of course i’m uneasy over what’s happening in ottawa, we have a minority prime minister actively subverting the democratic institution with seemingly great effect. it may sound like hyperbole to say that having government answerable to parliament (no matter how screeching and ineffectual the house may and often be) is one of the fundamental principles of democracy in canada, but it’s bloody true. yes we have other pillars holding up our system here in Canada*, but i can’t help but feel that this prorogation is just the latest sign of a system crumbling under it’s weight. AB, a commenter on remarkks post decrying complacency, would disagree (as would others) but just because something is technically legal doesn’t make it right or good for democracy or society.

we’re really lucky in canada, so lucky that most people don’t bother to become involved in politics at all. i don’t really blame them. unlike Mark, i’m not particularly angry at people who don’t bother to vote (although i do try to convince them to do so, even if only to spoil their ballot), politics is a game with weird rules filled with unlikeable players who often make terrible decisions while acting like spoiled children who won’t share their toys. i wouldn’t care either, if i wasn’t obsessed with trying to figure out why our world is so eff’d up and looking for ways to make it better.

Mark has made a call for people to get up, do something. connect with their communities, and somehow, we’ll forge a new world and come up with “something better”. i believe this is possible, but i worry. we may come up with “something just as bad” or “something worse”. in an effort to both act on his call and satisfy my own worries, i think it’s important for us to talk concretely about what it is we’re doing. what is this new present we’re trying to make?

i don’t know what it is, but i think i can try to describe some of it’s attributes.

• it’s definitely more connected. individuals matter more but some individuals matter more than others. we can talk about how the internet allows for anyone to hop on their digital soapbox but the fact remains that building a strong network you can influence is work. if you have the time and resources to do that work good for you, but recognize that there are lots of people who don’t (or don’t want to) and who are only perhiperally connected. these people still matter.
• it’s definitely global. sure in canada we’ve got a prime minister who has gone prorogue, but democracy is under threat everywhere. it’s not a question of having good versus bad people in power, democracy pretty much guarantees that we’ll always (at some different points in time) have stupid/mean/corrupt/evil people in power at some point or other, the problem is that our democratic processes aren’t resilient enough in our new global/technical/connected context when the inevitable dumbass comes around.
• it’s definitely more equal (for some). among my group of friends, and my wider network of connected individuals it doesn’t really matter if you’re black, white, aboriginal, asian, indian, gay, bi, straight, baptist, atheist, or muslim. yes we all bring our own point of view, but your cultural identity doesn’t exclude you. that said, you’re not excluded by virtue of race, religion or sexual orientation, but there aren’t really very many people in the wider networked group i’m observing who aren’t university educated or working in a professional capacity.

i think that the change we’re (and i say we, but i can only of course speak for myself) all actively participating in has those attributes. it’s still too vague for my liking though, and i don’t agree that simply re-establishing community is enough. we need to change institutions and the rules of democracy to update them for our new context. we need to get into the difficult details. i think we need to stop fiddling with the symptoms, and start thinking about tackling the very real, and very tough problems with foundational code underlying our society. in canada that means the constitution, but what we’re going through is (i think, hunch really, but i trust my hunches and maybe one day i’ll try to write out a justification for it) symptomatic of a wider global difficulty with trying to come up with a governance system that fits the new reality.

*namely an independent judicary enforcing a strong set of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, a fundamental lack of corruption amongst our public bureaucracies (this is not to say our bureaucracy isn’t without it’s faults, but i have yet to be asked for a bribe by any public official. try getting through a routine traffic stop in many parts of the world without paying i a bribe) and a democratic process (read: elections) that is generally not open to cheating

here’s the meme, with a slight edit:

the rules

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. (see above)
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post. (see below)
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

i’ll share my facts, but a) i don’t like to peer pressure anyone into a meme and b) honestly (and perhaps most importantly), i don’t really think i have seven friends with blogs (many acquaintences, but really my friends are generally not bloggers).

1) the first concert i ever went to was a grimskunk show, i was fourteen and my good friend Matt (no blog, no internet at home, hardcore anarchist punk social worker) bought me this shirt. i wore it for years until finally letting it go in a purge a couple years ago. also, i can’t believe that grimskunk is still kicking and still selling the same shirt.

2) i have read and re-read the entire chronicles of narnia more times than i can count. i was given the set when i was a child, and ever since i read them when i’m especially tired or sick. my favourite is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

3) i dropped out of high-school missing one OAC credit, but graduated university magna cum laude. i think some of the most important lessons in my life were learned between those two events.

4) i managed to make it through four solid years at york university without a strike. phew.

5) i have an older brother who alternately amuses, aggravates, and challenges me. i love him for all of it (except maybe the aggravating part). assuming he passes the physical, it looks like he’s going to be joining the canadian military soon. i wonder if this will bring out a conservative streak in me?

6) i was the first ever high school co-op student at northern telecom (back when it was still northern telecom). i passed up the chance to work there the summer after my co-op term, instead deciding to work at summer camp (why? short answer: girls). while i don’t waste time on regret i sometimes wonder how my life would gone have had i decided to stick with northern telecom.

7) i am an n-generational north american, meaning i have no idea when my ancestors came to north america. on my mothers side we’re french canadian with deep roots (apparently i’m related fairly closely to the bloc MP for Gatineau) and American going back to early settlement. on my fathers side i’m less sure, but i’m pretty sure it’s all quebecois and franco-ontarian. that makes me decidely a minority in toronto, where almost all of my friends are from one to three generations away from immigration to canada. given the franco roots, it’s a crying shame i can barely speak french.

so that’s it, no tagging of people for me. although if i could i’d tag my best friend Geoff who really should have a blog but i think he’s holding out just to piss me off =P

yes i’m a geek, i make no apologies for horribly bad geek jokes.

while i’m not generally superstitious, i like to think that how i spend my birthday sets the tone for the year to come.  last year, for my 30th, i spent my birthday traveling, en-route between koh tao and chiang mai in thailand as part of a commitment to myself to explore new places and ideas for that year.

today, i intend to spend my day thinking, writing, and being with people who are dear to me. Sameer, always an inspiration, challenged everyone he knows to come up with a word for 2009 to guide them. it’s a good exercise, thinking of a single word to act as a guiding light for a year, i encourage you to give it a try (and let Sameer know in the comments what you choose, it’ll make him smile).

my word for 2009 is open.

open is a good word. if you know me professionally you know that openness is something i’m advocate for in large faceless bureaucracies, and i think this year i’m going to try very hard to push an open agenda.

looking beyond the professional open is a good word to guide me personally. for 2009 i hope to be more open to my friends, family, and myself.

open is both an ethic and a goal for me this year, i hope i can do it justice.

strangely, i’m not really pissed about this. sure i spent a couple hours on transit on a saturday morning where i might have otherwise lain in bed catching up on my rss reader, but really, that’s not a great loss. in fact, it’s probably a good thing that i didn’t spend my day getting tattooed.

first, i’m about to embark on a two week trip through north-eastern north america, which is sure to put a bit of a dent into my bank balance, so not spending $600 on a tattoo appointment is going to help that cause. also, spending so much time in a car and traveling with a freshly tattooed arm was probably not my brightest idea anyways.

second, i’m just getting better from having been sick so perhaps i’m better off letting my body heal itself completely before spending four hours with the incessant buzz and painful sting of the tattoo needle.

and finally, i really need to do some thinking and find some really good source/reference imagery for the next phase of the tattoo.

you see, Leah and i are basically making this up as we go along. Leah’s style really requires freehanded drawing on your body, and she makes some really beautiful tattoos with this method, but it’s important to have some reference material with you when you go in for a session. we started with a great design that Emily drew for me, based on a rather abstract concept that’s been floating around in my head for the better part of a decade or so, but have since tried to expand the design/concept on our own.

so far we’ve been successful, but i know that i need more source material and i’m having a difficult time finding stuff i like. i’m hoping you, my dear three readers, will be able to help me out.

i’m not going to get into a description of the concept that underpins the tattoo, the original email was some obscene amount of words and contained all sorts of unpleasant philosophy jargon, but i don’t think it’s necessary for you to help me out.

what i’m looking for right now is an organic element that will sit in contrast to a CPU’ish looking portion of the tattoo already in place. i’m not sure what it should be, i’ve looked at images of seeds, microscopic cellular structures of all sorts, different types of nervous tissues and structures, but I can’t find the image that really gels and that would work for me.

so, if you’ve got any ideas, please hook me up with a link as a comment (or send me an email darrenc at gmail), you never know, something you find might end up being tattooed for all time on my arm =D

people talk all about the democratizing potential of easy publishing of your thoughts, but heck, sometimes you just don’t have anything interesting to say.

a quick update i guess, got my replacement nano, thinking of buying carbon offsets for the stupid fact that although the apple repair depot is less than 50km’s from my home they decided to ship me a brand new one all the way from china. i guess everything comes from china now, but it makes you feel extra guilty when you see the fedex tracking data on your individual bit of mass manufactured consumerism crossing the world just for you.

looking for a good skin for the nano, i don’t really think i want to have to post about a broken nano twice (and i somehow doubt that apple will replace one again [even though i still think it's a design flaw that a portable device breaks so easily]). any recommendations? so far i haven’t even found any in stores, so if you spot a review for skins for the new nanos i’d appreciate a link in a comment.

oh and just to prove there’s no hard feelings between me and apple, i bought myself a new macbook… you know, just cause i’m nice like that, i didn’t want apple to think i was _really_ mad at them.

yesterday one of the office admins gave me a light scolding about the fact that i have a habit of wearing a hat at my desk and around the office, but i’ve never thought twice about wearing it. i’m comfortable in my hat and i think it looks good so why not?

to be clear, the standard of dress most people abide by is pretty low, cotton dockers (or jeans) and polo shirts is the staple for most men on the floor i work on. me, i tend to wear nice jeans with button up shirts (ok, i’ll come clean, they’re usually pretty wrinkled) with the occasional decent tie. maybe one or two people in a hundred wear good pressed shirts and dress pants.

in that environment, is it such a faux pas to wear a hat? the office admin told me it was disrespectful to wear a hat, but i don’t get it, how so, it’s just a hat?

that’s not to say i didn’t regret some elements of the tattoo, my thirty year old self knows that it wasn’t the wisest decision to get the tattoo done by a “friend” when visiting montreal during march break way back when. also, i count several talented artists as friends (and did even then too) and despite how much i liked the design i did sort of regret picking it out of a tattoo magazine.

so, a short 13 years later, my tattoo is faded so much that most people don’t know i have one, i’m about to get it covered with a new and improved tattoo. custom designed by my good friend emily (thanks em!), expressing a complicated idea that means quite a bit to me, and executed by a talented tattoo artist, i’m hoping i’ve learnt from my first tattoo experience!

i’m not sure how many sittings it’s going to take, but i’ll post photos as soon as i am able.

a quick note on why i’m trying this again. it’s all vasta’s fault. seriously. i’m spending way too much time working with and hanging out with him so i think i’ve caught the ‘must publish whatever comes to mind’ mindset. so here goes

a photo too, just cause i can