Vancouver - The Tour

I arrived at Vancouver airport at about 5pm on the 27th and have been staying with Alvin and his family since. So far we have covered pretty much the whole city fairly comprehensively, on teh 28th we took the seabus over to North vancouver and had brunch, followed up by a look around downtown, including the library and Gas Town and a quick peek at Vancouver Tower, which I will go up later some time around sunset to get some good pics of the city.

From Gas Town we headed to SFU - Simon Fraser University which is situated on a massive hill to the North East of downtown and we spent most of the time there hunting for the best photo opportunity! We caught the bus back into town then the skytrain (Canadaian public transport seems to be names in a similar manner to theire towns - Seabus, Skytrain, Bline Bus, its all very very pragmatic, very similar to the town called, Smashed-in-head-buffalo-jump, or Moosejaw, or Swiftcurrent...) Anyway, we visited a big mall called suprisingly, Metrotown! Hehe, I'm sorry toa ll the Canadians for making fun of their awesome place names, but I only just realised exactly how obvious it is!



Today we did a bit of a loop around downtown, visiting UBC first because it has some wonderful views of the city and out towards Vancouver Island, then into Chinatown for lunch (They sell dried lizards! Apparently Chinatown in Vancouver is older then Vancouver!) and Stanley Park on a roundabout way home. Stanley park is beautiful, everything is very green, their is moss everywhere and ferns and dampness and cold unfortunately. Stanley park would be a great place to be able to jog, ride, kayak around anytime of the year.

Got some pics of some Racoons which where pretty tame, then finaly got my phone unlocked! (Screw you Rogers! I'm free!), before we headed for home via an asian bakery so I could shout dessert... Japanese Cheescake - which i'm about to go eat, so toodleloo!

Mum - the gladiator Librarian?

Have been doing some touring of vancouver city with Alvin recently (He has dragged me all around the city, at my request!) and one of the fascinating places we came across was the Vancouver city library! Its built as a replica of the colloseum! Too bad Barooga Library is probably already finnished, mum you could have been the Sparticus of the Berrigan Shire, braking free of the shackles of small town government beuracracy!

Alvin & Myself in North Vancouver - everything is wet and green here!

Crazy Travel Hours

I'm at Alvins now after spending a crazy 32hrs traveling.

Left Calgary at 12:00 noon on the 26th, arrived Regina 1:00am. Couldn't get a taxi to the university so got a lift with some random people! Got my gear from Storage and packed it all down into my new Backpack (Present to self!). Booked a cab for 3:30am and was done packing by 3:00am - Was woried the taxi wasn't going to show, so asked a friend (John) who has just getting into party mode if he could give me a lift to the airport, but the taxi came just as we where leaving so thought it best I went in the taxi.

Flight left Regina for minniapolis at 7am, so got a little bit of sleep at the airport, plus a little on the bus to Regina (2 seats to myself luckily!), arrived in Minniapolis and jumped straight on the plane for Seattle, arrived at Seattle at 1:30pm saskatchewan time, but had to put clock back two hours! anyways, waited around Seattle until 3:30pm vancouver time then flew here and Alvin picked me up! Haven't slept properly for about 36+ hours and considering I went to bed at 6am on boxing day morning and 5am on christmas day morning it has been a long long time without adequate sleep!

I guess it was this lack of sleep that added to my appearance as somethign less then socially acceptable, because I was harrassed by a security gurard at the bus station when she observed me packing some small bottles of alcohol into my bag, stating that if I drank on the bus I would be kicked off - Ia ssurred her they where going under the bus. Anyway, come time to show my ticket and board, the bus driver says "I understand you have been drinking?" Waht am i supposed to say - its christmas, I've been drinking for the last two days! So of course I say "Nope - just packed away some christmas presents." So he informs security and trhey leave me alone.

On arrival back into Canada from Seattle, I ge the third degree from the customs officer. "Where have you come from today?" With dread I go into explaining how I have come from Canada, only to re-enter Canada. Yes I know my student visa is expired I explained - I'm here as a tourist now. So that lead to delays and a trip to the immigration office, where they couldn't understand what the fuss was about. Also - the US customs officer told me I didn't need a US visa at all - I don't think any of these people know what they are doing!

Top it off - One of my bags has had oil of some description spilled on it, so I have to fill out forms etc etc in regards to that! Consider I have only covered a distance of a 3 hour flight in 32Hrs of travel... I'm suprised I was in sucha good mood!

Fiji's next - gurantee more things will go wrong! Anybody know if you need a visa for Fiji? Whoops! Update on the awesoem christmas coming as soon as I have some photos to explain...

Policing Policy:

Thanks to Susy for uncovering this article which is very interesting in light of recent events. I like the approach of this detective and I think any claims that he is a racist would be a case of the pot calling the kettly black. I have infamously claimed that everybody is a racist TO A DEGREE, and I stick by that, b I certainly think this chap has some good points.

Read the article here.

News! Apologies for Late update!

Well, a lot has happened since my last post, and I promise i will get around to adressing the comments which make this blog so much more interesting! In fact - I plan to make a whole blog post in relation to the discussion contributed by the members of The Agora.

However, personal news:

• Flashback: Some time in October? I collided heads with Reid playing Dodge Pong. I tried to equalise my ears by pinching my nose and blowing, suspicously air came out my ear!
• Exams Finnished 15th December 12 Noon.
• Bus to Banff via Calgary on 15th December 7:45 pm.
• Arrive Banff 16th December 9:oo am-ish.
• Greyhound has a wierd bus policy - no guarantee you will get a seat unless you pay extra $. If you don't get a seat, you have to wait for the next bus! We got a seat.
• 16/12: Checked out Banff Caves and Sulphur Cavern, Banff Town.
• 17/12: Snowboarding @ Norque, Magda impressed herself by remembering how to Ski! Awesome cook-your-own dinner at Japanese restaurant. Visited Banff Hotsprings that night - only to get water in my ear. Spent the night in agony.
• 18/12: Woke up (7am) to find blood on Pillow. Informed no GP's in town, so had to checkinto emergency at Banff Hospital. Result, Punctured Ear drum and infected Middle Ear. $700.
• Still managed to Go up the Banff Gondola that day for an awesome view of Bow Valley, and went Ice Skating on the Bow River, caught the bus back to Calgary, got a bum steer from a taxi driver and walk around downtown Calgary for an Hour before we found our old fashioned Hotel. Sleep: 11pm.
• 19/12: Sightseeing in Calgary, Calgary Olympic park and Calgary Tower at Night (Awesome).
• 20/12: More sightseeing & Shopping, arrange accomodation and see Magda off at airport 9pm.
• 21/12: Organise! I have no money left, so no more sightseeing!

Sorry for the boring, Diary style update! i still dunno what my results are and may not find out until January - More philospohy as soon as I knowwhat I'm doing! Alvin has kindly offered me a place to stay fora while in Vancouver so I need to save some money for the snowboarding we have planned there, which will be awesome!
Hope everybody is having a awesome time and looking forward to Christmas.
Damian.

The Agora

I came across this Blog a while back and a very interesting comment by a very interesting Dr Leong, maybe Nick or some of his friends can tell us if they have heard about The Agoroa because it is apparently Singapore based... This is my reply to teh Comment by Dr Leong, which youc an read here

I'm very impressed by Dr Leong's very excelent argument for the existence of God, but as in my philosophical readings, I find the same problem with his argument as I find with many others, God appears to be a leap of faith.

Whilst I find the philosophical cosmological argument most convincing, there is certainly nothing in any of the arguments (Paley, Anselm, Acquinas, Descarte, Pascal etc) or the good Doctors own discussion above give any credence to a Christian God or any particular type of God for that matter.

Sorry to make this a matter for the existence of God, I was actually more interested in the use of post-modernity and modernity in your religous discussions and wondered if the Dr Leong has considered Nietzsche's Genealogy of morals in its full extent? I'm sure you probably have, but at no stage do discuss the ramifications of arguably the father of post-modernism's clear disgust with the christian morality and its hypocrisy.

I guess the reasons for this are similar to Hume's disregard for the fact that he considers that we essentialy do not exist! As the Doctor said: "postmodernism is practically unlivable"... why not bring God into the argument - because all God represents then is an excuse, God becomes by definition really 'that which we cannot explain.'

This to me is an equally unlivable and untenable philospohy to live life by, so please excuse me while I go join Hume and play cards and enjoy my life in what you may label a very unchristian, unreligous, and selfish 'post-modern' way.

Whislt you suggest that I cannot live life how I wish and may discuss Foucault and consider whether the way i wish to live is really the way I wish to live or if it is just societies way of wanting me to live, the argument applies equally well to religion; are you living your life how your religion wishes you to live it, or jsut how society wishes you to think your religion wants you to live... Confusing hey. Foucault has to be at least slightly mad, but he has a point, and he would defintely argue that mad is not necessarily a bad or unintelligible thing.

Thanks for reading! No offense intended.

Chicago!

CHICAGO

This is a bit of a late post, but on Wed Nov 16th I think it was, I went to see the musical Chicago with Magda! I was impressed. we didn't have great seats, but you could see all of what was going on and make out some facial expressions! But the story was good, the Jazz music was good and it was actually pretty funny! Sorry about the pics, they are scanned from the program, so they are not great quality.

"A STORY OF MURDER, GREED, CORRUPTION, VIOLENCE, EXPLOITATION, ADULTERY AND TREACHERY - ALL THOSE THINGS WE HOLD DEAR TO OUR HEARST"

Freedom Continued

There is no doubt that this is a controversial topic, and as it has generated some interest, including my own, we shall continue it...

Firstly - thanks to Anonymous for commenting, and in my defence:

According to the rules of logic... you are arguing for the existence of one form of freedom based on the assumption freedom exists, and that is what we would say commits the fallacy of circularity, or begs the question (as do dictionaries freedom fighter).

You say we will never have an unadulterated choice, and therefore my theory of freedom cannot be correct (On the assumption that freedom exists). However the logical alternative, according to your proposition and my argument is that freedom doesn't exist, not that freedom exists in another form.

Let me elaborate a little on your choice, your choice of 'freedom to', or Isaiah Berlins Positive Freedom... This form of freedom is precisely the form of freedom exercised by Gilead in Margaret Atwoods 'A Handmaids Tale', although in a twisted sense...

'Freedom to' and 'freedom from' must be separated in some way - and this way is by coercion. Berlin states that above all Positive Freedom includes the wish to be “conscious of myself as a thinking, willing active being”. We must become aware of a “dominant self” which then becomes via reason a “higher nature” or ideal self. Berlin would have us believe that this ideal self is applicable to society as a whole to achieve a “higher freedom” for all, but acknowledges that to believe this you must believe it is justifiable “to coerce men in the name of some goal which they would, if they were more enlightened, themselves pursue".

I'm not sure if this is Berlins personal belief, as the essay 'Two forms of Liberty' is written in very objective terms, however he does go onto support the Positive View through the application of the Modernists most powerful tool - Reason. Via reason we are supposed to be able to conclude that it is reasonable to coerce the idiot, as he does not know what freedom is. It is of course this element of coercion that separates positive and negative freedom altogether.

Now - Freedom Fighters has defined freedom presumably from a dictionary of sorts, which themselves are circular, however, he/she has a valid point. The Negative form of freedom is not essentially totally possible. If every man where free to do as he willed, he may will to restrict another man from doing something, and hence freedom would not exist in totality… but Berlin would argue that Negative Freedom does not require the imposition of ones will on another, and is as valid a form of freedom as Positive Freedom, since they both have their flaws…

So essentially, Freedom becomes yet another thing, like truth, like God, that we really cannot define accurately or without problems, and it is left to individuals to wonder then, if we cannot define freedom, does it really exist? As such, we are inexorably drawn back to the debate of existence – what is it, what does it mean, how could we possibly prove it to be true when we cannot even decide if truth exists? Talk about circularity.

News update

Short news update (The other stuff is way more interesting!)

• My digital camera refuses to switch on. The switch moves, the batteries are charged, nobody is home. Damn. Could be a while before more photo's are posted!
• Joe and Mellissa, an Uncle and Aunt of mine in Sydney are due to have another kid in April. More Fuller's running around! I like the way they signed the email:

"Joe, Melissa, Isabelle, Brianna and x "

• I had my Wisdom Teeth out on monday, They where giving me heck and it should be covered under the wonderful UTS comprehensive Insurance, which is good! Pulled one straight out and had to cut the other one up etc. Got a good look, they where about an Inch big.
• As per usual, got an essay due tommorow, and a logic assignment. Had an Accounting exam on Tuesday. Got lots of study done on Monday (Not. Between spitting and swallowing blood I didn't do much). Had a Philosophy exam on Friday.
• Magda is pretty sick at the moment - some form of flu.
• Have bookings for Banff and Calgary over Christmas. Still no Accomodation in vancouver or Fiji. Haha. Oh well!
• Ange and Alex are in South America!!

Thats all folks! I think!?

Freedom

Hello All, been a while since I last psted, and things in the uni-work situation haven't changed much! I have an essay due tommorow, which should be interesting as I'm arguing about freedom in a Nietzschian / Gide / Margaret Atwood perspectives and whether Post Modernism or Modernism presents the best form of 'freedom'.

To do this of course, I need to know what freedom is - we all think we know waht freedom is, but it is really quite a complex term to not only define but even reconcile to the real world. People have fought and died for freedom, but essentially it exists still as an independent concept - that is everybody has their own idea of what their personal freedom is, and philosophy certainly doesn't seem to help reconcile that freedom.

Anyway - I regard freedom as the ability to choose between totaly equaly propositions or beliefs. By totaly equal, I mean probability and incentive wise.

In regards to this, if somebody was to coerce you into a decision, either by positive or negative means (reward or punishment), that decision would not be made freely, because the choice the external party wants you to make has a higher probability of appealing to you, as it results in a reward or removal of punishment.

As most everybody knows, advertising, marketing, society and environmental factors impact onteh decisions we make. Under my definition of freedom, I do not believe decisions influenced by these factors are free - the probability of your choices has been altered by some external factor.

These views of mine ar ein direct contrast to Mike's, who believes (as best I understand) freedom is the ability to make a choice, regardless of the factors influencing your choice. Providing you have a choice, even if that choice is heavily influenced by an external party - it still represents the freedom.

Freedom to choose or freedom of choice?

Sir Isaiah Berlin ( famous for...) Also came up with two seperate hypothesis of freedom. Positive and Neggative Freedom. Positive Freedom is akin to 'freedom to' and Neggative Freedom is akin to 'Freedom from.'

'Freedom to' includes concepts about rights to develop your potential, freedom to be whoever or whatever you please. Everybody should be equal and we should all have the same list of options as such, and the government should esnure that via our right to education and medication etc.

'Freedom from' is the concept that we should be free from external restraint or impediment, we should be free from fear, freedom of speech, free from excessive government control, taxes etc.

What form of freedom do you believe in?

Nature of the Mind-Body relationship

All I can say about this folks, is that I'm again mixing study and pleasure. However, be careful how you view these ideas - you may realize too late that your previous ideals are contradictory. I can't offer a full range of the alternatives here right now - but I'll be writting an essay on this on Friday, and hope to have most of teh alternatives covered by then!



Ok - you got Two major theories to choose from in teh begining - then you can notpick over finer details. Choice is; Dualism or Monism.
Dualism:

• The nature of conscious intelligence is non-physical. The mental and pysical are two distinct things/spheres of events. (Brain and Mind)
• Mental illness may not be just a physical problem and Psychology may be useful in treating preventing these types of problems.
• Two broad categories (Containing sub categories) Property Dualism and Substance Dualism.

Monism:

• Mental and physical things are not two things to be related or explained – there is only one thing,/sphere of events (Brain)
• If you think that the mind is purely physical, mental illness must be a physical problem with the brain and Psychology can be considered useless, as messing with the mind cannot have any effect on the body(brain).
• Two Broad Categories (Including sub categories) Idealism and Materialism.

An argument for Dualism (Which is kinda controversial to how I like to think of thigns, because I'm not convinced these things exist, but if they did - it would be the ebst way to explain them.)

Argument from Parapsychological Phenomena

1. Telepathy, precognition, telekinesis, clairvoyance are facts which cannot be explained by normal scientific theories
2. All of these theories are easily explained by dualism.
3. Therefore, dualism is true

For those advocates of Ockhams Razor - is this simple enough for you? However - I don't like it because it is of a similar structure to the; we can't explain it, therefore God created it type of arguments.

Today, we are going to have a lesson on Property Dualism!

1. Mind and body are NOT 2 different things
2. The brain is a thing of substance.
3. The brain has non-physical properties. (represent Mind)

Property Dualism Argument (Searle Minds, Brains, Ch 1.)

1. Mental phenomena are caused by brain processes.
2. Mental phenomena are just features of the brain.
3. Just as the solidity of a table is caused by an arrangement of atomic particles, and is a feature of the table (not of the particles), so too is the mind both caused by, and a feature of, the brain.
4. Hence mental states have two levels of description: a higher level in mental terms, and a lower level in physiological terms.

Why do I like Property Dualism? because I don't like substance Dualism (Mind and Brain are 2 seperate things). Why don't I like Substance Dualism? Because of two reasons:

1. The Problem of Interaction; the Mind and Body clearly interact. If mind and body are radically distinct things, how do they interact? Obvious solution: Mind and body interact like a pilot and a ship - this is the Property Dualism view.
2. It lends itself too much towards religion. Due to this one of the major arguments for substane Dualism and the problem of interaction is that God is the connection between mind and body and he controls our bodies via our minds in a type of parrallel universe. If this was the case God is responsible for all our physical actions, and we have no free will etc. I just don't like that idea, besides, its foundation is that God exists and that has hardly been established without controversy.

However, Property Dualism is far from being my ideal idea of my mind. It still raises issues of freewill, and does not as easily explain teh quirks of the mind and consciousness. It addresses the issues materialism (Only the brain exists) and neuroscience raise better then Substance dualism, but still not satisfactorily.

More on this later. I'm going to bed. Goodnight. When you dream tonight, wonder where your dreams are coming from. Wonder where they'll take you. Wonder if you've been there before. Wonder if your wondering is just in your dreams, orif your dreams are actually you wondering inyour sleep? Do you wonder if I'mjust saying this tomake this blog seem mysticaly and intelligent?

St Anselms Argument for Existence of God

This is revision people! This is one of tme msot famous A priori arguments for the existence of God - please comment.

St Anselm’s Ontological Argument: (A priori,)

1. God is something which nothing greater can be conceived (Read possible)
2. Even the fool understands that if God exists, he would be something which nothing greater can be conceived.
3. It is one thing for something to exist in our understanding, and another thing for us to understand that it exists in reality. (Eg. A painters idea of his painting exists in his understanding, but it is not until it is painted that he understands that it exists in reality.)
4. Something that exists in reality is greater then that which exists in our mind/understanding.
5. ‘That which nothing greater can be conceived’ cannot exist only in the fools understanding, because if it can be conceived of only in our understanding, it cannot be conceived to exist in reality, which is greater.
6. Therefore ‘that which nothing greater can be conceived’, God, undoubtedly exists in relation to our understanding and in reality.

Major Criticisms:

Gaunilo: Substitute 'the greatest island' for 'God' and you can deduce a false conclusion.

Anselms response: The argument only works for 'God' as god is the only thing we can really understand in our hearts (Conceive) as being 'that which nothing greater can be conceived'

Kants:

1. Anselm treats existence as a property and tehn proceeds to conclude that God has this property.
2. To say God exists does not atttribute a property of existence to God
3. To say that God exists is only to say that the concept of God has an instantation in the actual world; that there exists at least one thing which matches our concept of God.

Damians comment: This is an interesting argument, but I think Kant is correct, and Gaunilo points out how absurd it is - in that it only works for the definition of God, and is hence logically invalid, but still seems to logically valid. However, a key factor in all of tehse types of arguments is that God is defined as 'that which nothing greater can be conceived' and in reality, this could be anything. God could be the universe (If it is infinite) God could be so great we cannot actually conceive of him - the argument doesn't actually say what god is, rather what God is not, and it certainly provides no support to St Anselms Christian God.

Ice Hockey!

PB150119
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Alvin managed to pickup some free tickets to a Regina V's Vancouver Ice Hockey game, so despite my looming deadlines, I decided to head off in teh -25 weather to see the game!

Regina Lost by 1 goal and if they had of played the whole game like they played the last ten minutes, they would have won. Not that I minded, but they seemed to spend too much time going for the man rather then the puck.

Hah - I can't skate and I'm still a critic!

Edmonton Pics & More....

Here is a small selection of pics from the trip to Edmonton - the little blonde kid is Carter - Darcy's Son and Brittanys cousin. He's a cheeky bugger but funny enough - he got a hold of my camera and he went around most of the night taking photo's of Brittanys bum!

Carter posing for the Camera - Wish i had a shot of him wearing my black hat!

Magda and her meatballs at IKEA.

Sunset on the way to Edmonton.

Whithams or Whitams? Where are you?

Gosh! I have a dead link on my site!? Its Whithams Coffee, and I can't find its home anywhere?

Heath? Where has Whitams gone? Or is it Whithams? it doens't amtter it still doesn't exist. Did Lance Insult Google one day - because you guys just don't show up anymore! Anyway, it was itneresting because this was what I found when i searched for Whithams Coffee:

Striaght from the Vogue Discussion board:

emmysydney (19yr old model wannabe)

bathers is nice, but expensive.
for northern beaches - there are a couple of lovely ones in dee why.
but, i had the best cooked breakfast i've ever eaten the other day, it's in waverton but worth the train ride - whithams coffee.
three or four eggs scrambled (and divine) a pile of bacon (seriously, lots) two very thick pieces of yummy white toast with loads of butter and two tomatoes! top with one of the best coffees in sydney (no joke!) and there you go - all for $10.50 including latte.
not bad hey
gee, they should employ me for marketing or something...

Heath must have been working that day :P.

Mothers Finest

Just like to give you a sneek peak of how cool our frisbee team is by showing you our team logo that should be, as of this moment, getting ironed onto our very sexy white wife basher/trucky singlets and will eventually be complete with nicknames as well!

Edmonton (Alberta!)

Well, I finally got out of Saskatchewan! (Although i'm still not sure how to spell it!)

It was a great trip, taking advantage of the remembrance day long weekend and skipping a few classes on thursday, we arrived late thursday night and didn't do much at all. Friday we cruised around Leduc where we were staying at Brittanys Uncle Darcy's. Highlight of the day was when Magda spotted IKEA and nearly jumped through the roof of the car - made everybodies day by how excited she was!

IKEA is not like at home - not like I remember anyway!? They are more like a massive department store where they cover everythign from linen and towels to knifes, forks, bedroom suites, anythign to with the house or home or Swedish food! They even had a garden section! Anyway - Magda bought some Swedish meatballs so I'll make sure I'm invited when she cooks them! Darren (Brittanys dad) tried some at teh IKEA restaurant but not sure he liked them too much!

Anyway - Friday night was a big one - I'd heard on teh grapevine that Darren liked tequila, so i bought him and his brother a bottle of it, but it turns out Darcy doesn't drink! Anyway - Darren was in bed gigling like a baby for the camera by 9:30pm and teh rest of us carried on! Good night all in all except for the game of pool that almost got us in a fight!

Saturday was supposed to be the night out on the town, but we didn't get far, not that it mattered! Brittany caught up with an old friend for a while and we hit the local again after a long day at the West Edmonton mall

That place was amazing - they have an amusement park in the mall, not to mention about 2 laser challenge games, a go-kart track, and 3 odd minigolf places, an aquatic centre, shiwreck and aqua boats you can squirt other people with! Something for the boys and of course shopping for the girls! It was a good day and Darren had obviously recovered enough to collect $11 in the minigolf!

We made the trip home Sunday before thigns got nasty with the weather - couple of very cold days, but i think I'm adjusting because -25 doesn't seem that cold! uni is covered in snow and i'm just itching to go snowboarding - Got to go skating on Wednesday night in yellowgrass, and even managed to hit a puck around!

Pictures to come and details of the Hockey game Alvin got me free Tix's to last night, including the -25 walk to the bus-stop!

Profile: Magdalena

Its profile time again! This time its Magdalena "Thumper" Petterson. Thanks Brittany for the nickname!

Hometown: Finspång. Nationality: Swedish
Favourite Colour: Green and Gold
Role Model: Margaretha (Her Mum)
Quote: "You have to love yourself to love somebody else."
Languages: Swedish, English, Sign-Language.
Life Ambition: To determine if Love is Cognitive, Jamesian, Darwinian or Social Constructivism.

Infamous For:

• 'Your Momma' Jokes - (Why aren't you Mothers Finest Mascot?)
• Alergies (Peanut, onion, lactose, cat... the list is endless)
• Braids
• Non-stop gigling once drunk
• Frequenting the Rainbow Club
• Man-Wiches (Its a big sandwich ok! Ingredients: Fried Egg, Grilled Cheese, Lettuce, Tomato, Cucumber, Philedelphia cheese & Occasionly turkey/ham or bacon etc)
• Loving Ikea
• The Advanced Rabbit
• Yelling "This is Swedish" whenever Abba, Roxette or any Swedish artist is played.
• "Annie, I don't want to meet your mum, I jsut want Bang Bang Bang." (Its a song! Sheesh!)

----------------------------EDITED 17/11/2005-------------------

Also Infamous for:

• Giraffes
• Popcorn
• Getting drunk at thanksgiving at the Hockley Household and twice stumbling into the wrong bedroom and trying to sleep with Darren on the way to her own room. Apparently unsurprisingly Darren didn't wake up once!
• Being a munchkin!

Halloween!

Well, I'm slowly catching up - Since I have been in hiding we haven't been upto much anyway, but I guess it was recquired that we have a bit of a bash on Halloween! So we all got dressed up, had a bit to drink then... I lost everybody - they just all dissapeared! Scary stuff for Halloween! I'm pretty sure they were snaffled by the big scary monster that lives down stairs called the Crazy Owl! (Above L-R: Reid 'White Trash', Magda 'Hoola Girl', YT 'Pirate', Cole 'Hitler/Old Jazz man', Alex, 'Fairy'.)

Can't help but give this guy some credit - Reid Your a legend.

Its a new month - Its new photo time!

Yes I have updated the pics on FlickR and chewed up half my bandwidth already! I will do as Nick says one day!

Anyway - check out the awesome pics of the Hoar frost we had - the tree's were frozen! I love my camera - tried to take photos of snow falling though it for some uknown reason it has trouble with littel white specks against a million other little white specks.

From Affable Aussie Gentleman with 3 lovely ladies...

Will1
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Check out these pics I just scanned in - some of my favourite pics from the time in UK. Will mate, looks like you enjoyed the break!

.... To Aussie Larrikin with 3 Cheeky Sheilas!

Will2
Originally uploaded by Nomad Odyssey.

Hiding has been extended until 8th November.

Hi Guys,

I got an extension for my assignment and should be doing it right now, rather then posting this, but I have a brain freeze anyway. (Anybody know anything about AASB 120 Accounting for Government Grants and Discolusre of Government Assistance and its relation to the old SAC 4 or new Conceptual Framework, especially in regards to revenue recognition criteria? Email me for chrisake!)

Anyway - News from Home:

• Mum and Dad are home from the UK
• Nan sounded real good on the phone
• There have been problems with the bookkeeping in Sydney
• My room is vacant at the Clan & hence I'm offering half rent to anybody who wants to move into a fully furnsihed room until Mid-January. (Thats $56 a week rent for prime Roseville estate people - catch is you have to have a reference from somebody I know)
• Demelza is apparently going to Darwin?
• It was Leigh Hodgsons 22nd on the 31st october (Happy B'day Leigh!)
• Milly had her Eleventieth at the Clan! See Pics below.
  

News from Canada:

• I got the highest mark I've ever gotten on a midterm (91.5% on logic - No idea why my sister can't understand my arguments - they are clearly logical) Go figure since I've been doing all that partying?
• Open Universities suck so much they have to reissue our first assignments (Which I failed! Yay 2nd Chance!) because they posted misleading information. (Assignment was due week 3 but was based on week 5 material!?)
• Open Universities suck so much because I have this bitch of an assignment due on Monday.
• Humanities classes have no point or objective other then to be entertaining. Although its good the lecturer is an Anti-Bush campaigner and is not afraid to compare him to totalatarian dictators similar to those in Margaret Atwoods 'The handmaids tale.'
• Their is not a single expresso coffee machine in Regina (Or probably Saskatchewan.) They are all instant push button things and they dont know how to do the milk like Heath does. ie. The coffee situation is making me very very nervous. Its a crime. Terrible. I haven't had a proper (read expresso machine coffee with non-frothy milk) coffee since I left Australia!
• Philosophy Class is Awesome! Expect more posts on that soon!
• Procrastination occurs as much in foreign countries as it does your home country, probably more because you have more interesting things to do!

They got me again!

Hmmm. I like to think, if it wasn't for Beth - none of this would have ever happened, damn - I underestimated her!

The guys here got me good. To make up for the fact that I tried to keep my birthday quiet - I guess they decided it was best if I had two parties. Just a small one on my birthday to keep me happy - then a surprise party of Friday night - it was awesome! I must admit - I had no idea what they where planning, even though I had plenty of clues and almost a tip off! But I must admit - the quiet party on Tuesday lulled me into a false sense of security.

So the party - it was downstairs in the Residence Rec Room. Filled with streamers and balloons of course, with a large breast/cleavage cake (Much better then a penis cake). I got a variety of presents - a canadian shotglass, some stickers (of all the things i've lost - i miss my mind the most), Bulgarian Rose Oil, a dodge pong set (Note R&V: Dodge not doge), some shots, a fake mobile phone etc etc - thanks for all the presents guys!

From what I can remember - there where four early 'fatalaties' to the night, In no particular order: Alvin (Hospitalised), Mike (Sin binned 2X), Myself and Annie (Apparently). i'm sure many others struggled with their absinth shots but since carlos informs me i had 5 in a row I didn't feel so bad about using the girls toilet (No point keeping things quiet - I'm sure plenty of comments will be made about this post!).

So yeah- from now on I'm going into hiding - nevermind that it is halloween this weekend? Who's organising that halloween pub crawl?

Hiding!

Well the time has come for me to go into hiding - I have 2 exams and a 2500 word research report due in 10 days, I have done zero study for all of them. Party on the 1st November anybody?

Just a note: We won the Team Spirit Award for Outdoor Ultimate Frisbee! Go Mothers Finest! A warning to all teams in the indoor competition - we will be back better then ever and our goal is to win at least one game this season! I wouldn't want to be the team we beat - what humiliation!

Baz Luhrmanns - Everybodies free (to wear sunscreen)

This is a fantastic song, and I know it is quite old, but it has been one of my favourite songs for a long long time and is in a way, strangely similar in some ways to Nietzsche's philosophy of life, just not quite so dark...

Maybe one day I'll be able to put a link here for you all to download it!

Thanks to Beth and Mick and anybody else who helped put together my Birthday CD - its a treat!

The buggers got me!

Well, thanks to Beth knowing more about me then I thought, my cover was blown and everybody semmed to know it was my birthday on Tuesday, however in a show of how friendly they are, they didn't embarass me too much!

My room was filled with the mandatory ballons, rude comments where written on my whiteboard and we had a few drinks. We went out for a quiet dinner and they managed to suprise me with dessert - thanks guys for a birthday just how I like it!

Shout out to Reid, Vanessa, Alex, Magda and Brittany for all making it special in their own way. Thanks to My family & beth for getting in touch as well. Missed you all.

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Yours truly being led around on Red by Brittany until he got used to me - we eventually got into a slow gallop!

Although it was almost 2 weekends ago now, I managed to get myself invited (Along with 2 other exchange students) along to a 'traditional' Canadian Thanksgiving! It was great!

Brittany (Magda's Roomie) invited Alex, Magda and Myself home with her to Yellowgrass for the weekend - we ate an immense amount of food (BBQ Friday night, Turkey on Saturday, Turkey leftovers Sunday and Monday! The food was a very healthy, refreshing change!)

Brittanys brother, Ryan is into the Rodeo and they have a few horses so we also got to go riding! Wat they didn't tell us is that one of the horses is a bit wild and had bucked their dad, Darren off a couple of times! Anyway - I got to ride Red and it was very different to riding the trail horses at home, Ryan uses Red for roping in the rodeo, so he's very well trained and very smart, the only problem i had with him was that he could obviously feel I was a bit nervous, so he was happy to do whatever he wanted to a certain extent!

Strider, Ryan and their friend 'Roping' calves.

Of course, being a small country town there was also a fair bit of underage partying going on, but it was great to get out to a farm party with the big bonfire in a massive combine shed - they called it a concep party or something! So lots of drinking, and revelry all round for a great weekend!

L-R: Renus, Mike(red hat), Ryan, Brittany, YT.
Thanks for the weekend Brittany, Ryan, Darren and karen!

Cabin Weekend!

This weekend just gone, I finaly managed to get us away to Lake Diefenbaker (Or however you spell it). From the word go, this trip was an organisational disaster, probably because i was organising it! We were supposed to stay at 'The trails end guest ranch' and go horseback riding and a whole bunch of stuff, the the useless buggers cancelled on me, on Thursday morning! They had 'other plans'! Can you imagine! I had called 2 weeks prior to let them know we where coming, and had emailed a week prior to confirm numbers! Arrgh - i hope they go out of business!



So, Thursday afternoon I spent several hours organising alternative accomodation when I should have been doing my HUM 207 Essay. All up i think it was an ok trip - we only got lost once (for about 10min) and the hire cars where very nice, if a bit more expensive then expected. In total, all 14 of us did a 650Km round trip!

The cabins where very simple - just 8 bunk beds, food was cook it yourself, ad we cooked lots of it! All we seemed to do for a lot of the weekend was eat (True Newcastle style barbies boys - only missing the kangaroo meat!) We also had a look around an old setllers cabin, church, and visited the local duck haunt - as all the geese are on the move at the moment. In true country style we had a decent fire to sit aroundat night and shared a few drinks with some American duck hunters who where staying at the cabins also. For me - it was just good to get out and about, I really enjoyed just driving around and having a look about!

The Lake itself was really just a massive damn, and when we drove over the damn wall on teh way to the cabins, the wind had whipped the lake into such a frenzy 2m waves where blowing spray all over the cars.


Pics are up on FlickR so check them out!

Reids Blog!

Reid larson, AKA The Heartney Hearthrob is one funny man and he has started a blog, not sure if he intends to keep it going, but his first post is funny enough to warrant a look. Its also linked on the sidebar. Kind of worrying that 3 of the last 6ish blogs have been about him!

Spriggers - Remember That Scottish Guy Who Told Crap Jokes?

I wonder if any of my fellow Wattlespriggers remember that Scottish guy whom we met in Shepparton - you know, that loud obnoxious guy who made jokes that none of us understood and who looked a little like Billy Connely with his goatee?

Well, he pissed me off a bit because he was rude (beyond funny). I remember distinctly sitting around the ground after Shepparton had beat us convincingly and he made some jokes that none of us understood, one of those jokes was about Rene Descartes. It went something like this;

'Rene Descartes walks into a pub, alone, one cold night in paris, and takes a seat at the bar. The bartender comes up and asks "Would you like a beer Sir?" too which Rene replies, "I think not." and promptly disapears in a puff of smoke right before the bartenders eyes. '

If you get it, (Good for you!) keep reading. if you don't get it, keep reading!

Now - the point of the conversation with this Scottish guy was that he refused to explain his jokes because it would ruin them! So we where supposed to remember these jokes for another time. The great irony of it all is that the only joke I can remember is the one he explained, and even further irony is that since I have now been studying Rene Descartes, I get it!

Anyway, I wanted to ask if you prefer to have a joke explained, or prefer to go away, be all intellectual and hopefully, maybe, one day hear it again, understand it and find it funny.

If you prefer to have the joke explained, as I do, see the Quotes on the sidebar for a hint. If you don't - don't look and please tell me why!

Reids 19th Birthday!

It was Reids 19th Birthday on Thursday, 6th of October. What did he get? He got a big surprise when he walked into his room after our game of ultimate. He got a big Penis Cake. He got a whole bunch of bitches. He got a reserved table at JD's. He got $10 for stripping in the club. He got Third place in an all-girl twister competition (Default first place because the girls wouldn't place their right hands on Reids C&B.) He got Drunk (Most of us got drunk). He got vomit on his shoes (Someone got vomit on her tounge). He got an early night (Midnight).

The party spirit AKA White Man Dance Moves (WMDM)
The Bitches
The Cake.

More pics will be available on FlickR soon. Once I figure out how to do it - their will also be video available of Reid stripping, twisting and WMDM'ing. Happy Birthday Reid! You have almost achieved your life long goal!

Define Me

Nick has commented that he would like me, to "define me." now I'm sure he meant, define him - NJM. My answer is to that is 'you.'

Now - we can have much more fun with this, and its something i've been trying to get Samir to do for at least 2 years (on that basis that you are (or will be) what you want!)

Define Yourself!

Here are the rules of definitions again:

Rule 1: All definitions must have a genus and differentia. (Genus = category)
Rule 2: A definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow.
Rule 3: A definition should state the essential attributes of the concepts referents.
Rule 4: A definition should not be circular.
Rule 5: A definition should not use negative terms unnecessarily.
Rule 6: A definition should not use vague, obscure or metaphorical language

Create your definition, or just make one up and leave it as a comment - maybe leave it as annonymous and let us all guess?

Military Justice System Update

Despite the "Scathing" findings of the inquiry into the Australian Military Justice System, not much has been done, or even promised to be done about it.

The problem, as I see it, is that because the Military Justice System is not independent of the military, they cover up things which have become entrenched in the military way of life - essentially they do not have the same sense of 'justice' as a civil court.

Why has all this come about? Because of the entrenched bullying in the defence forces, a number of suicides occur every year in our defence forces. The families of these soldiers have been key to pressuring the government into forcing an inquiry, and now that that inquiry has reported what we all feared, the government is backing down and going all weak-kneed and not doing enough about it.

Most people are more sympathetic to a cause if they know somebody affected with that illness or someone who has experienced the drama and trauma associated with that cause. I'm telling you all this because a friend of mine from highschool committed suicide for what we can only assume was bullying in the army. This is why we need to form opinions of things and why we need to support those courageous people who form an opinion and act on that opinion.

For more information and some comments from Dave's father, please follow these links. These reports will only be available for a limited time until they are archived by the ABC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1475598.htm (comments by Daves dad)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200510/s1475636.htm (more general info)

Thinking!

It seems everybody has assignments coming out their ears at this time of year, but then it seems someone will always be complaining about assignments at some time! Since this is my blog, I feel free to whinge and whine, rant and rave!

So, I just want to tell you about the 7 hours I spent last night doing a 10% logic assignment. I was never paying it my full attention at the beggining, thinking I'd be done in a few hours. i must concede, since I have done no work in this class so far, I had to recap and do a little revision.... and then I actually got interested in one question in the assignment:

We where required to evaluate the following definition of the underlined word according to the logical rules of definition (to follow) and provide an alternative definition that does not break the rules of definition that the current definition does.

Let me know what you think - rules provided below with my alternative definition.

“Thinking is purposeful mental activity whose goal is to avoid error."

Rule 1: All definitions must have a genus and differentia.
Rule 2: A definition should be neither too broad nor too narrow
Rule 3: A definition should state the essential attributes of the concepts referents.
Rule 4: A definition should not be circular

Rule 5: A definition should not use negative terms unnecessarily.

Rule 6: A definition should not use vague, obscure or metaphorical language

My Alternative definition.

"Thinking is a conscious mental process to purposefully combine thoughts so we can make the best decisions."

Note: I found the original definition broke rules: 2 & 5, and arguably 6.

Email notification of updates!

Hi all!
This has taken me nearly 4 hours to do, and i'm still not sure if it works!However, if it does - you can enter your email into the box on the sidebar, click submit and you will receive an email each time the blog is updated!

There is one condition - you need to be a registered blogger user - however, this does not mean you have to have your own blog! You simply sign up, receive a profile and then everytime you make a comment on the site - you can sign in and it will assign your name to the comment!

Update Alert

Pics on FlickR have been updated, and the sidebar has another new addition - "Friends Profiles." This is essentialy a link to a post I have made about a friend, so you all know who I'm talking about! Keep an eye on it over the next few weeks!

Profile: Reid Larson AKA 'The Heartney Heart-Throb'

Reid is one of my 4 flat-mates. Here are some facts:
DOB: 6/10/86 Therefore he becomes of legal age for Sask. in 4 days!
Nationality: Canadian
Height: 6'2"
Taste in music: Old School Rock (Awesome!)
Life Ambition: To be a drunk Aussie. Favourite Drink: Rye & Coke
Quotable Quote: If you ain't good-looking, I ain't drunk enough.
Life Philosophy: Once I'm done having fun, I'll save the world. Mwwaahahahah.
Infamous For:

• Shooting me in the arm @ pointblank range at paintball when we where on the same team.
• Drinking 1/2 a bottle of Rye in 2 Hours, hooking up with a Semi-random & not remembering it or the fact he walked around the carpark writing on windscreens.
• Trying to get into the Owl 2 times in one night, succceeding & lasting only about 30 seconds.
• Trying to impersonate an Aussie accent when drunk. Its awful. Slander.
• The White-man dance moves.
• Inventing dodge-pong

Sidebar missing?

Just a quick note: If the sidebar on the webpage is all the way at the bottom of the page - its your fault!

Not, but it has something to do with the size at which you view the webpage, so you can adjust your settings in the control panel (Windows), or you can simply (on internet explorer) reduce the text size under the view menu... If you have a Mac, I have no idea!

Paintball!

We where once a band of brothers..... Residence brothers, or Frat house bros?

I dunno, but the residence organised a fantastic paintball trip and we all camo'd up and prepared ourselves for the bruises! In fact, if it hadn't of been for Reid (Who was on my team!) shooting me in the arm at pointblank range, oh and the suicide run with no gun which resulted in me getting clipped in the nads... and the kneecap shot from 1 metre away... I would have survived the day relatively unharmed!

Thanks to all these guys and girls who made it an awesome day!

A very few more pictures will be available on flickr soon.

Birthdays

Just like to mention happy birthday to Dad, Mum and Brother (Peter, Anne and Simon) who all had birthdays this month. I was probably slack, but I did try and call mum and dad, albeit I think it was about 1am UK time!

As my birthday present to you all, Rhian has kindly donated some pictures I can embarass myself with, and as I have publicly promised to publish them - so be it. I hope you all enjoy finding out what i was like when I was a little tucker!

Check out the new addition!

I've always wanted to be a builder, and I think this website is kind-of-like my dream warehouse apartment - I can just keep on renovating it, over and over. So, point of this blog - check out the Lyrics Machine in the sidebar, now i just got to work out how to change the song!

By the way, if you don't know this song, I'm ashamed of you. Currently tormenting my housemates by learning how to play it on the Harmonica!

Big shout-out at this point to any of my fellow spriggers who have checked out the site - Loved the tour, the people and the cricket!

Please Rant & Rave

Hi All, I'd just like to make it clear - I like it when you all Rant!

Please dont be afraid to express yourself by posting a comment, or if you would like a little more space, or a little more headline - email me something and I'll post it on your behalf.

This comment is in part inspired by the speech of Steve Jobs that Sarah forwarded to Nick (who is all about everybody having an opinion), and in part by my family, who have always been about having a good rant for the fun of it (as you can see - dont be afraid of them, they only yell and scream and froth at the mouth, they dont bite.)

So forward me anything you you would to draw peoples attention to, especially personal pieces, thoughts, or just make a comment. Thanks.

Shinerama!

Here I am with some of the bigwigs of the URSU & our Goldenmile Mall team!

L to R: Victor (president URSU), Lawrence, Victor, Lindy?, Hillary (Vice President External), YT & Shaun (Vice President Students).

This is the second set of fundraising we have done this week, and an official end to the UofR Shinerama. On Wednesday we scoured the campus shining students and staff shoes alike the team of 4 I was in covered Luther & campion colleges, rasing about $250.

Our team of 5 on saturday where at the Goldemile Mall (My local!) from 9:30 to 12:00 and raised about $50 each. Highlight of the day for me being that the local cleaner told me there was a girl who sounded just like me working across the road at the donut shop, so I went over and paid a visit to Sharon, the third known aussie in regina!

Saturday night was a free beer & Pizza night for the V-team (URSU Volunteers), and we made sure there were no beer tickets left at the end! i managed to draw another aussie out of the woodwork - she came and punched me and asked me what claim I had to the Wallabies jumper I was wearing!

All the money from Shinerama goes to Cystic Fibrosis Council (Check the link) and URSU has raised about $7,000.00 This year! Top work people!

The Weekend!

Ian & Myself BBQ'ing away!

This weekend was quite action packed! It all started on Friday night - the 2nd of the Lazy owls Five Fridays! I voluteered my services as expert aussie BBQ'r to flip burgers (as they say) for the URSU Cistic Fibrosis Fundraiser! It was a great night and was great from a social aspect because a lot of people I knew from classes knew where to find me! Not to mention all the hungry randoms I got to talk to! Unfortunately standing beside the BBQ till 4am meant teh next day I had a massive fever and was unable to go on the Cistic Fibrosis bar blitz (The ad read: Free Entry to clubs & bars to sell candy necklaces to hot chicks - I was sold!) which would have been awesome! However I did manage to make it to teh U of R Rams game, which they lost, but it was interesting none-the-less!

L - R: Alvin, Hanne, Eva, Anni, Ant-ti, Hedei, Alex & Sona

After another night of raging fever, I dragged myself out of bed and Alex and I managed to make it to the bus station in time to join a few other exchange students and Alvin to head to Moose Jaw to check out the Tunnels of Prohibition! It was pretty cool, teh tour guides where all dressed up in 1920's clothes and acted out the part as if we where actually bootleggers smuggling Al Capone's Whiskey across the border into America! We also did another tour about teh chinese immigration which was very interesting, nice to know every country has some skeletons in the closet. (Apologies for incorrect spelling of names!)

Alvin in front of the sign I plan to send a pic of to Rove - Mike - a Moosejawian couldn't explain it!

These are some Awesome Pics from my going away party - I left a few Cd's floating around somewhere for people to check them out - Try contacting Beth or Katie if you want to see all 200 odd!

Anywho, shout out to these guys, Frog, Richard and Mick because they are all wearing the Bundy Wig, and I now have a bottle of Bundy (Carbs & sugar!) courtesy of Beth! Thanks for the sports updates Mick! Go the Swans!

The Influence of God (I stand to be corrected)

Belief in God can be a dangerous thing, especially for those that don't believe!

Need an example? Imagine the early 1200's, the Church is very very powerful and Pope Innocent III reins (apparently reluctantly over all of europe), except he has a little trouble with the heretic 'Albigenses' (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01267e.htm) known to some as the 'kathos' I believe. The kathos live in Southern France and after they murder someone important to the Pope, he resorts to force in true religous style.

However, the French catholics in one particular part of france, side with the Kathos in an unprecedented move and they all shelter together in the church of Mary Magdeleine. Pope Innocent III, a magnificent ruler of The Holy Land, as described by the catholic encyclopedia, when questioned on how they should seperate the catholics from the heretic 'kathos' the Pope replied:

"Kill them all, God is all powerfull and knowing,

he will know which are catholic and which are heretic,

which should go to heaven amd which should go to hell."

unfortunately the Catholic encyclopedia doesn't go into this in great detail, but it does comment briefly on it about 3/4's of the way down its biography on Pope Innocent III at: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm

Families of Suicide Soldiers Seek Compo

A lot of you may already have known of Dave Hayward, a friend of mine from highschool. He is at the front of the picture above, pulling faces and making everybody laugh, as he used to do at home. Dave apparently committed suicide in Perth at the beginning of last year, about a week after his Birthday. He had been AWOL from the army, a job he told everyone he loved, for nearly 2 months. His parents had not been informed of his absence. Dave had won an award for his dedication to his training. So many things will remain unexplained in this world, in my mind.

Please take a moment to read this article: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=3882

Please take a moment to question the world we live in every day, do not believe every word you hear or read, vote, be critical of beauracracy and your beliefs, breathe fresh air, live and learn. Thankyou.

"Geanealogy of Morals" (F. Nietzche)

Despite all my complaining, this really is a very interesting topic. What is good and bad, where did they originate. Before Nietzche & the utalitarians came up with a historical approach to morals, we just accepted that good thigns where always good, and bad things always bad.

Utalitarians:
Believed that Morals developed through altruistic acts - A "good" act was an act for which the actor was praised. Or, the recipient of the act recognised it as a "good" act and worthy of praise. Subsequently altruistic acts became a habit, praise was forgotten and we performed "good" acts because it "felt" good.

Nietzche:
Believed that the geanealogy of morals went beyond utility. N believed that "good" acts where decided by people who where "good." "Good" people being the aristocratic, the powerful, the noble, strong, beautiful, high-stationed and high-minded. People, in my opinion who had the arrogance & ego to think their actions where "good" and that they where "good" and "above" the rest (read the peasants, the plebes, the low-life). He also argues that our morals have changed (the revolution of slavery) and that in modern times, the plebe has overthrown the last great aristocracy (French Revolution) and that a "herd mentality" has enveloped the world (read democracy?).

N's definition of good stems partly from and finds some proof in Etymology - especialy the greek origins to the word 'Noble.' The origins of this word lie somewhat with the greek fascination with myth and demi-gods, their romantic love of love, heros, tradgedy, drama and battle. N seems to admire this 'alpha-male' hero as well, the do-or-die, the brashness, youth, destruction, spontanaeity and courage of the warrior, and he ties this into nobility.

That is not my view of Noble, or of aristocratic. Aristocrats where wealthy, they where educated, powerful and high-minded (read arrogant). I do not deny that. However I also think they where greedy, selfish, ignorant (of the serfs), pragmatic (N argues heros are not pragmatic), and deceitful.

Of course, we are both generalising, talking about a majority of aristocrats. The doubt in my mind is that I cannot see how the morals society holds dear today (or more importantly, my own morals) could be born from the aristocracy of my definition, even with the changes that democracy could and has brought.

Where are your morals from?

• Text: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MODERN/GENEAL.HTM
• Summary/Analysis: http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/genealogyofmorals/
• Friedrich Nietzche: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/

Alvin, AKA Nivla.

Big Shout out to Alvin. We met this guy in the Broken Rack Pool Hall / Bar on the long weekend and he went to the pains of explaining the rules of Grid-Iron to us! It was a big game between to geographically close teams - Winnipeg Blue Bombers (Manitoba) and the Saskatchewan Rough Riders. We also played a few games of pool and drank a few pints of Richards! Since then he has been helping us out with all sorts of stuff, including showing me how to throw a football!

Check out his page: http://www.xanga.com/nivla2

Name Tag Party!

Whats the idea behind this? Well - apparently you where supposed to wear a nametag, but we didn't know about it - so we just let them write on our arms. it was the first party organised in the residence 'party room' (Read basement)Highlight of the party: one of the biggest beer bongs I have ever seen!?

Not only did they have this beerigation system hooked up with taps and all, but they also had suck the duck - a giant duck with a hose coming out its arse and a funnel in its beak.

Rumour has it that a chap by the name of 'Frank the Tank' sucked the duck once too much and woke up in the morning with no teeth. Yep - it was a very very messy party. Thankfully I left at about 2am before it got too bad because I was still recovering from the night before!

Togga party

L to R: Claudia, Alex, Hanna & Norma

L to R: Cool african dude who can really dance, yours truly & Carrissa

The Australian take on Toga's in a foreign country. Just in case the accent is not enough. Can you actually believe people walked up to me and asked if I was from england?

So this was the Toga party - the First of the U of R's Lazy Owl - Five Fridays! I would put more pics up on FlickR Except I have already used my quota for the month! You'll just have to wait till October! More details to come on the very very social week/weekend it was just gone!

Claudie and Alex are both exchange students, Claudia from Mexico and Hanna from Belgium! Yes she likes Hoegarden! Carrissa and Norma are both locals. The African dude is obviously from Africa, but I don't think he is here on exchange. Apologies if I spelt anyones names wrong!