Xoom, xoom, xoom

I’ve been kind of wanting a tablet since, well, how long has the iPad been out now? Because it’s been about that long. Phones are too small and come with expensive data plans; laptops are too big and have pathetic battery life. Tablets seemed just right.

But, I hate to be an early adopter—otherwise known as suckers. Those tech-hungry folks who pay too much to essentially do beta-testing on versions 1.0 of whatever, thus paving the way for the rest of us to get the better, cheaper 2.0 version.

So when iPad 2 came out to mostly rave reviews, it seemed no longer necessary to wait. Except… Now there were all these competitors as well. And, I didn’t really like what I was hearing about how Apple was treating some of the apps providers. And, I wasn’t really that crazy about having to do everything through iTunes. And not having USB. Or Flash.

But many competitors seemed to have serious failings. Very short battery life. High price. Small screen size. Finally, the Motorola Xoom was released. On size, price, storage, battery life, it was about the same as Apple. Considered more clunky and harder to use, it wasn’t exactly getting rave reviews. But it didn’t tie you to a particular application to load files. And it had Google behind it, and I do use many things Google. So it seemed worth consideration.

Motorola XoomHowever, the Xoom is very, very much at version 1.0. The list of features it supposedly has but that don’t quite work yet (updates someday, we promise) is almost comical: SD card, full USB support, full Flash support, Android 3.1 (created but not yet available in Canada). And the number of apps, particularly those designed for tablets in particular, is way behind what is available in the iTunes.

So that was the dilemma. Get the mature product that would leave me tied to the whims of Steve Jobs, or pay the same amount for a product with the potential—but not the actuality, yet—of being better.

Uncharacteristically, I voted Xoom.

For the record, it does have flaws. Most of which I was aware of before purchase:

  • The screen is an unbelievable fingerprint magnet. You’d think someone would have realized that was a bad idea for a touch device. I’ve never Windex-ed anything so much.
  • The screen is also overly reflective. When viewing darker videos, you get a great reflection of your face back. I’m not narcissistic enough to really enjoy that.
  • It can’t handle that many video formats. Actually, I haven’t been able to load any formats it will view. Though maybe some app would help with that–haven’t checked.
  • It’s not as handy with PDFs as I’d like (though again, there may be an app for that). I can always view them; I can’t always seems to load or download them, and I’m not sure why.
  • Google Books doesn’t work in Canada.
  • The wild and crazy world of apps does take some getting used to.

On the other hand…

It really is great with most things Google. Unknowingly, I’ve been preparing for this tablet by using so many Google features on the computer. After the wireless connection (quick and easy), it asks you to log into Google. And based on that, it sets everything up: Your email, your calendar, your Picassa photos, your YouTube account, your Google docs. And they all work beautifully, with a great tablet interface. The Google maps are also nice. (And I hear Google Chat is very good, but I don’t use that one.) Google Reader is just OK–but I have found an app that improves that.

And the browser experience has been pretty decent so far as well. It’s just so much better, in fact, to view long web pages with embedded video and links and images on the tablet vs. on my desktop. And like on an iPad, you can zoom the font size, change orientation, smoothly scroll around.

It’s also very customizable, which, I’m told, the iPad is not. It comes with five different home pages you can set up how you want. I’m only using two so far, but I like the possibilities.

The on-screen keyboard has also been surprisingly easy to get used to, and much better than trying to type with your thumbs. Mind, functionality that is way basic on a computer takes a little work here—does this auto-save? (Nope. Save command in menu on the bottom bar.) How do I close this? (Can’t. Unless you get an app for that.) How do I copy and paste? (Select, hold, menu will pop up with these options.) But I suppose figuring all that out is good for my brain. (Though it’s actually making me wish for more online help as well.)

Anyway. It’s only day 3, so I still have 11 days to change my mind and return it. But so far, it definitely has more items in the Keep than Return column. Pass the Windex!

The recipe

4 cups halved or quartered strawberries

(Needless to say, these need to be fresh Ontario strawberries. I got mine at Herrles.)

2 1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

(Don’t chintz here. Get the good stuff. I used Balsamico Cotto by John D’Angelo. Available at Brady’s.)

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup low-fat sour cream

(Nothing special here; no-name brand, I think)

1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar

2 tsp. grated lemon rind

Sprinkle the strawberries with the vinegar, brown sugar, and pepper, and toss; let stand 15 to 20 minutes. Mix the sour cream, granulated sugar, and lemon rind. Plop on strawberries. Eat.

How’s it taste? To quote DH: “This tastes the way good sex feels.”

Balsamic strawberries and mint

15 songs

Huh. Wrote this up ages ago and somehow never got around to clicking the Publish button. No longer actually reflects the last 15 songs played, but otherwise… Pretty much as randomly relevant now as it would have been then,

Random play 15 songs on your MP3 and say what they are. (Inflation, I guess, because last time I did this, it was only 5 songs.) Played them then, but only got around to listing them now.

1. The Golden Boy – Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé – Instrumentals

I have this Freddie Mercury box set. It’s a gorgeous thing, really, that includes a large book on glossy paper with great photos. But they also stretched out his original three (3) solo albums onto ten (10) CDs. (There are also two DVDs.) This particular one, called Instrumentals, is actually Karaoke versions of his songs. The music and the backing vocals are there; just not the lead.

Want to feel particularly inferior about your singing voice? Attempt Freddie Mercury Karaoke.

2. Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver) – Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True (Bonus Disc)

3. Darling Nikki – Prince and the Revolution – Purple Rain

Ah, dear, dirty, darling Nikki, the song that inspired Tipper Gore to request parental warning labels on albums. At least it’s not particularly misogynistic. Nikki owns her own sexuality, and the singer seems to admire her for it. On the Purplish Rain tribute CD, it’s song by a woman, and it’s pretty awesome.

4. Never in a Million Years – The Boomtown Rats – V Deep

5. Eleanor Rigby/Julia [Transition] / I Am the Walrus / I Want to Hold Your Hand – The Beatles – Love

Until the recent reissues, Love was almost the only remastered Beatles CD available, and I still love the sound of the whole album. (It’s the soundtrack for the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show.) Lots of interesting mash-ups of the songs, like this one.

6. Bell Boy – The Who – Thirty Years of Maximum R&D Disc 3

From the compilation, but it’s the same version as on Quadrophenia. Nice duet between Daltrey and Moon. But as with many things Who, even better live. I love the ceremonial hand-off of the lead mike they’d do in concert.

Bell Boy mike handoff

7. It’s a Boy – The Who – Tanglewood

A live snippet (40 seconds) from an American stop on their long Tommy tour. Tanglewood is a classical music hall, so having a rock band perform there was highly unusual. You can hear the whole the concert at Wolfgang’s Vault.

8. Mandela Day – Simple Minds – Glittering Prize: Simple Minds 81/92

Still remember this song being played the day Nelson Mandela was released from, and it seeming so odd that this full song was all ready for the occasion, which came as something of a surprise at the time. (When Simple Minds wrote the song, they were just imagining how great would be the day that Mandela was released from prison…)

9. Slow Love – Prince – Sign ‘O’ the Times

10. Blue – Joni Mitchell – Blue

For some reason Joni has come up in conversation a few times this week. This is the only album of hers that I have.

11. Killer’s Eyes – The Kinks – Give the People What They Want (Remastered)

From my first-ever Kinks album, one I still really like. Inspired by John Hinkley, Jr., this tune is about a family’s confusion on finding our their son / brother is a murderer. (‘We’ve seen your picture in the paper. Your little sister pinned in on the wall. She thinks you’re some kind of movie…”) Cheery, huh?

12. Grand Illusion – Styx – Return to Paradise (Disc 2)

I think the hope of this exercise is that something really embarrassing will come up. I’m not completely mortified that I own a Styx CD (double CD at that), but I have to say, their music has not aged well. All the synths, the trite lyrics… Not stuff I’m too interested in listening to anymore.

13. Imagine – Jordis Unga – Rock Star: INXS

14. Dumb – Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York

Interesting sequence, as it’s largely through Rock Star: INXS that I got into Nirvana, actually…

15. Trouble In Mind – Janis Joplin – 18 Essential Songs

I’ve been adding some of Jean’s CDs to his iTunes, and bringing a few over to my iTunes as well. This would be one of those.

Movie review: Midnight in Paris

*** Midnight in Paris (June 2011) – Theatre
Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams. Young American man visiting Paris with his fiancee finds himself whisked away to 1920s Paris, the era of his romantic dreams.

She says: A very fun movie—quite the love letter to Paris. When the time travel begins, the movie really takes off, as lead character encounters a dizzying array of historical figures: Hemingway, F. Scott and Zelda Fitgerald, Picasso, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, and more!
He says: This, along with Ratatouille, would be the perfect movie to watch before visiting Paris. I didn’t think the lead performances were that great, I didn’t know that much about all the historical figures, and it spelled things out too much—but I still enjoyed the movie. (Even though it was directed by Woody Allen.)

A new appreciation of sage

While I realized that some of the herbs I planted were perennials that would therefore come back the following year, I didn’t realize they’d come back as giants. The oregano and marjoram are sprawling, with much bigger leaves than last year. And the tarragon: I had no idea tarragon could get so tall. I wasn’t even completely sure it was tarragon at that size until I chopped it up for a recipe, which produced the distinct scent and taste of that herb.

But what I still have the most of, again, and now in a much larger size, is sage. It’s a virtual pasture of tall, stately plants with enormous. And as I’ve complained before, there are only so many things, culinarily, one can do with sage. Sage is not the parsely of herbs. Parsley is. (And parsely, sadly, is recently replanted annual that currently looks like a baby plant in there, fighting for a bit of space.)

And then… The sage started to flower. I don’t know if it just didn’t do that last year, or if it was diligently removing the flowers as they appeared in an attempt to get more leaves (not realizing I’d soon be overrun). But this year I let it be and… Wow. Sage is so pretty.

Photo of sage

(The tall leaves in the front-most of the image? The giant tarragon.)

And the bees just love all those flowers, and we’re supposed to encourage the bees. And yes, flowered sage does have fewer leaves, but with that number of plants…. Really not an issue. Plus, after I cut them and use the leaves in a recipe, I have a ready-made centerpiece for the table:

Photo of cut sage in vase

Movie review: Bridesmaids

***½ Bridesmaids (May 2011) – Theatre
Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph. Annie’s life is not going well, and having to serve as her best friend’s maid of honor only causes her to spiral deeper.

He says: That was good!
She says: Yeah, a lot better than I was expecting.
He says: Much! It was so funny.
She says: It was. But still not totally ridiculous.
He says: The cast was great. And I think it will hold up. That could become a classic!
She says: Could be. A comedy classic.

Movie review: Good Hair, Central Station

These two movies have nothing in common, except for having seen both recently…

*** Good Hair (October 2009) – Rental
Documentary. Inspired by his daughters, Chris Rock explores the world of black women’s hair.

She says: As a white girl, I had no idea what black women went through to achieve the look of shiny, full, straight(ish) hair. The expense! The time! The pain! It was really interesting. (Though if expecting big laughs because it’s Chris Rock, you’ll probably be disappointed.).
He says: They spend how much on hair weaves? That’s ridiculous. I’m going to bed.

*** Central Station (November 1998) – Rental
Fernanda Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira. A middle-age woman who writes (but doesn’t necessarily mail) letters for the illiterate becomes the reluctant custodian of young boy after his mother dies. Subtitled.

She says: It’s a moving story of how this fairly unpleasant older woman is transformed by her relationship with the boy who is left with no one after his mother dies. Great acting, nice cinematography, and enough twists of fortune to keep your attention. (And not really a depressing movie, though you might expect that.)
He says: I was able to get through it, but it was bit too slow and character-driven for me.

They’ll get away with it. But it’s still wrong.

This is about the Conservative Party of Canada, but it is not about the G8 spending (although they also got away with that, and that was also wrong). No, this is about phasing out the per-vote subsidy.

In 2003, the Liberal Party of Canada changed campaign finance laws to prevent unions and corporations from donating to political parties, and also capped the amount an individual could donate. To compensate the parties for that loss of income, they brought a per-vote subsidy. Every party that earns at 2% of the popular vote receives about $2 per vote earned.

The last time the Conservatives tried to get rid of this subsidy, it caused a revolt. The other parties banded together against them, formed a coalition, and tried to take over government.

This time, knowing that it’s resistance is futile against this dictatorship—sorry, majority government (hard to tell the difference)—the opposition is giving up without a fight. But opposed or not, what the Conservatives are doing is still wrong.

Official reasoning is spurious

The basic reason given for this is to save money. And sure, this will save about $24 million this year. But political parties, like anything else, take some amount of money to run, and it’s long been accepted that some of that should come from the public purse. If you’re looking to reduce in this area, why pick on this particular form of funding?

What about the fact that when you donate to a political party, you get back 75% of what you give (for the first $400). Whereas if you give to a charity like the Cancer Society, you get back only 25%. Does that seem right to you? The cost of the incredibly generous tax credit is about $21 million per year. Over four years, then? Around $80 million. And if you didn’t get rid of the credit completely, but just reduced it to the same level as what you get for donating to charities? Still about a $50 million saving.

The real reason is offensive

The Conservatives don’t need this subsidy. They apparently get so much money donated to them, they don’t what to do with it all. (In the 2004 election, they even tried laundering it through local ridings.) That’s why they run election ads all the time, not just during elections.

Other parties… Well, they do kind of rely on that funding.

So what’s this really about? Crushing their political rivals. Increasing the degree to which Canadians hear from the Conservative Party of Canada at the expense of other ideas. Trying to make their dictatorship majority permanent.

They’re also silencing voters

The Conservatives are not only hurting other parties here. They’re also getting rid of the only real way in which every federal vote (other than for very minor parties and independents) actually counts.

Because, in Canada’s ridiculous First Past the Post electoral system, most of our votes are wasted. If we had proportional representation, every vote would help form government. But under FPTP, only the votes for the winners do. All other votes have no effect on the makeup of government whatsoever. Whether your MP won by 10 votes or 100,000, he or she gets the seat and the other parties get bupkus. If you voted for anyone other than the person who won, you might as well have stayed home. The resulting seat count would have been identical, either way.

But… At least the party you voted for got funding. Your tax dollars went to them, to help them out next time. It’s not much, but it’s all we had.

Now, we have nothing. Now, most votes will be back to having absolutely no effect at all. Same as if you hadn’t voted at all.

What’s to be done?

Writing to your MP about this… would be a waste of time, I think. It’s in the budget; members of the Conservative Party have to vote for it. The opposition may or may not vote for the budget,  but whatever, it’s still going to pass.

Frankly, the only thing I can think of that would help is to take advantage of that juicy tax credit and donate to any and all federal parties—other than the Conservative Party of Canada.

 

The hot ticket: Hitchens / Brummett debate

The Theatre of Humanities at University of Waterloo’s Hagey Hall was the place to be last night as author Christopher Hitchens debated Professor Barry Brummett on the topic of Religion as a positive force in culture. Tickets for this event, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the English department, sold out in a few days, just from the email sent to students and alumni.

About a week before, we found out that Christopher Hitchens’ health would prevent him from attending in person, so he would only be on video. Refunds were therefore offered for those who wanted it, and I’m sure that moved some people from wait list into attendance, but it remained a sold-out event. They even set up an overflow room for people to be able to watch everything on video.

Q’s Jian Ghomeshi was the host. He’s an engaging presence himself, and did a good job of trying to get clarifications of certain points made by each man, and of managing the audience questions.

Both Hitchens and Brummet were very interesting to listen to, though both Robin and I felt the deliberate effort in having to “adjust our brains” to take in the flow of big ideas coming toward us. Once engaged, though, it was pretty easy to stay with that flow. Hitchens had some very funny lines, and some quite profound ideas. He admitted that religion had been behind some great works of art, but pointed out that these were often combined with atrocities. And that there was no real knowing how religious artists of the past really were, since they were not allowed to admit to doubt. Brummet had some provocative comments of his own, like the idea that capitalist ideals may overtake religious ones as a primary cultural force, but mainly argued for rhetorical training as a means for combating religious extremism.

Fundamentally, I don’t think these two gentlemen truly disagreed with each other, so I’m not sure how much this was really a “debate”. Brummett never really said whether he was an atheist or not, but it was clear he was no big fan of organized religion. He just said that people had a tendency to want certainty, to have something greater make the decisions for them, and a need for spirituality. This could lead to dangerous religious extremism unless people learned to think critically.

Hitchens was less interested in how people could avoid the lure of giving themselves over to religious faith; only that they must. He talked about the wonders of the natural sciences, of the cosmos, advanced physics, blacks holes… How could a burning bush compete with any of that?

So mainly, we were just being intellectually entertained on both sides, though clearly Hitchens was the star attraction. He looked and sounded good, considering his state of health (stage 4 esophageal cancer). At one point Ghomeshi suggested they take two more audience questions before wrapping up, but Hitchens requested more. “I don’t really have any other plans for tonight,” he said. So the event took a good two hours in all.

There’s no way I can properly recap the evening, religion and culture both being very large areas, resulting in a wide-ranging discussion. But if you want a sense in 140 characters or less, the Twitter hash tag is #uwdebate.

If Canada Post strikes, will you notice?

It may seem strange
How we used to wait for letters to arrive.
But what’s stranger still
Is how something so small could keep you alive.

“We Used to Wait” by Arcade Fire

Canada Post delivered my Victoria Secret order today, just ahead of their strike deadline. I thought that was great of them, considering I’d placed the order just on Saturday, and didn’t select the fast shipping options.

I get abnormally delight about having things delivered to my house. As a result, I have a bunch of stuff showing up here on a regular basis. A daily newspaper. A biweekly basket of local organic produce. A bimonthly order of organic fair-trade coffee. Several monthly or bimonthly magazine subscriptions. Music and movies on plastic discs, not just in digital bits! Books on dead trees! And the percentage of my wardrobe deriving from Victoria’s Secret is probably unusually high.

Of course, that doesn’t all get here by Canada Post. Having heard about the strike threat on Monday, I got to wondering what I’d actually miss.

The bulk of the mail I get, of course, is just advertising and requests for donations (with “free gifts”). That stuff just tends to sit around unopened for quite a while. So, I dare say I’m not going to miss that too much.

I used to get mountains of catalogs; the number is way down now. I’ll usually flip through the ones that still arrive: Vintages magazine, the discount books, exercises videos, Lee Valley. And naturally, Victoria’s Secret (once Jean’s done with it). But still, I don’t see missing that stuff too desperately, either.

Now, the disruption to my Rogers Video Direct DVD rentals will be a little annoying. Hey, I’ve just realized that the copy of Central Station that has apparently been shipped to me hasn’t arrived yet! OK, see, I am definitely somewhat annoyed about that. Especially since they’ve already received the copy of Good Hair that I returned. Plus, TV is mostly reruns now.

But, what else. I can still order from Amazon.ca, because they use UPS. Ditto Lee Valley. Ebay, Chapters, VSC are out but, hey, I think I can do without those for a bit. Magazine subscriptions will be disrupted, but I’m always behind on reading those anyway. A chance to catch up.

As for me actually mailing things, well, it has become a pretty rare event to mail personal letters and cards. I do have to send in a cheque for my high school reunion thingie by the end of the month, so if this drags on, I’ll have to use UPS or something for that. But my biggest use of stamps is for insurance companies. Because Jean and I are with different companies, we can’t submit everything electronically. To get the full refund, we have to send in paper forms and paper receipts.

It’s a huge pain that I won’t miss at all, but I do like getting the actual money back. Of course, the Sun Life office is local. I could probably just drop off the paperwork in person.

So wow. A postal strike is hardly the big deal it used to be, eh? Even for those of us still nostalgically tied to old media forms and the thrill of getting a package.

I’m not going to join in on the union bashing here (although, bankable sick days? Probably I’m just jealous, though, since I’d likely have accumulated a year or two off by now if I could do that…), but this could certainly be a tough fight for them. If due to strike, people keep finding other ways around Canada Post, that’s not good for either side.

Maybe I’ll just have to try them new-fangled online movies…

We used to wait for it. We used to wait for it.
Sometimes it never came.
Sometimes it never came.