Category: Journal

Podfade (fading out and fading in)

I’m a bit sad that a bunch of my favourite podcasts have gone off the air recently:

* [CBC’s Search Engine](http://www.cbc.ca/searchengine/) announced they wouldn’t be renewed for a second season. Jesse’s still going to be posting new stuff come September, but the sophisticated news magazine about the interaction of the Internet and society is gone.
* On [Have Games Will Travel](http://www.havegameswilltravel.net/), Paul Tevis said that after his eleventy-first episode, he was going off to Rivendell to live with the elves stopping the show. He’ll still be posting an occasional audio diary thing, and he’s still on [The Voice of the Revolution](http://www.thevoiceoftherevolution.com/), but I’ll miss HGWT. Not that he’d been posting a whole lot, but his last few shows were actually really good.
* And [LugRadio](http://www.lugradio.org/) just announced they’re breaking up the band after their upcoming LugRadio Live UK show. I’d only started listening to them around Christmas, looking for a Linux lifestyle show kind of like [MacBreak Weekly](http://twit.tv/mbw), but for free software (and without all the iPhone bullshit). They were fun, and I’m sad they’re gonna be gone.

Also, while they’re not ending, [Fear the Boot](http://www.feartheboot.com/) lost Luke, who was my favourite host. They’re changing things up quite a bit too, but I don’t begrudge them that.

So I’ve been adding some new feeds to fill the void. Some I added a while ago, but I’m on the lookout for new shows to fill similar niches. There are a few that look promising:

* [The Ubuntu UK Podcast](http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/) doesn’t have the same sort of fun chemistry that LugRadio had, but I like the Ubuntu focus and they’ve got some fabulous interviews already. I’m trying other Linux podcasts, but a lot of them (I’m thinking specifically about the [Linux Action Show](http://www.linuxactionshow.com/) here) are way too influenced by American talk radio and are incredibly obnoxious.
* [Master Plan](http://masterplanpodcast.net/) is kind of interesting. I picked it up because Ryan Macklin did [Have Master Will Plan](http://havegameswilltravel.net/index.php?post_id=332719) with Paul Tevis a few months ago. I don’t have any aspirations towards game design, but he does have some neat discussions and interviews about how to make role playing work, so that’s much appreciated.
* [Writing Excuses](http://www.writingexcuses.com/) is a great, 15 minute weekly podcast about writing. I picked it up after seeing Howard Taylor at Ad Astra. It’s fun, funny, thought-provoking and makes me want to write more. You can’t really ask for more than that from a writing podcast.
* I’m trying out a few of CBC’s short summer series, including [Between You and Me](http://www.cbc.ca/radiosummer/betweenyouandme/) and [Diet for a Hungry Planet](http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/hungryplanet2.html) (I ♥ Michael Pollan). [Spark](http://www.cbc.ca/spark/), which is off for the summer, but will return next season, is much more of a technology lifestyle show, compared to Search Engine’s technology analysis, but it has occasional interviews with [Merlin Mann](http://43folders.com/), who is awesome.

Apparently I don’t have a doctor

I dropped my parent’s hot tub cover on my toe on Saturday. It hurt a lot at the time. My toenail turned purple.

When I was a kid, my dad’s toenail would do something to his toe (he used to jog a lot) and his toenail would turn black and fall off. This was kinda gross, but it would grow back and he seemed generally resigned to it. So I sort of resigned myself to the same fate. Ew. It takes a year or so to grow back.

It doesn’t really hurt anymore. It just feels weird. And it’s annoying wearing shoes.

But then I decided to go online and see what I could find out. Along with a thorough squicking, I found out that I could drain the pressure and maybe save the nail. I could even do it at home! But a little voice inside my head told me that an infected toenail was even would be even worse than what I had. But hey! I have a doctor! I phoned them up this morning to make an appointment.

First I get a busy signal. Then they hung up on me after I make it through the pre-recorded message (I’m pretty sure that was an accident…). Then I phone back, sit through the message again and wait on hold for a while and eventually get a friendly receptionist.

I make my appointment and give her my name. “Do you sometimes go by another name?” she asks. Uh oh. I give her my OHIP number. Nope, not there either. Yes, I’d seen him before. Oh.

Somehow, I no longer have a doctor. Fortunately, they’re still taking new patients! I just have to show up for an interview next week. For my toenail, though, I get to go to the ER (ugh, no) or a walk-in clinic.

I don’t know if I should go back to these jokers. I didn’t like the main doctor guy much the one and only time I’d gone to see them. I never get the impression they want to have much to do with me, besides collect money from OHIP. On the other hand, I doubt there are any other doctors accepting patients around here who are really any better.

Ugh.

In Belleville

I’m in Belleville for the weekend. Which is nice, since tomorrow’s Father’s Day and all. My dad’s not around, though. He’s working most of the weekend.

I was supposed to come up last weekend, but I ran into difficulties. I took the car into the shop for what I thought was a quick oil change and tire change (I hadn’t gotten around to getting it off the snow tires, and figured that might be a good thing to do before I embarked on a long highway trip). They were backed up, though, and it took about two hours just for them to get around to start working on my car. And then, after the quick oil change and tire change, they pointed out a bunch of stuff that needed work (although not urgently). I decided it was probably a good idea to take care of a couple of those things, but that meant I wouldn’t get my car back till the next morning.

So that scuttled my going-home plans last week. It worked out, though, since it gave me the opportunity to go to Toronto for Rin’s birthday and hang out with Stela. These are good things.

Anyway, here I am, sitting it the living room of my youth. My parents seem to still be clinging to their Bulls paraphernalia. There’s a “Zellers Go Bulls Go” towel on the armchair opposite and my mom was still wearing her “more cowbell” t-shirt this morning. I don’t think they’ve quite accepted reality yet.

Part of my plan was to phone up a bunch of bed and breakfast places and see if there were any likely candidates for Ellen and I to stay at for my sister’s wedding that I could go check out while I was here. But after getting nearly no sleep the night before last and then driving home through a typhoon last night, I’m not eager to phoning around a bunch of places today. That may be an excuse, since if I’m honest, I’m never eager to phone around to places.

I just sent my first-ever letter to my MP

You can read it too:

> June 13, 2008
>
> The Honourable Andrew Telegdi
> House of Commons
> Parliament Buildings
> Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> I am a constituent who is concerned about copyright and intellectual
> property issues. As a member of Waterloo’s high tech community, I
> make my living from my intellectual property. I understand the need
> to balance the interests of all stakeholders.
>
> I do not believe that [Bill C-61](http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=3570473&file=4), the amendment to the Copyright Act
> tabled by minister Prentice yesterday, strikes that balance.
>
> As has been noted, copyright is complex and nuanced. Time and care
> are needed to make sure changes to this important piece of
> legislation do not result in consequences that are damaging to
> Canadian culture and industry, and that Canadian citizens (ie.
> “consumers”) are treated fairly and with respect.
>
> I am [concerned](http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3025/125/) that the provisions to protect technological
> protection measures trump all hard-won protections for consumers and
> render illegal activities like device-shifting, time-shifting and
> back ups that are legal and common practice today.
>
> I am concerned that the technological measures protections may have
> far-reaching consequences beyond the above, stifling Canada’s
> high-tech innovation. I also do not believe that these protections
> have rendered any real protection to artists in jurisdictions where
> they have been put in place. There may very little benefit for a
> change to law that comes at a very high cost.
>
> I am concerned that the “making available” provision could open
> Canadian citizens to indiscriminate and extortionate lawsuits like
> those seen in the United States.
>
> I am [concerned](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080612-canadian-dmca-brings-balanced-copyright-to-canada.html) that strengthened “moral rights” provisions could
> stifle Canadian culture, particularly a thriving remix culture and
> Canada’s long, but unprotected tradition of parody.
>
> Most of all, I am very concerned that all of this will be enacted
> without due consultation with Canadian citizens: Canadian artists,
> Canadian consumers, Canadian industry and Canadian institutions.
> This is a complex matter that requires considerable deliberation.
> This is not a bill that can be railroaded through the House.
>
> I sincerely hope you take the time to review these issues and vote
> against any bill that does not truly balance the needs and interests
> of Canadians ahead of powerful international lobbies.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Darcy Casselman

I’m sure there’s more, but this is about the best I can do at 6 in the morning running on about 3 hours’ sleep.

You might want to [write](http://www.copyrightforcanadians.ca/action/firstlook/) too.

*Edited to add:* I’m now a supporting member of the [Electronic Frontier Foundation](http://www.eff.org) in support of [Online Rights Canada](http://www.onlinerights.ca/).

Also, if you can’t bring yourself to do anything else, you should probably join [the Fair Copyright for Canada group on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6315846683) if you’re on Facebook. I know, that’s not many of you, but maybe you could pass it along to your Facebook friends. The size of this group has been referenced on the floor of the House of Commons to demonstrate that Canadians actually care about intellectual property issues (bizarre, I know).

Deep thoughts

[Whenever](http://www.cbc.ca/searchengine/blog/2008/06/search_engine_heads_to_china.html) someone says “[netizen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netizen)”, the first thing I think of isn’t “citizen”; it’s “denizen”.

I just [looked that word up](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denizen). I’d always assumed it was related to [den](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/den), but apparently it’s not.