Lee Newton

Product placement is nothing new to 24. For years fans of the show have been watching Jack Bauer tear ass around in his trusty Ford truck, or vid conference with inept officials thanks to Cisco. I’ve got no problem with subtle product placement, but after watching 24 Product Placements in 24 Minutes, I mean 24: Redemption last night, things just seem to have hit a new low. They haven’t topped the “It’s a HEMI!” line from the second Fantastic Four movie yet, but they came pretty damn close. From stopping mid-stream to shoot a Hyundai commercial, shoving phones sporting the Sprint logo into the camera lens, or the return of the Cisco telepresence suite, it’s just plain cartoonish. Product placement works best when its subtle people! Fingers crossed this kind of behaviour will not carry through the rest of season 7, or I’m going to end up tuning out pretty early.

Crime Scene

I heard earlier this evening that two days ago a family of four was found dead in their home not 15km from where I live. It turned out to be a murder suicide, and the regular news outlets are rolling out their usual coverage. These stories always sound the same to me. An “excellent family” with a “caring father” where “nothing was amiss”. That crap always gets to me. How many of us are familiar with the intimate inner details of the domestic environments of our neighbors anyway? Do we need the sound bites from Betty and Stan who live down the street? I don’t.

My frustration with main stream media aside, the news kinda took my off guard! I mean I know I live in the big city now, and I do a pretty good job of not paying attention to the news, but stories of murder have a way of filtering down through water cooler gossip and the like. I was casting back in my memory and I can remember maybe three other murders since I moved here two years ago. Two of those were also pretty close to where I live, one the killing of a cop, the other a late night stabbing on the subway I take to work every day. I can’t remember hearing of any multiple murders like this one since arriving in Toronto.

This got me to wondering just what the murder rates are in Toronto. I know from J’s cousin in Nova Scotia who’s recently become a police officer, there’s plenty of violence that never gets reported. I’ve heard stories that’ve opened my eyes to just what the cities we live in are really like outside the bubble wrap most of us are fortunate enough to live within. Even so, I was pretty surprised to learn what the murder rates in Toronto were like in 2007. Rosemary Gartner, a criminologist quoted in this National Post article, says before the “Year of the Gun” in 2005, murder rates in Toronto had been a steady 60 killings a year for roughly two decades. Since that fateful year, rates have been on the rise.

It breaks down like this, 82 murders in 2007 works out to roughly 3 murders every two weeks. Every two weeks! I confess I’m guilty of thinking most murders are criminal vs criminal, but I was also shocked to learn 80% of victims tend to know their killer. I assume this knowledge to be intimate or familial. So 1 in 73,000 people give or take become murderers in the GTA every year. Even though 3 murders every two weeks sounds pretty distressing, I think I can continue feeling pretty safe living in the T-dot.

According to wikipedia, transient insomnia lasts from days to weeks. It can be caused by another disorder, by changes in the sleep environment, by the timing of sleep, severe depression, or by stress.

A little while ago I discovered mindWave, an iPhone app available in ye olde itunes app store. It’s a collection of binaural sound loops designed to sympathetically coax the brain into certain patterns promoting focus, acting as a stimulant or inducing sleep. I thought this was the bee’s knees when was I first told about it and happily listened to the sleep induction loop for 15 minutes before, and just after climbing into bed. It was working for me too. A feeling of drowsiness would creep over me, and drifting away was effortless.

This has not been the case the last two nights, and I think I know why. One thing wiki doesn’t mention about insomnia is diet, or rather what you ate for supper. I’ve been doing pretty good watching what I eat for the past little while. I put an end to McDonald’s breakfast every morning so as not to lose a competition with a coworker which results in granting the winner full rights to punch the loser in the face (Thanks for the fabulous incentive Ellen). I didn’t go back to not having breakfast, I’ve been mixing up a little granola and yogurt before dashing out the door, seemed like an easy place to start. I’m actually pretty good with lunch typically, the favorite office destination is Subway or Quiznos and I usually opt for the healthier alternatives.

Supper is where things normally fall apart. By the time J and I have made it home there just isn’t time or inclination to devote to a good home cooked meal so more often than not it’s fast meals from a collection of packages (where would I be without Lipton’s SideKicks and some defrosted, fried chicken breast?). If we don’t feel like doing that then it’s fast food or dinner out.

That’s a really roundabout way of saying we had been doing better, however last night a friend called at the end of the day looking to have dinner with us and we hopped off to Spadina Garden for some Spicy Peanut Chicken, Crispy Ginger Beef (also spicy), complimented with some stir fried string beans (you guessed it, also spicy). Finish that one two punch with a nice meal of Dirty Bird ™ this evening and this is where you’ll find me. Awake, bloated and nothing in my medicine cabinet to deal with my ill advised gastronomical dilemma.  It’s depressing a spicy meal and some rotten KFC are apparently to blame for my lack of successful slumber. I can see 35 pretty easily from here, guess I’ll have to suck it up and start stocking my medicine cabinet to better care for my superannuated organs.

Well I’ve been listening to my sleep induction loop while I’ve been writing this, and even though I still feel like I’ve got the mother of all burps waiting to surface, I’m hoping my noggin’s received enough aural persuasion to overcome my discomfort.

The only reason I posted this is it’s supposedly a good idea to distract yourself for a while if you’re having a hard time falling asleep, tossing and turning only frustrates you. Hurray for my first 500+ word post!

It looks like Brian Krebs, staff writer for the Washington Post and its computer security related blog Security Fix has struck a blow for inboxes and email sysadmins everywhere. Estimated to be the source of up to 75% of global SPAM, hosting provider McColo has been literally unplugged from the net by it’s two upstream providers after the research discussed here here and here was made public earlier this week.

While I’m extremely happy to see this happen, I’m also ticked off. I made a series of changes to our own postfix server early this week and it would’ve been nice to see the efficacy of those changes against the full tide of SPAM, and now some security guy up and eliminates 75% of the medium ;-P

Most unfortunate tearing of a lost digital camera sign in the elevator. Poor guy.

Off I go to stand in line like a chump. Hopefully be able to pick up Mirror’s Edge at the same time. I’m saving GoW2 for later in the holiday season.

Way more people turned up than I would have expected for this location in the DMZ between East York and Scarberia.

Uncharacteristically hazy morning in TO. It’s been a weird week for weather but I’ll take the warmth for a little longer. Winter is for the country, it sucks in the city.

Been watching supernatural for the first time this season, really loving the humor of the show. Anyway, tonight’s episode features a wishing well that grants anyone’s wish. Results in a hilarious moment with a bullied kid tossing a car around screaming “kneel before Todd!”. Get it? I almost pissed myself laughing.