Godtube

So this is what all the evangelical Christians are doing these days. They have gone all technological on us and invented a website called Godtube.
I'm not quite sure what to think of this site yet but a quick glance tells me that it can't be all that bad. It apparently tries to be "a video-driven social network where users can explore their faith and the tenets of Christianity." Nothing wrong with that. And on the content "Some of the content is fun, some of it is serious, and all of it is safe for the whole family." Well that is definitely more than anyone can say about Youtube.
The only reservations I would have would be about the "Christian content" These days many non-Christian things are being pushed as Christian for ulterior motives. Some of the content may be leading people who aren't Christian to believe things about Christianity that really is not true....
But that opens up the whole debate about evangelizing and how and when to do it.
Either way its a better place for the kiddies than youtube I guess.

The Snow Wall to End All Snow Walls

This guy over on the east end of Ottawa in Orleans (we try not to go over there) has built this insane snow wall. I guess you have to do something with it. It definitely is the most efficient way of piling it but he is going to have snow in his front yard till July.
There are more pics of the wall here.
I wonder if Pink Floyd ever used snow.......

Snowstorm of March 2008

Last weekend we were hit with a monstrous snowstorm. I have seen blogs from people in Southern Ontario describing how much snow they got and showing pictures but c'mon guys. That was nothing. Ottawa really got dumped on. We are now 30cm from the all time record in 1971. Ottawa's record is over 400cm and Toronto's record is about 200cm. So yeah......quitcherwhinen already.
Anyway, I put together a short video of me trying to walk around my house in the snow. It was hilarious and Irene was trying so hard not to laugh while holding the camera.

The song in the video is the same one that I blogged about a week ago.

No Global Schwarming in the Czech Republic!

I was sent this link to a CNN video of an interview with the recently elected Czech president Vaclav Klaus. The host (HLN's Glenn Beck) seems a little biased and seems to be trying to pump up his side of things but I, for one, can definitely understand his frustration.
The most fascinating things about this interview are the points that president Klaus makes. He is trained as an economist so he has several point on how the "climate change" force can kill the economy of developing countries. But, coming from a former communist country, he also has several interesting points that tie together the communist movement and the "climate change" movement. Kind of scary actually and rather believable.
This clip is definitely worth a listen.

How The West Québec Was Won

Everyone is always complaining about winter but I really do enjoy it. I don't mind being a little cold, as long as you dress for it. But it wasn't really until I experienced winters in Ottawa and Gatineau that I really started to enjoy and appreciate winter. There really is something special and different about it.

This song, How The West Québec Was Won by an awesome Ottawa band called The Acorn really echoes my feelings about the Outaouais.

pack in all the layers and head into the hills for the season
shakin off the shackles of the city and forgettable days
relishing the simple joys of fire
forget about the sticky apartments, all this hot summer haze
but ooooooooh we'll glide on frozen water
tumble down on mountains made of snow

we've been breakin resolutions and promises for most of the year
the love your still smokin never parted ways with my beard
every night we stumble home together
longer and longer as our favourite constellations appear
but ooooooooh we'll glide on frozen water
move into the hills of gatineau
we can stay up every night
as the city's slowly buried in the snow

So does anybody want to go see them at the Black Sheep Inn on March 29^th?

The Latest in Music....

Is this where music is eventually going? A bunch of guys huddled over their hacked Iphones and nintendos with illegal (for apple) software.
Yes folks, the future has arrived. I now present the first iband.
These guys have been putting out youtube videos of their work fairly regularly and now have a fully functioning website with their first 'single' called Life is Greater than the Internet. Listen to it here.
The music isn't amazing but its definitely not horrible. It's better than a lot of the conventional myspace bands out there.
I'm just really interested to see where this goes.

OpenID: Its only a matter of time (I hope)

I read this article a few weeks ago and it finally got me to research and understand what OpenID is and how it's supposed to work. Here are my thoughts....
It would be so awesome to be able to sign into one account and have access to all your different online profiles. It sounds like a brilliant idea but as the article says it will take a lot of time.
"OpenID looks like it’s going to be a winner, so big companies making their user accounts OpenID compatible is a good hedge. Everyone, of course, wants to be an ID issuer, since they get to “own” the user. Less attractive is allowing users from other sites to log into your services, so don’t expect that functionality to come for some time."
I, for one, would definitely be more willing to sign up for some sort of forum or random discussion group if I could use my OpenID and not have to create a new profile. In case you haven't noticed, you can comment on this blog (and any other blogspot site) with your OpenID which is pretty cool.
The only thing that worries me is the security of this thing. What if someone somewhere is able to hack into your OpenID account and then suddenly has all your information for all your online profiles. That could really suck.
But overall it would make the online experience much easier and I'm all for that.