Acts of Volition

November 2000

apparently ecommerce is “way cool”

Posted by Steven Garrity on
What follows is from the cover of an actual magazine that is produced, I think, by the Government of New Brunswick.  •  ““Exports are running hot  •  Ecommerce is way cool””  •  It concerns me that someone could actually write that. I can only hope that it was either a joke or an accident, but I …

timeless advice for the socially impaired tech elite

Posted by Steven Garrity on
From TheRegister.co.uk:  •  “Talk to people for chrissakes. Don't live your life through the sodding TV. Go and meet up with mates or stay at home and talk with your family - and talk about something other than the TV. How about hopes/aspirations/feelings?  •  Buying things will NOT make you happy …

monumentally uninteresting and useless election ends.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
From CBC News:  •  “Man Steals Ballot Box  •  PICTOU, N.S. - The RCMP in Pictou are investigating a stolen ballot box after a man walked into the Pictou Landing Fire Hall Monday afternoon and took the ballot box.  •  The man apparently left a letter outlining a grievance over compensation he felt …

humble, humble matthew

Posted by Steven Garrity on
Despite having an inflated self-image, aov's own Matthew Dorrell has neglected to gloat about having a poem published UPEI's student creative writing journal, Annex 2000.  •  Matt's poem, Selling Vacuums is funny and upsetting. However, like all geniuses he is falsely humble and unhappy with the …

word found written in fresh snow.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
In large letters:  •  P - E - N - E  •  and where the final S was to be, an aov member rolling in the freshly fallen snow, laughing histerically at his poor spelling.

warning: involuntary microsoft promotion follows

Posted by Steven Garrity on in - 1 comment
I hate to use the term technolust, but I can't think of a better way to describe my feelings towards Microsoft's new Tablet PC.  •  I want one of these, bad. To absolve myself of consumer-culture guilt, I offer these totally unrelated items:  •  Ralph Nader proves why he should have won the …

hello old friend.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
Today the sun made an extended appearance.* People danced in the street or, at the very least, they smiled for the first time in weeks.  •  Forget all that nonsence about free-will. We are simple animals with a complex system of rationalizing our actions. Actions which are based on nothing more …

my brother, the shark hunter

Posted by Steven Garrity on - 1 comment

tonight: the real debate

Posted by Steven Garrity on in
Tonight at 8:00PM EST on CBC Newsworld, home of Canada's best TV show, Counterspin, be sure and tune into the Alternative Election Debate.  •  Five of Canada's ‘other’ parties will be debating the issues (I get the feeling the “issues” might be somewhat different than the “issues” we are used to …

Free SwissCards for Tetris

Posted by Rob on
The fine people who make our Swiss Army Knives seem to have a promotion on that if you play their little SwissCard Tetris game and get a really high score that holds until the end of the month... they give you a free SwissCard! Let's all get free SwissCards, they give out 10 a month.  •  (the …

Lemony Snicket - suddenly and inexplicably everywhere.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
Before last week I had never heard of the authour Lemony Snicket (AKA Daniel Handler). I do not believe I was alone. In the last week Snicket, the pen-name used by Handler when writing kids books, has been featured in The National Post, his website has appeared on K10k and Handler has also written …

it suns and snows in the land of aov

Posted by Steven Garrity on
 

somebody somewhere is getting paid a lot of money to have a lot of fun

Posted by Steven Garrity on
If you can reconcile being a mind-melder for corporate america then you should get into advertising. You can get paid a lot of money to have a lot of fun.

“Fuck Em if They Can't Take a Joke” -The Faction

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
“Student newspaper.” What do those words mean to you? Do they seem to imply an ownership of the paper by students? At the very least wouldn't you imagine that a "student newspaper" would involve some level of control over the newspaper by the students?  •  Staff at UPEI's student newspaper, The …

Ralph Nader, please come run Canada.

Posted by Steven Garrity on - 2 comments
I would like to formally invite you, Ralph Nader, to come run in the Canadian election.  •  In related news, Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys) and David Was of Was/Not Was (!!!) and their Grand Royal cohorts have offered up a fine Ralph Nader Remix of Countdown.  •  In the meantime …

computer animation comes of age

Posted by Steven Garrity on
The new Final Fantasy movie looks like it's going to be a real milestone for computer generated animation. View the trailer and be amazed  •  Only those with freaky-ass high bandwidth and Quicktime need apply.

I like the new Sky song.

Posted by Rob on in
I didn't mean to either. I was flipping around the old television set (I've missed 2 months of pop culture, it's amazing how much things change. All the sitcoms are new, and music video's are all fresh now).  •  Anyhow, I guess the little pop band Sky has new members or front men/women. I saw them …

mind altering animation

Posted by Steven Garrity on
If you have Flash, 10 minutes, and an open mind you should visit nosepilot.com.  •  It’s nice to see someone with talent in animation and flash as opposed to flash alone (NOTE: I have neither).

I don't deserve a bus.

Posted by Steven Garrity on
I would like a bus. It would be fun. However, as IslandEdition.com has pointed out, I don't deserve a bus.  •  As usual, Don makes good point and a good example of why alternative media is important.

day 22. still no sign of the sun.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
Due to the prolonged absence of the sun actsofvolition seems to have developed Seasonal Affective Disorder. The following are symptoms of SAD as they affect aov:  •  A change in appetite, especially a craving for sweet or starchy foods - we eat a lot of potatoes and cinnamon buns with cream cheese …

aov remembers

Posted by Steven Garrity on
While enjoying living in a peaceful and free country this morning (actually, I was just sleeping, but the two are certainly not mutually exclusive), a marching band tromped down the street, tooting horns, drumming drums, and other such marching band-type things.  •  Honestly, a marching band …

all decisions are final. no recounts.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
We have finally reached the end of the “milleniyumyum” affair. Somewhat behind schedule mind you, but that seems to be all the rage these days. In any case, the punishment to be adopted for Steven's use of the “word” “milleniyumyum” has been kindly provided by long time listener, first time caller …

making up titles is cramping my style.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
One of the best descriptions of the American election I have read recently:  •  “It hurts, doesn't it? Being forced to choose between I guy who's so smart that he's a complete idiot, and a guy who's so dumb he doesn't even know he's dumb - he's like a dog who thinks he's a person.”  •  Wisdom like …

congratulations to bush or gore

Posted by Steven Garrity on
The Onion gets it right again.  •  Their  •  Bush Or Gore: 'A New Era Dawns' is so true it's almost not funny. Almost.

my dear Americans:

Posted by Steven Garrity on
To the 96,942,751 of you who voted for Bush/Gore: May you live with the consequences of your "decision" for years to come.  •  To the 2,647,464 of you who voted for Ralph Nader: Thank you. It was brave to vote for someone you knew wouldn't be in office but still deserved your vote.  •  To the …

re: stupid man wins nearly interminable election

Posted by Steven Garrity on
In response to stupid man wins nearly interminable election  •  I'll chime in to the chorus of Matt's lady-friends throughout the years with the all-to-familiar phrase; “You've jumped the gun again matt!”  •  The election is still hanging on the Disney World State.  •  Thanks to adbusters for the …

stupid man wins nearly interminable election.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
George W. Bush has won the American election. While I'm not entirely certain of how, or why, this is important to me, it seems bad. Ralph Nader got a miniscule amount of the vote, but expect liberals (the ideology, not the party) to continue to use him as a scapegoat. Good night.

a dead man in the senate? you can't make stuff like this up.

Posted by Steven Garrity on
A dead man has been elected to the senate.  •  I can't even think of anything funny to say about this. You just can't make stuff like this up.

aov 2.0 (or maybe just aov 1.004b)

Posted by The Geniuses at aov on in
new features on acts of volition:  •  aov archive - weekly archives of all the brilliant posts every made on aov.  •  “note to websters:  •  this also means you can now link to indivudual aov posts. just find the post on the archive page and copy the link. for example, the address of this post is …

Napster post 2 of 2: too early for judgement.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
While not having anything to base an opinion on is seldom an impedement to forming an opinion....  •  On second thought, I'll not finish this post. It was just a bunch more words anyway. Essentially, the gist of my post was to be that the future of Napster is so fuzzy that commentary is useless … read more »

Internet content. stop laughing.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
Learn to read.  •  Nearly 100 Ways to Approach Infinity.  •  Two Stories my Parents Begged me to Tell Our Guests Towards the Beginning of my 25th Birthday Party But Insisted I Had Completely Invented.  •  These are both stories from McSweeneys whom I will continue pimping until they are popular … read more »

strange things are afoot at the CBC?

Posted by Steven Garrity on in
While listening to RadioEscapade on the CBC I heard mention of a few new CBC websites. I was surprised and pleased to find that the CBC has produced three very cool and surprisingly relevant music and arts based websites. Unfortunately they have mistaken cutting-edge technology (Flash in this case …

a picture is worth a thousand (key)words

Posted by Steven Garrity on in
another peek into the bowels of the world wide web: people have been finding our website by entering the following words into search engines:  •  icq java  •  bush cheney bumper sticker  •  truth in advertising  •  pictures genital rash (We are #8 on Yahoo.com for this one thanks to you Kirby …

"when I grow up I want to vote for the lesser of two evils"

Posted by Steven Garrity on
Apparently encouraged by the dismissal of the MasterCard case over his spoof ad, Ralph Nader and his marketing types have outdone themselves spoofing an ad that was great in the first place.  •  Enjoy the product of their genius »  •  (requires either quicktime or realplayer)  •  Speaking of …

this is the stuff of nightmares

Posted by Steven Garrity on
be the freaky radiohead bear-type creature while you play Quake 3. absolutely frightening.  •  Thanks to Dennis for the link.

that's my brother!

Posted by Steven Garrity on
My brother Tim is working for CUSU in Paupa New Guinea (can't believe there is a .com). His emails tell of active volcanos and fresh fruit growing in his back yard.  •  He's a lot more personable from the other side of the world.

re: milleniyumyum

Posted by Steven Garrity on
re: milleniyumyum  •  matt has clearly missed the point of my “milleniyumyum” post.  •  allow me to explain: I was cleverly disguising my inability to spell the word millennium correctly (thanks Word) by poking fun at the many unfortunate misspellings we have endured during this millennial …

cast your ballots. change the world.

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
As you may have noticed, the normally responsible Steven has committed a severe affront to the English language and to thinking people everywhere. In his ‘commercial WIRED musings’ post, Steven made reference to the ‘milleniyumyum’. Is he responsible for this act, or was his brain inadvertently … read more »

goodbye superfunk

Posted by Steven Garrity on
it's a sad day for blogdom.  •  goodbye superfunk.com. we will miss boxlor and your picnic table art and your funny shorts (which I'm sure I made in Home Ec.)  •  we wish you a high winning bid on ebay.

commercial WIRED musings

Posted by Steven Garrity on in
Some interesting (or at least I thought so) stats from the latest issue of WIRED Magazine. Of the total 366 pages, a little over half, 200 are advertisments. Of the remaining 166 pages of 'editorial' content, 16 are basically unpaid ads for the products the cover.  •  I haven't compared these …

Napster post 1 of 2: The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Posted by Matthew Dorrell on
Charge a service fee for using a service? What?! Have someone making money from the Internet without absurdly inflated stock sales? No way! I want everything for free!  •  If Napster charges a service fee who knows what could be next? We’ll have to pay “grocery stores” to buy our food from them …

I'm am a guilt free high roller

Posted by Steven Garrity on
Here is a sample of the thoughts of a typical person entering a casino:  •  ““Even though I know that the vast majority of people who go to casinos obviously lose money, otherwise they would close, I am smarter than everyone else and will somehow manage to gain financially.””  •  I, on the other …

napster schmapster

Posted by Steven Garrity on - 2 comments
“CEO Hank Barry said Tuesday that the 38 million Napster users will soon have to pay “monthly dues” of, perhaps, $4.95 to access each other's hard drives; it is the result of a deal Napster reached with one of five record companies suing it for copyright infringement.”  •  Now they want to charge …