12 April 2007, late morning
Over at the Hogtown Front, I learned that the ‘Liberals plan to abolish zero-tolerance policy. Too many black students being expelled.’ There are two reasons the Liberals may have wanted to scrap the policy: the first, Michael points out; the second, and the more obvious one, is that it’s a stupid idea. People need to ask themselves, “How does removing problem children from the school system help them?” Oh wait, it doesn’t. (I suppose that very well might be the point.) Zero-tolerance was a bad idea when it was proposed, and i’m glad to see it gone now.
It is clear Jared Taylor and his fan boys will hold this up as an example of black inferiority, and attempt to use this as another means of stigmatizing blacks. (In fact, if you read Michael’s article, Taylor already has done this; he moves fast.) I was going to respond at length, but he isn’t worth my time.
All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.
— James Baldwin
[2] Current Events
12 April 2007, mid-morning
Vaas has bowled four overs thus far in the New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka cricket match today. Of those overs, 2 were maidens, and in 2 he allowed one run a piece. He also has 2 wickets to his name already. Vaas may be getting old, but he can still bowl like a beast. New Zealand are off to a very rocky start. Sri Lanka are killing it this world cup.
[1] Life
11 April 2007, early morning
When reading World of Warcraft websites or forums, you may come across the word nerf, usually used in conjunction with a class name. I’m quite sure the most common example of the phrase is, “Nerf Warlocks.” (In fact, if we can trust Google, it is most definitely the most common example of the phrase.) The person asking for the nerf thinks the class in question is too powerful, and needs to have its abilities toned down so the game is more fair. The common response to such a request is usually, “LRN2PLY NOOB.” That said, in the case of Warlocks, the complainers are probably right. I’m hardly an avid gamer, and I certainly don’t have any phat loot, but my Warlock currently wanders around as some sort of unstoppable blight of nature, reigning down death on anything that happens to pass within reach of my corruption spell. In fact, Warlocks were nerfed, and they still belt out destruction like it was going out of fashion. It was Gary who suggested I play a Warlock to begin with. When I first started playing I would complain to Gary how quickly I would die, and his answer was always, more or less, “Patience Ram, patience.” And he was so right. So, now I’m telling you: play Warlocks, they are fun, and other classes will hate you.
World of Warcraft | Nerd Alert
8 April 2007, late evening
I saw An Inconvenient Truth and thought it was really great. You can learn more about how we are doing a spectacular job of fucking up the planet at the An Inconvenient Truth web site. It’s pretty crazy how much we’ve managed to change things on this planet in such a short period of time. Al Gore should have been president. Seriously. America stop dropping the ball already.
Movies
7 April 2007, lunch time
After watching the Prestige, Shima and I watched Thank You For Smoking. The film follows a tobacco lobbyist during a particularly trying period of time: he’s trying to take care of his son; a hot shot journalist is on his case; they want to brand cigarettes with a skull and crossbones, etc. He manages to get through all these crises using hit wits alone. It’s a strange film if only because you find yourself rooting for the lobbyist — somewhat anyway. He’s a smooth talking salesman sort of guy. There are a ton of cameo — Rob Lowe’s is very funny. It’s a short fun film to watch. There isn’t much substance to it I suppose.
The official Thank You For Smoking Website
[1] Movies
5 April 2007, late evening
There are times when Hollywood churns out films in pairs. Armageddon and Deep Impact, for example, both came out at the same time. Now, Armageddon sucks a lot, but compared to Deep Impact, it’s a beautiful piece of art. In the turn of the century magician genre of movies, we have The Illusionist and The Prestige; The Prestige is clearly the better film. More than that, The Prestige is an excellent film in its own right. The somewhat convoluted story follows the rivalry of two magicians, played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. (It’s Wolverine versus Batman!) The story is excellent. Christopher Nolan has done a great job with this film. If you haven’t seen this movie you really should. It’s very entertaining.
The official The Prestige web site.
[2] Movies
5 April 2007, early morning
I peaked through the blinds this morning to find the city covered in snow. Not a lot of snow mind you, but still, its snow — in April. We have had one of the mildest winters I can remember. I just wish it would end already.
[1] Life
4 April 2007, early morning
Please indulge me while I discuss the brilliant writing behind Immigration Watch. In particular, today we will talk about, The Mother Of All Fraud Marriages.
There is a desire in a number of immigrants to retain cultural purity. … This is a very common practice in Canada and in European immigrant-receiving countries. … it often results in continued lack of integration with the host population.
There is a desire in a number of Canadians to have sex with animals. I’m not going to say what that number is, but I will continue talking like it is most certainly substantial. It’s a very common practice. How common, I won’t say. Surely you already know how common it is. This practice often results in Canadians who don’t play nice with others. How often? You know, often.
Fraud marriage is not an isolated practice. A large number of immigrants enter Canada every year as sponsored spouses. Some of this pactice (sic) is legitimate, but the law is abused …
Kicking cats is not an isolated practice; I am pretty sure there are at least two people out there in Canada who do so. I’m not trying to be a jerk mind you: lots of Canadians treat their pets kindly. Now that I’ve mentioned that point, let’s never speak of this group again.
… According to several oprganizations (sic) trying to stop fraudulent marriages, …
According to several organizations I won’t name — but trust me when I say they exist — Ramanan Sivaranjan is the most awesome person ever. Update: I’ve just received several notice that I am also the most handsome person ever. Update: Several sources have said that in a fight between me and Tony Ja I would win.
As the following story illustrates …
Everyone loves stories. They are nice, and simple, and let you think about complex problems in simple terms. They are good because you can take what you learn about a particular person or event and extrapolate from that sample to a much larger population of individuals. Some of you may doubt this claim, but trust me, several organizations have said that it is a fact. Many people think so. It is often the case that a sample size of one is enough to make judgments about huge groups of people.
[1] Current Events
2 April 2007, mid-morning
The people in Harlem know they are living there because white people do not think they are good enough to live anywhere else. No amount of “improvement†can sweeten this fact. Whatever money is now being earmarked to improve this, or any other ghetto, might as well be burnt. A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence.
— James Baldwin, “Fifth Ave, Uptown: A Letter from Harlemâ€
I’ve been going through James Baldwin’s non-fiction work. I finished Notes of a Native Son last week, which is excellent, and have started on Nobody Knows My Name, which looks to be even better. Both books are collections of essays he did before the civil rights movement really got underway. The quote above comes from an essay Baldwin wrote for Esquire. This essay is excellent. If you can track it down I recommend you read it. James Baldwin is the best writer America has produced yet.
I wonder if Shima and her planner friends are required to read essays by Baldwin and other people who have lived in the ghettos they aim to improve. My guess is no. Shima seemed a bit disappointed in what was going to be done with Regent Park. I also felt it was more of the same, but really, what do I know? I thought of the quote from Baldwin above while reading the following in the Globe:
Flemingdon Park is one of 13 so-called “priority neighbourhoods†identified by the city for targeted funding by the municipal government, social agencies and other groups. Over the next four years, the city plans to add an extra $13-million for these neighbourhoods.
— Wall of silence breached in Toronto revenge killing.
After 50-60 years of failed government housing here in Canada and in the US, you would think they might want to try something different.
[1] Quotes | Comics and Books
1 April 2007, early afternoon
Dilshan follows up a 4 with a 6 to end Sri Lanka’s innings — that’s how you play cricket. Sri Lanka posted a score of 303 for 5. That’s a great score, and its quite likely they can win this game. They got off to a very poor start, losing Tharanga and Sangakkara very early in the game. After 10 overs they were only at 30 something runs, which is quite uncharacteristic for Sri Lanka. All this changed at around the 15th over, when Jayasuriya started whacking away at the ball. He didn’t really let up till he got his century. Sri Lanka have been playing great this world cup. I expect some great bowling from them in the upcoming inning. The West Indies have some strong batsman, but they haven’t done much yet this world cup.
Update: Sri Lanka pretty much rocked the West Indies. The bowling and fielding in the second innings was excellent. All the bowlers got a couple wickets each — even the all rounders bowled a fairly long low-run spell. Sri Lanka played a wicked match. I’m pretty confident they can make it to the semi-finals if they keep this up.
Life
30 March 2007, mid-afternoon
If I was ever commissioned to write a Bollywood song, it would be called: “F.Y.I. love you”. I can picture it now.
[2] Life
29 March 2007, evening time
Krishna asked me, “if G has a girth of at least 6 and contains a vertex of degree at most 2 then G is 3 colourable.” It took me a couple seconds to remember what that all meant, and then a little longer to figure out how to go from there. Its kind of sad though that I am happy about being able to do a 2nd year Graph Theory problem — an easy one at that. Sometimes I feel like I used to be smart and I’m getting progressively dumber. My 4th year Graph Theory notes are mental. Well, to be fair, I’m quite sure I thought they were mental at the time as well.
[1] Mathematics
29 March 2007, early morning
Yesterday I finally finished all of the Scarlet Monastery dungeon, thereby earning my much sought after Sword of Omen. (And, for those of you, who like Shima, never spent your childhood watching Cartoons, the real Sword of Omens gives you sight beyond sight.) I normally run these instances in “pick-up” groups, since I don’t have any friends besides Gary that play World of Warcraft. Normally people complain pick-up groups are disastrous, but I have had good luck thus far with them. Usually there will be 4 players that know what they are doing — including myself — and someone not so hot. Yesterday the not so hot fellow was a Warlock, but since he was the highest level character his messing up wasn’t so bad. The rest of us could have done the run by ourselves it looked like, but he was certainly helpful killing the bosses. Last night also marked the first time I did nothing but heal during an instance: it wasn’t as horrible as I had thought it would be. I’m thinking about switching to being a Holy Paladin. The problem as I see it is that leveling a Holy paladin would be far too slow a process. I accidentally ninja’d Herod’s Shoulders, which is some nice armor for a paladin like myself. The worse part was that I had told everyone to pass on Bind on Pickup items earlier, and everyone followed the rule save myself. There were no hard feelings thankfully — no one in the group could use them save the warrior, but he was cool with my messing up. And I think I’ve run out of dorky things to say about my evening. This is what happens when I don’t go out on a weeknight, and Shima isn’t home.
[4] World of Warcraft | Nerd Alert
27 March 2007, mid-morning
Gary invited me to join his guild, the Camineet Avengers, some time back. It was one of the bigger Horde guilds on our server. My Warlock was finally close enough to his characters in level that we could do stuff together. I think he thought I could go raiding with his guild if I kept leveling at a good pace — which I didn’t, by the way. I never did much with anyone in the guild since they were for the most part serious-ass raiders, myself not so much. Most of the the time the guild chat would be filled with people posting links to cool items they found. I usually tuned out of what was being said because, for the most part, talking about loot in World of Warcraft is pretty boring. Now I wish I had paid more attention. The drama I witnessed last night would have made more sense: yesterday the guild imploded in a flurry of /gkicks. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to kick people out one by one, but this is what the guild officers did. Maybe it was cathartic for them. After several minutes, I was one of the last 9 people in the Camineet Avengers, a guild I was never really a part of. I need to find a new guild.
World of Warcraft
24 March 2007, early evening
The skinniest of our three fish was named little Ram, after me. This morning we woke up to find him struggling to swim around his tank. He was on his side and things weren’t looking too good for him. We fed him one last time, and that was that. He liked to swim around the fish tank, and eat fish food. It was a simple life, but he liked it. He is survived by Little Shima, his fiancee fish.
[10] Life
23 March 2007, mid-morning
In line with my post earlier in the day, those of you on Flickr who have cute little “oldschool..” banners on your Flickr buddy icons are lame-asses. The period of time between when Flickr started up and when Flickr got bought is pretty big. Pretty much everyone on my contact list is an “old school user” without having posted many photos, joined many groups, or done much at all with Flickr. The internets makes me crazy.
[6] Life
23 March 2007, early morning
Shima was bugging me for a good half hour yesterday because she wanted a nice photo of herself to put up on her stupid-ass Facebook. For those who don’t know Facebook used to be a social networking site for University students, which has slowly morphed into a social networking site for anybody. My friend Matt recently sold out and joined as well. One by one my friends are falling; I get random emails inviting me to join from friends all the time. My opinion of Facebook matches my opinion of MySpace and Friendster and all those other sites: its not very high. Hanging out behind your computer, alone, “talking” to people — stalking people — has its place, but i’m not sure i’d call it being social.
Update: The update I never thought I’d make: Fumio Funakoshi.
[37] Life
22 March 2007, mid-morning
A function object is any object that can behave like a function. A function object is commonly referred to as a functor, because function object takes too long to both say and type. In C++, we implement functors by creating classes that override operator(); syntactically, this makes a function call and a call to the member function operator() of the functor identical. Functors are used throughout the STL.
There are countless places where the STL requires you provide it with some code so that the generic task it aims to solve can be tailored to solve your specific task. Consider the STL set. When you instantiate a set you must provide the STL with information on how to sort the elements within it. (This class is implemented as a balanced-binary tree, and as such, needs to know how to keep the elements within it sorted.) You tell the STL how to sort your elements by supplying a function object that when given two elements from your class returns true when the first is “less than” the second — you define what it means for one object to the less than another.
This sort of behaviour would be implemented in C using call-back functions: supplying pointers to the functions you want some block of code to use. You can think of functors as the evolution of call-back functions; being proper classes, functors can encapsulate functionality nicely. Since functors do everything call-back functions do and more you should probably use them over call-back functions, more often not.
[1] Code
21 March 2007, early morning
Shima and I bought three fish for Persian New Year. The skinniest one we named Little Ram, the one with the round head we named Shima, and the other we named Steph, because the real Steph was over when we were discussing fish names. Steph, the fish, passed away this morning. I’m glad she made it to the New Year. She was a good fish, and she will be missed.
[6] Life
20 March 2007, late morning
The World Cup of Cricket is taking place right now. I watched a fair amount of two Cricket matches over the weekend: India vs. Bangladesh, and Pakistan vs. Ireland. Both games were shocking to say the least.
Read the rest of this post. (237 words)
[7] Life
Reporter: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”
Mr. McCain: (Long pause) You’ve stumped me.
— An interview with John McCain.
18 March 2007, mid-morning
Getting people to shell out $200 dollars for a junky Russian camera is hard work. At some point, the people behind the Lomographic Society started pimping cheaper novelty cameras. Shima bought me one when she went to the MET in New York with her family, the Lomography Fisheye. More recently, my cousin Jana also bought me a Lomo camera, a blue Supersampler.
The Lomo Supersampler is a small light plastic camera. Instead of housing a single lens, like most cameras, the Supersampler has four; these four lens fire in sequence to create little photo-montages. They can fire over a period of 2 seconds, or 0.2 seconds. Like the Fisheye camera, the Supersampler is a straight-up point and shoot. If you want to shoot on a bright sunny day, you better have loaded the camera up with ISO 100 film; If you want to shoot indoors, you better have some ISO 800 and a bit of luck.
As with the Fisheye, the appeal of the camera comes from the fact its so mindless to use. You pull a rip-chord to spool the film, press a button and you’re done. My first roll turned out much better than my first roll with the Fisheye. This Camera works best out doors. It took me ages to finish my first roll of film with this camera. Know that I now it works I think i’ll have to experiment with it more.
[1] Photography
15 March 2007, early morning
Tuesday night I jumped over fire with Shima and her mom for Chaharshanbe Suri (چهارشنبه‌سوری). It is one of several events that lead up to Nurooz (نوروز), the Persian New Year. The event took place at Ashbridges Bay, by the Beaches. Four fires were set up in a row in the sand and people would take turns jumping over each of them. Little children, too small to jump by themselves, would be helped by their parents. It was all a bit disorganized, and the ground was a bit slippery, so I was expecting someone to fall into the fire at some point during the night; while we were there this didn’t happen, though there was one very close call. Going to these events is always an interesting experience — if only because at any given event there will be 40 or so Iranians who all know each other, and myself.
[3] Life
13 March 2007, early morning
Shima and I started watching Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 last night. So far it seems very much like the last season: you have melodrama, comedy, and convoluted love triangles all in one neat package. Plus, the second episode features a dude with a tree through his body. The third season is off to a reasonable start.
Television
10 March 2007, lunch time
Shima and I watched the Namesake last night. The film is based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story follows a Benghali family of four as they live out their lives in America. The novel’s focus is primarily on the son in the family, and the conflict he feels being a first generation American. The movie spends a good deal of time focusing on the parents as well. I thought this part of the movie was incredibly well done. The book is excellent, and i’m glad to say so was the movie. Mira Nair has done a great job here, as have all the actors. Irfan Khan and Tabu are particularly good, and Kal Penn gives a great performance as well. What else can I say? I was very impressed.
The official The Namesake web site.
[1] Movies
