The Vancouver City Blog



                               

5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign

Posted by Frederic Desjardins in Vancouver

Debate

It’s crazy, after weeks of tense anticipation, I sat down in my living room to read about the elections. And by election I mean the Canadian elections , (not the American elections which are, by the way, far more entertaining than our own) and by tense anticipation I mean I was hoping one candidate would accidentally quote Stalin, or perhaps be seen sporting a visible erection. Assuming, of course none, of them suffers from erectile dysfunction. Neither of those things happened (though I am analyzing all the material I can get) because, as it turns out, the election campaign was carefully planned to the letter by operatives on all sides to make sure that, above all, nothing embarrassing would occur. On the Harper side, they figured the best way was to just make sure that virtually no real campaigning and/or occurred, either.

1. Harper doesn’t talk much

Harper called for election saying the Conservatives are better equipped to deal with governing during a downturn. Harper’s depicted himself as a Captain of a boat that will lead us through the storm that is the economic downturn to the shore of prosperity. We are in the F@#$% storm and Captain Harper is mute.

This is the first time I have really paid some attention to those squiggly lines on the independent voter torture table. DARN! The uncommitted voters of Quebec do not like this Stephen Harper character. The only time we’ve seen a real happy response to Harper was when he was talking very generally (and quite well) about his daughter’s piano skills. And then he had to snarl and accuse Dion of “talking down” the economy, and then his own popularity went down . What does it mean?

2. Stephane Dion’s Campaign and Economic Policy are Powered by Some Kind Of Green Shit …ooooops sorry I meant Shift

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said today that his Green Shift plan featuring a controversial carbon tax is not a major part of his election platform. It’s kind of funny how Liberal pundits or strategists or whatever try incessantly to ease the voter “tax” fear to steal tory votes.

3. Jack Layton still has a moustache … and a … turban!

Seriously, what was up with that super boring Jack Layton guy? He’s suppose to call Harper a Nazi pal, and then Harper was supposed to say “Hey man that is just wrong” and rip off Layton’s moustaches and use them in a salad used to feed Lloyd Robertson on National News, which is precisely how an pro-elite like Harper is supposed to confront a grizzled working class hero in a Town Hall. Instead we got a lot of respectful disagreement, which is dull. Sure, some of the reactions are bad enough. But witness this election’s sad collection of headlines.

4. Alarmist Elizabeth May should resume her environmental activist career

She said, “We are too close to the edge of the global apocalypse,” May said in an interview. “We have got to grab the opportunities we have. And, clearly, the contribution Canadians can make to a global solution is to get rid of Stephen Harper.”

5. Harper drinks pepsi tories’ biker chick Says

It’s not surprising that a hot babe like Julie Couillard, the former girlfriend of the former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier is the talk of our national capital.
Couillard’s new book puts heat on Bernier. Aside revealing to the world that our PM is an avid Pepsi drinker, she’s also revealing that Harper’s best man, Maxime Bernier, asked her “to toss classified NATO briefing notes in the garbage” SHOCKING! That’s a proof that our Tories are not GREEN enough and cannot have a serious environment platform for this election. He should have asked her to put the NATO briefing notes in the recycling bin instead.

The hot babe relives …

“[...] the most momentous times in her life: the happy years spent with Hells Angels sympathizer Gilles Giguère and the cruel aftermath of his 1996 murder; her brief but tumultuous marriage to Stéphane Sirois, a reformed member of the Rockers biker gang, who after their divorce turned police informant; and her close-up view of the corridors of power in the months during which she was romantically linked to Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier.”

Share on Facebook

Rate this:
2.7
Bookmark this article:

    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at del.icio.us    Digg 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at Digg.com    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at Spurl.net    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign with wists    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at Simpy.com    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at NewsVine    Blink this 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at blinklist.com    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at Furl.net    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at reddit.com    Fark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at Fark.com    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at blogmarks    Bookmark 5 Worthless Things I Learned During This Election Campaign at YahooMyWeb

U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight’s debate?

Recent poll numbers show that McCain is steadily losing ground to Barack Obama, most importantly in the crucial swing states. The presidential election will be held on November 4, 2008, which means there is not much time left for the two senators to campaign. Do you think he impressed in tonight’s debate or is all hope lost?By the way have you seen the McCain ad about Obama wanting to teach sex education to kindergarteners?

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Update: 6: 55 PM Pacific Time Senator McCain just mentioned during the debate that he might need a “hair transplant”.

Share on Facebook

Rate this:
2.7
Bookmark this article:

    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at del.icio.us    Digg U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at Digg.com    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at Spurl.net    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? with wists    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at Simpy.com    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at NewsVine    Blink this U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at blinklist.com    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at Furl.net    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at reddit.com    Fark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at Fark.com    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at blogmarks    Bookmark U.S Politics: Is all hope lost for McCain after tonight's debate? at YahooMyWeb

Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles”

Posted by Frederic

The other day, I posted on another blog regarding dating sites such as Plentyoffish I had emails of men complaining that it was hard for men to contact women online and that was the reason why there was fake profiles…. Fake profiles? I replied. I was told that there are a lot of men pretending to be women on dating sites. Are there any women pretending to be men? Apparently not!

Why some guys out there feel the urge to change sex online? What would be their reasoning? How on earth would they imagine their “feminine self” online? How do they build their profile? Are they looking for other men? Are they closeted? Or are they trying to uncover some of women’s secrets while they are off guards?

1. There are a lot of different reasons

I noted 4 types of reasons why men do this. On gay web sites some men pretend to be lesbian women to live their fantasy of being a “woman with another woman”.

On heterosexual sites that type of fake profile allows you to have friendly contact with other women and the selection of partners is easier with a girl profile. Which results in a competitive advantage. If one wanted to make some sort of a “sociological” experiment that would be one of the better ways to do it without being discovered.

Recently, a 31-year-old Vancouver artist named Max created many women’s profiles on several dating sites. He also started online relationships, which lasted for months. He says: “I wanted to see how things were on the women side. I wanted to understand why we as men receive only a few responses to our emails. When you realize the harassment that exist on the women side, for example, a website like Plentyoffish, a woman receive would receive up to 60 emails an hour, then you understand why men’s emails are not answered.”

The “sociological” experiment of being a woman is enlightening, to say the least. “You can see how men approach women, their different personalities and how they can be predictable, or not. I would also like to point out that women’s profile on dating sites are rarely genuine and original.

The most important was to let my feminine side speak and let myself be seduced. That was a real acting job.”

A 36 years old Montrealer named Alex had a different approach.

“I built an online profile on dating site with a view to gather material for a book I am currently writing. While questioning my own attraction for red headed women, I wanted to know how a sexually excited male was reacting before a flamboyant and hypersexual red headed female.”

2. Caricatured or Credible Profiles

Alex took the role of an imaginary red headed woman on Plentyoffish. She was looking for sexual excitement. He made a very explicit profile (no time for romanticism, I am in need of a man tonight type of thing). When he was asked for a picture he was sending the picture of a red haired pubis.

At the opposite, Max made an effort to create a coherent character, with a minimum of stories to tell, a temperament, qualities and character faults.

“I did not want to create a character too far from what I really am, because I wanted to keep my natural reactions and my knowledge to keep feeding my female identity, a projection of my feminine side.”

The picture used on the profile was that of his girlfriend living abroad.

3. Masculine and Feminine: No Common Ground

Max is exasperated when his woman profile is harassed and “unmanageable”. As woman, he was chatting simultaneously with 15 different persons. He confides he “met someone” when someone was becoming too close.

Max says, “With his real male profile he has a lot less contacts”. In his profile, he is looking for 28-32 year old women and on his chosen dating site, the female population is 5 to 10 years younger than the male population.

The conversations are far more interesting when using his female profile than with his masculine one. He can discuss with 50 men in 3 weeks and he could not meet as many women in one year. “I had a lot longer conversations with men”

On the other hand, Alex, with his woman profile, was attracting a lot of men interested only in sex and did not care if the woman was blonde, red or brunette, as long as she was average looking. These men were not useful for the purpose of his book.

Alex added, “ The speech of sexually excited men is absolutely the same each time, to the point where I could guess most of the answers in advance. The conversations I had with women were surprising and much more interesting.”

Alex rarely met relevant persons to his book. “On five occasions, I met real rookies who made me realize that I was not the only one to I like red headed women the way I was. It was humbling. On two occasions, the conversations went so far that I revealed my real identity (that I was not a woman), and after the frustration had passed, the conversation continued. I even remained in contact with one of them”. Alex took advantage of his 2 years on Plentyoffish and other dating sites to have many happy moments and 20 sex lives within approximately 20 months. (BTW None of this was real sex!)

4. What type of relationship to have with men?

What you have to know is that Alex and Max also met a lot of “fake girls”. Alex recalls a girl online asking tons of questions (as doggedly as he was). He suddenly asked himself: and if “she is a man”? After insisting a lot he got her phone number. When he called, “a guy named Gary answered”.

Max had different kinds of problems. While he was on Lavalife his boss flirted with him (With the girl he was pretending to be). He was “amused to see his boss flirting with a women 15 years younger”.

Another time a man fell in love with him. “I didn’t cut him to the chase and I played the game. At the end I was feeling bad to abuse of that situation so I revealed to him the deception. The man was very angry”. Now, Max is more aware of other people’s feelings.

Why stop now?

Some major sites now have full time employees working on removing artificial profiles, by noticing fake pictures.

Why stop now? Max says, “I want to stop because receiving an email each hour, 24 hours a day, is impossible to manage”

Alex said, “ I stopped going on Plentyoffish under a girl profile because I did not need anymore information for my book and I also stopped because I met a woman that made me want to stop”.

Share on Facebook

Rate this:
2.5
Bookmark this article:

    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at del.icio.us    Digg Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at Digg.com    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at Spurl.net    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” with wists    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at Simpy.com    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at NewsVine    Blink this Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at blinklist.com    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at Furl.net    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at reddit.com    Fark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at Fark.com    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at blogmarks    Bookmark Online Dating: Men Concealing Their Gender On Dating Sites With Fake “Women Profiles” at YahooMyWeb

Sit on the weirdest chairs!!!

Who would want that in his or her living room. Not me that’s for sure.

read more | digg story

Share on Facebook

Rate this:
2.7
Bookmark this article:

    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at del.icio.us    Digg Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at Digg.com    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at Spurl.net    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! with wists    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at Simpy.com    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at NewsVine    Blink this Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at blinklist.com    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at Furl.net    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at reddit.com    Fark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at Fark.com    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at blogmarks    Bookmark Sit on the weirdest chairs!!! at YahooMyWeb

The Bible As A Magazine

The Bible Magazine

The Bible is available for 438 languages, translations of one of the two testaments in 1,168 additional languages, and portions of the text exist in 848 additional languages. This means that partial or full translations of the Bible exist in a total of 2,454 languages. In order to keep people interested in reading historical texts many type of Bibles were published, comic book Bibles, audio Bible and so on.

Aside of comic books, there is this Swedish adman Dag Soderberg who is leading a team call the Illuminated World who’s republishing the Bible as a magazine - complete with sidebars, coverlines, and subheads. He’s using the straight text, for the most part, but embellishing it with Bennetton-style photos and pull quotes.

Overview

The concept originated with a general philosophical dinner table discussion between Michel Gyring and Mats Rabe in Stockholm, Sweden. The conversation, which led to several other discussions with key individuals, asked the question “Why people don’t read historical texts” and they began pondering if the traditional format or design turned people off. They realized there was a huge opportunity to re-design or illuminate these types of old texts. This was the beginning of Illuminated World (formerly Förlaget Illuminated Sweden, AB.)

The team, led by Dag Soderberg, first published an innovative and unique new bible version entitled “The Illuminated Bible: The Book” in two volumes – New Testament and Old Testament in Sweden, during spring and fall of 2007 respectively.

Remarkably, the revolutionary new Bible reached unprecedented sales in Sweden. Illuminated World increased the market for bibles by almost 50 percent without cannibalizing normal bible sales.” Link

Share on Facebook

Rate this:
2.7
Bookmark this article:

    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at del.icio.us    Digg The Bible As A Magazine at Digg.com    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at Spurl.net    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine with wists    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at Simpy.com    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at NewsVine    Blink this The Bible As A Magazine at blinklist.com    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at Furl.net    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at reddit.com    Fark The Bible As A Magazine at Fark.com    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at blogmarks    Bookmark The Bible As A Magazine at YahooMyWeb

Subscribe to Ezvancouver

...and receive our latest posts in your email box!


Enter your Email


Powered by FeedBlitz

Recent Comments:

    • buzz: mark: “Vancouver DOES not have the highest crime rate in Canada. Your credibility is shot from that...
    • Mark: Vancouver DOES not have the highest crime rate in Canada. Your credibility is shot from that comment alone.
    • dreamyacht: This is nothing less than AMAZING… I am in awe that it has an anti missile radar though….
    • Dave: My landlord NACEL PROPERTIES is one of the biggest SLUMLORDS in the province. They do not care about any of...
    • Kimm: It’s gonna be interesting to see how Harper and Obama gonna react around eachother.


Bloggers' Rights at EFF

My BlogCatalog BlogRank

blogarama - the blog directory



Vancouver Cybercultural Blog is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache!