Month: February 2007

I forgot this random thought I had the other day while walking through the Rideau Centre.

So, I’m walking along and then notice that La Senza is all boarded up and has a sign saying “Closed for Renovations. Open in March 2007.”

Now…I don’t know much about this store, but something tells me that Valentine’s Day is definitely not one of the days you want to miss if you are catering to the lingerie buying public. I would hazard a guess that it’s in the Top 3 Shopping Events of the year (next to Christmas and the off-chance that you got invited to Hugh’s palace for his Midsummer Night’s Dream night. Sigh…a man may dream.)

Business-wise…STUPID! What a time to shut down! If anything, close down in January, not February!

Hallmark Holiday, Singles Awareness Day (check out the Wikipedia entry on SAD here. It is an excellent read!), the Lover’s Day.

All these words are synonomous with Saint Valentine’s Day.

Let’s take a look at some history (could be completely false coming from Wikipedia, but who cares? It’s so convenient!)

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines”. Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

In the second half of the 20th century, the practice of exchanging cards was extended to all manners of gifts in the United States, usually from a man to a woman. Such gifts typically include roses and chocolates. In the 1980s, the diamond industry began to promote Valentine’s Day as an occasion for giving jewelry.

Now, that’s interesting. Just think…we should go old school from now on and write a letter to our loved ones. I’m jumping on this like it is 1899!

Personally, I think the whole concept of buying anything on Valentine’s Day is insane. Flowers and assorted items are jacked up in price. Do yourself a favour. Forget the flowers on February 14 and write a poem. Your Valentine du jour will melt. Here’s some sample poetry for you to use:

Granted, you have to replace the last word with the person you are writing about and then make sure the previous line rhymes with the person. It’s simple really. It’s like math. If there is an Ethel out there, I am sure she is digging that poem right about now. Dang, I am good.

So let this be a reality check for all those out there. Do something creative tomorrow. Forget about going out to dinner, forget the gifts bought with money, forget whispering sweet nothings (that won me a point in the Them and Us board game the other week!). Just say “I dig ya babe.” and all should be good in the world.

If you’re with a woman who disagrees with anything I have just written, then perhaps you should really start thinking about your future with that woman. I mean…really.

On this Valentine’s Day, if there are any single people out there reading this, may I recommend you organize your own ‘singles’ outing. I used to organize these a few years back and they were sweet.

Also on this February 14, if you feel like complaining about men in general, I highly recommend you get in touch with Dish, as she is the leader of the Ottawa Chapter of Singles Awareness Day. She even has buttons.

Sunday afternoon brought me to the ScotiaBank Place for the Timbits Jamboree where 7000 kids attended to play hockey on the Senators ice.

Luckily I only had to get there in the late afternoon so I missed the madness which was 7000 kids. Ryley was hitting the ice around 5:00 so I settled into Section 102 with Janice and company and talked for awhile.

It was pretty amazing to be sitting right next to the ice as opposed to the 300 level. It was surreal to be in there with little to no crowd. At one point, there were just 10 of us in the entire building. It took away from the magic which is a hockey rink when grand events are happening (like two NHL teams duking it out). It just seemed…like a hockey rink! Strange I must say.

Ryley was excellent on the ice and it brought up thoughts as to whether or not I’ll ever get my kid into hockey as I can’t skate at all, let alone know much about hockey. Perhaps I’ll get my kid to be a pro guitar player. That’s where the big bucks lie!

iplaying: Kiss on the Mouth – Our Lady Peace (A Decade)

Ah Winterlude…where the ice has formed and fellow return to the Nation’s Capital to take part in festivities.

As well as pay a visit to our favourite establishment – Darcy McGee’s.

Friday night brought me to Darcy McGee’s along with Vero, my cousin Rick, his wife Tracey and Tracey’s sister and in-laws. After we settled into a table (not too far away from where we sat a few years ago), the pitchers started coming along like the train rolling across the tracks and soon enough there were absurd talks of Moustache Contests and Midget Throwing.

I enjoy the annual events such as these. Rick and Tracey come up every year for Winterlude and most assuredly are found at Darcy’s on a Friday night, as it is stumbling distance from the Chateau Laurier.

I have yet to take a look at the other Winterlude activities this year (as the beer hit me hard on the Saturday morning) so I am hoping to check out the ice sculptures next weekend when Mike’s parents come into town. Speaking of which, this is a great time to finally get my Star Wars posters to hang up in the house. We didn’t have room to bring them down (read: I forgot them back home) at Christmas. I’m toying with the idea of where to hang them up. Vero suggests the dark, dark basement. I’m thinking somewhere more prominent, like the bathroom. 😉

On Friday I saw this picture of the mayor in the paper and I thought “Now where have I seen that individual before?”

Uh-oh.

iplaying: Open Your Eyes – Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)

I just read a fascinating commentary by Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) speaking out against the critics of their company’s Digital Rights Management encoding – FairPlay. Click here to read.

Everyone is calling for Apple to let them in on the secret of their FairPlay technology so they can make MP3 players that can handle iTunes-purchased songs. In a nutshell, Apple encodes their purchased music with some encryption so you can’t play it on other MP3 players (other than the iPod) as well as not being able to play it outside of the iTunes software.

What does this mean to the average consumer? Well, it means that in 5 years time if I don’t use my iPod, I’ll have to listen to my purchased music on the iTunes software on my computer. What if I don’t want to use iTunes? Tough noogie. I’m screwed. It’s like saying that I can purchase a CD but only play it on a Panasonic brand CD player.

I, for one, think DRM technology is awful. Some CD companies are encoding their CDs with DRM technology to prevent the copying of their albums into any digital format. Let’s take the new Trews album Den of Thieves. Mike bought this album outright but cannot copy the songs to his iPod. Hey, he bought the damn thing, he should be able to do what the heck he wants with it (other than spread it on the Internet en masse). So that’s what I have against DRM. It screws over the actual people purchasing the CDs.

“Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.”

Steve Jobs brings up…in my opinion…the best example as to why DRM doesn’t work. Running some rough numbers, he estimates 3% of a person’s music collection (on an iPod) is made up of digitally purchased songs. So basically, the music industries are allowing 97% of their music to be sold without any protection at all. Granted, this is in a perfect scenario where people’s iPods are full of stolen music to begin with.

All in all, I think the music industries have to just give in to the fact that their music will be pirated. End of story. There’s no winning the battle. But at the very least, they can cater to the persons who actually purchase their music and make an enjoyable experience out of it. There are a few iTunes only tracks which I would like to purchase but have not done so due to the fact that I do not want to be painted into a corner. Sure, there are some software cracks out there that will strip the DRM off of the tune, but that’s not the point. I want to say “Hey, I paid some cash for this, and I want to do what I want with it. That’s how it’s been for all time, let’s keep it that way.”

Bravo to Steve for pointing out the obvious. Music industries take note. You are losing the battle. Hightail it out of here and remove DRM from all music and the world will be a better place.

Benoit writes: