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!

Subject 2: Introduction to Philosophy

Philosophy to me is about asking questions which have no obvious answer, and which you can entertain yourself with for hours, by argueing with yourself. If you find an answer, its a bonus. if you dont, your probably infinetly smarter for what you have just discovered is not the answer.

What i'm looking forward to in this subject is the emphasis on Truth. What is truth. It is usually accepted that a statement can be true or false. My name is Damian. True. But, do I actually have a name? Do I exist? If I don't exist, can I possibly have a name?

According to the chap on the right, Associate Proffessor David Elliott (Department Head, Philosophy and Classics), there are three lots of three in Philosophy:

3 Questions:

1. What is the nature of reality? (Metaphysics)
2. What (and how) can I know? (Epistemology)
3. What should I do or how should I live? (Moral and political philosophy)

3 Features:

1. Makes the obvious problematic
2. Informational Chaos
3. Presentation of an overal vision/perspective

3 Practical Inferences:

1. One should never assume anything is obvious--or at least always be careful about what assumptions one is making.
2. Develop the strongest, most coherent argument that you can.
3. Try to see the ``big picture'', how your argument relates to other issues arguments/counterarguments of other philosophers.

We will use these three lots of three to try to understand a phillosopher called Rene Descartes:

"The two most widely known of Descartes' philosophical ideas are those of a method of hyperbolic doubt, and the argument that, though he may doubt, he cannot doubt that he exists"

"He resolves to trust only that which is clearly and distinctly seen to be beyond any doubt. In this manner, Descartes peels away the layers of beliefs and opinions that clouded his view of the truth. But, very little remains, only the simple fact of doubting itself, and the inescapable inference that something exists doubting, namely Descartes himself."

Read more of the above about Descartes at http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/d/descarte.htm

Foam Party

L to R: Vanessa, Alex & Tamara

Alex in her happy Long Island paradise!

$9 Jugs of Long Island Iced Tea!

Thanks go to Tamara & Vanessa for getting the tix to this saturdays foam party at JD's cafe & nightspot! (Check the link - death by chickenwing) It was a great night despite ending up soaking wet and quite cold by aussie standards. Thank god for the warmth giving alcohol beforehand and Reids side splitting Aussie accent impersonations.

Just a little low down on the sexy trio: Vanessa is my RA (Residence Assistant), ie she is supposed to 'control' the parties. Tamara is her best friend & works practicaly full time as what she describes as a special needs punching bag & does uni full time, Alex is a fellow Aussie exchange student from CSU in Bathurst!

Subject 1: Power, Knowledge & Postmodernity

I promised a post on my subjects, and whilst it is not a usually entertaining topic, its probably going to be a future source of aggravation (I imagine somewhere in the league of groin tinea) so to justify my future complaining, whining and soul searching heres the low-down:

They mentioned philosophy somewhere in the subject outline and so it kind of tied in with my other subjects. It is a split lecture system and the 2 lecturers spent the first lecture telling us how good the other was.

The main lecturer was very passionate, a great speaker, clearly a feminist and so enthusiastic about the class she forget to mention what the point of it was. Has anyone ever gotten a subject outline that didn't mention the goals or objectives of the class? If yes, are you also an arts student? I'd like to know what they are trying to achieve. Bonus is we get to read Nietzsche.

More raving later. We spent the second class discussing what the moral of the story was to Adam & Eve being evicted from Eden. Come on people, what was the name of the apple tree? I expect to see lots of comments on this, and I promise I'll plagerize them in my first Essay. One thign I did learn is that arts students seem to be very very judgemental, they have a category for everyone! Post-modernists, neo-socialists, pre-modernists, social socialists, fascists democratics even! WTF?

To come: Intro to practical Logic 100 and Philosophy!

Photos!

Yay!

I feel a bit geeky doing all this computer stuff, but I love it! I wish I could take some computer classes when I get back home, but unlike here where you can change and chop your courses and majors as much as you want, provided you keep paying those tuition fees, its back to the academic factory that is UTS and most Australian uni's!

Follow the link above or click on the Flickr flashy doodah on the right and check out the best pics I have to offer of the trip so far! Nearly over my limit already, so I feel Nicks pain!

Also check out the new link to Shuji's page which operates like a notice board, you have to log in to post but its good to know he is living it up business class despite the flooding problems!

Thanks Samir...

Thanks must go to Samir for pointing out the subtle differences in media that mostly go unnoticed and slip into our subconscience to prejudice our ideas and beliefs without our knowledge. Were you originally doing marketing Samir, before changing to International studies?

The Real O-Week

Well, the real O-week began here on Tuesday, the same day as classes. It comes complete with beer tents, games, concerts, magicians, cheerleaders throwing people in the air, loud music and karoke in Lazy Owl uni bar till late.

Needless to say, for a tuesday it was a late one, making it four of five late ones in a row! My attempts to sneak one of my underage room mates into the lazy owl was succesful for all of 5 minutes! I think the security guard new I was dodgy.

We also had an exchange student reception, which included free pizza (of course), and a speed meeting session which was interesting. So all up, it has been an action packed week already and its only wednesday!

Welcome to my Nomad Odyssey!

Hi all!

Following popular culture and the need for a convenient way to communicate, I've been inspired by NJM and also John to such an extent that I thought a blog might be a more interactive and creative alternative to the group emails of my misadventures in Canada.

Its undoubtedly going to be a bit boring for the first few weeks as I get used to the system. The hope is that eventually I'll be able to keep both sets of friends, Canadian and Australian informed of who the hell I'm talking about in my emails by posting a few profiles on this here blog! So keep an eye out cause you might feature soon!