Every time election time comes around, whatever it may be for (municipal, federal, school student society, etc.), people always ask me if I’m going to vote, and subsequently, who I plan to vote for.  These people obviously feel passionately for politics, and probably have a strong bias for one particular party/candidate.  I mean, they’re asking, after all, so they must have at least a minimal interest in it.  So then, when I tell them I don’t plan on voting, it typically casts an empty glance across their face, as they stare at me in disbelief.  Yes, that’s right, I said it.  I don’t vote, and don’t ever plan to.

My decision to not vote, and my stance on why other people shouldn’t vote, seems to go against everything that stands for goodness and order in this society.  Hell, MuchMusic even runs ads around federal elections telling young adults to get out and vote if they have the chance.  So with all of this media and personal hype around casting my life-changing vote, why do I still choose not to?

First let me get one thing straight.  My choice of not voting does not equate to the fact that I don’t care.  Now, to be completely frank, yes, that’s part of it, but not all of it.  Of course I care about my own well-being and all of that shit, but there’s a lot more to it.  The main reason I don’t vote is because I don’t know enough about politics.  I don’t research enough into the campaigns, or what so-and-so’s stance on immigration is, or whatnot, because I have little to no interest in it.  It doesn’t mean I don’t care about the outcome, but I feel I don’t have enough information (or rather, I don’t care enough to go out and gather enough information) to sway myself in a particular direction. 

As a result, all I ever see are campaign ads on TV telling me this guy will do this for me, and a few seconds later, the next opposing dude telling me that first dude is a douchebag.  And of course, whatever I hear from the news.  Is this enough for me to make a firm decision as to who should run this wonderful nation of ours?  I certainly don’t think so.  Why?  Because campaign ads are full of propaganda and partiality (what you’d expect from people who will tell you anything to get your vote), and news will always have some sort of political bias underpinning what gets reported.  So with this enormous heap of bullshit, we’re all supposed to just pick our favorite flavour, and go on with our lives.

Sure, my vote “counts” in terms of it being…well…counted in the number of votes for somebody, but did I make my decision based on everything that needs to be known, or did I just pick the guy whose commercials I saw the most frequently.  And this doesn’t just stop at me.  I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people in Canada vote based just on this.  They’ll hear one guy say he’ll lower taxes and create more jobs.  “Well, that sounds amazing!  He’s got my vote!”  And it ends at that.  Personally, I don’t think even 50% of the people in Canada should be voting, based on the premise that they know fuck-all about politics and are just won over with glossed-over statements about how ideal things will be if so-and-so is elected.

Politics is definitely not rocket science, but it’s quite convoluted in many ways.  And just in the same way I don’t want to put my life in the hands of some idiot to give me brain surgery, I don’t want a bunch of morons deciding who should be running the country based on nothing but misleading news sources and gut instinct.  So please, when election time comes around again and again, I urge my fellow Canadians to think about whether they know all the facts before stepping into that voting booth.  I urge you all to stop voting.  Besides, in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter anyway?

After over a full year of the same boring old site theme, I finally decided to change things up, and do a slight redesign of things around here.  I haven’t been keen with the updates lately, and as far as I know, the only person who’s ever going to read this is me, and the spammers that seem to frequent my site on a daily basis, leaving gibberish in my comments.  But then again, those are probably bots programmed to visit my site.

In any case, if anybody happens to be reading this at any point in the near future, I’ll be updating with new posts about random things that may or may not be related to my real-life encounters.  I’d like to say that big things are in store for the future at changethestation.net, but I haven’t exactly figured out what that big thing will be.  And since nobody likes a liar, or at least somebody who gives false promises, I’ll just play it safe and say that I might do something else with this site.

In other news, Vancouver weather is finally improving; at least in a way that reflects the time of year it is.  I had to take a look at my calendar to remind myself that it is indeed Summer.  Good times are on the way.

A recent article at the Toronto Star had me thinking of the youth these days.  Now, I don’t want to sound like a 70 year-old man complaining about the loud music and funny clothes; rather I feel as if this coming generation of teens have things way too easy because of the increased pressure for parents, teachers, and authorities in general, to be politically correct. 

The article states that teachers and principals in public schools are required to keep the failure rate at a minimum, inflating grades wherever possible.  What does this mean?  Well, basically they’re handing out Highschool Diplomas to just any idiot who will show up to class.  How drastic does it get?  Well, an example in the article is about a girl who received a failing grade of 30% by her teacher, but the principal felt it was necessary to bump that to 50%, to allow a pass.  Another girl skipped 30 classes straight, and never handed in an assignment, but was given a chance to hand everything in at once, without penalty.

Now, one thing that just gets to me is, what about all of the kids who worked damn hard to get that 90% average, and walk down that stage to get their rightfully earned diploma?  Where’s the fairness in this?  Why does Joe fucking Schmoe who can’t even pass Grade 9 Math (apparently the class with the highest failure rate), get to walk next to everybody else, who worked their asses off to get where they are, only to find out that they didn’t really need to work that hard to begin with. 

Well, the answer’s simple: we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.  We’re too worried about Joe’s self-esteem when he turns 17 and still has to take classes with 13 year olds.  Well you know what?  Joe should’ve thought about that before he started slacking.  This world is too full of unrealistically optimistic people who continually tell students/their children/friends or whatever, that they can be whatever they want to be, and that they just have to work hard.  Well, half of that is right, you DO have to work hard.  But you can’t be whatever you want to be.  Some kids just don’t have it.  They’re not fit to be doctors, or astronauts, or teachers.  They’re dumb.  Period.  Get over it.  Indulging them in this whirlwind of bullshit and fairytales only makes things worse.  People are not all equal, and you can’t always have your way.  Live with what you’re given and don’t lie to yourself or your children. 

We were taught at a young age (hopefully by parents, if not then by your kindergarten teacher, at least) that you have to work hard in life.  Somewhere along the way, the kids these days lost sight of all of this, and want the easy way out.  And now knowing that they can’t even fail if they try to, well, this is a whole new low.  The world gets a lot harder after highschool, and now it’s going to be even harder with all the pampering teachers and parents are doing, just to keep a child’s inflated self-image up. 

If you think it seems that I was given this authoritative role undeservingly, I couldn't agree with you more. My duties in the store haven’t changed, and while the owner of the company insisted that I would be given more responsibility, I find it hard to believe in a company that rarely, if ever, has anything to do. Thus, I have a spiffy new title and slightly higher pay…so naturally I’m not going to protest a promotion. Ahhh…what a wonderful company this is.

My reign of terror officially begins February 1, 2007. Be afraid….be very afraid.

Having worked in the cellular industry for over two years now (full-time at first, but now part-time as I go to school), I think I finally have a good grasp on much of how everything operates.  That is, the phone companies themselves, which I have in one way or another all worked for, and the customers.  It may not seem like a complex industry at all, if you’re just a regular consumer.  You sign up for your plan or whatever, get your phone, and there you have it.  You’re off with your free phone, having signed a 3-year contract, and it’s happy sailing from there on.  Wrong, my good friend.  Let me shed some light on the inner-workings of these companies.

So what do we have?  Bell, Rogers, Fido, and Telus.  Then we have Virgin and Solo, which both suck enough balls themselves anyway, so no real need to mention them anymore in detail.  Rogers acquired Microcell Telecommunications a while back, November of 2004, as I recall, so it’s all under the Rogers brand now, but they operate as independent entities and brands.  They are the only two GSM providers in Canada, and share network towers.  Telus and Bell, on the other hand, operate under a CDMA network, and they too, share towers.  Cuts costs, I suppose.

Anyhow, being that there’s not much competition going on in Canada, these companies are pretty much free to charge whatever the hell they want to charge.  For phones, plans, service fees, etc.  Your choices are limited, really.  And to top it all off, every single company offers essentially the exact same plans.  Fido comes out with some plan with X amount of minutes for X amount of dollars.  Vigilant Telus and Bell reps hear about this shit before it even comes out.  I have no idea how this happens, must be word of mouth from within the company.  But within hours, Telus and Bell will offer the exact same plan.

Now for phones, you’re looking at a GSM vs CDMA battle.  CDMA claims to offer better reception, and has a faster data network, EVDO.  GSM phones contain SIM cards, which can be easily swapped into another phone, so you can get overseas phones and whatnot, which isn’t possible on Bell and Telus (well, it is possible, but requires a sketchy and expensive process called ESN cloning).  A common misconception with the companies is with phones breaking.  People seem to think there’s an advantage to having a GSM provider over CDMA.  Now, I work for Telus currently, and if your phone is broken and you’re out of warranty, you’re fucked.  You’ll have to buy a new phone.  Luckily, their phones at outright cost (that is, without a contract term), are cheaper.  As with Bell, I would assume.  But, that’s the exact same situation as with Rogers or Fido.  If your phone is broken, you’ll have to buy a new one.  The only difference is, you have more choice in that you can purchase an overseas phone, or any GSM phone you can get your hands on.  Usually a much more expensive alternative.  GSM, however, would be great for cellphone enthusiasts who like having phones from overseas and not be restricted to the shitty models we get here in Canada.  But for a regular user who just needs service, any company would do.

One of the biggest things wrong with the cellular industry…..the customers.  There, I said it.  And it’s true.  People expect WAY too much out of the companies, and subsequently, their phones.  Cell phone companies provide you with a service.  What you choose to do with your service, and how you treat your phone is not determined by them.  I’ve had customers come in with ridiculous problems and expect the company to take it up the ass.  For example, lost or stolen phones.  Yes, it’s a damn shame your phone got stolen.  But how is it Bell’s responsibility to give you a brand new phone for free?  Yes, you will still be charged for your service even if you don’t get a new phone.  Tough shit, eh?  If your phone falls in the toilet, no, it is not covered under warranty.  Don’t expect to get a new one, or even have your current phone fixed.  If you drive your car into the lake, Toyota would not hand you a new Corolla, so how is your cell phone any different?  People tend to think that because they pay for this monthly service, the cell phone company is liable for the functioning of their phone, and that it is their duty to provide you with a fully functioning unit.  Wrong again.  They don’t owe you shit.  Let’s look at why, through a financial stand-point.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way.  Cell phone companies exist to make profit.  They provide you with a service, and in return, we pay them money to receive the benefits of this service.  Now, let’s say you get a phone from Rogers, or whatever, they’re all the same.  You sign a 3-year contract, and you get a phone for $0.  Sounds pretty sweet, huh?  Because the retail value of that phone is probably $299 - $399.  You get a $30 plan, plus fees and whatnot, before taxes, you’re looking at $45 bucks, roughly.  In order for Rogers to make their money back for giving you the phone for free, plus paying commissions to the store and sales reps and whatnot, they’re looking at roughly one year before they break even and start making profit.  If your phone breaks within 6 months, and it’s your fault, it wouldn’t make financial or business sense to give you a new one for free; they’d be losing money.

What most people don’t understand is that when you sign a contract, you receive a phone at a subsidized cost, because with that contract length it is expected that you’d spend more money on your service than the initial cost of the phone to the company, and there’s the profit.  It’s all about the Benjamins, unfortunately, when it comes to busted phones.  Because, let’s say, instead of a $45 dollar plan, you’re on a $450 plan.  Well, things are different now.  Because you’ve made Rogers more than enough money back in the first 6 months, so if your phone breaks, they’ll probably get you something for a good deal, because they know that they’ll make the subsidy back quickly.  And on top of that, they make you extend your contract length again, so they’re guaranteed to make even more.  Smart bastards.

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.”  --Karl Marx 

I have always believed this statement to hold true.  However, a part of me has always seen a “bright” side to religion; it brings people together, gives people hope, and instills morals in an otherwise chaotic society.  Yet, upon further thought, it seems that organized religion does the exact opposite.  Religion causes raging wars between nations, give false hope to people wondering where their messiah is to save them when things go wrong, and teaches people to become another cookie-cutter version of everybody else or face being an outcast and shunned.  Organized religion is a way to keep people in check.
 

Religion shelters you from the real world and makes you see what they need you to see, as long as it keeps your “faith” in their religion.  “Our god is the real one, and everybody else is wrong”, a bold statement indeed, but how many people can claim this until you’re just too confused, or until you just stop giving much of a damn about it anymore.  Personally, I think religion is a thing of the past, along with sorcery and magic.  To believe that there is one superior being controlling every thing you do, everything that goes on around you, and everything that will ever happen…sounds awfully improbable and dare I say, idealistic, in this day and age.

If you think about it, what kinds of crazy theories does religion still have to support its case?  Well, let’s just go for a really simple one for now: “God lives in heaven which is up in the clouds.”  Now, this sounds stupid, and maybe it’s just something told to children to help them sleep at night, but I’m sure those space shuttles that pass through the stratosphere didn’t make a stop by heaven.  I’m sure as they were flying by, they looked out their windows only to say “Hmm…..no God…”  And surely the theory of evolution makes a much stronger case than the Adam and Eve theory of creationism.

Religion just seems to be the easy answer to a lot of complicated questions.  “Why is my life so hard?”  God is testing you.  “Why did I have to be born with one leg?”  God is testing you.  And so forth.  I mean, in theory, “God” could technically be the answer to any “why” question.  Of course, you’d have to be pretty naïve to believe that as true; or you would just have to be a very devout Christian.

The reason I decided to go on this long rant, is because I recently visited a site that reminded me of how free thought and expression are inhibited by this thing we call religion.  Anything that appears to be questionable to the teachings and beliefs of any given religion are deemed unacceptable and should be excluded from your every day life.  Cultures, outside of your religion, are backwards and scary, so don’t even attempt to understand them. 

This site claims to be a website with a focus on the family, shining a light on the world of popular entertainment, a light obviously provided by God.  Anyhow, after reading a few reviews on some CDs, one thing was made abundantly clear.  All music that isn’t in some way related to or mention God is bad, and you shouldn’t let your teens listen to it.  And, on top of that, they recommend similar Christian artists you should listen to instead.  They also break every album down into categories, and assess how they relate.  For example, they have a “Pro-social content” paragraph, and an “Objectionable content” paragraph.

Let’s get a few examples:

A line from "High All the Time" says it all: "You don’t want me to be your kid’s role model." As well as Get Rich or Die Tryin’ has sold, 50 Cent has the ears of a lot of young music fans. Don’t let yours be among them.  –www.pluggedinonline.com review of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ by 50 Cent

American Idiot serves up the honest cynicism, angst and wry self-deprecation fans have come to expect, this time as a concept album. Without meaning to, its belligerent opposition to Christian faith helps to explain the band’s futility and emptiness. But that’s nowhere near reason enough for teens to tune in.  --www.pluggedinonline.com review of American Idiot by Green Day

“This time as a solo artist, Dre once again racks the record stores with advocation of crime, drug use, explicit sex and graphic violence (a chronic problem!). Another socially irresponsible record.”  --www.pluggedinonline.com review of The Chronic by Dr. Dre

--“Speak when you are angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.” 

We’ve been guilty of this before, I’m sure.  Being in a heated argument with somebody; emotions fly, and words just come out of your mouth that you would never normally say.  Are they any less true though?  Well, sometimes we say things to purposely hurt the other person, simply because we know it will hurt them.  Other times we say things that we’ve had on our minds, but were afraid to say before.  However, being mad gives us a rush of adrenaline and confidence, and it gets blurted out.  Either way, I’m not trying to say that either of them are justified.  If you must say something, it’s best to wait for a calm moment when it won’t come out pompous or condescending.  All too often, we’re too “in the moment” to care about how the other person will feel, because we’re so heated that we will say or do anything to get them more mad.  My advice: Calm down, take a breather, forget about what’s happening or what’s been said, and get back to the topic later when all is less intense.  Now, if I would only follow these rules myself.  A wise woman once told me “just walk away”.

Unfortunately, some of us don’t have this self-restraint in high quantities.  Yes, I’m speaking about myself.  To be honest, I don’t think I was like this before, but that was long before, when I was a naïve kid who just took what people said at face value, and trusted it.  Soon after I left high-school, and into the pseudo-real-world, I started to think a bit more for myself.  As such, I became the way I am now.  I’m sure my friends, and ex-girlfriends can vouch for this.  I’m an argumentative, stubborn, and defensive person when it comes to debating; be it a friendly debate, or a verbal “fight”.  Those three things are a terrible combination, but seem to always come together; if you have one, chances are you have them all.  I’m not trying to use any of these as an excuse to justify things I may have said in the past.  Rather, I’m attempting to understand it a bit more, so that I’ll avoid doing it in the future.

For example, if somebody tries to tell me I’m doing something wrong (no matter what it may be), instead of taking it as a bit of constructive criticism, I automatically take it as an attack directed towards myself.  My instinctive response to this would be to either A) Defend myself and try to prove that I’m not wrong, you are, or B) shoot back with some sort of response denoting that you’re just as wrong as me, but at something else.  Wow…even as I write this down, I’m noticing how utterly lame that is of me.  But, I hope that I don’t stay that way forever…I’d like to think that there’s always room for self-improvement.  Nobody’s perfect, and I’m not asking to be, but here’s to being one step closer to normality.

We’ve all seen the ads.  The ones where it shows a bunch of scenes of people, criminals, if you will, stealing things, with brief text flashing on the screen.  “You wouldn’t steal a TV” etc.  At the end, you see a teenaged girl starting a download, possibly of a movie that she wants to see, and then leaves the room while it downloads.  “Piracy is a crime” it says.  Illegal Downloading: Inappropriate for all ages.  Roll credits.

Come on now…what are these commercials supposed to do?  Is it really meant to deter the mass of internet users from downloading pirated movies?  I can imagine a 19-year-old university student sitting in his dorm watching it, and suddenly thinking “My god!  All these years…how could I have been so stupid committing these crimes?  I’ll go turn myself in now.”  University enrollment in the years following would dwindle and civilized society as we know it will cease to exist, because the majority of us will be locked up in prison because of our good values and morals against piracy.  Good for us.

Well, that may be a stretch, but personally, I don’t see many problems with it.  Now, from a legal standpoint, I don’t know the technicalities of everything, but from what I understand for myself, yes, piracy is a crime.  Piracy, by definition, is the “unauthorized copying, distribution, or use of another's production.”  With that said though, if it really is a crime, wouldn’t the person who initially pirates the movie/game/software and places it on the internet for distribution the real pirate.  I mean, if we really needed to pinpoint one particular group of people, why not go for them, instead of slapping teens and old ladies with lawsuits.

Pirated movies and music have existed for a long time before the internet even started becoming popular.  I remember walking down the streets of Chinatown in Toronto as a kid, seeing the latest movies being sold on cheap VHS tapes for 4 bucks a pop.  Which, I think is actually worse than doing it on the internet.  People shouldn’t be profiting financially from piracy.  It should be done out of the goodness of one’s heart.  But that’s not always the case, I guess.  There will always be purchasers of pirated materials, so why go for them instead of the providers?

Of course, I don’t want this to happen either.  I’m quite a fan of free movies and music.  Does that make me a bad person?  Well, I don’t like to think so.  I’d like to think of it as…money conscious.  Everybody could agree with this.  If you had a choice between paying $29.99 plus tax for a movie on DVD, or even just renting it for $5, or alternatively just downloading it for free (of course, take into account your monthly internet service fees), why wouldn’t the last choice be the only sensible choice?  I like free stuff, and I’m quite sure everybody likes free stuff.  If you could walk into a restaurant, and they’d serve you free food that’s exactly the same as the restaurant next door charging $30 a plate, wouldn’t you just naturally take the free food?  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Having said that though, I still buy DVDs, and music CDs and video games.  If I really like something, I don’t mind spending a few bucks on it here and there.  They always say the studios are the victims, and the artists.  Oh, poor them.  But are they really losing out here?  If I wasn’t going to pay $12.95 to see Dukes of Hazzard in the theatres, why would I buy it for $30, or rent it for $5, when I could watch that piece of crap for free.  Hell, I still feel ripped off after watching it for free.  I think I would’ve shot myself if I had paid to see it.

To download the piracy commercial, click here.

Like I mentioned before, the video depicts a bunch of criminals physically stealing TVs and cars, and compare it to a teenaged girl downloading a movie off the internet.  I guess they’re trying to really blur that line between those criminals, and bad-ass no-good teenagers who break copyright laws by downloading illegal copies of movies.  Way to go RIAA.  Those teenagers will get what’s comin to them.  You’ve shown me their true deviance, I’ll never trust them ever again.

Really, what this video is really saying is that, well, instead of stealing movies off the internet, you might as well go out and steal a car or some lady’s purse, cause it’s essentially the same thing.  What a life lesson.  Thanks a lot.  Interesting side note though, I downloaded that commercial, which was ripped from a DVD.  Sweet, sweet irony.