Pilfering, Pinching, Swiping, Stealing: The New Student Experience

Students entering first-year at Universities across Ontario, including Western, Guelph, Laurier, and Waterloo, are met with a welcome surprise: they will now be able to steal media at exceptionally fast speeds from DC++. Movies, music, software, documents - all download in under a minute. You can even download the entire P90X workout series for free, as advertised on TV infomercials for the usual convenient price of 3 monthly installments of $39.99 + $19.99 S&H. To many first-year students, this is the equivalent of the best candy-store on earth, compressed into one deliciously accessible internet candy shop that they can sneak as much as they want from without getting caught. The system works by peer-to-peer file sharing over the completely secure university networks, available to students in residences only. Basically a restricted, protected Limewire on speed, since instead of sharing files over the worldwide web, students are downloading from their friends down the hallway on a closed network. Awesome, money-saving, novel, useful....but stealing?

I have never spent much time second-guessing DC++. To me, it is students sharing their personal libraries (some students have over 2 terabytes of library) with their peers. But this year, I have been more than overwhelmed with the pinching swiping stealing pilfering plundering that has infected this university. I am not talking about a few unlucky instances that happened to a few friends of mine. I am talking about a greed that is rampantly spreading to become some sort of absurd adiction. Some examples:

- My bike this year. At noon from the middle of the university, concrete beach. Upon reporting to police, he said I was the 6th person reporting a stolen bike in his shift alone, that day. He suspected more reported to his partner.
- Elyna's umbrella. In lecture, umbrella was set beside her. Next she looked, it was gone. She walked home in the rain.
- Kelsci's textbook. From the library, takes a moment of relief and upon her return, her textbook has been pilfered. $120+ to replace, and exam the next day.
- Clara's purse from Jim Bob's. They found her coat check ticket in her wallet, checked out her coat, and took that too.
- My back pack and jeans from gym locker. Valuables stowed away behind a lock, I left my bag, with 2 library books, and a notebook unlocked. They took the backpack and my jeans, leaving my sweater and jacket. The jeans were from Winners - I spent the evening at the library in bright blue WOSS gym shorts.
- Shelbonn's house. Kicked in the backdoor, pilfered.
- Laptop at King's party on St. Patty's day.
- Dan's laptop charger from the lib.
- Alex's legit coat from the Frog.
- Cologne from our washroom during party.
...to name a few off the top of my head.

Although many of these robberies have clearly affected me, thus demonstrating the inspiration for this post, I think this constitutes more than just "occasional events". Theft is now a reality at UWO that has students anxiously packing up their books to go the washroom, stowing their valuables in their homes, and keeping an eye on their umbrellas during class.

I don't blame this on the normalisation of media-theft through programs like DC++. I don't think students steal because they watch a pirated DVD they bought for 2 bucks in China town. But the availibility and normalization of free media certainly engenders a passive acceptance to unethical taking. And this overwhelming theivery, causing students to watch their backs as if they were tourists in a market place, is evidently a symptom, possibliy of this overwhelming passitivity and politness.

If someone had actively stepped out and asked that person why they were taking that textbook "that i'm sure that girl was using", perhaps that theft would have been avoided. If people actually said no, I would not like to buy that ipod/laptop/charger/coat/cologne that you "found", then perhaps the motivation to steal would begin to dissipate.

I am not saying that stealing would end if people were a little more ethically confrontational. I am saying I may be able to feel like I'm living in comfortable Canada again, where we can trust our coat on a hook rather than stashed behind a guarded counter, or bring an umbrella to class, and expect to use it on the walk home. But maybe this just isn't the UWO experience.

Creative Monetization Fails Once Again

Thanks to all those who have come to my blog and clicked on my ads to try to make this whole "make some easy money off of your blog" thing work. Unfortunately, the great people over at Google are smarter than you'd think, or at least more snoopy, and have determined that my methods of acheiving clicks have not been legitamate. And so advertisers have been reimbursed their money and I am out $50. O well, it has been fun.

I assume they found me out from my high ratio of clicks to impressions. You see, according to this ratio, I was up over $130 for every 1000 site impressions I got. To put that into context, on the example at the Google Adsense sight, they say it could be around $6. I guess a $124 difference raises an eyebrow here and there.

I'm also thinking it could be more than this ratio. I think they could actually track every click I get. They give you one chance and one chance only to appeal their decision, and one of the questions they ask in this appeal is where you feel that you are getting page impressions from. I guess page impressions from Europe, California, B.C. and Australia looks alot less sketchy than an abnormally strict concentration in only Southern Ontario. Or it could be the fact that I haven't updated my blog in a week and a half; a guy making $50 after only about 8 wall posts must be a pretty well written dude.

I wonder if I'm blacklisted for life or if another computer with a different IP address will get me another account. Or if I use my home address instead of my school address. Or my dad's name on the account. In the end, I sort of feel like Big Brother Google will use their Ministry of Truth to find me out. Gotta keep a look out for those web-telescreen-cams.

So, attempting to make money off of creative writing, or Monetizing it as the Google marketers have so aptly put it, has been unsuccessful once again. I'll still write, its something I've always enjoyed, and if there is a way around the man, you will be sure to know.

(O, and why the crazy pictures? The first one cause its St. Patty's Day, and the rest cause they're sweet. Kudos to the Dali-esque Russian Surrealist artist Vladimir Kush and http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2100445%3ABlogPost%3A30343 for posting em)

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Back at the end of January, the rock world started buzzing about John Frusciante - the iconic guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - and his decision to leave the band for the second time in his career. John had been alluding in interviews that the Chili Peppers may not be in his future for months, and he had posted on his personal website that he had left the band over a year ago. But the band itself has always maintained that John remained in the band, so the Chili Peppers' wide fan base had so far been left unanswered.

On January29th the band finally set some certainty to the matter, revealing their new look at the MusicCares person of the year dinner in Los Angeles. The band played long-time friend John Klinghoffer in Frusciante's stead, rocking out to a cover of a Neil Young tune, "Man Needs a Maid". The only video of the performance, it appears, is pretty bad, but can be found at http://bit.ly/bwXCmu.

In my opinion, the band will have their work cut out without John Frusciante. The albums he's been a part of, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication, By The Way, and Stadium Arcadium, are those that now define the band. Worldwide recognized hits like Under the Bridge, Around the World, and Can't Stop come under his artistic input and his rough, funk influence. Frusciante is a major part of what has made the Red Hot Chili Peppers different from the Coldplays and the Nickelbacks in the calm rock scene; his funk has brought the Chili Peppers incredible fame.

Frusciante is not a "smooth around the edges" guitarist; he plays a melodic but scratchy sound that has become the sound of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Not only is the vibe unique, but it complements Anthony Kiedis' relatively untrained singing in a jarring, distinctive affinity that has made them a top rock band for over 20 years. Only a truly wicked guitarist can replace this harmony.

So in steps in "John Take 2", Mr. Klinghoffer. A great resume, has played with Gnarls Barkley, has toured with the Chili Peppers, has even played on stage with Frusciante at one point. He is amigos with the boys already, so he slides nicely in, so the band is nicely set to record their 10th studio album, the highly anticipated follow-up to Stadium Arcadium.

But will it be the Chili Peppers? How many of you know the album One Hot Minute? That album was supposed to be the electrifying follow-up to Californication. Except it was a dud. Why? John Frusciante had quit the band, to be replaced by good friend, Dave Navarro. Sound familiar? The tracks were okay, though turned out strange hits like "Aeroplane", and it wasn't till Frusciante's return for By The Way that the band really sounded like themselves again.

I don't want to be too prejudice to Klinghoffer. I would like to give him a chance. But if you watch a practice session with him and the band playing "Snow" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8Y7xFNFTRI, you may start to realize what i'm talking about. He's stiff. He's cemented to his spot. He lifelessly plays the riff again and again as if he's spent all night memorising it and he's trying not to mess up. The scratchy, dirty feel of Frusciante is lost, and instead it feels cut and dry; just what its supposed to be and nothing more.

If you skip to the end of the song you get a taste of his improvisational technique, and technique is all it really is. Stays within the confines of the chord, finishes of the song, and pretends its more than what he has been composing for his big solo moment. Compare this to Frusciante, please do, playing Don't Forget Me live, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djkEHxypctU, and you get a little bit of a sense of what i'm talking about. Did Frusciante write that before going on stage? Could that ever actually be written down? Art, especially the Art the Chili Peppers have created, is not polished, is not perfect, it is energized unfinished sublime beauty. I just don't see the sublime in Klinghoffer.

3.56, or 3 Free Chocolate Bars

How many times have you walked by a penny on the ground? Or a nickel? A Quarter? I see it everyday, and in my mind, maybe its because I'm dutch, but its a little bit stupid. So much of what we do is aboout saving money, about saving every little penny. Iif you are at the grocery store and one loaf of bread is $2.33 and another completely comparable loaf is 5o cents off at $1.80, you're gonna go for the cheaper one, without a doubt. You go to a vending machine, and one is selling cans of coke for $1, but that discount brand is $0.50, you go for the discount nearly every time.

But that 50 cents is in that quarter you walked by the other day, and those 2 dimes and a nickel you saw on your way home. If you think of that spare change, those pennies, and quarters and nickels and dimes, you realize you probably dropped by at least one penny a day, and usually much more. If you had actually picked up that penny, one a day for a whole year, you'd end up with $3.56, or, as I like to see it, 3 free chocolate bars. Now if someone gave you 3 free chocolate bars, free of charge, no obligation whatsoever, you would take it, of course you would. But this is a bare minimum; what happens if one day instead of a penny, you picked up a dime, or a quarter? All of a sudden this $3.56 turns into $5. Now add in that change in your pocket you actually collect this time instead of having no idea what to do with it and your up in the $20 range.

Don't believe me? I did it, I picked up change, as much as I could, in my grade 12 year. I was in high school, so their was always change left on the floor of the caf or in the hallways; change I picked up and put into a piggy bank. I recently took the time to roll this coinage, while I watched TV so it wasn't like i was putting any extra time towards it. I ended up with $38. $38 from one year of coinage. I was surprised.

Now I didnt buy 38 chocolate bars, as it may look like i'm suggesting. I actually gave the $38 to charity. People, at least those who are frugal like me, are always wondering about charitable giving: often they would like to give but they don't know how much they should give or how much they can afford. My advice? Pick up the change, roll the change, and hopefully you can make some change. Give it a try, all it takes is stooping once a day, pickin up that lucky penny, and maybe you can make a difference.

Climbing Cotopaxi, 5987m - Ecuador

3 Pictures from climbing Cotopaxi, the iconic snowcapped volcano that overlooks Quito. They have some "world's greatest" statement, like "The world's highest snowcapped volcano" or something - whatever it is, it was the greatest challenge I have ever taken on. We reached the peak after climbing straight up a glacier for 6 1/2 hours; i was shaky, my vision was blurred, i felt sick, I was stumbling, i was turning back, it was horrible. But we made it, we made it, and the sublime feeling was bliss.

A favourite picture of mine. Looking down at the clouds, its as if you are in an airplane looking out at the rolling white fluffy plains stretching out before you. But here in this picture, the plains are obscured by the mountain we are climbing cutting across the foreground; we ended up somehow above the sky but with our feet still on the ground.

This is the shadow of Cotopaxi on top of the cloud cover as the sun rose. That shadow must have stretched for hundreds and hundreds of miles, its peak jus sort of disappearing at the horizon. Not sure if that white dot to the left is the moon...probably a UFO sighting.

Pizza Chicken

Nothing better than pizza chicken.

Pizza chicken originiates from Camp Hermosa, my favourite camp in the world. www.camphermosa.org
I spent a summer working in the kitchen at this camp and made this awesome dish.
So simple to make too!!
Take frozen chicken breast, boneless, skinless, nice and processed, but free range if u hav the monai. Put it in the oven on bake, like 400 ish. Don't even need to defrost it (aha that easy, i no i
no).
Cook it till its done, may take a bit but, hey! watch a tv show or somethin while you're waiting.
Take the chicken out of the oven and off the tray you were using. The tray is gonna be covered in
fat and chicken water, nothing you want to have in you pizza chicken.
Put the chicken on another pan that is lined with tin foil - trust, u don't wanna clean this pan.
Cover the chicken in tomato sauce you have heated in the microwave or the stove. Put on gobs of cheese, soo much cheese as you can.
Throw her back into the oven. only for like 10 minutes on BROIL. only till the cheese gets a lil crispy.
Pull her out, serve with rice and ceaser salad and chocolate milk. Mmmmmm i could eat like 20.
Enjoy!

Japan

The sun set over the sandy schoolyard. A few students finish up their3 hour long training for the day. I snapped a photo before I headed back to my homestay. Beautiful city, Osaka, I would recommend Japan's interesting, modern culture to any traveller.

A Sic Pic From The Galapagos

Here i am in the best view of the Galapagos. So legit. Went snorkelling with the penguins in that alcove. Quite legit.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A Poem From Pete.

A Cookie Jar Waits
On a Child's Eager Hand,
Ready to Give.
Generous Old Man.

A Note From Lily-Pad

To Start, A Note From My Friend Lily-Pad,
my friend lily-pad jus got bac from a trip with a group called Katimavik where she got to travel all over Canada, Prince Edward Island to Iqaluit to Quebec for like 5 months. she's got some great stories, and since she's just couch surfing round London Ontario right now I thought i'd get her to post some of her story. i'm also often interested in the uncanny feeling people get from returning home from an extended travel and realising home is now, somehow, different. i thot this gives a pretty cool look at this experience:

yo first blog post-- yee yee from yo girl here sittin to yo right.

ok enough of that.. so Katimavik was killer. Long, torturous at times but the best experience ever and I wouldn't trade it for a thing in this world. It stretched me to no ends and I can't explain how much I learned. I'll never forget the day I left for my first placement in Prince Edward Island. Leaving mom and dad at the airport. No idea what to expect. And then BAM. I'm a couple provinces over, alone... well not really but it sure felt that way. Sitting in Mass O (orientation camp) and thinking to myself-- "what the hell am I doing here? I don't fit in..." The days were long and the constant change between French and English was exhausting.

Yup- so I moved in with 10 other house mates from across the country. Everyone so different and so unique. Was I actually going to be friends with any of these people? Little did I know I wouldn't just become the best of friends with these people... I would become family with these people. 6 months went by in a flash. Looking back- it all seems so long ago. But to think about the day I left my mom and dad? Seems like yesterday. The highs and lows I had with my house mates... there were many.. definitely many. I can't even begin to narrow down experiences to talk about.

The east coast was fo sho ballin... the chill atmosphere and constant flow of friendly faces made it a complete pleasure to experience and volunteer. My job was awesome- it stretched me. Event planning and coordinating, fundraising and contacting clients for CUSO-VSO. What an experience. The fact that our group learned Michael Jackson's thriller dance to raise money for charity? Pretty much unreal... who else has done that??

3 months later our group packed up and headed to the arctic. Yeah... the arctic. It reached -57 one day and that day had winds of 76 km/h. I was caught in that blizzard and it was a hell of an adventure. The taste of raw meat; caribou, seal, whale, walrus and arctic char still finds it's way to my taste buds. And it is definitely an aquired taste... don't think i can put that any differently. Learning about the Inuit culture from my friends and through my work with the local Inuit Association came easily and quickly. I performed research and recorded documentation from surveys about the youth in Iqaluit. Learning about their struggles and the challenges they face everyday opened my eyes to something beyond my safe high school community back home. One thing I for sure learned? The Inuit have an unreal culture. They are extremely talented and constantly prove themselves worthy of what they have worked for and continue to work for. I have huge respect for the arctic and the people that call it home. I never thought I would love the arctic the way I did. I would go back in a heart beat and can't wait to see the friends I made there once again. Unfortunately the time to leave came about and we headed to Quebec for just over 3 weeks.

The time of our lives at the bars and hanging out. creating costumes and set designs for a play we presented to old folks at homes... that was hilarious and so much fun. It brought us closer as a group, forcing us to work together in a way that many of us hadn't, expecially in a second language we weren't all that familiar with.

When the day came to go home... I couldn't believe it. It was all so sureal. The excitement of seeing my family and friends back home was definitely evident. I was also pumped to put into action everything I learned through Katimavik at home. When the airport came and then the bus stations where we were all separated the fear hit. The fear of being alone once again and leaving these people you once called strangers. Those same people at Mass O I never thought I would be friends with. yet here I was, saying the hardest good byes I have ever had to do. There were many tears from all of us... constantly. It was a long day that went on and on and on. Until I was back. Sitting in my own room. Alone. No room mates, just me and all my things. What a crazy realization. What an experience to look back on.

Is this all I can say about Katimavik? Nope. I couldn't ever have the space or time to write out everything that happened or everything I thought and felt. Guess this is where I am going to leave it or else it would just get way too personal for a blog. Sorry Pete for takin up all this space. Enjoy though.

A Note from E-Money

A few of my favourite things:

laundry out of the dryer
skiing freshly groomed snow
a sparkling kitchen
a shower when the temperature does not fluctuate
a power nap in the early afternoon
when i'm walking to campus and I don't have to wait for Richmond light
honey, makes everything better
roll-up-the-rim season!
clean linens
a good, thorough sweat after a workout

check-marking a todo off of a todo list