Category: Uncategorized

So it’s back to Los Angeles with this post. Before we begin the festivities, let me give you some background on my poop behaviour. I am fairly regular guy. I am rarely constipated. I poop about once a day on average and it’s completely normal for me to poop more than once a day. For example, I pooped twice today. With that in mind, let us begin.

I flew out to Los Angeles on a Monday. Sometime late on the day before, the Sunday, I pooped. It was probably in the evening when I did that, possibly around midnight. Since my flight was leaving around 4pm the next day, I was hoping that I might poop once more before flying. I try to make sure I poop before I leave for the airport for several reasons. First, it’s just so inconvenient when you need to poop while in the process of traveling. Pooping at the airport isn’t ideal. If you’re unlucky enough to need to poop while you’re boarding, that’s hell on earth. You can’t grin and bear it and wait until the plane takes off, gets to altitude, and only when the captain turns off the seat belt sign can you dash off to that cramped bathroom to unleash your bowels. What a nightmare! That’s not for me, so you can see why I like to empty the tank before flying.

Unfortunately, no poops came out of me before my flight to Los Angeles. That was ok, because I had a great flight and a smooth ride out to the apartment that I was staying at. Now I am sometimes prone to what’s called traveler’s constipation. My body gets a bit weirded out by new surroundings and can’t get comfortable enough to poop. For example, in London, I arrived early on Saturday morning and didn’t poop until sometime on Sunday afternoon. Then I was as regular as a Japanese bullet train.

So it did not cause me any concern when Monday came and went and my bowels went unmoved. I was, after all, in a new city and my body needed to adjust. Plus, I also had a normal sized breakfast, lunch, and dinner (in Los Angeles) and I was sure things would be moving along on Tuesday.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up and I went to Jack in the Box with my friend for breakfast. I had a massive, greasy breakfast sandwich which I brought back to the apartment with me. I ate that with a nice cup of green tea. Now normally, that would be enough for me get the waste disposal going. Thirty minutes afterwards though, I felt nothing happening and I knew it was time to go to the first day of E3.

When I began to get hungry for lunch, I ate a large, deli-style sandwich, where the meat is several inches thick. I knew I might have to poop at E3 but I was ok with that because the Los Angeles Convention Centre has a ton of washrooms and for the most part, they’re clean enough for me. After devouring lunch, still nothing was happening so I continued to enjoy a wonderful afternoon of video games, lights, and sounds. I wasn’t uncomfortable or anything so I was having a great time.

Dinner time rolled around and E3 was closing up for the day. My friend and I headed off to a nearby restaurant for dinner. There were salads on the menu and I knew that probably was a good choice but there was also steak. Foolishly, I chose a reasonably sized steak with fries. The steak was merely ok but I ate all of it. At this point, I was expecting at least a tinge of movement down below but I felt nothing. I was still comfortable.

My friend and I decided to head back to our apartment after dinner. We rested for a bit, changed our clothes, and then took an Uber to a hotel that was popular amongst game developers at E3. We stayed at the hotel bar for about two hours or so, drinking and talking. After midnight, I was getting hungry again. Using Google Maps, I found this 24 hour diner that served breakfast about two blocks from the hotel.

At the diner, I ordered a platter that had three scrambled eggs, five pieces of bacon, hash browns, and two pieces of toast. I was really hungry so I basically ate that whole thing. Now keep in mind, I hadn’t poop since Sunday night and it was now the early morning hours of Wednesday morning. By my count, it was over 48 hours since I had last had a bowel movement, which was incredibly out of character for me. Yet I felt no discomfort even after eating this wonderful breakfast meal. My friend and I took an Uber home. I was hoping that I might feel the need to poop once back at the apartment but nothing happened so I went to bed.

Wednesday morning was when things started to happen. We woke up late because we’d been drinking the night before and we got back well past 2am. I didn’t feel like eating breakfast so I made myself a cup of green tea. I might have eaten half a small granola bar.

My friend wanted to take a small detour before heading out to E3 for the day. He wanted to see a building downtown where they had filmed a bit of Blade Runner. I thought that would be cool, so off we went. When we got to the building, I finally felt the accumulated food that I had been piling away into my body for close to three days. I felt bloated and uncomfortable. Mentally, I was going over all the food that I had stuffed into my body since my last poop. I was frankly amazed at how much was in me. Though I was uncomfortable, I did not feel like pooping though. Damn!

The tour of the building didn’t last very long so my friend wanted to go to the Grand Central Market nearby for lunch. It’s this cool place where you can get different types of food in a historic marketplace. It’s very popular with locals and tourists alike. While my friend was starving for lunch, I could not think about putting more food into my body. Instead, I got to watch my friend eat his breakfast burrito for lunch.

With lunch done, we took an Uber to E3. We decided to split up because our video game tastes are somewhat different. This way both of us could concentrate on what we wanted to see. I told my friend that I hoped to have pooped the next time we saw each other. It took another two hours or so of wandering the show floor before I finally felt the urgent need to poop.

I had prepared for this since I knew pooping at E3 was an eventuality. I avoided all the popular and well-used washrooms. The ones outside halls or just inside the halls are well trafficked so I knew to avoid those. The upper floors of the convention centre have meeting rooms. These are areas where companies can conduct the actual business of video games. Since there’s really nothing for the average gamer or consumer to see up there, the upper floors are relatively deserted. That’s where I walked up to with a quiet and confident purpose.

I found an empty men’s bathroom where there was a comically large handicapped stall. It was massive. Imagine a large room with a toilet tucked into one corner, this was the stall I was in. By now, the urge to evacuate my incredibly full bowels was strong and could not be denied. It was about 4pm on Wednesday and I had not pooped since around Sunday evening. I whipped off my shorts, sat down, and closed my eyes.

There was but the briefest moment of pain coming from my butt and then just relief; waves and waves of relief. It was so odd. One second the toilet bowl was empty and the next microsecond it was not empty, far from it actually. It was all over in less than thirty seconds. I had to sit there for a minute just to let my body recover and to just enjoy the relief. It was so good.

A part of me wanted to take a picture of what I saw in the bowl but I decided it was far too gruesome for me or anyone else really to witness again. I cleaned myself up, washed my hands, and walked out of the bathroom.

I was a new person. I felt light as feather. I didn’t walk anymore, I glided above the ground with the grace of a dancer. I wanted to say there was a tremendous load off my shoulders but we all know that’s not where the problem was. I texted my friend that I had succeeded. The remaining two hours of E3 that day was a pure delight.

The next day was Thursday and I pooped again that morning at the apartment. We left Los Angeles that night at 8pm. I only pooped twice while I was in Los Angeles between Monday night and Thursday night. What an ordeal that first one was. Thanks for reading folks.

Though it’s been almost a month since I’ve returned from London, I still have much to write about my fabulous eight-day trip to the capital city. In the short-term, you’ll reading a mix of posts about both London and Los Angeles.

When you’re a visitor to any city, you have to figure out how you’re going to get around the city in the most efficient and economical way. For some cities, you’ll have very little choice as their public transit system just isn’t practical enough. Many American cities fall into this category, such as Los Angeles. For London though, the city has well-developed and sprawling public transit system that spans multiple transportation types.

I will admit I was initially a bit apprehensive about getting around London using the various methods available to me. I was namely nervous the world-famous London Underground system. If you look at the map for the entire system for the first time, it can be quite daunting. The many different lines, with the many different stations where you can connect with other lines can seem like a confusing mess to comprehend. That’s just the Underground itself. There is also the light-rail system, the network of bus lines, and even the river boats which cruise along the Thames. These are all parts of the Transport for London system. Outside of the public system, there are also the ubiquitous black London taxis and the newcomer for this century, Uber.

Before leaving, I decided that I’d be open to using any of the above mentioned methods of travel but I would concentrate on using the Underground (or the Tube as they call it) and old-fashioned walking. I was told many times that central London is quite walkable and I personally love walking through a city to really get to know it.

Because of my apprehension, I did as much research as I could into the London Underground before leaving. Their system works with the Oyster card, which is a stored-value card which you tap in and out on the various methods of public transportation. This was immediately familiar with me as Vancouver recently changed their public transportation system to use a stored-value card as well.

I watched a lot of YouTube videos that explained how the Underground system worked. This gave me a feel about how the stations worked, how the gates behaved, what the trains looked like, and how seasoned London commuters acted while on the Tube. The Internet also told me to download an app Citymapper which is apparently invaluable if you’re trying to get around London.

With knowledge in hand, I jetted off to London. I arrived on Saturday and as you might remember, my hotel was right next to Victoria station, a major transportation hub and also a Tube station. In the afternoon, after checking into my hotel, I went into the station and bought an Oyster card from one of machines. You can buy an Oyster card almost anywhere in London. Inside the station they even have manned booths for visitors where you can buy the card and have any questions answered. I also put some money on the card as obviously just getting the card isn’t going to be useful if you don’t put any value on it. I initially put 30 quid on it, which is almost $60 CAD. That might seem like a lot, which it is in Canadian dollars, but I wasn’t sure how much traveling I’d be doing during the eight days.

I didn’t actually take my first trip on the Tube until the next day on Sunday. I’d done a ton of walking on that day as I wanted to acquaint myself with surrounding area of central London that I was staying in. After a long and winding walk that included Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus, I was nearly exhausted and decided to take the Tube back to my hotel. I was close to Green Park station and it would be just one stop to Victoria. What a perfect way to introduce myself to the Underground system. With just one stop, it would be difficult to screw this up.

As I walked up to Green Park station, the signage was very clear. It was easy to find the entrance to the station. I was slightly nervous as I walked up to one of the gate and slapped my Oyster card on the reader. Would it work? Would the gates not open, thus incurring the wrath of a Londoner behind me? Luckily, the gates did open for me as my card did work. The next thing to tackle was finding the right line and the right direction. Green Park has three different lines servicing it, each going in two directions.

Again, this turned out to be no problem as the excellent signage clearly indicated where to go to catch the Victoria line south. At the designated platform I waited patiently for my train to arrive, which didn’t take very long at all. I rode the one stop to Victoria station and tapped out with my Oyster card. I was back in my hotel within minutes. That was easy!

Confident that I handle more complicated trips, I began visiting more far-flung locations the next day. This is where I discovered how absolutely useful the Citymapper app was. The app allows you enter in a destination and it will give you various options on how to get there. You can select Tube only options, bus and Tube, and so forth. It will tell you how much your journey will be and how long it will take. The app also monitors the status of the transit system in real-time. If a certain Tube line has delays, it will know and warn you about that so you can choose a route that avoids that line. Once you choose a route, the app follows you along on your journey. If it can get positioning data, it will give you a notification that your stop is approaching and that you should prepare to alight. If you’re traveling via the Tube, the app will even tell you which car is ideal for your destination, either back, middle, or front. The app knows where all the Tube station exits and transfer points are, so it can position you so that you are nearest the best exit for your journey. Citymapper is easily the best transit app I have ever used and is in large part why I was able to navigate around London so easily.

I must also point out that the signage around the Tube stations is so good. I never once wondered where I needed to go or where a particular platform or exit was. It’s as if the planners knew exactly where someone would need a sign if they were first time visitor to that particular station. Partnered with the Citymapper app, I riding the Tube and visiting all areas of the city with the confidence of a weary and jaded Londoner. It actually became quite fun and exciting to see a new Tube station that I had not visited before.

While the London Underground system is indeed fantastic, there are some things that you need to be aware about it. The ventilation in some of the stations and thus in some of the cars can be horrendous. It can be dreadfully hot while waiting on the platform and once you’re on board a car. I began to purposefully wear shorts on some trips, even if it was actually quite cool outside, because I knew I’d be in a stuffy Tube car for 30 minutes or more. Londoners seem have adjusted to this because I saw many people with jackets and sweaters on even they must have been boiling inside. Be prepared to dress in layers so you can remove a layer or two while using the Tube.

The next thing you should know is that while the London public transit system is the most economical way to get around the city, it certainly is not cheap. A single Tube trip within the central London zone will cost you £2.40. That’s nearly $5 CAD, for a single ride on the Tube. In Vancouver, a stored value trip of a similar nature is only $2.10 CAD. As you might imagine, if you’re a tourist who is spending the whole day going from place to place, just using public transport can add up. Luckily, there is a daily cap for what you can spend on transit. Currently, for central London that cap is £6.50. Trips beyond that cap are free, so you can travel unlimited after that. Keep in mind though, that’s nearly $13 CAD.

Overall though, the public transportation system in London is wonderful and it turned out to be a tourist attraction in itself. Beyond the Tube, I also rode the DLR or the Docklands Light Railway and the river boats on the Thames. Again, for both these modes of transportation, the signage is clear and efficient.

I never did use a taxi nor Uber in London because they were much more expensive than the other modes of travel. They were also subject to the infamous London traffic, which still can be horrendous at times, even after traffic reduction programs.

If you’re ever in London, download the Citymapper app and be prepared to enjoy one of the best transit systems in the world!

Don’t worry folks, I have a super long post tomorrow for you.

So for my trip to Los Angeles I went with my friend Garrett, who currently sits next to me at work. We’ve been friends for over sixteen years now and we’ve always talked about going to Los Angeles and E3. About two weeks before our trip I floated the idea of getting tickets to Conan O’Brien’s show on TBS. The first time I tried to see Conan host a talk show was in 1997 when I was in New York. Back then, you didn’t use the Internet to get tickets, you had to use old-fashioned mail. I wasn’t prepared though so I had go into the stand-by line. Everyone showed up that day though, so the chance was lost. I eventually did see Conan live when he came to Vancouver on tour after he lost The Tonight Show to that rat bastard Jay Leno. That show was more of a variety show though and not his well-known talk show style.

I thought perhaps I could finally see him in his most famous element. Garrett was open to the idea so he made arrangements to sign up for tickets on the Wednesday that we were in Los Angeles. The guests for that day weren’t on the TBS web site until almost before we left on the trip though. We were left wondering who’d be on the show. Once the guest line-up for that week was revealed, Garrett and I knew we had some decisions to make. It turned out the main guest for Wednesday was Fred Armisen. The day before was Kate Beckinsale. Now before I continue, I must make it clear that I’m a big fan of Fred Armisen and I’ve enjoyed his comedy for well over a decade. From his SNL days to his appearances in movies, he’s made me laugh countless times. Having said that, I was hoping for huge, big-name movie star to be the main guest for our day. Ok, so we would have settled for an absolutely gorgeous female star as well, someone like Kate Beckinsale for example.

Garrett and I agreed we’d play it by ear and make a decision sometime on Tuesday, after our first day of E3 was done. After E3 wound up for day one, we came to the consensus that we’d probably need as much time for E3 as possible. If we decided to go to Conan’s show, we’d have to leave E3 on the second day pretty early to get to the taping on time. Since we also were flying out on Thursday, that meant we couldn’t get a full day of E3 on that day either.

We cancelled our tickets to the show. Conan’s show tapes in the afternoon and we had to be there at 3pm. If he had taped at night, which most shows don’t really do, we could have gone but the timing was just not right. I don’t feel that bad since I’ve seen Conan live before and I feel like there will be another chance for me to see him again for a taping. Los Angeles isn’t very far away at all and getting tickets was quite easy.

So apologies to Fred Armisen, I am a fan and continue to enjoy his work. Please don’t take it personally.

I have returned safely from Los Angeles. After getting back late Thursday night, I had to go to work on Friday which was pretty crappy. Fortunately, it was an easy going day as people don’t expect me to be productive yet. I spent the weekend mostly relaxing and resting up after a long week.

Overall, I really enjoyed my week in Los Angeles and at my very first E3. I haven’t been in L.A. since the mid-1980s when my parents took my sister and I to Disneyland. It’s one of those crazy and unique world-class cities. It’s has a lot of great things about it but it’s far from perfect. The traffic in Los Angeles is famous for being terrible and I can say from first-hand experience it deserves every bit of that reputation. Seemingly close destinations on a map, separated by a reasonable distance can be in reality separated by a surprising amount of time stuck in traffic.

As for E3 itself, I’m so glad that I finally attended the gaming industry’s biggest showcase. I’d like to write a more in-depth post about it soon but I will say E3 is loud, busy, and is the ultimate show if you’re into video games. I was part of over 50K people who showed up in Los Angeles for E3 and at times, I felt like we were all in one room together. I saw a lot of fellow developers from Vancouver that I recognized and many other developers that are famous within the industry. I also brought back some nice swag from the show.

I’ll devote several posts about the trip in the coming days! Stay tuned!

After just five days of work, I’m heading to LA tomorrow for the 2016 Electronic Entertainment Expo. The last week has been a period of great transition for me as returned to work after nearly four months of relaxing and travel. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to return the working world after a lengthy period of free-living. The transition is never easy and I don’t think it gets an easier. How can it? You go from having total control of your life to the grim reality of having a job to go to every week day.

You’d think returning to the same company, to the same team, and with the same co-workers would ease the transition somewhat but it only did in the slightest of ways. My former and now again current co-workers told me that I’d be in for a rough ride. Some of them went away for two-week vacations and returned in a state of discombobulation as they attempted to get back into work mode. They said that with my multi-month journey of fun, I’d probably be in an even greater confused state. I’d say they were right. The first week wasn’t all that fun as I tried to reconcile with the reality of having to get up early, commute to work, be somewhere for eight hours, and then having to come home.

So as my mind tried to adjust and survive the first week, I’m now headed off to LA for E3. While I am truly excited to attend my first E3, I’m wondering how confused I am making my mental state as temporarily swing it back to vacation mode again briefly. Part of me thinks my transition back to work would go smoother if I’d just leave the vacations behind for a while. As it stands, I’m jetting off to another sunny destination and leaving work behind once again.

I hope my psyche is strong enough to survive all these sudden changes.

If you were reading this blog earlier in May, you know that I developed a bit of an infection in my right eye about a week before my trip to London. Concerned, I immediately went to a clinic to get my eye checked out by a doctor. He prescribed antibiotics in the form of eye drops.

Once I got the eye drops home, I realized I’m terrible at putting drops in my eye. I wound up missing a lot. I’d either get the drop on my lashes, on the lid, or below my eye. You’re probably thinking that’s no big deal since the drops could just run into my eye. These drops were viscous though and only turned more liquid once they made contact with the fluid on your eyeball. So if I didn’t get it right into my eye, I’d just have a goopy mess near my eye.

Anyways, I sorta got the hang of it. I was instructed to keep applying the drops for a total of seven days. This was perfect because it was exactly seven days until my flight to London. My eye was quite tender when I started the course of antibiotics but by about the third day or so the pain subsided considerably. I kept applying the drops dutifully for seven days because I don’t mess around with antibiotics.

I made the decision to leave the drops at home and didn’t pack them on my flight. My reasoning was that the pain had gone away and I had followed the doctor’s orders. I get on the flight, fly to London, take the train to my hotel, walk around London for five hours because my room isn’t ready, and then finally I am able to get up to my room and unpack. Because I felt like just a gross and tired mess, I almost immediately went to take a shower.

I tell you, the first shower after a trans-Atlantic flight is one of the best things you can experience. As I step out of the steamy shower, I noticed the bathroom mirror is all fogged up except for a neat and large rectangle right in the middle. Cool, this hotel features heated bathroom mirrors!

I saunter up to the mirror and for the first time since I’ve left home, I take a real good look at my ugly mug. I didn’t really use the mirror in the airplane bathroom. As I take in the sight that is my face, I notice my right eye, the eye that was infected earlier in the week. A large part of my sclera, the white part of my eye, is just a bright splotch of red, especially near the bottom half of my eye. It was basically the iris surrounded by just red. A whole bunch of blood vessels had obviously burst. Everyone gets some redness in their eye once in a while but this was more than I had ever experienced.

It was totally gross looking but I calmed down quite quickly. First, I had experienced no pain whatsoever which is why I was so surprised to see it. Second, my vision wasn’t impaired so also put me back at ease. It did look somewhat horrifying though, so my only worry was freaking out people who I had to talk to while on vacation. I could explain it to my two friends in London but it’s just awkward when the dude at McDonald’s taking my order is sketched out by my exploded eyeball.

I was expecting the redness to go away fairly quickly but it did not. It took several days before there was even any noticeable difference. Even by the end of my trip, the eighth day, there was still a bit of red in the sclera. I guess the most scary thing about this happened on the flight home as we descended down towards YVR. My right eye began to hurt, like there was pressure on it. I started to think that my eyeball was about to burst. Luckily, the pain only lasted for about five minutes. I half expected to see another bloody mess when I finally got in front of an airport bathroom mirror but my eye looked alright.

I wonder if I should get it checked out again.

There was about three hours to go on my flight home from London. I was half paying attention to the movie I had selected when the audio was interrupted by a cabin-wide announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if there is a physician or doctor on board, please identify yourself to any of the cabin crew.”

My first reaction was genuine surprise. After decades of watching TV shows and movies where a similar and clichéd announcement is made, I was experiencing it for the first time. How exciting! Then I realized that someone must be pretty ill for the cabin crew to have asked for a doctor.

I was seated almost at the back of the Airbus A330 and there was no commotion going here, so I looked forward. About fifteen rows ahead and in the other aisle, I saw a small group of people gathered around one particular seat. It appeared the people were concerned but not panicked. They were talking but everyone seemed relatively calm. Then one cabin attendant went to the back of the plane and then came forward again with a tank of what I assumed was oxygen. Again, there was no panic and calm conversation was conducted around this small group of people.

I really couldn’t tell or even see what was going on or who they were concerned about. After a few minutes of nothing going on, I returned my attention to whatever movie I had selected. Minutes later, I looked up again. The crowd had dispersed with the exception of one cabin attendant who was still talking to someone in their seat.

At this point, I knew whatever medical ailment had befallen this person it was serious. The plane continued trucking towards Vancouver. If this was indeed a dire medical emergency, the closest large city at this point of time was Edmonton. We would have probably diverted there but our course had not changed.

Our flight continued as normal. I guessed that maybe when we landed this person would be allowed to get off the plane first, where they might be met with paramedics at the gate. When we landed, however, there appeared to be no special deplaning procedures. Everyone left in the order of front to back, just like normal. When I left the plane and walked through the jet way, there were no medical personnel to be seen. There were none at the gate either.

I guess it was quite fortunate that person wasn’t that ill after all. Well, that’s more thing I can say I’ve seen now on a plane.

When I was in London, my hotel had free wi-fi so obviously I was using that to connect to the Internet. While I understood I was in a different country, I wasn’t expecting my online experience to be too much different than compared to at home. I was in for a bit of a surprise.

One evening I was in my hotel room when I used Google to search for something. I forget exactly what term or word I was searching for but I do remember the results that came up seemed weird to me. There were far fewer results that should have been returned and it seemed really out-of-place. It was as if Google search was broken or even censored.

To test this to the extreme, I tried Google search again but using the name of a porn star. I know for a fact that searching that name should return pages and pages of sweet, delicious results. In London though, that name returned exactly zero results. It was as if that nice, young lady didn’t even exist. I’d never experienced this type of Internet censorship before.

At this point, I was really puzzled and wasn’t sure what possible rule, law, or restriction was causing this. I noticed that by default searches were being handled by Google UK. A long time ago, there was only one Google that everyone used to search but now Google is commonly localized to a particular region or country. Of course, back at home, I’m used to my searches being processed to Google Canada. So I explicitly entered in “google.ca” into my browser and then searched again with the name of exotic entertainer. Even though I supposedly used Google Canada, which should have returned results, I again got none. Odd.

I then starting searching to see what kind of Internet censorship was active in the UK. I remembered that they wanted to block all porn in the UK but I wasn’t certain how far that had gotten. After a bit of digging I discovered that Google prevents you from turning off the “SafeSearch” feature in the UK. This is the thing that prevents search results that have explicit content from showing up. So that might have explained what I was seeing.

To test this theory, I then tried going to Bing and searching the same thing. This was probably the second time in my entire life I purposely used Bing but I needed to know. Bing returned hundreds of results, way more in line with what I had expected. Indeed, Bing is actually well-known for being a great search engine for porn related materials. This did tell me though that the lack of search results was a Google thing.

I’ve been using the Internet now since 1995 or so and this is the first time that such censorship was so overtly in my face. I’m sure I’ve been shielded from results before but in a less noticeable way. I get that porn is an adult subject matter but I was signed into my Google account when I searched and Google knows I’m an adult. It’s a bit disappointing to know that someone out there decided on my behalf what I shouldn’t have seen on the Internet. For millions of people out there, this is a daily reality. For example, the Chinese government controls what sites their citizens can and cannot see. Now that I’ve experienced this, I can say that totally sucks balls.

This also reminds me that there is an element of danger when we rely on a single source or piece of technology for something critical. Imagine that night there was only one search engine and that was Google. Without Bing, there would have been no alternative and as far as I would know, that young lady I searched for didn’t even exist. When you control the flow of information, in a way, you control reality. That’s a lot of power in someone’s hands. I’m glad I live in a country that doesn’t call for such restrictions.

This was during rehearsal.