BNJMN

Four years ago, my vote in the municipal election would have come down to equal parts name recognition, what the polls said, and a quick read of the top issues for each candidate. Then the O-Train plan for cancelled, costing us $100 million in settlements and expenses. Then there was a bus strike, in which I often walked to school for 40 minutes in often sub -25C conditions . Then an idea for a random tunnel came down and was hailed as a billion times better than the first plan to extend the current train to the Airport, which is all of 5 minutes away anyway! Oh yeah, and our mayor was out fighting criminal charges. So I followed this one a little more closely. In 4 years time, the Web has changed dramatically. Candidates are tweeting and answering questions directly, are putting debates on YouTube, aggregating every article that mentions their name... It's become so much easier to see where everyone stands, and to hear others' opinions, and agree or disagree with them. I hones...

I finally returned a movie to ZIP.ca , I think it was The Manchurian Candidate. I've had three titles for a long time now (it, along with Tron and The Prestige) and no desire to watch them... so I had to cut my losses somewhere and return one. ZIP, probably thrilled that I'm still alive, promptly sent me Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Harold and Kumar 2 was an enjoyable, but not-as-much-as-its-predecessor comedy. As Harold and Kumar hopped from one improbable disaster to another, I couldn't decide exactly what kind of movie it was, and I think that imbalance kept the movie from being better than it should have been. It around a lot from smart comedy, to slapstick comedy, to fart jokes, to a hilarious-yet-touching poem about the square root of three. I haven't seen White Castle in ages, though I'm pretty sure it's a better movie. Though Neil Patrick Harris with unicorns AND rainbows? That deserves some mention. I still don't know what I think of...

I've decided that I would like to blog everyday. It's not the first time I've said that I'll do that, but now I have a reason. Ottawa is currently in a public transportation work stoppage. In other words, the buses are on strike. OC Transpo is on strike. If you're keeping score, we're two weeks away from Christmas and dead in the middle of exam season. My mom has never been able to drive, so the bus has been my primary means to move about the city for school, work, shopping, socialising, entertainment, and on occasion, sleep. This strike is going to make it extremely difficult for me to make it to work, even though I don't live all that far from where I need to get five days a week. It's not within walking distance, but it doesn't take all that long in a vehicle. If this work strike lasts nearly as long as the last one did - 24 days in 1996 - then I'll be walking to school, which is a decent 40-minute walk, at best when bike paths ar...