The devil is coming after me part #2

Alright, something is really up. I was caught up in another conundrum. I think I acted appropriately but the temptation always exists.

I went to play pool with some friends at the local pub. We had a few drinks before we even picked up a queue. We went to a pool table put in our money and had a fun game of pool. It came my turn to pay so I dropped in $1.25. The balls didn't come loose.

I put in another $1.25 and they didn't come loose again. I went to the manager and told him about the problem. He couldn't fix it so he said pool is on the house. I played 2 more games (these games I played for). Then when it came to the third game I started to feel uncomfortable about the situation.

The owner/manager was nice to offer us free pool but he is being forced to offer a service to keep us drinking and from going to another place. But the owner shouldn't lose out. For my 3rd game I still put in $1.25. The devil almost had me again. If I hadn't paid I would have been taken advantage of another persons situation. I should be benefiting from someone elses misery.

Although I didn't tell him that we were still paying I'm sure he will appreciate finding a little extra money in the machine.

Note: My friends didn't follow my path in paying for there pool. It was easier for me to do because I payed for 2 games ahead of time. I couldn't convince them to pay even after saying it was the right thing to do. I wish I was more convincing.

Survey for all the teachers out there

Me and a friend got into a bit of a scuffle a while ago. My friend does not like the idea of universal tests for certain subjects and grades in school. These are tests administered by the government to ensure that students have a minimum level of education and that no student gets left behind.

It turns out that schools get funding based on the scores from these tests. This forces teaches to teach the requirements for these tests.

Although this all sounds like fries and gravy it really isn't. Apparently many teachers feel obligated to teach these standards during these years and nothing more. If you can drill these standards into a students head then you can get more funding. During these testing years the students actually learn less then previous years because of this teaching method.

What is your opinion on this subject. It's mostly for teaches but I will take anyone's opinion on this subject.

Big corporations are getting money from you whether you like it or not

Ever wonder what happens when a company starts offering different services/products. A calamity of unknown proportion starts to take effect. Here are just few examples of what can go wrong this mixture.


1. Why is the government able to give us a gas tax and be allowed to put up street signs? The government can then decide to put up street signs on every block to force us to burn more gas. It explains why less than 3% of the lights in a city don’t become blinking lights between the hours of 11:00pm – 5:30am. To be fair we also have to be alive to pay taxes so, they also have a vested interest in us living.


2. Why are phone companies allowed to sell cellphone’s and also offer a recycling program for them. Last time I checked I didn’t have the option of buying a used cell phone directly from the phone company. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just repackage them and resold them to us at full price. At least they aren’t going into some kind of landfill though. Right.


Maybe you can post about some companies that are guilty of this crime.

The Devil is coming after me for my sins

Lately I have had the feeling that I am being tested. A lot of usual things have been happening to me lately and they only have one correlation, they are the purest form of evil. Here are just some of the things that I have had to endure.

About 2 weeks ago I went to buy a soda pop from my work on my break. The fee was $1.85 and I had more than enough to cover it. I dropped in a toonie and clicked on the drink of my preference. Down came my drink and the change. I grabbed the drink but when I went for the change I found I was being challenged. When I reached for my change I didn’t find 15 cents but rather 30 cents.

A lot of things went through my head at this point. Should I take the money, or should I not. In the end I took the change that was owed to me and left the remaining 15 cents. What was I guilt of, impure thoughts. Impure thoughts are far better than theft. I am sure happy I didn’t take that money because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep that night.

Then just a few days ago I found myself making another tough decision. I was coming home after dropping someone off at their home. On my back I noticed a drifter on the side of the road looking for a ride.

Let me give you a bit of background on the situation. It was about 4:00 in the morning on a day where the temperature was between -30 to -40. It was on Regent in a public area but the streets were empty and no stores would have been open to allow the person to get warm.

At first I wasn’t going to pick the person up because I was afraid the person would try and steal from me or even try and kill me. I did end up picking up this person and dropping them off at that place on Garry St. I think the name of it was Siloam Mission. I dropped the person off and saw the person get let into the mission.

What was I guilty of? I was judge jury and execution for this person. I had made a decision that this person was a bad person. After talking to the person I realized it was a good person stuck in bad situation. I’m happy I did decide to pick up this traveler.

I have a feeling the devil is going to be welcoming me into the gates of hell personally, because of all my sins.

The politcally correct version of a holiday greeting

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all; and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishes.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Is the censorship idea in China really that bad?

I recently read a document about Google. It talked about how much we really trust Google and about there motto "Do No Evil". In the message boards everyone was talking about how well Google sticks to the motto with one exception, The censorship they have imposed on China.

keep in mind that I live in Canada. I don't live there, and never have. The only information that I get on China is the stuff that seaps out of the seams. And one has to really question the accuracy of that information. It seems like everything I hear coming out of China is that it is a horrible place to live because of the laws and censorship that does go on there. I have a tough time believing all the information coming out of China.

Let's do a little history review. Before the 1950's China was in ruins. They just lost the war, and didn't have much money to fall on. Less then 10% of the population had 90% of the wealth (I've heard that it was closer to 3% wealthy population). There was no middle class, just an upper and lower class, and the lower class was treated like garbage. Low pay, beatings, the whole 9 yards. Sort of what was going on in Canada in the early teens before the unions started to move in.

Something had to be done. A civil was building in Japan and the end results was a new Government. This government had to do a lot of things to ensure it's safety. First they had to do away with a lot of the rich people (you may have heard that the dalai lama being leaving China, he was amongst the 10% richest). You may have also heard of the riots that went on. You can't ask 10% of the population to give up your money or get out so people caused riots.

The government also had to do various things like destroy historical items from China. I've heard that it wasn't all that historical at all. Nothing was broken that was more then 50 years. How can that be considered historic. I think a lot of it was related to the Dalia Lama.

The final thing the government had to do was censorship. They had to stop the bad information that the United States, and other countries were spreading about China. This had to be done because the world hated Communism which was the government that came to power. In a way I sort of wish that I didn't have to read all the negative garbage that the US says about Canada because we are more socialist and less capitalist then them. They don't live here yet they have their opinions that it is bad. I don't know the feelings of big business but I love living in Canada.

Back to the censorship. It became very important for China to censor the outside world. I don't blame China for doing it and I sure don't blame Google for offering there search engine uncensored. I don't believe that Google is doing evil by censoring the Google search engine. Let's go over all the reasons that it is good for Google to be doing this.

1. A world without Google would suck. The search engine is only one of the many services that they offer. Can you imagine a world without Google Calendar, Reader, Documents, ect. I love those features of Google. I'm not saying they are the best tools these days but they were the first. They were the ones that said it is possible and took a risk with coming out with it.

2. China law states that censorship has to occur. Google doesn't want to break the law. That would be infringing on their motto of "Do No Evil".

I don't blame China for being censored and to the people who live there aren't in a panic that Google has done it. It's just to the outside world it seems inhumane.

Reference: http://digg.com/tech_news/In_Google_we_trust_8.
Reference: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10127876-16.html?part=rss

Why isn't theft illegal?

There is a lot of technology around these days. There are Cell Phones, MP3 Players, Game consoles, Car Radios, Computers, ect. All these electronic devices can be linked to one thing the Internet. Why aren't they building the internet up to be the easiest and best way to catch a thief?

Here are some scenarios:

Your Xbox gets stolen. Chances are somwhere in it's life the Xbox will reconnect to the internet, and will connect with Xbox Live. Why if a theft claim is made to the police will Microsoft not give out the IP address of the Xbox?

Your MP3 player gets stolen. Your MP3 player has to connect to a computer before you can update it's songs. Chances are this computer is connected to the internet. Why isn't the serial number transfered to the proper dept with the IP address if a theft complain it made.

Your Cell phone gets stolen. They have GPS built into most phones, and they all have serial numbers and some even accept simm cards which should make tracking cell phones even simpler. Why can't the cell phone companies report the location of a stolen cell phone to the authorities?

Your Car Radio gets stolen. Car Radios these days connect via USB/bluetooth to MP3 players. Why can't these MP3 players gets store the radios information which then gets synced to your computer and gets reported in a database.

That last one would be hard to do but it should be something that is posssible in the future. Let's stop theft dead in it's tracks. I usually at least 1 electronic device a year. The moment I tell the police they take my statement and say there is nothing they can do. Petty theft isn't a priority. Who will make it a priority? No one. Not even those who cell it. I'm going to do a test to see what happens.

When my cellphone contract is almost up I am going to report my cell phone stolen to the police and to my cell phone courier. I am then going to drop the phone into the cell phone recycling program that my cell provider hosts and wait. I am going to wait to see if it gets returned to me. My expectations are that it won't be returned. The cellphone will be lost. I will do my best to document everything.

What do you think about my plan?