Immigrant!

Prohibito!
I love this pic
It's on the Mexican border!
Sums up the situation, no?

Immigrants =) Had to do an immigrant post. It was gonna happen, and there's no better time than now!
I used to be be an immigrant, back in '89... I still remember my first Montreal winter. Aaah, back when cold still had a meaning! Those were the days I tell you, when ya had to walk twenty six miles to school every day. Uphill. Both ways! :S
It's a given that in all societies there's a whole bunch of issues having to do with "The People of the Boat", here's a few that I've come across in Canada and the UK:

- They're taking all our jobs! It was my dream to be a telemarketer *sob* (daily occurrance in QC)
- Could you please turn down your bhangra sir, we can hear it eight blocks away (don't get me started...)
- Look at 'im go! There's another one, they drive like it's the streets of Bangkok I tell you! (y'know I have Asian friends that admit they're terrible drivers!)
- Umm, can you please tell your child not to run naked in the street, I might have to call child protection (This actually happened on a friend's street in Birmingham, totally surreal)
- Could you turn your rooster down a bit, please... It's five in the morning. (Birmingham again)
- Does Concordia even hire white engineering profs?! :S (A mysterious and unexplained occurence)

Anyway the list goes on... A recording from Arnie the Governator recently appeared on the net where he's discussing issues regarding waving foreign flags in the State of California... Heh. See, that's why Canada's not a melting pot, it's a mosaic. We're actually trying to be third world country :D

Seriously though. I have to take my hat off to people to can do that. I mean flying by the seat of your pants, giving up everything that's known and secure and going on an adventure overseas! I totally would love to but prrrobably don't have the balls or funds to do that... Yet!

Anyway, we've all got to share one little planet and we're bound to move around a bit. So before you roll your eyes at your LCD, you'd better listen up:

Our world isn't actually all that big if you put your mind to it:

- Mostly water (Who's crazy idea was "ocean ELEVEN KILOMETERS deep"?! Does the word excess mean anything to you?!)
- All the really big countries like Russia and Canada are frighteningly cold and generally inhospitable (If I ever find the chap who invented cold I'll smack him with a live pirhana and then shoot him!)
- The other big country, directly to the South of Canada happens to be chock full of barbarians right about now. Call them wild, cannibalous albino apes if you like, raving lunatics bent on war and destruction, whatever. Basically They're packed with RWu's (not to be trusted!)
- I should mention that all the space in the big country with the red and white flag is presently used up. By free-roaming wild animals maming innocent Hollywood stars by the shipload. (Michael Jackson's surgery was the best they could do! You have NO idea what a mountain Lynx in heat is capable of!)
- Trust me I know, I keep a pair of penguins as pets, a polar bear as a guard dog and an elk for warmth. (It isn't exactly practical, but it's necessary;)
- So if you're not already living here, as I once was, and are considering coming to the "land of opportunity" [whatever the hell that means], take my word for it, all that nonsense about the global development index is only in the mind ; )
- Chances are you're better off where you are, at least you don't need to worry about feeding the elk, never mind cleaning up after it... This thing shits like something out of a Spielberg epic...

Spring Colours + Philosophy

w00t! Spring has sprung!
This melting snow
These opening skies
The light breeze
The cool rain it brings
Nature is waking up again!

All around us are the signs of spring coming back. Vitamin D! I felt the need to change up the blog colours for the occasion =)
See it's all in the hopes of sort of encouraging the weather to warm up. I recently saw an amazing documentary film about the Sufi mystic poet Rumi. I knew next to nothing about him and what I learnt blew me away! Dude was deeeeeep... One of the most interesting lines in the film was "It is the water that seeks the thirst". I like this because we sort of assume we are always the seekers, where in some situations we might be the sought!
It's a philosophy I like and I've decided to change the blog colours with the seasons ^__^
See, we sometimes think of computers as dry and intrinsically mechanical things that have little to no connection with the natural and spiritual world. Thing is though, that they connect human beings together, by giving us an easy way to share our thoughts, words, sounds, images and experiences. So instead of thinking as the internet and cyberspace as an isolated data space on a different plane from the physical world, I prefer to percieve it as a realm that exists by consequence to the natural world, and exists to serve us =)
It's a bit more optimistic than the scary The Matrix philosophy. The way I see it, it's really not that far off, I'm personally quite weary of things like MMORPGS, augmented reality, UAVs and nanotech. So long as we're a bit optomistic, and well keep our place in the food chain, it's all good!
So this final exam season, take a breath of fresh air on your break; put down the game controller for a bit, close the laptop and go get some vitamin D! Take walks in the spring before the summer heat shuts us in again!
Happy spring everyone ^__^