Phendrana Drifts

Jun 21

Do real men cry at movies?

On the drive home from a business trip my colleagues and I were discussing movies. I love how that sentence makes it sound like I’m all grown up. And on that topic of being grown up we got to the topic of whether it can be socially acceptable for grown men to cry at movies. I was willing to test the waters right away and declare that yep, I cry during some films. And the mockery that ensued suggests that that social norms don’t yet welcome it.

Not that I don’t like the mockery – I welcome it. I’m sufficiently comfortable in my own skin to admit what I admitted, as well I am sufficiently comfortable to mock those whose list is even longer than this. I declared to the car there were 10 movies I cry during, and I said it in a way that made it sound like I confidently counted when in fact developing this list I found it wasn’t as easy as I thought. Not all 10 cause guaranteed tears, but all have resulted in my own personal Niagara Falls upon initial viewing, if not over multiple screenings.

Armageddon
The one that was first mentioned in the car, and the one that results in Duncan tears almost every time at the very end.

YouTube Clip at the very end of the film

The Iron Giant
I passionately believe that this is one of, if not the most underrated movies of all time. I love it and could not possibly recommend it enough. Sadly, few people have seen it, and if you are one of them make an point to catch it the next time you rent a movie or are on iTunes.

YouTube trailer

The Fellowship of the Ring
I believe this is my favourite of the three Lord of the Rings films, although really I tend to judge them as a single really long movie. The climax in particular is quite touching, and sets up a great adventure in the second and third acts.

The Return of the King
Bookending the climax of the first film is the climax of the third film. Now including both these films was difficult because while I certainly know I had man tears in theatres for both, I do not continue to cry today when I watch. But don’t let that take away from the fact that I think the ending is both emotional and fitting.

The Patriot
I don’t especially like this Mel Gibson film about the American Revolution and there isn’t much that is special about it, even with the presence of a young Heath Ledger, but there is a scene with Gibson’s character and his daughter that really gets me everytime. It is unlikely many will see the film if they haven’t already, so I’ll spoil away – the daughter stopped speaking before the film starts after her mom passed, and as Gibson’s character leaves to go to war again she breaks out in tears and begs him not to go. Sniff.

YouTube clip – go to 1:35 to see the scene I’m talking about

Braveheart
A much better Gibson film, and one where there are multiple tugs on my tear ducts. I would also imagine given the nature of the film, an appropriate example of when it is ok for men to cry in a film.

The Shawshank Redemption
As a now popular film on video, then on cable television I imagine almost all of you readers have seen it, but if you haven’t go get it. The very, very end gets me briefly each viewing, but far more accurate to say I choke up rather than let go completely.

Big Fish
If you are a man who has a Dad and loves him at all, it is hard to watch and not feel something at the climax. Toronto Mike has a great rundown on why it makes guys cry, so I won’t rehash it, rather just link.

Toronto Mike

Schindler’s List
As I am not made of stone, it wasn’t until the third or fourth viewing that this film didn’t cause me to reach for the kleenex. I also have decided this movie, one of my favourites, is a standard bearer for two other World War II films that cause me to come close to tears – the Pianist and Saving Private Ryan. All three are worth checking out.

Passion of the Christ
I wonder if it is Mel Gibson who is the common link here… in any case, the scene where Jesus falls while carrying the cross and Mary comes to help him up chokes me up – it is a well-crafted moment in what otherwise is a difficult and almost disturbing movie to watch. If you haven’t seen it, I would suggest Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ over this film, which is a much more intelligent and thought-provoking (not to mention enjoyable) version of Christ’s last days prior to crucifixion.

Jun 15

I want to want you

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I have agonized and agonized and today was the deadline to make the decision and I have decided to defer once again, but in all likelihood that deferral means I’ll take a pass.

I want to be gadget cool. I want to be surfing the internet in Starbucks on an iPad. Except I have no real idea what I’ll do on a iPad over my present iPhone or MacBook Pro.

I went to the Apple Store today and touched one for the first time in any meaningful way, and I can’t deny its very slick. Everything works and moves the way you expect Apple stuff to work. I’m sure it is everything Steve Jobs and friends claim it is, but for the life of me I still don’t know where I will use it over my other two primary devices. I can see surfing in bed with it over my iPhone. And I know at first I will take it to the coffee shop over the MacBook Pro. But I’m not so sure in the long run. The keyboard, while of course much better than the iPhone, was certainly not a typist’s dream. I tried a few times to touch type and failed. Of course there is a snazzy keyboard/dock, but that is a little expensive (although to be honest this exercize is already bourgeois, cost isn’t the major factor) and more importantly adds bulk and stuff to the package which enhances the value of the notebook.

I’ve quizzed people with one, read on the internet and asked random users what they use their iPad for and still haven’t come to a solid conclusion. As much as I hate to say it, until I come up with a use for it, I’m skipping the iPad.

Jun 09

The Liberal Democrats… an interesting idea.

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Like most political hacks in Canada, I read with interest the rumours, apparently well-sourced and highly placed, that the Liberal Party and New Democratic Party are discussing what a merger would look like between their two parties. The original CBC story is here, and since that time Bob Rae has come out to provide some official denials. And even within the original story heavyweights like David Herle speak against it, as well as a fairly clear quote from Michael Ignatieff – but denials aside, I saw Peter McKay make similar denials about mergers that were equally if not more clear and he still has a job, so I wouldn’t put too much in the public denials. That doesn’t mean I think a merger will happen, because I don’t.

If it were to happen though what would it look like? And what would change in Canadian politics?

If the two parties merged for the transparently obvious reason of winning the next election and kicking out Stephen Harper from Sussex Drive I think it would go along way to taking Canada down the path to a two-party system. I would even hazard a guess that it may lead us to a formalized two party system like the United States has. I’m not necessarily opposed to a de facto two-party state, but leaving the power to reform the electoral system in the hands of only the Democrats and the Republicans in the United States hasn’t necessarily served that country well. Here in Canada, while I remain a fan of the electoral finance changes, my main knock against them is how hard it will be to effectively start a new party. In order to get public money for your party you need votes. In order to gain votes, you need the ads and organization money can buy. In order to get public money… you get the picture. In a world with only two parties plus the Bloc the system will serve to entrench itself possibly to the point that we will never see a new party develop.

I also worry that the system will become more bitter, more partisan and more the things we hate about politics. I must confess, when the idea of a merger on the right was proposed I didn’t see that shift coming. Since 2003 the level of rhetoric and partisanship has steadily increased within the ranks of the Conservative Party of Canada – well beyond the barbs thrown during the time of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance/Progressive Conservatives. They knew who the enemy was and knew what would work to gain power. The Liberal Democrats would be no different – never really working with the Conservatives to govern, never letting up in painting the Conservatives like demons.

In my mind the best thing about the CPC merger was the end of the one party plus system of governance, where only the Liberals had a competitive shot at forming government. It increased the options for Canadian governance, making elections matter more. The proposed merger does the opposite, decreasing the possibilities for Canadian governance and entrenching that choice.

The merger makes any form of coalition government impossible (Between who? The Bloc and one of the two main parties?) and it reduces the flexibility of Parliament.

I hope the two parties think carefully about the path they are going down. Coalitions, especially when done with greater legitimacy and foresight than the attempt two years ago, offer an opportunity of interest and compromise that I dread will be lost in the new two party system. And not just coalitions, but parliamentary cooperation and the diversity of interactions between civil society and political parties.

As I was wrong about exactly the kind of political situation that developed from the right-wing merger I may be wrong about the consequences of this one. But I don’t see it leading Canadians to the centre, rather to two polarized extremes.

Jun 08

The Valuable Legacy of Jean Chrétien

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I found this article in the Globe and Mail rather interesting, Canada the teacher as U.K. prepares for budget blitzkrieg, and I thought it was interesting that the accomplishments the British are pointing to are in fact from our period of Liberal governance rather than the present Conservative minority government.

And it made me think about Jean Chrétien’s legacy, and who will ultimately own that legacy. With what appears to be the final demise of Brian Mulroney’s reputation the legacy of Chrétien appears to be the only thing left of value from the past. And the article made me wonder if it was sufficiently up for grabs that the Conservatives could try and claim it.

Not directly of course. But certainly the Liberals, starting with Martin’s disastrous time at the helm, have introduced a fair amount of distance from their former leader. And ultimately know that as much as Chrétien was operating with his own values and political instincts, the drive to the centre and putting strong economic policy (re: right-wing) at the heart of Canadian politics was as much Chrétien’s pragmatism as it was Manning’s Reform party nipping on the heels.

In any case, the time of Chrétien appears to be the last time many were proud of our federal scene and simply attributing it to majority governments and stability doesn’t sufficiently explain it away. I would imagine that if the Liberals don’t take advantage in a meaningful way of their strong economic past then the Conservatives will continue to bully them around in the polls, especially on those questions of “Who do you trust most to manage Canada’s economy?”

Jun 01

Red Dead Redemption: First Impressions

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Red Dead Redemption went under the radar for me in many ways, it was only just before launch a couple of weeks ago that I realized I wanted it. Then I read a couple of reviews and I realized I wanted it a whole lot. I watched endless westerns, listened to country music and practiced my best Eastwood squint to get in the mood. I wasn’t sold by the concept – Grand Theft Auto in the Old West – not that I didn’t play Grand Theft Auto 4, but the GTA series of games, as great as they are, leave a bitter taste in my mouth. The balance of an expansive world, quirky humour, and a fantastic story just doesn’t balance out the distasteful and terrible violence as well I feel terrible – TERRIBLE – every time I run someone over in a car. But I read a few reviews, then a few reviews more, and looked at the screenshots and I just knew I would need this video game. I hadn’t lost myself in a video game world since Mass Effect 2 (three months is a long time for me not to throw myself into a virtual world) and was about time.

I am far from finishing the game, although I suspect I will make considerable headway during my stay-cation next week, but I wanted to give some first impressions, all of them positive.

The setting is perfect. I am in love with the world and putting the game within a violent society does a lot to make up for my general queasiness from the random and brutal acts of violence. I really have only scratched the surface of the game so I may be put in a moral situation eventually that I feel uneasy over, but roaming in a world that more believably has people facing a terrible end constantly seems more believable. I have killed a couple of people I really didn’t mean to – a guy being attacked by coyotes at the beginning fell victim to my terrible, terrible aim. As well, passers-by who solicit me as a gun for hire especially when on horseback may well meet the same end as those I am supposed to kill.

The quality and creativity of the setting itself is also superb – far more imaginative than the generic urban settings of GTA3, GTA:SA and GTA4 and it speaks volumes about why I found Vice City to be superior than those other entries – a generic urban city has nothing on something that is created with love like the Old West world of Red Dead Redemption. Relying on every cliche and tried trick in the huge body of work in the Western genre Rockstar has succeeded in making a world I love playing in.

I would live in Red Dead Redemption if I could. Something that many games, and in particular other sandbox games, miss is creating a world that people would want to live in even if they weren’t the hero or antihero. No matter how dirty or grungy the Star Wars universe is, I would love to live there. I don’t need to be a Jedi – I would be satisfied with moisture farmer, really. Often I will long for being a hobbit, and I’d love to live in any of a dozen fictional universes. Contrast that not just to the Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto, but the bleak world of Tristram in Diablo, the ancient Greece of God of War, any planet within the Metroid series or most places in the Mushroom Kingdom. These are all places that seem like it would suck to be anyone or anything other the main protagonist. Not true of Red Dead Redemption – as long as I could figure out how to wield a weapon sufficiently I would retire there just as happy as Doc Brown seemed like he was going to be.

It’s huge. I have no idea how far I am in the game, but I’m having a blast and I know I’ve only seen a fraction of the world. I rode through an amazing thunderstorm last night, watched the waterfalls at sunrise, and love breaking new stallions. I can’t wait to see what else the game has in store for me.

Why did it have to be snakes? There is a downside, and I knew it going in. There are snakes. I’ve been bitten twice and yelped in real life both times. I’m quite frightened of heading too far into the bush as a result, but I’m still playing so that’s a good sign. For those readers who didn’t know, I have quite the snake phobia but I’m willing to work around it for this game and Indiana Jones movies.

May 26

I want openness too, but…

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It would seem that the week away from the House of Commons, and that same week watching the mainstream media endlessly berate MPs for choosing to forbid a performance audit on their expenditures by Auditor General Shelia Murphy has led the political parties to find a compromise / cave-in completely in order to avoid the wrath of their constituents. This is coming hot on the heels of a similar audit on British MPs which revealed all sorts of expenditures that on their face seem illegitimate – cleaning moats? Really? – and another one on Nova Scotia’s MLAs which showed thousands of dollars being spent in ways that aren’t what we had in mind when we send our government taxes. I hope that the solution that is found pleases most parties and meets our expectations as well as the expectations set by MPs and the auditor general. I think though there is a moment of pause that is needed before we go too far… we need to be careful what we wish for.

Let’s perform a mental exercize. Let’s consider a world where the legislative body and the cabinet all have to report every dime they spend in excruciating detail, and that the spending must be done in in line with very strict and specific guidelines, guidelines that demand specific benefits be identified as a result of the spending.

At first in this fictional world there were a few scandals about politicians buying all manner of things, whether it was chewing gum disguised as entitlements, moat cleaning or reimbursed electricity bills that were never paid in the first place. The system corrected for these measures and soon the scandals moved to other, more petty things. The extra shot of espresso in a coffee. Lunches for parliamentary committees. The upgrade of RAM in a member’s computer. Then the scandals stopped altogether, ostensibly because members spent their money appropriately. Or, here’s the thing, they stopped spending it altogether. That doesn’t mean MPs stopped having extra shots of espresso. Just you stopped paying for it.

We should accept the idea that when you get a volunteer a free slurpee they are more likely to come out next week or when we buy a group lunch when we hear their great idea they are more likely to give the idea more freely. In that case those who have that ability must be more powerful than those who don’t. In addition, those who have sufficient resources to ignore the system of public compensation and reimbursement would do just that, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger does in California. The Governator already is sufficiently wealthy to go without a salary has governor so just doesn’t take a salary. Make no mistake, I have no desire to pay for an MP or MLA’s moat cleaning, but I do not want to create a system of governance where only the rich can afford to take office.

A good and more local example was the recent release of MLA’s mileage here in Alberta. Ranging from Battle River-Wainwright MLA Doug Griffiths who claimed 80,360 km to several MLAs including Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pearl Calahasen who claimed none. Now I don’t believe for a moment Ms. Calahasen didn’t drive a single kilometre in the course of her duties – Lesser Slave Lake is a GIANT constituency. She has chosen to not claim any kilometres. And she isn’t alone – 10 of our 83 MLAs didn’t claim a single kilometre of mileage, and many more chose to claim obviously small amounts that are far less than the kilometres traveled in the pursuit of their jobs. I strongly suspect many of these MLAs decided that it either wasn’t worth the bother – although you can bet for $0.46 a kilometre (or whatever it is) I’d happily fill out a form for $40,000 – but I would imagine the motivation was more related to the public nature of the disclosure. The bother doesn’t come from the form, but rather the scrutiny from the public and their political opponents. And obviously in the case of the 10 MLAs who didn’t submit a claim, they could afford to go without this reimbursement.

Our parliamentarians are paid quite well, as most articles over the past week have pointed out. Our MPs earn far above the national average, far above even higher middle class salaries, well above $100,000. I often find I am the lone defender of paying our politicians a fair, even generous wage for a very similar reason as above – in a world where politicians would be volunteers, then only people as rich as Schwarzenegger could run for office. I don’t like limiting our options at the ballot box to only the wealthy.

I’m not suggesting our politicians be given blank cheques to spend whatever they feel necessary to accomplish their jobs – nor am I suggesting that they be allowed to hide their expenses from the interested eyes of the public. I don’t have the perfect solution, but I am confident in saying this – the public has the right to know how their money is spent, but excessive scrutiny comes with its own problems.

I may have some hesitations on putting up the expenses of parliamentarians for us all to see – but so far no walls have crumbled in jurisdictions that post ministerial expenses. Extending such a move to all MPs would also go a long way to re-establishing trust with our electorate. It might be fair to establish a decent threshold of materiality – even the Auditor General said she wasn’t interested in $4 coffees – but looking like you have something to hide is no place a politician wants to sit. And I doubt there would be much there for us to get too excited over, as KPMG already audits parliamentary expenses so we at least can stand behind the accuracy of the numbers. However that isn’t what Ms. Murphy was interested in testing. A performance audit looks at similar things such as adherence to policies and what not but ultimately it looks at whether Parliament is meeting its goals for the coin spent.

I would suggest that we skip the middle person of the Auditor General and pass judgment ourselves. Naturally we need good, solid, accurate information to make our political judgment with, and audited financial statements are an important part of that. But whether or not Parliament has been spending my money appropriately, meeting their goals? I can make that judgment myself and will do so at the ballot box.

May 26

Summer bucket list

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I read with awe my friend Alex Abboud and his friend Andy Grabia’s blogs as they embarked on creating their personal summer bucket lists, the ultimate to do list for the summer. I was especially struck with a couple of their suggestions that I too wanted to codify a list for my summer. Those without a neurotic geek in their lives (and I do really pity you and what you are missing) won’t understand this, but we geeks love categorizing and list-making. And I love summer. So it made sense for me to make a list – not for you, but really for me. I want to do these things and the list will provide a good focus.

Before I delve to deep, first I need to steal. From Andy’s list comes my first five. Andy’s list is filled with the simplest of joys, but simple doesn’t mean bad. Not at all. I’m jealous because if you had asked me before prompting me with suggestions, I may have produced similar pap to any other materialistic or shallow person in our society. But that isn’t what summer should be about.

1. Watch the sun rise
2. Watch an evening thunderstorm
3. Howl at the moon
4. Dip my bare feet in a river, stream or lake
5. Watch the northern lights

I love every last one of these, and importantly I have every intention of sharing each of these with my beautiful wife.

Likely what inspired me to do this more than anything else was Alex’s suggestion for “Drinks, popcorn and politics at Martini’s” – because I do that too! I do it with Alex and many others! And it is awesome! And if that can be on Alex’s list it should be a part of mine. But that is far from Alex’s only great suggestion, so I’m going to be adding to my thievery.

6. Drinks, popcorn and politics at Martini’s
7. Publish two blog posts per week
8. Live simply
9. Visit Transcend Coffee in its new Garneau location
10. Read two books per month

Having stolen my first 10 bucket list items, I need to make my own contribution, as modest as it might be.

11. Go to the dog park once a week
12. Go on 50 evening walks with Allie
13. See the buffalo on Elk Island
14. Have a fantastic crafted beer at the Jasper Brewing Co.
15. Have a fantastic crafted beer at the Grizzly Paw in Canmore
16. Celebrate Raven finishing grade nine
17. Celebrate Wesley finishing his first course for the Canadian Forces
18. Visit the patios of the Sugarbowl, the Black Dog and Ceili’s
19. Worship the sun at the Legislature grounds
20. Plan and cook a masterpiece BBQ meal for my family
21. Spend far more time outside
22. Wear shorts 80% of the time
23. See some live music
24. Finish Red Dead Redemption
25. Finish Metroid: The Other M
26. Paint all of my already owned Warhammer 40,000 models
27. Find and renew my library card and stop borrowing Allie’s
28. Travel
29. Listen to music and drink a couple of libations in my yard
30. Have a great Saturday on Whyte Avenue
31. Play catch or frisbee in a park
32. Swim in a lake
33. Play with my cat in the sun
34. Have ice cream
35. Be more spontaneous – the opposite of list writing
36. Grab a hot dog from the hot dog vendor
37. See some live sports
38. Have an epic board game
39. Have an epic Warhammer 40,000 game
40. Make certain my family knows I love them and how much they mean to me

So, what do you want to do this summer?

Apr 29

Hard to get into hockey

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I’m having an extraordinary difficult time getting into the playoffs this year. Even with two Canadian teams making it into the second round I’ve only seen a couple of games.

Hopefully the next round will spur my enthusiasm…

Mar 30

I had a great day full of planes, medals and a movie

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I had a fantastic day, and I had no idea any of it was going to happen when I woke up. I got up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. I went to work and Allie and I agreed to stop for coffee at work. My coffee order didn’t go… well, but no bother, it was still good coffee and Allie drove me to work. I did a few things at the office, and then headed out to do some errands, having no idea I was bound to blessed.

I got downtown, couldn’t find the new Moleskine notebook I saw earlier, couldn’t find pens. Then I remembered the Olympic ceremony at Churchill was at lunch, and I was right there!

I got to Churchill Square to find it buzzing – hundreds had assembled to see our city’s Olympians. The athletes were bagpiped in and I had the pleasure to hear the following conversation between a father and his two year old son.

Dad: [Pointing to the parade of athletes coming in] Do you see mommy? There she is!

Son: There’s mommy! I love mommy!

Later, when our anthem was being sung by the whole crowd the son belted it out every word with amazing gusto. Following that we swarmed the Olympians as they came off stage, and I got to see Shannon Szabados’ gold medal up close. Very shiny.

While I was watching the ceremony, I was also looking at the #yeg hashtag search on Twitter, and saw a curious tweet:

@idarknight: RT @naidoo Largest aircraft in the world landing in #yeg and nobody knows what it’s carrying! http://bit.ly/bZoGkG

I clicked on the link to discover that the Antonov An-225 was en route to Edmonton, landing in 3 hours. I was entranced. Allie, whose work is relatively close to the International Airport, had bizarrely brought her camera to work for no particular reason. I let her know, she worked some stuff at work, I let my boss know I was heading off to see a plane and I started on an adventure to get to Allie’s work and then drive to see a plane whose wingspan is 290 feet and can carry almost a million pounds.

En route to her work my friend Blake tweeted me asking where I was going to watch it, I gave coordinates and we met up with each other along with Jill in the parking lot of the Leduc Chamber of Commerce. Jill wanted both video and photos, so she passed me her small camera to take the video while she took several still shots.

The plane was huge – impossibly huge. We first saw it on the horizon, and it looked small. And slow. Then we did the math – it was going a fair rate of speed but was so big that it looked slow. It wouldn’t for long. It circled around and then came at us – I still can’t get over how big that plane was in the sky. A WestJet passenger plane flew over right before and it was big, but nothing like this.

I felt so lucky to see it in person.

The plane is picking up helicopters and cargo bound for our women and men in Afghanistan.

We got home, nice enough for steaks on our BBQ, and sat down to watch a movie I was told to watch many years ago, but didn’t get around to – The Big Lebowski. I can’t imagine why I avoided it, or failed to see it – I thought it was fantastic. Quirky and loveable.

I’ve had such a great day.

Mar 20

Off to YEG Swap

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I seriously have no idea what to bring, but I’m excited about YEG swap. A old-fashioned swap meet in the digital age, you can read about tonight’s event on Facebook.

You would think such an event would motivate me to do something like housework in order to find something but alas I am far too lazy the past 36 hours. We’ll see if I find something other than a spare men’s bike in our basement before 7:00, but there remains a strong chance I’ll be playing video games instead until it is time to go… maybe my ancient CD player… but that seems like a lot of work to bring up. Hmm… will visit the basement before heading out. Hope to see you there

UPDATE: Forces beyond my control have conspired against us – I will be MIA from YEG Swap…