Jan 11, 2000, 5:20pm

Okay, my last rant was so bad, I'm not even archiving it. Seriously. It sucked. Who wants to know what I got for xmas anyway.

So pretend it didn't exist. Now, lemme introduce you to this round of new and improved, Y2K compliant ranting.

Hi. I'm Mark, and this is my page.

First, the whole Y2K thing. All I have to say to the doomsayers is this: neeeener neeeeener. You were wrong. :-) The biggest Y2K problem I've seen so far is that the lil' javascript I have that says when my pages were last updated is busted - in netscrape, it says "19100" for 2000 now, but in IE it works fine. Now I gotta go around to ALL the sites I've coded (and clients I wanna inform this problem to) and fix it... that means some 160 (!!!!) pages within this lil' site alone!

Next, I got me another new domain. I registered (and couldn't believe it was available) www.coffeegeek.com. My programmer and I are working on a new and very complicated consumer review site for all types of coffee machines (this currently doesn't exist on the Net, so I'm creating it), and while for now it's gonna be part of my www.coffeekid.com domain, coffeegeek will point directly to it, and if it gets popular, I'm going to migrate the whole review section exclusively to the coffeegeek.com site, making it separate from my hobby site.

Now, lemme get back to the whole Y2K event. Actually, "non event" of the millennium, I'd say. So there's this city I live in. One lame ass city, I tell you. I live in Vancouver, in case you don't know, and several things occurred on New Years' Eve… actually, nothing occurred, that's my problem.

Our city did not have a city sponsored event. Our police force restricted public rights, something they are doing more and more often these days, so far without impunity. A private sponsored celebration featured about 2 minutes' worth of mediocre fireworks. My New Years' Eve plans fell through because of a lockout / strike by BC Rail. I was not amused. Lemme tackle each one.

First, we have the lamest, most apathetic city government in the country, and that's no lie. The ruling regime is run by a party called the "Non Partisan Association" which is very partisan to big business and rich neighbourhood, "not in my backyard" type folks. Their party name is the same kind of oxymoron that East Germany used to be (eg: People's Democratic Germany, when it was a commie, non-democratic state). When Vancouver was looking like it was going to lose the Indycar race two years ago, the press went to the mayor, Phil "don't rock the boat" Owen and asked him what he planned to do to keep an event that brought millions of dollars into the city, and international live exposure that created many more millions in tourism dollars. Owen's response? "Let the organizers decide what to do".

This city council, until the recent election a monopoly by NPA party members (now there's one "opposition" member), decided not to fund any kind of Y2K party for the city. Their excuse? They did a biased poll asking the supposed public if they wanted it, and the poll showed no, rich folks in Vancouver didn't want a party that would cost millions and millions of dollars, and would take weeks to clean up from. So no city party.

Then we have the Vancouver cops. The city's cops have decided that the Canadian constitution means nothing to them… they showed this last summer when they did illegal search and seizures en masse during the Vancouver Fireworks Festival (a private venture, btw - as the city would never organize such a thing). They would stop people at the SkyTrain stations downtown, search their bags and packs without cause, and seize any alcohol, regardless of it's state (open, sealed, etc.). They also got away with it, as the local press did little to criticize it, other than a slight slap on the wrist.

So, with their newly found martial law ability, the Vancouver Police talking head Anne Drennan went on the airwaves on December 28th, and told the public "if you think you're going to come downtown and party, think again - we won't tolerate people loitering in the downtown core or on Robson Street (the traditional "gathering point" for crowds in the city)". Drennan's statements went out over every media outlet in the city, again to little criticism - the police force basically told the public that they were under a form of martial law, and could not be in parts of the city during a certain date and time. And of course, the public by and large meekly complied.

On New Years' Eve, Jean and I drove downtown at around 10:30 pm to see if Denman Street was happenin', and also to see if Anne Drennan's police state warnings were coming true. They were - the downtown core was almost empty, and very depressing. We drove to Dentry's Irish Grill, had a few drinks, then drove to a lookout point on upper 8th Avenue that overlooks the downtown core. At midnight, we witnessed the fireworks sponsored by a "First Night" (privately sponsored) party at Science World - all 2 minutes and 20 seconds worth. Then we went home.

And my last point - lockouts and strikes. I actually had a very cool millennium themed celebration planned for Jean and I. Back in November, I booked two tickets on the exclusive (and expensive) New Year's Eve Starlight Express dinner train. The deal was for a 5 course meal, a "dancing car", a bottle of very expensive champagne per couple, fireworks exclusively for the train, and a 5 hour ride. All through the fall Jean would remind me "you wanted to do something special for this new years eve, so have you decided yet?' and I'd give her cryptic responses, while slyly thinking I got something cool booked.

Then on December 24, as we were driving around doing some last minute xmas shopping, we heard on the radio that the Millennium Starlight Express Dinner train ride was cancelled because of an impending lockout of BC Rail employees. I was so pissed off, lemme tell you. But that wasn't the beginning. I contacted BC Rail on the 27th, and demanded my money back in time to pay for some other event. I was told that it would take 4 to 6 weeks to process my refund. No amount of pleading, arguing, yelling or anything would change the mind of the bureaucrat I was talking to. In short, the bitch didn't care one bit. She also tried to make it seem like it was a normal thing "Sir, this is our standard policy on refunds"… as if I cancelled my tickets… I hate prickhead bureaucrats. I thought they were dying off, but then I forgot about the largest employer in this country - governments. Stuffed full of bureaucrats who simply don't give a shit. BC Rail is modelling their operations on the government.

So this New Years Eve was a major disappointment for me on some levels, though good on other levels - after all, Jean and I spent it together. But I told her, this is it. This is bullshit, and I'm fed up with my lame ass city when it comes to "big things". I asked her to make a pact with me for next year. We would save $125 each per month for the next twelve months, and come Christmas and New Years next year, we will spend both holdays in Paris, Glasgow, Rome, or some other European city (I'm pullin' for Paris). We'll fly there on the 22nd or so, and fly back after New Years. I figure $3,000 should do it, including plane tix, hotel, car rental, train fees, food etc etc, and it will be our gift to each other for next year's Christmas. After a disappointing string of 4 New Years Eve things for me, I want to do something special for the real start of the new millennium.

Okay, this ran long… I wanted to talk about how I'm getting muchly back into photography these days, but I'll save that for another time.

Till next time, thanks for stopping by!!!

0 comments | reply

Mixelania

Photos from Algonquin Park
Photos from my trip to Algonquin Park this fall with my Mom and two brothers.

War Stories

Making Snow for the Fortress
One of the worst jobs I ever had... till I got out.

Webiffied

Tools I Use
The tools I use to build websites and lead a tech life.

iPod and iTunes Offline

iMark's iTunes and iPod isn't iPlaying anything right iNow.

Most Recent Songs

Fiddlers Green by The Tragically Hip

Around The Bend by Pearl Jam

Here With Me (Rollo's Chillin' With the Family Mix) by Dido

With arms open wide by Creed

truffle pigs by Matthew Good Band

In the News

Burundi and Beyond - NY Times
Great article by Peter Meehan - provided some background.

St. Petersburg Times
Side mention in an article about good machines

AP Story on Espresso
Background and information provided

NY Times - Grinders Article
Especially proud of this one - got the reporter to focus on grinders

Globe and Mail
LOL - showing bad reporting, dude says I'm an American-based site!

The Olympian, WA
Talks about my love for the El Sal Siberia Pacamara

Seattle Times - Clover
Interviewed for comments on the Clover brewer

NY Times - How it Works
Background and information for various espresso machines

Time Mag Article
Just a brief mention, article about roasting beans.

NY Times
Front page article about consumers getting into specialty coffee.

Washington Monthly
Quoted reference to what I wrote in an article at CoffeeGeek.

USA Today - Barista Jam
Intereviewed for my thoughts on what the epitome of espresso is.

WSJ Article
The Wall Street Journal has interviewed me 3 times. This is the first time my name got in a story.

Reuters Interview
Interview with Reuters, Jan 2 - this is the USA Today version.

My Other Stuff

CoffeeGeek
Launched Dec 22, 2001, this is THE online community for espresso and coffee fanatics.

CoffeeKid Website
It's all new, as of March, 2002. My personal coffee obsession site.

WebMotif Services
My company's site - needs an update!

Amazon WishList
Hey, if you feel the need to buy me something, check here!

Daily Visits

enGadget
Great gadget site run by the guy who used to do Gizmodo.

Google News
This is how I get my daily news fix.

DPReview Forums`
The most active forums for digital photography online today.

Daily Zen
Need my Daily Zen fix!

Jalopnik
A blog about car stuff. Vroom Vroom.

MoCo Loco
An industrial design blog. Very cool stuff.

Friends and Family Plan

Beata Blog
Beata's got her own blog! She updates it most days.

Riddla on Flickr
Matt Riddle's flickr account, updated regularly

Irdy Photos
Irdy, my friend from Jakharta, on Flickr

Recent Acquisitions

Canon EF 24-105 f4 L Lens
The best lens I've ever owned. Super sharp and quick.

Canon 5D
A full frame dSLR, with luscious colour reproduction.

Alzo Digital Lights
Some amazing florescent cold lights for product photography

Canon Xsi dSLR
Amazing technology and image quality in a tiny package.

Canon 40D
Latest prosumer camera from Canon - a much better upgrade than the 30D

Fujitsu P1610
Great 2.2lb computer that does most of my travel / writing needs

28mm f1.8 Lens
A great lens for closeup work and full picture photography

Foodsaver Advanced
Finally got the right tools for freezing green coffee.

Canon 50mm 1.4
Most amazing lens I've ever owned. Produces stellar photos.

Canon 10-22mm
Super wide angle (full frame fisheye) zoom for my Canon 20D