Exactly and Approximately

7/6/06

060323 - Next stop Everest!

060326 - Who said the moptop would never come back?

060325 - Front steps

060326 - Wife at breakfast

6/18/06

Public Key for my email address

Why bother?
You too can spy on the Internet, just like the NSA.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70914-0.html

How to:
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/top/how-to-encrypt-your-email-180878.php

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Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (MingW32)

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The Value of Privacy

** *** ***** ******* *********** *************

The Value of Privacy

Last month, revelation of yet another NSA surveillance effort against
the American people rekindled the privacy debate. Those in favor of
these programs have trotted out the same rhetorical question we hear
every time privacy advocates oppose ID checks, video cameras, massive
databases, data mining, and other wholesale surveillance measures: "If
you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?"

Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no
cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong,
and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something
wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right
as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about
hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a
requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Two proverbs say it best: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" ("Who watches
the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously
said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most
honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch
someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just
blackmail -- him with. Privacy is important because without it,
surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers,
and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time.

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing
nothing wrong at the time of surveillance.

We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not
deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for
reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the
privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn
them. Privacy is a basic human need.

A future in which privacy would face constant assault was so alien to
the framers of the Constitution that it never occurred to them to call
out privacy as an explicit right. Privacy was inherent to the nobility
of their being and their cause. Of course being watched in your own home
was unreasonable. Watching at all was an act so unseemly as to be
inconceivable among gentlemen in their day. You watched convicted
criminals, not free citizens. You ruled your own home. It's intrinsic to
the concept of liberty.

For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of
correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness.
We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful
that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave
behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has
now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our
individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable.

How many of us have paused during conversations in the past
four-and-a-half years, suddenly aware that we might be eavesdropped on?
Probably it was a phone conversation, although maybe it was an e-mail or
instant message exchange or a conversation in a public place. Maybe the
topic was terrorism, or politics, or Islam. We stop suddenly,
momentarily afraid that our words might be taken out of context, then we
laugh at our paranoia and go on. But our demeanor has changed, and our
words are subtly altered.

This is the loss of freedom we face when our privacy is taken from us.
This was life in the former East Germany, or life in Saddam Hussein's
Iraq. And it's our future as we allow an ever-intrusive eye into our
personal, private lives.

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as "security versus privacy."
The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises
under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic
authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security
without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance
is the very definition of a police state. And that's why we should
champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.

A version of this essay originally appeared on Wired.com.
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70886-0.html

3/19/06

Breakfast at de dutch pancake house on sunday morning.

3/18/06

Rock Star Glasses

Still... Not a Pony!

A shopping we will go, a shopping we will go, we're going on a treasure hunt, a shopping we will go.

What happens when toddlers get into the fermented apple juice late at night.

Keeping up on the mortgage payments is just killing me.

Pony tails

I'll have the 2006 Lucernee 2% with an almond shot please...

With cousin Oliver at the park.

Parenthood.

When toddlers go punk take 2 - we picked up some blue, yellow and red ones the other day. Mommy was so proud.

When toddlers go punk...

As I was saying over wine, the Vancouver real estate market has just gone crazy.

Of course this is mine, I'm 2, why would you ask?

First the incisition 3 inches below the navel...

Wait till I get one with a motor on it! I can see Mommy's hair turning gray from here. Grandma will threaten to have a "stern conversation" with the person who provided the motorbike. Note: Grandma uses "stern conversation" the way the mob uses "indisposed." Good times, good times.

Riding bike with Papa.

Not that we modify our environment to entertain her or anything like that.

Just a little memento letting father time we're not done yet. :-)

Bob and Oliver - suitably attired for Olympic season

Auntie May and Daniel?

Grandpa and Thomas?

Bill and Oliver. More musical talent than my living room has seen in a while.

Dinner at the rest home with family and hanger-ons.

When I look at this I think my hairline hasn't moved all that much.

Note the expression of glee on Nonna's face. :-)

More family

Nonna and myself

Daniel??

RCMP achievement ribbons - source unknown

2/28/06

Dearest former, present, and hopefully future Breathers....Did you miss me?

Well, now that the Winter Games are officially done, isn't it time to start thinking about summer! Yes, Ulty's on the way back dearest Breathers as summer league sign up begins two weeks from Monday!

Before I begin, let me thank Wade for that great, as promised, year end bash he threw for us..it was just....heeyyyyy...it never happened!!! Um, Wade?

Once again Cap'n Steve is taking up the reins with me by his side as his trusted lackey....but what we need most of all is a team for this to happen! Hopefully the thoughts of gorgeous summer nights, cold beer and premium cider (for you Nadine!), Steve's bbq gourmet dogs, free sideline babysitting, and our sparkling personalities will be enough to entice most of you to come back so we can be playing on Wednesday nights again in a couple of short months!

As seems to be the case now, since we seem to be growing up and being responsible (at least some of us), our fingers are crossed that we've got enough people to come back to carry on the Heavy Breathing name and tradition come summer....and we are especially desperate for boys with Carey's pass from the old age home revoked (it's not hard to guess why) and Wade possibly being too shamed to join us after his year end party fizzle....so, and this goes for everyone, even if you are around for half or less than half of the games this summer, that's full time by Heavy Breathing standards and we would love to have you on the roster for this summer. We also know some of you are just autumn only Breathers, but you never know! As we did with last summer, practices will be optional and based on interest..if you can only join us for games, no problemo.

So..here are the options...give it a think and let me know in the next week or so...

Option A: I'm In! I may not be around for the full summer and I may not be able to make every game but I want this team to continue, I want my kids to look up to me as a hip, ultimate playing parent and lay the groundwork for Heavy Breathing's future, and I still want to make the commitment to play whenever I can because I love Heavy Breathing and would hate to let down Cap'n Steve. How can I say no to hanging out with the 'Breathers?

Option B: I'm out. Sigh. I am way too old to play this game and have decided to settle comfortably into middle age. I have officially given up fighting for my youth. I love the colour grey now as it's so neutral and dull. It's too hard to fit in Ulty around my weekly Bridge and Euchre nights, and ulty interferes with watching the latest in reality programming each Wednesday night. Besides, that Larry King is a doll! I find it hard to conceive how I would fit 3 hours of ulty per week into my 168 hour week.

And while you are pushing the reply button back with Option A (pretty please?), the band that Steph's in is playing at the Arts Club Backstage Lounge on Wed. night at 9, and Steve and I will be there plotting summer strategies and then kidnapping Steph from her elite women's team to join us for the summer..come by and join us to get the season officially launched!

Fingers crossed (seriously!) for enough option A's,
Mark

2/20/06

This is so cool.

http://www.pandora.com/

Sad, Mad, Glad

I'm holding up small foam circles with faces on them representing the various emotions. My wife uses them in her work with kids.

2/19/06

These people should be familiar. We tried bowling at the birthday party. It was very exciting until she started realizing that the ball wasn't coming back - it was going to just keep going away. "my ball??" "my ball!"