biolyrics

Of the many great experiences I had in Syria, some of my favourites were at family gatherings and parties. Of course, the sort of reunions that happen in the "Old Country" are far more lively than the usual Christmas get-togethers that North Americans participate in. For one thing, because I was the only one from my household in Utah to visit family in Syria, I was constantly taken from relative to relative, meeting people aged from less than a month to 80+ years. Family in Syria means not just one's aunts and uncles, but also their children's relatives. It means that I not only met people distantly related to me by 2^nd or 3^rd generational gaps, but also be met every friend, distant relative, and acquaintance of everyone else's friends, relatives, and acquaintances. I probably met 100+ different people from a wide array of backgrounds and professions: from business to dentistry. The family dynamic in Syria is broad, to say the least.

I just read an amazing little poem by John Scalzi. Made me think of lots of the things that people take for granted. Even in a place like Vancouver it can be difficult to live in. And it doesn't help that Vancouver has the poorest postal code in Canada.
Somehow, though, there's still hope; humans are smarter and stronger today than most people give us credit for.

"Lately"
The Helio Sequence

Lately,
I don't think of you at all.
Or wonder what you're up to,
Or how you're your getting on.
I never think of calling you,
Or how things could've been.
Or wonder where you sleep at night,
Or whose arms you wake in.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
Lately,
I don't get lost in daydreams.
I never lay awake at night,
Staring in my bed.
And I don't think about your face,
Or anything you say.
And I don't think twice,
When someone says your name.
Or twist my mind in circles,
Wondering which of us to blame.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
I never walk alone,
And think of all the empty words.
Or wonder when the day will break,
Or when the tides will turn.
And I don't break down,
When someone says your name.
Or twist my mind in circles,
Wondering which of us to blame.
 
I'm living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
Living alone, living alone.
I don't need you anymore.
 
Lately,
I don't think of you at all.
Lately,
Lately,
Oh lately.

I know that this is a bit mushy, but I just realized that it's November 19th. Those who know me personally know exactly what I was doing last year.
For those who don't: let's just say that today sparked a chain of events that resulted with me being at SFU, and I'm damn happy to be here.

I'm going to start posting lyrics that are in keeping with my current life's playlist. This will probably be a twice a week feature, we'll see how it goes.
I'll still be making normal posts to this site, so stay tuned!

"Two Ghosts"
Boy Eats Drum Machine


woke up in time to see you turn into a ghost
from the top of the world
theres a view of sun so clean you can only look once
I see you carried away by the wind now
no matter what we say the things we claim dry out and blow away

its over my love
now were just a piece of the scenery in a painting signed anonymous
over my love
over just out of reach in retrospect I guess I loved you too much
loved you too much
loved you loved you when all I really needed was someone to touch
someone to touch
someone someone coarse enough to resist any powerful force

I hear a sound I think maybe youre here somewhere now
sometimes you hear sometimes you see but youre only imagining
if theres a season theres got to be a reason for it
you make your peace you make your mistakes
sometimes the world gives sometimes it takes

More to come.

Ok, well, it's been some time since I've posted, which gives some indication as to how busy I've been, so let's use this post to update everyone on what I've been up to.
Firstly, SFU (Simon Fraser University):

This school has been amazing. Between the Cognitive Science Program and the excellent residents in its dorm community I've had a more rewarding experience in the last two months than my entire time at the university of Utah. Professors listen to students, there are numerous opportunities to expand and learn, and being on the hill is an island in a sea of urban Canada.
Another excellent thing to note about SFU's location is that I'm less than two minutes (walking) from Burnaby Mountain Park, A magical place with an excellent view of both the city and the Pacific Ocean.

Check out the view:

It's even better at night.
Now that I've posted a mini-update, I'll feel better about making updates later.
Cheers.

Today is a big beginning for me. I'm moving to Vancouver. Though I do so for school right now, who knows? I may live there if I enjoy the city. I certainly won't be moving back to Utah.
I hope to keep everyone updated on this blog; it will be one of the many ways to keep in touch.
I've been in Montréal for the last week for a family reunion, and even now have been startled by many new, wonderful things.
In moving from the United States to Canada, an outside observer may note little to no difference, but in living it personally I've noticed that there are some significant changes I'm making.
Firstly, I have always been a Canadian citizen, but I only lived in Canada during the gulf war. My dad's work forced us to stay in Utah. Utah has many issues that I may never come to terms with, the least of which being the general ignorance and lack of culture that turns that society into a state full of "white-breaded zombies": lacking personal thought and having to append full utility to all of their actions; i.e. art and philosophy are considered past-times and not pursuits of knowledge.

Some other observations I've noted are in the different societal norms between these two countries. Health care is considered a human right, not a privilege; indeed, humanity is far more respected here. Also, sexual topics are not as taboo in Canadian society. Alcohol is consumed responsibly, and in British Columbia, one only has to be 19 to purchase it (though I still disagree with that age).

Being in Quebec for the last week has made me regret not learning French, though I have resolved to learn it; I've signed up for a beginning French class in Vancouver.

Another difference of note is technology, mainly communications. Internet access is difficult and often expensive, many internet providers do only allocate limited amounts of data; i.e. 20 megabytes a day; 10 gigs a month. I find this ridiculous, but I hope it will be resolved by the time I move out of the dorms. Also, I had to purchase a cellular phone, in the U.S. all calls in the U.S. are considered "local" and do not add extra to the bill, but in Canada, I have to purchase an extra plan just to call Winnipeg from Vancouver with a limited amount of minutes.

In general though, I'm finding I enjoy Canada's environment more and more. I will continue to write more and more about my experiences here.

So for those outside the know, I have pretty much the best birthday in the Universe! I'm now 20, and once again all the 8's in my life line up again. Apparently 8 is a lucky number in China (which is one reason they start the Olympics today).

Happy 08/08/08 everyone!

So, it's been about two weeks since I updated the site-software, so I'm going to take a moment to thoroughly elaborate on why I did.

The Original Site

The old site had many issues that start to gather up more and more until I Finlay became too lazy, busy, and tired to do all the tasks that it took to make a single post.

Previously, in order to make a post, I had to:

• Write up the post
• Reformat it to HTML
• Ensure that all of the css, javascript, and links were connected correctly
• Repeat the whole process in a template.
• Make a new spot in the forums
• Link the index and other pages back to the new post

So I then thought to myself, "hey Siraf, why don't you write your own scripting program to do this?" And spent the next three months without updating the site and realizing that this is a far more daunting task than I originally intended. When asking for advice, I found that most people recommended I simply use a pre-built Content Management System (CMS).

Choices

But which one to use? After a bit of research, I narrowed it down to three choices:

• Movable Type
• Wordpress
• Drupal

Drupal was too complicated to install with my web host, and was impossible without the adjustment of a couple shell scripts, so it was counted out.

Wordpress is an open-source blogging tool and although Wordpress was recommended by my host, I found it to be a bit too intensive in SQL queries and scaling. It would have been a bit slower.

Movable type's use of perl in their cgi ensured that I could have a faster site and still maintain the core features of a CMS-based site.

In Sum

The issues I ran into Movable type installation were mostly a result of the plesk-based system and a lack of understanding of where the root of the site was located. This was quickly resolved with some google searching. I'm planning on writing up a bit more on how I managed this in a later post.

Until then, cheers!

The military lies

If you're male, live in the United States, and are between the ages of 16-25, you have definitely received a phone-call or some other form of obnoxious solicitation attempting to get you to join the military.

Don't get me wrong, there are cases (though very few) where war is justified -- but the U.S. hasn't met these cases for along time (at least, not in my lifetime). If you're in the lower-classes, then this problem becomes two-fold:

1. Fighting for "freedom" or "your country" is the right thing to do.
2. The military will pay for your school, plus a bonus signing offer.

These are lies.

The fight for "freedom"

Everyone has an inclination to fight for something higher than themselves,everyone wants to fight for a greater good than themselves.
Unfortunately, the military, any military (with the exception of a few extreme scenarios) feeds an idea of defense. In the United States, this is the defense of freedom and liberty.

In Iraq (as is our current dilemma) this defense is of your country and your family's lives. In Iraq, you or someone you know has lost a life, a home, a job, or their dignity to violent "Americans." Though we don't intend this to be the case, sadly it becomes the case: in war people die. The blame of course, will be shifted around, but in the end, it is your fault. As an invading party getting into or supporting the fighting, you hold the blame. Their perception is actually reality.

Iraqi sectarian violence is only the result of  a U.S.presence that creates and catalyzes an uneasiness about those forced into power. It exemplifies the differences and causes war. These people can't go outside without the fear that their head will be separated from their body, that they may never see their children again.

Insurgents do not fight because they fear their own deaths, for why would they commit a suicidal act? No, it isn't the fault of their fear, but a fear of their children and family. They believe that this is the only way to protect their lives and as long as the US remains committed to its war of terror, they are right.

Well, before I begin this post, let me first fill everyone in on my new academic pursuits. Namely, Cognitive Science at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For those not in the know, (like everyone I met from Syria, and numerous others here in Utah) Cognitive Science is the study of the mind that combines the main streams of linguistics, philosophy, computational science, and psychology. One of the main pursuits is building a computational model of the mind: AI (artificial intelligence). Along with this, I'm hoping to add the little biology experience I have in order to progress this field.

With all this in mind, I've been thinking a lot about our definitions of artificial intelligence lately. You see, one of the greatest problems of artificial intelligence is that we probably won't know we have it when we do. The problem of cognitive definition isn't new either; one of the greatest issues in ethics is abortion, and this stems mostly from when a fetus becomes a "child." I'm not going to make a political statement on this issue, but only use it as an example.

The reason this is such an issue stems from our current computing capabilities. That is to say, we may have stumbled upon a road to artificial intelligence; an indefinite singularity -- and not even know it! I was speaking to some Google employees, and a discussion came up on whether or not datamining  is one of the "senses" of the artificial intelligence. They told me (and I'm not going to name names here) that there is a running rumour that the google servers may reach its own singularity in the next 15 years.

Just stuff I've been thinking about. Let me know what you think in the comments.