Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Shift in Interest: From Network Security to LGBT Issues

    Shift in Interest: From Network Security to LGBT Issues

    Someone told me recently that I appeared to have shifted my interest away from network security, and asked me if that was in fact the case. I told him that it was. The Botnet movie (still in development!) will be my last foray into the matter in the foreseeable future.

    The fact is that people’s interests change over time, and I am no exception. Going out of high school and into university, I was all gung ho about network security. I wrote articles, including one for 2600 Magazine. I attended meetings that talked about it on a regular basis. But in the last two years, my interest really started to wane.

    Now, I’m interested in LGBT issues. From a legal standpoint, Canada is at a great point in history. There is equality. True equality. This is something that only a few other nations in the world can claim. From a cultural perspective, work remains to be done.

    I went to a friend’s birthday party on Saturday night, and the use of “fags” in a derogatory sense was often repeated. Among some highlights: “I don’t mind if a person is gay, just act like a man.”

    I got tired of this, so Jay and I kissed each other – our default reaction to hearing stupid remarks. Comments were made comparing the kiss to a “trainwreck” that one couldn’t look away from. Something that wouldn’t be said of a hetero couple.

    I don’t know what I’ll do in this field, but this is where my interest is, for now. And who knows, maybe I’ll move on to something else in a few years.

  • Apartheid Lives On

    Apartheid Lives On

    I’m in South Africa right now. The country I’m in has a 79% black population, and yet, you would never know it from looking at the makeup of the places I’ve been visiting. It’s so… black and white.

    For instance, I’m visiting a geophysics company. Its sixty workers, safe for one man, are all white. It does not reflect the local makeup at all. Meanwhile, the staff of the hotel I’m at are all black, while its patrons are all white.

    It’s just so odd to see this stark contrast. If I were to give a guess, I’d say that the economic damage to blacks caused by Apartheid-era policies lives on, maintaining the huge rift between the [white] haves and the [black] have-nots.

    Its just so eerie to witness this inequality first hand.

  • I’m glad I’m Canadian

    I’m glad I’m Canadian

    I’m so happy and proud to be Canadian. Despite the fact that I deal with a bit of shit here and there in public for being in a gay relationship, legislatively, we’re all equal. The situation south of the border is what this country was at three decades ago. We got rid of homophobic military policies right when the Americans enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” We enacted marriage equality before same-sex marriages were outright banned in some states.

    This is a photo from an anti same-sex marriage rally in Maine the other day. For some reason, it gives me hope that things will change in the US. Full album here.

  • Ahhh old ladies – where would we be without you…

    I show up to the apartment door, five minutes ahead of time. I knock. I wait and knock again. I hear a bit of ruckus and an old lady answers the door.

    Me: Hi, there! I’m here to buy the air conditioner? Unless I’m at the wrong appartment?

    Her: Well I won’t sell it to you. Pfft… really..

    She then closes the door on my face with nary another word. Turns out I was at the wrong apartment – I was supposed to get it from the guy the next door down.

    About half an hour later, I walk out the door and see another one. “Hi there Monique!” I say. She just gives me the dirtiest stare ever. This is a woman for whom I also fixed her computer for free. No hellos, just dirty stares.

    So if ever you’re in the mood to meet a cheerful lot, come on down to Canterbury avenue!