Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Bush doesn't like Gay Marriages!

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush calls for gay marriage ban:

"Bush calls for gay marriage ban

President George W Bush has endorsed a constitutional amendment that would ban marriages of same-sex couples."

This is really encouraging to me. It's nice to see a President that won't be pushed around by activists that think they can do whatever they want. We can't compromise any more - we've lost so much ground in recent years.

I'm really impressed with Mr. Bush taking a stand here. The article also said:

"Mr Bush's main Democratic opponents for the presidency do not back gay marriage, but do not support a ban either - making the president seem firm and principled and the Democrats weak and vacillating, says our correspondent."

I really hope he succeeds with this. We should pray for him.

Monday, February 23, 2004

Fun with Fakie

Snowboarding Surface Tricks | ABC-of-Snowboarding: Snowboard Portal: "Riding Fakie
Riding fakie (switch stance) is simply riding with your front foot at the back and your backfoot at the front. Sounds easy? Well it is not! Everything you have been working so hard to master such as edge control and carving turns is suddenly totally new again as everything you do is suddenly the other way around. Riding Fakie is very important however in learning tricks. It is often the starting and/or ending stance of a trick and it will help you when you are unable to finish a trick and must land halfway."

I was up at Blue Mountain again on Saturday. This time I was teaching a couple of friends the absolute basics of Snowboarding. Since we weren't going to be flying down the hill, I thought this would be a good opportunity to practice riding fakie.

Riding fakie, or switch as it's also known, involves facing the opposite way than you're used to. I normally ride regular (left foot forwards) so my fakie stance is goofy (right foot forwards). The main reason you'd want to ride fakie is so that you can keep going after doing a 180 degree jump. It's not like I'm about to do one of them any time soon but I still like the idea of being able to go both ways.

It's really difficult to start riding the opposite way to what you've learned. It's like being an absolute beginner all over again. As you can imagine, it's pretty frustrating going over the same stuff I've just spent 2 seasons learning for a regular stance. The one thing that made it more bearable was that if I got a bit bored, I could always flip round to regular and then practice my ollies on some moguls.

My regular riding's improved a lot this season and I'm starting to get more air on jumps. It's a lot of fun but this weekend was a bit icy for me. I was going to try a run on a double-black diamond for the first time but I decided against it when I saw how steep it was and how little snow there was as well.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Rabbi Makes Interesting Predictions for 'The Passion'

Rabbi Daniel Lapin made some interesting predictions of the effects of Mel Gibson's movie in an article dated Feb 13th:

"One, Mel Gibson and Icon Productions will make a great deal of money. Those distributors who surrendered to pressure from Jewish organizations and passed on Passion will be kicking themselves, while Newmarket Films will laugh all the way to the bank. Theater owners are going to love this film.

Two, Passion will become famous as the most serious and substantive Biblical movie ever made. It will be one of the most talked-about entertainment events in history, it is currently on the cover of Newsweek and Vanity Fair.

My third prediction is that the faith of millions of Christians will become more fervent as Passion uplifts and inspires them. Passion will propel vast numbers of unreligious Americans to embrace Christianity. The movie will one day be seen as a harbinger of America's third great religious reawakening."

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Finally - a soluton to "The Case of the missing Status Bar"

MeisterPlanet: Internet Explorer status bar fix

I'm so glad I found this article. I recently installed XP on my workstation in the office and I noticed with much frustration that the Status Bar was not always shown when I opened a page. This really bugged me because, like the author of the article, I look at the status bar to see where a hyperlink is going to take me before I click on it. (Uh-oh, I might be a nerd after all!)

Well, the solution involved a bit of Windows black magic but 10 "Hail Marys" later I'm good again.

Norah Jones rocks! Well, she Jazzes but she's cool anyway.

Norah Jones - Sunrise

I was just watching the video of Norah Jones' new song on her website. Although the set reminded me vaguely of the teletubbies, I still like it. More than anything else, I appreciate the innocent light-heartedness of the whole thing. Maybe I'm sounding like an old man here but it occurred to me that so many music videos we see nowadays tend to have such sexual overtones but Norah Jones' stuff is different.

It's nice to see an artist who doesn't feel the need to undress to get noticed.

Stop press - robot moves 27.5m!

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission
Yesterday the Mars Rover, Spirit, travelled a new record-breaking distance of 27.5m.

All of a sudden my day doesn't seem quite as unproductive as I first thought.

Killed by kites

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Kite deaths mar Pakistan festival

How bizarre is this: nine people killed in a kite-flying festival. What a waste! It strikes me as sad the trivial things that people die doing sometimes. It's just so unnecessary.

Competitors have to either knock other people's kites out of the air or capture them. People use all kinds of tactics such as having glass fragments attached to the string of their kite or using metal wire or corrosive chemicals.

Some people died through electrocution when a wire kite flew into a power line. A young girl also died when her throat was cut by a wire attached to a kite.

Monday, February 16, 2004

MSNBC - 'Passion' co-star says film isn't anti-Semitic

MSNBC - 'Passion' co-star says film isn't anti-Semitic

It's funny the things people find to argue about. Here's a film about Jesus Christ - the most documented historical figure of all time. The battle against powers and principalities - God vs. Satan, angels vs. demons and all the rest. Now it's Mel Gibson vs. media critics. Don't people get it? It's not really that important who put the nails in his hands or the cross on his back. That's not the point. It was fallen man, nothing more.

I find it tiring when people try to look at spiritual things without any of the spiritual factors in the equation. It's never going to add up then. Who killed Jesus? We did! Mankind, humanity. There, that's the answer. Now let's move on. But no, we won't move on. The debate will continue as the point drifts by and the message of grace, forgiveness and salvation is drowned out by the nit-picking of people with their own humanistic agendas.

Man, I'm tired of this debate!

Unix and C are April Fool's jokes?

JMO's Home Page

How bizarre... A friend e-mailed me this page which basiclly says the guys that invented Unix and C were really having a laugh and making fun of Multics (which I've never heard of) and Pascal (which I have).

Man, whatever happened to tp-ing peoples cars or getting them to call back a 'Joe King'? Some people are just too geeky for their own good! I mean, how long can you write an operating system AND a programming language and still be chuckling to yourself, thinking "Oh my gosh this is going to be great!" ?

Strange.

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

cbc.ca/kids/games/snowboarding

cbc.ca/kids/games/snowboarding

A friend just e-mailed me a link to this game. I love it! I especially like the "whump" sound when the wee guy goes on his arse. Most entertaining. Too bad I've got work to do, otherwise I'd play it for much longer.

Monday, February 02, 2004

کنی

I've been learning a bit of Dari in anticipation of going to Afghanistan some day. So far I can recognise some letters in the alphabet although it's really complex compared to our Roman alphabet. The way letters appear depends on whereabouts they are in the word.

My name is:

کنی

A-B-C, 1-2-3

ABC-of-Snowboarding: All about Snowboarding

This is such a cool website about snowboarding. It explains the half-pipe and a whole ton of tricks and other things.

The Half-Pipe @ Blue

I went up to Blue on Saturday. That's the 4th time I've gone this year. I'm starting to really enjoy it. It's not quite as scary as it was at first. I'm beginning to get confident enough to attempt a few jumps when I'm going faster, rather than just chickening out.

This time I tried the Half-Pipe for the first time. I didn't do too badly all things considered. I got a lot of speed up and went quite high up the sides. The only problem was turning. I managed toe to heel ok but it was heel to toe that was tricky. I ride regular so that was turning on the left wall.

I'm getting more confident at turning onto my toe edge at higher speeds. This means I'm less likely to put on the brakes when I start to get some speed up. Instead, I switch edges and slow down slightly but ride on. It's so much fun!
All My Tears
Well now I've found the lyrics and chords. I just need to know the melody as well and I'm in business.

All My Tears

I've had this song going round in my head for a while now but I could only remember the first couple of lines. I finally got round to looking it up. It was written by Julie Miller and covered by Emmylou Harris.

All My Tears:
"When I go don't cry for me
In my fathers arms I'll be
The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I'll be whole

Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of Jesus' face
And I will not be ashamed
For my savior knows my name

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away

Gold and silver blind the eye
Temporary riches lie
Come and eat from heaven's store
Come and drink and thirst no more

So weep not for me my friend
When my time below does end
For my life belongs to him
Who will raise the dead again

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away "