Sterilized & Sanitized: Clean Me More, I'm Dirty.

Chapter 14.

Clean Me More, I'm Dirty

Actually, I am a pretty clean guy. I shower and brush my teeth. I Wash my hands before eating maybe 8 times out of 10. And I bring my own cutlery to restaurants.

"what?"

Okay, may be not that last one. But that's my point. Soooo much emphasis is always put on how everyone is so damn' concerned for cleanliness that it is actually sort of turning into this crazy paranoia where you can't go anywhere without fearing what might have been there first...and what was left behind.

It reminds me of that little guy from Wall-E (Mo) that rolls around everywhere bleeping the words: "foreign contaminant, foreign contaminant". I wonder how much of this will come to be true once we get to the year 2743...

So I suppose a lot of this - like many of my postings - has to do with knowing when/where to draw the line. Sure, some public washrooms are just plain gross. Sometimes you might open the door, walk in 2 steps, then spin on your heal and walk right back out. It's just that bad. Other times, you might be just driven to the limit! and can't put things off any longer and before you know it, you're lining the toilet seat with the same TP that a total stranger was acquiring only minutes earlier from that same dispenser hanging on the wall, engraved with catchy phrases and phone numbers. Then again, if the bathroom isn't the one in a West Edmonton Mall food court or on the main floor of the ETLC or the McDonald's restaurant on 111th Ave, then you might actually even have to use a paper towel to work the soap dispenser, turn on a faucet, and openin' the door on your way back out.

Ketchup in restaurants used to be set on tables, ready and waiting for you to use as much or as little as you wanted to on your fries, eggs, steak. Nowadays, ketchup is prepared in the kitchen, and your little 30 gram ration is brought out alongside your meal in a little paper cup. And how awkward is that when you order ketchup with your steak!!

Keeping with the restaurant/food theme, I remember back in the day when plastic drinking straws weren't individually wrapped with paper sleeves. Are people really that much more dirty NOW then they were a decade ago that we can't even take from the same straw machine? Maybe so. I suppose it has more to do with (like everything else in the world) proportions of populations. More people total = more people dirty. Urbanization and population growth are once again the real culprits. Even with the better meds, sanitary products & services, advanced treatments, and various diagnostic tests, we are still getting dirty. So despite being told how nowadays we are a healthier species with higher longevities than ever before in human history, we still can't be trusted with our ketchup and we need paper sleeves on our straws. And no more pee-mints.

There is also this large wave of nu-hippies out there who are taking on this holistic approach. No whacky meds and everything au naturale. Dooood. Thaaaaat sooounnnnds revooooLUUUUUUtionarrrrrry! Stick it to the man, dude! Fuck the system!!! My yoga mat is actually made out of hemp! My kids won't ever have a immunization shot, because I believe in feeding them organic oranges and no caffeine! or Kraft products. Or beef. Or meat products at all, really. They will build strong immune systems and will become world leaders.

Buses. Specifically Edmonton Transit. A second home of mine between the years 1996 and 2008. They can be pretty unsanitary. I've seen everything from half-eaten sandwiches to half-drank beers to gum anywhere imaginable to vomit, spit, and worse. And that's just the driver! jk. But if this is the respect that patrons of Edmonton Transit are paying for the 2 dollar and 75 cent service that the cityis providing, it says a lot about (some of) the patrons themselves. My recommendation when taking Edmonton Transit: Full sleeves, jeans, knee socks, closed-toe shoes, gloves, and a hoodie with the hood up. and drawn tight. Not all bus-riders are overwhelmingly disgusting, but some of them you may prefer to not have coughing on, or rubbing up against you. Trust me, I was one of those very people.

So sanitation (on buses or anywhere) is directly related to health, and despite my criticisms of how a lot of the sterilization techniques seem overkill, they probably necessary (with no one to blame but ourselves).

But I guess as Canadians, we are really pretty damn' fortunate when it comes to our over all health. In comparison with our neighbors to the south, anyways. Michael Moore's Sicko pointed this out pretty explicitly. Also, we suck doctors out of places like South Africa, Bangladesh, Indonesia with pretty terrific promises of salaries and standards of life so that we have enough physicians to go around for our 33M people. We hope that "proportional populations" won't leave those countries with a healthcare deficit. Even if we already know that 95% of the World Is 3rd World. And thanks to Ralph Klein, the 3rd Reich errr what? Okay, the Third Way Health Care programme, you can be rest assured that all of your Big Oil money will get you into the doctor's office FIRST to scan for that tumour resulting from you sucking back all those petro/diesel fumes. Let's just hope that the doctor that you DO get (whether you pay your way, or wait and wait til your final moments here on earth) is actually a A- doctor instead of a C+ doctor!

My lungs right now are pretty clear. Other than actually being sicker than I have been for longer than I have ever been (~10 days now). But I had been exposed to second-hand smoke semi-regularly for 15 years until my Grandma passed away in '99 from lung cancer. Since then, I have been in virtually smoke free atmospheres for 10 years now. It was about 2003 when the No Smoking In Bars bylaw came into effect, so I only had 1 good year of going out to smoke-filled pubs n' clubs before that breath of death was taken out of the equation too. I enjoy my health. I think that bylaws like not smoking within 5 metres of a business entrance way is retarded since it is pretty damn' impossible to enforce. But we are making progress. Thank You For Smoking with Aaron Eckhart did a decent job of showing us all how tobacco lobbyists are in fact The Devil. I think that we've seen smoking being eliminated from airplanes, malls, restaurants, bars, and now: cars with children (law in Ontario) all within my lifetime (mid-late 80s for planes). We are getting cleaner, healthier, and maybe even happier? With this new found health, and our hemp yoga mats and untainted beverage straws for our diet coca-colas, maybe we will find some more time (more years in our life) to be doing more positive things with it. Finding cures for AIDS or MS or Lung Cancer, for example!!

So yes. Drawing that line. Always a challenge. I believe that being overkill really is necessary in this day & age (like, calculate a HUGE factor of safety), because there are just too many of those "100% Pure Contaminants" out there, who likely won't have the opportunity to sanitize or sterilize anything ever. It's a cryin' shame that even if a peanut shot is created for kids so that PB&J sandwiches might actually be allowed back into schools one day, one parent will likely be that "holistic hippie" and wreck it for everyone else anyways!

But safety first, eh?!

Good health to you.

To The Fans of Sociology, Political Science, and the Arts In General, I Suppose

Chapter 43

Coming from engineering, it is easy to (biasedly) say that the set of skills developed throughout the program are much more practical than many other programs. First, you have to have exceptional grades in order to get into the program, and then you are required to persist through a rigorous set of technical courses that enable you to think about problem solving methods for anything from design to planning to mitigation.

However, I am convinced that the people that are most concerned for the state of the world are not necessarily the engineers, albeit, they can certainly have a lot to offer to the betterment of the world when given the authority to do so. Instead, I think that proportionately, students of Sociology especially, (and to some extent Political Science and maybe even other Arts students). These students are trained to be the great communicators of our time, and it is only through communication to all the different powers (and non-powers) of the world, will we be able to make the change that we need to see. In addition, the students who are dedicated to their education will likely be the ones who want to have a thorough understanding of the greatest inequalities in the world, and the reasons behind them.

My biggest concern for us engineers is that even the most hard-working committed engineer may not fully realize the full extent of the impact of what it is they might be doing. Ethics is a large part of how we are trained to conduct ourselves, but to me it is really more just a matter of learning where to draw the line is. Engineers can go and implement solutions and systems for anything anywhere, but to really understand what the greatest good for the greatest number is, is something very challenging, even for the smartest engineers in the world. A lot of this comes from a book I read a few years ago called "Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by Perkins who detailed what was involved for engineering firms to go into third world countries, under the guise of developing the country's services and henceforth, economy. It went on to explain how a lot of the financial investment by American firms would ensure that the country getting the investment would be forever in debt to the World Bank and IMF, and have to compensate these two major players in any way they can, as a result.

I want to see this change. Not now, but RIGHT now.

Surely, I am not the lone engineer who feels this way, but it is a matter of binding these engineers together who can conceive of the idea that there might be a better way. This brings us back to the communicators. These people have a broader understanding of some of the things in this world that matter, with respect to having a sustainable planet earth for decades, centuries? to come.

Before I go on though, I want to make things crystal clear. Just because a person studying the Arts might have some comprehension of social constructs (like marriage or family), or globalizatioin & environmental degradation (like Greenpeace Tar Sands campaigns or FTAA/NAFTA policies), or of the reinforced hierarchical systems within government that are designed to hide us from the corruption that exists within (Harper's Tories), it does not mean that these people are some unique elite brand of altruistic idealists that think their open-mindedness & higher moral standards make them better than you or I.

Rather, these people (irrespective of amount of formal education), are simply one of our last remaining hopes that we have to try & communicate the economic and political power-men of the world as to what it is that they must do in order to manage, maintain, if not meliorate our planet. This includes everything from social issues like crime, eldercare, and family planning (think "Octo-mom"), to environmental issues (climate change, solid waste management, air/water quality protection), to resource depletion (water, oil), to the major economic issues and the legislation currently in place that will maintain our focus on the protection of the "corporation", rather than making allowances for promoting subsistence living (think small-scale farming).

It is up to these Arts Majors, especially, to be fully functional on every level; starting with working as/with teachers in our schools, and working as/with Ministers of Education in government. They must act on local levels to get councils to understand more fully the issues of sprawl, the root causes of crime, and importance of an exceptional public transit system. They must act on a provincial/state level so that these areas can understand how their decisions, when amalgamated, can effect the entire country (and how it is perceived around the world) (think tar sands). On a national level, they can almost be viewed as a nonprofit lobbyist group looking to hold their MPs in check, such that they will be acting on the behalf of their constituents. It is soooo important for a country to be seen as a leader, and by not recognizing water as a human right, for example, extreme counter-production occurs and the country as a whole is seen as a setback to progression towards living on a sustainable planet.

- The Role of the Engineer -

It is both a privilege and an honour to be recognized as a professional engineer. Even with the hundreds of graduating students that the U of A pumps out every year, these kids will only make up a very small fraction of the world's population, and with such a skillset, they are usually pretty well appreciated and compensated for their abilities to solve problems. But in these times, I think we must ask more from our engineers. We must encourage them to work more effectively with the "communicators" who could benefit from their technical expertise in realizing what types of systems will be sustainable to implement, with as minimal negative impact on everything as possible. It's a matter of priorities. An understanding that many things may be have some detrimental effect as the result of implementing some system or technology or structure for some people some place. The "ethical" dilemma must be taken to a much further extent such that we engineers will strive to understand "who really wins" and at what costs. It's a matter of the communicators understanding what possible solutions engineers might have to offer, and then, delivering that information and convincing the WORLD what must be done, and the critical path in order to get it done... before it's too late.

PROGRESS

And progress is not intelligently planned
It's the facade of our heritage, the odor of our land.

They speak of progress, in red, white and blue.
It's the structure of the future as demise comes see things through.

It's progress --- 'til there's nothing left to gain
As the death of new ideas makes us wallow in our shame.
So before you go contribute more to the destruction of this world you adore
Remember life on earth is but a flash of dawn and we're all part of it as the day rolls on.

And progress --- it's the message that we send.
One step closer to the future, one inch closer to the end.
I say that progress is a synonym of time.
We are all aware of it, but it's nothing we refine.
And progress is a debt we all must pay.
Its convenience we all cherish, its pollution we disdain

And the cutting edge is dulling, too many folks to plow through.
Just keep your fucking distance, and it can't include you.

It's progress! 'til there's nothing left to gain!

It's progress! it's a message that we send!

And progress is a debt we all must pay!

-bad religion, 1989

My Favorite Movies

Ch. 32: The Necessity of Escapism, Part 2

Last time I dwelled on how people need to "escape this misery called life" and some of the ways that they can go about doing so. Mostly, this included basking in the niceties of going on vacation and consuming alcohol (to numb the effects of the stress of travelling).

This time though, I want to suggest one of the best alternatives to those two, and why these choices are soooo much incredibly better than drinking or vacationing.

Watch movies. Not just any movies. Happy movies. Not slapstick ridiculous "off the cuff" movies. Goofy movies. Not sexually provocative sleazy "get your hard-on with Angelina Jolie" movies. Romantic movies. Not chick flicks like the Notebook and most certainly not Brokeback Mountain. But heart-wrenching surreal movies that allow you to sympathize with, but not become overcome with emotion by the characters in the plot, kind of movies. If these "happy" movies that I have tried to screen out still leave you with thrasher/bloodbath flicks on your list, then I suppose I should just give up already. But what I am actually trying to get at here is that some of the best movies that a person could ever go and see arrrreee:

CARTOONS!

For a long time now, I have maintained that cartoon movies can be some of the best medication for a person in need of reprieve from the stresses of life. Nothing quite says "so long psychopathic horror-style murder by beheading" like watching Roger Rabbit getting dipped ears first into, well, the Dip. Alright, maybe that's a bad example seeing how inhumane that was for poor Roger, but not all cartoons were like that - growing up - or now.

Growing up, us kids had the privilege of watching a lot of Classic Disney movies play in theaters. I still remember watching Aladdin @ Gateway Cinemas when I was about 8. Movies like that appealed to kids' imaginations and dreams and also gave parents a sense of gratitude in that sexual undertones would be left out completely, simply for the benefit of us kids. Lion King: probably still one of the best movies made for kids ever, was the same way. Minus the word "sex" that was apparently written in the stars at some point or another...The success & popularity of Disney's movies through the 80s and 90s allowed for Edmonton weatherman Mike Sobel to run a very entertaining 2 hour Saturday Special on ITV called the Disney Afternoon for a couple of years! This is back when times were simple, and kids weren't all hopped up on sugar and crack. Outside of Disney, The Land Before Time (one), All Dogs Go To Heaven, and An American Tale were some real classics that enabled children to... be kids! These movies offered great entertainment value for children & parents alike and didn't require any sex or violence to do so.

When Pixar got humongous thanks to Toy Story, kids had the opportunity to reclaim their youth yet again. This ridiculous story of friendship and never giving up was a great break from some of the other movies I was watching at the time: Cape Fear and Primal Fear are the two that come to mind. Plus the new Toy Story ride in Disneyland, CA is pretty much the funnest thing ever. Finding Nemo - the movie & the ride - certainly didn't surmount to what Toy Story (1 or 2) offered. Cars was a good Pixar production, but mostly because of the Brad Paisley song "Find Yourself".

But then we kids got brains, apparently. The movie industry thought that us kids had to become more responsible for the lives we were living, and that simply understanding the importance of "The Circle of Life" or that "Beauty is Only Skin Deep" was not enough. Chicken Run made us all think twice about the repressed lives of chickens. Fern Gully was the first to bring awareness to some of the atrocities of deforestation of rain forest in 1992. The Bee Movie let Jerry Seinfeld show us how bees are just another dying species that we should beeee concerned for, as we continue to destroy their habitat. Happy Feet - Same thing. Madagascar showed us how inhuman and lonely zoo animals might be and how the animals vie to be "home". And most recently Wall-E projected what we might be in for as a human race, given the amount of waste we produce and resources we exploit. Thinking Movies. No sex, gore, or violence included.

I saw Kung Fu Panda with some friends and tried to convince them that it was The Lion King reincarnate, with its whole premise of having a reject overcome all odds to make things right. Little did I know at the time that Madagascar 2: Return To Africa was even more of a ripoff of The Lion King, where the lion in the movie had to "go back to challenge his uncle to take his place as king". Direct copy. Oh well. Still a great movie. I liked the penguins.

I have yet to see a number of cartoon movies - on the top of the list are Ice Age, A Bug's Life, and Ratatouille. Well, those are the important ones anyways!

So there you have it: A whole blog about how (non-violent, non-sexcrazed, non-gore) movies can be used to help you escape from some of the heart burning stomach churning realities of every day life, where enough violence, sex, and gore exist as it is! Cartoons. Oi. Sure, some of these cartoons might be "thinking" movies, but I would rather have my kids thinking than watching crap like "Jackass", "Harold & Kumar" (soo good), "Earnest Goes to Camp" or worse...

Also, "how is this better than drinking or vacationing" you might ask? Well, it's not, but how else would have I got you to read this far. God damn' my liver when it's thirsty! Time for a DRINK!!! (too sober to sleep).

The Top 6 Non-Cartoon Movies of My Youth: TMNT, Ghost Busters, E.T. Home Alone, The Goonies, and Short Circuit.

This Is Hockey!

Ch 54.

It was an amazing end to the season. Since the trade deadline at the end of February, the Edmonton Oilers have gone from being one of the most volatile inconsistent depressing teams in the NHL to watch, to being something reminiscent from a team from about 2 decades ago.

Nobody would have ever seen this one coming. All seemed so hopeless. Injuries plaguing the entire defence, aging veterans feeling the strain of over-exertion & endless expectations of fans & coaches, a forward line that has combined for only 161 goals (the 6th lowest in the Western Conference) so far, and a goaltender that faces about 30% more shots than his team is able to deliver to their opponent on any given night. Nobody would have seen this coming.

But it happened. It was party due to the economy, partly due to the players' changing attitudes, partly due to Daryl Kaatz taking charge, partly due to Bettman being bought out & finally leaving the league.

League-wide salary reduction was the one key factor in which made Edmonton Oilers transform from a farm-team that only ever develops players' skills to the point that they are good enough to be traded away for more affordable draft picks, into the 2009 Stanley Cup Champions. The dissolution of 12 teams and re-invention of the Winnipeg Jets & Quebec Nordiques made the league incredibly more competitive. The season was shortened by 10 games, and it was made sure that from this point forward, every team would play every other team in the league at least twice each season. No-Trade clauses were enforced (even if Chris Pronger was having a hard time not sleeping with his teammates' wives), but not until this happened:

Ryan Smyth came home.

That's right. The heart & soul of the Edmonton Oilers resumed his leadership role as Captain, sending Ethan Moreau back to being the (appropriate) position of fourth liner. The grit & dedication & determination of Smyth to make his home team thrive in this New League was incredibly appreciated and noticed all around the league, such that other former Oiler greats cued up to join him in Kaatz's organization. Amoung these were Doug Weight, Todd Marchant, Michael Peca, and Eric Brewer. Scott Niedermayer couldn't wait to get away from Mickey Mouse & Chris Pronger: One being a an over-sized smelly rodent that goes around smelling like cheese & living in Fantasyland, and the other being Mickey Mouse. This rebuilt Edmonton team allowed them to annihilate every other team in the league for the last 25 games of the 2009 season. Sheldon Souray was the team's points leader, with 32 assists to Horcoff and 26 to Hemsky at the end of the season.

By having the total team salary cap halved to $25M, players realized that in addition to their materialistic and over-consumeristic ways, their "hollywood days" were finally over. They were going to start to have to playing for the love of the game, just as the Oilers of the 80s did so well. All other pro-sports have yet to understand the implications of this unbelievable over-compensation of our favorite jocks, especially since none other are so physically tolling as hockey is! Yet, despite any abuse on the body, hockey players still understood that these were the necessary steps to take in order to promote the game & make it better. They would only have to get used to having their wives buying the no-name BBQ sauce for a change.

Gretzky cried. Again. Not because he knew his wife was going to be bored commuting between her mansion in that new Windermere development in Edmonton, WEM, and the River Cree Casino, and not because he was about to leave +30°C year round temperatures where there was nothing to do but coach & golf, but because he couldn't make hockey - the only real game - a go of it in the middle of a desert. It was really kind of sad, but after him hearing that Winnipeg was going to become the home of the Coyotes, he was absolutely gleeful & could only offer up the suggestion that the team be renamed "The Prairie Wolves". (since the desert isn't really the prairies)

You see, Wayne Gretzky was incredibly happy to be asked by Daryl Kaatz to become head coach of the Edmonton Oilers and couldn't wait to return with his boys in the Blue & Bronze/(orange) and destroy those desert dogs back in Winnipeg who played with about the same amount of intensity as they did when they were on the golf course.

Todd Bertuzzi & Sean Avery have been spending their spring/summer together in some of Toronto's finest private golf clubs aswell, since Toronto was the only team that would have them; and the players had to donate a large portion of their salaries to local sports charities for kids.For whatever reason, noone wanted to ever play golf with either of them! oh wellll...

But it was playoffs that was the most fun. The Oilers crushed Vancouver in 4 games the first round, Winnipeg Prairie Wolves were swept too, and the Calgary flames were not only swept, but shut out the entire series. In the end, the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 5 games over the Montreal Canadiens, only because in 1 game, Roloson played Left Wing.

- The Changed Rules -

In order to make the NHL better, these rules were incorporated into the league:

- No Touch Icing
- No more Delay of Game penalties for simply clearing the puck from your own end over the boards
- Smaller elbow pads
- Mandatory visors
- Less stick infraction penalties --- let the players skate through hooks, trips
- Goalies can make contact anywhere.
- 16oz glass of Molson Canadian : $5.

Chapter 53. People...

PEOPLE, as Social Beings

That word looks funny. It's like the more you look at it & think about it, the stranger it looks. Maybe that makes sense, since PEOPLE are in fact such a funny species. "Haha" Funny? No, more like odd funny. Their habits, routines, expected behaviours and responses. All whack. Those of you who know me well know that I am horrible for constantly generalizing groups of people - it doesn't necessarily have to be any one race, sex, age, class...it's just something that I have been called out on more than a few times. And I accept that as I, myself, am filled with these stereotypes of the whiteboy engineer from a middle-class family still living at home reaping the benefits and privileges that come along with being born and raised in a relatively healthy suburban neighborhood in one of the richest places in the world. (insert witty NOFX quote here). But beyond these cultural stereotypes, I think that I am also ready to generalize the entire human race.

People are overt. They are needy. They are nosey. And for some reason, people just can't seem to help but to seek praise & attention. This is what is natural to them. I suppose it's because they have a soul. A soul is what makes a person different than a machine. This is the premise of Yevgeny Zamyatin's 1920s dystopian novel "We": the human population only ever gets into any of its predicaments because they lack the clarity to see that their soul, imagination, and feelings are getting in the way of realizing the critical path to eternal happiness. By having souls, people (before having any hopeful perspectives about their world around them utterly obliterated thanks to media-induced apathy) have hope in seeing a better world through each other. So by putting oneself out there & allowing his or herself to become vulnerable to other people, that person is conceding to the fact that they have hope in that another person might be able to fill that hole in their soul.

There are a few people out there who have always refused this social aspect of the human experience. Trust me, I did engineering for ever so I know. But even besides my unique group, there are friends who have always been accepted by the masses, yet for whatever reason, felt it was within their own best interests to avoid contact with most other people at all costs. These anti-socials are still very good people and highly respected, and I believe, would be optimistic about the future - despite not "putting themselves out there" for others to poke into their lives and complete them. (yuck - he didn't just use a Jerry Maguire Quote, did he?!)

Poke. Okay sure. Let's go there. People are constantly poking their noses into other people's lives on facebook. One of facebook's trademark's is in fact the "poking" feature itself. It's a way to say to someone, "Hey, I'm checking you out! What is it in your life that's going on that makes you seem so happy! And if you're not, what is it that I can bring to the table to make your life more fulfilling?" This is what facebook exists for. For people's necessity in putting themselves out there and seeking feedback from other people that will either make you feel good about yourself, or your realization of the utter power you have in being able to delete someone from your life with a click of the button. (and also finding out that the Great Lake Swimmers are coming soon to a venue near you!)

Mobile devices work in just the same way: it's putting yourself out there so that other people can invest their time into you.

People are also affected by degrees of separation because of these souls that exist. Compassion and sensitivity allow people to empathize to the hardships of other people. If your sister is sick, you respond. If your sister's husband father is sick, you respond. If your sister's husband's father's healthcare worker is sick, you respond. This is what's natural. It extends farther than you would believe - as far as you allow yourself to open your eyes to the world around you. Poverty and War. It can affect you. You might even react (and do something, or not) if you let it affect you enough. This is what people do.

I am trying to convince myself that I have more to write on this matter, but I think that really all that is left to say is that I don't think this social aspect of people is a bad thing. And I am not offended that most people will not be reading this blog. Take this blog as a simple additive to some of that BS that I have posted in the About Me section on facebook. Take it as an excuse for me to reach out only so far to some of the people I care about, but not enough to actually go out of my way to hang out with them, for example. I am not saying that I am overly anti-social, but rather, if you agree with this stuff I just wrote, you would let me know about so we can continue the conversation. I tend to at least make some attempt in keeping in touch with some of the most magnificent people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. But since it takes two to sustain a relationship of any sort, please let me know what you think as I am a social person too.

Even if you can't stand me.

Eco-Terrorism: The Trials & Tribulations of Environmentalists' Fight Against Resource Exploitation

(Ch. 4)

A guy named Andrew Nikiforuk is trying to take your money. He released a book last year called "Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and The Future of a Continent" for approx. $20. Ambitious to write a whole book? Yes, but HELL! There's just soo much damn' money flowing out there around environmental ideas and criticisms that why the hell wouldn't a guy try & redirect some of that cash flow in his direction?!?!

I wrote about this guy before. Before any of this tar sands mumbo jumbo came to the forefront of local headlines. You see, I came across another one of his books at the EPL entitled "Saboteur's: Wiebo Ludwig's War Against Big Oil".

From the start, I dove into this book with an open mind, realizing that Albertan Pride had already prejudiced most people against Wiebo Ludwig. He was, after all, involved with the slaying of a 16 year old girl, and noone likes to hear about murders - especially when it involves children.

Nikiforuk wrote from a fairly objective & open perspective that tried encompassing the many curious events surrounding Trickle Creek in and around Peace River, Alberta through the early-mid 90s. He got the story from detectives in the RCMP, ERCB (then EUB), neighbors, family members, oil field workers, and the bigshot gas company CEOs based in Calgary. In the end, he really conveyed the idea (to me, anyways) that injustices to the Ludwig family had been done, and that a man truly can only be pushed so far in a corrupt system that only cares about one thing.

Oil wells were bombed, oil field equipment vandalized, signs destroyed, serious threats, and less intimidating and menacing speeches and declarations made. A lot of sneaky work and timely investment & research had been done in order to get the things accomplished that were indeed accomplished.

So eco-terrorism is the word that is thrown around to describe these extreme things that an environmental group or person might do in order to make a substantial point about something that needs to be addressed, or is repeatedly and intentionally over-looked, for the sake of the health of people or the environment. ON THE OTHER HAND, a viewpoint expressed in the book is that eco-terrorism is actually the act of having sour gas flares poison the community and the livestock on which that community depends.

But I digress. I have been 20 years in Alberta and know that the only way that we can remain as a happy happy happy rich rich rich province is if we continue to cut into the earth.

We have nothing else!

Actually, that's a bunch of shit. Alberta truly has some of the most beautiful and diverse environments that I have ever seen, although I am a tad biased. It's just that Albertans have a different set of values, that rises from the days of hard labour of working the earth through the 20s and 30s as farmers. In 1947, Leduc #1 opened up a whole new realm of opportunity for people to get rich in the oil business rather than the typical wheat, flax, & canola harvesting. And even before that, people were attempting to remove the sand from the oil a few clicks north. Sixty years later, this business is bigger than ever.

Recently, Greenpeace Alberta has gained some momentum. It's current leader Mike Hudema (BLaw, BA Teaching (majoring in Drama, go figure)) seems to have some sort of idea of what he'd like to see happen with the current state of the oil business, as unfathomable as his ideas might be as far as economic growth is concerned. But despite any extreme viewpoints or tactics he might be using, at least issues about environmental degradation are getting talked about. In Saboteurs, however, it becomes extremely evident that fighting government supported oil industry is a losing fight; despite repeated outcries of opposition to any additional drilling. So much so, that a person will eventually lose enough sanity to take the government's law into his own hands. And it's happening again. In Dawson Creek (on the Alberta-B.C. border) there was a late-night explosion at a natural gas wellhead last October. But no alleged suspects (if they have any) are being released to the public.

So health issues.

People are resilient. They don't need a lot to survive. They can do alright with minimal food, water, sanitation services, clothing, money... The difference being that those of us that, for example, can afford to benefit from a Privatized Healthcare System, will thrive with the best treatments and opportunities for ideal health. And the rest of us? We be f$#@ed. That is the prominent thing that should be getting our government's attention. The Fort Chipewyan residents have found to have disproportionately high rates of immune system diseases and cancer by prominent regional doctor, Dr. O'Connor. The thing is that Ft. Chip is just downstream Lake Athabasca, which happens to be the majority of the source water for the oilsands operations in the area. There is a lot of headaches and disagreements about the environmental impact from the mining operations and the health effects on the locals. Then again, when tailings ponds can kill ~500 ducks, it's hard to believe that 100% mitigation can be taken to guarantee that people aren't being poisoned the same way, however so resilient they may be.

Bambi in the Bucket of a Bobcat

Besides the health side of things, we are watching the environment of our beautiful province turning more & more into the Land of Mordor. Building and Burning. Continual expansion: industrial sprawl, paving into the country & driving the wildlife away. There's bear killing going on, since the bears are getting in the way of industrial progress and sprawling urban development. And we are idly watching the replacement of habitat with paved roads, clouded skies, dried and filled wetlands. Caribou populations dwindling. This is happening everywhere: hectare by hectare.

The land footprint according to March 2009 National Geographic of all oilsands development in Alberta is 150 square miles. This equates to .01% of the total area of the Canadian boreal forest.

Small, yet devastating.

When Edmonton tears up its northeast soil belt for the sake of building 6 oil refineries in what is destined to become "Upgrader Alley", more farming habitat: lost forever.

And when the building of a new sour gas well (the sweet gas is gone) is approved for just beyond Calgary's city limits (or is it that Calgary's urban sprawl is reaching the foothills where the wells just happen to be being built now?): more emissions.

There is oil under lakes, like Maria Lake, that is constantly being surveyed & studied by geotech's who really wanna get under that lake & say that people & habitat won't be affected. Public pressure has saved our lakes so far, but as resources get depleted and prices go up, potentially devastating that lake will become a more & more viable option to many.

The bottom line of all of this is that we need new enforceable governmental legislation that caters to the interests of the people rather than companies. The existing system ensures that the few involved in industry will continue to get rich and increase the economic disparity amongst the classes, including even the middle-class having a harder time of breaking even. With this new enforceable governmental legislation, we will also have "to invent the corrective feedbacks that are needed to keep custodians (=politicians) honest" (Hardin, 1968). Only then will we be living in a province that we will not feel morally detached from, as we continue to destroy the land, air, and waters all around us.

Marx. The people's revolution. It may still happen. A person really can be pushed so far. Increasing numbers of anarchists and revolutionaries resisting this conservative occupation will get noisier and noisier. We all know that there is a dire need for emission reduction and environmental protection, and only with time will we start seeing these people rising from the ashes and fighting the system back with a vengeance. Unless we get four hundred dollar rebate cheques.

I bought Nikiforuk's Oilsands book before Halloween and haven't read it yet. Maybe I will go do that now.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/RCMP+investigate+fourth+pipeline+bombing/1143588/story.html

http://www.saboteursandbigoil.com/maybe_youd_fight_too.htm

Chapter 41: I Hate Hate Haters

Frick. Another song title rip-off? By that crappy NOFX band too?! Seriously? Hey, if you don't like it, go join Al Quaeda! (shakes angry fist in the air) Another Craig Ferguson quote? Is this guy for real?!

Yes, yes, I am sad to say that this is in fact "for real". But "why?!" you may ask! I'll tell you why! Cuz not enough people do. Do what? Do anything.

Complacency*. Such a horrible descriptor. Complacency = Empathy + Ignorance. It's to be sooo okay with the status quo, that even the idea of thinking about inequality is too much of a pain in the ass. It is simply better to say "Awww, well that's too bad...and I sure as hell won't be the one (to sacrifice my lifestyle) to do anything about it."

So what I am suggesting here is that people lose some level of selfishness. I suggest that they replace it with at least some level of compassion. Or even, just: passion.

I know for certain that some passionate people simply lack the ability to articulate or express their feelings of some issues they really care about. Instead, they might simply wear a yellow "livestrong" wristband, or maybe get a tattoo of Jesus on the Cross, for example. All those dull & monotone people out there should at least try to work on at least some form of communicating themselves for the benefit of some social justice issue they might have at least some interest in. It doesn't matter if it's the environment, animals, racism, sexism, homophobia, AIDS, poverty, political transparency...whatever!

But instead, these very able-bodied individuals go ahead through their daily routine, heads down, mouths shut, fists unclenched by their sides...

But What's With Not Hating The Hate?

My feelings towards hatred are such that, sure, love all around is nice & dandy: hippies & flowers, rainbows & kittens, muffin top sunshine, dooo deeeee doooo daahhhh la-la-la, skip-to-the-loo my cheekey monkeys, n'all. (what?!)

But that's not real life.

At times like these, with such a MESSED up population base, we just have to channel the hatred that currently exists into a more positive direction. We have to use our ANGER to hold those accountable for our underlying unhappiness. And guess who's accountable? The government, of course! I mean, the LOVE has to be reserved for family members & dearest of friends, but the government?! Oh, come onnn! Saying you love your government is like saying reading this blog is more satisfying than the pictures you are looking at in the other internet explorer you have open right now! Being hateful is to be passionate. With such an apparent lack of PASSION, and yet sooo much HATRED, doesn't it just make sense to try and manipulate the one into playing into the other?

So let's bring this back to music once again to try & get my point across:

Atreyu: Hate can be a postive emotion when it forces you to better yourself!

The Offspring: I hate the jocks, I hate the geeks, I hate the trendies, But I also hate the freaks. I hate your band, And I hate TV, I'm only happy when I'm in my misery - It's cool to hate

NoFx: Hatred is not so bad when directed at injustice. You can turn the other cheek, just don’t turn the other way.

Metallica: Don't waste your breath, And I won't waste my hate on you

George Strait: I hate everything

Muse: Hate this and I'll love you

oh, and 1 more that we better not leave out:

"Always Hate Hippies!"

-nofx

So yes, hate, hate away. Hate me for feeling this way, criticize & critique me. Judge me & get angry. Just please do something. REJECT MORE. QUESTION EVERYTHING. NEVER STOP.



*Note:

1. C = E + I

2. E = C * I

3. I = C - E

I think all of these make logical sense.

1. A person that is totally resolved with the life he/she is leading is likely ignorant. This person usually has a very low sense of empathy (maybe even E = 0), which would allow for C = I.

2. A person that loses the ignorance but is aware of the issues will tend to see C decline as E goes up. (inversely proportional relationship)

3. A person who has no decency, sould, compassion or sense of reality in present day society is likely complacent, with essentially E = 0, or I = C.

these might need some refining.

Hole Filler

Hole Filler
(I will fill your void, Ch. 39)

When you are feeling down & blue,

I will always be there for you.

When the sun won't come out and shine,

I'll bring you lightbulbs - the indoor sunshine lighting kind.

Those days when the piano just sounds out of key,

You can come laugh at my singing - at karaoke!

If you're ever caught wearing some mis-matched socks,

I'll remind you your brain's still bigger than most jocks'.

If having an impact is what you are trying to do,

Don't get discouraged by those short-sighted few.

And when you get shut down & out from him once again,

Always know that I will be your friend.

Okay. So there we go. What a cute (pathetic) little rhyme. I knoooowww!!! Talk about cheesey. But I gotta just say this: How frustrating must it be for a guy who is so stupidly reasonable, patient, open, & do I daresay lonely, to be frustrated by women time & time again. I am not speaking of myself, or any one man in particular, but rather, of all the good guys out there that just can't seem to find themselves in any sort of substantial relationship in his past decade of living. What is it that we (yes, I include myself in this group) are missing? How many *ahem* short-comings have to accumulate before the self-esteem of these men is driven so low that they terminally resign themselves to the fact that they will likely be alone forever? A guy can only put himself out there so much, you know (unless he's a dancer, I think), and when he lacks the resources like: charm, good looks, personality, style, or depth (or length) ((what?!)), what really can he do? Alcohol. (well, duh!!)

I try to convince myself that men really shouldn't need liquid courage in order to talk to the opposite sex. Genuine relationships that might last are based out of first impressions, true; but also, if those first impressions are essentially skewed by babbling alcohol-induced nonsense, then what would a woman with a cool & collected head on her shoulders really see in that? The only chance that the pair really even has is that she is already SOOO effing loaded, that she doesn't see him as an afraid little boy without a clue in his mind as to what he might possibly have to offer her, but rather just go for that One Good F*#@. Then again, I am drinking right now, so all of this is really a bunch of shit.

So as a result this is what you see: middle-aged middle-class career-minded single men, that only can dream of the day that they have enough money in their bank accounts to attract some piece of hot tail half their age. No kidding. If that's not the case, you see the most reasonable of men lowering their standards to such a level that they impregnate the next woman that'll spread'm for him. Like come on! Maybe I am wrong in that these men in fact ARE realizing their own maximum potential and enjoying what they can, while they are still young enough to enjoy anything at all, without the arthritis creeping in, that is...

But as for me, in the meantime, I will continue to go around filling the voids that are in her life. I will be that friend - that confidant and muse. I will tell her funny stories and listen to her complain about the weather. I will be that shoulder for her to cry on and that wallet that can always afford that 1 extra drink @ closing time. A whore, essentially. It's exhausting. She knows it too, but just the same, feels like she owes him nothing more than the occasional phone call or text (which she is perfectly right about, by the way). Even though she thinks about him more than she cares to admit. One day though, as persistent patience plays itself out, he will truly find That One that he has always dreamt about all his life. And when it happens, he won't understand how, why, who, what things in all of thuniverse could have possbily transpired to get him - them - to this stage. Especially after all of this time. All of this patience. And headaches. Loneliness.

(what an emo-ass whiny little bitch - like FUCK. note to self: drink mickey of rum to self this weekend.)

Top 10 Things I Hate About Facebook

#10 - Retarded status updates like when people finish them off without any thought at all. (i.e. "Bob is...") If you don't have any thoughts in that pretty little head of yours, keep that to your self.

#9 - When people over the age of 30 add you as a friend.

#8 - The non-launching of an automatic music player on each individual's facebook profile. Cuz let's be serious: if you knew that the person likely had good taste in music, you would probably be visiting that person's profile more often - and for the music, and not all the Hot Pictures.

#7 - The girls that you hope to see on "online chat" never seem to be online. at all. ever.

#6 - Poking. If you wanna really wanna get with someone, just let them know it (in a really dirty/romantic message).

#5 -I hate it when people reply to facebook "events" as to whether they will be at said event or not. Cuz guess what? NOBODY CARES that you have other plans elsewhere or that you are living in another city. Why can't these people just ignore the facebook event invitations or decline them and carry on with their life instead of wasting the 4 or 5 seconds to "reply to topic" when they could be spending that time to turn off the effing computer??? To me it comes across as these people feel that they have sooo much better things to do than come to the event in their interesting & exciting lives. It comes across as these people feel like they will actually be missed!!! Well sorry, you're not gonna be missed.

#4 - Private profiles.

f

ff

#3 - How when entering your personal info, the auto-complete essentially tells you what you like, even after the keystroke of just a single letter. Strung Out sings: "Everything in my life just thinks for me!". This is true thanks to today's technology.

#2 - My inability to purge out all of the hot girls from my facebook friends despite how much I really don't even like them. I did that with an ex, and her hot friends, but other than that, they are all still here. Yay for hot girls.

#1 - How it seems to eat up about 6 hours of my 8 hour work day...I mean...I wouldn't give MY troubles to A MONKEY ON A ROCK!!!

Bad Habit: A Lesson on Driving Etiquette

Don't race the car next to you when waiting at a red light. You will only end up right next to them 2 blocks later. Don't start breaking for stop signs and red lights 3 meters before the stop line. Stop at stop signs - don't just slow down & keep going. Don't stop 3 feet into the crosswalk. If you see the Flashing Hand, don't step on it. Speeding up through intersections is not a good idea. Especially when there's a crosswalk in front of St. Richard's School or the University Hospital. Don't enter the far lane while making a turn. Make the turn then signal to get over. Signal. Always. That means put the damn' phone down. That includes texting. Don't tailgate and don't cut people off. That's just rude. Don't cross solid white lines in order to get to the turning lane a few seconds faster. Your time is not that important. Don't block intersections. Don't enter lanes when you know that the person in that lane is speeding so fast that they will have to RAM on the breaks to stop from hitting you. Enter the lane after they pass. Don't drive 80 when the speed limit's 50. Don't drive 140 when the speed limit's 100. Don't drive with your brights on in the middle of the city. It's not the least bit necessary. Don't let your 16 year old drive a 40 thousand dollar truck. Don't get into fits of rage about the redneck truck driver asshole that wouldn't ever read this blog. Don't drink & drive. I am pretty sure that after 2 drinks, 90% of people would be safer to Not Drive. Drive as little as possible. And when you do, don't kill animals. Don't kill people. Don't get killed. I like you.

Hey man you know I'm really okay

The gun in my hand will tell you the same

But when I'm in my car

Don't give me no crap

Cause the slightest thing

and I just might

snap

When I go driving I stay in my lane

But getting cut off makes me insane

I open the glove box

Reach inside

I'm gonna wreck this fuckers ride tonight

I guess I got a bad habit

Of blowin' away

Yeah I got a bad habit

And it aint goin away

Well they say the road's a dangerous place

If you flip me off

I'm the danger you'll face

You drive on my ass

Your foot's on the gas

And your next breath is your last

Drivers are rude

Such attitudes

But when I show my piece

Complaints cease

Somethings odd

I feel like I'm god

finish it yourself.