Pete’s Musings

I decided it might be beneficial to create a little survey for my fellow Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) sufferers. Something to help them see where they stand amongst other patients in terms of treatment, health, life changes. I’ve already received a lot of feedback on other questions people want to know about, so a second survey is likely. Check it out! embedded below, or you can take it here. Results will follow after some responses Read More »

So I voted today in the advanced polling. I had to go and add myself to the electoral list because I wasn’t there for some unknown reason. Having flashbacks to the the 1995 referendum where I had to fight tooth and nail to vote because my name was misspelled (omg it’s english, I can’t possibly spell it!). Obviously the error occurred because the person doing the transcribing was french and didn’t care to do it right. Unfortunately, elector officers come primarily from the parties who won the previous election, kinda biased ever with the check and balances that are in place. Things like that take time to fix, and voting already takes too much time. Tens of thousands of people across Quebec had this happen. That in addition to the 86,000 ‘No’ ballots that were discounted in that referendum! I hope they do better this time.

But anyway, the funny part is calling elections Canada yesterday to verify that I was on the list and how to be added. I experienced what I call the Anglophone Shuffle. Where I call in Read More »

So my previous post, “Videotron (Quebecor) Throttling Bittorrent P2P,” jumped the gun a little bit! Videotron is NOT throttling my connection! (sorry videotron, still love ya - hug back? lol).

Instead, unbeknownst to me, both uTorrent and Azureus bittorrent clients have instituted what they call “bandwidth-allocation.” Read More »

[Aug 25, 2008 11PM - EDIT/RETRACTION: I overlooked an automatic software update as cause for the BT download limiting - info here]

Yup, Videotron has long been a public supporter of filtering internet or a tiered internet … and now they are taking action on it. According to my own tests, they are now limiting bittorrent downloading to 30KB/s on a plan that is rated at 800KB/s down and about 180KB/s up. Normally, my total bittorrent rates are consistently in the 100-200KB/s range, and I’ve changed nothing (same internet plan, system, software, sources). I’ve searched the internet to see if anyone else has noticed or written about this … and I’ve found nothing. Worse than this, it seems that while downloading via P2P, normal downloading is also compromised.

It is absolutely important that this fact be known to the public. Read More »

Our livers are the multi-tasking workhorses of our bodies. It processes virtually everything you eat, drink, breathe in or rub on your skin and that’s just some of its over 500 different functions vital to life. Every day, your liver helps your body by providing it with energy, fighting off infections and toxins, helping clot the blood, regulating hormones and much, much more. When it becomes damaged, infected, and inflamed (hepatitis = liver inflammation) our bodies can no longer perform these vital functions to the same degree. Also, there are many innocent ways in which the liver can become inflamed: viral infection form ingesting contaminated water or food, cancer, genetic or congenital disorders, etc. So if someone tells you they have hepatitis, please do not assume they are a drunkard, drug user, sex addict, or just eat too much … and even if that turns out to be the case, display some compassion as we all participate in these activities to varying degrees!

American Liver Foundation
Canadian Liver Foundation
British Liver Trust
Australian Liver Foundation

Please spread the word if you have that capability. thanks!

I really haven’t been updating this very much. Everything is going OK I guess. I had a small flare up of liver problems a few months ago, but that has cleared up now and have actually been able to lower my medication a bit. Back is still in pretty bad shape in terms of flexibility, but the pain is a lot more manageable. Read More »

This is a great article from Scientific American (July 2002) that focuses on refuting all those silly ‘Intelligent Design’ and Creationist arguements. Read the whole article here. The last page of the article attacks the methodology used by ID and creationist proponents as well.

“Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don’t hold up.”

Anti-science points that just don’t stand up:
1. Evolution is only a theory. It is not a fact or a scientific law. Wrong. (distinguishes between theories (like Darwin’s theory) and facts (like evolution does occur!). Read More »

I was filled with pride yesterday while driving into the hospital … my sister and her 2 kids spent some time on the radio talking about their experiences at the Montreal Children’s hospital - trying to help out during their annual fund raiser. Kids were so cute (on CHOM, mix96 and CJAD radio), and it dawned on me how much help this hospital has been to our family and our city. Read More »