Back in RO, Back in the RO, Back in the ROSK

 I'm back! In the Republic of South Korea. Or the R.O.S.K as nobody calls it. I'm watching my beloved Kia Tigers play while typing this. I have all my lessons planned and copying done for the week. Did all my laundry and shopping today too. Most importantly, all the paperwork and pencil-pushing powertrippin' hoop-jumping is done. So I'm here for the year. The first pic of the day is the best:

It's only temporary until the card comes, but it sure is beautiful isn't it? That's my alien registration card/paper. So I'm officially an alien once again. This will allow me to do some things like get an apartment, phone, cable, a bank account, you know... exist. I thought it was cause for celebration. My first Cass since coming back. I had such a bad cold I didn't have another one. Yes on day 2 of my latest tour of Korea I caught the requisite aircon cold. My second day kicked my ass and the third day was the field trip to the Korean Folk Village. It was about a million degrees and 101% humidity but I walked about 10,000 steps around the place trying to replicate some old photos from 1997. Here are two of them:

I don't know if you can tell how badly I wanted to drop to the ground and have about a 12-hour nappy-poo, but I was doggin' it big time! You know how the first days of a cold are when you just don't want to do anything? This was one of them. 

I got one of the girls to take this one. I wish I had taken HER pic. She looked really good in her hanbok. A few of the students wore Korean traditional clothes during the visit. I thought that was cool of them. 

This was one of my students even though the original was just a random Korean dude who jumped on the paddle like a Banshee. Whatever that means. 

It was okay to be in a bit of a lying position actually. If it weren't frowned upon I might have taken a nap on the whoopin' bench but, alas, whoopin' benches are for whoopins. 

This was with my friend Park Ki Pok. I wonder what he's up to these days...

And the overzealous volunteer paddler. I wonder what he's up to these days...

I also replicated a pic of me eating some of the hanging corn. One of my students took that pic and hasn't emailed it to me yet. There was one of me and Ki Pok in the jail too but I couldn't find the chairs inside the jail. That may have changed. Other than that the Folk Village was almost exactly the same. 

It hasn't been a really rough transition although the cold didn't help. It's almost gone as I type this. Only 3 really bad days. I think the moment it sunk in that I'm back in Korea was standing in the immigration line-up after the Hong Kong to Seoul leg of my flight. This is what I saw on the bag of the person in front of me:

BTS luggage tag. This was not a Korean either, we were in the foreigners line-up.

After getting through that line-up I met my good friends Amber and DB and Guns and Claire with Hyun Woo. It was great to see them all! 

We sorta had lunch together. I had 2 CORONA??? beers. That's all they had at the airport restaurant where we ate. We didn't have much time though. Everybody was working the next day including me and I didn't even know if I had a place to sleep that night. 

I tried to get a U+ phone at the airport but they said I needed to go to an official supplier if I wanted one that could make purchase verifications or some crap like that. Not sure I really DO want one like that but waited for another day. 

Amber and DB went home (they live in Incheon) and Guns drove me from Incheon to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal where I caught a bus to Sokcho. Sunday afternoon Seoul traffic. I coulda biked quicker I think. I was wired. No sleep for a day and a half. Poor Guns. I was just talking non stop and Claire and the boy were sawing logs in the back seat. Anyway, I made it to Sokcho where Lawton picked me up at the bus station and drove me to the campus. Lawton is one of the other teachers. 

I think I got to the dorms at around 7 PM and there was a bed with a plastic covered mattress and no pillow or blanket. The teacher I was going to replace, Don, gave me a pillow and blanket and I took the plastic off the mattress. The aircon wasn't working and it was hot and muggy. I would have slipped off the mattress otherwise. Next day Don sold/gave me some stuff and I'm better sorted sleep-wise. But even in the sweaty Korean Monsoon night I was able to sleep. I didn't come close to catching up on my sleep but I slept like a dead man. Next day I learned about the limited usage of the air conditioning.

First of all the 2-4 AM is bullshit. I tried. Noon while eating lunch is right. Also there's air available to cool off after showering around 6 or 7 in the morning. So the hours are off but still... come ON man! Luckily, one of the things Don sold me was a fan. It's getting a lot of use lemme tell you!

Other than that though the room in the dorm is excellent! Great big desk with LOADS of room. A full sized fridge. Wardrobe and dresser. A decent bed. I had to scoff a chair from the building I teach in but other than that I'm set up. I have a shower room. and toilet that are separate. Never seen that. I like it. Also have a sink in the bedroom. I'll make that into a cooking area soon enough. I'll get used to the limited air. Hey, this is for free.

What I may not get used to is the incarceration portion of the dorms. Every night the doors are locked. Can't get in or out if we tried. I don't think anyone can. If it's not some sort of illegal confinement or a violation of freedoms, it's definitely a fire hazard. This is the sort of shit that people cry, "We should have done something!" about AFTER they are shoveling up charred remains of the unfortunates who could have easily escaped the blaze but couldn't get out the mag locked doors or through the barred windows. 

This is temporary but might be long-term temporary lodging. 

Just warshed the bedding in the coin laundromat today. What a find that was! Dryers! 

Not a bad place to plan lessons from.

So that's where I am crashing now. It's clean, big, and pretty much free. The internet comes and goes but not bad. 

THIS, however, this is where the magic happens. The magic of taking mock tests and learning how to take those tests better. That's IELTS. It's not the most challenging of gigs. Loads of marking and photocopying so the workload is up there, but I don't get to be very creative very often. The first week was probably as close to my old teaching days as I'm likely to get for this year. But while I'm thinking about teaching literature to students who really want to learn I can look out my classroom window and see this:

Yup that's Sorak Mountain in the distance. 

Here it is from an intersection in town. Tantalizingly close! Oh sure I can walk to the beach in 15 minutes but I'm a mountain man. Beach SMEACH! The mountains are beautiful. And speaking of beautiful, the campus is nice like most here in Korea. It's great to live in the place with the highest concentration of greenery in town! The other day some of the students were shaking a tree right above the soccer field, which is right outside the dorm doors. I noticed some fruit falling. It was an apricot tree. I picked one up and ate it. Nice and sour!

This is the kind of stuff you see springing up around Sokcho these days. It's becoming a big resort beach town. It's hard to tell how big that building is from the pic. It's right off campus. Just down the road from the main gate. 

This is the main gate. Jong moon. You can see what looks like a church but is actually a library. 

This is what I am going to call Windmill Lake. It's just to the right of the blue security shack above as you exit the uni. It's a pretty popular place for students to contemplate their futures.

Here it is at night. I'm told there are fish in Windmill Lake. I bet there are some carp in there. Who know though, maybe a bass or two. It'll be a while before I try my luck I think. 

This is walking up the hill (of course) from the blue shack. The building on the right is where I teach. Behind the trees on the left out of sight is the kee sook sa (dorms) building. That's where I'm typing this now. You can see lots of flags and signs about global this and that as you walk up the hill. This is the global campus. It would be nice to have a wider variety like I did at Gongju Dae. All my students are from Bangladesh and Nepal but hope springs eternal. The goal is to get students from other parts of the world and make it a truly global enterprise.

Well, I think I'm going to catch the 11 PM air conditioning and then call it a night. The Tigers lost. Boohoo :-(

So it's nose to the grindstone for a year. Thanks to everyone who made this possible! This could be a pivotal year in my life. I'm feeling odd right now. What is this strange belly/brain combo? Might be positivity. I'll need more time to look into this...

And Back To Korea...

 This was me last night eating steak and prawn dinner with Tyler/Rachel, Dylan/Danielle at a really great little place where Thursday is steak night. It was delish! 

I don't know exactly when Dylan shot this pic but judging from the look on my face, it might have been when I was regaling the group on the previous three days' adventure in ticket booking. How would you describe my facial expression? Confused with a hint of anger and maybe some overtones of offense? Perhaps in the spirit of my choice of apparel on the evening "Oh my FUCK! Not again!"

But before you tighten up your bindings for yet another trundle down How-Can-All-This-Shit-Happen-To-Just-One-Guy Lane, check out what Dylan and AI did with this pic! First he filtered it with Japanimation like the Spirited Away style and this is what came up:

Gotta love those Japanimators! They got rid of the wrinkles in the shirt (not to mention its wearer), shaved my arm hair, and got rid of about 50 lbs. of gut weight. Look at the stuff on the shelves and the finishing of the T-shirt animation. That is spectacular! But wait, there's more! He also put the pic through a Simpsons filter and made a long-time dream of mine come true. Behold, me as a Simpsons character:

Isn't that something? I love the beer! They also cut the arm hair and the wrinkles but left me a Homeresque gut and, of course, amputated one finger from each hand. Technology! Just when you're ready to condemn it all it totally redeems itself!

And now, as promised, the ordeal of finding the best ticket to Korea. Pour yourself a stiff one and wake the kids and get some coffee into them. This is an odyssey. I have a 5-hour layover in Vancouver and a few hours in Hong Kong where I'm hoping to add to this. It's not over yet...

Humble Humour

 So much has happened since last I posted! Some of it has been good if you count good things that happen in bad times as good. If you're an "at least" person and don't even try any more for "at most." I still haven't resigned myself to that despite circumstances dictating it just might be the best I can hope for. Let me splain - no there is too much - let me sum up.

I just checked on my work visa status and it remains "being processed." I just checked on my university webpage and I have missed registration. I tried to register even though I was pretty sure I'd drop the course because of the trip to Korea and start of my new job being too complicated and unpredictable to allow for concurrent study. I turned out to be humongously correct, but registration was closed at the time due to a rise in course prices. Now I'll have to wait till late July or August to register for my final course. This will be the 4th time I've taken a semester off. Something happens after 5. You get booted or something. I don't want to find out. 

I am currently at my nephew Dylan and his girlfriend Danielle's place in Victoria. I've basically couch surfed my way through the last 2 1/2 years trying to get this master's degree and a job back in Korea and in the process I've spent all of my money and used up all of my favours.

Here come the "at leasts:" 1. The average Canadian is $26,600 in debt after completing a master's degree. In the US where my degree is from it's over 80 grand! At least I've avoided THAT. 2. I won't be teaching the English, or even the form of ESL that I like, but at least I have a job offer in Korea. 3. I've borrowed some money and will need to borrow some more, but at least I'll be able to pay it back in a couple months. 4. I haven't been able to find a good job in Canada (or the US) even though I've been looking for the whole time, but at least I have a job in Korea. 5. I'm 7 years from retirement age and don't have much of a retirement plan, but at least I'm told that these next years in Korea will be enough for me to retire comfortably in Asia.

What it boils down to is I have all my eggs in the Korea basket and that basket is falling apart. I've been rethreading wicker and wrapping rattan around this basket since March 17 - my original starting date, but, I think because the school is new at this, we've been doing things the least efficient, most time consuming, and most expensive way possible. What I'm doing now can easily be done while in Korea. I have rounded up all the documents needed, submitted them to the supervisor at my future workplace, and he has given them to immigration in Korea. That's what we've been stumbling and bumbling our ways through since March. But we finally got the visa issuance number! Normally with this I get a ticket to Japan (or I've done it in the Philippines and Guam before. You just need to be outside of Korea) and do a visa run. Fukuoka is the most popular spot for the visa run and we used to do it in a day. I mean get an early flight outta Korea and a late flight outta Japan, run through airports and Japanese subways and barely make all your connections, and then get up early next day and go back to work in Korea. Those days are gone. Now you MUST stay in Fukuoka or wherever for at least a night. A NIGHT!

I've had my visa issuance number already for 22 days! 22 expensive, unnecessary days. I got it May 28th. At that time I said, "Great! Now let's get me to Korea and I'll do a visa run." My supervisor replied, "That is not an option. You will need to go to a consulate in Canada and bring a whole bunch MORE forms + the visa issuance number, and they will process your work visa. I replied, "But it could take up to 2 weeks." He replied, "Sorry, no other way to do it." Because, as you might expect, there is no Korean consulate or embassy in Calgary (although I think there used to be) this required the minor added expense of a flight to Vancouver and the MASSIVE extra expense of hanging around there while the visa is processed.

Now you may be thinking, "Why didn't you go there, do all your shit, then fly back to Calgary?" Well because they give you hope that it can be done in less than 14 days. I had talked to a lady at the embassy in Ottawa who told me it would be simple for me and wouldn't take long. But as soon as I got to the consulate in Vancouver the security guard told me it takes 14 business days. I am pretty sure I have done this in Vancouver at least once and it took hardly any time at all, but I may be mistaken. Anyway, my documents weren't good enough and my pictures weren't good enough so they made me go to Staples and get everything REdone and, like everything, it cost more than I had planned. In the end AT LEAST I got the visa applied for and the expected date of completion will be July 2. My SECOND contract has a June 1st starting date. So I'll probably need a third contract now. Worse still, I am going to need to stay in Vancouver, the most expensive city in Canada to just stay in a hotel and hang around for 14 business days AND some NON-business days too. So I called my brother Andy and my nephews Tyler and Dylan. I had told them there might be a situation like this. I've been couch surfing ever since. At least I have a place to stay. At least I get to visit my family some more. Right, right. 

But there's the money factor. First there was the extra bag. The Calgary airport was on high alert probably due to the G-7 summit in mid June in Kananaskis near Calgary. They were practicing heightened security so it was a hassle and I had to pay the max - almost 100 bucks - for my extra bag. Then I got to Vancouver and immediately checked my 2 heavy bags into storage. I read online it would be 10 bucks a day for each bag and you could store them endlessly. It wasn't. Either. And they needed to know my flight date. I explained that I didn't have a ticket to Korea (still don't) but I'd get an idea tomorrow morning at my appointment with the Korean consular. The price was triple what I expected and they could only keep them one day. Then I took my backpack and tried to find a cheap place to stay. They don't exist! I ended up staying at a hostel in a 4-bed (2 bunkbed) room for $120. There was a pub attached to the Camby Hostel and it was party night so it was noisy till 3 AM. I couldn't move or I'd wake up the Swiss guy in the bunk below me. AND the room was hot. I got a couple hours of sleep maybe and left at 6 AM. I just walked around Vancouver for hours and hours then went to the consulate way too early. That's when they sent me to Staples and added sweat and expense, then finally gave me this:

You can see the July2 expected visa issue date. 

So I went back to the airport and took my bags out of storage. I asked how much it would be to keep them there till the expected visa issue date and it was $700 or thereabouts. I then thought of a good idea! Why not go to the US and get some of the stuff I have there? Bring the things I need most and box up the rest for mailing at a later date. I didn't think it made any difference which country I went to Korea from. And then I'd get to visit my favourite fam for a few days before I go. I know they wouldn't charge me rent and I wouldn't sleep in a hot room on a bunkbed. It didn't matter from whence I entered Korea. I was right about that. But I called the consulate and they told me I am not allowed to leave Canada while my visa is being processed. I feel like Columbo or the Marshall of some wild west town suspects me of wrongdoing and I've been warned not to skip town till I've been cleared. 

So I had to get my two heavy-ass bags and my backpack to the ferry and someone to pick me, and my two heavy-ass bags, and my backpack up. Brother Andy offered so I got a Lyft for 60 bucks. The ferry was 20 but they purposely run from supper time to way too late to eat supper time so they can lure you into the White Spot restaurant where nobody would voluntarily eat supper under any other circumstances. I exaggerate. It's not horrible, but it's not good. I call it the Jizz Spot. So there goes yet another hundred bucks. 

Had a nice visit with Andy and Linda for a few days. Then I went out for Father/Uncles Day at a really good restaurant where I split nachos and wings with Tyler. I spent a night with Dylan, Norman, and for a little bit Danielle who was studying for her vet license or degree or something. Norman was the dog in the house they're watching.

Here's another "at least:" and I don't want to seem ungrateful to the gods for providing this but it's only good news because of this jackpot of a job I've gotten myself into. Dylan and Danielle are housesitting... till July 2! So they said I can stay at their place and watch Crowley their cat and feed the fish and whatnot. There's a burglar in Vancouver breaking into housed even when folks are there. He might find his way out to the island. Never know... 

So... I have bought some groceries for the time I'm crashing at the Double D Hostel and Pet Retreat and am checking www.visa.go.kr every day for my visa status update. When it says I am cleared to go to Korea I will buy my ticket. I just hope I have enough money to buy my ticket then. The cheap tickets have all disappeared and I'll probably be forking over more because I just can't buy my ticket in advance. My future supervisor told me they are going to "expedite" my case and the visa should be ready by the 25th. I'm supposed to call the consulate and confirm this but there is absolutely no way I'm going to buy a ticket until my visa is 100% confirmed. 

This job is for 1 year. It will be a monumental year in my life. I will complete my master's and I will be in Korea with my master's making it easier to get one of those jobs that I've been dreaming about my whole life: a well-paying job. I might stay at this school and upgrade. They have an English Literature program I'd like to find out more about. Or I may have other offers from schools that only hire master's degree holders who are in Korea. Either way this looks like the only chance I have at making my employment, financial, and educational struggles worthwhile. Yet here I sit binge watching comedy shows on D&DTV while blissfully broke and entirely unsure of this job plan ever coming together.

I think life has humbled me to my highest point of humility monetarily speaking, just before entering the point in life where my importance rises to its highest point. Life's hilarious like that. 

Anyways, it's good to make the best of a bad situation and with a bit of luck and help from others this bad situation can become good... I think VERY good. So I'm trying to stay positive. Here's what I did today:

The name of the park was...

Saxe Point Park. I KNEW it was a Saxxy name of some sort. So yesterday I improved my Saxe life. Booooo...

If I Wasn't Flagged Before...

 I find this to be quite interesting indeed! Read it carefully. It's all the stuff the Canada Revenue Agency can do to you if you don't pay your taxes. You can take this with a grain or even a few shakes of salt upon considering the source - a former Canadian politician, but I think it's accurate. I will never forget the economics professor from, I think it was Acadia University, doing a TED talk in which he said "If you make half a million a year in Canada you don't have to pay taxes and if you make a million, you don't." Of course I don't have a link to that cuz that sort of thing gets washed off the internet all the time. Suffice to say there are some people in Canada paying NO taxes legally because they have almost nothing. This is a good thing. One good thing about my country. I FOUND IT!!! But there are lots of folks in Canada paying no taxes because they have so much money they can take advantage of loopholes strategically inserted into the stories-high tax code of Canada - a work of art so thick precisely for the purpose of facilitating such penetrable holes. 

There are people in Canada who are walking tax havens simply because of the way in which they make their money. Passively. "Work hard and pay yer taxes" has been a fate relegated to the non-elite and to be honest the not-so-smart of Canada. If I could ever find a job here in Canada that put me into that class, why, I'd be outraged at the amount of tax I pay compared to the old money in Canada who don't rely on wages or salaries but investments and personal wealth that come with far too generous tax deductions. Holes penetrable only to the rich. It's not enough to say the government and the CRA know about this and don't give a flying fuck because they have actively contributed to this draconian system of taxation. 

You may think me delusional but I believe the very reason I have been withheld from financial success in and by my own country has a lot to do with my intelligence. I think there are other poor people like me in Canada who would be rattling cages and shaking things up here if they belonged to what we call the working class of our country. That's why we either end up in the upper class or the lower class. I think those of us, and our numbers are few, who would demand revolution even if we were in the UPPER class are systematically relegated to poverty or possibly pushed out of the country so our influence remains minimal. All I can do is write and who has time to read when they're working their arse off and carrying the country's tax burden? 

I probably AM a bit delusional but not entirely. Being passed over by jobs for which I'm massively overqualified; not being able to access websites on my computer while everyone else's computer has no problem with them - this includes numerous government websites some of which booted me out and wouldn't let me back in WHILE I WAS REGISTERING; being sabotaged by coworkers; having my credit rating mysteriously tanked by huge corporations (Telus) who harass me for money I don't owe yet don't allow me to pay it back; having my credit further subverted by a huge corporation (Koodo/Telus) that sold me a product that did not work and expected payment while I was trying unsuccessfully to tell them it didn't work and to shut if off; having every bank account hacked and stolen from; having all my bank cards hacked and stolen from; and being audited by the CRA, having money that I had earned withheld by the taxman and not returned even after I had done everything that was required to get that money UNwithheld. 

I believe at least some of this has happened to me because of what I write about Canada. The truth. The rich people don't want to give up their taxless existences and if loudmouths like me are heard, the masses could revolt. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, "The world is his who can see through its pretention. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold is there only by sufferance - by YOUR sufferance. See it to be a lie and you have already dealt it its mortal blow." Fair enough, Canadian taxes are an example of one of these overgrown errors and I see them for what they are: a huge lie. They are a custom we stone-blindly follow. And the phrases like "If you don't pay taxes, you aren't a good Canadian," comprise their cultural deafness. If I had to pay a lot of them I wouldn't suffer them, I'd protest. Luckily (or is it by design) I can't find work anywhere but overseas and therefore don't pay a lot in taxes. Taxes are no more than a pretention here in Canada. I know that. I don't feel like any of this makes the world mine, however. Maybe only the HONEST world and there ain't much of that left. 

But I'm not even writing today about how taxes in this country have ballooned into the massive monster of inconsistency and favouritism that they have... I've written at length about that here. (whisper: That's why I can't live in Canada) I'm here to talk about the swollen powers of the CRA and how their taxation without representation needs to be exposed. (Whispered: After this they might not let me back into this country even for a visit)

Allow me to draw your attention to that first article I linked. 10% of Canadians have 60% of the wealth. As shocking as that may be, take it from a guy who has tried to find accurate statistics on anything that might reflect badly on Canada, if that was up-to-date and if we had any honest stat sources in Canada I'm betting it would be closer to 1% having 60% of the wealth. It could even be worse. Be that as it may or may not, I think we can agree that it IS getting worse and the cavalier acceptance of that fact is, in my personal opinion, downright unCanadian. But on we mechanically wander...

I need to explain that. What I see, and again I'm not alone here, as part of the problem is our limited view of the scientific world as a well-behaved, objective, empirically sensible force that is more mechanical than wondrously abstract and undefined. It makes us feel arrogant comfort to view the world in this way but this is just another of the pretentions that cause problems. Part of this well-accepted vanity is the concept of humanity being composed of material stuff and working in mechanistic ways. If this were true, we could take a person apart and put them back together like a car or a watch. We can put the parts, the "stuff" back together if we are skilled surgeons, but there's one key force, power, entity that makes humans different from machines and surgery is almost entirely ignorant of it. For such a long time science has just ignored that part and tried to work around it. This is what has led to our view of human individuality and competitiveness that is absolutely a stone-blind, stone-deaf, overgrown error. We are taught that the only way to be significant is at other's expense and this is a pretention that has turned a whole world of humanity into a robotic, mechanistic nightmare in which we see 1% of people with the majority of the earth's assets as somehow acceptable, even normal. I'm sorry but I've always thought of Canada as being more human than that, hence my description of this thinking as absolutely unCanadian. I still hope I'm right...

I hate to flog a dead horse but the longer I stay here in Canada, the longer I feel the palpable... I don't want to dismissively (and maybe arrogantly) call it stupidity because I constantly see smart people contributing to a society that they are consciously aware is relentlessly slipping further and further from that which they desire to live in, but it's a general malaise of apathetic surrender, helplessness, and frustration that only the intellectually defeated would abide. Or "suffer." I've said it before, Canada is that elephant being held where it's at by a tiny peg pounded into the ground. We have the power to stop the government, the banks, the rich, and the CRA from hosing us by hosing them back! But it seems we are no longer the country of hosers we are reputed to be, Bob and Doug notwithstanding.

When was the Boston Tea Party? The 1700's? Yes it was. 1773 actually and according to this, it wasn't just tea taxed, it was glass, paint, oil, lead, paper, and tea. The Townshend Revenue Act was passed to get the East India Company back in the black and the hosers of the US said yeah, no! Lo and behold, their government listened! Governments listen to hosers, also, their tax code wasn't a mile high and full of crafty loopholes to benefit the rich either. No, this was not Canada, but we were closer to the States in those days. We were almost all British defectors and depended on each other to fight the power. The government dropped the taxes on everything but the tea! Hooray for the good guys! But can you guess what that tax was? THREE pence per pound! Even THIS was agreed to be outrageous and the colonists who still had spines and still recognized the power of protest launched the Boston Tea Party. For THREE PENNIES! We've been bent over so long by our governments we wouldn't even notice three pennies.

I was offered a job at a school here in Calgary. As you can tell from my previous post I've been enjoying spending time with family since I've been back in Canada. I thought if I could find even a half-way decent job here I'd stay a bit longer. The offer was for guaranteed full-time hours, at least 24 a week with 12 extra per week whenever I wanted. $30/hr. So for my 24 hours a week I'd get 2880 a month. I plugged that into the tax calculator and immediately 30% was taken off the top! That's VASTLY more than a few pennies! And Alberta is the best province to avoid taxes! CPP $148, EI $46, Federal tax $387, Provincial tax $269. So my take-home pay was now $2031. I will need to pay a thousand at least for a decent apartment so now I have a grand left for food and such. So much for ever getting a car, insurance, and a license. Basically,

I could make a long list of other expenses AND don't forget once a year paying my taxes on TOP of all the other taxes I would pay throughout the year. It's far beyond a 3-penny tea tax and we drink coffee in Canada anyway. But what do we do about it? This sign is great but it's no Boston Tea Party and obviously we have gotten used to a LOT more abuse from our government since the 1700's. 

So what if we don't pay these taxes on the grounds that they are contributing to the dehumanization of Canada? We can be charged interest. It can be taken from your GST/HST rebates. Ever wonder why they don't just NOT charge those taxes instead of withholding the money from us then refunding it? Partially so they can use it to collect money you rightfully refuse to pay, but also to make us think (another pretention) that this is a nice bonus from our government. YAY!

Then there's the "jeopardy order." This is a legal document that allows the CRA to take immediate legal action to collect the debt. Needless to say, if this happens it adversely affects your criminal record and your credit rating. This could start the cycle of unemployment I seem to be in right now. Employers check these things before they contact you for interviews and whether you are right or not, they assume your bad credit and criminal record render you unemployable.

That's not all! The government may garnishee your wages or money. That's right, they can dip into your bank account - legally - and take what they reckon you owe them. 

They can collect from other people! That's right, the government of Canada can actually make some other person responsible for the debt you owe them! Imaging being THAT person.

Finally, (but there are probably other things they can do that I don't know enough about to print at this time) the government of Canada can put a lien on or even seize any of your assets. 

Here's the audit letter I received almost exactly a year ago:

"My Account" is one of many government websites and online services that has been disabled for me. I texted the documents they requested and emailed them to the person I reached at the number provided and was told that even though they were received, it was against policy to send them in that manner. I had to go to Staples and FAX the info they required of me. So I did. Well within the time limitation I was given. I guess they weren't expecting that so they tried several things: first they sent me a letter BEFORE THE DEADLINE stating that I had not submitted the documents by the deadline. Then I sent copies of the faxes and the receipt from Staples showing the number and that the fax had been received by that number long before the deadline. I guess they weren't expecting THAT either. People in Canada generally show more, what's that word again?, SUFFERANCE of the government's pretention and lying. I called their bluff. (In a whisper: ...which is why I can't live or work in Canada).

So they finally dropped the pretense and admitted that they had received the papers. They said I now qualified for the GST/HST and other taxes they had no right to threaten to stop withholding then reimbursing in the first place. And the retroactively withheld funds? I calculate about $3500 worth of them. They were not mentioned. I have contacted many people in many ways and have yet to receive an answer as to what has become of these funds. I will never get them back and I am being compelled to suffer this theft. 

Non-payment of taxes is considered theft and we know what the government can do to a citizen of Canada for this crime, but what can a Canadian citizen do if the government steals from him/her? Can we charge interest? Can we withhold future payment of taxes? Can we obtain a jeopardy order? The government has no credit rating, criminal record, or wages - per se - so we can't garnishee or affect those in any way. Can we hold another government responsible? "HEY US, Canada owes me money. They're your ally and neighbour, pay up!" Reckon that'd work? Can we put a lien on government assets or seize them? Or can we dip into the government of Canada's bank account? No, no, a thousand times no.

This is pure pretention, lies, corruption, and its practiced as stone-blind, stone-deaf custom by us Canadians. The government has all the power and we have none. It is only thus because we suffer it to be precisely so. Exposing this deceit is only the first step. Hopefully I'll be alive to see the day when we change this. Despite the modicum of hope I maintain, I don't feel a whole lot of Emerson's sentiment that the world is now mine and I have dealt any mortal blows here. But you never know...

I Can't Feel The Real

*** I'd better post a warning before this poem. It's not me. It's not me or I wouldn't be looking for a place to rent in Calgary so I can stay here and visit with family and friends some more. But this is what I see and what I fear as the result of the phoniness I've been on a posting crusade against. It's called I Can't Feel The Real. I reckon Johnny Cash could write a good song for these lyrics eh?

I can't feel the real. I need somehow to heal.

Family and all my friends

lose the hurt after it offends

but I have to conceal

that I can't feel the real.

 

They say that time can heal. That blood and love are real.

I used to share the joy and care

for brothers and sisters everywhere

but now put on the zeal

cuz I can't feel the real.

 

I have a hole in me that I can't let you see.

That which once was beautiful

is now becoming dutiful 

and even worse professional.

I wear a mask of steel

cuz I can't feel the real.

 

Lord disinfect my head or at least strike me dead

when I bypass the sanctity

of children playing happily,

of innocence and honesty.

I cling to the surreal

when I can't feel the real.

I have one thing to give, one reason left to live.

I will not share its counterfeit

of which there is a vast surfeit

I’d rather cease, surrender, quit

than lie and cheat and steal

cuz I can’t feel the real.

Update and Photo Dump

 Haven't posted in a while. Things have been pretty busy. Let's see... we got Mom moved to Alberta. Mark and Sherrilyn came with their truck and trailer and we loaded it to the nuts with Mom's stuff. Here's the load:

We had a riding mower, snowblower, two easy chairs, a freezer, trunks, boxes, bags, I mean this thing was chock o' block full. Then her bed and a giant mirror went in the box of the pick-up. I added my two bags and backpack and off we went April 18th. This April flower pic was 4 days earlier on my birthday.

Didn't do much for my birthday. Mom had a farewell brunch with the gals from her church. She got me a carrot cake. I was just excited to get the move over. I had spent a lot of time in Mom's place, mostly in the basement, and it wasn't action central there let me tell you.

This is a pic of what I did most of the time. My computer was used trying to sell Mom's stuff and/or find employment and for watching TV shows that weren't on Mom's cable. And the TV I used for watching hockey. I didn't manage to sell Mom's stuff or get employment so I mostly wasted time in the basement. I couldn't get wifi and my data tethering hotspot wasn't good enough to do my studying. To be fair, the course was pretty badly done so I probably wouldn't have studied anyway. 

We didn't get far before we decided to stop for a pee and a look around. We had left Montrose and travelled East toward Creston. I think the route is called the Salmo-Creston pass. I could be wrong. I'd never seen the cabin at the summit before. There was STILL a lotta snow up there! But it was warm and sunny. PERFECT conditions for avalanches! Hence, the sign below. This was taken inside the cabin. 

There's also a stove in the cabin in case some folks are trying to drive over the pass and the gates get closed for some reason. Probably avalanches or just a big snow fall. Then you have to drive back to the cabin and start a fire in the stove. There's usually wood piled in there for that purpose. The roads might take days to clear so it's a good idea to bring some food too. Maybe a sleeping bag or two.

Luckily we didn't get stuck at the summit. In fact it was a fun little stop. The lake near the cabin was frozen over and covered with snow and there were blue jays flying around and landing in the trees. We walked up to the cabin on snow that was probably way over our heads if we sunk down to the ground. But even without snowshoes we didn't. You can get a good idea of how much snow falls up there by the depth of the snow on the cabin roof.

Below is the wood stove. No wood but in a pinch a good BC traveler would have a chainsaw and be able to cut down some trees and burn 'em up. I bet the cabin would be right cozy with a roaring fire going. And if you're lucky you could catch something to fry up on top. Fish or squirrel or such. Boy howdy that's some good eatin'! 

So we got some fresh air and Mom went to the outhouses that are there. Lots of people were stopped to stretch legs. Even a few dogs. I had driven over this pass at least 20 times before and never stopped at this cabin that I could remember. It's crazy how easily you can miss some really cool things if you don't take the time to get out and smell the roses. Or the pine trees as it were. 

So we piled back into the truck and kept going. But it wasn't much longer before we got to Creston and yet ANOTHER of the best things in life I missed out on the whole time I had lived in the Kootenays during my childhood. Tim's Fish 'n Chips in Creston. Do yourself a favour... It's a small place but the food is plentiful and it'll stick to yer ribs! And if I do say so myself it is DEE licious! Since we were able to get gravy I think this might have been the best fish 'n chips I ever had in my entire life. 

That's Sherrilyn and Mark. They shared a three-piece fish 'n chips. Mom had the chicken. The two-piece meal with the gravy beside it is mine. MMM-MMM good! I even liked the coleslaw. You can just barely see Mom's onion rings on the right side of the pic. She agreed to pay for the meal although I think she thought it was a bit pricey. I thought it was a pretty good deal given the huge portions. Word to the wise, if you aren't hungry, don't go to Tim's Fish 'n Chips. 

Just look how happy Mom and I look! It was that magnificent meal. I think we were all so satiated we were ready for naps. Mark and SL look a bit happier than me and Mom. Probably cuz they had a little break from the chaos that is home life with their family. You will see them later in this post but I'll tell you their names now just so I can type to the bottom of the last picture... Natalia is the oldest, then Hazel, then Hugo, Elanor, Gwinnie, and E/B. Ernie/Bronson. I usually call him Ernie but he responds to either. There are two other kids both older than Natalia, Hayden and Lexy, who are not currently living in the house. 

So, we got to Mark and SL's place, parked the stuff in the driveway, unloaded Mom's bed, set it up, and crashed. We all stayed there for a while. Can you imagine that? It was chaotic but I kinda liked it. It was nice to get to know my nephews and nieces a little bit better. And it was nice to play cards after they all went to bed too! We even taught a couple of the kids to play Euchre, an Ontario game that nobody plays out west here. During the days we played lots of games with the kids and went out to the ball park to play Cherry or 500-up, or we just played it in the back yard dog trail. 

This was a hike to some caves we took in late April. There was still snow and those waters had fish in them. That's Sherrilyn with Ernie on her back, Mark in the red, Hugo in his soccer clothes (we all went to soccer/walking after), that's Elanor at the water, G-dawg (Gwinnie) in the green, and Hazel in the turquoise out front. I think Natalia was studying at home.

This was Big Hill Springs park. A light hike in early May. Mark was taking the easy way across the crick. 

This is in M &SL's front yard just before doing Hazel's flyer route. The flyers are in the buggy. I think we broke the speed record that day. Doesn't it look like a Sears Catalog pose? 

This was taken at Fish Creek Park. That's not too far from M &SL's house. Gwinnie and one of the Shaw kids (maybe Ivy) on the back of the log, Hazel doing her gymnastic balancing and Elanor running back to the spot where we were chucking rocks into the water to splash each other. By this time SL and Ernie had gone home. Natalia was there just not in the pic. Some Karen came by walking her GREYHOUND don't you know and chastened me by saying, "How did you break your leg while hiking with grampa?" "Screw you lady, I'm just their uncle and if more Canadian kids had so much outside time and so little screen time they might be as good at climbing and balancing as these kids are. But you be satisfied with Jr's participation trophy while these girls are winning the sports," is what I DIDN'T say. 

Elanor's 8th birthday cupcakes with candy floss. Or do you call it cotton candy? Shows how old I am...

I buried Ernie in the playground gravel. We were using our hats as bulldozers too filling them up and pouring them out. He loves vrooms!

G-dog asked me if she could borrow my jacket cuz it was cold in the Superstore. Didn't fit too great. 

Some avuncular lasagna made from the stuff we bought at the Superstore. 

Hazel doing the ninja stuff again. She's really good at gymnastics. She can do flip after flip after flip on the trampoline. 

Hazel jumping the crick to join Natalia. I like the shadow. 

This is my almost useless hand when Mark, Sherrilyn and I were up late playing 9-5-2. I didn't even get a trick with the King if I remember right. 

More log walking. This is with Grampa George too. He came out from Ontario to help with Elanor's baptism. I actually went to church a few times. Once for Easter, once for the baptism, once to game night, and once to do some cleaning.

This is Hugo and Bronson at church one of those times. 

THERE'S Grampa George. He's a whiz at Euchre! Hugo is not quite as impressive as Hazel at working those posts. He got right in the water. Him and Dad both.

By the end of the hike even Ernie got to play in the water. It was a fun day except for the mosquitos. There weren't many but I managed to kill 6 of 'em. Nobody else was bothered much. They love to feast on my blood no matter what country I'm in.

So after the hike we decided to go out for ice cream. It was a real treat!

MacKay's in Cochrine, Alberta. Again, do yourself a favour...

It was a hard choice but I had the Haskap Berry Cheesecake. I'm happy with that choice. Haskap berries taste like a cross between blueberries and raspberries.

Then it was time to move Mom. We didn't stay long at Mark and Sherrilyn's. Mom didn't stay much more than a week I think. Luckily she got into a good place and we were able to move her almost right away. We didn't have to unload any of Mom's stuff. It just sat covered up in M & SL's driveway while we were there. Then on moving day Rob and Terri joined us and Kiera stayed overnight to help too.

Here's Rob looking like most of us felt. Where are we going to put all this stuff?

This is Kiera loading stuff into one of Mom's closets. It was nice of her to help Gramma move. 

And that about covers it. I'm now at Rob's. I sent my final document to Korea today.

If this is sufficient for immigration, my next step is to buy a ticket to Korea and get on over there. I teach my first class on June 2nd I think and I will be starting my final class of my master's degree just over a week later. By August I should be a certified, papered up Master of Education. THEN I'll be dangerous! I haven't yet figured out the financing but I'm working on it. I'm sure you'll read about that later...