TheTroubador's Xanga

Going, Going Gone!

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:38:35 GMT

Yeah guys, I'm done with xanga. It's been great, it's been fun but sorry, it's now boring me. No-ones around here anymore. So, I'm leaving. Yep.

You'll find me here - http://www.acosmopolitan.blogspot.com/. Though less people read that than they do this blog it doesn't matter because I have taken to liking blogspot a bit more. It's a bit more presentable.

Also, for all of your Facebook junkies out there, you can always find me there (as myself), Anatoly Venovcev. I doubt there are any other Anatoly Venovcevs around, but I'm the one that attends Wilfrid Laurier University.

With that I just say "So long and thanks for all the fish."

My Halloween Alter-Ego

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:54:35 GMT

This Halloween was the second Halloween ever that I dressed up as. The last was ten years ago. So, what did I come as?

A baby seal poacher.

It won "The Creepiest Costume" award from the Archaeology Society. Did I even have competition? Nope.

A REALLY Bad Reason For Baptizing Your Kid

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:52:46 GMT

So today I finally asked my mother, because the conversation was going that way, why she and my father baptized me in exchange for me finally telling her why I cried during it (the old man in pompous regalia was scary). I always found it strange that I was baptised since my mother is a “nothing,” which is kind of like an atheist basically. Well, do you want to know her reason?

“Just in case.”

To that I laughed, and I’m sorry mother, I’m not apologizing. That’s a really crappy reason to baptize someone and a kind of funny one that at that. Well, if it’s just in case, why wasn’t I also baptized as a Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Muslim, and Jew (for Jew, she said I’d have to get a circumcision, so alright, thank you for that mother). But why not also baptize me into every other of the world’s religions; get me indoctrinated into the Cult of Cthulhu even, why single out Russian Orthodox?

“Just in case?” and “Because we don’t really know?” Honestly, I thought a Masters in Chemistry would do much more than get one following tradition that one themselves does not believe in with hopes that if a god or a supernatural power of some sorts exists, it is such a legalistic god or supernatural power that it would simply say “Oh, yeah, you’re baptised (and into a relative obscure branch of Christianity too), you can go ahead and live in heaven.” Never mind what you believed in, never mind what you did in your life, never mind... anything at all. “Just in case.” Ha!

Dearest future parents, if you’re going to baptize your kids, please do it in a religion that you actually believe in and not in hopes of an afterlife that’s as equally stuffed with a legalistic bureaucracy as this one.

Ahhh, the Follies of Rabid Libertarianism

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:46:57 GMT

As most know or suspect, I'm a proud pinko-commie - or somewhere in that political region. By my place on the political table however, you would expect that I would find at least some common ground with libertarians and no ground with the conservatives. While that is the case, there is something about the hardcore libertarian philosophy that I dislike more than the ideals of any staunch conservative. I mean, staunch conservatives are just stupid - usually without empathy (human rights?) or a decent grasp of reality to boot (global warming and evolution denial anyone?). Libertarians however are a bit more, troubling. They're smaller in number, yes, but their persistance toward a free market and paranoia of the state is simply cultish, intellectually immature, and at times unrealistically utopian (and when a pinko-commie says that, there's something wrong). While certainly not applicable to all libertarians (as are my comments toward all conservatives), here's a fun article on follies of rabid libertarianism: www.inthesetimes.com/article/3328/floating_utopias.

"Libertarianism is by no means a unified movement. As many of its advocates proudly stress, it comprises a taxonomy of bickering branches—minarchists, objectivists, paleo- and neolibertarians, agorists, et various al.—just like a real social theory. Claiming a lineage with post-Enlightenment classical liberalism, as well as in some cases with the resoundingly portentous blatherings of Ayn Rand, all of its variants are characterized, to differing degrees, by fervent, even cultish, faith in what is quaintly termed the “free” market, and extreme antipathy to that vaguely conceived bogeyman, “the state,” with its regulatory and fiscal powers."

Double Donation Day

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:09:16 GMT

Mother forgive me (she pays my credit card bill), but I joined two organizations today as a paying, card carrying member. I've long been wanting to do this and finally got around to it, I began a student member of Amnesty International Canada and the Jane Goodall Institute (a chimpanzee conservation organization). This was on top of my previous joining of Center for Inquiry: Ontario earlier last month. My total bill for organizations is... pretty high. But at least I'm donating money into things I believe in now. I'm also a member of the Skeptic Society (also paid from last year) and Society of Ontario Freethinkers (free for students), and yes this entire entry was about shameless advertisement of the groups I support.

EDIT: (Let's not forget my presidency of the Mohammed Drawing Association and the membership of The Church of Google.)

Dear Muslims

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:41:19 GMT

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/16/artist.controversy/index.html

What now? Are you gona call a fatwa on me?

If I can say one good thing about Christianity is that the followers of it wont kill you if you commit herecy (at least not anymore).

What's Cooler Than Jesus?

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:17:43 GMT

1) Go into Google.
2) Type in "Jesus"
3) Get 148,000,000 hits.
4) Go into Google.
5) Type in sex.
6) Get 498,000,000 hits.
7) 'nuff said.

What are some other things that are cooler than Jesus?

(This is all being done while I should be studying for a midterm that's gona be happening tonight).

Interestingly enough, Canada is cooler than both sex and Jesus - with 667,000,000 hits.

Anti-Gay Movement Among Eastern European Imigrants

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:29:28 GMT

As a Latvian-born Russian, I'm aghast. As a human being, I’m repelled. As someone who strongly believes in equal human rights for all, I’m disgusted. As a straight ally in the gay rights movement, I’m enraged. As a freethinker and an atheist who understands the dangers of faith and religion, I can’t help but say “I told you so.” This is just sheer barbarism, dark age, savage, barbarism of a group of people that do not deserve even a smidgeon of an illusion of that moral high group they claim to uphold with their Bronze Age “morals” and tactics. Stuff like this points out the truth in how religion and faith can be a powerful cause for sadism and inhumanity.

This is a great article, but don’t read this if you’re having a good day and don’t want it ruined: http://www.alternet.org/rights/64336/?page=1

“A growing and ferocious anti-gay movement in the Sacramento Valley is centered among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking immigrants. Many of them are members of an international extremist anti-gay movement whose adherents call themselves the Watchmen on the Walls. In Latvia, the Watchmen are popular among Christian fundamentalists and ethnic Russians, and are known for presiding over anti-gay rallies where gays and lesbians are pelted with bags of excrement. In the Western U.S., the Watchmen have a following among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Members are increasingly active in several cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

Vlad Kusakin, the host of a Russian-language anti-gay radio show in Sacramento and the publisher of a Russian-language newspaper in Seattle, told The Seattle Times in January that God has "made an injection" of high numbers of anti-gay Slavic evangelicals into traditionally liberal West Coast cities. "In those places where the disease is progressing, God made a divine penicillin," Kusakin said.”

Read it all, and tell me how can a sensible human being not support the gay rights movement after reading what sort of shit happens in some places in the world... some, very close to ones heart.

Well call me a “homosexualist” and pelt me with eggs, its times like this I want to let go of my Latvian citizenship in a burst of righteous flame. What the fuck is happening to my homeland?

Atheism on CBC

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 14:24:09 GMT

20 minutes of a clear, objective story on atheism on a major news network? This is why I love Canada:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

And you know what's even cooler - I know three of the people interviewed personally: Justin Trottier, me and the Laurier Freethought Alliance had dealings with him, and Kathy and Chris Meidell they're also head Canadian Freethinker Magazine (of which I'm the Associate Editor of) and Society of Ontario Freethinkers (SOFREE). So yeah, it's awesome.

Flintknapping

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 00:42:25 GMT

For my project in AR 313 (Tools, Technology and Material Culture):

Flintknapping Log

10/05/07

Today, I started flintknapping by trying on an easy piece that already looked somewhat like an Acheulean Handaxe. I wore protection the form of a glove and old shorts for leg protection. Most of my obsidian chunks flew everywhere but the majority gathered in between my legs. Two biggest mistakes were violently attacking the piece at right angles and thus shattering a fifth of the obsidian globule and misdirecting one blow causing a third of the working piece to shatter off ruining the working core. A few other minor mistakes were misdirecting the blows. A steadier hand and patience is required. Another mistake was driving a deep blow into a hinge break off – a result of hitting the core too far in. The good news is that I didn’t cut myself. I also made a video of me working the rock, so a closer watching of the movie can explain my pros and cons. For now, I just used the hard hammer technique; I’ll employ the soft hammer (using wood soft hammers) later.

After attempting my first Handaxe, I switched over to something lighter and yet something that still provided good exercise – thinning flakes. Much of my earliest flakes ended up breaking upon thinning or the edges becoming thinner than they were before. Yet, I gained some valuable experience in relaxing and loosing up my shoulders while in the process of flint knapping as well as better hand-eye coordination. More was to follow.

I finished off retouching flakes for today by realizing why my flakes seemed so dulled. I was hitting down too much without having a drag outwards and thus simply broke through the flakes without sharpening. This is something I should carry off when trying to make some cores. I also practiced a bit shattering the flakes into more manageable pieces – that didn’t go so well since cores broke in unpredictable patterns. In all, I think today was a good exercise."