In my/the news

First of all, India was amazing. Like, totally amazing. My travel partner, Hil, and I got along incredibly well; we were born to travel together. Hil also planned a most excellent route for us that allowed me to see some really interesting pockets of various cultures/religions within India. The country's diversity means that for someone like myself, it is incomprehensible. There is so much going on in that country, and so much that you just can't understand as a visitor for 3 weeks. This just means I'll have to go back one day.

The World Cup is an even bigger deal now than it was when no one was actually playing. I'm hardly following it at all, but am more open to getting into football (see? look at me calling it football) than I ever have been. Go...Ghana!

Kevin Rudd, Australia's previous PM stepped down today. I don't follow Australian politics and had no idea he was losing his popularity. This has opened the door for Australia's first ever female PM - Julia Gillard. Pretty awesome. What would be even more awesome is if Stephen Harper would step down. But this got me wondering who Canada's Deputy PM is. Turns out we haven't had one since 2006. If Harper is unable to fulfill his Prime Ministerial duties, then he has stated that Lawrence Cannon can act on his behalf, and then Jim Prentice.

It's quite hot in Ottawa these days. Not as hot as Delhi (I am not struck with instant heat rash upon stepping outside), but still hot. Oh, also, apparently there was a magnitude 5 earthquake today that was felt across much of Ontario, Quebec and some Northern States. With the epicentre being about 60 km north of Ottawa, one would think that I would have felt something. It seems I'm among the few who felt nothing. It's confused me. Am I earthquake resistant? Should I be exploring other potential super powers? Probably.

I'm going to India!

True, the quality is pretty bad. So I'm not a Photoshop expert (also, I stole this from somewhere else). I'll spell it out for you:

Steve Jobs: Remember when we were poor?

Bill Gates: No.

Steve Jobs: Me neither.

Laughter ensues.


(Unrelated?): I'm going to India!

I do it for the lulz

Sometimes I do stupid things on the internet. No, not those kinds of stupid things. That's gross. I'll give you a for instance. For instance, sometimes I go onto Omegle and talk to strangers. For the most part, these strangers are stupid and are asking for things that I am unwilling to give them. That's gross. Sometimes I talk to people who are interesting. Like this 17 year old girl in Pennsylvania who is just starting to question the faith in which she was raised. That's interesting.

If you type "I did it for the lulz" into Google, some ridiculous things come up. Some people can't understand how someone like myself could spend hours on the internet. I don't like to go into details, because it's usually really stupid.

Sometimes they're funny

Facebook Blows

To find out who my real friends are, I don't publish my birthday on Facebook. Turns out I don't have any real friends. (The graph below is not representative of my page).

What now, Harper?

Blogging is hard. Or, taking the time to blog is hard. And yeah, I have ideas about posts, but I feel like many of them deserve some careful crafting, some element of wit and humour. Things that I can't just pull out of my...fingers...in five minutes or less, unless I'm really on the ball. And honestly, how often does that happen?

For written items that don't require lengthy consideration, I turn to the news. I like the news, a lot. I like voting on news items, and I like reading people's comments. I rarely comment myself, but I certainly have thoughts and opinions on many of the articles I read. And if I use this blog to publish fully-legitimate to semi-legitimate to fully-illegitimate thoughts on news items, I will become incredibly popular, and will be able to turn to blogging full time as my livelihood.

News item #1: Gordon Brown (Labour) resigns as British PM, David Cameron (Conservatives) takes over. The best part about this is that Cameron will form a "proper and full coalition" with the third place party, Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats. But wait! Didn't the Liberals, the Bloc and NDP threaten to form a coalition back in the Winter of 2008? Didn't Harper call such an unlikely alliance a deal between separatists and socialists?

If it's one thing Canada's Conservatives do well, it's communicate. Mostly their messages are hate filled and nasty, but are they ever effective. And that, I would argue, is what the bulk of politics is about. Their communications team seems to be immediately all over any problem and always seems to manage to spin it away from Dear Leader. Turning the coalition into a nasty separatist/socialist hybrid beast didn't help it's chances of surviving. It also didn't help of course, that Harper had won the most votes and so really had won the right to govern. With Cameron on top, but not on top enough to form the government alone, he's trying to forge an unlikely alliance. It's nice to see a right of centre leader who is able to contain his propaganda in favour of a potentially effective coalition. Maybe coalitions aren't the devil after all? Time will tell...

News item #2: The Habs play Pittsburgh tomorrow in game 7 of a tight series. Despite my Canadian-ness, I am cheering for the Pens all the way. I will be momentarily upset if they lose tomorrow. Sidney Crosby is amazing. So is Malkin.

News item #3: Helena Guergis is back in the news, and I stopped reading about her/her whining and the Conservatives total dismissal of one of their own. (Again with the communications). What I want to say about this is that the website where I read most of my Canadian news frequently publishes pictures of her that are quite unfavorable. I think it's too bad.

News item #4: Apparently the World Cup is a big deal. Who knew?

Happy Star Wars Day! (apparently)