2008: The Year of Unemployment

Well, here I am. Another year has gone by, and I take the first day of the year to reflect on all the wonders of the year past, and try to surmise that I am indeed better off this year, than I was the year prior. Well, in a lot of ways, this year felt like a giant step backward. In another light, I had to break free of molds that kept me trapped in the circles I had been driving in for more than five years of my life.

So what was the biggest news in my life of 2008?

1. I quit my job of six and a half years. For many reasons I wish to remain private, but in its' most literal sense, it was killing me slowly. I wasn't earning as much as I should have. I simply had enough, and I needed to explore new avenues and learn new skills.

2. I became a simple farmer. And no, you won't see me wearing cowboy boots, belt buckles, funny shirts, or cowboy hats. And you won't find me listening to Country music either. But this year, you found me outdoors for more than 12 hours per day, driving heavy equipment, pushing, pulling, lifting, and working my butt off. Yes it was a nice change from the drudgery of being at the same desk, doing the same things over and over again.

3. The rock band I play in, Tung N' Groove, managed to play a number of successful shows in the area. As the band gained momentum, we managed to play to some very busy establishments, build a growing fanbase on Facebook, and record a full-length demo CD, which we supply to prospective clients. The band even played our first out-of-town gig to a packed house in Brooks.

4. My blues band, The Savoys, had nothing but trouble securing work over the course of the year. In fact, we played a total of three gigs the entire year. I'm sure the whole band found it frustrarting, since we had to recruit a new member, and learn a pile of new material. I really would like to say otherwise, but I have a bad feeling that if we can't find any gigs soon -- and I mean really soon -- the future of the band will be in question.

5. I was fortunate to hone my skills at recording to the point where I have managed to garner some attention from prospective clients. With assistance from select bandmates, I managed to record both the Savoys and Tung N Groove, as well as a few other clients -- for money. I really would wish that this mobile recording thing could grow into something I could do once or twice a month -- if I could make five hundred bucks a month recording, I'd be one happy camper. That would be a considerable raise, as I think my little studio earned something like 500 bucks this entire year.

6. I continue to teach my pupils. It appears that I am getting a few more phone calls as of late, which doesn't even pay the bills, but hey, something's better than nothing at all.

So that's been it, really for the year. I can't say I'm desperate yet, but I would sure like to earn more than I'm earning right now. Ideally, I'd love it if I could make music (and when I say that, I mean, bands, students, and recording) a full-time endeavor. I don't think that's going to happen this year, though.

To My American Friends...

Let's do it. Let's make history. Let's forget the status quo. Let's take a chance in hope for change.

Let's elect the first African-American to the White House in history.

In one day, you have the power to not only change your nation, but change the world.

It's about time.

The world is watching, and waiting in anticipation.

Nothing To See Here Folks, Move Along...

The result of today's election -- of the $300 million the Canadian Government spent on this election campaign, has been somewhat disappointing to many Canadians. In one light, I am glad that I contributed in my own way, even if the person I voted for was not elected, I at least had my say.

That being said, for the most part, the election results came in pretty much the way I had suspected they would.

Now, how would you know this? I would have made my prediction publicly on this website, but like so many of the public, I was not terribly excited about this election campaign. The only major issue (the economic meltdown) only came to light mid-way through the campaign. Just take my word for it -- this is what I predicted:

• The Conservatives would marginally increase their representation in Parliament, though only succeed in winning a minority. In truth, they gained 19 seats, which was more than I expected they would.
  
• The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois would lose seats. In truth, the Bloc managed to maintain their representation; the Liberals lost a substantial 26 seats.
  
• The New Democrats would gain representation -- though not as much as leader Jack Layton would predict. I was very accurate in this prediction, as the New Democrats gained over 20% representation in the House.
  
• The Green Party would remain a fringe party.
  

What does this mean to the common Canadian citizen? Well, not much really. The face of parliament hasn't changed much since Parliament was dissolved last September. There was no major shift in the balance of power. I guess this is the reason why so many people feel that this election was a waste of time and taxpayer money.

I bet if you ask Jack Layton, he would feel that $300 million was money well spent. When you consider that his party (and his power in Parliament) grew by more than 20 percent tonight, he became the true winner of this evening's election.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, though gaining 19 seats in the House, becomes the first loser, as he was unsuccessful in clinching a majority government.

The bigger loser, of course was Stephane Dion. Losing 26 seats in the House will ensure his leadership will be cast into question in the coming days. I suspect we will see the Liberals spending all kinds of party money on leadership conventions, only to produce a new leader who will have the daunting task in attempting to repair a broken party.

The biggest losers of all, were the people of Canada. Roughly 56-percent of eligible voters cast a ballot -- the lowest in Canadian history. I consider this a major black mark for Canada, and for democracy as a whole. Voter apathy produces only one thing: Tyranny. If you consider that there were nearly ten-million voters in Canada that did not cast a ballot today, there was a distinct chance that those votes could have impacted the results of many ridings.

To protest by not voting (something I have been hearing about recently) is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. This is exactly how tyrants come to power.

Deep Freeze

If any of my readers browse through the news headlines (or perhaps are unfortunate enough to be living it), they would be aware that the great Canadian Prairies are in an Arctic deep freeze where we are experiencing temperatures as low as -40˚ Celsius, with wind chill factors in excess of -50˚. For those who are fortunate enough to never have to endure these temperatures, exposed flesh freezes in under a minute, and necessities such as fuel will freeze in your gas tank.

I am writing this because I am currently 90 minutes minutes late for work, as my car has been rendered the equivalent of a large maroon ice cube. The block heater has been plugged in for the last 2 hours, and I've been trying to turn over the engine every 30 minutes, though my attempts have currently proved fruitless.

I realize now that my car should have been plugged in overnight, but the forecast stated that temperatures were expected to rise overnight. Once again, the "Precision Weather Forecast" was far from being precise.

In ten minutes, I will once again venture out into the abyss and make another futile attempt to start my car. Otherwise, I could attest these turn of events as fate telling me not to leave the house today.

You know what it's like in the Yukon wild when it's sixty-nine below;
When the ice-worms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow;
When the pine trees crack like little guns in the silence of the wood,
And the icicles hang down like tusks under the parka hood;
When the stove-pipe smoke breaks sudden off, and the sky is weirdly lit,
And the careless feel of a bit of steel burns like a red-hot spit;
When the mercury is a frozen ball, and the frost-fiend stalks to kill --
Well, it was just like that that day when I set out to look for Bill.

-- Robert W. Service: "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill"

UPDATE:

I managed to get my car started, and arrived at work at 10:30AM, a full two and a half hours late.

There Was Something In The Air That Night

In recent weeks, there has been a considerable amount of buzz around the Macworld 2008 Keynote. Rumors of new Apple Computers and products have had Mac zealots frothing at the mouth, while placing bets at what might just be under the black curtains at Apple's booth. By this morning, the buzz had grown to such proportions that the commotion outside Moscone Center this morning was reported to be near-pandemonium.

Though I have yet to watch the keynote address, I was reading the highlights via live web feeds, so I have least, some idea what Steve Jobs had to say -- which I could honestly say, wasn't as Earth-shattering as some keynotes have been in years past.

The biggest news, of course was the announcement of the MacBook Air, a new notebook with a new form factor, which should have the competition running back to their drawing boards. Now, there is nothing new with ultra-light, ultra-portable, or ultra-small computers -- except that these types of notebooks are crippled in one way or another. They usually have under-sized keyboards, are under-powered, too small a screen, limited expandability, or too little battery life. So why should Apple be any different?

Apple did some very impressive things with their new notebook. It is the thinnest design of any notebook in production today. At its' thickest, the notebook is 0.76" (1.94 cm) thick at its' rear, and it tapers to a mind-boggling 0.16" (0.4cm) thin at the front. Apple also ensured that the computer weigh as little as possible, as their new model is a scant 3 pounds (1.36kg) -- roughly half of what conventional notebook computers weigh today. To further complement the new design, Apple included a 13" widescreen, and a full-size laptop keyboard. The Power Plant inside the MacBook Air includes 2 Gigabytes of RAM, an 80 Gigabyte Hard drive, a 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 802.11n wireless, built-in Bluetooth 2.1, and 5 hours of battery life. Most impressive of all, is that Apple is incorporating their multi-touch technology -- as evident in their iPhones, into this new notebook. This means you can pinch, stretch, rotate, zoom, scroll, and rearrange with 2 or 3-finger gestures on the trackpad.

And you can have one of these beauties in two weeks for $1799.00 US. Some pundits feel the price point is a little steep; others feel that it is much cheaper than some of the competitions' ultra-thin portables.

As fantastic as the new machine sounds, I am not the least bit interested in buying one. Why? What did Apple skimp on in order to produce such a lightweight machine?

Well, I suppose it depends on your intended uses for said machine. If all you are going to do is write school papers, listen to music, write emails and surf the web, then this may just be the machine for you. If I were going to College this year, this would be the notebook I would buy -- simply because it is smaller and lighter than a binder I would tote in my backpack.

One thing I do require a notebook for is mobile recording -- and nearly all recording interfaces use Firewire. Guess what? Apple removed the firewire port on the MacBook Air to save space and weight. Strike one. I suppose I could purchase a recording interface that employs USB 2.0, but that's another story altogether.

A 1.8", 80-gigabyte hard drive (the same ones used in Apple's iPods) are used in the MacBook Air, to conserve space and weight. Sadly, 80 gigabytes doesn't cut it for hard drive space these days. Strike two. In order to solve the problem, an external drive would be required to store the user's photos, music, movies, and documents, which brings me to my next beef.

Apple included only one USB port on the MacBook Air. While other notebook manufacturers are including as many as four USB ports on their portables, I feel this a poor area to cut corners in. Only geeks know how to set up and run wireless print servers; the rest of us plug in our printers via USB. Some of us like external keyboards and mice; especially while working at a desk. Not to mention, we plug in our iPods and digital cameras. Not enough USB ports? Strike three. I suppose you could buy a USB hub to connect all your peripherals to.

Apple further slimmed the design by omitting the optical drive. You can buy a specially-designed external drive from Apple for 100 bucks (sold separately, of course). Now, I agree that my optical drives get little usage; I likely burn 1 disc per month, but it's the security blanket issue that concerns me (what I mean by this is explained below). Apple has been ingenious in designing a clever little application that allows the user to 'hijack' the optical drive of a networked machine, and have the software install on the MacBook via a wireless network connection. I am quite intrigued by this technology, if it works, then it will be really cool to witness, and may spell the end of optical drives on portables. What scares me, is how does one boot from a system recovery disc on this machine, if, heaven forbid, the hard drive fails? I would like to do further research into their wireless-optical-drive-hijacking thingy before I administer another strike.

The MacBook Air does not have built-in Ethernet. Its only connection to the rest of the world is via its' wireless capabilities. You can, however, purchase a USB to Ethernet dongle and connect to your local area network that way. Another cursed dongle. As far as Ethernet goes, I don't think I have ever connected my notebook to the network via Ethernet, so I am unsure if this is deserving of a strike.

Apple ensured that every MacBook Air comes stock with 2 Gigabytes of RAM installed. What they don't tell you is that there is no room for expansion. That's right, the RAM is non-upgradeable. Now, 2 gigabytes of RAM should be enough for a year or two, but when will it not be enough? Remember, Bill Gates once said that 640k of RAM ought to be enough for everybody. Strike four.

Now, I am speculating here, but I imagine that a lot of the exciting technologies that are evident in the new MacBook Air will find their way into the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines by their next revision. I am specifically referring to the multi-touch technology Apple is continually developing, though given the relative success (or failure) of solid-state storage, and the lack of optical drives may deterime which technologies make it into these new machines. I know the MacBook Air by now sounds really compromised. Remember what all the pundits said about the iMac when it was released in 1997? "No SCSI? No ADB? No Floppy Drive? What is Steve thinking!?" They all predicted it would fail miserably -- and it was a grand slam. So we could be wrong. Maybe missing some of these features isn't much of an issue after all.

The following features would be the only things that would get me excited about purchasing a new notebook: LED backight (already in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro), lighter weight, and longer battery life (I want 8 hours!), but I am unwilling to compromise on such issues as RAM (expandable to at least 4 Gigabytes), and drive storage. And since I often deal with high-end audio production, so Firewire and Gigabit Ethernet are a must-have on my ideal machine.

So no MacBook Air for me. Although, I think we will see new MacBooks in exciting new form factors in the coming months, and those will be impressive machines. They will be thinner than the current models too -- just not as 'thin as air'.

I wonder how long it will take Low End Mac to dub this machine a 'Road Apple'.