Winnipeg (by matthewgood)

This photo is from Matthew Good’s highly enjoyable show Friday night at the Garrick, taken by MG himself. I like that the projection windows from the former movie theatre are still lit in the back.

So, a bit of a rant — what’s up with all the loogans at shows like the Weakerthans and on Friday at Matt Good? If you’ve ever been to a Tragically Hip or similar show, you’ll know who I’m talking about. The guys who are always getting up for beer and end up getting half-cut at a show they’re paying $40+ to see, talking loudly, hooting and yelling at the band to play Highway Girl. In general, a massive distraction for those who actually value hearing the music and stage banter as part of the concert experience.

Well, unfortunately the loogans are now attending more accoustically-driven shows where the volume of their collective yelling is actually starting to become competitive with the volume of the PA. At one point during a break in show while MG was taking a drink and talking, and the loogans started hollering, MG (in his typical sense of humor) suggested that they entertain the crowd instead, and he just keep on drinking. At least it probably wasn’t as bad as Sault Ste. Marie, but still very annoying.

So, please, if you want to go drink lots of beer and yell out requests, stay at home with your friends and your iPod — it’s far cheaper, and you actually might get to hear the songs you’re requesting — that is if you can figure out how to work an iPod. Maybe try yelling “Born To Kill” at it? If you’re loud enough, it might listen to you…

Sincerely,
Those of us who go to shows to hear the musicians

E. H. Price Classroom – West Wall (by umwoodr0)

Apparently, one way is to sell out.

This photo is from a classroom, E2-150, in the University of Manitoba’s shiny new Engineering and Information Technology Complex. Also known as the E. H. Price Lecture Theatre, the naming rights of this room were purchased by E. H. Price, a Winnipeg-based HVAC manufacturer. Since the opening of the EITC (or soon after), each of the named rooms in the building bore a plaque with the name of it’s sponsor. However, during the summer, “billboards” (for lack of a better term) were installed in this classroom.

I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.

Click on the photo to see another photo of the E. H. Price classroom, as well as “The Vector Vista”, another overtly-sponsored space.

I can’t take credit for this, but I still think it’s great:

You’re never what you think you are, man. At least not to other people. We expound endless amounts of energy trying to be this or be that — whatever it is we think has value to the outside world — and for what? In the end, we are either misunderstood or misinterpreted or misguided or all of the above. And no one really gives a damn about who they’ve misunderstood because they’re too busy worrying about how the rest of the world misunderstands them. So we’re all just one big mass of misunderstandings who individually think they’re the first and the last person to ever be misunderstood. And that’s the real tragedy – not that we have been misunderstood, but that, in our desperate effort to be understood, we perpetuate the misunderstanding of others.

The backstory… Read the rest of this entry »

From here, on why Apple doesn’t spec their machines better:

“Mr. Ives, lovely design, sir. But if you use glass on the iMac line, it’ll just make the computer too damn expensive!”
“I’ve already spoken with Steve about this. We’re going to save A LOT OF MONEY by putting a hamster-and-wheel where the GPU ordinarily goes.”
“Where the hell are we going to find a hamster-and-wheel that fits in your sexy slim design?”
“Tally-ho, good sir! ATI makes it. The Radeon HD 2600 PRO card.”
“You’re a fricking genius!”
“Well, yes. Yes, I am.”

I’m sure any young person growing up in Canada in the late 80s to early 90s remembers this ad, Rehab, featuring The Hollies’ hit “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”. I just wanted to share it with those in my age group again, to tug on those heartstrings with a little bit of childhood.

Having received a digital SLR as a graduation gift from my kind parents, I’m trying to get back into photography after a ~4 year hiatus since I last truly hoisted a camera (see Fujichrome — the film, Fujichrome Velvia, I used back then). Take a look at this mini-gallery to see a sample of what I’ve captured thus far — pretty much everyday-life types of things, some perhaps in a different perspective.

This was also an opportunity to try out Apple’s Aperture product for post-processing digital images (particularly “RAW” images from digital SLRs). It’s really easy to use, keeps things simple, and definitely makes things smoother than using Photoshop for each image, but it slowly chugs along on my now 2-year-old laptop. It would definitely need a new Intel Mac to do it justice.

So, take a look and let me know what you think. Suffice it to say I’ve got a lot more work ahead of me.

As leader of the engineering student council this past year, I can certainly say that post-secondary education (PSE, a provincial government matter) is perhaps my single biggest concern of the current provincial election. Unfortunately I don’t think the same can be said for most Manitobans (who probably cite health care, crime and taxes as their top 3). Nevertheless, promises have still been made about PSE, and I believe that with Hugh McFayden’s announcement yesterday at the University of Manitoba, all three major parties in the 2007 provincial election have weighed in with their policy on university PSE. As such, here’s a little opinionated analysis from yours truly.

I appreciate that the role played by RRC and other post-secondary education and training institutions is very important to Manitoba, but this analysis is focused on my area of familiarity — university.

Liberal (source)

• Eliminate the tuition freeze and limit total cost-of-education increases to inflation
• Increased baseline funding for PSE
• Grants and bursaries for students staying in Manitoba
• Bursary fund to allow qualified students without the ability to pay to attend university
• Increased R&D investment
• Quicker accreditation for foreign-trained professionals (like the U of M IEEQ program)
• Free transit passes for students

Although there is a considerable lack of detail and hard numbers here, I’m impressed. It must have taken a lot of guts to announce an elimination of the tuition freeze tradition in our province (albeit while limiting increases to the inflation rate), a province where 82% of Manitobans support lower tuition (note that the consequences of such a position, including issues of quality as well as where additional funding comes from, are not of concern to these pollsters).

Increased funding is also always good and sorely needed. No numbers, unfortunately. Need-based bursaries are also good, and together with the lack of freeze dispense government funding based on lack ability to pay — arguably a more socially equalizing approach than the universal, equally distributed freeze we currently have.

Increased R&D investment should benefit both academics and students while providing further incentives for businesses to set up shop or continue investing in their Manitoba operations. Businesses and immigrants would also benefit with support of fast-tracked accreditation programs like IEEQ.

Finally, free transit passes. There are numerous benefits here — a tangible promise, more money in students’ pockets, a more sustainable transportation option for up to 30-40,000 Winnipeggers, potential for less student drunk driving, and no cost to the government for all the students who don’t ride the bus — an unfortunate but common trend.

Bottom line: All in all, a lot of good ideas — potential solutions for some of the problems facing our universities. They need to be fleshed out, but I doubt that Manitoba’s public will ever give Dr. Gerrard the chance to do so.

NDP (source)
(Forgive me if I missed an announcement, but this is all I was able to find)

• a 60% tuition rebate for new grads who stay here
• extending the tuition freeze

There have been plenty of other NDP announcements regarding programs and projects for RRC, training and apprenticeship programs, but this seems to be all that’s out there for universities.

Nothing new at all here, perhaps because the NDP would like you to think that universities are doing just fine. The tuition freeze, currently in its 7th year, is starving the province’s universities while not dramatically improving accessibility, it’s intended purpose, as noted in the Winnipeg Free Press earlier this year.

As for the up to 60% tax credit on tuition, let me join the other young Manitobans who say “a tax credit won’t keep me here”, even if it were 100%. My education was so cheap in the first place that I wouldn’t think twice about leaving MB for a great job elsewhere. $12,000 in tax credits is hard to compare to a city or province that provides a satisfying place to work and live (or an NHL team — just kidding).

Bottom line: Nothing to see here that we haven’t already seen — move along. Shouldn’t you be worried about health care?

PC (source)

• Strike a taskforce to examine the investments and reforms required to make Manitoba’s PSE institutions stronger and better able to compete, including funding and governance models
• Double the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary program funding to $10M/year
• Allow professional and graduate faculties (and all faculties) to raise tuition with the support of a student referendum

I actually had the good fortune to see this announcement in person, as I happened on a bunch of UMSU protesters on one side of the University Centre patio and a microphone and media on the other side, while going to find some lunch. About halfway through Hugh’s speech, they began several yells and chants including “Education is a right. We will not give up the fight.”, “Sign the pledge.” “Keep the freeze, reduce the fees.” and other such Day of Action lines. Don’t you think the government would me more willing to listen to and work with student leaders if they (the student leaders) didn’t make government leaders look bad at every opportunity?

Back to the topic at hand. This announcement was very much lacking in any concrete information. I am happy about the thought of striking a taskforce to examine the situation facing PSE in this province. It is an acknowledgment that there are problems facing PSE in the province, and that the party doesn’t have the answers, but is going to study the problem to find some solutions. A sensible approach that I wish politicians would take more often. Whether or not this taskforce actually a) accomplishes what it sets out to do, b) is composed of those who truly understand PSE and its problems, and c) is free to do its job without political influence, is another question. This taskforce could (and I suspect will) conclude, amongst other things, that the tuition freeze is a bad thing and recommend that the government lift the freeze. In other words, this is the PC way of planning to lift the freeze without campaigning one way or another on the issue — they can pass the buck to the taskforce.

Leaving this conspiracy theory for a moment, let’s look at the other planks of the Tory PSE policy. Doubling the Manitoba Scholarship and Bursary program funding sounds good, but I’m not sure one way or another how much of an effect this will have. As for allowing faculty tuition increases following referendums, presumably instead of the current five criteria of the Minister of Advanced education, this is what the government should have been doing in the first place.

Bottom line: A whole lot of vague from Manitoba’s PCs. They want to strengthen Manitoba’s universities, but the solutions to the problems facing these institutions will be found by a taskforce (and may or may not be implemented by government). While I have high hopes for such a taskforce if the PCs form the government, cynical old me suspects that this taskforce may be used mainly as an instrument to lift the tuition freeze while allowing the PCs to campaign to those 82% of Manitobans mentioned above.

Conclusion
PSE is not a priority for Manitobans, as evidenced by the lacking policy presented during this campaign. Despite a desire to keep young people in the province, there seems to be little interest in seriously supporting the institutions (except perhaps by the Liberals) that are being attended by and developing more young Manitobans than ever before. Cast your ballots wisely, if you do at all.

I’ve been thinking lately of how I’ve ended up where I am today, and how life has unfolded thus far. I find it particularly interesting to think back to earlier times and the contrast where I thought I would (or wouldn’t) end up versus where I actually am now.

Some examples to illustrate:

• Before my final year of high school, I had never even heard of Engineering, let alone considered entering that faculty.
• When I started University, I never expected or planned to ever be a member of the student council. If you would’ve told me that four years later, I would be Senior Stick, I would’ve laughed at you.
• At the start of my year as Senior Stick, I never expected that I would be speaking and rallying on the steps of the Legislature.

If I keep this up, I might just have an interesting life — but I won’t see it coming. Ah serendipity.

The UMSU General Election is coming up. Campaigning begins on February 19th, and voting runs from February 28th-March 2nd.

In the interest of disseminating information about the status of the upcoming election to University of Manitoba students and others, here is the UMSU General Election Candidate’s List as copied from a notice on the door of the UMSU Offices on 10 February 2007.

1) President – Gary (Gurjeet) Sran

2) Vice President Internal – Mike (Michael) Einerson

3) Vice President External – Amanda Jonson

4) Vice President Advocacy – Rachel Heinrichs

5) Vice President Student Services – Marlo Ostrow

6) International Students Community Representative – Wang, Dai Xin

7) International Students Community Representative – Toyin Malumi

8) International Students Community Representative – Elaine Sheng

9) LGBTT* Community Representative – Daniel Draper

10) Students with Disabilities Community Representative – Larry Bailie

11) Women’s Community Representative – Robin Dourn

This list should eventually be available in The Manitoban in print and online. Any questions should be directed to cro@umsu.ca.