North Cascades

Two weeks ago, I hiked to Barclay Lake below Mount Baring with Suor.



Last Saturday I hiked up to Heybrook Lookout with Nabeel. On the way, we also stopped at Deception Falls.

Fossil Watches Are Evil

The Fossil watch company is dishonest and makes cheap watches. Also, Fossil does not respect their warranty. I would recommend that if you are in the market for a watch that you do not buy a Fossil watch.

My very nice watch broke after only two years, so I mailed it to them to fix. They were pretty quick at fixing it. However, Fossil did not honour their warranty.

On the form, I wrote My watch stopped running. I took it to a jeweller to replace the battery, but that did not resolve the problem. A second jeweller looked at the watch and confirm that the battery was fine and that the problem was, therefore, in the watch's mechanism. It was purchased at Sears Canada in 2004 and is under warranty. I also included a copy of a receipt proving the purchase date (2004). I think that is fairly unambiguous.

The Fossil form has a table that says:

Repair Type	Charge
Not under warranty (bracelet, strap, crystal, case - includes shipping)	$27.00
Battery Replacement (includes shipping)	$17.00
Under warranty (only shipping & handling)	$8.50

So I clearly expected to be charged only $8.50.

They sent back an invoice that says:

Description	Repair Charges
Movement	18.50
Shipping and Handling	8.50

And billed me for $27.00.

I shall now quote from the first paragraph of Fossil Warranty: Your FOSSIL brand watch is warranted by Fossil for a period of 11 years from the date of purchase...During the warranty period the watch movement, hands and dial are the only components covered under this warranty. These will be repaired or the watch will be replaced (at the sole discretion of Metro Service Center) free of repair charges, if it proves to be defective in material or workmanship under normal use. A $8.50 return shipping and handling fee applies to all warranty (excluding California) and non-warranty service...

So, clearly, the movement is warranted by Fossil until 2015 and will be repaired free of repair charges. So why did Fossil not honour their warranty? Because Fossil lies. Now I need to waste my time phoning and complaining. (Between the hours of 8 AM - 6 PM CST, Monday through Friday of course).

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps is a compelling editorial in The Guardian.

...

As Americans turn away quite leisurely, keeping tuned to internet shopping and American Idol, the foundations of democracy are being fatally corroded. Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" - a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president - without US citizens realising it yet - the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone.

...

Electric Cars (in Europe)

French plan green postal service [BBC] - the French postal service is going to start using electric cars to deliver mail.

The Seventeen Traditions

I finished reading The Seventeen Traditions. I got a copy when I went to see Ralph Nader speak in Olympia a couple months ago.

It was a quick read and only took me a few days to read. (The fact that it's only 150 pages long and the page size is small helped). The "Seventeen Traditions" are principles taught to him by his parents when he was a young child. So it's filled with stories about his childhood and about his parents and siblings. It's nostalgic - e.g. "A new toy was a special occasion, and most of them were the kind that could be used again and again - tops, crayons, picture books, puzzles, and dolls. Today's homes are often overflowing with dozen of complex, often violent electronic plastic toys, and yet children soon grow bored with them and demand the latest upgrade or fade." - and it is also a bit idealistic. Nevertheless, it made a number of points and provided some food for thought, so I think the book met its objective.

Cougar & Tiger Mountains

The past two Saturdays I've gone hiking. I've posted some photos to Flickr.

Cougar Mountain


Tiger Mountain


Both mountains are part of the "Issaquah Alps" which are in the suburbs east of Seattle. I think I'll try going to the northeast on my next hiking trip - Barclay Lake below Mount Baring sounds good.

Vimy Ridge

This weekend is the 90th anniversary of Vimy Ridge. It is a significant event in Canadian history because the entire Canadian army fought together for the first time in the War and won one of the few decisive battles in World War I.

I visited the Vimy Memorial when I was in France in 2004. It was quite an experience.

Dodgy Search

I was making a comment on my friends blog and was too lazy to walk to the other room and check the title of a book on my shelf (The Record of the Paper: How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy). So I tried searching Amazon.com with a few different combinations, such as New York Times Book Foreign Policy, which yields 48 results. They are mostly about crossword puzzles and you have to go to #21 (second page) for the singular result revelant to "Foreign Policy". The book I was looking for did not show up.

Maybe I should be thankful I got all books in my search results! The search New York Times Book has as its #5 result Sudoku Pro - Wildly Popular and Addictive Numbers Game That Challengers a Players Math & Logic Skills - it's an electronic Su Duko game. It has nothing to do with "New York" or the "New York Times" or "York" or "New" or "Times". And it is certainly not "Book".

How did I find the book title? (Certainly not by getting off my lazy butt and walking to the other room!) Googling the same text - New York Times Book Foreign Policy site:amazon.com - gives my book as the #2 result. (Google is the best thing since sliced bread).

And it's not my lame search text that is tripping up Amazon. Try something like To Kill A Mockingbird and the first result has no image, and is a used listing for $29. Hardly, the canonical entry for a famous book. How about Red Storm Rising? The first result is the book by Tom Clancy, but it has no image associated with it and it is a (used) Chinese version. Searching Amazon doesn't even give me books that I'm capable of reading!

Is It Worth Being Wise?

An interesting essay by Paul Graham: Is It Worth Being Wise?

North Cascades National Park

I thought that there were only three (US) national parks near Seattle - Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier, and Crater Lake.

The other day I stumbled the North Cascades National Park online. According the its website it is very scenic and has lots of camping and hiking with mountains and glaciers. It's only two and half hours away from Seattle too. I going to drag my friends there in the summer to go camping.

Daylight Savings

Leaving work while the sun was still up was a nice feeling. Dragging my ass out of bed in the morning was impossible though. I want my hour of sleep back! Somehow I'm really tired despite it being "really" only 10 pm... :-(

The good news is that after a ridiculous amount of work to prepare for starting daylight savings earlier and patching what seemed like a zillion systems, nothing broke a work.

The End Of Suburbia

Last night I watched the documentary The End Of Suburbia. It's been in a Netflix queue for a long time, but its availability was always "Very Long Wait". I can understand why after seeing it; the film was quite thought provoking. It covers the emergence of the suburbs in North American society then discusses Peak Oil and how it will affect society.

Because so many people list in the suburbs, they are dependent upon cars (often gas-guzzling SUVs) to travel for work, shopping, leisure, etc. Moreover, most of what they consume (food from far away places such as California, Florida, etc.; cheap goods from China; etc.) is also transported long distances by transport trucks (as the North American rail system is not much to speak of). Consequently, when the supply of oil drops in the next few years, the economic upheaval will be massive due to the fact that our way of life requires an unsustainable of energy. Moreover, most homes are heated by natural gas and the electricity for those homes (air conditioners, etc.) often comes from burning natural gas. However, the production of natural gas will also undergo a collapse in supply at some point in the near future, exacerbating the pending energy crisis that has the potential to cause another Depression.

[For more information about Peak Oil, see my post nine months ago, Peak Oil? about an Australian TV documentary that's available free online for viewing].

Snow Patrol

I went to the Snow Patrol at Key Arena last night with Suor.

The first opening act was Silversun Pickups. I'd never heard of them, but I think I recognized the last song they played from somewhere (probably KEXP). Their music had a rather uniform "loud" sound and I didn't find it all that interesting.

Ok Go was the second opening act. The commentary by their singer as well as their videoes were entertaining, but the music was perhaps not so memorable.

Snow Patrol put on a good show. I don't have either of their albums (just a couple songs off iTunes), so I didn't recognize a lot of what they played, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. "Run" was well done; it's one of my favourite songs.

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader speaking at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, Washington.

I spent Sunday in Olympia, the capital of Washington State and an hour south of Seattle, with Dave and Caroline. We watched the documentary An Unreasonable Man, which was about Ralph Nader - his rise to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s as a consumer advocate, as well as his presidential campaign in 2000. It was in a theatre that reminded me very much of the Princess Cinema in Waterloo.

Later in the evening, Ralph Nader gave a lecture about his new book, The Seventeen Traditions, which describes his upbringing and the family values that were instilled in him. They also gave out copies of the book to everyone in the audience; I'm looking forward to reading it.

I found both his lecture as well as the documentary to be both interesting and informative. (I knew very little about Ralph Nader beforehand).

Crystal Mountain

Photos from skiing at Crystal Mountain on Sunday.

Warming 'very likely' human-made

While flipping channels, I noticed that a Republic Congressman from the Denial Machine was on Larry King last night, but wasn't rebuked.

Today, the BBC says [Global] Warming 'very likely' human-made.

"The president of the United States is not a fact-checker"

Untruth and Consequences is an interesting read. It's an essay about lies by US Presidents over the past several decades, but it focuses upon the current one and Iraq.

Travel Plans

I don't really have much vacation saved up at work, but my plans for this year are:

• Costa Rica - go and see the rainforest and do something a bit different than my past two vacations (which were to Europe).
• Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons - Crater Lake was an awesome camping trip. I want to go to camping at Yellowstone next and Grand Teton is right beside it.
• New York City - I have a friend who's moving there, so I figure I can invite myself for a visit some weekend and see the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Times Square, and all that good stuff.
• Chile - There's a ferry that runs along the coast, which has scenic fjords, and after a few days you end up in Patagonia, which has great hiking at Torres Del Paine. Being south of the equator, the seasons are "backwards", so the best time to go is November-April, which means I would go next winter.
• Portland - I've been to Vancouver and Victoria, which only leaves Portland as the nearby major city that I still need to visit.

I want to go hiking/camping at Mount Rainier and Olympic National Park this year too, as it's been two years since I've visited either place, but they're close by, so it's not really travelling.

The Broker

I haven't read a novel in a while. I've been reading a lot of non-fiction lately like Collapse, The Goal, Code Complete, Lonely Planet Denmark, and The Modern Defence.

While I was home for Christmas, I borrowed John Grisham's The Broker from my brother-in-law. It's John Grisham doing a spy novel. (e.g. The main character was a lawyer that a bunch of spies want to kill). I liked it and read it pretty quickly. I think I need to read more novels, they're a quicker read and more entertaining than non-fiction.

Do I Live In A "Red State"?

One of the school boards in the Seattle area, banned showing An Inconvenient Truth because it is "controversial". What is the World coming to? <sarcasm> If that's their standard does this mean they can't show Schnidler's List unless they also include commentary by Ahmadinejad?! I hear that smoking is good for you too. Perhaps that needs to be taught in health class?! Maybe Civics clas needs to include reading more Karl Marx and a little less Thomas Jefferson?! </sarcasm>

The primary source of "controversary" surrounding the issue is due to oil companies. (e.g. The Denial Machine).

Burnout

A (somewhat) long, but interesting article about burnout: Can’t Get No Satisfaction (via Slashdot).

Best Movies Of 2006

Just like last year, I watched a lot of movies. (Perhaps even a few more). I saw a few really awful movies, but also a lot good ones and even a few great ones.

The best film I saw was Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. It took me a long time to get around to seeing it (and it was so long that it took me two nights to watch it), but it's easily one of the greatest movies of all time.

I like drama movies. I saw a lot of good ones. So I don't think I can pick one or two that were the "best". A River Runs Through It was an interesting story about two brothers growing up in Montana at the start of the century. I liked Bill Murray in Broken Flowers. Another quirky story was the Irish ensemble Intermission about a bank robbery gone bad. Lord of War has another good mix of story and character were Nicholas Cage plays an arms dealer who tires of his career. Finally, The Passion of the Christ lived up to its reputation and was better than I expected.

The best thriller was V for Vendetta. The third time (after The Matrix) was finally the charm for the Wachowski brothers, who delivered another great movie. A notable mention goes to The Prestige, the bitter rivalry between two magicians that gives you a lot of "tricks" to figure out as the Hugh Jackson and Christian Bale's characters battle each other.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is an awesome director. I like Audrey Tautou too. The best foreign film was A Very Long Engagement. It's about Mathilde (Audrey Tautou) searching for her fiancé because she doubts the fact that he was killed in World War I (as reported). The Motorcycle Diaries, the story of Che Guevara deserves a recognition as well.

The best comedy was easily the satire Thank You For Smoking. It's absolutely hilarious. Stranger Than Fiction stars Will Ferrell in an unconventional role (for him) and has a good (and funny) story too.

The best documentary was March of the Penguins, one of my favourite movies of all time. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was good also.

The best action movies were Blood Diamond and Casino Royale, a great addition to the James Bond franchise - Daniel Craig is a great James Bond and Eva Green is very hot.

The best crime film was A History of Violence. It's a part drama, part thriller as the past of an "ordinary" man in a small town becomes exposed after he appears on the news for stopping a robbery at his diner.

The best historical movie was Good Night, and Good Luck. David Strathairn portrayal of Edward R. Murrow was good. Of all the movies nominated for the best picture Oscar last year that I watched (also Brokeback Mountain, Crash, and Munich), this was the one that I liked best.

The best biographical films were Kinsey and Michael Collins. Liam Neeson is the lead actor is both. I think he's one of the best actors in Hollywood.

The other good movies that I didn't mention above include Brokeback Mountain, Enigma, Kingdom of Heaven, Match Point, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Munich, Seven Years in Tibet, Syriana, The Future of Food, The Illusionist, The Pursuit of Happyness, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Wedding Crashers, Who Killed the Electric Car?, and You, Me and Dupree.

Now for a few "fun" categories for movies that weren't good, but are worth mentioning anyway:

I didn't see any superhero movies worth endorsement. I was disappointed with both X-Men 3 and Superman Returns. Both of which merit no more than 3 stars of out 5.

The best "B" movie was Snakes On A Plane. It has no chance of being even a "B+" movie (and I would give it 3 stars out of 5 and argue it isn't even good), but it was entertaining.

Last year, I called Spielberg's Close Encounters Of The Third Kind the most disappointing movie. This year, I'm calling out George Lucas and Peter Jackson for THX 1138 and King Kong, respectively. Perhaps ever director needs a mulligan. (Or maybe even more than one. Spielberg's War of the Worlds wasn't that great either and I'm not sure all of the blame can be assigned to Tom Cruise).

The movie that most exceeded by expectations was Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Quentin Tarantino is a self-indulgent director who movie making process is solely to satsify his whims, and not designed to improve the story or benefit of this audience. He emphasizes of style at the expense of substance and has a penchant for puddles of blood and streams of profanity. Nevertheless, Kill Bill was almost good.

The worst film is a tough call between Coffee and Cigarettes and Sin City.

Environmentally-Friendly Light Bulbs

The NY Times has a good article about Walmart trying to sell more environmentally-friendly light bulbs, but meeting a variety of obstacles: Wal-Mart Puts Some Muscle Behind Power-Sipping Bulbs (via Slashdot and Metafilter).

I have one of these light bulbs (given to me by Seattle City Light) and its lasted at least 18 months (and it's in a lamp that is on most of the time that I'm home). Unfortunately, I still have 3/4th of a package of regular light bulbs to use up before I get more.