Got a job offer to teach in Bintaro, just outside of the massive metropolis of Jakarta, Indonesia. As luck would have it I have a friend in Bintaro. A South African gal who I taught, drank gin/tonic and ate expertly cooked Indonesian green curry with in S. Korea. She checked the place out and summed it up in two words, twice. The first two words were, "they stink," and the second two words were, "stay away!" Now I know, well more accurately I've HEARD how nice it is when you are overseas and you get a visit from friends or family. Lookin' at YOU friends and family! Telling ME it's been too long and I should get my ass on a plane and get home for a visit. To Canada. A place I've already seen. Any of you, friends and family, (you know who you are), ever seen Korea? Asia? For the better part of 15 years I was over there with enough money and spare time to squire any visitor around the must-see... anyway I'm off the rails here, the school in Bintaro my friend Annemarie looked into doesn't sponsor your visa, the don't pay airfare, they don't provide accommodations, they always give split shifts, they always make you work on Saturdays, they don't even pay the legally mandated salary of 10 million rupiah, (about 1000 bucks), a month, (I was offered 7,750,000 and the cheapest craphole in Bintaro to live is 3,000,000 a month), they don't pay for overtime but give it to you consistently, they call you up at 7:50 to order you to get over to the school and teach a class at 8:00, they treat their workers like livestock and don't even care if they EVER get a single teacher to sign up for a second year. I read online that lots of people who own better schools stand outside EF's, (English First. It's a franchise), and hand out business cards to disgruntled teachers knowing they'll be jumping ship soon. So yeah this is just SOME of the bad stuff I've heard about them. They DO stink. And despite maybe wanting a visit from an old friend, Annemarie told me to stay away.
So I send an email to a Craig Williams, director of studies at EF Cibubar telling him that I've heard some bad things about EF and the corporation that owns them, Swara Group, and I go down the list. Do you pay for overtime, do you sponsor your workers etc. etc. etc... He gets back to me, a bit offended apparently and proceeds to tell me, the DIRECTOR of what he assures me is "the best English school in all of Indonesia," tells me that people who teach at EF are "highly SORT after" by language schools all over the world. So I send him back an email pointing out the English error and drawing his attention to the message posting sites that have all kinds of former EF employees telling their horror stories and again summarize these stories in a list of things that have lead to my decision NOT to work for EF or Swara Group. His reply, and again I am not kidding here, was basically, "You are very wrong. This school is not owned by Swara Group." Doesn't even try to deny any of the other stuff and at the end of the email he says, "You have my offer, I hope you take it."
This brought me back to my first year in Korea. The end of that year. A year that included a massive financial crisis called "The IMF Crisis" by Koreans that devalued the Korean won by about 50% effectively cutting my salary in half; MANY last second schedule changes; multiple split shifts every month; about 9 colds getting used to the new germs in Korea; a stretch of 12 consecutive Saturdays worked, ruining the weekend sightseeing plans, for a "bonus" that turned out to be a watermelon - divided between THREE teachers; and at the end of that year, Mr. Lee the hagwon boss, after just buying a new van for the school and a bunch of property, is telling us, the remaining three teachers, Karen, Kim and me, that we won't be getting our severance pay. That's a bonus of one month's pay for completing your one-year contract. One of the former teachers there, and American chick named Darcy, didn't get her severance and trashed the hagwon before she left. I think she did some jail time for that. Anyway, Mr. Lee, after stealing a couple thousand bucks from all three of us says that I am a good teacher and he will give me a "big bonus" if I sign another one-year contract. And he's dead serious!
How do people become like Craig Williams and Mr. Lee? But I fully expect I'll have to deal with someone just like them again if I end up taking a deal to work overseas again. It's either that or continue spinning my wheels in Canada the land of the BWD. What, you might ask, is a BWD? You can blame my subconscious for that. I was dreaming in rap. What you never do that? I swear, I was dreaming in rap. There was a song in my dream called BWD. I woke up and wrote down as much as I could remember, added some, tweaked it a bit and this was the result:
BWD
I'm a bitch with a degree. I'm gonna make you OBEY me.
Over-regulate society. That's right, uh huh I'm a
BWD
Out of the office to the classroom I go. I'm there to learn what I already know.
Cuz they tell me no employer will call, unless I got that piece of paper on the wall.
They tell me this will help me at work. They tell me cuz they think I'm a jerk.
Teach me what I do and show me how, HEY, this ain't helping cuz I'm not at work now.
BWD
They're out to train and educate me. Turn this world into daytime T.V.
They will incorporate the university. That's right, uh huh, I said it
BWD
Spent over 5 years traveling abroad. They flagged as "dormant" my Social Insurance Card.
My birth cert., passport and my driver's licence, gee, can't be replaced until I show them two pieces of I.D.
BWD
I'm a bitch with a degree. I'm gonna force you to act like you respect me.
I'm gonna govern all of you but not me. Uh uh, uh uh, not me.
BWD
Ain't got no time to be anybody's wife. I got to give this drowning fish the kiss of life.
Love and compassion coming out of my ears. I'm afraid of a world with too many fears.
BWD
I wanna bubble wrap everything I see. I will hurt you so you can't hurt me.
Oh why can't everybody be exactly like me? Uh uh, uh huh, forget it.
BWD
That probably got into my head because of my visit yesterday to a government office in Calgary to prove that I am me. I WISH I had the imagination to make this shit up! I've been back in Canada for a few years now. I've had several jobs, lived in several places, applied for and received several criminal record checks, got my passport renewed, got my Alberta Health card, and I'm sure did other things that required my social insurance number. I was told that my social insurance number had been flagged as dormant because it had not been used in over 5 years. I still can't figure that out. So I had to go down to their office with identification and all the proof I had that I had been working overseas. Now, they don't give records of employment in Korea but they DO keep track of pension and give it back to you at the end of your contract or the end of your time in Korea. And, of course, THAT is Social Insurance Number-based too. I told the girl who required me to prove I exist that she could just call the pension office. I'm sure they have better records of my time overseas than I do. Well, no, government agencies don't communicate with each other. I reckon it's gotta be because even government agencies don't like calling government agencies and going through the requisite telephone gymnastics. So they make ME jump through all the hoops they can.
It wasn't long ago that I had to do this exact same thing for two BWD's in Vancouver at the customs office to prove that I was in Korea and all the stuff in my shipment was my furniture, clothes and living essentials that just arrived at the port on a boat from Korea. They saw my passport stamps but that wasn't enough. I showed them two teacher's cards from universities I had taught at. Not convincing enough. I said a few things in Korean. Didn't work. Then I told them that on my blog I had a copy of a cable bill from Korea. The agent brought up my blog, read it for a while, had a chuckle because it was complaining about bureaucracy alarmingly similar to exactly what she was doing, then said, "Okay I believe you were in Korea." She didn't even SEE the cable bill. Because of my Korean Chronicles blog with stories about my experiences in Korea I was able to get MY stuff that they were holding hostage. I'd hate to think what would have happened otherwise.
Yesterday I brought a year by year summary of all the places, with addresses, where I had worked in Korea. I brought those two teacher's cards. I brought reference letters from most of the places I'd worked. I brought my old passport with the work visas in it. I brought the signed and stamped contract of the job I was going to get but didn't work out because the criminal record check arrived too late. I also brought that criminal record check. I brought envelopes with some of my personal addresses on them. I brought a picture of all the Chonnam teachers including me in a cardboard holder with the Chonnam University seal on it. I brought a scan of my last alien card in Korea. I brought a magazine with my name and my writing in it. I brought a scan of an article from ANOTHER magazine I had written. It even had my picture in it. I brought my fingerprinting form from a Korean police office. I brought the waybill from that shipment of stuff from Korea mentioned above. I brought a scan of my university degree verified and stamped by the Korean Consul General in Vancouver. I danced Gangnam style for crying out loud!
She says, "Well I would like a list of all your addresses, but you may have enough here to substantiate that you are indeed who you say you are." I came this |___| close to saying, "Hey, BWD, I'm afraid I'm gonna need YOU to show me some proof that you are indeed who YOU claim to be." But I hadn't invented "BWD" then so I couldn't have said it. There were the people in the schools in Victoria, all BWD's, telling me that my TESL certificate did not meet the standards of Canada TESL, (the one and only standard actually being payment to Canada TESL), there were the two BWD's who were very sweetly showing me that the reason I couldn't find a decent job in Canada was that I just wasn't searching in the correct manner. There were BWD's at every job I've had here in Canada doing their best to make the job more difficult. I guess it all built up and subconsciously I knew I hadda rap it on out know what I'm seng dawg?
BWD's, cain't do as I please, gon drive me back overseas, dayum BWD's.
I think I'll go plant some dope. Either I get rich or get sent to prison. Either way I eat better than I do now and don't work nearly as hard.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
I'm on a documentary binge again
Pot
Why is it considered evil and nasty and why is it illegal? Because people lie. People in power lie. The last line in this documentary is from a guy who wrote a book in which he predicted 45 years ago that marijuana/hemp would be legalized within 10 years. He says, "You can't sustain a lie forever." But when there's money involved, oh yes you can!
Hemp is the most useful plant in the world. Clothes made from it last longer. Paper made from it lasts longer. The Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper. The signers were probably all wearing hemp. Back in 1776 it was seen as a viable alternative to cotton and trees. In fact in 1619 there was a law enacted ordering farmers in America to grow MORE!
It is estimated in the doc that over 200 different medical conditions are best, and most cheaply treated with marijuana. NOTHING provides more medical benefits than cannabis.
You can make bio-diesel from hemp, rope, food, milk, building materials, plastic (that's biodegradable), fiberglass, jewelry, fishing bait, spice, beer, waffles, ice cream, tar, oil, flour, cake, cookies... it'd save me blog space to make a list of things that CAN'T be made from hemp.
Yet back in 1937 in the U.S. the Marihuana Tax Act grouped marijuana, hemp, cannabis, pot, schwag, cronic, weed, the whole works of them all together and because of perceived violence pot seemed to cause within the jazz musicians and "Negros" who were smoking it, and because of effective lobbying by tree and cotton industry spokespersons, made them all illegal. To grow it you needed a stamp and those stamps were not given out. Then during WWII came "Hemp for Victory." It was good once again. The government realized that it was too darn useful to NOT use in the war effort. Besides, it might make for more violent people to go kill Gerry and the Japs, right? But soon after, in 1948 it was criminalized again for the exact opposite reason: it made people pacifists and it made them think. This was detrimental to war efforts in the country. The "War on Drugs" as it was called by the '72 Nixon administration, was launched to prevent a war on war. Pot smokers hated Viet Nam but the American government didn't. An excerpt from the film, "The Trial of the Camden 28": "But after Mr. Zinn was on the stand, and he spelled it out, "Tin, rubber and oil," that's when I broke down in court. That's when I broke down and I realized, you know, it was pretty stupid of us to have swallowed that business about America being over there to save South Vietnam from the Communists; and when we had permitted, as we say, Cuba, 90 miles from our shore, to be a Communist country." Honesty... is such a lonely word!
It's got to be about more than money, doesn't it? Pot's dangerous! It kills brain cells! It's a gateway drug! It's highly addictive! Well no, no, no and no. Most of us in Canada already know most of these things but watch the doc and get the details. When I was in university I took a course called drugs and behaviour and we studied all the fun drugs like opiates, coke, barbiturates, acid, PCP, alcohol, and marijuana and for all of them we used a ratio of effective dose over lethal dose. How much would you need to take to feel an effect over how much you would need to take to kill you. With one joint as the ED, the LD for marijuana is believed to be between 1:20,000 and 1:40,000. In essence, it doesn't matter. NObody can smoke 20,000 OR 40,000 joints. It can't be done. There is NO lethal dose of marijuana. In history there has been a fatality rate for users of marijuana of 0. ZERO. Nobody has ever died from it. Compare this to alcohol with a 1:10 ED:LD rate. If one beer affects you, 10 will kill you. Now usually we pass out or puke before we can drink our 10 but every year in the U.S. 88,000 people die from excessive alcohol use. Zero from excessive pot use. 100,000 deaths a year from prescription drugs. Zilch from the ganja. Half a million deaths a year caused by smoking cigarettes. None from reefer. Even Aspirin and caffeine kill more people. Hell excessive use of WATER kills more people every year! Not only is marijuana NOT dangerous, you'd be hard pressed to find anything at all that is safer.
Gateway drug. Marijuana is a gateway to Doritos. That is all. The fact that the dude who sells you pot might just have something harder he could sell you, well that makes criminalization the gateway to the harder drugs, doesn't it? Because if you didn't have to buy from this guy on the down low, if sensi cigs or Thai tobacco or Columbian cancer sticks were available where normal cigarettes are, you'd probably never visit that dude.
Highly addictive? Also misleading. Have you ever seen anyone who smokes pot like cigarettes? The documentary gives a very good reason why there are so many people in marijuana rehab: they are sent there as part of their sentence for possession. So "addiction" in America is practically synonymous with possession. If you have it, the legal system reckons you are addicted to it. Science be damned. Marijuana shows negligible withdrawal symptoms in studies if any. It's habit forming but not addictive. All those people who think they are addicted to pot I have news for you, it won't hurt you to stop, you just don't want to. It's no harder than quitting lottery tickets or swearing. Not easy but not painful.
And it kills brain cells. This, as the doc suggests, was introduced into the public consciousness in 1974 in what is called the "Heath/Tulin study." Yet another example of scientists we should not trust. Apparently Heath alleged that he was exposing monkeys to 30 joints a day but actually put gas masks on them and pumped so much marijuana smoke into those masks that the monkeys suffocated. Suffocation, of course, kills brain cells. How much do you suppose Heath was paid to skew his research and by whom? Well indirectly the tax payers probably but was it government? Because he loved the Vietnam war, Nixon hated pot remember? Ford may have also. He had replaced Nixon by '74 because of Watergate which was a series of lies about money paid to people to steal files called the "Pentagon Papers," which were the Defence Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. Probably stuff about why they were over there. Maybe Mr. Zinn was right: Tin, rubber and oil. Guess we'll never know. Because people lie.
Who else might want this wonder plant besmirched? We've already established that the cotton industry and the pulp and paper industry suffer just by the existence of hemp. They had enough pull to get it criminalized in the first place. But is there an industry that hates pot more? Maybe alcohol. If people smoke pot they drink less, right? Well I can think of an industry that actually puts the profits of textiles, trees and booze to shame. That is, because they make more, they have more to lose if hemp makes a comeback. In fact it's the most profitable industry in the U.S. 251 BBBillion dollars in 2005. In the same year the whole world made 602 billion from this industry. I'd say the U.S. is in control of this industry. What is it? The prescription drug industry. Big Pharma!
I've said it before, I have seen few entities if any that are more evil than Big Pharma. Maybe banks, Monsanto, some countries, Wal-Mart, I dunno. It's hard to measure evil. Consider this: There are all kinds of people saying things like chemotherapy is not very effective. Rates vary. I've even heard it said that not a single person has ever been cured of cancer by chemo. Now I have also heard of people who got better after chemotherapy. It appears quite effective in certain types of cancer. Then people rebut that by saying that sometimes cancer is misdiagnosed and a person who didn't have it before gets chemo and, BAM, they still don't have it. Whatever the case may be, here is what I DO know: chemotherapy is expensive, it beats the shit out of a person so much that many have said the cure is worse than the disease. So if there is a vinegar-like substance called DCA or a natural herb like marijuana that just might be a more effective alternative, why are they not being explored? Because they are viable, less expensive treatments. Not worth pursuing for the health care corporations cuz they can't make enough money selling them.
We can't forget that the pharmaceutical companies represent a branch of science. And science seems to be on an anti-nature bent that has lasted about a generation. Hemp can be used to make diesel. Why use something boring and natural like that when we can cause yeast to make diesel through synthetic biology, a kind of breaking down of nature into spare parts known as "bio-bricks?" Ostensibly cuz it's cooler and seems more futuristic? Yeah you've got to mess with genes and DNA to be a REAL scientist! You've got to make yeast that eats sugar and poops diesel instead of alcohol. You have to make spider goats whose milk you can synthesize into super strong goat-web and shit like that. Ha ha ha. Well I just made that up. NO I DI INT! Documentary called "Playing God." Check it out!
You want to make your own gas from hemp you can find the recipe on the internet for cryin' out loud. You don't need to be Dr. Frankenstein messing with the building blocks of life, we can make diesel from hemp in our back yards! You might think I'm joking about THAT too but I'm not.
Saw a comedian recently talking about how he hates people who question science. And to be fair, I love science. I don't question it. But I DO question scientists. The comedian says that we had all this natural medicine, experimental medicine, homeopathic medicine and we did some research on a bunch of it and the stuff that worked became MEDICINE. I don't question that. I question a car salesman who comes to me with dollars in his eyes knowing I need a car and he's got an expensive car to sell me. I question a meth dealer who cooked up some 50 dollar cold medicine in his basement and now comes to me with dollars in his eyes knowing I want to get high and sells it to me for 5000 dollars. So why can't I question a doctor who knows I want a cure for cancer and comes to me with dollars in his eyes and offers me expensive treatment like chemotherapy? I'm not going to say it doesn't work, I just think you better question it. Not the science, the scientist. With dollars in his eyes. In fact a comedian might make fun of a person who doesn't question it. Like this: we have this plant we grow in our grow op for 15 bucks and you can buy a month's worth for 1000 bucks. Or I can take it to the lab, get a scientist, a doctor, to turn it into "medicine", call it "Marinol" and charge 5000 for a month's worth. Okay it's not as funny but who should be made fun of? The guy who trusts medicine or the guy who doesn't? I think the guy who does because... people lie! DOCTORS lie! SCIENTISTS lie! Not all of them but a little healthy skepticism is a good thing. And I believe the virtue of skepticism is directly proportional to the amount of money involved in that thing you are skeptical about. Not because of that thing, because of the person trying to sell you that thing.
The pot doc tells us that BC bud generates 7 billion dollars a year for the province of British Columbia. You can get a job as a clipper, cutting the leaves off pot plants because it's not the leaves but the bud, the flower, that becomes marijuana. These jobs start at 20 bucks an hour! TAX FREE! I'm unemployed right now throwing resumes in for security jobs that pay 14 bucks an hour that become 10 bucks an hour after tax. Forget that! Somebody give me a job in Kelowna at one of the thousand grow ops there working as a clipper, PLEASE! I would not feel guilty about that job at all.
Joe Rogan had the line of the documentary. He had a few lines of the documentary. He's awesome. He said "For people who feel, life is a tragedy. For people who think, life is a comedy." If you are not laughing your ass off at the situation we have in Canada and the U.S. with marijuana and hemp, or if you're not depressed by it, maybe you might be smokin' too much of it.
Why is it considered evil and nasty and why is it illegal? Because people lie. People in power lie. The last line in this documentary is from a guy who wrote a book in which he predicted 45 years ago that marijuana/hemp would be legalized within 10 years. He says, "You can't sustain a lie forever." But when there's money involved, oh yes you can!
Hemp is the most useful plant in the world. Clothes made from it last longer. Paper made from it lasts longer. The Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper. The signers were probably all wearing hemp. Back in 1776 it was seen as a viable alternative to cotton and trees. In fact in 1619 there was a law enacted ordering farmers in America to grow MORE!
It is estimated in the doc that over 200 different medical conditions are best, and most cheaply treated with marijuana. NOTHING provides more medical benefits than cannabis.
You can make bio-diesel from hemp, rope, food, milk, building materials, plastic (that's biodegradable), fiberglass, jewelry, fishing bait, spice, beer, waffles, ice cream, tar, oil, flour, cake, cookies... it'd save me blog space to make a list of things that CAN'T be made from hemp.
Yet back in 1937 in the U.S. the Marihuana Tax Act grouped marijuana, hemp, cannabis, pot, schwag, cronic, weed, the whole works of them all together and because of perceived violence pot seemed to cause within the jazz musicians and "Negros" who were smoking it, and because of effective lobbying by tree and cotton industry spokespersons, made them all illegal. To grow it you needed a stamp and those stamps were not given out. Then during WWII came "Hemp for Victory." It was good once again. The government realized that it was too darn useful to NOT use in the war effort. Besides, it might make for more violent people to go kill Gerry and the Japs, right? But soon after, in 1948 it was criminalized again for the exact opposite reason: it made people pacifists and it made them think. This was detrimental to war efforts in the country. The "War on Drugs" as it was called by the '72 Nixon administration, was launched to prevent a war on war. Pot smokers hated Viet Nam but the American government didn't. An excerpt from the film, "The Trial of the Camden 28": "But after Mr. Zinn was on the stand, and he spelled it out, "Tin, rubber and oil," that's when I broke down in court. That's when I broke down and I realized, you know, it was pretty stupid of us to have swallowed that business about America being over there to save South Vietnam from the Communists; and when we had permitted, as we say, Cuba, 90 miles from our shore, to be a Communist country." Honesty... is such a lonely word!
It's got to be about more than money, doesn't it? Pot's dangerous! It kills brain cells! It's a gateway drug! It's highly addictive! Well no, no, no and no. Most of us in Canada already know most of these things but watch the doc and get the details. When I was in university I took a course called drugs and behaviour and we studied all the fun drugs like opiates, coke, barbiturates, acid, PCP, alcohol, and marijuana and for all of them we used a ratio of effective dose over lethal dose. How much would you need to take to feel an effect over how much you would need to take to kill you. With one joint as the ED, the LD for marijuana is believed to be between 1:20,000 and 1:40,000. In essence, it doesn't matter. NObody can smoke 20,000 OR 40,000 joints. It can't be done. There is NO lethal dose of marijuana. In history there has been a fatality rate for users of marijuana of 0. ZERO. Nobody has ever died from it. Compare this to alcohol with a 1:10 ED:LD rate. If one beer affects you, 10 will kill you. Now usually we pass out or puke before we can drink our 10 but every year in the U.S. 88,000 people die from excessive alcohol use. Zero from excessive pot use. 100,000 deaths a year from prescription drugs. Zilch from the ganja. Half a million deaths a year caused by smoking cigarettes. None from reefer. Even Aspirin and caffeine kill more people. Hell excessive use of WATER kills more people every year! Not only is marijuana NOT dangerous, you'd be hard pressed to find anything at all that is safer.
Gateway drug. Marijuana is a gateway to Doritos. That is all. The fact that the dude who sells you pot might just have something harder he could sell you, well that makes criminalization the gateway to the harder drugs, doesn't it? Because if you didn't have to buy from this guy on the down low, if sensi cigs or Thai tobacco or Columbian cancer sticks were available where normal cigarettes are, you'd probably never visit that dude.
Highly addictive? Also misleading. Have you ever seen anyone who smokes pot like cigarettes? The documentary gives a very good reason why there are so many people in marijuana rehab: they are sent there as part of their sentence for possession. So "addiction" in America is practically synonymous with possession. If you have it, the legal system reckons you are addicted to it. Science be damned. Marijuana shows negligible withdrawal symptoms in studies if any. It's habit forming but not addictive. All those people who think they are addicted to pot I have news for you, it won't hurt you to stop, you just don't want to. It's no harder than quitting lottery tickets or swearing. Not easy but not painful.
And it kills brain cells. This, as the doc suggests, was introduced into the public consciousness in 1974 in what is called the "Heath/Tulin study." Yet another example of scientists we should not trust. Apparently Heath alleged that he was exposing monkeys to 30 joints a day but actually put gas masks on them and pumped so much marijuana smoke into those masks that the monkeys suffocated. Suffocation, of course, kills brain cells. How much do you suppose Heath was paid to skew his research and by whom? Well indirectly the tax payers probably but was it government? Because he loved the Vietnam war, Nixon hated pot remember? Ford may have also. He had replaced Nixon by '74 because of Watergate which was a series of lies about money paid to people to steal files called the "Pentagon Papers," which were the Defence Department's secret history of the Vietnam War. Probably stuff about why they were over there. Maybe Mr. Zinn was right: Tin, rubber and oil. Guess we'll never know. Because people lie.
Who else might want this wonder plant besmirched? We've already established that the cotton industry and the pulp and paper industry suffer just by the existence of hemp. They had enough pull to get it criminalized in the first place. But is there an industry that hates pot more? Maybe alcohol. If people smoke pot they drink less, right? Well I can think of an industry that actually puts the profits of textiles, trees and booze to shame. That is, because they make more, they have more to lose if hemp makes a comeback. In fact it's the most profitable industry in the U.S. 251 BBBillion dollars in 2005. In the same year the whole world made 602 billion from this industry. I'd say the U.S. is in control of this industry. What is it? The prescription drug industry. Big Pharma!
I've said it before, I have seen few entities if any that are more evil than Big Pharma. Maybe banks, Monsanto, some countries, Wal-Mart, I dunno. It's hard to measure evil. Consider this: There are all kinds of people saying things like chemotherapy is not very effective. Rates vary. I've even heard it said that not a single person has ever been cured of cancer by chemo. Now I have also heard of people who got better after chemotherapy. It appears quite effective in certain types of cancer. Then people rebut that by saying that sometimes cancer is misdiagnosed and a person who didn't have it before gets chemo and, BAM, they still don't have it. Whatever the case may be, here is what I DO know: chemotherapy is expensive, it beats the shit out of a person so much that many have said the cure is worse than the disease. So if there is a vinegar-like substance called DCA or a natural herb like marijuana that just might be a more effective alternative, why are they not being explored? Because they are viable, less expensive treatments. Not worth pursuing for the health care corporations cuz they can't make enough money selling them.
We can't forget that the pharmaceutical companies represent a branch of science. And science seems to be on an anti-nature bent that has lasted about a generation. Hemp can be used to make diesel. Why use something boring and natural like that when we can cause yeast to make diesel through synthetic biology, a kind of breaking down of nature into spare parts known as "bio-bricks?" Ostensibly cuz it's cooler and seems more futuristic? Yeah you've got to mess with genes and DNA to be a REAL scientist! You've got to make yeast that eats sugar and poops diesel instead of alcohol. You have to make spider goats whose milk you can synthesize into super strong goat-web and shit like that. Ha ha ha. Well I just made that up. NO I DI INT! Documentary called "Playing God." Check it out!
You want to make your own gas from hemp you can find the recipe on the internet for cryin' out loud. You don't need to be Dr. Frankenstein messing with the building blocks of life, we can make diesel from hemp in our back yards! You might think I'm joking about THAT too but I'm not.
Saw a comedian recently talking about how he hates people who question science. And to be fair, I love science. I don't question it. But I DO question scientists. The comedian says that we had all this natural medicine, experimental medicine, homeopathic medicine and we did some research on a bunch of it and the stuff that worked became MEDICINE. I don't question that. I question a car salesman who comes to me with dollars in his eyes knowing I need a car and he's got an expensive car to sell me. I question a meth dealer who cooked up some 50 dollar cold medicine in his basement and now comes to me with dollars in his eyes knowing I want to get high and sells it to me for 5000 dollars. So why can't I question a doctor who knows I want a cure for cancer and comes to me with dollars in his eyes and offers me expensive treatment like chemotherapy? I'm not going to say it doesn't work, I just think you better question it. Not the science, the scientist. With dollars in his eyes. In fact a comedian might make fun of a person who doesn't question it. Like this: we have this plant we grow in our grow op for 15 bucks and you can buy a month's worth for 1000 bucks. Or I can take it to the lab, get a scientist, a doctor, to turn it into "medicine", call it "Marinol" and charge 5000 for a month's worth. Okay it's not as funny but who should be made fun of? The guy who trusts medicine or the guy who doesn't? I think the guy who does because... people lie! DOCTORS lie! SCIENTISTS lie! Not all of them but a little healthy skepticism is a good thing. And I believe the virtue of skepticism is directly proportional to the amount of money involved in that thing you are skeptical about. Not because of that thing, because of the person trying to sell you that thing.
The pot doc tells us that BC bud generates 7 billion dollars a year for the province of British Columbia. You can get a job as a clipper, cutting the leaves off pot plants because it's not the leaves but the bud, the flower, that becomes marijuana. These jobs start at 20 bucks an hour! TAX FREE! I'm unemployed right now throwing resumes in for security jobs that pay 14 bucks an hour that become 10 bucks an hour after tax. Forget that! Somebody give me a job in Kelowna at one of the thousand grow ops there working as a clipper, PLEASE! I would not feel guilty about that job at all.
Joe Rogan had the line of the documentary. He had a few lines of the documentary. He's awesome. He said "For people who feel, life is a tragedy. For people who think, life is a comedy." If you are not laughing your ass off at the situation we have in Canada and the U.S. with marijuana and hemp, or if you're not depressed by it, maybe you might be smokin' too much of it.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Truth or Consequences
Woken up this morning at 5 by a VERY loud jumbo jet flying too close to the roof of the house in which I was sleeping. Again I have one of these situations now where I can't remember if I was dreaming something or if it got in my head after waking up. But I have the Billy Joel song, "Honesty" going through my mind. It may have been on the soundtrack of the dream I was having or I might have spontaneously started after I was unceremoniously jolted awake not just by the loud aircraft but by the Garfieldian THUD of the upstairs cat being frightened off the chair, table, counter or elevated surface upon which it was positioned directly above my bed.
"If you look for tenderness it isn't hard to find... but if you look for truthfulness you might just as well be blind." "Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard, but mostly what I need from you." It's a love song and he's addressing a chick he wants to bang - I mean romance, but these words would be so appropriate in so many of life's situations no? Like a job interview? It's easy for both the employer and the prospective employee to fake niceties for the duration of an interview. They can lie and even feign tenderness to the other until the hiring after which they are stuck with each other and the kid gloves come off. I've always said that job interviews are like first dates. I'll be doing some soon and am looking forward to them like root canals.
Why the hell is it so hard for us to be honest with each other? Ever get the feeling that we're all acting our ways through life? All the world's indeed a stage and we are merely players, performers and portrayers, each another's audience outside the gilded cage. I'm not sure this restricted freedom is all that "gilded" a cage for me, Mr. Peart. Mr. Neil Peart, lyricist for Rush who penned those lines borrowing from Shakespeare... I just feel restricted. "Gilded" means gold covered. A gilded cage is when you have restrictions but your situation is not all that bad. You're not uncomfortable. I get the feeling that so many people around me are settling for their slavery. They don't realize how limited they are and how much free-er they could be.
How many of us just don't have free time? When I was working I had days off but they were used to recover from days on physically and mentally, and to do chores that I had no time to do on work days. I know everyone out there knows how THAT is! Days off are like sleep because it is a drain on the brain our work world. I am ill equipped to act. Maybe insufficient tact if "tact" means, as I think it does nowadays, the ability to snow other folks, shine them on, con them, deceive them and sell them your character. So I must put up barriers to keep myself intact and that's draining. The phoniness of it is a drain on the entity we call the soul. At least to me. So free time is more like recovery time. I think the average person needs a little bit more. After all, how can you be free if you don't have enough free time?
But back to our original song, I didn't wake up with Rush hammerin' through my head. It was Billy Boy. The other day I had an experience that is not so uncommon and it's just another example of what I'm talking about where I wish I could have just sung "Honesty" to someone. I went to the gym right across the street from me. It's not even safe for me to get any cardio outside on the icy streets and since I'm not raising the old heart rate from doing patrols at work I thought I'd go over, ride the bike, maybe throw some weights around, you know, the whole health thing. I told the receptionist I'd never been there before and she said I could get a tour from a trainer. Off to a flying start! I actually prefer a gym with no trainers at all. It's not like I'm a rookie over here. I find they just get in the way. In fact I'd like it if I could have the whole gym to myself. I don't go to the gym to meet people; I don't want a spotter; I don't want to "work in" with others; I don't want to shower with others; I just want to get my burn on and get out. So the trainer happens by. Will Love was his name. I shit thee not! The first thing he says to me is, "We're gonna need you to fill out this form." Well immediately I'm on the defensive. I've been screwed by gyms before and I don't want to be locked into any long term contracts that I haven't been told about. Like the Fitness World scam. Don't go to Fitness World, they're scumbags!
So I say that to Brother Love and he says that he can't give me a tour if I don't fill out the paper. It's asking for my name, address, phone number, email, and lots of other information that is TOTALLY unnecessary for a waiver, which is what it was, but I'm just not in protest mood so I embrace my gilded cage and fill out the stupid form. After all if I slip on the wet deck of the pool I could sue the place. I have read in the local papers stories about the massive numbers of Calgarians slipping and hurting themselves on the streets and sidewalks of the city. I have filled out several slip and fall liability reports at work. I have navigated the sheer ice of the hill on which I live and need to go down after work and slipped myself countless times. It's the reason I want to ride the bike at this gym instead of go for a walk or a jog outside. Yet I can't even get a look at the place unless I sign a waiver. A waiver that forces me to relinquish information I can not be legally required to relinquish. Ahhhh screw it, here's the form Willy, do your best.
I'm now fully expecting the con job. He shows me around some rooms where people are working out, stretching, carbo loading, soaking in the pool, steaming, and such and I say, "Wow, it's a Sunday and there still seems to be a lot of folks here. I'm actually looking for a quiet gym." "Well that is exactly what we are!" He then goes into some explanation of how at peak hours it is a bit crowded but most of the time it's not. It was about 11 AM. Certainly NOT a time of the day that is popular for working out and I've already told him it looks busy to me. But I guess he figures if he says something I will believe him even if it's not true. Such a lonely word...
Then we get to the part I'm dreading most: the price. I start out by saying I don't want the scumbaggy Fitness World locked in contract. "Well that's exactly what we won't be offering," lies Will. He then gives me the price. There are a few but I've told him I want to pay month to month because my schedule is not stable one WEEK in advance never mind a year or two, or three. He tells me about the one year rate even though I'm not interested then he tells me it's 69 a month for twelve months. I say again I'm not interested if I have to make any agreement long term. And to me a year is long term. He then tells me about this deal where you pay 99 bucks to start. After that it's 59 a month but if you go on vacation or are working at camp for a month or something you can pay only 5 bucks. No long term commitment whatsoever! Okay why would I pay 5 bucks for nothing? He says that is so I can pay 59 again the next month I use the gym. Oh, oh, oh, so if I don't pay the 5 bucks I have to pay the 99 again the next month I come back. And I suppose if I just don't show up for an entire month the 5 bucks doesn't apply, right? I have to give you notice. Probably advanced notice, right? And what if I am away for a month that doesn't coincide with my payment date? Still full rate, right? And I guess the big question is how long would I be locked into this agreement?
Well he says again that I'm not locked into it for any specified length of time. No, I say, I'm locked in FOREVER! This IS a long term agreement and it's exactly what I'm NOT looking for. I actually didn't say that, I just nodded my head, took his card and allowed him to believe I was stupid enough to fall for these shenanigans. I guess I did that because I didn't want to get too deep into the BS and hear old Will Love mealy mouthing about how customers like the idea of being locked into a payment schedule because it gives them incentive to go to the gym. I got outta there without singing so much as a word of "Honesty" by Billy Joel, but I wish I could have.
Now if I tell this story or any story about people just playing their roles and acting their parts like old Will, there are all kinds of folks who just give me the old, "Well that's the way of the world," or some equally hopeless, complacent, apathetically pithy axiom in hopes that I will join them in their suffering. Well, as I've related here before, I don't have a house or a mortgage hanging over my head, I don't have a wife or kids to send to college, I don't even have a dog to feed, so I am a weirdo. I have the genuine freedom to move on from a toxic situation at work rather than try to placate myself with platitudes. I can even move out of a country where I can't find a decent job if I want. I can distance myself from losers who don't have a problem with lying for a living. I still have that freedom, but boy it's deteriorating.
I have plenty of legitimate reasons for leaving the site where I was working. But I will be going to the EI office soon and explaining why I left THAT toxic situation and am expecting to hear from a worker who knows he/she is just chock o block full of crap, these same tired, overused, field hand spirituals, "There's nothing we can do." "The work world is tough." "You can't expect stressless, honest employers." "We're all in this together." "Chin up, it's not as bad as it seems." "There's always someone else who has it worse." "Accentuate the positive eliminate the negative." "Wade in the water. Wade in the water children..."
Is it me? Am I expecting too much? Why can't I work for someone who won't lie to me? Why can't I find a job that I enjoy AND is not causing conflict with the principles I have chosen for my life? Why can't we ALL? "Freedom, oh freedom. Well that's just some people talkin'. Our prison is walkin' through this world all alone." Well now it's the Eagles. Gee I wonder why there are so many songs about this same thing.
"For your safety," "Thank you for choosing Calgary Transit," Our bank machines will give you access to your money, sometimes, and for a small fee, for YOUR convenience," "...because we care," "I'm fine," "Easytax," "How are you," "Fair market value," "No taxation without representation," "Fat free," "One size fits all," "Rock the vote," "No preservatives added," "Looking forward to meeting you,"........ Oh the truthiness! These are the bars of our prison. Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
"If you look for tenderness it isn't hard to find... but if you look for truthfulness you might just as well be blind." "Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard, but mostly what I need from you." It's a love song and he's addressing a chick he wants to bang - I mean romance, but these words would be so appropriate in so many of life's situations no? Like a job interview? It's easy for both the employer and the prospective employee to fake niceties for the duration of an interview. They can lie and even feign tenderness to the other until the hiring after which they are stuck with each other and the kid gloves come off. I've always said that job interviews are like first dates. I'll be doing some soon and am looking forward to them like root canals.
Why the hell is it so hard for us to be honest with each other? Ever get the feeling that we're all acting our ways through life? All the world's indeed a stage and we are merely players, performers and portrayers, each another's audience outside the gilded cage. I'm not sure this restricted freedom is all that "gilded" a cage for me, Mr. Peart. Mr. Neil Peart, lyricist for Rush who penned those lines borrowing from Shakespeare... I just feel restricted. "Gilded" means gold covered. A gilded cage is when you have restrictions but your situation is not all that bad. You're not uncomfortable. I get the feeling that so many people around me are settling for their slavery. They don't realize how limited they are and how much free-er they could be.
How many of us just don't have free time? When I was working I had days off but they were used to recover from days on physically and mentally, and to do chores that I had no time to do on work days. I know everyone out there knows how THAT is! Days off are like sleep because it is a drain on the brain our work world. I am ill equipped to act. Maybe insufficient tact if "tact" means, as I think it does nowadays, the ability to snow other folks, shine them on, con them, deceive them and sell them your character. So I must put up barriers to keep myself intact and that's draining. The phoniness of it is a drain on the entity we call the soul. At least to me. So free time is more like recovery time. I think the average person needs a little bit more. After all, how can you be free if you don't have enough free time?
But back to our original song, I didn't wake up with Rush hammerin' through my head. It was Billy Boy. The other day I had an experience that is not so uncommon and it's just another example of what I'm talking about where I wish I could have just sung "Honesty" to someone. I went to the gym right across the street from me. It's not even safe for me to get any cardio outside on the icy streets and since I'm not raising the old heart rate from doing patrols at work I thought I'd go over, ride the bike, maybe throw some weights around, you know, the whole health thing. I told the receptionist I'd never been there before and she said I could get a tour from a trainer. Off to a flying start! I actually prefer a gym with no trainers at all. It's not like I'm a rookie over here. I find they just get in the way. In fact I'd like it if I could have the whole gym to myself. I don't go to the gym to meet people; I don't want a spotter; I don't want to "work in" with others; I don't want to shower with others; I just want to get my burn on and get out. So the trainer happens by. Will Love was his name. I shit thee not! The first thing he says to me is, "We're gonna need you to fill out this form." Well immediately I'm on the defensive. I've been screwed by gyms before and I don't want to be locked into any long term contracts that I haven't been told about. Like the Fitness World scam. Don't go to Fitness World, they're scumbags!
So I say that to Brother Love and he says that he can't give me a tour if I don't fill out the paper. It's asking for my name, address, phone number, email, and lots of other information that is TOTALLY unnecessary for a waiver, which is what it was, but I'm just not in protest mood so I embrace my gilded cage and fill out the stupid form. After all if I slip on the wet deck of the pool I could sue the place. I have read in the local papers stories about the massive numbers of Calgarians slipping and hurting themselves on the streets and sidewalks of the city. I have filled out several slip and fall liability reports at work. I have navigated the sheer ice of the hill on which I live and need to go down after work and slipped myself countless times. It's the reason I want to ride the bike at this gym instead of go for a walk or a jog outside. Yet I can't even get a look at the place unless I sign a waiver. A waiver that forces me to relinquish information I can not be legally required to relinquish. Ahhhh screw it, here's the form Willy, do your best.
I'm now fully expecting the con job. He shows me around some rooms where people are working out, stretching, carbo loading, soaking in the pool, steaming, and such and I say, "Wow, it's a Sunday and there still seems to be a lot of folks here. I'm actually looking for a quiet gym." "Well that is exactly what we are!" He then goes into some explanation of how at peak hours it is a bit crowded but most of the time it's not. It was about 11 AM. Certainly NOT a time of the day that is popular for working out and I've already told him it looks busy to me. But I guess he figures if he says something I will believe him even if it's not true. Such a lonely word...
Then we get to the part I'm dreading most: the price. I start out by saying I don't want the scumbaggy Fitness World locked in contract. "Well that's exactly what we won't be offering," lies Will. He then gives me the price. There are a few but I've told him I want to pay month to month because my schedule is not stable one WEEK in advance never mind a year or two, or three. He tells me about the one year rate even though I'm not interested then he tells me it's 69 a month for twelve months. I say again I'm not interested if I have to make any agreement long term. And to me a year is long term. He then tells me about this deal where you pay 99 bucks to start. After that it's 59 a month but if you go on vacation or are working at camp for a month or something you can pay only 5 bucks. No long term commitment whatsoever! Okay why would I pay 5 bucks for nothing? He says that is so I can pay 59 again the next month I use the gym. Oh, oh, oh, so if I don't pay the 5 bucks I have to pay the 99 again the next month I come back. And I suppose if I just don't show up for an entire month the 5 bucks doesn't apply, right? I have to give you notice. Probably advanced notice, right? And what if I am away for a month that doesn't coincide with my payment date? Still full rate, right? And I guess the big question is how long would I be locked into this agreement?
Well he says again that I'm not locked into it for any specified length of time. No, I say, I'm locked in FOREVER! This IS a long term agreement and it's exactly what I'm NOT looking for. I actually didn't say that, I just nodded my head, took his card and allowed him to believe I was stupid enough to fall for these shenanigans. I guess I did that because I didn't want to get too deep into the BS and hear old Will Love mealy mouthing about how customers like the idea of being locked into a payment schedule because it gives them incentive to go to the gym. I got outta there without singing so much as a word of "Honesty" by Billy Joel, but I wish I could have.
Now if I tell this story or any story about people just playing their roles and acting their parts like old Will, there are all kinds of folks who just give me the old, "Well that's the way of the world," or some equally hopeless, complacent, apathetically pithy axiom in hopes that I will join them in their suffering. Well, as I've related here before, I don't have a house or a mortgage hanging over my head, I don't have a wife or kids to send to college, I don't even have a dog to feed, so I am a weirdo. I have the genuine freedom to move on from a toxic situation at work rather than try to placate myself with platitudes. I can even move out of a country where I can't find a decent job if I want. I can distance myself from losers who don't have a problem with lying for a living. I still have that freedom, but boy it's deteriorating.
I have plenty of legitimate reasons for leaving the site where I was working. But I will be going to the EI office soon and explaining why I left THAT toxic situation and am expecting to hear from a worker who knows he/she is just chock o block full of crap, these same tired, overused, field hand spirituals, "There's nothing we can do." "The work world is tough." "You can't expect stressless, honest employers." "We're all in this together." "Chin up, it's not as bad as it seems." "There's always someone else who has it worse." "Accentuate the positive eliminate the negative." "Wade in the water. Wade in the water children..."
Is it me? Am I expecting too much? Why can't I work for someone who won't lie to me? Why can't I find a job that I enjoy AND is not causing conflict with the principles I have chosen for my life? Why can't we ALL? "Freedom, oh freedom. Well that's just some people talkin'. Our prison is walkin' through this world all alone." Well now it's the Eagles. Gee I wonder why there are so many songs about this same thing.
"For your safety," "Thank you for choosing Calgary Transit," Our bank machines will give you access to your money, sometimes, and for a small fee, for YOUR convenience," "...because we care," "I'm fine," "Easytax," "How are you," "Fair market value," "No taxation without representation," "Fat free," "One size fits all," "Rock the vote," "No preservatives added," "Looking forward to meeting you,"........ Oh the truthiness! These are the bars of our prison. Leastaways, that's what I reckon.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Olympic fun and games and crazy names
The Olympics are upon us! And by remarkable coincidence I have worked my last day at the site I was posted, (Southland Park), for a whole pile of reasons, and I have the leisure with which to follow the events better than I would have if I had stayed. Hmmm almost like I planned it that way... But there would have been lots of events at work had I remained there I am sure. My employers would have won the gold medals in micro-managing, unnecessary job description changing, pretending you did not promise the opposite of what you are doing, overtaxing, under training, buck passing and many other office Olympic events. I sure miss some of the people at that site but there are already things I'm SUPER glad to be rid of.
But, if the last 46 years and 10 months of my life are any indication, I'll just move right along to the next job that has a new pile of reasons to leave. Not the same pile, a new one. That's the satisfaction I get for choosing to stand up for myself and lead a principled life. A brand spanking new, shiny pile of dog shit to deal with and try not to get discouraged. But there is always the hope, and I must be a dolt but I'm not kidding, there IS still a hope that someday I'll find a job where I work for people who appreciate and respect me enough to just forego all the office Olympics and be nice! They don't even have to be nice, just working for people who aren't corporate climbing, truth bending, finger crossing, money grubbing, power tripping, self aggrandizing douchebags would be a breath of fresh air. What I have had at every job in my life from supervisors, bosses, owners, head teachers, department deans and whatnot is more comparable to a breath of Beijing 2008 Olympic air.
But life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. I gotta keep pluggin' away and although I'm cycling at the back of the peloton right now there is still time for a sprint to the finish.
Right now though I feel like the athletes in this cartoon. Especially the diver. heh heh heh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AHcxQgLRKM
I have to say though, so far Canada is doing great! I normally don't watch things like luge or snowboarding or figure skating or cross country skiing or really anything but curling and hockey but I have seen a large number of events in which the Canadian has been doing well, continues to do well without wiping out or getting screwed by a judge, and actually finished in the medals! That's fun to watch! It's also great to have the Canadian coverage and not be stuck with figure skating and short track speed skating all channels all the time like we had in Korea, a country only good at those two winter Olympic events. I'm sure Kim Yuna is a wonderful person but I got so sick of her during the last winter Olympics, and for a long-ass time afterwards, I wanted to hire Tonya Harding to hit her in the shin with a pipe! I can only imagine how sick of Psy expats in Korea are by now! Good thing there is no Olympic event in making shyte music or embarrassing dances!
It is also interesting to see the shots of the mountains of Sochi and some of the beautiful sights around there. People are complaining about one star hotels, extreme security, side by side toilets and such, but I consider that character. If I wasn't such a blockhead, (and didn't need money), I would be working in Russia teaching ESL right now and could be AT some of these events! How amazing would it be to go to an Olympic men's hockey game between Russia and Canada? I could be doing that! Come to think of it I could have been in Vancouver watching the winter Olympics while they were THERE too! I could have seen Crosby's golden goal! That is, if I put a second mortgage on my house to buy the ticket. Which is to say IF I HAD a house or a FIRST mortgage... My life-marathon strategy leaves a little to be desired methinks.
I always like the special stories too. The special interest stories like Eddy the Eagle. Remember him? The British ski jumper? They let him jump before they allowed the women to do it. Go figure! Or of course the Jamaican bobsled team. The movie about that, Cool Runnings, was filmed largely in Calgary. DAMMIT! I wasn't in Calgary when the winter Olympics were HERE either! What is wrong with me?
This year's weird story: Iran has 5 athletes at the games.
Ha ha ha. The uranium medal. No, seriously they are in skiing events! Snow skiing, not sand skiing. Well, I hear Saudi Arabia has a pretty good hockey team.
I also have to add that there are some pretty whacky names out there. Swiss hockey player Luca Cunti, German ski jumper Andreas Wank, Swedish female hockey player Jenni Asserholt, biathlete Jakov Fak, Japanese short track skater Satoshi Sakashita, and if that's not my favourite there's this guy
Believe it or not this is French short track skater Thibaut Fauconnet. Fauconnet, man! Just imagine the introductions if they all got together in the same place. har har har!
I've been thinking. I'm technically listed as a "casual" guard now where I work but not getting any hours at all. So with all my spare time I should start hangin' out at the Olympic ski jump or bobsled track here in Calgary. It wouldn't take me much more than 4 years to whip this fine specimen of a body into Olympic shape. Why, I already have an excess of weight that will give me extra speed in either event. A little bit of practice and I could be BETTER than Eddy the Eagle! But I'd probably get a ski jumping coach who promises I will get to jump then makes me wax the skis of the actual team members. Or a luge coach that wants me to do the two man event. Have you seen this? Top or bottom it's just not for me. I get uncomfortable washing a cucumber for crying out loud!
But I guess I won't stress about it. After all by the next Olympics I'll be 50. HEY, SENIOR Olympics! Why don't they have those? Events like ice ballroom dancing, the restroom sprint, Matlock marathon, downhill... Geez just about EVERYTHING is going downhill after 50 isn't it?
SO anyhoo, if you wondered what I was up to this is it for a while. I actually had one "interview" already. The email said to dress nice because this is a job interview. Then the day of the interview moments before leaving I received an email with a link to a lengthy and complicated application to fill out, print out and bring to the "interview." I don't have a printer and didn't have time to go to one so didn't do that. Turned out we were trying to find guns, knives, and grenades in luggage ex-ray slides. Like airport Where's Waldo for money! The test was brutal. Only 5 people passed. About the amount that could have passed if we all just guessed on the exam. I didn't pass and am okay with that. Then today I got an email from the people who conducted the "interview" saying that my application for the position of pre-board scanner has not been chosen for an interview. What??!!
Not to worry, I have lots of applications out there, I'm sure I'll get back to work soon. With my luck I'll start the day of the Canada/Russia men's hockey final. But I'll TVO that game when I get to it. Well, if I HAD TVO on my TV. That is to say, IF I had a TV...
But, if the last 46 years and 10 months of my life are any indication, I'll just move right along to the next job that has a new pile of reasons to leave. Not the same pile, a new one. That's the satisfaction I get for choosing to stand up for myself and lead a principled life. A brand spanking new, shiny pile of dog shit to deal with and try not to get discouraged. But there is always the hope, and I must be a dolt but I'm not kidding, there IS still a hope that someday I'll find a job where I work for people who appreciate and respect me enough to just forego all the office Olympics and be nice! They don't even have to be nice, just working for people who aren't corporate climbing, truth bending, finger crossing, money grubbing, power tripping, self aggrandizing douchebags would be a breath of fresh air. What I have had at every job in my life from supervisors, bosses, owners, head teachers, department deans and whatnot is more comparable to a breath of Beijing 2008 Olympic air.
But life isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. I gotta keep pluggin' away and although I'm cycling at the back of the peloton right now there is still time for a sprint to the finish.
Right now though I feel like the athletes in this cartoon. Especially the diver. heh heh heh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AHcxQgLRKM
I have to say though, so far Canada is doing great! I normally don't watch things like luge or snowboarding or figure skating or cross country skiing or really anything but curling and hockey but I have seen a large number of events in which the Canadian has been doing well, continues to do well without wiping out or getting screwed by a judge, and actually finished in the medals! That's fun to watch! It's also great to have the Canadian coverage and not be stuck with figure skating and short track speed skating all channels all the time like we had in Korea, a country only good at those two winter Olympic events. I'm sure Kim Yuna is a wonderful person but I got so sick of her during the last winter Olympics, and for a long-ass time afterwards, I wanted to hire Tonya Harding to hit her in the shin with a pipe! I can only imagine how sick of Psy expats in Korea are by now! Good thing there is no Olympic event in making shyte music or embarrassing dances!
It is also interesting to see the shots of the mountains of Sochi and some of the beautiful sights around there. People are complaining about one star hotels, extreme security, side by side toilets and such, but I consider that character. If I wasn't such a blockhead, (and didn't need money), I would be working in Russia teaching ESL right now and could be AT some of these events! How amazing would it be to go to an Olympic men's hockey game between Russia and Canada? I could be doing that! Come to think of it I could have been in Vancouver watching the winter Olympics while they were THERE too! I could have seen Crosby's golden goal! That is, if I put a second mortgage on my house to buy the ticket. Which is to say IF I HAD a house or a FIRST mortgage... My life-marathon strategy leaves a little to be desired methinks.
I always like the special stories too. The special interest stories like Eddy the Eagle. Remember him? The British ski jumper? They let him jump before they allowed the women to do it. Go figure! Or of course the Jamaican bobsled team. The movie about that, Cool Runnings, was filmed largely in Calgary. DAMMIT! I wasn't in Calgary when the winter Olympics were HERE either! What is wrong with me?
This year's weird story: Iran has 5 athletes at the games.
Ha ha ha. The uranium medal. No, seriously they are in skiing events! Snow skiing, not sand skiing. Well, I hear Saudi Arabia has a pretty good hockey team.
I also have to add that there are some pretty whacky names out there. Swiss hockey player Luca Cunti, German ski jumper Andreas Wank, Swedish female hockey player Jenni Asserholt, biathlete Jakov Fak, Japanese short track skater Satoshi Sakashita, and if that's not my favourite there's this guy
Believe it or not this is French short track skater Thibaut Fauconnet. Fauconnet, man! Just imagine the introductions if they all got together in the same place. har har har!
I've been thinking. I'm technically listed as a "casual" guard now where I work but not getting any hours at all. So with all my spare time I should start hangin' out at the Olympic ski jump or bobsled track here in Calgary. It wouldn't take me much more than 4 years to whip this fine specimen of a body into Olympic shape. Why, I already have an excess of weight that will give me extra speed in either event. A little bit of practice and I could be BETTER than Eddy the Eagle! But I'd probably get a ski jumping coach who promises I will get to jump then makes me wax the skis of the actual team members. Or a luge coach that wants me to do the two man event. Have you seen this? Top or bottom it's just not for me. I get uncomfortable washing a cucumber for crying out loud!
But I guess I won't stress about it. After all by the next Olympics I'll be 50. HEY, SENIOR Olympics! Why don't they have those? Events like ice ballroom dancing, the restroom sprint, Matlock marathon, downhill... Geez just about EVERYTHING is going downhill after 50 isn't it?
SO anyhoo, if you wondered what I was up to this is it for a while. I actually had one "interview" already. The email said to dress nice because this is a job interview. Then the day of the interview moments before leaving I received an email with a link to a lengthy and complicated application to fill out, print out and bring to the "interview." I don't have a printer and didn't have time to go to one so didn't do that. Turned out we were trying to find guns, knives, and grenades in luggage ex-ray slides. Like airport Where's Waldo for money! The test was brutal. Only 5 people passed. About the amount that could have passed if we all just guessed on the exam. I didn't pass and am okay with that. Then today I got an email from the people who conducted the "interview" saying that my application for the position of pre-board scanner has not been chosen for an interview. What??!!
Not to worry, I have lots of applications out there, I'm sure I'll get back to work soon. With my luck I'll start the day of the Canada/Russia men's hockey final. But I'll TVO that game when I get to it. Well, if I HAD TVO on my TV. That is to say, IF I had a TV...
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Potayto Potahto
I haven't quite finished watching this ludicrous display and don't really know if I will. It seems as though science wanted an easy victory so they matched a Globe Trotter, (Nye), against a Washington General, (Ham). And even at that I think Ham had the comment of the debate in his 5 minute introduction: "We weren't there." He had me at "we weren't there." Nobody knows cuz we weren't fucking THERE! So shut the hell up already! This is just two people arguing over the difference between religious faith and scientific theory. Let me end the debate right now: there's negligible difference. Faith is described in the Bible as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It's Hebrews 11:1 for all you sticklers. A scientific theory is accepted as a well substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world based on knowledge that has been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experimentation. People believe this also applies to evolution. It gives Bill Nye a massively unfair advantage. This does NOT apply to random evolution as a theory of how things came about because, once again, we weren't THERE! There can be no observation or experimentation.
In fact if you want to apply some real science to the debate, evolution depends on random genetic mutation as its engine. Oddly enough there has never been, in observation or experimentation, a new species created through genetic mutation. Never. Zero. Yet the idea that the, what, 8.7 million species we have on Earth now and the countless that there have been in the past and are now extinct ALL being created through genetic mutation is an inexplicably enduring theory despite SCIENTIFIC evidence to the contrary. So what would change your mind, evidence? I find that hard to believe since there is absolutely no evidence of evidence that caused him to make up his mind in the first place. And there IS scientific evidence that is so fantastically against the concept of macro evolution it makes it about the most improbable idea EVER.
You've all heard of Darwin and probably a lot of you have heard of Dick Dawkins. I bet, outside of my blog, you've never heard of Lee Spetner. Spetner would have made smoke come out the Science Guy's ears. In the 16 years since his book Not By Chance was published there have been many who have tried to debate Spetner, and question his numbers and his science, none yet successfully. The book is not famous but definitely should be for its calculation of the odds of the simplest new species being formed through random genetic mutation. Using numbers favourable to, even suggested by the architects of Neo Darwinism, Spetner calculated the odds of that simplest of new species being created through random genetic mutation to be 3.6x10 to the 2738th power to one against. The scientifically agreed upon odds of impossibility are 10 to the 50th power to one against. To give you some idea, winning by betting on one number on roulette SEVENTEEN times in a row is possible. Odds are about 1 in 10 to the 45th power against. But you'd get booted out of any casino before this could happen. Because NO body would believe this is possible. NO body. Many things well within the realm of possibility are completely discounted by reasonable human beings as impossible. If somebody bet only 5 or 6 times in a row on, say number 13, and won there would not be a person in the casino who believed he/she wasn't cheating. Yet billions believe in something astronomically less likely. And bear in mind this number applies to just one single new species. What the real odds are against everything coming into being this way dizzy the intellect!
Spetner explains a bit about genetic mutation. He says how a mutation really never creates new information in the genome. It always destroys info. Now there are going to be people saying, "Well what about those germs and those moths and those whatever?!" Sometimes an inhibitor gene is destroyed and this allows something that was inhibited to be produced making it appear as though the mutation led to something new being produced. So if we had wing, gill, tail, webbed feet inhibitor genes then to mutate them away may allow wings, tails, gills or webbed feet to form all uninhibited like. It would take billions of extremely rarely occurring mutations targeting already existing inhibitor genes randomly to create new species. Random targeting. That's not possible is it? This is the trouble evolutionists constantly get themselves into.
Neither I, nor Spetner, am saying that evolution leading to the creation of all beings did not happen, we're saying it goes against all observation and experimentation to believe that it did. But I won't tell people not to believe in evolution, just to understand that it is merely that, a belief, no different than that of Ken Ham's belief that two of every species on Earth piled onto a the ark. Evolutionists scoff at that idea but it is VASTLY more plausible than evolution.
Don't just take my word for it. Read Not By Chance. Spetner explains the sources of all his calculations exhaustively. Read the many people who take up the cause of evolution or Darwinism or whatever and try with invariable impotency to challenge Spetner. Read Dawkins, (objectively), and you will see the gaping holes in his entertaining story telling. Changing his weasel program to SELECT appropriate letters was not natural selection, it was taking the random out of nature, which is just playing God. Read Leon Lederman trying to explain theoretical sciences in his soccer ball analogy and inadvertently explaining exactly how billions of people believe in a Higher Power. Listen to Chris Hedges speaking about ruthless corporate totalitarianism leading to crisis cults, groups of people who in desperate times revert to magical thinking. He then includes people who believe in the rapture and don't believe in evolution among the crisis cult magical thinkers when in fact evolution is just as magical an idea as Jesus returning to take all the good ones away. Not to mention science having various branches that are some of the more ruthless totalitarian corporations there are, Big Pharma to name one, practically every science faculty of every university charging 10 times what they did 20 years ago for degrees they know will not make the students enough money to ever pay their student loans back to name another. Education is big business, folks and that includes science. And where there's intense pressure to publish or perish monetarily, papers that are not-so-scientific can be the result. Sometimes papers that are "total bullshit" are the result. There's no money in investigating God. There can be no observational evidence. But untold amounts of money are given to fund studies every year on theoretical sciences that are nebulous at best but are all designed as a busy alternative to admitting that there is something or someone out there science will never understand. Check this out:
And now, check THIS out. See? Even the great Darwin himself doesn't know everything about nature. Now this is not brandy and these are not American monkeys, but if evolution is true they're close relatives aren't they? Maybe these are the trailer trash monkey relatives. I have read Darwin and I believe he is vastly misrepresented. He was NOT an atheist. He believed in God as a "first cause" and "ultimate law maker." In The Origin of Species we don't see the word "God" because then the book would certainly not have followed the direction science was trying to go at the time, and likely wouldn't have sold so well or even been published. But check it out folks, the N in Nature is almost always capitalized and Nature is spoken of in terms that very strongly suggest deity. This is why "Natural Selection" only makes sense with a Nature that includes a non-random, sentient, intelligence. Otherwise it's like "random targeting," something random with something not and is self-contradictory. Darwin just had a hard time with a LOVING God who could design species as hideously cruel as some beetles or wasps that paralyze live creatures and eat them while they can feel the pain just can't move. Much like my faith has been tested by the creation of a species that systematically destroys other members of its species and its own habitat in the selfish pursuit of money. Money. Aye there's the rub! Take a look at this:
It's an overly simplistic tactic employed to make science look better than it makes itself look. Of course we all support the method. It's a solid method. But much the same as education, religion, economics, politics, business, just about all the important aspects of our society, science has been adversely affected by what is euphemistically called "the human element." This statement by Steven Novella blissfully ignores the concept that without human scientists there can be no science. It's not science people mistrust, it's the scientists, and not all of them, just the ones who allow science to be skewed by what I will UN-euphemistically call "greed." To be fair I understand that some scientists are broke and need funding for research or they will be out of business. At the point where you have to choose between a job at 7-11 or continuing the studies in your expertise that has burdened you with student loan debt but that you just might love more than selling Slurpies, "human nature" might cause a scientist to abandon important research and study things that are marketable. For instance the magical oil munching microbes used in the Gulf. Have a read.
Now if you watch the documentary called "The Big Fix," you find that the microbes didn't eat the oil. At all! And talking about the oil leakage like it was completely plugged or mitigating it by calling it "natural seeps," why that's just irresponsible reporting by Discovery News isn't it? A trusted source of scientific reporting! Well, no, what the spin doctors will now do, under the employ of big oil, is find one misstep, one flaw in the documentary, expose it, flog it to death, write the whole thing off as conspiracy theory and pressure the public into doing the same thing by suggesting they are stupid if they believe otherwise. Or at least silly co-conspirators. If it ain't broke, why fix it? This tactic has been successfully employed for ages!
If you'd rather believe in a God particle than a God, that's your journey, man. But don't try to tell me that it's any less theoretical or "magical" than a person who believes in God, like me, looking at all the wonders, dare I say MIRACLES that surround us and seeing the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I'm okay with non-random evolutionists but discounting God in nature is no less a religion than including Him. Period.
Natural Selection/Mother Nature, the Bible/the God Delusion, the Big Bang/Creation, Jesus/Dawkins, God/Darwin, potayto/potahto.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Olympic Hockey - Canada Team II
The Sochi Olympics have started! I haven't watched any of them yet because I'll mostly be following curling, a few of the alpine fringe events like ski jump and snowboard pursuit, and of course "ice hockey." It seems weird saying that. Here in Canada ice is understood when we say hockey. But it was pointed out recently by a comedian I was listening to that we have ice hockey, field hockey, air hockey, all we need now is for someone to invent some kind of fire hockey and we'd have the four elements covered. Fire hockey. That's a tough one. Maybe played on lava? I guess that's why it doesn't exist. But anyhoo, every year there are glaring omissions from the Canadian Olympic roster. So many that it has been speculated that we could win the gold with players who didn't make the team. Sometimes I think the second team would actually do better because it wouldn't be made up of the spoiled, overpaid, superstar floaters, it'd be guys who know they have to take advantage of this chance and they'd give it all they've got.
The Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team is made up of 3 goalies, 8 defensemen and 15 forwards so I'm going to pick the same kind of team from the guys who will be watching the Olympics this year from their, no doubt, fully decked out man caves. There will be some no-brainers but there are a few surprises in here. We'll start with one big one between the pipes.
Goalies - My starting goalie would be, (drum roll), Josh Harding from Regina, plays for Minnesota. Nobody knows about him beCAUSE he's on Minnesota. His numbers are just better than any other goalie out there. Check them out! He's got a miniscule 1.65 goals against avg., a massive .933 save percentage and his record with a mediocre club, (at best), is 18-7-3. I think he's better than all three of the guys who made the team this year, (Luongo, Price and Smith)
Next I'd have the always solid Corey Crawford from Montreal, plays for the hated but respected Chicago Black Hawks. His record of 22 wins and 8 losses is better than Harding's but he's on a better team. Save %age is.916 and G.A.A. is only 2.36.
Third goalie doesn't matter cuz he won't play anyway. And there are a ton of choices. Bernier from Toronto, Ward from Carolina, Anderson from Ottawa, the old man Brodeur from Jersey, I even gave Ben Scrivens consideration since he's been standing on his head in Edmonton after finally being given the playing time he deserves. But I would go with Brian Elliot from St. Louis. Granted, he's on a team that could win the cup so his 14 wins and 4 losses are not surprising. But he has a .917 save percentage and a 2.10 GAA. Pretty solid.
Now for defence. I think there are defensemen who I love that made the team and shouldn't have, (Hamhuis), and guys I hate who didn't make the team and should have. Here are my 8 D in no particular order:
Cam Fowler from Windsor, plays for the Ducks. 30 pts. so far this season and he averages almost 24 minutes of ice time per game. Smoothest skating defenseman on the team. No weaknesses at all.
Brent Seabrook from Richmond, plays for Chicago. Lots of complaints that he didn't make the team to complement defence partner, (and Canuck gooner), Duncan Keith. 31 pts., 22 mins. a game, he belongs there.
Dion Phaneuf from Edmonton, plays for Toronto. Lots of people complaining that HE didn't make the squad too but most of them are from Toronto, the centre of the hockey universe. His stats are unusually low this year. Only 5 goals and 22 pts. but he's a horse. Over 24 mins. a game and on a team full of minuses he's a plus 17. He's got a hard point shot but I've been saying for years that that is all but useless. I'll grudgingly add him to the second team.
Cody Franson from Sicamous, plays for the Leafs. Just to placate the Torontonians I'll put another Leaf on the second team, but not grudgingly. He takes wristers from the point that have just as much chance of going in and are more easily deflected. That's why he's got more assists and points than Phaneuf with less playing time. And they know each other. Chemistry is a good thing.
Mark Giordano from Toronto, plays for Calgary. On a woefully anemic team he's got 9 goals and 28 pts. this season. In only 38 games! (teams have played between 55 and 59 games so far this season.) Calgary knows how good he is. They keep him out there for over 25 mins a game.
Brian Campbell from Strathroy, plays for the pitiful Panthers. NObody plays more than this guy! Almost 28 minutes a game. And even though he's been an all star, he's got some very impressive stats over his career and this year he's got 25 pts. already, he goes largely unnoticed.
Andrew MacDonald from Judique, N.S. and he plays for the Islanders. He, like Campbell, just shows you how good he is every game by not being noticed. He's out there over 25 mins. and you don't notice him making bad passes or coughing up the puck. 24 pts. too.
Kevin Bieksa from Grimsby, plays for the Canucks. Okay, he only has 19 pts. and may be a sentimental pick from my favourite team, but Don Cherry would back me up on this pick! He loves his Bieska! it was either him or Mike Green and I think we all know who is steadier.
And now, everybody's favourite, the forwards. 5 centres, 5 right wings and 5 left wings. We'll start with the centres.
Eric Staal from Thunder Bay, plays for Carolina. He's always on Canadian teams. He's got 14 goals and 44 pts. this year. Playing great. Maybe not his best but good enough for my team!
Jeff Skinner from Toronto plays for Carolina. Skinnnneeeerrrr! He's got 23 goals in only 44 games this year. Tied with Tavares and ahead of Benn who both made the Olympic team and both played more games. I don't know how he didn't make the big squad. Plus chemistry with Staal.
Jason Spezza from Toronto, plays for Ottawa. His teammates Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur could both he on my squad because they're doing just as well but Spezza is the more talented assist man. He makes some spectacular passes and with the goal scorers on this team he'll have some willing recipients. 27 assists and 42 pts. and a virtually unlimited talent ceiling. He makes the squad for sure.
Nathan MacKinnon from Halifax, plays for Colorado. Having as great a year as everyone expected this year. He is a big reason Colorado is doing so well. 20 goals and 42 points in the rookie year for this #1 pick in the 2013 draft. He's hot now too starting to figure the big leagues out. Could he score 40?
Ryan Johansen from Vancouver, plays for Columbus. I know what you're saying, "WHO?" It's because he's on Columbus. Look at the stats this kid is piling up in complete obscurity! 23 goals, 43 pts. and doing it all without a decent teammate! Where'd he come from? Well he played for the Canadian Jrs. the year when Hall and Eberle starred out. He got 9 pts in 7 games but was overshadowed by Hall, Eberle and Pietrangelo, as well as the eventual winning American team. Ptui! That was robbery! Had two lousy seasons in Columbus but now that he's good he'll get traded to some other lucky team. That's what always happens in Columbus.
Right wingers probably won't be all that surprising, except for the last guy.
Claude Giroux from Hearst, plays for Philly. Shoulda been on the Canadian Olympic team. He just got off to a slow start when all the team pickers were watching. Now he's up to 55 points. His 37 assists ranks 8th in the league too. You KNEW I'd pick him!
Jordan Eberle from Regina, plays for Edmonton. I can't leave his 45 points and amazing skills off this squad even though the Oilers still manage to grasp defeat out of the jaws of victory on a nightly basis. I didn't pick Justin Schultz or the Nuge so I'm not showing favouritism. He just belongs on this team. They'll probably ALL be on the next Olympic team!
Brian Little from Edmonton, plays for the Jets. He's tied with Wheeler for the team lead in scoring with 46 pts. and he's not American.
Jarome Iginla from Edmonton, plays for Cal... no wait, Boston. He just looks wrong there! But he seems to be fitting in. Only 16 goals for this sniper but a healthy 40 points ties him for second in scoring on the Bruins.
Reilly Smith from Toronto, plays for the Bruins. THIS is the guy Iggy is tied with. I'm not kidding! It's not his rookie season. He's played like 40 games for Dallas. But he is making a very big splash as a youngster to watch. I just WISH I could cheer for him! Although he is on the hated Bruins, I will allow him on my team. 40 pts. and he only plays 14 and a half minutes a night. He's earned it.
Last but not least, the left wingers. A couple possible surprises here.
Taylor Hall from Calgary, plays for Edmonton. The guy's got 54 points on a struggling club. Speed to burn and a great wrist shot. Magic with Eberle though Eberle makes everyone look good.
James Neal from Whitby, plays for Pittsburgh. I think he got left off Team Canada cuz he's only played 36 games. But in those games he's got 19 goals and 43 points. I don't like the guy and you don't have to be James Neal to put up good numbers with Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Kunitz, et. al., Shaquille O'Neal probably could. But he's got a good shot. That's all. So he's on my team.
Milan Lucic from Vancouver, plays for the Bruins. Another hated Bruin but I believe he should actually be on the Olympic team. He is a premier left winger and nobody messes with him. Team Canada is always forced to play a Lucic type game in the Olympics without Lucic type players. But we'll take him on team II.
Andrew Ladd from Maple Ridge, plays for Winnipeg. Only 40 points but this guy has enough character for the whole team! He would chop off his fingers with his skate blade to win Olympic gold. You just can't underestimate that!
David Perron from Sherbrooke, plays for Edmonton. Again, a bit of a sentimental favourite from my second favourite team but look at the numbers. 22 goals! Everything he touches goes in this year! Puck luck is another thing that you can't overlook. Perron's got it.
I'm not sure these guys could win the gold medal, but I wouldn't mind seeing this team in action I'll tell you! Imagine how good our actual team has to be to leave all these guys at home!
GO CANADA GO!
The Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team is made up of 3 goalies, 8 defensemen and 15 forwards so I'm going to pick the same kind of team from the guys who will be watching the Olympics this year from their, no doubt, fully decked out man caves. There will be some no-brainers but there are a few surprises in here. We'll start with one big one between the pipes.
Goalies - My starting goalie would be, (drum roll), Josh Harding from Regina, plays for Minnesota. Nobody knows about him beCAUSE he's on Minnesota. His numbers are just better than any other goalie out there. Check them out! He's got a miniscule 1.65 goals against avg., a massive .933 save percentage and his record with a mediocre club, (at best), is 18-7-3. I think he's better than all three of the guys who made the team this year, (Luongo, Price and Smith)
Next I'd have the always solid Corey Crawford from Montreal, plays for the hated but respected Chicago Black Hawks. His record of 22 wins and 8 losses is better than Harding's but he's on a better team. Save %age is.916 and G.A.A. is only 2.36.
Third goalie doesn't matter cuz he won't play anyway. And there are a ton of choices. Bernier from Toronto, Ward from Carolina, Anderson from Ottawa, the old man Brodeur from Jersey, I even gave Ben Scrivens consideration since he's been standing on his head in Edmonton after finally being given the playing time he deserves. But I would go with Brian Elliot from St. Louis. Granted, he's on a team that could win the cup so his 14 wins and 4 losses are not surprising. But he has a .917 save percentage and a 2.10 GAA. Pretty solid.
Now for defence. I think there are defensemen who I love that made the team and shouldn't have, (Hamhuis), and guys I hate who didn't make the team and should have. Here are my 8 D in no particular order:
Cam Fowler from Windsor, plays for the Ducks. 30 pts. so far this season and he averages almost 24 minutes of ice time per game. Smoothest skating defenseman on the team. No weaknesses at all.
Brent Seabrook from Richmond, plays for Chicago. Lots of complaints that he didn't make the team to complement defence partner, (and Canuck gooner), Duncan Keith. 31 pts., 22 mins. a game, he belongs there.
Dion Phaneuf from Edmonton, plays for Toronto. Lots of people complaining that HE didn't make the squad too but most of them are from Toronto, the centre of the hockey universe. His stats are unusually low this year. Only 5 goals and 22 pts. but he's a horse. Over 24 mins. a game and on a team full of minuses he's a plus 17. He's got a hard point shot but I've been saying for years that that is all but useless. I'll grudgingly add him to the second team.
Cody Franson from Sicamous, plays for the Leafs. Just to placate the Torontonians I'll put another Leaf on the second team, but not grudgingly. He takes wristers from the point that have just as much chance of going in and are more easily deflected. That's why he's got more assists and points than Phaneuf with less playing time. And they know each other. Chemistry is a good thing.
Mark Giordano from Toronto, plays for Calgary. On a woefully anemic team he's got 9 goals and 28 pts. this season. In only 38 games! (teams have played between 55 and 59 games so far this season.) Calgary knows how good he is. They keep him out there for over 25 mins a game.
Brian Campbell from Strathroy, plays for the pitiful Panthers. NObody plays more than this guy! Almost 28 minutes a game. And even though he's been an all star, he's got some very impressive stats over his career and this year he's got 25 pts. already, he goes largely unnoticed.
Andrew MacDonald from Judique, N.S. and he plays for the Islanders. He, like Campbell, just shows you how good he is every game by not being noticed. He's out there over 25 mins. and you don't notice him making bad passes or coughing up the puck. 24 pts. too.
Kevin Bieksa from Grimsby, plays for the Canucks. Okay, he only has 19 pts. and may be a sentimental pick from my favourite team, but Don Cherry would back me up on this pick! He loves his Bieska! it was either him or Mike Green and I think we all know who is steadier.
And now, everybody's favourite, the forwards. 5 centres, 5 right wings and 5 left wings. We'll start with the centres.
Eric Staal from Thunder Bay, plays for Carolina. He's always on Canadian teams. He's got 14 goals and 44 pts. this year. Playing great. Maybe not his best but good enough for my team!
Jeff Skinner from Toronto plays for Carolina. Skinnnneeeerrrr! He's got 23 goals in only 44 games this year. Tied with Tavares and ahead of Benn who both made the Olympic team and both played more games. I don't know how he didn't make the big squad. Plus chemistry with Staal.
Jason Spezza from Toronto, plays for Ottawa. His teammates Kyle Turris and Clarke MacArthur could both he on my squad because they're doing just as well but Spezza is the more talented assist man. He makes some spectacular passes and with the goal scorers on this team he'll have some willing recipients. 27 assists and 42 pts. and a virtually unlimited talent ceiling. He makes the squad for sure.
Nathan MacKinnon from Halifax, plays for Colorado. Having as great a year as everyone expected this year. He is a big reason Colorado is doing so well. 20 goals and 42 points in the rookie year for this #1 pick in the 2013 draft. He's hot now too starting to figure the big leagues out. Could he score 40?
Ryan Johansen from Vancouver, plays for Columbus. I know what you're saying, "WHO?" It's because he's on Columbus. Look at the stats this kid is piling up in complete obscurity! 23 goals, 43 pts. and doing it all without a decent teammate! Where'd he come from? Well he played for the Canadian Jrs. the year when Hall and Eberle starred out. He got 9 pts in 7 games but was overshadowed by Hall, Eberle and Pietrangelo, as well as the eventual winning American team. Ptui! That was robbery! Had two lousy seasons in Columbus but now that he's good he'll get traded to some other lucky team. That's what always happens in Columbus.
Right wingers probably won't be all that surprising, except for the last guy.
Claude Giroux from Hearst, plays for Philly. Shoulda been on the Canadian Olympic team. He just got off to a slow start when all the team pickers were watching. Now he's up to 55 points. His 37 assists ranks 8th in the league too. You KNEW I'd pick him!
Jordan Eberle from Regina, plays for Edmonton. I can't leave his 45 points and amazing skills off this squad even though the Oilers still manage to grasp defeat out of the jaws of victory on a nightly basis. I didn't pick Justin Schultz or the Nuge so I'm not showing favouritism. He just belongs on this team. They'll probably ALL be on the next Olympic team!
Brian Little from Edmonton, plays for the Jets. He's tied with Wheeler for the team lead in scoring with 46 pts. and he's not American.
Jarome Iginla from Edmonton, plays for Cal... no wait, Boston. He just looks wrong there! But he seems to be fitting in. Only 16 goals for this sniper but a healthy 40 points ties him for second in scoring on the Bruins.
Reilly Smith from Toronto, plays for the Bruins. THIS is the guy Iggy is tied with. I'm not kidding! It's not his rookie season. He's played like 40 games for Dallas. But he is making a very big splash as a youngster to watch. I just WISH I could cheer for him! Although he is on the hated Bruins, I will allow him on my team. 40 pts. and he only plays 14 and a half minutes a night. He's earned it.
Last but not least, the left wingers. A couple possible surprises here.
Taylor Hall from Calgary, plays for Edmonton. The guy's got 54 points on a struggling club. Speed to burn and a great wrist shot. Magic with Eberle though Eberle makes everyone look good.
James Neal from Whitby, plays for Pittsburgh. I think he got left off Team Canada cuz he's only played 36 games. But in those games he's got 19 goals and 43 points. I don't like the guy and you don't have to be James Neal to put up good numbers with Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Kunitz, et. al., Shaquille O'Neal probably could. But he's got a good shot. That's all. So he's on my team.
Milan Lucic from Vancouver, plays for the Bruins. Another hated Bruin but I believe he should actually be on the Olympic team. He is a premier left winger and nobody messes with him. Team Canada is always forced to play a Lucic type game in the Olympics without Lucic type players. But we'll take him on team II.
Andrew Ladd from Maple Ridge, plays for Winnipeg. Only 40 points but this guy has enough character for the whole team! He would chop off his fingers with his skate blade to win Olympic gold. You just can't underestimate that!
David Perron from Sherbrooke, plays for Edmonton. Again, a bit of a sentimental favourite from my second favourite team but look at the numbers. 22 goals! Everything he touches goes in this year! Puck luck is another thing that you can't overlook. Perron's got it.
I'm not sure these guys could win the gold medal, but I wouldn't mind seeing this team in action I'll tell you! Imagine how good our actual team has to be to leave all these guys at home!
GO CANADA GO!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Big Oil and Blue Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhtbr8daN3M
The above is a link to one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands. Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil. I used the vid with the lyrics so that you could see as well as hear them. They're about the plight of the Australian folks in the mining community of Wittenoom between 1947 and 1966. The folks of the town had to choose between scraping by and working for the blue asbestos mine. As we know today, asbestos is brutally dangerous. Well it turns out the corporation, the government funded corporation, and get a load of THIS misnomer, known as the CSR, the Corporate Social Responsibility agency KNEW the dangers of asbestos, they just couldn't give a shit. I want to reprint some of the lyrics here so that you will be able to refer back to them later. I bet the band would be okay with it.
"My gut is wrenched out, it is crunched up and broken. A life that is lived is no more than a token. Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?" I think this is a person who has worked at the Wittenoom mine, breathed in the blue asbestos particles that were small enough and is suffering. The flint on the stone may represent a spark of light or enlightenment. I.e. truth. Who indeed will do that?
But if I work all day on the Blue Sky Mine there'll be food on the table tonight. Still I walk up and down on the Blue Sky Mine there'll be pay in my pocket tonight." Yeah, maybe, but is it worth it?
My favourite part: "The candy store paupers lie to the share holders. They're crossing their fingers, they pay the truth makers. The balance sheet is breaking up the sky." Corruption! What else? I'm not sure of the description of the mine management as candy store paupers. Perhaps it has to do with them having no money, (no skill or ability to earn the candy), but lying their asses off for money, (stealing candy), is something they don't have the basic human decency to feel guilty about. They cross their fingers behind their back and lie, like that'll make it okay, and they pay the truth makers. The truth makers are the spin doctors, the lobbyists and spokespersons for the mine telling everyone, like the line in the song, they have nothing to fear. And for the balance sheet, money, they are okay with breaking up the sky. Killing the environment maybe?
"So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine. The sweat of my brow keeps feeding the engine. Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night. And if the Blue Sky Mining company won't come to my rescue, if the sugar refining company won't save me, who's gonna save me? I pray that sense and reason brings us in." A sick asbestos miner waiting for medicine. He's sick so now he's not working and only has a few crumbs. But since it was his sweat that kept the mine going, he hopes that the mine will come to his rescue. I read an Australian blogger who wrote that the sugar refining company was the same CSR that owned the Wittenoom mine. And he prays that sense and reason will bring the sick people in. Or I guess bring them in to the hospital for treatment.
"...and the company takes what the company wants. And nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground." Internal colonialism. Inside the country of Australia this company has so much clout it just does what it wants. It's reminiscent of another Midnight Oil song, The Dead Heart in which they sing, "Mining companies, pastoral companies, uranium companies ah companies ah, collected companies, got more rights than people, got more say than people." But that song goes on the say that, "We carry in our HEARTS the true country and that cannot be stolen. We follow in the steps of our ancestry and that cannot be broken." Mining and corporate corruption for massive profits are not our true country, nor is it the steps of our ancestry according to the lyrics.
"In the end the rain falls down. In the end the rain falls down. And washes clean the streets of a Blue Sky town." I think this could be the justification in the minds of the corrupt people who are cashing in on this mine. Eventually after they've taken all they can from the ground, the rains will fall over the passage of some time and clean up their horrendous mess. Up to 25% of the 20,000 people who mined asbestos in the Wittenoom mine will die from diseases caused by it. Estimates vary. It is now a ghost town and considered a toxic area still. Many parts of the town are blocked off due to contamination. So I suppose a little more rain needs to fall to wash those streets clean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgFBciS_X0
The Big Fix is a really well made documentary about the Deep Water Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and its subsequent cover up by BP oil. You remember the one. 87 DAYS!!! There was oil spewing into the Gulf for 87 days! It happened the day after BP, who has the worst safety record of any oil company, told the safety inspectors who had flown to the Deepwater Horizon to forget about their tests and PARTAY! And it wasn't like a faucet left on. Not even like a fire hose. It was like an underwater volcano spitting oil into the water instead of lava. 120,000 barrels a day is the estimate we got from Matthew Simmons. I'm speaking in the past tense like it was stopped. As we learn from the video, it was capped but the oil is still leaking into the gulf.
If you watch the doc all the way through you may come to the same conclusion I did. It seems to me that this is practically the same situation they had in Wittenoom. Internal colonialism is a term describing the situation that started the oil industry in Louisiana and it lingers on today. They had and have so much power that "the company takes what the company wants." Including the lives of people who they feel are threats to their power like Huey Long or the aforementioned Matthew Simmons. Maybe...
But the people in the area saw Big Oil as something that needed to happen. At the 915 point of the vid the comment was made that it kept food on people's plates. It is pretty easy for oil companies to look like the good guys paying far better wages than the jobs that allow people to barely get by. Because oil companies have control of just about everything to do with oil, including the price, so they make so much money they can afford to pay well. And they need to in order to attract employees who know they are going to be spills and there is going to be environmental destruction on a massive scale perpetrated by the company from whom they have a job offer. It's not just the politicians who have prices. Workers do too. At the 58:40 mark it is said that corruption was inevitable. Oil companies came to us with handfuls of money and we just said, "Take us." People weren't raped by the oil companies, they were persuaded by high priced call girls and in a lot of cases, skanky hoes!
So BP meets with Obama and they promise that they care about the people in the area of the spill and that they will be taken care of. Yeah they took care of them alright! They sprayed the highly toxic to humans AND the plants and animals in and around the Gulf spill area chemical called, (again a misnomer), Corexit. And by the time of the making of the documentary they were STILL spraying it. If you didn't watch, Corexit is what they call a dispersant. It was first used in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the formerly pristine waters up there in Alaska. It dissolved raingear of the people who sprayed it and cause many health problems like rashes and internal bleeding. Thousands of workers remained sick for years. Corexit disperses the oil by atomizing it and surrounding it so it's less visible but more readily absorbable by biological creatures, so more toxic. BP sprayed this crap all over the place in the Gulf till it looked like the oil was gone. Then they paid some truth makers to tell us it was gone. They did this so that shareholders would not sell BP shares. But people like Mr. Simmons, who once admitted to buying 8,000 shares of BP at the lowered cost and he was making money as fears of the company's going bankrupt increased. His discovery that the oil didn't disappear, it just sunk to the bottom of the Gulf and was killing everything down there may have lead to his mysterious drowning in his hot tub. Maybe... As for all the people who have made claims against BP for legitimate sickness caused by dispersant the film said only ONE of the 91,000 claims had been paid out.
BP doesn't care about anything but making money. To them nothing is as precious as that hole in the ground. There are several people in the film whose guts are wrenched out, crunched up and broken still waiting for medicine and hoping that the crumbs in their pockets will keep them for another night. They've lost jobs due to BP so if BP won't come to their rescue, who's gonna save them? Something tells me that praying for sense and reason from Big Oil might be about as helpful as trying to fight that spill with a Shopvac.
Oil ain't getting easier or safer to get either! Pipelines will puncture, underwater drilling will create more disasters like this, tankers will Valdez on us again. Yet at the very end of the doc we see the "crazy" Cajun dude who spent 300 bucks and gets his power from the sun. Practically FREE for everybody. Well THIS is why this technology just can't be supported. After the initial charge for the solar panel there is very little profit to be made. How long will we let greedy people unnecessarily continue their dirty dangerous drilling?
And here I am seriously considering applying to Cenovus and Suncor, two companies involved in the oil industry. I am going to do some research. I know Cenovus is into oil sands and I'm hoping that will be a, (ha ha), more environmentally friendly type of oil mining. But I heard working at a camp for Suncor changing garbages pays over 25 bucks an hour! Now I am being propositioned by the cheap, skanky whore who seduced the people of Louisiana and Wittenoom aren't I? I heard Suncor will need a whole bunch of workers soon too! I sometimes wish I could be a dummy. Ignorant of the moral dilemma taking a kickass job at Cenovus or Suncor would be. But then I wouldn't be able to enjoy the sweet, sweet irony that one of the most damningly accurate accounts of Big Oil's shenanigans was written like 25 years ago by a band called Midnight Oil. Hah! You just can't make this stuff up!
The above is a link to one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite bands. Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil. I used the vid with the lyrics so that you could see as well as hear them. They're about the plight of the Australian folks in the mining community of Wittenoom between 1947 and 1966. The folks of the town had to choose between scraping by and working for the blue asbestos mine. As we know today, asbestos is brutally dangerous. Well it turns out the corporation, the government funded corporation, and get a load of THIS misnomer, known as the CSR, the Corporate Social Responsibility agency KNEW the dangers of asbestos, they just couldn't give a shit. I want to reprint some of the lyrics here so that you will be able to refer back to them later. I bet the band would be okay with it.
"My gut is wrenched out, it is crunched up and broken. A life that is lived is no more than a token. Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?" I think this is a person who has worked at the Wittenoom mine, breathed in the blue asbestos particles that were small enough and is suffering. The flint on the stone may represent a spark of light or enlightenment. I.e. truth. Who indeed will do that?
But if I work all day on the Blue Sky Mine there'll be food on the table tonight. Still I walk up and down on the Blue Sky Mine there'll be pay in my pocket tonight." Yeah, maybe, but is it worth it?
My favourite part: "The candy store paupers lie to the share holders. They're crossing their fingers, they pay the truth makers. The balance sheet is breaking up the sky." Corruption! What else? I'm not sure of the description of the mine management as candy store paupers. Perhaps it has to do with them having no money, (no skill or ability to earn the candy), but lying their asses off for money, (stealing candy), is something they don't have the basic human decency to feel guilty about. They cross their fingers behind their back and lie, like that'll make it okay, and they pay the truth makers. The truth makers are the spin doctors, the lobbyists and spokespersons for the mine telling everyone, like the line in the song, they have nothing to fear. And for the balance sheet, money, they are okay with breaking up the sky. Killing the environment maybe?
"So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine. The sweat of my brow keeps feeding the engine. Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night. And if the Blue Sky Mining company won't come to my rescue, if the sugar refining company won't save me, who's gonna save me? I pray that sense and reason brings us in." A sick asbestos miner waiting for medicine. He's sick so now he's not working and only has a few crumbs. But since it was his sweat that kept the mine going, he hopes that the mine will come to his rescue. I read an Australian blogger who wrote that the sugar refining company was the same CSR that owned the Wittenoom mine. And he prays that sense and reason will bring the sick people in. Or I guess bring them in to the hospital for treatment.
"...and the company takes what the company wants. And nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground." Internal colonialism. Inside the country of Australia this company has so much clout it just does what it wants. It's reminiscent of another Midnight Oil song, The Dead Heart in which they sing, "Mining companies, pastoral companies, uranium companies ah companies ah, collected companies, got more rights than people, got more say than people." But that song goes on the say that, "We carry in our HEARTS the true country and that cannot be stolen. We follow in the steps of our ancestry and that cannot be broken." Mining and corporate corruption for massive profits are not our true country, nor is it the steps of our ancestry according to the lyrics.
"In the end the rain falls down. In the end the rain falls down. And washes clean the streets of a Blue Sky town." I think this could be the justification in the minds of the corrupt people who are cashing in on this mine. Eventually after they've taken all they can from the ground, the rains will fall over the passage of some time and clean up their horrendous mess. Up to 25% of the 20,000 people who mined asbestos in the Wittenoom mine will die from diseases caused by it. Estimates vary. It is now a ghost town and considered a toxic area still. Many parts of the town are blocked off due to contamination. So I suppose a little more rain needs to fall to wash those streets clean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgFBciS_X0
The Big Fix is a really well made documentary about the Deep Water Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and its subsequent cover up by BP oil. You remember the one. 87 DAYS!!! There was oil spewing into the Gulf for 87 days! It happened the day after BP, who has the worst safety record of any oil company, told the safety inspectors who had flown to the Deepwater Horizon to forget about their tests and PARTAY! And it wasn't like a faucet left on. Not even like a fire hose. It was like an underwater volcano spitting oil into the water instead of lava. 120,000 barrels a day is the estimate we got from Matthew Simmons. I'm speaking in the past tense like it was stopped. As we learn from the video, it was capped but the oil is still leaking into the gulf.
If you watch the doc all the way through you may come to the same conclusion I did. It seems to me that this is practically the same situation they had in Wittenoom. Internal colonialism is a term describing the situation that started the oil industry in Louisiana and it lingers on today. They had and have so much power that "the company takes what the company wants." Including the lives of people who they feel are threats to their power like Huey Long or the aforementioned Matthew Simmons. Maybe...
But the people in the area saw Big Oil as something that needed to happen. At the 915 point of the vid the comment was made that it kept food on people's plates. It is pretty easy for oil companies to look like the good guys paying far better wages than the jobs that allow people to barely get by. Because oil companies have control of just about everything to do with oil, including the price, so they make so much money they can afford to pay well. And they need to in order to attract employees who know they are going to be spills and there is going to be environmental destruction on a massive scale perpetrated by the company from whom they have a job offer. It's not just the politicians who have prices. Workers do too. At the 58:40 mark it is said that corruption was inevitable. Oil companies came to us with handfuls of money and we just said, "Take us." People weren't raped by the oil companies, they were persuaded by high priced call girls and in a lot of cases, skanky hoes!
So BP meets with Obama and they promise that they care about the people in the area of the spill and that they will be taken care of. Yeah they took care of them alright! They sprayed the highly toxic to humans AND the plants and animals in and around the Gulf spill area chemical called, (again a misnomer), Corexit. And by the time of the making of the documentary they were STILL spraying it. If you didn't watch, Corexit is what they call a dispersant. It was first used in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the formerly pristine waters up there in Alaska. It dissolved raingear of the people who sprayed it and cause many health problems like rashes and internal bleeding. Thousands of workers remained sick for years. Corexit disperses the oil by atomizing it and surrounding it so it's less visible but more readily absorbable by biological creatures, so more toxic. BP sprayed this crap all over the place in the Gulf till it looked like the oil was gone. Then they paid some truth makers to tell us it was gone. They did this so that shareholders would not sell BP shares. But people like Mr. Simmons, who once admitted to buying 8,000 shares of BP at the lowered cost and he was making money as fears of the company's going bankrupt increased. His discovery that the oil didn't disappear, it just sunk to the bottom of the Gulf and was killing everything down there may have lead to his mysterious drowning in his hot tub. Maybe... As for all the people who have made claims against BP for legitimate sickness caused by dispersant the film said only ONE of the 91,000 claims had been paid out.
BP doesn't care about anything but making money. To them nothing is as precious as that hole in the ground. There are several people in the film whose guts are wrenched out, crunched up and broken still waiting for medicine and hoping that the crumbs in their pockets will keep them for another night. They've lost jobs due to BP so if BP won't come to their rescue, who's gonna save them? Something tells me that praying for sense and reason from Big Oil might be about as helpful as trying to fight that spill with a Shopvac.
Oil ain't getting easier or safer to get either! Pipelines will puncture, underwater drilling will create more disasters like this, tankers will Valdez on us again. Yet at the very end of the doc we see the "crazy" Cajun dude who spent 300 bucks and gets his power from the sun. Practically FREE for everybody. Well THIS is why this technology just can't be supported. After the initial charge for the solar panel there is very little profit to be made. How long will we let greedy people unnecessarily continue their dirty dangerous drilling?
And here I am seriously considering applying to Cenovus and Suncor, two companies involved in the oil industry. I am going to do some research. I know Cenovus is into oil sands and I'm hoping that will be a, (ha ha), more environmentally friendly type of oil mining. But I heard working at a camp for Suncor changing garbages pays over 25 bucks an hour! Now I am being propositioned by the cheap, skanky whore who seduced the people of Louisiana and Wittenoom aren't I? I heard Suncor will need a whole bunch of workers soon too! I sometimes wish I could be a dummy. Ignorant of the moral dilemma taking a kickass job at Cenovus or Suncor would be. But then I wouldn't be able to enjoy the sweet, sweet irony that one of the most damningly accurate accounts of Big Oil's shenanigans was written like 25 years ago by a band called Midnight Oil. Hah! You just can't make this stuff up!
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