Pirate Bay Verdict annnnd cue Retrial

The Pirate Bay trial wrapped up last week and sadly I have been too busy to blog about it. But the main thing is that they were found guilty and ordered to pay millions to the record companies and go to jail. I found this quite surprising until I found out that it was a super low level court and that they would appeal very quickly. The founders were saying things like 'don't worry we aren't going to jail' and 'we aren't going to pay those millions' and 'bit torrents will not be affected'. So I guess I wasn't surprised when they announced that they were appealing for a retrial.
So the saga continues....

Where do Balloons End Up?

If you have ever wondered where helium balloons end up I have the answer for at least 15 of them. I am sure that most try to emigrate to Europe and Asia where people are more accepting of balloons but these guys just couldn't make it so they ended up in my back yard.

My immediate thought was that it was more proof of this global warming business so we popped them.

My Poor Blogging

Sorry for the lack of insightful, informative and interesting blog posts that you may have become used to if you read other peoples blogs.
This blog has never really tried to be either of those things to anybody but myself. Either way the lack of blog posting is quite dismal and I take full blame for it. But I do plead insanity since there is tons going on right now. I am on too many committees to name for church, plus work is crazy right now and we are also trying to re-drywall much of our house before our taper moves to Holland.
So I am busy.

It is not an excuse just an explanation. Now go find an insightful, informative or interesting blog to read.

Susan Boyle shows why our society is still sad

So the Susan Boyle phenomenon is still going strong. If you havn't seen the well produced Britain's got Talent episode here it is. It is currently at over 30million views in the past week. The whole thing is filmed to set up the viewer for the emotional moment where she starts singing. That is fine because the people who watch these shows generally like that kind of stuff.
It is great because she is the sort of underdog story that people can relate to very easily. Even the guy who took a gamble and bought the url susan-boyle.com before all this exploded has seen the web site explode in popularity.
But my question is what if she had not sung flawlessly? What if she had totally flubbed it? She would have been ridiculed like all the rest of the wannabe singers without either looks or talent. What does that say about our society? Everyone is saying how amazing she is but what they are really saying is "Susan, we can't believe that such a frumpy non-attractive woman can sing so well." I don't think it is intended but it is just the byproduct of our society. It is the same as worshiping the singer with the perfect body in the end.
What I am trying to say is that this scenario says more about our society than really meets the eye.

Tremblant was EPIC

For a blow by blow account of our Tremblant trip (which thankfully doesn't mention my encounter with some snowmaking equipment) you can check out Andrew's blog here or Irene's blog here.

And just for fun here is a clip of me getting some air off a little jump near the base of the mountain/big hill:

Billy Bob has nothing on The Sadies

If you haven't heard or seen the episode of Q with Billy Bob Thorton acting like a child not getting his way than you must be living under a rock.
Either way here it is:

The performance that he walks off from is not posted because of legal issues (that will probably never be resolved). Here is another performance of his 'Cosmic Country Music'.

Now I just wanted to compare this to a Canadian band that is both far more talented and far more experienced despite being quite a bit younger. The Sadies have been doing this type of Alt-Country for quite some time and are pretty much a Canadian indie-rock fixture. They even have their own label. Here is an example of the stuff they do. I couldn't find a really good example but this one will have to do:

So when Billy Bob tries to say that he is the only one doing this and starts comparing himself to Tom Petty and says that Canada doesn't have anything as good as his band well I beg to differ. For such a small spread out population we have an incredible music scene. Sure we don't get up and through bottles and chairs at each other but we would rather hear the music and check out the talent which is something that apparently you don't do at a Boxmasters show.