• weird url patterns
• Image uploading tended to be a pain
  

Dear Honourable Bill Siksay,

I am writing to you to express strong disagreement to Bill C-15, introduced by The Hon. Robert Douglas Nicholson.

This bill introduces mandatory minimum sentencing, a concept proven to not work as shown by overcrowding in United States prisons. Canadians know the drug war has failed, and 62% support the legalization of marijuana. Please take this into consideration when this bill is put to vote.

I am deeply concerned about the impact that such a law would bring to Canada's justice system and feel that any legislative action to this affect would turn otherwise stalwart citizens into imprisoned criminals.

Lately,
I don't think of you at all.
Or wonder what you're up to,
Or how you're your getting on.
I never think of calling you,
Or how things could've been.
Or wonder where you sleep at night,
Or whose arms you wake in.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
Lately,
I don't get lost in daydreams.
I never lay awake at night,
Staring in my bed.
And I don't think about your face,
Or anything you say.
And I don't think twice,
When someone says your name.
Or twist my mind in circles,
Wondering which of us to blame.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
I never walk alone,
And think of all the empty words.
Or wonder when the day will break,
Or when the tides will turn.
And I don't break down,
When someone says your name.
Or twist my mind in circles,
Wondering which of us to blame.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
Lately,
I don't think of you at all.
Lately,
Lately,
Oh lately.

"Two Ghosts"
Boy Eats Drum Machine


woke up in time to see you turn into a ghost
from the top of the world
theres a view of sun so clean you can only look once
I see you carried away by the wind now
no matter what we say the things we claim dry out and blow away

its over my love
now were just a piece of the scenery in a painting signed anonymous
over my love
over just out of reach in retrospect I guess I loved you too much
loved you too much
loved you loved you when all I really needed was someone to touch
someone to touch
someone someone coarse enough to resist any powerful force

I hear a sound I think maybe youre here somewhere now
sometimes you hear sometimes you see but youre only imagining
if theres a season theres got to be a reason for it
you make your peace you make your mistakes
sometimes the world gives sometimes it takes

More to come.

The Original Site

The old site had many issues that start to gather up more and more until I Finlay became too lazy, busy, and tired to do all the tasks that it took to make a single post.

Previously, in order to make a post, I had to:

• Write up the post
• Reformat it to HTML
• Ensure that all of the css, javascript, and links were connected correctly
• Repeat the whole process in a template.
• Make a new spot in the forums
• Link the index and other pages back to the new post

So I then thought to myself, "hey Siraf, why don't you write your own scripting program to do this?" And spent the next three months without updating the site and realizing that this is a far more daunting task than I originally intended. When asking for advice, I found that most people recommended I simply use a pre-built Content Management System (CMS).

Choices

But which one to use? After a bit of research, I narrowed it down to three choices:

• Movable Type
• Wordpress
• Drupal

Drupal was too complicated to install with my web host, and was impossible without the adjustment of a couple shell scripts, so it was counted out.

Wordpress is an open-source blogging tool and although Wordpress was recommended by my host, I found it to be a bit too intensive in SQL queries and scaling. It would have been a bit slower.

Movable type's use of perl in their cgi ensured that I could have a faster site and still maintain the core features of a CMS-based site.

In Sum

The issues I ran into Movable type installation were mostly a result of the plesk-based system and a lack of understanding of where the root of the site was located. This was quickly resolved with some google searching. I'm planning on writing up a bit more on how I managed this in a later post.

Until then, cheers!

If you're male, live in the United States, and are between the ages of 16-25, you have definitely received a phone-call or some other form of obnoxious solicitation attempting to get you to join the military.

Don't get me wrong, there are cases (though very few) where war is justified -- but the U.S. hasn't met these cases for along time (at least, not in my lifetime). If you're in the lower-classes, then this problem becomes two-fold:

1. Fighting for "freedom" or "your country" is the right thing to do.
2. The military will pay for your school, plus a bonus signing offer.

These are lies.

The fight for "freedom"

Everyone has an inclination to fight for something higher than themselves,everyone wants to fight for a greater good than themselves.
Unfortunately, the military, any military (with the exception of a few extreme scenarios) feeds an idea of defense. In the United States, this is the defense of freedom and liberty.

In Iraq (as is our current dilemma) this defense is of your country and your family's lives. In Iraq, you or someone you know has lost a life, a home, a job, or their dignity to violent "Americans." Though we don't intend this to be the case, sadly it becomes the case: in war people die. The blame of course, will be shifted around, but in the end, it is your fault. As an invading party getting into or supporting the fighting, you hold the blame. Their perception is actually reality.

Iraqi sectarian violence is only the result of  a U.S.presence that creates and catalyzes an uneasiness about those forced into power. It exemplifies the differences and causes war. These people can't go outside without the fear that their head will be separated from their body, that they may never see their children again.

Insurgents do not fight because they fear their own deaths, for why would they commit a suicidal act? No, it isn't the fault of their fear, but a fear of their children and family. They believe that this is the only way to protect their lives and as long as the US remains committed to its war of terror, they are right.