Just a little holiday update...

So far the Christmas season has been brilliant. The time with my friends and family has been well spent indeed. It has been a good time to recharge my batteries. Before I got here, I was woefully on about half power. (If that...) Gone is the exhaustion of the last few months and I feel healthier than I have for some time. It's almost as if the trip home has been more of a respite in a sanitarium. The black circles under my eyes have started to fade as has the quickness of my temper.

Santa did well to us again this year. It seems his generosity becomes less restrained with each passing year. It's going to be tricky to travel back to Alberta with all this loot in tow. Hopefully Air Canada will be a little more forgiving with the amount of luggage I can bring back with me.

Anyway, more to come later...

12/16/05 Recently Added To The Collection...

Here's some neat stuff that's been added to the collection lately.

1) Face To Face - Shoot The Moon. Normally I'm not much of a "Greatest Hits package" kind of guy, But this one is good. These guys are one of my all time favorites, and I was sad when I heard of their demise. The liner notes are excellent, and the tunes speak for themselves.

2) Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War - An excellent documentary by Rob Greenwald. a gem in a world overrun by lazy conservative media. The people at The Disinformation Company rock.

3) walmart - The High Cost of Low Prices - This one will piss you off. Walmart is evil. Go to Zellers. The disinformation company just keeps them coming.

Cheers

12/15/05 Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos

The execution of Stanley Tookie Williams should be regarded as nothing less than a tragedy. America has once again proven that it prefers revenge to redemption. Regardless of his crimes (Which he denied right to the moment of his execution.), the man became a role model of what a citizen should be.

Stanley was an author, an activist, and a man trying to atone for his past. His regret for the part that he played in the formation of the Crips was always at the forefront. This was a changed man. This was a man who wanted to make a difference.

For his efforts, he was nominated on 6 different occasions for a Nobel Prize. How many death row inmates have been nominated once, let alone 6 times?

Schwarzenegger had a golden opportunity to show the world that criminals can be rehabilitated, and that a man can rise above his misdeeds. Instead he dropped it like a hot potato. For a former action movie hero, he sure demonstrated a lack of spine. How very sad.

Hopefully his death was not in vain.

12/08/05

I like to take little breaks with this blog. It helps me from writing for the sake of writing. Generally I like to have something to say before I sit down and spew. Lately I’ve been feeling good, and little is picking at my brain. Perhaps I’m just too excited about Christmas, and feeling intoxicated by it’s impending arrival. Perhaps, I’m just really not miffed about much right now.

I’ve done a lot of roadwork lately. The last 6 weeks have been filled with one weekend adventure after another, and I have been lucky to work with a lot of great people. This weekend is no exception. I get to work with one of my best friends. This makes me happy. The destination on the other hand, is less appealing to me.

I’m headed to Cranbrook. That town and I have a troubled relationship. It boils down to the fact that I’m a level headed, rational, thinking human being, and the citizens of this mountain berg are religious lunatics. (To the point of being obnoxious about it.) We have very little common ground. (Other than we need food and oxygen…) I have begun to understand what a Japanese tourist must feel like while visiting the Arizona memorial.

I have spent the better part of a year learning that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I’ve read the book on Cranbrook. (Well, really it was more of a leaflet.) The last time I was there, it felt like I had been torn from the bosom of comfort, and thrust out into the harsh light of day. (And the doctor forgot to slap my ass.)

I have learned not to expect much from that town. Hopefully I‘ll be happily surprised this time, but I’m not holding my breath. I suppose it could be worse, I could be going to William’s Lake.

Other stuff…

I listened to an interview with Stephen Colbert on NPR (National Public Radio in the United States…) and I have to say, he is very funny. I like what he had to say. I think I actually find him funnier out of character than in, although the Colbert Report is very funny in it’s own right. I think it’s a great spoof of Sean Hannity, and that other blowhard Bill O'Reilly.

Anyway I have to scoot.

More later…