conservative minority, around 120-135 seats, Liberals in opposition with around but maybe not over 100, Bloc with up to 53 seats, NDP a slight surge, 1 independent, and quite possibly a maximum of 2 seats for the greens.

I do not have enough information on the relevant ridings to be able to project a green win outright, however.

Sorry I can't be much more specific than that, either, and I know that if you go with the upper limits of each projection, it exceeds 308. This isn't a clear cut case for me as the Ontario provincial election or the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial elections were (though, I was off by 10% in my seat projections for Newfoundland and Labrador...).

Also, I have largely been unaroused with the Canadian election until recently.

But, lets see seat wise, look for Conservative losses in Quebec and Liberal losses in Ontario. That's about it.

Bonus points if you can figure out the independent.

Addendum: actually, on second thought, the polls have had a subtle shift since I last checked. I'll check back in tomorrow and see if I want to adjust my projections.

To Show why the national vote doesn't matter in the US...

2008-10-01T12:47:41Z

Obama is presently 8 points up over McCain, and the electoral map is more or less the same.

McCain still needs to win Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado, Ohio, and Virginia to win; the only tangible difference is that his leads in certain states have shrunk.

Why Obama will likely win the Election

2008-09-10T09:41:57Z

So, US Presidential electoral map time. I've been studying the electoral maps, and I have some interesting conclusions, in that Obama will likely win the next election.

Consider the slate.com electoral map. Let's assume, which is reasonable, that McCain will take North Dakota, and Obama will take DC; and that all states leaning or safely for one side or the other will remain as such. That would leave us at 246 Obama, and 197 McCain.

McCain would need, in order to win, Florida, and at least two of Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia:
- if he wins all 3 of Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia, he outright wins with 274 electors, and doesn't need to care about the remaining tossups
- if he wins Michigan and Virginia, but not Ohio, he would need to sweep Nevada, Colorado, and New Hampshire
- if he wins Ohio and Virginia, but not Michigan, he would need to win Colorado plus one of Nevada and New Hampshire
- if he wins Michigan and Ohio, but not Virginia, he would either need to win Colorado or the combination of Nevada and New Hampshire to win

Now let's consider the cnn.com electoral map. If we assume that McCain wins Missouri, which is fairly reasonable, and that all states leaning or safely for one side or the other will remain as such. That would leave us at 243 Obama, and 200 McCain, not too far off from the slate.com figures. In fact, flip Montana, and you'd have the slate figures.

McCain would need, in order to win, Florida, and at least two of Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia:
- if he wins all three of Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia, he wins outright with at least 277 electors, and does not need to care about the other tossups
- if he wins Michigan and Virginia, but not Ohio, he would need to win Colorado plus one of Nevada and New Hampshire
- if he wins Ohio and Virginia, but not Michigan, he would still need to win Colorado plus one of Nevada and New Hampshire
- if he wins Michigan and Ohio, but not Virginia, he would either need to win Colorado or the combination of Nevada and New Hampshire to win

The reason, of course, in both cases that McCain would need to win Florida, is that if he lost it, Obama would automatically win in the electoral college, either matching or exceeding the required 270 electors.

That is a very tall order for McCain: to hold on to everything leaning in his direction, and win all but 2 or 3 of all the tossup states. Keep in mind, that right now, he looks to be trailing in Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Colorado, and you have a massive uphill battle. I imagine he'd have to spend a while working in the big three of Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia to turn his numbers around enough to take at least two of them, but that still would leave him vulnerable in Colorado.

Basically, in a scenario like this, I could only see two ways of McCain winning: either the Obama campaign imploding upon itself; or, heaven forbid, something catastrophic like a nuclear attack on a major city to push national security to the front, which of course, McCain and the Republicans traditionally lead in.

That then, leaves McCain in the dire situation of needing a meltdown of gigantic proportions in order to win. Don't believe anyone who says this race is too close to call.

So....

2008-09-09T09:15:16Z

randomly posting, because evidently I hadn't in over 8 weeks.

commuting to Toronto for school. its 8.5 hours on the way out, 7.5 hours on the way back.

Rough schedule, especially with 4 classes between my arrival and departure, but I can work with it.

ARGH! Season Finale of Doctor Who was a letdown :(

2008-07-10T07:02:57Z

I just finished watching the final episode of series four of Doctor Who, Journey's End. Now, let me preface my generic comments by saying that the prior episode (as this was a two-parter) had done a bloody brilliant job of building up the story line. Like, you were left with incredible expectations for the the next episode (picture the expectations of Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight, and tone it down a few shades), and then... the next episode came along.

Major disappointment. Like, as I watched, I was repeatedly thinking "was that the best they could come up with?" Now, I know it did lead to a decisive conclusion in the overall story of those involved, but I feel that if this was the best conclusion they could have come up with, they shouldn't have even bothered.

Hell, if they were to do it right, Journey's End should have been scrapped entirely, re-written, and released as a movie. Trust me, it would probably have been a license to print money, like if this movie was ever made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZB1jAZ0WU0

Ah well, one major disappointment. Least they finished season 3 right.

Even though I still think The Sound of Drums should have been the final episode overall in Doctor Who. :)

Update

2008-05-03T00:42:18Z

Well, I'm in Ottawa.

Current scheme is to find a hut (I had a straw one, and one made of sticks, but a nasty wolf insulted me by blowing them down) and then a job (or I could go back to playing poker full time again, but I think I'm past that lifestyle).

If anyone wants to hang out or anything, drop me a line here or on MSN. I'll call you, tho. It would be long distance for you.