Ah me!...

Did I drop the lyrics in here yet? Even if I did, here they are again. This is one of my Happy songs and I've been listening to it a lot lately. Today I had an excellent reason to do so again. Share with me, sing along if you know the tune:


Climbing up on Solsbury Hill
I could see the city light
Wind was blowing, time stood still
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
(I) just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
"Son," he said "Grab your things,
I've come to take you home."

To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut
So I went from day to day
Tho' my life was in a rut
"Till I thought of what I'd say
Which connection I should cut
I was feeling part of the scenery
I walked right out of the machinery
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" he said "Grab your things
I've come to take you home."
(Back home.)

When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to be
And liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me
Today I don't need a replacement
I'll tell them what the smile on my face meant
My heart going boom boom boom
"Hey" I said "You can keep my things,
they've come to take me home."

(^_^)

I happened to find in the bowling alley a copy of the newspaper the Granma. It is a Cuban paper. I felt ten or fifteen years younger looking at it and thinking of my more political years. I was an idealist then. Apparently some Cubans tipped off the U.S. Gov't. about a bomb and a plane and subsequently Nothing exploded and Nobody was hurt. Naturally, the U.S., being appreciative, put the poor bastards in Jail! Lesson? Never trust the imperialist running dog lackeys, they will fuck you over for practice. The families of the incarcerated are apparently here in Canada trying to gain support for the victims. Fucking U.S.

Right! I was allowed a one page response (line breaks inserted randomly because I've no inclination to re-format just for xanga):

ENGL 4105EL 02: Theory and Criticism 13 Sept., 2006

For M. Orr, by Jason Simac, 172478

In consideration of excerpts from Plato’s Republic:

Keywords: "Good," "Truth," "Knowledge," "Reason," "Represent: (~ation), (~er)" - also "image,"

Further Keywords: "Yes," "Lackeys,"* "Underlying Assumptions"*

The main speaker, Socrates, under the notion of founding a new community, explores several guiding principles upon which his community should be built. These amount to codes of conduct, including a serious and extensive measure of artistic censorship and related emotional content. This, of course, is for the greater good of the community and therefore the individual, by dint of the fact that it holds with certain "truths" that the speaker holds up.

By trying to establish a notion of forms, the speaker wants us to believe that for any given set of things (e.g. beds), there is what equates to a divine version, called the Form. Taking as given the existance of both God and the gods (which he switches between as fits his argument), he seeks to establish that only their Forms are realities. To be clear, God or possibly the gods, conceived of the Bed, which is in all ways the perfect bed. The beds you and I sleep on are only copies. Furthertheless, any representation of a bed is merely a copy of the copy. The divinely inspired concept is Truth - the Truth of beds, one might say. What we sleep on is removed by some degree from Truth. An image of a bed is quite removed from Truth. His argument rather naively, but completely misses the idea that form follows function, a rather glaring omission, which might undermine his entire discourse were it included.

Since truth (Truth) is a cornerstone of building his better community, it must be preserved. Poets, especially Homer (and poor old Hesiod hot on his heels) are suggested to be completely unacquainted with truth in any of its guises. As such they are direct targets for censorship. The speaker does very graciously (if not convincingly) supply for the continuance of Homer’s work if it can be proved true overall - which it cannot if one accepts the speaker’s argument. Such are the direct ideas central to this writing.

On a higher level, one might infer that the speaker was rather downtrodden, seeking for life to be ordered, easier and "nice." He shrinks from emotion, indulgence and the possiblility of expression. To be fair, the kind of state or community he begins to seek has in various degrees been realized. Such states invariably fail to be the utopia the speaker seems to think he will create.

The word "lackey" is listed as key because it describes the other two characters in these passages. They speak considerably less, but must be acknowledged as just as important. This is so because it is they who continuously assert the veracity of the main speaker, whom supplies the argument. This scheme makes Plato seem as though he were too timid to just say what was on his mind. It is an irony that he uses a source twice removed from the contained concept of Truth to backup what is presented. The non-central characters, (there are two so that nobody can call them the very Form of the yes-man) are so encompassing in their approval, in their lack of exploring any alternative possibilities, that one must wonder if the author believed something very different and sought to prove it by arguing the other side very poorly. Not too charitable, perhaps, but there you go.

The writing is quite engaging, light and even fun because of the informality of it. Nothing is forced on the reader, instead the central character repeats himself "you make up your mind." The unerring capitulation of the secondary characters makes one feel that we are all on the same page, understand each other and isn’t it nice that we’ve solved all that? It has the same feeling of easygoing agreement that one experiences when talking to a politician who is trying to establish that he’s just an average Joe like the rest of us. The imagery tends to be quite common (beds, tables, horses), or at least not fancy or rich (caves). Again, this puts the reader at ease. The assertion of the central speaker’s "logic" and its understandability makes the reader feel as though they themselves are perhaps smarter than they realized. That feels good, doesn’t it?

The problem is that there are serious faults all the way through the main speaker’s reasoning (see Keywords and below). The central character imposes that those who don’t know what they are talking about have no business discussing it. Whether on purpose or not, the writer builds in certain clues that the central speaker is not really qualified in the areas he propounds on, thus ruining any credibility he might have with the power of his own argument. In this sense the central speaker comes off as a little poncy, and a little annoying, and it might do him well to follow Diomedes suggestion to "Sit down, shut up and listen..." Overall, the desire for life to be "nice" stands out as quite significant in the greater scheme of things. Here is an early example of the mentality that likely led to the rise of monotheistic religion over polytheistic religion. This transition was a huge influence on how the West viewed art, Truth, meaning and several other concepts touched on in Republic. Not much else seems particularly significant currently.

Notable fallacies: Straw Man, Ad Hominem, Non-Sequiturs abound

*Not appearing in the actual text, but definitely important.

No title blues

Well my baby loves me truly
but she just can't come round no more
she can't come round no more

can't think of no title for this blog
but I swear this has never happened before
baby, swear it's never happened before

Man ain't nothin' if he can't write - Can I write?
follow me now, see what's in store.
said just read on, who knows what's in store...-

School

Thank God! Praise Allah! Cthulhu Phthang!

When I was young and they called me grasshopper, all I wanted was the eternal summer. Never let it end, I would pray to any God or Goddess within earshot (which is most of them). I had brown skin and blonde hair and my feet were tougher than a bear's hide from running across sizzling pitch laden asphalt.

Somewhere along the way I didn't care so much. It must have been when I worked and there was no vacation.

These days I play a different tune. Of course I love summer, the vivacious season bringing adventure and opportunity, but... I want to be back in school

I have missed being in school since the first month away. I have just registered, with departmental permission, for the course Visual Rhetoric. You can see a good argument for that, eh?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Can't wait.

mm. more soon. take care.

langue time

I studied the french language from first grade until twelfth grade, (when I became a high school dropout). It's not that I'm an idiot; I like to blame faults and shortcomings in the educational system for the fact that I can hardly make a relevant sentence in this gorgeous language. I will get back to studying it on my own terms soon.

In grades ten and eleven, part of twelve and for a year at Laurentian, I studied German. I love German. People think it is harsh and ugly sounding, but I insist that it is beautiful. I especially like their terms of endearment. (Compare with French; would you rather be someone's cabbage or their treasure?) - Treasure.

I Should have a decent handle of Spanish by now, though I don't. No offense, Mither, but you were the major influence in my lack of knowledge here. By far, Spanish has the best terms of endearment: mi ciel, mi vida, mi cafe amargo... (^_^) Poetic beyond my abilities! So romantic that even My heart of ice begins to thaw.

I am about to embark on a journey in Russian. My father understands Russian. He also understands White Russian, some Ukrainian, Serbian, Croatian and slowly spoken, enunciated Polish amongst others. I am rather green about his linguistic skill sets. I do speak a smattering of Serbo-Croatian, but it amounts to tourist level or less these days.

My mother is fluent in Finnish and I am downright envious. This is a language I have loved all my life. I can't begin to state why, but perhaps that's for the next entry. I reckon if a young lady were to proposition me in Finnish I'd Have to take it seriously.

I can swear like a sailor in Greek. I also know the names of several foods. Thanks to Stella, Maria, Jimmy, Jimmi and Jimmy at the restaurant for those relevant skills.

As a curiosity, there was a time in my life when I could tell someone to "take an aspirin every three hours" in nearly fifteen different languages. And it came in handy... ;)Though I profess I don't remember most of them.

Language is a thing that I suspect most people don't really choose. It chooses them. Your parents taught you Italian, or Finnish, or Greek, because it's what they spoke before they came here. Yes, they are keeping culture alive, but they are also keeping alive a different way of expressing the world. And that changes the world you will live in.

I once met a guy in Cuba who studied from youth and was fully fluent in no fewer than five languages. That is to say he did work as a translator for his government from time to time. He was learning two extras at the time we met. There are few men I admire as much as Michael Douglas in this world, but Hilario was one of them.

I often wonder how people come to choose what their second language will be. For that matter, what criteria makes a person choose their third language? Fourth? Etc...

French was not a choice for me. I love the language, but I am not sure I would have chosen it. I rather would have preferred Finnish. Nonetheless, I have some basic knowledge and wish to pursue it further. I think of those I chose, the biggest influence may be the cold war. Doesn't that sound stupid? German and Russian. Both have beautiful areas, magnificent and fascinating histories and a special sort of mentality that distinguishes itself. They were both the bad guys in the cold war, well one and a half of them were.

It helps, of course, that they are spoken in geographically diverse areas, by very large numbers of people. On this premise I would like to study Japanese, Chinese (probably Mandarin), Yiddish or Hebrew (likely the latter for academic purposes), Spanish or Portuguese and one of the Dravian languages.

As a reader you must think: "You'll never learn them all, Jay..." and you would be right.

*sigh*

I lost the actual point of this post, so I am replacing it with a request. If you know another language, tell me about it. Speak non-english to me. This works very well if you are using idioms that are region or dialect specific. I will be your best friend if you do...

Permit me to suggest the character of this dramatis persona

Or, I think I have my Hallowe'en costume...

"Voila! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage - no mere veneer of vanity - is a vestige of the vox populi; now vacant, vanished.

However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands Vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only phatic, 'tis vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive (not in vain)for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Verily, this vichissoize of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very good honour to meet you and you may call me... 'V'."

(not my words)

enough pissing and moaning, I made it official

7 Aug., 2006


Alison Hood, Director
Communications Dept.,
Huntington University
935 Ramsey Lake Rd.
Sudbury, ON P3E-2C6


Dear Mrs. Hood


I am a recent graduate of the four year Communications Degree at Huntington University. During my time studying in this program, I have noted several points that I feel may be helpful for the staff that guide and facilitate the program. I do not mean to suggest that it is currently being run improperly. I understand the program is new and still developing. I offer the following ideas, thoughts and suggestions only in the hope of advancing the program development. It may well be that everything I include here has already been acknowledged, discussed, even acted on.

Perhaps the most important issue I can discern facing the Ba Communications at Huntington is the serious lack of fourth year courses. If one is considering doing studies at a Masters level, they will require a four year (honours) degree. The studies undertaken in classes referenced as fourth year are an important factor for applications committees when considering whether a candidate for higher learning should gain admission to an advanced or graduate program. Without undergraduate courses like this, degree holders from this program (such as myself) will find themselves denied the advancement they seek.

I am not sure of the feasibility of adding core courses to the Communications Program, but hopefully it is a topic that is getting much attention and favour amongst those who decide the structure of the program. Being inter-disclipinary in nature, the program has the potential to allow students to focus on very specific topics, chosen from a wide variety. At the moment there is not much variety at all. The topics in communications appear to be focused already by the previous experience of the professors. This is not all bad, by any means, though the benefit of more options should be clear. I feel this issue is very pressing.

Both of these concerns can be solved by the creation of courses at the fourth year level. Some topics I feel would be especially beneficial to the program are Advanced Linguistics, Semiotics, Corporate Communication and Comparative International Media examining cultural differences and similarities. I believe that a statistics based course, drawing from the disciplines of sociology, psychology and anthropology should be developed to address concerns in Communications Studies - especially the fact that such background tends to be required for research in many humanities-based master's degree programs. Finally, the issue of topical diversity can be easily addressed by development of courses based on directed readings, advanced individual or group studies and projects, thesis development courses and seminar based courses.

In lieu of an expanded repertory of core courses, a solution to subject limitation might be solved by cross-referencing relevant courses from other programs. Perhaps the multi-disciplinary nature of the program and the cost effectiveness of using pre-existing courses for credit in this degree could be an important factor in increasing the scope of studies. There are several relevant courses already offered by Laurentian University that come to mind: Rhetoric (English Dept.), Film Studies (any, English Dept.), Linguistics (Anthropology Dept.) and of course all modern language courses offer obvious crossovers that would require only slight modification to be perfectly suited for this program. Other courses suggest themselves as well, though the idea has been demonstrated.

Some concerns facing the Communications Program are common to all at Laurentian University. I am thinking of a problem that is quite beyond the administration of any one program in itself. I know now that professors and teachers lament elements of the computer system as much as the students do. Nobody can claim it is any small task to maintain such an extensive network. I mention this in the hopes that if enough students and staff voice this concern together, the issues will have to be acknowledged and corrected.

To whit; the interface has become archaic and ineffective, the content is often erroneous and misguiding and (conversely) omissions of important information occur in various sections of webadvisor. Further, there are frequent server crashes. These are serious deficiencies that affect all users in the Laurentian University community. I do not know whether computer services is under-staffed or under-equipped. Perhaps they are simply under-funded and cannot afford to make necessary system changes. Hopefully support from the community will help to bring them the resources they require and deserve.

Naturally, such factors as time, cost and available resources are restrictive factors in implementing large changes such as I have discussed here. It is foolish to effect change without consideration first. I hope the entire Communications Department will consider the issues mentioned in timely manner.

Most of my classes during this program were informative and well delivered. I have been fortunate to enjoy the guidance of excellent professors. The Communications Program at Huntington has plenty of potential, I look forward to seeing the evolution of an excellent program.

Respectfully,
Jason Simac.

Seasonal Obligations to self, (follow my example)

Telling you to follow my example is a little poncy. You will bloody well ignore it anyway if you are so inclined, but at least do the reading:

It occurs to me that the seasons are a Major influence on life up here. I have quite by coincidence run into several people I know on the boardwalk this week. It has been quite pleasant. Have you been down to Ramsey this year?

I ask because I realize that I did not ice skate on Ramsey last year at all. Now I'm sure you realize that winter can kiss my pearly northern ass, But skating and skiing make up for winter's transgressions. By and Large. Ergo, one should get out and Do these things. Me? Not once. Neither activity. Haven't made a snowfort or had a decent snowball fight since I've lived here.

I don't particularly care if I am too old for such behaviour. Anyone who would like to make that suggestion will get a snowball for free, regardless of the current season, I have that power.

So the point I am working towards here is that there are things that match the seasons, which should be accompanied with each season. Here are some:

1) Winter: Skating Ramsey, Skiing - wherever but I guess Adanac, Snowball fight - preferably at School and well timed to include the more lighthearted and libertine profs, cafeteria workers and admin. Some will say Polar Bear dip - if you want to, may I suggest doing it but once, on New Year's Day. Loonies.

2) Spring: Spring Camp Downpour - if you don't get totally drenched you did it wrong, Hike one of the better trails, Low-Temp skinny dipping - also see above.

Educational Solutions for Young and Old.

If you have heard my plight regarding advanced study, which I wish to do, you know that I am between a rock and a hard place. Should I bother to continue? Should I just find work and abandon intellectual pursuits?

Being fairly bloody-minded about things, and refusing to give up, I have found another solution to my problems. In fairness, the director of the MA program to which I was denied entry found this solution. Well, he pointed me in the direction. Enough! Athabasca offers distance education. They offer fourth year courses in Communications Studies. The courses look interesting.

This bodes well. Now my poor unsuspecting parents, whom I visit next week, will have to assist me here. I can get OSAP to re-imburse them, but I need their credit card to get me established with Athabasca.

This news will I break to them when, in a week, I visit their fair city to renew and refresh relations from my too much missed family. Bologna. Hamilton, sorry.

One gets tired of delays. Frustrated. Nonetheless, here I go for an Extra year of it.

Attrition

Damn straight I've used this title before. If you're looking to discern my state of mind by titles, you can figure with 90% accuracy that when i use the word "attrition" I am digging in for a fight. You can figure that I am developing that sort of dog mentality, that special bloodimindedness that has taken me so far so many times.

It is becoming more and more difficult to find fourth-year courses available to me. Let this be a caveat to anyone in an honours degree program. Philosophy is a no-go. Same with women's studies. Theatre and classics were already out of consideration.

Fuck it! This is frustrating. Furthertheless, course listings are now available to students Exclusively by web-advisor. Fuck.

Failure...

I don't think this is the first time I've used this title. It likely won't be the last of course, but who likes to admit that?

I was officially turned down today for the MA Humanities Program that I applied for. The director of the program cited two chief reasons: I did not meet the mid-B requirements, but more importantly I have no fourth year courses from which the applications committee could assess my ability to work in this program.

As for the grades, my cumulative GPA is 73.72%, a mere 1.3% under guidelines. Actually, the booklet "School of Graduate Studies" distributed by Laurentian University states the requirement to be "a minimum of B standing in a four-year humanities degree, or equivalent." So it is disappointing to see that amongst its various divisions LU has a problem in communication.

The tone of the letter implied that this 1.3% deficit in GPA was something that the apps committee may have overlooked, if only I had some good showing for the other requirement.

Ironically, the BA Communications at LU offers no fourth-year courses whatsoever and precious few third-year courses. Now the program I sought entry for is multi-disciplinary, so I checked for fourth-year courses in related areas of interest. Classics: no fourth-year courses available. Theatre: no fourth-year courses available. Even the English program has a very restricted set of fourth year courses. Most of them have a minimum of 24 credits (nearly a full year) as pre-requisite. Women's Studies, Philosophy and Religious Studies each have one fourth-year course without listed pre-requisites. So does Geography.

This, too, is rather deceptive. Last year my friend Neil and I registered for a four thousand-level course in Religious Studies with no listed pre-req, only to arrive and be told that we were absolutely Not allowed to take part because of a lack of pre-requisite courses. You can see my dilemma. Essentially, unless you have studied in a field that specifically leads to these upper year courses, you're not going any further.

Now I am not arguing that there should be said upper-level courses. I understand the importance of them for assessment of ability. I suppose I should have intuited that they would be mandatory. I don't know how many courses are required, though I hope to hear back from Program Director Laurence Steven, who has recommended I take some four thousand-level courses to build qualifications. He seems genial, I'm sure he will respond soon.

More than anything, I simply wish to vent my frustration at the fact that, wittingly or not, Laurentian appears to have set up some students for failure. Surely this is not faculty's fault. I have spoken to many members of faculty who have expressed their own frustration with different aspects of administration. Everyone understands the economy of it all; more funding units equals better quarterly reports. Standards must be maintained, however.

Until this resolves, it will be the students who get hosed. If you are a student, (and that's roughly Half the people who read this), be careful. Take nothing for granted at this institution. Plan ahead. Well ahead, and go seek as much information as you can get..........

Waiting...

You all know it. Sympathize with me.

I am waiting Stil for L.U. to tell me whether I am in the program or not.
The cheque cleared last week for processing. I Neeeeeed an answer!

Waiting sucks. You all know it.

Bull Rush

Yes, Mattarazi admits to trash-talking Zidane. I don't like even the phrase trash talking, it seems to take the edge off the viciousness that it contains. If you doubt that, you've likely never been trash-talked. Mattarazi should be fined. I mean this isn't (American) football or Hockey.

HOWEVER (note the raw size of that however), Zidane should be Heavily fined. Thanks for the apologies and all, especially to the kids, that's hunky dory, dude.

Really? Some people theorized that Zidane sensed the game tanking and didn't want to be part of the loss. This is unlikely. Frankly, the longer it went, the more chance France had. I am Amazed that Italy won shootouts, given the fact that France seems to get by on penalty kicks. It was even less likely given Italy's tragic love affair with the crossbar. I was going to yell "Don't pull a Baggio!" but I was at Caruso Club and wanted to leave in one piece.

So what made a normally gentlemanly player lose his mind in the face of an insult? Cuz you must realize it is Not the only time this has occured (i.e. trash-talk).

I think it derives from the fact that France (again) pulled it's only goal off a penalty kick and the Italians, who are only supposed to win if they score early, managed to come back with their own Earned goal. This, combined with the fact that France simply couldn't beat Buffon in regular play must have been an influence, if not a reason.

I never had anything against Zidane. He always seemed likeable,for the Most part (this isn't the first time he's been Ignorantly violent), but that really took the shine off his career. And that made me angry at first, but now it just makes me sad to see someone go out like that.

Kids

I have spent the last hour or so (slightly more perhaps) with Vic and his daughter Kahlan. If ALL children could be this cool, I would likely have had some ages ago. Unfortunately most children are Not this cool. Therefore I have spent ages looking for the kind of person that I Want to have children with. There's only one.

Then again, it's probably best to wait until I am Rich. I have no intention of spoiling my child, mind you. I just want to see to it that all eventualities can be covered with ease.

Simacia

Does it bother any of you who read this that there are no photos?
Does it bother any of you that there is no video?
Does it bother any of you that there is, in fact, no audio even?

I keep toying with the idea. If any of you feel it would Improve your reading experience, let me know and I will begin to make changes.

I am in a computer lab at school. There are folks trying to work here. The woman at the next row of machines has opted to bring in her children, including a crying baby. I call the crying baby "squawky brat."

Maybe that's harsh. There are places and times, though, and I feel no remorse at pointing out that this is Neither.

Quarter Finals

Germany vs. Argentina! I am quite pulling for Germany, however if it is well played I can accept the latter winning.

Italy vs. Ukraine! Ulrich assures me that the Ukes made the last round off a penalty gained by diving. I watched the last game and it was more than made up for. Go Ukraine!

England vs. Portugal! I've never really cared for England one way or the other. I've liked Portugal and Figo is right cool. But: Portugal outstepped reasonable bounds last game. Really really. So I suppose still Portugal but no biggie if England wins.

Brazil vs. France! Give credit where due: France put Spain away in style. They were slick. As previously mentioned though, I've been cheering Brazil since 1978. This will Not be similar to '98, either. At least this time the Brazilian captain will not be stoned out of his gourde.

Ronaldo! Lotsa people don't care for him. Lotsa people mock him. Say what you want, the fact is he just set a World Cup record for most goals scored. Should they beat France, the record will increase and be even harder to beat. Turns out most of the world will have to eat some crow as he really Did have something to contribute.

Jay Update...

The Twelfth Night has run its course and will be no more. I am debating whether to post pictures from it or not. While I think about it, feel free to email for some if you are so inclined.

I have not been writing for a while (seems like a long time). I think I shall do a soccer assessment at the end of the current round (round of 16) which is nearly done now.

Of course I must comment on it a little, so here it is. No big loss with Switzerland out. Their match today against Ukraine was one of the dullest matches I've seen in a while. The commentator said (quite accurately I feel) that it felt like a 'friendly' in pre-cup play. It went to penalty shots after more than 120 minutes. At this point the swisss keeper fell apart. Meh.

I need work. Some of you know this is an eternal struggle for me. I am contemplating going to the Barr Clinic to get breasts - then I will easily score some work at a bar or tavern in this town. Apparently breasts are pre-requisite excepting the rarest circumstances.

If I should have emailed any of you, call or write to kick my ass and it will be along shortly.

Apology and Retraction

from the post "How Latent is That?"

I aplogize for misguiding the reader and slighting America in analysis of Operation Mount and Thrust.
It has been suggested to me that in fact, Canada named the operation when joining it. I would not be surprised if this is true, though I cannot tell you for certain.
I was in general rant against the state of things and got outright sloppy. Sometimes we must re-learn lessons that have already been taught and here's mine: Get the Facts. I operated without them and have been called on it. Thanks to Stephen Falvo for pointing it out.

Overall, the fact that America endures so much slagging for things like foreign policy does Not make this error any more excusable. I promise more diligence in further rants. For the record, my stance changes little, but it is more important to me to be accurate.

Politics are depressing. I don't follow politics like I once did. Same with wars. I am beginning to believe that it really doesn't make a difference. Wars are even more depressing. Politicians making wars for Profit... well, follow the line of thought.

Again: I was wrong and openly say so. For some of you this will null and void any other argument I ever present. For others it will make no difference at all.

P.S. congratulations America. I say this in advance of the fact, but I expect your team to go through to the next round of World Cup play. Good luck with that.

World Cupdate

The following teams are through regardless: Ecuador and Germany, England and Sweden unless T&T can make-up the goal deficit, Argentina and Netherlands, and Brazil.

I have missed a whole series of games as of late and am rather not happy. I Did catch Ukraine making up for the pounding they took from Spain, by giving Saudi Arabia what for. Saudi played with some tenacity I must say, but there it is. I worry about how Ukraine will fair against Tunisia.

Side thought here: there is a book called "the biggest tongue in Tunisia," which I highly suggest, should you ever come across it. In fact, seek it out.

Right, soccer! It is the half between Spain 0 - 1 Tunisia as I write this line. Wouldn't that seriously upset the order of things? Apparently it's Spain been putting all the pressure on.

And with that, I'm outta here for now.
Edit To Add: Spain is through to next round for certain now, following an amazing three goal comeback begining in the 71st minute

Missed soccer

Not that I've exactly Missed some of these games, but for good form I should be giving you all the info on it. Recently:
Germany 1 - 0 Poland. Apparently the Polish were not too damn happy.
Ecuador 3 -0 Costa Rica. :)
England 2 - 0 Trinidad / Tobago.

Let's make some revision at this point, my fianl take on who progresses and what matches to watch on the way.

Group A: Germany and Ecuador will go through, though Ecuador more impressively. Don't miss the match between these two division toppers, it should be magnificent. I am personally pulling for Ecuador.

Group B: I maintain England and Sweden, but T&T could prove me wrong. That would be pretty cool. England and Sweden duke it out on the 20th; this should be the definitive match of the group.

Group C: I still say Argentina will progress, but I simply will not call the rest yet. It looks like Netherlands at the moment, but that can change... All matches in this group should be good entertainment.

Group D: Mexico and Portugal. Unless Iran can beat Portugal, and with that piss poor showing the other day, it is possible. I like Portugal, but I think Iran has become my one middle east team I like - if they keep it up. Big game? Mexico vs. Portugal.

Group E: Tune in on the 17th to watch Italia dash America's hopes. Also don't miss the Czechs and Italia - I am hoping the Czechs will lead their division. Sorry America and Ghana, don't take it too hard.

Group Ffffffff!: Nothing can stop Brazil from going through. Don't miss any of their games (spot the bias). The only thing that can stop Croatia from going through is if the Socceroos dig deep down and pull off a serious upset. Three points on Japan is one thing, but they will face a different opposition with the rest of their division. Japan, though they have character, well y'know...

Group G: With South Korea leading the division in points right now, I will say there is a chance for them to progress. It is Koreas games that will hold the public i think. I cannot call the rest, except to say that Togo will not go through.

Group H: I originally wanted to see Spain and Ukraine go through. Thanks to the draw between the other two nations, it is still possible. I sat watching the webcast Begging God for a draw. She delivered. Watch Spain and Ukraine.

How latent is that?

I understand Canada is involved with the U.S. led Operation that is current right now - Operation Mount and Thrust. Oh! Sorry Mountain Thrust. Let's go into those hills and show those dirty Taliban who's boss! (Oooohhhh! You're ssssooooo - dominant! ;) Y'know those Taliban that We put in power a couple years back?

I also understand that there are More reports of torture in camp X-ray. Looks like the U.S. have been a load of hypocrites all the way along. As for the idea of zero tolerance against terrorism, well we knew that was a lie to start, what with their government supporting terror gourps themselves.

What a farce! Holy overt latency, Batman! The parade of compensation just never ends with the government of our southern neighbours, does it?