My friend Mike is part of a hilarious sketch comedy group called Classholes. This is a video of them doing some comedy at a competition in L.A. this past April.
Classholes Live in LA
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For more information about the Classholes, see their myspace page at http://myspace.com/classholes.
We all know that Wikipedia is a great tool for learning more about various topics. I just discovered another great use for it: aiding in website translations.
My company, Web Lite Solutions, has hired someone to translate one of its web sites into Chinese. The question arose: "What is open-source, i.e. how should it be translated to Chinese?"
The term open-source, in the developer community, takes on a greater meaning than the sum of its parts. It is almost a brand name. Hence it is important to get the proper Chinese translation, and not just a translation that means, more-or-less, the same thing.
Wikipedia to the rescue!
I Went to the Open-source listing on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source). Then I looked on lower left column of the page where it lists the different translations for this entry, and clicked on the chinese link (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%80%E6%94%BE%E6%BA%90%E4%BB%A3%E7%A0%81). Presumably the title of this page should be the proper Chinese translation for "Open-source". In addition, my translator is able to learn a number of other related translations by simply reading the article.
I just ran across a powerfully moving song recorded by Jeff Buckley in 1994. Apparently this song has been used in many movies, including Shrek and Lord of War. I don’t know how I managed to miss it before.
The song is called Hallelujah. It was written by Leonard Cohen in 1984 and has been covered by a number of artists in many different styles, but the version by Jeff Buckley is simply heart stopping. He performs it with a single electric guitar and his voice. It is becomes even more powerful when you listen to it in light of Buckley’s tragic life, and untimely death by drowning in 1997.
The song has a tragic, melancholy feel to it, and Buckley sounds as though his soul is crying out to God for hope while simultaneously lamenting the pain and tragedy of life.
I have read a number of interpretations of the lyrics on various web sites. Some say it is not religious at all, but is rather a song about the pain of love in general. This song spoke to me on a very spiritual level, however. It is about the fall of man on a very personal level – the fall that everyone experiences away from God. Some lament this fall (as Buckley does here), while others pay little attention to it, or find it irrelevant.
The opening verse includes imagery of David playing music to the lord and praising him. This describes a time in man’s life when he is walking with God, though amazed, and confused by eternity – but singing Hallelujah (Praise the Lord).
The second verse goes on to describe the fall. It again uses imagery of David with his seduction by sin (when he sees Bathsheba bathing in the moonlight. He succumbs to the beauty of sin, which proceeds to enslave him (ties him to her kitchen chair), and remove the love of god from his heart (from your lips she drew the hallelujah).
The third verse describes life after the fall. He knows this life all too well, as he lived it before he knew God. It is cold and lonely in this place, but he is helpless to return to God by this time. He sees evidence of God (the flag on the marble arch), but all he has left are cold and broken hallelujahs.
The fourth verse shifts gears a little bit, allowing God to share his thoughts on the matter. He is sad that the man no longer talks to him, and he reminisces of the time that he used to move in the man and when their every breath was hallelujah.
The fifth, and final verse, is ultimately sad, as, by this time, the man is completely disillusioned with God, love, and religion. He is no longer even sure if God exists, and he questions whether love even exists, as he has seen terrible pain spread under the guise of love.
Click here to see a video of Jeff Buckley performing Hallelujah live (from YouTube).
I’ll be camping for the next few days on Vancouver Island with some friends. We don’t know exactly where we will be going. We’re just going to drive until we find a good spot. Then we will set up camp and relax.
It may be difficult to get away from work, but I think my soul needs this break.
After our amazing victory against the decepticons we succombed to the lesser (yet still more talented than us) District 5. Our 12 minutes in penalties didn’t help. As a forward I didn’t get to play very much because we were short-handed so much. The floor was quite slippery and difficult to play on. None-the-less we gave a good effort and I am proud of our team.
We still have at least one more game tomorrow (Thursday) against the Jumping Jalepenos at Killarney at 8:45pm. We will be missing some core players due to injuries and suspensions, and our number one goalie will be MIA, but we will do our best to best these guys.
I have been playing as a spare for a roller hockey team in the VIHL (Vancouver Inline Hockey League – http://www.vihl.net). Our team has great spirit and it it a positive environment. That said, we finished 7th out of 8 teams in the regular season. A few games ago there was one team, in particular, that seemed superior to us in every way, easily beating us 13-1. This team is called the "Decepticons" (they have the cool decepticons insignia on their jerseys and everything!!). We are "The Killer Bunnies".
Anyways, we played the Decepticons tonight in the first game of the play-offs. (2nd place against 2nd last place). We knew what we were up against and we had hope – but no illusions about our chances. However, our team came out swinging with some early goals. We were up 3-1 after the first half – which was about the best period of hockey we have played this year. We were skating and pressuring them to make mistakes – while our scorers were putting the puck in the net!. With 2 minutes left in the game we were up 5-2 when they pulled their goalie for an extra attacker. They scored 2 quick goals – then with 10 seconds left they took a slap-shot from centre that went in. How disheartening. But the game was not over yet.
Overtime:
After 3 overtimes we were still tied at 5. The 4th overtime had us playing 3 on 3. A few minutes in, our power defenceman Tim Poon ripped a shot from inside the blueline that caught the top corner… and…. we WON!!! We beat the unbeatable— possibly the biggest upset in the division.
This was a very satisfying victory both because we played well, and we played well as a team. There was a synergy out there tonight that was truly a treat to be part of.
Next game Tuesday.. hopefully we can keep up the intensity!
Went camping over the weekend with Joshua fellowship at Golden Ears park. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. We ate like kings (thanks to Grace and Dennis), and we explored the local terrain when we were tired of relaxing. Went kayaking, swimming (sort of), played a bit of baseball (at least catching and throwing the ball), and slap Jack. Oh well.. back to work now…
Found this great site for reading mailing list archives. Provides an excellent search to search multiple lists at a time by category. Good heirarchical view. It’s called Nabble.com
It took a 5:45am lap around Swanguard stadium to get her into the driver’s seat of a car, but now that she has driven around town a little bit, there’s nothing holding her down. She went to Pitt Meadows last night for an MK appointment – ON HER OWN! Who knows where she’ll be spotted next 🙂
I have registered as a spare for my friend’s roller hockey team for this summer. We play in the "Brass" league so it’s not "break-neck" competitive, but it is really nice to get out there and play some hockey again – after about a 2 year lay-off. I played my first game a few weeks ago. It felt good for the first few minutes, but then my poor shape kicked in. Looks like I’m going to have to pick up the exercise a little if I hope to make a difference out there.
My next game is on Saturday.