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Roulette
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2263
"It's impossible to beat", or so they say, but I muse upon it late at night, it cheers me up, consoles me for the wreckage that are my finances.
By "They" I mean the mathematicians, the statisticians, the physicists. The "Experts".
Still I think about it. I've always fancied I'm a bit of an undiscovered maths genius, my talent dormant, undeveloped, undiscovered. Like that janitor in that movie I didn't see. And if you could beat it, would you say? Really? Would you announce your discovery to the world, package and sell it on the internet in easy-to-master systems and lessons? Or would you simply go to the casino, lie quiet and low and slowly make a fortune. Because if people knew there was a system, a way to beat the wheel, they'd change the rules. No one is allowed to win at the Casino, unless by accident.
So maybe there is a system. The experts have been wrong before. Think of the world being round, think of flying. Think of the recent financial disasters on Wall Street.
I follow news stories about big wins, about Romanian gangs in Europe that travel the casinos and track the speed of the ball, about biased wheels, about strange runs of luck and chance....
And I think about my system. I should test the math, run simulations, hundreds of them, thousands, but that would defeat the purpose.
I muse upon it, late at night, to console me for the wreckage that are my finances.
Serendipity
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2367
Now, there is nothing I need that is new. With the exception of socks and underwear, because I happen to be a bit fastidious that way, almost everything I buy is from a thrift shop, rummage or yard sale. Which makes it tough, for instance, when I decide that I need something, a bed, for example, as I have to comb the local thrift shops and rummage sales until something suitable turns up. And often it would be far easier and more economical, considering the time and effort spent, to simply go to "Mattress Depot" and plonk down on a new posture-pedic, but that's not the point.
It's about recycling perfectly good furniture and household items that were otherwise bound for the landfill and supporting local charities. It's about thumbing one's nose at the rampant consumerism that tries to govern our lives. It's about challenging the conventional ideas of wealth and beauty and turning rubbish into art. It's about finding beauty and function in the old and worn. And it's about being unique in a homogoneous society that values only the new and generic.
It's not about finding what you thought you needed or were looking for. It's about finding what you weren't looking for, the thrill of the chance find or discovery, the rare book, (think first edition of Eddington's "The Expanding Universe", or Speake's "Journey to the Source of the Nile"), the 150 year old candlesticks, the 1930's Rolex watch, the vintage clothing or broken scientific instruments to be used in your impending art exhibition....the list is as vast and endless as your imagination.
Invariably, with patience, you will always find what you're looking for, and having found it you will forget that you were searching for it and begin searching again for something else, because in the end it wasn't about the bed, it was about the journey, the countless happy chance discoveries and finds you made along the way.
It's a philosophy...
Marda Loop Justice Film Festival
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2094
This weekend past I took the children to the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival. On Friday night, just me and the boy (the girl at a Brownies sleepover), we went to see "Sand and Sorrow" - a documentary narrated by George Clooney on the civil war in Darfur. OK, informative, but not a great documentary.
On Saturday we attended 2 more - one a CBC documentary on the Alberta Tarsands, incredibly boring. Television brought to the big screen, but I wanted the boy to see it. Our "local" ethical commitment. And then one on Chernobyl - a very well paced, informative and enlightening documentary on the disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 in the Ukraine. An enjoyable film, which more than made up for the afternoon's presentation.
For those of you not familiar, the Film Festival is used to highlight topical social issues both in the world at large, and nearer to home in our communities. The format is a selected film is shown, then followed by a brief (3 or 4 question) discussion with "experts" present on the issues raised in the film. The "real" discussion is held in the lobby afterwards. Overall the films are chosen to overlap themes - for example the Saturday film on the Tar Sands raises the possibility of a Nuclear Power plant in Alberta's north to fuel the tar sands, and the following film on Chernobyl explores what happens when Nuclear Power goes wrong. This was my/our first time attending.
The festival was modestly well attended, slightly more than half full, good for the event, but a disinterested showing for a city of a million people. Noteworthy was the fact that in the last 2 films we saw we recognized most of the audience as people who were at the previous film(s), so one might generalize that those interested in social issues are very interested. Probably we should have stayed and chatted with some of them in the lobby afterwards to learn more, but 3 documentaries in a weekend was enough punishment for the boy...
Lemony Snicket - A Series of Unfortunate Events
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1720
Currently I am in midst of reading the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" series of books to my children. Which is excellent, and I would recommend you read it to your children upwards of 8 years old. What distinguishes it from other works for the same age range is the authors rather demented sense of humour and perpetual small subversions that give away more about the world they're growing into than most people would be comfortable discussing or acknowledging. Which, if you're like me you're always eager to discuss and the book gives many introductions to topics that can easily expand into a cheerful evenings conversation....
The story focuses on 3 children - Violet, Klaus and Sunny, (AKA the Beaudelaire orphans), who were left without parents after a mysterious fire destroys their home, and the villainous Count Olaf, who attempts to possess himself of the Beaudelaires' fortune by various intrigues and adventures. While superficially very humourous, and written at an age level most younger children could easily understand, the books also offer many winks and nods to an older and more informed audience via asides from the narrator, Lemony Snicket.
Some quotes:
"For instance, as I crouch here behind the altar of the Cathedral of the Alleged Virgin...."
"The most important thing we do at the hospital is paperwork...."
And, of course, he scrupulously dissects such adages as: "Children should be seen and not heard" and "No News is Good News".
These quotes and topics above are but a very few of the many themes covered in book #8 - "The Hostile Hospital". Overall, these books are excellent, and I would recommend for children aged 8-14, although I've heard of adults who have read and quite enjoyed them as well.
Please note, that while the movie of the same name possessed characters of some resemblance, all qualities end there.
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