Category Archives: Rants

Music industry’s future: Creators and Performers

Posted on by
Reply

The music industry is falling apart. Not in the way your under-maintained 1991 economy car with rust spots is leaving a breadcrumb trail of broken parts, but in the way your high school clique drifted apart as everyone got older and started looking for new direction. This is the order of things, both natural and man-made — everything trends towards its own destruction.

Sadly, the music industry hasn’t quite figured this out yet. They’ve been fighting blindly to retain the status quo, and failing miserably. RIAA take note: suing your core audience for using your content, thus alienating them and their sphere of influence from future purchases is not good business acumen. Where did you get your MBAs, from Sally Struthers’ International Correspondance School?

It’s high time you accepted that you are no longer in control of your own future. Your audience is.

Continue reading →

Dear Murphy: F*ck off and die!

Posted on by
2

Yeah, Murphy, I’m talking to you. 

You’ve been dogging me now for 10 months, almost non-stop. You’ve always been there, hiding in the shadows, popping out every so often to cause a bit of havoc only to vanish again. 

Damned if I know how you did it, but you hid in my luggage or stowed away in the stuff we shipped down from Canada, and moved into my closet. And you’ve been there ever since. You’ve come to the office with me every day, haunting my every action, standing over every project. And I’m sure our hellish daily commute is your doing.

Then then you decided to screw around with my family…

Continue reading →

2008, A Year in Review

Posted on by
4

Hasta la vista, 2008! You were a tough year in the life, and while you certainly gave me a good run, I’m not unhappy to see you go. You’ve lead me further down the road of fatherhood, brought me back dear old friends, brought me new challenges at work … and of course moved me to an entirely different country. But with all of this, you’ve brought a whole mess of turmoil, instability, and grief. 

Now for those of you who’ve not been following along — and what the heck, even for those of you have — here’s what I’m talking about: Continue reading →

I swear I’m going to kill my vendors

Posted on by
3

I don’t care what the excuse is, the reality is that I’m not getting service I expect from a vendor. I’ve been told that it’s just something I have to adapt to. That it’s the way things are done. That it’s a cultural difference. I’ve encountered a variety of these aspects since first arriving here in Costa Rica. I’ve dealt with the indifferent, the incomprehensible, the insolent, and the indescribable. 

But no matter how bad that service is, nothing excuses you from lying to me.

Continue reading →

Canada, you can blame Calgary

Posted on by
Reply

Sigh.

Well, thanks to the residents of Calgary Centre-North, Canada is now stuck with Jim Prentice again. And I’m just too darned tired to rant. Wasted effort at this point. 

But I reserve my right to call “I told ya so!” when the lawsuits start.

Actually, make that 18 things

Posted on by
6

Last week, barely hours after Independence Day here was over, the stores started switching over their wares from Mother’s Day (in August) to … Christmas decorations. 

Santa Claus is already in the aisles. This is so not fair. It’s the middle of freaking September, people!!

Fortunately, they haven’t started playing Christmas music. I think I’d have to kill myself if they did. Ugh.

Dear Canada: I’m going to break the law

Posted on by
2

Well, it would appear that short of an Act of God (or, heaven forbid, some actual common sense runs through Parliament), Bill C-61 will forever handcuff Canadians and prevent long-term technological evolution. It’s one of the worst-written pieces of legislation to hit Canadians in years, as it does not take real-world habits into account at all (short of the negative views, of course), and penalises everyone for something most of them haven’t done.

I’m going to get the Government in on a little secret. I’m breaking it. I refuse to let your ridiculous industry ass-kissing paperwork prevent me from moving with the evolutionary tide. I’m breaking the law and doing what I think is right.

Continue reading →

Kids’ music kinda sucks, but there is good stuff out there!

Posted on by
10

I remember kids music when I was young. A lot of it was Disney (or published by Disney), available on vinyl 45s that we played on our Mickey Mouse record player — you remember, the one where Mickey’s arm is the arm for playing the record, and his forefinger contained the stylus? 

You don’t remember… You don’t even know what a 45 is? Frick, I’m getting too old for this. 

Continue reading →

Conservatives win the next Canadian federal election!

Posted on by
7

This isn’t a predictive headline, folks. This is truth. The Conservatives will win the election in October. I, as an Expat, can’t vote in it, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t take at least a sense of interest in it. Or stock in the fact that the Conservatives are finally getting what they wanted the last time: Complete control.

For the last two years, Canada has been living in the most blessed of political states: a minority government. As close to having the car in neutral as it gets. It means the least chance of political scandal (the “ruling” party doesn’t want to make mistakes that’ll haunt them come election time), and the opposition enjoys a place of perceived power as they get courted by the ruling party to help push through votes.

Well, that’s all coming to an end now. So brace yourself, Canada — things are likely to get worse.

Continue reading →

The IOC is living in a dream world

Posted on by
2

As I was skipping through my various feeds this morning, I came across the following quote from Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC:

Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said the Games would “help the world to understand China, and it will also help China to understand the world.”

I think we need to send a team into the IOC’s fantasy world and extract them, because they’ve clearly (and totally) misunderstood the situation.

Continue reading →