Online Dependency at Work

November 23rd, 2011 Thomasso

A small tragedy occurred at my work today. Just a small glitch, but it was system wide, and I had a few hours to stop and ponder just where do me and you stand as far as our interconnectedness on the web goes?

Our dependency on email and the web is huge at my work. I mean, I spend more time looking into a monitor screen at hundreds of lines of texts everyday than talking to real live people. I also spend almost an equal amount of time typing replies while uploading and downloading data from our servers and websites and the odd time, talking on the phone. We have a joke where I work, the keyboards are louder than the chatter of human voices.

When our system went down, as part of a regular maintenance upgrade goes, a crash occurred at bootup and it lasted far beyond the one hour scheduled for the outage.  We had to invent things to do while our workstations sat idle.

So, when the server went back up, we all went back to work. I was laughing at myself becuase I actually felt guilty that we lost so much productivity, and I missed an appointment in the mess too. But from outside work, no one seems to care.

Is it possible that we have gone too far with the net in the workplace?

Posted in Diatribe, General, Socail Media, Software, Story Telling | Comments Off

What Has Tom Been Up To?

November 22nd, 2011 Thomasso

So much has gone on with me in the last four days, that even I cannot laugh it off, and I still have so much more to do. Right now I am living off of just a couple of hours of sleep as the wind storm from last night kept me up. The power outage from the storm, with the pounding rain and tree branches hitting my roof, sleep was just not going to happen so I stayed up. But I was tired before that too. Perhaps I should just start at Friday, and finish off my post with today’s events. You, reader, should be clear once I have itemised my last few days.

(pay no attention to the mistakes in this post – I’m exhausted and will clean them up tomorrow)

Friday was dedicated to the last day of a week from Hell. Both in terms of work, and my personal life, Friday was a painful one. Personally, I was just getting over a harsh flu. Compounded to the pain and suffering of the flu was an equally hard work week of tedious issues and problem solving. It was not the amount of work that created the harshness, but the quality of it. I learned that some players in the business really “kicked the can” as it were, with our forth quarter budget, and made some really bad calls. This translated into an extremely chaotic round of finger pointing at the retails side of it, but fortunately in my department, I only received the stress of working with these people.

On my personal side, I had made preparation to volunteer for the civic elections in Langley Township. I helped a candidate out. I only helped out becuase of my friendship connections and ties to this person in the neighbourhood, not my political colours. Only the ignorant and weak minded would accuse me of playing partisan politics at this level – you know who you are! So I volunteered, helping out a friend in need. I did enjoy myself.

Going into Saturday, the day of the civic election, my commitment to volunteering kept on going. The only difference, was I planned on taking it easy, but I was asked to continue to help out with my friend’s campaign. There was the striking of the political ads signs – which under law each candidate has but a couple of days to pull all the signs from the streets and road, or fine would be given out. So I helped pull signs.

My own personal candidacy was on Monday, so I had to focus on that. The magic balance was now lost, between helping a friend versus getting myself ready for my big moment. I was running for a seat on the Board of Directors for the Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s (KPU) Alumni Association, and I had planned spending most of Saturday working on that. Instead, my time ran out on Saturday–and I got to bed around 11:30pm that night.

I almost slept in Monday morning for work. Right from the start of the day I was chasing time. I ignored the other departments as much as I could, fearing that the spill over from last week’s “meltdown” could erupt again. This was the last thing I needed, more stress. While at work, I start sending out tweets to people that I knew who were alumni from the university. Regrettably, getting people to come down to vote on a Monday night was not going to happen. I was too new and had very little exposure to the alumni to get the confidence of voters from the student body. So I tried to conjure up any support I could before I headed down to the Surrey campus. However, not before my work would throw one final hard ball at me.

A crises started brewing in my department becuase one of my co-workers made some errors, and then refused to clear them up before the end of the day. We have a policy that of you make a mistake, you clean it up, even if that means staying some extra time in the day to clean it up. My co-worker refused, and left. I was responsible, and I made some quick patchwork fixes so that I could leave it until Tuesday. My time had already lapsed into my preparation time for the election, which, I had to be there for 6:00pm–less than one hour’s time. Leaving work, late, getting home, I had to forego the fancy clothing, and settle for just changing into a sweater and grabbing my laptop and bag. Yes, still wearing my jeans and street shoes.

The election was held after an hour of formalities with the KPU Board of Directors of the Alumni Association. Each candidate was given two minutes to make a speech, and then had to field only two questions from the room.  I spoke, and was never asked any questions. Sadly, out of the seven of us vying for the six seats, I came in last. I only received 12 votes out of the possible 19. Defeated.

However, I took with pride becuase this was my first time, and this was a learning experience, and learned from it I did. I was offered to join various committees in light of my interests in volunteering with the Alumni Association, but I made myself not make any promises until I had a clear head.

Monday night when I got home, there were weather warning posted on the net. I went straight to bed as it was past 10:00pm, and I was dead tired. Not even 30 minutes into my sleep I was awaken by the sounds of flying branches hitting my window, and the wind pounding my roof. It was brutal. Widows rattled, the walls shook and I could feel the cold air in the room. Then like clockwork, the power went out, just after the second gust of wind started dumping branches on my roof. No sleep.

The power came back on around 5:00am this morning, and soon after my alarm clock went off. I got dressed and headed off to work. Trees were down everywhere. Because of the darkness, my lack of sleep, and the slippery roads, I hit one of the wooden road barricades, as the main road was closed due to a tree down across it. I backed up, and took another route. I spent today being as quiet as I could. The only real interesting thing that happened that gave me contact with the outside world was the grounds keepers accidentally set off the fire alarm late in the work day. But I continued to lay low until I left for home. Now I am fighting to stay up without napping so that i can get my bio-clock back in sync.

Posted in Bitching about weather, Bitching about work, Diatribe, Events, General, Graduation, Socail Media, Story Telling, Twitter, University classes | 1 Comment »

A Blend of Rendering and Camera Work

November 17th, 2011 Thomasso

It has been cold out, so I have been staying indoors, both at home and at work. With all this time hiding from the cold, I am spending it with my camera, and using it with the instruction handbook that I never read since I bought it. Also, I have been seriously working with some of the these 3D graphic programs that I had downloaded last month. It has been so nice to get better acquainted with the computer and camera.

The first image came from my new camera. I was taking photos of the Moon, using my 18-55mm lens, that came with it, when a seagull flew by in front of my shot. After looking at it on the monitor, the photo jumped out at me as being a very good image, so I processed it and posted it on Twitter, and now here on the blog. I do not own a telephoto, yet, but when I do get one, I want to do more shooting of far away objects with the camera. I am still drooling over that DSLR, the rang of options are incredible compared to my point and shoots cameras.

The next two images are from the same program I talked about earlier this week, called Wings3D, that renders using Povray. I am just starting to see the cool stuff that I can do with this program. I hate that this software has next to no help files, compressive guides or user manuals with it. There are some YouTube videos, and a very basic PDF files to download, but that is it. You are running it strictly by trial and error; which is sad when I am finding that it is a wonderful program to use, but it is complex and has unusual mouse and menu options.

The end results of working with Wings3D are very cool. I can now see why this is a heavy-duty modeller program. You can take a primitive object, like a sphere, and turn it into a 3D face by stretching and manipulating the mesh. I am still finding some options difficult to figure out, but I am making progress.

So this is what I have been up to when sitting idling by at my computer, or outside, going to and from work while it is still daylight.

I am waiting for the sky (weather) to clear up so that I do some night time photography. One of my primary goals with the DSLR is to take shots of the stars using long exposures and apertures adjustments. I have a 25.5cm reflector telescope, and for it I have purchased a mount to use with my DSLR, so I want to start using it for taking photos of celestial objects.

I cannot wait!

Posted in Around Town, Art, Astronomy, General, Photographs, Software, Twitter | 2 Comments »

Going to the Polls – Civic Election Langley

November 3rd, 2011 Thomasso

One would think that there is an election going on with the sudden crop of election signs that just popped up along every roadway and field throughout town. According to my sources on Twitter, and verified on the various webpages that I read, we have one coming up on November 19, 2011, a Saturday. If that was not enough, I have being approached by two friends who have friends of their own who asked if I would help out planting election signs with them. I had to decline becuase of my super busy schedule, but they gave me the “dirt” based on their perspectives and ideologies about the upcoming election, and why it is so important to get the word out and get people to vote.

You need the information about this civic election?

Well, here is a good place to start: Township of Langley Elections.

I am not going to go into a big long spew about why it is so important to vote, and why those who do not vote are saying that democracy has failed us, and that your vote does not matter. Nor am I going to go into the whole morel and ethical reasoning of why living in a democracy is better than living under a dictatorship, or regime. The choice is really yours to make. However, I do encourage everyone who can vote, get out and vote, especially for a civic election.

Why is voting in a civic election so important?

Of all major levels of government, your municipality is going to effect you the most. Everything from business to property tax, your schools, fire departments, policing, street cleaning, (to name but a few) these are huge areas of costs and services, and they effect you directly. Yes, even those who rent are directly effected by how your municipality runs and operates!

So on November 19, 2011, get off your butt, out from your arm chair, and head down to the polling stations to cast your vote(s). Do some research on who you want to run. You will be faced with a number of choices, unlike provincial and federal elections where you pick “one of the above;” civic election you will be choosing a number of candidates to run for a number of seats and boards at once.

Vote!

By the way, I do not represent any of the candidates, or political parties that are running in this civic election for Langley Township.

Posted in Around Town, Events, General, Photographs, Socail Media, Social economics, Social Justice | Comments Off

Social Apathy, or a Psychological Problem

October 29th, 2011 Thomasso

I have been desensitized over the years with news stories of human suffering and tragedy. In my academic studies in criminology, I have read, encountered, and studied both the purely bad and truly evil acts that humans have done, and through this, I have built up a resistance from these deviants, and often criminal cases. However, once in a while, a case pops up that adds a new level to this playing field that supersedes my definition of sick and twisted. The news story of two year old Wang Yueyue who was run over twice on October 13th, 2011, and then eight passers-by walked by her as she lay in the back alley injured from the first vehicle impact (CBCnews, ABC news & BBC news Television, October 14th to October 21, 2011). All of this was captured on a security video camera.

The video footage was grainy, and CBC News censored the image of the child, capturing from the time that she was impacted by the first vehicle, all the people that walked passed her body a she struggled for help, then a second vehicle hitting her, to finally a woman who grabbed her and took her to safety. Even with the child’s body blurred out, the image still shocked me. I had to turn off the television and retreat from what my eyes had just seen.

I knew right away. I knew what had happened as to why so many people walked by as I remembered my lessons in psychology on topics such as “Group Think” and “Passers By” conditions. Could this be prevented, say training people to stop and care?

China is by no means the only place where this has happened. It has happened in Canada, the U.S., Europe, just about anywhere around the world. Some argue that laws and cases where the victim has litigated by the rescuer for causing further injury, is a reason for not getting involved (CBC news, “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011). Others say that they just do not want to get involved and bare the responsibility and the time that it would take and to deal with the repercussions afterwards (CBC News).

There are people who just do not want to get involved. Simply put, most people in large groups will not even look directly at a victim of need because this would mean taking time, diverting from one’s course, and blending in, following the flow of the crowd. So hiding in numbers makes it easier not to look.

In Canada, we have the right not to rescue in some circumstances. This means that if I see a person drowning in the ocean, and I cannot swim, the Criminal Code protects me from not rescuing the drowning victim because I would then be also putting myself in the same danger as the drowning victim. In Canada, according to the Supreme Court of Canada:

According to the trial judge of a modern case, later affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada, “the law is clear that there is no general duty to come to the rescue of another person … the law leaves the remedy to a person’s conscience.” (“Duty to Rescue,” PSW Law Website: 2009)

However, there are some circumstance that would tie a duty to rescue under statutory law, such as a parent, a person of trust, a life guard, and so on (PSW Law: 2009 Website).

My point to this post is why so many people walked by while the little girl lay on the road at the point of death. Perhaps, as many have said on the media, we must change our values and take action. Some have gone further and saying that laws need to be rewritten to reflect a high moral standard, while others are saying that the law is not the answer, but teaching people to be proactive rather than being nonactive.

I also need to add a legal disclaimer here too: This post is not to be used as information for legal advice, and I encourage you all to do further research on this topic if you need to find a specific legal issue about this. Also, these laws vary from country to country. According to the media, several people were charged in China who injured the little girl while driving their vehicles, so the law enforcement authorities did enforce the law in accordance to that country’s penal code (CBC news, Oct 24, 2011).

This post was originally written on October 24, 2011

Source

ABC News, 2011: “Chinese Toddler Ignored After Hit-and-Run Dies” Oct 21, 2011: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chinese-toddler-left-bloody-hit-run-dies-14784046

BBC World News, 2011: “Anger and debate over hit-and-run toddler Wang Yue,” Oct 21 2011: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15401055

CBC News, 2011: “Chinese toddler run over twice dies,” Oct 21, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/21/toddler-china.html

CBC News, 2011: “Was the law at fault in Chinese toddler tragedy?” Oct 22, 2011: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/22/f-china-yue.html

PSW Law, 2009: http://pswlaw.ca/2009/06/duty-to-rescue/

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | Comments Off

The Rightness of Wrongness: The Canadian Right

October 25th, 2011 Thomasso

Earlier today I sat in on a gathering of people who talked about the changing evolution of corrections (prisons) that Canadian society was moving towards. A lot of what was said falls into the category of classical social fear; crime is getting out of control and safety for property and person were at the top of the list from almost every speaker who lead the discussion. The dynamics of the meeting was subtle, but from person to person who gave their input, I could see that each changed to fit the “group think” attitudes that prevailed until everyone just agreed.

Am I surprised?

No.

Categorically, the meeting ended with each speaker making a statement that issued an appeal to the government, law enforcement, and to their fellow citizen to pull together and help clamp down on the crime menace. None of the speakers would, however, answer the one key question that hung over the entire meeting, “have you ever been a victim of a crime within the last twelve months”?

The speaker that I thought was the “most out to lunch” was actually the star of the show, so to speak. He was loud, captured the audience, and made tens of statements in less than three minutes before he sat down. His introduction was extreme, and waisted little time getting to the point. He said, “The only real experts on crime are C.O.P.s (sic), and those academics have no clue what is out their in the real world… to create a bunch of theories does not fix anything, we need action now…, and we need to do something about the issues instead of thinking like a bleeding heart Liberal (sic).”

Obviously I cannot argue with someone who has closed their mind to the openness and vastness of human society and the intricateness of human psychology. However, I can make him think further, and go beyond the single brush stroke statements, and make him see that the issues cannot be painted with just one colour. But time is the great definer of getting that message across, and time was not on my side–time ran out for me.

There were several issues that really concerned me that came out of this meeting today. Most are very serious in that they are false and misleading from the truth based on scientific facts. To discount peer reviewed studies, is like going back to the Witch Hunts of the Dark-ages, ignoring the enlightenment of human ontology. To invoke fear, well, that is in itself is a criminal act depending upon the level of unsighted accusations being made, and this gathering came close to breaking that threshold.

In terms of rhetoric, the foundation of my friend’s logos, cited the media as proof enough that crime has gone beyond what anyone organisation can manage to deal with. And with that, came the pathos of his argument, that we should fear, becuase the changing face of our country is diminishing, and we (his group) will be swept a way if we (he) sit back and do nothing. And finally, his ethos of his closing statement was based on his next door neighbour being a police officer, and confiding in him (the speaker) of the moral dilemma of why even the police are powerless in the war on crime.

What I have witnessed today is typical of a group who are trying to deal with a problem that goes beyond the scope that most care to deal with today at a complex level. The study of crime and deviance is a huge field, with many branches that stem into a vast array of specialised fields, as each field has developed into its own faculty or discipline, and few have studied under all of them. I studied Criminology, and I continue on today with that study, looking at both the social and psychological perspectives of humankind; so I try to go to these gathering in hopes that I can broaden the mind of the general public and move forward to a better society. “Baby steps” as an old friend used to say to me, “baby steps.” Not everyone is an academic.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Law and Order, Socail Media, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Free DH TV for Me

September 18th, 2011 Thomasso

As most of you know by now, or those who had taken the time to catch it on the news, Canada, following along with United States, is now fully embracing digital Off Air Television. Gone are the old analogue signals that were standard for most older types television set, mainly the Cathode Ray Tube, (CRT) televisions that preceded the flat screen television with digital tuners we have now. As of three weeks ago, those analogue channels are gone in the more heavy populated areas of Canada, and soon to follow the rural areas, every station will only pump out digital quality signals.

There are two important points to this change. First, your old CRT television will still work, but you will have to buy a converter and an antenna becuase your old “rabbet ears” antenna will be useless–unless you live right beside the transition tower. Second, if you have a newer type television, you will have a built in digital tuner, so just an antenna will be needed. Yes, that flat screen TV will seek out the digital signals and bring them in for you.

The bonus: those signals that are coming to you off air, are in uncompressed high definition format. In other words, the single that is coming to you from off the air waves is the best quality format you will ever get. The high definition, (HD) from off air is true HD, unlike your cable or satellite provider’s HD, which has to undergo a compression to uncompression process from which quality, and signal strength is always sacrificed. You are getting the best signal possible, and without compression form the source, and with no wires, the signal is either on, or off–no in between, so quality is almost a sure thing.

Digital TV signals are different from the old analogue signals. There are differences in signal strength, like with all radio waves, but unlike analogue, your TV have a processor that converts the digital signal into the images on the screen. So, if your signal is weak, but still getting though, you will only see great quality HD TV. Only when the signal is no longer able to be processed by your tuner, then the image stops–or freezes. So you either will have the signal, or you will not. This is why you do not have all the problems that came with the old analogue transmissions.

For me, it is hard looking my HD on my Cable becuase the difference is huge. And I get 7 Canadian and 4 American channels in Fort Langley with my antenna! Sweet! And more seem to be popping up as the days go by. I just have to rescan my TV every couple of days to check for them.

Posted in Around Town, General, Socail Media | Comments Off

Happy Brithday Linux!

September 17th, 2011 Thomasso

Wow, this caught me off guard this morning as I turned on my Twitter account to see what was tweeting. A tweet appeared, that almost didn’t catch my eye, about Linux being twenty years old today. If it were not for the Window$ Workstation that I was on crashing, as it froze up from a bug in its security software, I would have missed that tweet. Thankfully, armed with my laptop, loaded with Linux, I was able to read the tweet, and continue on troubleshooting why the workstation crashed. Yes, irony and sarcasm are at play in my mind on this subject between the two operating systems.

My Linux experience really did not start until 1998-99 becuase computers were still very much a costly item back then. And where I lived at the time there was no Intranet in that part of rural Canada so being hip onto what was in fashion and new, I was still wearing animal skins and hunting and gathering for my food in the time-line sense. My first computer was a VIC-20 Commodore Computer, and then the Comnodore-64.  But my first experience with Linux was through SOL-unix OS ( using classic Pentium chip/with 4 MBs of RAM, and a 8G HD), then switching over to  Red Hat (2003), and today I only use Ubuntu. I quickly learned the value of Open Source computing when Internet crimes started to make headlines around the world. The Open Source world of computing dirty little secret was that a password is needed all the time to install anything, whether software or updates. Hackers have to resort to other means of taking your data, and planting malware, unlike the propitiatory OS where updates and installs are done in the background, sometimes without the user’s knowledge.

The ability to program and fix and write software to suit my needs was the selling point of the free OS, a.k.a. LINUX.  I was able to tailor my systems and become more productive without the huge costs that my competitors were suffering with. Remember, I did four years of university using only Linux, and I was able to do more, save money and not have to worry about system failures during upgrades as compared to my colleagues suffering with their system’s issues. In fact, I am very certain that the person who had stolen my lap top, back in 2006 at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey Campus, would have had a very difficult time cracking my Linux machine becuase of the encryption that naturally came with the Linux OS.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ocq6_3-nEw&[/youtube]

Happy birthday Linux – the big Twenty. My how time flies when you are having fun!

Posted in General, Linux, Socail Media, Software, Story Telling, Video | Comments Off

Bad Bad HST

August 26th, 2011 Thomasso

This morning as I was driving into work, I had the radio tuned to CBC Radio One, and I was listing to Premier Christy Clark Talking about the results of the HST Referendum. What was odd, from my point of view, was her focus on the “Plan B.” This was odd because the results were not yet released, and she was talking about her pending defeat four hours before the results were to be released. Suspicious, but she is government, so sure; I’m sure hundreds of people knew well before the release of the results.

So I as listened to her babel on about how the government is going to listen to the people and obey the results, it dawned on me that it does not matter. The tax, whether this one, or a new one, the likelihood of an increase is inevitable because the government only needs to ramp up the old PST to match revenue lost from the HST—so simple—and yet so true. As taxed beaten as we are now, I believe we have not seen anything yet. Sure the voters dealt a shot over the bow of the Liberal’s ship, but they hold us hostage with their majority government in Victoria.

As news officially hit the Twittervers that the HST was overwhelmingly voted out of existence, my colleagues, most from the political right, were somewhat confused. It is funny because, they choose the HST because it was the best out of the two evils for them, yet, fighting in favour of a tax goes against every fibre of their been. It was cute to see because, as our accountant put it, “what does this mean…?”

Like good sports, they all agreed that they were going to put their faith into the government, and they hoped that the next eighteen months would be a smooth one for them. Yes, “faith in government…?”

My take on this—I am glad that the British Columbia Government got a taste of the voter anger from the 1.6 million voters who took the time to mail in their ballots. With 54.73 voting to scrap the HST, not for one second was this referendum about the practicality and good government management of the HST and its affairs. This was about a sloppy, megalomaniac Premier who resigned because he lied to the people of whom he represented. This was a vengeance vote, a vote directed at the confidence of the government by its people. I was stunned when the tax appeared back then, right after I heard our leader say at the time that he would not implement the HST. So now, here we are, as one of the only jurisdictions that have recall legislation, we used this valuable tool at our own government, and it seems to be a bitter pill to swallow, but for most us, this was the medicine that we needed.

Do I regret what we have done?

Not really. I see a silver lining out of all this. As a consumer, my buying habits have change a lot since the 2009 meltdown. Buying gas in the US, shopping for bargains and making due with less, has already created a more adaptable environment based on living with the HST. Reverting back to the old style PST only means that old customs of living will easily become reacquainted ones again. I think businesses who are crying about the loss of HST should really look forward and think about the future—their survival depends on it.

Some cool links about the Vote, and the HST.

B.C. votes 55% to scrap HST

Interactive map shows breakdown of HST vote

Posted in Diatribe, Events, General, Social economics, Social Justice, Twitter | Comments Off

When Trust is Garbage

August 6th, 2011 Thomasso

About a week ago I started seeing the Tweets streaming from members of the Kwantlen Student’s Association (KSA) with regards to the 2006-7 scandal involving allegations of election fixing, misappropriation of moneys, theft and fraud from that council. I was attending Kwantlen at that time, 2006-7, and I do remember having personal issues with the, then Student’s Council. But since then, with all the news about what was going on with that council, at that time, eventually student life mellowed down, and my time there as an undergrad went smoothly.

There was also apathy on my part becuase as I looked at the student’s council as nothing more than just a group of students having fun. I never took into account that that was my money they were squandering with. In fact, I now wonder why I even had to pay into it. I now believe that students should have a choice as to whether they wish to become a member rather than being held hostage with the tuition. I see a need that the government needs to change the law regarding societies, and that students must have the op-out option. Sorry present day KSA members, but this is how I feel about it right now.

Yes, I am that mad about it. When this trust is broken, it can never be rebuilt, because in Canada, white collar crime seems to be nothing more than a slap on the wrist. Justice is lacking here.

I believe that the student’s council must be reconstructed from the ground up, reflecting these past years of abuse, so that transparency and integrity are forged into law. Having elected officials secretly spending money with no worries, covering their tracks  – is – sickening, disturbing and weak.

Very rarely did I have the option of participating in any events with the KSA during my time as an undergraduate. I was a student who worked during the day and did my classes at night. I commuted to the campus, attended my classes, then commuted home. When I think back now, I fed these guys very well with my forced contributions, and that angers me when I read the Forensic Accounting Report of 2007. It is one thing when our Federal, Provincial and Civic leaders miss use our tax money, but quite another when it is a society whose acting in my best interest. Listening to it all over again on the news just opens old wounds again.

What triggered me to write this post?

When I read this news story from the Surrey leader, titled: “Kwantlen student lawsuit on ice,” August 5th, 2011, it made me want to write this post. However, it was not until I read the Forensic Audit from 2007 today that I started writing this post with heated energy. You can read the document here, PWC Forensic Audit 2007, as someone secretly posted it on line. The PDF file is 8.1MB, at 108 pages, and covers a lot of details and heart wrenching accounts of what was going on during that time at the KSA.

This is the first time in a very long time that I had to stop and really focus on what it was I was writing becuase of how much, and how close, this hits home. In hindsight, I should have paid closer attention to the KSA, perhaps even getting involved with it more, but my situation at the time limited me from doing that.

It all seems to be coming out in the wash anyway. Thanks to some students, both members and non-members of the KSA, for caring and taking on the fight to rid the bad, dirty and disgusting from a place of public privilege and trust. If it were not for them, I would be too ashamed to tell people that I was student associated with the KSA.

As for the future students who will pay their fees to the KSA: beware, be forewarned, and be suspicious by keeping an eye on your representatives. These people, your elected council, are there for you. Vote, participate, and get informed becuase without this attitude, the chances of this repeating again in the KSA is a possibility.

Posted in Art, Criminology, Diatribe, General, Graduation, Law, Photographs, Socail Media, Social Justice, Twitter, University classes | Comments Off