Roadwolf's Blog

On the eve of Obamas Convention I wanted to talk a bit about how I, as a ‘non american’, views the current American political situation. Prior to coming to the United States, I would not of considered myself political. Sure I voted in Canada, but I really didn’t care about what went on. Perhaps I didn’t have to care? perhaps the Canadian political system somehow worked itself out and the ‘greater good’ seemed to prevail.

When the World Trade Centers were hit with planes, I like many people in Canada were very angry and scared. Our southern friends, America, had just been attacked. I lost a friend in the attacks, although I didn’t know him very well, he was a firefighter. So I was very much behind the ‘war on terror’ and supported the efforts to find Osama Bin Laden. Of course we never did find him… nor did it seem that America was real intent on finding him. It seems the Canadians were doing more work in Afghanistan then the Americans were.

I was very confused during this, that the American leadership took this vulnerable time in American history to decide to attack Iraq. We have already heard proof that the Bush Administration just wanted to start the war on Iraq in spite. Bush just wanted Suddam Hussein taken out of power. It was personal. Going into the war, It was fairly evident that something was not right. The evidence was sketchy, and they did not have UN approval. I asked myself many times why they were doing this, to no avail. There seemed to be no logical reason for a war, aside from personal spite – perhaps a political deal gone bad. None the less, I feel that many hundreds of American and British soldiers have needlessly died in a war which was unjust.

There could be many many reasons why this war was started. Anything from simply ‘lining Bush’s pockets with a lot of warbucks’ from stocks, to a control of the massive oil reserves (also helping to pad his pocket). I hardly believe it was specifically because of the minor human rights issues which happened in Iraq previous to the war. And since there is no evidence of such chemical weapons, I do not believe that was actually a legitimate reason to start a war. Now when I say minor human rights issues… Sure people were tortured, and killed… But there are other countries and leaders in the world which are STILL torturing and killing people in vast numbers, which the White House has apparently ignored or dismissed and in some cases, acted as a ’supplier’ of arms to some of those countries.

Whatever the cause, The war ended up being proven to be declared under incorrect terms. I find it funny that the Republicans seem to keep suggesting that we need to continue the war. Why? I am sure Iraqis are smart enough to figure out how to run their own country.

Coming to America after marrying my American wife, has really been scary. As a Canadian, I feel like a ‘terrorist’. Of course I am not a terrorist. Unless writing in a blog about how poorly I think the country is being run, is considered terrorism. But alas. I can not really describe what it feels like to live here every day as a ‘non american’. I constantly am afraid that some Immigration, or Department of Homeland Security officers will break down my door and detain me for questioning, because I was simply involved in a hobby called ‘Urban Exploration’ where I would walk into abandoned buildings and take artistic photos. Living in fear like this, has been a real eye opener. Sure I am allowed to be here. But with the amount of power authorities have now, and lack of freedoms that people have in this country now – I am constantly afraid of being pulled over while on a trip to the store, and detained for a few days while they try to sort out if I belong here or not. Sure I could go back to Canada. But that is not where I live. My wife lives here, and has a decent job. And I live here with her. I will NOT live somewhere else. That is NOT FREEDOM.

This country really needs a change. Because it is not all that great at the moment. It needs a major change! And I truly believe that Obama can bring the country this change. As a non American, I must say, there is not a Political candidate I have EVER seen which shows as much promise as Obama. Granted he has a lot of work to do, to rebuild what the Bush administration had ruined. But I feel that he can handle it.

One of the major problems I think is that the White House and other political divisions, do not seem to care about the low and medium income families in America at all. It seems to me, that almost everyone in the Bush Administration seems to have a vested interest in a major company, and is making a lot of stock money on the side. It seems the only people who are doing well in this country right now, are people who have a lot of money. There is very little attention being paid to anyone who has yearly incomes less then $200,000 a year. And they seem to be tossed aside. The large companies, with the republican government on their side, have completely ruined this country in the 8 years of Bush’s administration.

I think if the Republican party continues to rule, the country WILL rise up and fight against the government, because so many people are outraged and stressed to the point of breaking.

I proudly say that I support Obama fully, and I believe that any intelligent and educated person should support Obama. I would really love to see this country turn around and shine again. I could say a lot more about this I am sure. But I think I have said enough for now

- Roadwolf,

Tags: General, Roadwolf's Rants, Urban Exploration, Volunteer Work by Roadwolf
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I am far from being a racist person. I believe everyone should be treated equally regardless of skin colour or the language they speak. However while at a clinic today, I overheard some African American people talking to each other. One was a younger female mother, with a daughter in tow. The other was an older nurse, who must of been almost 70. I really was not paying attention, however my ears perked up when I heard the younger woman say ‘negro’. Apparently they were discussing radio or music. The younger woman was trying to convince the 70 year old nurse that she HAD to listen to hip-hop and/or R&B because those music styles were what defined a ‘negro’ these days. The nurse simply shook her head and said that this new stuff is too loud for her, and she simply listens to ‘old people music’. The young woman disagreed, saying she didn’t know what she was missing, but the nurse ended the conversation by pretending to be busy and walked off.

Now, I personally do not enjoy hip-hop and/or R&B. I think it is too loud and often too oriented around violence and drugs. I live in Buffalo, people are getting shot right outside my front door, and there is a crack house around the corner which the cops are too afraid to bust. So I really do not want to be reminded of the shitty neighbourhood (or city) I live in. When I listen to music, I like to relax, and let the music take me on a journey which I can imagine while listening to it. But that being said, I do know some white people listen to it – it is becoming more popular then any other form of music these days.

I am sure it can’t be proven that violent and drug oriented music tends to act as an encouragement towards violent and drug related behaviours. People have tried hard to prove that violent music makes violent people for many many years, without gaining much ground. I know that if I am angry or pissed off, I generally listen to some ‘angry’ or violent music myself. It helps me feel that I am not alone, and that any actions I do while listening to said music would be justified.

Likewise, a majority of the police calls I hear on the local police radio are related to black suspects. I am sure one could research violent crime statistics, and you will likely find that people from minorities, will likely be the suspects in a majority of cases. That being said, I really can’t link this to the music at all. but it is just an interesting side note. I think it would be an interesting study to ask all inmates what their favorite type of music is, and see what they say. I am curious how many will reply that they enjoy classical music or the ‘oldies’ – likely not many.

Believe me these are only my observations and notes in a general nature. I have only once been threatened by a black person. Yet I have twice had a white person(s) threaten to kill me. So the fact is that I do not judge anyone until I meet them. I know African Americans are very sensitive to such things, so I am trying to be careful here. I am truly curious if indeed most (or the average) African Americans believe that Hip-Hop and R&B defines their culture? If not, how do they view Hip Hop and R&B? I would really like to know.

Tags: General by Roadwolf
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This may sound slightly insane, but…

I generally like to have a predatorial insect or spider living in my house with me.  Mainly as a kind of mini-pet, but also as a kind of anti-pest patrol.  My favorite would have to be a House Centipede.  But while those are recluse, they also seem to be quite rare.  Especially in upper level apartments.  So my current pest control was a spider who lives on the ceiling in my bathroom.  He would happily hang there and watch me do my buisness, while he patiently waited for prey for a good 2 months.

Sadly he died recently, I suppose from lack of food.  Now the apartment has no pest patrol!

Sigh..  lol

Tags: Nature by Roadwolf
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Our new neighbour was great for the first few months.  But recently he acquired a large stereo system, and him and his 13 year old daughters have been playing music with very loud bass that shakes the house.  We have asked them to keep the bass down.  He has turned it down when requested so far, but the bass always creeps back up in a few hours, or the next day.  However he seems to be getting annoyed with our complaints recently. His daughters both play the stereo loud when he isn’t around, and they do not answer the door or turn it down if I knock.  Granted he turns it down before 11 at night, and its not loud before 11 am.  However during the day and evening, the stereo shakes the house.

Now the main problem with neighbours (and room mates) is that when stuff like this begins to happen, it causes friction, which tends to escalate over time.  People who live in shared housing units tend to have a higher chance of getting into fights with neighbours.  The problem is that each party considers the house as their own private island, in which their own comfort is the main priority.

I tend to be careful about how loud I am.  To the point that I tip-toe in parts of the house where I know the floor creeks.  Sure I do have speakers for my computer, but the bass is turned down all the way.

The fact that I am always careful about how loud I am and how much I try to minimize my impact on other peoples lives, means that it is even MORE stressful for me when there is friction like this.  Because the average person will become vengeful and try to nit and pick on the other person to try to shift the blame.  This means that if I begin to nit and pick or complain about someone else, I have to be extra careful about noise when I previously haven’t had to.

The problem however does effect my quality of living, being all stressed out all the time about how I impose on others, causes my current living situation to not exactly be a peaceful place to live.  I don’t expect that other people actually feel this,  Especially if they are not considerate enough to keep the volume low in the first place.  I expect most people are ignorant of other peoples comforts, and will only pretend to care when confronted.

Perhaps I should be ignorant as well?  Maybe crank my bass up just as loud and play it over top of their music, or even play it when their not playing music… so long as I play it loud during the ‘legal’ times when I am allowed to be noisy, its all good right?  Who cares about anyone else?   Maybe I shouldn’t?  Should I just be thoughtless and crank the music, and be an average ignorant asshole?  Well,  it is tempting.  Being nice and asking people things in a pleasant manner, never really seems to ever get anything done, does it?  and of course swinging to the other end of the spectrum never seems to work,  being angry and threatening people tends to get the aggressors arrested.  Is the only way to beat such people to join them?  Be as arrogant and ignorant as they are?  I mean the worst that can happen is we will start calling the police on each other for noise complaints.  Of course this will waste valuable police resources on petty issues.

There are other options of course, getting land lords involved?  But this will likely always lead to some of the other above issues.  Land lord will usually never take action on tenant vs tenant issues, and even if they do, it will just cause further tension.

It seems the only real option, if being nice is not working, is to move?  I would really like to hear other peoples stories about this, do you guys and gals out there have any opinions?

Tags: Buffalo Life, General, Roadwolf's Rants by Roadwolf
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Who else do we speak of here except Lord Rick?  Who is Lord Rick you may ask?  well…  to put it simply he is a self proclaimed god who is quite heavy into drugs, and classifies himself as the top paranormal investigator in the world.  I will also add to that, that he is unemployed, neglects his children / exposes them to drugs, and lets them sleep on the streets.  He is also pro slavery and anti womans rights.  Ontop of that he runs a ‘online group’ of ghost hunters which he calls the Paranormal and Ghost Society or something like that.  He runs it like a cult and demands members give him ‘donations’ which he uses to ‘buy sensitive electronic ghost detecting equipment’ and ‘cover the costs of his investigations’.  Of course he has no clue what the equipment he lists and ‘claims’ to own, actually does.  On his website a few years back he stated in his equipment list:

“Cell sensors are a useful tool since they measure how strong a field I probably would not be into using them much but then again they come in handy for the gausemeter function which measures the frequencies of sound I believe. We have gausemeters for sale on our site and other unique meters check them out at our paranormal store.”

Well, a Cell Sensor is a brand name for an EMF Detection meter. The Cell Sensor was designed for people to ensure that their Cell Phones are not putting out harmful radiation. Basically it measures Electromagnetic Radiation. Many professional ghost hunters carry such a device at all times. The fact that Lord Rick does not even know what it is, shows that he is not in touch with the world of professional ghost hunting.  An EMF detector is actually a VERY useful tool for those ‘real’ ghost hunters out there, and it has nothing to do with sound.

How did I originally cross paths with Lord Rick?  Well he visited a website community I was involved with, and demanded money from people so he could take them to caves which he claimed were haunted by dead native americans who were burried in the caves.  I of course happened to know exactly which ‘caves’ he was speaking of, and knew he was full of shit.  The caves could never of been used as an indian burial ground, specifically because they didn’t exist prior to about 1889 or so.  The caves he was speaking of are actually limestone mines used to mine ‘akron flour’ which is a type of cement which could actually set underwater.  He claimed these caves were thousands of years old.  Anyhow, this ammount of bullshit caused me to tell this guy he is full of shit, and of course this is how it all started.

Lord Rick is well known (famous if you will) for attempting or threatening to sue people who write / talk / berate him in any way.  Even if what people are saying is true, which is often the case.  Lord Rick trolls free internet forums posting long posts about his warped views, and saying various things which people have then used against him to (quite easily) discredit him.  He then denies ever saying such things and threatens to sue you.  If he doesn’t know who you are however he will flame you very throughly on his website or his myspace page, and in some cases he has threatened harm or death on some people.

He is a very unstable looney by my estimates.  And I will write more about him in the future I am sure.  Until then, be sure to check out www.angelofthynight.com, which is a blog started by a group of us who…  like to laugh at lord rick, in almost the same sence that you laugh at the criminals on the TV show ‘C.O.P.S’ when they try to do stupid stuff to run from the police.

Tags: General, Roadwolf's Rants by Roadwolf
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The OpenSky Network is a statewide cell site based emergency communications system.  The system is a brand new style of digital encrypted communications which would be ‘unhackable’ and ‘unmonitorable’.  NY State launched this 2 billion dollar program to install repeaters in townships across the state following the 9/11 attacks.  The idea was that it would provide a ’secure’ and connected system which ALL agencies could all access, no matter where they are in in the state.  The system also offers the flexability to connect all the agencies together and interlink them at the press of a button.

This all sounds great private and secure wireless communications for the emergency services.  But at what cost?  So far 2 billion dollars in physical cash, and the system has only been set up in 2 counties, including Erie county (even though Buffalo emergency services turned down the offer to be part of the system).    But also how about volunteers and people who are do-gooders?  how will they be able to assist the police if the communications are totally encrypted.  I suppose you could argue that alot of private information gets put over the airwaves.  But I stand by the Canadian legislation which states that the airwaves are public property and nothing said over them is to be deemed private or secure.

Now why NY State decided to go with OpenSky is likely because it was a brand new system, and is very secure.  No one knows how to decrypt it yet, and they likely never will.  Motorola, a longstanding trusted radio brand, has several proven digital radio systems which have proven to be effective at covering areas larger then NY State in a digital secured environment.  Granted, it is still digital, and encrypted, which means most people cant listen, which is secure enough.  But the hard core scanner buffs and ham radio operators all have the encryption keys and are able to listen at will.  But that is only because someone leaked the keys.

OpenSky is yet unproven. and will likely remain so.  It seems that testing of the system in operation in Erie county has turned up MANY unexpected major problems, and the system will most likely not be ready for the August 29th due date.  State officials (source: Buffalo News) suggest that if it is not ready in time, they will terminate the contract.  Thus ending the reign of OpenSky.

I would gladly help advise the state in a system, and my recomendation would be a Motorola trunked digital system.  With this system, it allows all communication to be digital, but you can select or turn encryption on and off at will, when you are sending private information.  This still enables volunteers with digital scanners to monitor critical calls, while ensuring the privacy of the secured and encrypted information.

Motorola is a tried and tested brand which is not prone to failures.

Down with OpenSky (sorry M/A Com, but it obviously has some flaws)!!!

And as an aside, I do not believe any so called ‘terrorists’ would really care what gets said over a radio system before or after an attack.  We seem to think that they are not human and not capable of outsmarting us.  If someone wanted to blow something up, I am sure they would find a way.  A multibillion dollar radio system will NOT stop them.

Tags: Ham Radio, Roadwolf's Rants by Roadwolf
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