Chan's Personal Blog

I came across this article from the Globe and Mail entitled, "Quebec town bans kirpans, stoning women." This news story seems to be generating a lot of attention both in Canada and abroad. I've seen the BBC and CNN pick up the story.

From the article:

I have very mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I do think that political correctness and the drive to not offend anyone has gone too far. By being too worried about offending people of other cultures and religions causes us to compromise some of the values that our society holds dear. For example, suggesting that female officers shouldn't try arresting men from certain religions is very demeaning to female officers. In this country, women are equals; however, by being too culturally sensitive, we introduce exceptions to the rule.

On the other hand, some consider the people of this Quebec town xenophobic or racist. The article does point out that there is only one immigrant family that lives in that small town. By not respecting other people's cultures, we risk becoming intolerant. This is ironic considering that Canada is a nation of immigrants and many cultures.

This may be a taste of things to come though. European governments are currently engaged in a culture war against Muslims. A lot of far-right wing parties are gaining power in Europe which are trying to limit Muslim immigration and they're targetting Muslim citizens. In the Netherlands and France for example, Muslim women are not allowed to wear burquas (dress that covers women from head to toe). They see the burqua as a symbol of female oppression. However, if women openly choose to wear them, should the state be able to override the wishes of the individual? It's an interesting question considering that we live in western democracies where we champion individual rights and liberties.

I got this awesome e-mail from Pam two weeks ago, about a cylon encounter in Vancouver. She met Grace Park who plays Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valeri on Battlestar Galactica. I just had to blog about it. Here's the e-mail:


If I saw a Cylon in a Chinese restaurant, I probably would have tackled her down and yelled to someone to get the SWAT team down here. I guess this kind of ruins season 3 of Battlestar Galactica; clearly the Cylons have found earth.

Anyway, a lot of the episodes of Battlestar Galactica are filmed in Vancouver. There's a site that talks about some of the scenes that were shot in Vancouver for season 1. I would also like to point out that in the BSG mini-series, we see Lee Adama land his viper in the hanger deck of Colonial One. That hanger deck is actually the car deck of the BC Ferries.

Thanks for the story Pam

When 2007 started, oil was hovering at around $65/barrel. Then, it began to fall precipitously to as low as $50/barrel, even though OPEC said that they would defend oil prices at $60/barrel. Anyway, this is probably why you've seen gas prices slowly fall over the weeks.

In either case, I thought something was really fishy. Market analysts kept saying that oil prices were low because of the extremely mild winter that North America was experiencing. Heck, even Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech in Ottawa about climate change, and he wasn't even wearing a winter coat. Ottawa was seven degrees celcius that day. From what I hear, everything in Ottawa is normally frozen around this time of year.

But anyway, last week the U.S. was hit by a massive deep freeze because all of this cold air from Canada made it all the way down to Texas. Even California was frozen, and a lot of its citrus crop was destroyed. Surely this would cause oil prices to jump up right? Nope, they dropped.

The conspiracy theory part of me wanted an answer to these crazy low oil prices. Then, I stumbled across this article from MSNBC entitled, "Are Saudis waging an oil-price war on Iran?."


I encourage you to read the rest of the article because it provides a lot of interesting supporting facts to back up this speculation.

The U.S. is definitely increasing pressure on Iran though. This month, they raided an Iranian embassy in Iraq. Another American aircraft carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Persian Gulf to apply military pressure to Iran. There's nothing more intimidating than an aircraft carrier parked by your country which sports a 1/4 acre of sovereign American air power.

In either case, kudos for using economic power to stop the Iranians from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Hopefully this could stave off a direct military conflict with Iran. I think the U.S. and its allies are far too war weary to fight yet another war in the Middle East.

Last week, I submitted my third draft of my Master's Technical Project to my academic committee. Today, I received word from the committee that they have reviewed the paper, and said that it was ready to go. They have given me the green light to defend the paper. It's on!

So now, I have to schedule a defence day, and start studying. For the oral defence, I have to choose three courses that I've taken, and the committee will prepare questions for those courses. The oral defence will involve a 20 minute presentation of my technical project, and a 40 minute question and answer period where the committee will ask questions about my technical project and the three chosen courses.

The thing I'm most worried about are the questions about the courses. I'll have to re-study for those courses again, and treat it like I'm about to write a final exam in those courses once again. One of the courses that I will be using for my defence, I had taken in January 2005, so it has been a LONG time since I took that course, so I'm a bit rusty.

I was talking to Mr. Teel a few months back, as he had finished defending his Master's thesis, and he told me that the hardest part in the Master's degree is writing the paper. Everything after that is quite anti-climatic and not really a big deal. I sure hope he's right.

Anyway, we are at the last mile of the marathon.

Patrick brought this one to my attention. Jim Cramer (the stock guy that recommended buying shares of Google, $420/share->$500/share) was on the Colbert Report earlier this week. I found the clip on YouTube.

For those who aren't familiar with Mr. Cramer, here's a short clip that gives you taste of what his show, Mad Money, is like. It'll help you understand some of the jokes from the Colbert Report clip.

Finally, here's the clip from the Colbert Report.

Jim Cramer seems a little awkward on the show though. He's laughing way too much at some of the jokes.

Interestingly enough, when he recommended people to buy the New York Stock Exchange (NYX), the stock did move up quite a bit the next day.... then it came back down by the end of the week. When Cramer first covered NYX on his show Mad Money, he said that it was a $100 stock going to $240 in about 12-18 months. Be aware, there are risks associated with a growth stock like this, and definitely have to be patient because this is a long-term play.

Standard disclaimer: This does not constitute as financial advice. Please consult your financial advisor for any investment decisions. We are not responsible for any gains or losses that you may incur.

So for the last little while, my contact form hasn't been working due to a programming bug. Unfortunately, that means that I haven't been receiving e-mails from my blog if you've been trying to contact me through the contact form. Anyway, it's working once again. Thanks Adam for pointing out this problem to me.

A few weeks ago, I met up with a kid that I lead during kid's camp, back in the day. Except now, this kid is all grown up! He just showed up one day to volunteer at the community drop-in centre that we run for kids at church. It's kind of neat seeing him again because you see how your kid turned out in life.

Anyway, he had finished high school and he's enrolled in the culinary arts program at Camosun College. This peaked my interest since I love food, and I love to cook. So, he was telling me that it was a 1 year program, and he just started. The first 3 weeks this month would be completely devoted to theory, and then they get to start cooking.

So, one week he comes back to church, and he's got a book that he's reading. I ask him what it was, and it was a practice test on "Soups, Stocks, and Sauces." He was studying for a test in his course.

Now, since I watch the Food Network all the time, I thought it was time to put my encyclopedic knowledge of food and cooking to work. So, I asked the guy if I could take the practice test. The guy seemed very skeptical because he had been studying all week and here I am attempting to take the test without any preparation. The test had 20 questions, and they were all multiple choice. I finished the test in about 6 minutes, and I passed by a good margin. The guy seemed absolutely shocked and asked if I just randomly guessed the right answers. Ah, all that time watching the Food Network has paid off.

Anyway, I inquired what were the requirements to join the culinary arts program. Apparently you need 3 months of experience in the food industry. Unfortunately, I don't have that... but maybe after I finish my Master's, I should go work at a McDonalds for 3 months so I enroll in the culinary arts program.

What's funny about this is that I recall an episode of a show on the Food Network called Restaurant Makeover. They had a master chef who joined the food industry late in life. Apparently the chef started out as a computer programmer, but after 10 years, he became quite jaded by industry so he changed careers and became a master chef. I could actually see myself doing something like that in the far future. Food is one of my passions.

My friend warned me that being a chef isn't as glamourous as it seems. He said that the instructors always warn that being a chef is a very "behind the scenes" kind of job, and you have to really love your work to stay in the business. Often times, you'll never get any recognition, and when you hear from the customer, it's usually complaints about the food.

For me, that warning wasn't much of a turnoff since being a sound guy or a computer programmer is quite similar. We work in the shadows, behind the scenes, and no one has a clue what we're doing. The only time we hear from people is when they complain.

So, here's my prediction. 2017, I will leave the computer industry to pursue a Master's in Culinary Arts. Hmm... it's becoming apparent that I have an obsession in collecting diplomas, degrees, and other random pieces of framed paper .