The Vantalian Invasion has begun. Their advance troops are now on the move with reinforcements speculated to begin moving east within 24 to 48 hours. Our only hope for survival is to attempt to appease their invasion weary heads and stomachs with cold beer and good food. They are coming. We are ready.

do you think the braveheart speech would work here? you know, I never actually watched that. never really had much interest in it.

we’ve been looking at houses for a few months. this past week we found one that we felt matched our needs, was in good shape and in the price range we wanted to pay. not as much as listed, but getting there. long story short, negotiations on a house are a bit nerve racking as well as most of the other stuff involved in it.

so we’re still cabin bound for the next while, which is totally fine. we’re in no rush and we have a fire pit with a shit ton of wood to burn and sit around with beer in hand to mull over the next listing or whatever else you mull over with beer in hand around a fire. which, I guess is basically everything and anything.

except maybe anal leakage. that, i think, would make for awkward fire conversation. and then you’d want to burn the chair that person was sitting in.

As a matter of public record, let it be formally acknowledged here that Dario owes me one bottle of scotch and one six pack for completion of one Accepted Challenge, heretowith known as CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Having completed CHALLENGE ACCEPTED in a manner fully recognized as LEGEN wait for it… DARY, procurement and delivery of said bottle and six pack shall be completed as soon as possible upon arrival.

blah blah legalese blah blah BEER SUIT UP!

time to go to work.

here’s some advice you should follow: if ever you are mailed a package of spices and they send a little something extra that has two words, both starting with P, do not use your work computer to search what you think spells Ponch Poron. g’head, try it.

HAH! now the IT guys are investigating you!

it’s above 20 today. it seems strange. the last straggling bits of ice are still in the yard. it also snowed last week. and all of a sudden POW BATMAN it’s summer weather. except the grass is still mostly brown and there aren’t any leaves on the trees yet…

I fixed up the fire pit yesterday because the top layer of blocks basically disintegrated over the winter. and when I saw disintegrated, I mean Boba Fett style.

I think tomorrow I’m going to be very disappointed with many Albertans. I don’t think I’ll hold back when the opportunities plural arise to say “told you so.”

pardon me a moment, I must take a sip of my bakon vodka ceasar.

*siiiiiiiiiip*

aaahhhhhh refreshingly meaty.

I don’t have any doubt there’ll be those moments. far too few people have actually paid attention to the meat of the Wildrose policy platform and haven’t given any thought to what kind of consequences a sudden majority of a new party full of religious bigots and climate change deniers will bring.

We voted yesterday before going to look at another house.

I think i got a sunburn raking the yard today…

we went back to look at the house again today. we’re going to keep looking.

I smell like fire pit and outside.

it’s a good smell.

last year I went a bit nuts with plants. I think this year I’ll just stick with sunflowers along one side and a few pots. no sense in going all out if we don’t know if we’ll be here a few months or longer or what.

I ordered some new outdoor wheels. I still need to get some new wheels for the truck. those ones won’t have a red warthog on the outside though.

I think tonight necessitates a cigar on the deck.

There’s a Lethal Weapon marathon on. there are lots of movie marathons on tv, but a Lethal Weapon marathon is one that you really can’t argue with. mostly because it’s from the time before Mel Gibson turned into a total batshit crazy dipshit.

we took Barnard to the off leash park today. as obvious from the above picture, someone wasn’t allowed to be off leash the whole time…

I got a small load of lumber today because one of Aimée’s oldest friends is moving to calgary and asked if we wanted some wood. we’re also taking care of his humidor until he gets settled down there.

a very basic and important tenet of Manimalism is that you should never, ever refuse free lumber. especially when you have tie straps waiting in your truck for just such an occasion.

we had all the parentals over for easter dinner yesterday. my sister and her boyfriend are in Maui. I didnt know they were in Maui until Aimée told me last week right after my sister texted her that they’d landed safely. I told her next time she has to take us.

all the parentals had a good time and good food.

i smoked two chickens because SMOKED CHICKENS.

Aimée made a roast chicken in her Emile Henry because roast chicken always tastes better in french cooking dishes. and mashed taters. and rainbow quinoa. and asparagus. but I contributed SMOKED CHICKENS. don’t forge that.

there was a pre-dinner Skype chat with New Zealand. I would like to go there because New Zealand.

Friday and Saturday were spent with Marty, Jamie, Ally and Supa Lee. and Supa Lee’s friend Dale (aka Shrek) and his daughter Kesley at a Calgary Roughnecks lacrosse game. I’d never actually ever really watched lacrosse before. when you’re used to watching hockey and you’ve reffed roller derby, you kind of take a while to figure out why they aren’t calling all the elbows and cross checks and full out dive bombs. I laughed when they introduced the team and the goalies came out because all their equipment makes them runs like a really fat kid.

Bernard got to come with us and Supe Lee fed him lots of chicken jerky. the aftermath of this was that Bernard’s farts smelled like chicken noodle soup for a day.

if you’ve never wondered what that’s like, you don’t need to start.

we also went to the Silk Road Spice Merchant. we came out with several new jars and a Le Creuset mortar and pestle. I may have also just submitted another order online about ten minutes ago to get some other stuff…

like truffles. REAL TRUFFLES. ok, not the all the way black truffle that you see on tv, but still, whoe Black Winter Truffles. and actual black truffle salt. and whole tumeric. and whole star anise. and nigella seeds. and anardana. this adds to the garlic powder, steak spice, black cardamom, whole nutmeg and cinnamon sticks we walked out of the store with.

I WILL BE A SPICE EXPERT.

EX. Per. TUH!

oh, when we were at the off leash park today, we came around a bend and heard geese. turns out these two Canada’s had invaded an eagle nest on top of a telephone pole. I thought that was weird since I’ve never seen geese in a nest that high. I’ve never seen geese sitting on a telephone pole either.

but the cool thing was that there were two eagles and one was pretty pissed off and dive bombing the geese while they were standing in the nest.

it was all SCREEE! honk HONK! SCREEE!!!

kind of like the Red Baron bit that Snoopy does but not at all.

that bit scared the shit out of me when I was a kid…

my mom made me peanut butter bacon cookies.

First, two openly anti-gay candidates:

John Carpay.

John Carpay is a Wildrose candidate. John Carpay was the defense lawyer for William Whatcott in 2010, and argued that Whatcott’s distribution of hate literature was a right of free speech, and supported his right to do it. This man will potentially be elected to office in Alberta.

John Carpay also accused former Premier Ralph Klein of favouring judge-made law by not invoking the Notwithstanding Clause to prevent Alberta from including homosexuality in its human rights legislation in 1994.

The party he is a candidate for is an ardent supporter of individual rights. Apparently, Mr. Carpary feels that the right to exist without retribution for your lifestyle and sexuality is not without its caveats.

Ron Leech

Ron Leech is a Wildrose candidate. Ron Leech is a vocal opponent of equality for same sex couples, and questioned whether same sex couples can be a family. Mr. Leech declared that allowing same sex couples to marry would cause irreparable social engineering.

Mr. Leech is quoted as saying “Marriage is not about equal rights.”

Mr. Leech also declared that allowing same sex couples to marry will increase the tax burden on Canadian families, cause increases in crime and affect mental illness rates.

This man will potentially be elected to office in Alberta.

He feels that same sex marriage would destroy the sanctity of marriage. Maybe he should go have a conversation with Newt Gingrich and John Edwards about the sanctity of marriage…

I should note that a brief twitter exchange occurred about these two. I briefly waded into a conversation where a vocal Wildrose supporter was arguing that the party welcomed all people, and that their sex life wasn’t important to the party. That discussion had spawned from one about the Wildrose supporting conscience rights.

I asked the Wildrose supporter what John Carpay and Ron Leech might have to say about his claim that all were welcome regardless of lifestyle.

His response way “go away. #troll #blocked”

In fact, that’s the only response I’ve gotten from a Wildrose supporter about any question ever. Apparently, you’re free to your opinion, but not free to their response because you disagree with them…

Continuing on…

Link Byfield

Link Byfield worked for his father’s Alberta Report magazine.

This magazine gave this country the likes of Ezra Levant and Lorne Gunter. Basically, Link Byfield’s family magazine gave us Sun Media.

Link Byfield was a founding member of the Wildrose party.

Before that, when he was working at his father’s magazine, he spoke at many dinners and hob knobbed with many people.

Like this.

Let’s look at one of those pictures again.

The man on the right, with whom Mr. Byfield is shaking hands, is Paul Fromm.

I rather enjoyed Gawker’s write up of a recent national gathering Mr. Fromm took part in.

If you’re too lazy to click the links, Paul Fromm is one of Canada’s most notorious white supremacists. Shaking hands with a WIldrose candidate.

I felt that this picture deserved a little more attention, so I sent the link of the blog it’s from to the CBC  news room in Edmonton. I rather enjoyed the email they sent me back.

onwards…

John Oplanich

John Oplanich is a Wildrose candidate. The party John supports argues that the Provincial Tories have received and given away funds unethically. John started off his campaign by placing an ad in a local paper saying that he would raffle off a big screen tv and 25 $1,000 scholarships to anyone who voted for him.

Elections Alberta is currently investigating to see whether this is legal or not.

Questions of legality aside, this amounts to voter bribery and should be punishable by rendering Mr. Oplanich ineligible for the election.

These are the kinds of people running for office in this province for the party that is threatening to win. Homophobes, friends of KKK members, and people who think being critical of one party’s behaviour means that they’re free to do it themselves.

The sad thing is that people will still vote for them, even knowing this.

I wrote a critique of the Wildrose platform in 2010, which I reposted here last year. It was read by quite a few people, however, either no wildrose supporters read it, or they flippantly disregarded it without providing feedback or an angry diatribe. looks, let’s be honest, anyone of any political stripe or leaning or armchair expert can go on a political rant, but for whatever reason, supporters of right wing parties just seem to able to get their voices to get that little bit louder causing everyone else to roll their eyes.

Instead of reposting my previous critique, I suppose I should go through the new, fancy and flashy policy statement the wildrose has begun to dangle in front of voters. However, instead of tackling it all at once, let’s break it up and ask some questions about one or two policy sections at a time.

firstly, here is the Constitution of the Wildrose Alliance Party, which is now no longer visible on their website. It is important to remember that this document is the very basis of the party’s policies and direction. I would think that a document as important as this would be easily found on their website, but apparently I’m wrong. Allow me to posit an idea as to why: It’s not written simply enough. Voters, especially single issue voters and those voters who do not see fit to actually read the founding documents of parties they vote for, like to see large, all encompassing ideas presented to them in easy to read, large letters. as such, all parties take advantage of this.

Herein lies a problem. Voters assume that establishing and implementing policy is easy. It’s not. Again, all parties put forward the idea that with broad, sweeping strokes, they can magically change things overnight. Even if they don’t explicitly say this, voters expect this to be the case. Case in point, the Federal gun registry. Tory supporters constantly gripe about why it’s taking so long to get rid of. It’s a federal program that’s been in operation since 1995. There’s pressure from some provinces to keep it. It will cost people their jobs. You can’t just swipe a pen over a document and end that, yet this is the assumption and expectation too many voters have, whether on the federal or provincial scale.

Thus we get documents like this: the new Wildrose policy document that takes the founding principles of the party and changes them into something easily palatable by supporters. It, like these types of documents from all parties, is couched in simple terms and written in a way so that you could make most everybody agree with it if you don’t let them know which party it originated from.

Now, let’s get in to the meat and potatoes of it. Today, let’s go over….

Education:

Empower individual public, Catholic and public charter schools by
implementing a funding model that sends per-student operational and
maintenance funding directly to the school each student attends while
accounting for the fixed costs of schools in smaller rural communities.

No mention of where this funding will come from, how much the per-student funding will be, or whether or not the fixed costs of rural schools will be adjusted to remain on par with the funding provided to schools in urban areas.

Transfer decision-making authority concerning the building of new schools
away from the provincial government and place it squarely in the hands of
locally elected school boards

Ask Red Deer city council how this went when they tried to have a new French Immersion school built.

Establish multiple pilot projects across the province where open-enrollment
and tuition-free public, Catholic and public charter schools are permitted to
opt into a competency-based learning and assessment education model.
Students who learn at an accelerated
pace under this system will also be able to obtain college and university
level course credit while still in high school.

These programs will need to be subsidized since the schools will not be taking in tuition money. Where do the subsidies come from? Are these pilot schools subject to the same amount of per-student funding as mentioned above? If these schools are open-enrollment and tuition free, how will you prevent overcrowding? If these pilot schools are faced with too many potential students, who determines who will be allowed in or not? If these schools are a success, how do you respond to increasing demand by parents across the province to either reduce or eliminate tuition fees and restrictive enrollment? This would require huge subsidies, where would that money come from?

On the topic of college/university credits while in high school, what will be done about the lost tuition to post-secondary institutions from students receiving these credits away from these institutions? Has there been any discussion of what types of transfer agreements would be necessary to ensure a smooth transition from high school to a university where you already have courses completed? What about high school students wishing to pursue a trade? There is no mention of any type of credit or work experience that would be transferred to a trade program. This is Alberta, I would think that incentives to students to move into trade programs would feature highly in an education statement.

Protect a parent’s right to choose what school their child attends (public,
Catholic, public charter, private or homeschooling) and continue the
current Alberta Education practice of permitting a fixed percentage of
regular per pupil funding to directly follow a student to a private school of
the parent’s choice if desired.

I didn’t realize that this choice was threatened. My sister and I went to the school my parents chose for us. My boss’s child is going to the school she chose for her. With regard to the funding following a student to a private school, I would assume that if you can afford to send your child to a private school, this funding wouldn’t actually make much of a difference to the student or parents. It would essentially be extra funding the school receives. If a student is enrolled in a private, tuition based school, why not reduce this per-student funding and redirect it to smaller school, rural schools, or schools where higher rates of enrollment are causing pressure on available resources?

Mandate the public reporting of each school’s graduation rate and overall
subject-by-subject assessment results so parents have the information they
need to make informed decisions regarding their child’s education.

I honestly don’t see much of a benefit here. In fact, I can see this causing potential problems if large numbers of parents aren’t agreeable with the results of particular schools and remove their children from them and place them in another. This reduces potential funding to the first schools, which could be used to improve programs and raise graduation or course completion rates. It would cause a potential influx of students into other schools, reducing available resources and putting significant strain on already large classroom sizes.

Work with teachers and other educational professionals to replace the
outdated and inadequate Provincial Achievement Tests (PAT) with a new
standardized assessment model that evaluates a student’s actual
improvement and comprehension of subject matter and more effectively
identifies where further learning is required. It is also important to ensure
teachers are provided with the professional development training
necessary to implement such a model.

I understand the standardized assessment model, but what form will it take? How will it be developed? What aspects of the education curriculum will it involve? How do you objectively assess understanding of material? How long will it take to replace the PAT? How much money will it cost to replace the PAT with standardized assessments and train educators to implement this new model? Will this money come from the per-student funding each school receive, or elsewhere? How will these standardized assessments be implemented in the pilot project schools with open-enrollment and student based progression?

Advanced Education:

Establish a student loan forgiveness program that gradually forgives
student loans incurred by graduates who choose to remain in Alberta to
practice a trade or profession of high need over an extended period of
time.

Forgiveness programs like this exist for high demand professions, especially for individuals who work in high demand areas.

Review the Alberta student loan application process to ensure loan
amounts meet the basic living needs of students and eliminate parental
income as a factor in determining final approved loan amounts.

This isn’t a particularly new idea, and has been touted by many parties as a solution to providing student loans. However, a key word here is ‘review’. Review is one of those political terms that means a topic will be examined but likely not acted on. I’m sure that once a ‘review’ of this idea is examined, the amount of additional funds needed to provide students with loans would be too large for a party who is not in favour of further taxation.

Invest in Internet-based learning and other technologies for the purpose of
opening up thousands of additional post-secondary spaces without having
to spend billions of taxpayer dollars unnecessarily on increasingly outdated
teaching methodologies and infrastructure.

Anyone who’s ever taken an online course or program knows that it is in no way equal to courses or programs where you are physically present. Internet based courses allow educators from outside of Alberta to develop and provide course material. Will tuition for online courses be reduced? Will course resources be subsidized if you choose to take a course at home?

Rather than setting arbitrary limits on
courses of study, Alberta universities, colleges and technical schools should
be competing for students by offering the programs and courses students
most want to enroll in.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to expand the availability of these programs, especially if they’re high demand? At no point in this document is there mention of increasing student capacity at post-secondary institutions. If your ultimate goal is to offer more spaces for high demand programs, why promote competition to attract students? Competition and program expansion are two very different concepts.

At no point in this new policy document is there mention of several key party principles that are plainly written in the party constitution.

Let’s examine some of those:

5. A Wildrose Government will institute methods to hold educators accountable for performance

Both of my parents were teachers. Parents of many of my friends growing up were teacher. Many of my friends went in to education in university, only a few of them stuck with it. Why? Because the teacher is always at fault. No consideration is ever given to the student being a problem, the parent being a problem, or education requirements being the problem. No, it’s always the teacher’s fault. Your kid got in to a fight at recess? Teacher’s fault. Your kid didn’t do his homework and failed their exam? Teacher’s fault. Your child is consistently disruptive in class? Teacher’s fault. A common misconception is that teacher’s are essentially babysitters. They’re not, and if you think they are, then you have some very hard thinking to do. Educators are there to provide your children with the methods to learn, not to parent them. Of course, no party would ever put in writing that an education policy would be to hold parents accountable for their child’s problems with learning. that would be political suicide.

6. A Wildrose Government will give Alberta students priority for admission and funding at Alberta post-secondary institutions.

As I’ve said to many people, I was born in Alberta but did not go to university in Alberta. There were programs available in other provinces and institutions that were better and held my interest more. I would think that if a party is intent on bringing research funding and bright minds into the province to contribute to the provincial economy and education, that restrictive policies such as this would be done away with. Their new policy document says that they will increase spaces for in-demand degrees and programs, yet this founding party principle essentially denies many of these spaces to students from other provinces. This will drive research funding away from the province. This will drive students looking to enroll in Alberta institutions elsewhere.

i) We believe in universal public access to education.

This is actually contradicted in their own position on education where they state “1. A Wildrose Government will give priority for admission and funding to Alberta students to post-secondary institutions.” These two words are not mutually cooperative. ‘Priority’ and ‘universal’ do NOT mean the same thing. This policy makes absolutely no sense and the list of policy statements they have regarding education could be downright damaging. The options students have for post-secondary education are not limited to a single province, so why they choose to limit entry from out of province students when Albertans are leaving to take their education elsewhere might actually cause a drop in enrollment in Alberta’s educational institutions.

At no point is there discussion of education for seniors, or what kind of incentives would be made available to people seeking further education to either change careers or improve their own positions in already established careers.  Is on the job training not counted as education? Will there be any government incentives for this?

The Wildrose explicitly states in their constitution that they are in favour of the lowest possible taxation. Looking at their education policies, I don’t see where reductions in taxes would allow them to provide tuition free schools, open-enrollment, or increase spaces in high-demand post-secondary fields. The subsidies needed to provide programs or spaces such as these are not low-cost, especially if they result in higher demand from educators, parents and students.

Next time, let’s look at economic and environmental policies.

a couple of times last week we were sitting in the office looking out the window watching it snow again when someone mentions that it’s above 20 in Winnipeg or Ottawa or Halifax. Nothing quite raises the ire of office workers like arriving to clear skies in the morning, then watching it snow and hearing about how people out east are going to the beach in March.

I PVR’s the Malaysian Grand Prix on TSN because Speed just goes blank. the hell? I tried to watch the Australian GP on Speed and it was just black the whole time. thus, I’m stuck with TSN who decides it needs to cut away mid-lap for terrible ads. I don’t really want to risk setting the pvr to Speed if all I’ll get is two hours of black screen.

yesterday we went to Calgary for camp food and a spatula.

well, ok, a spatula didn’t come back with us, but thanks to a couple of MEC gift cards, I’ve got a week’s worth of backpacking food. and new hiking pants. and some new biners. The MEC in calgary is super nice, except for the parking lot. MEC is awesome, their building planning and green policies are amazing, but they absolutely suck at parking lots. they’re always too small, yet people drive around in them like they’re at a fucking mall.

speaking of mall parking…

we ended up driving way down to the south end of calgary to check out Crate & Barrel at South Something Mall Place. from there we went to Chinook Center and the epicenter of retarded parking lot driving.

seriously. driving training should include a test of that parking lot on a saturday afternoon. it’s just maddening. The Japanese have got it right with their parking lots where you pull in, put your car in a pod, get a ticket and it whisks it away to a cubby hole with robot arms and conveyor belts.

I need to go on a tangent here about TSN again. They got a red flag due to rain, have been sitting behind the safety car waiting to start again, they get the signal that the race is just about to restart and TSN cuts to commercial. LAME.

anyway, we wandered through Chinook, which included a trip to the LEGO store, Williams-Sonoma, clothing stores aaaaaaaand not a single bag came back home with us. not a one. the only thing we bought there were two hots dogs and a bottle of water at Orange Julius. I enjoy their, hot dogs, even if they’re kind of crap. but they’re that kind of crappy mall hot dog that just hits the spot. not quite as good as New York Fries hot dogs though.

When we got home, I wanted to put my camp food away, but the storage room was kind of in shambles and i got into that zone where I feel the need to move things around until I can get one thing put away right even if it means moving everything on every shelf in there. it’s like a giant, real life version of Tetris almost.

we might be buying a bigger tent for group camping. this fills me with much joy, because it means I get to look at more tents. it also means that I might consider trading both my MSR Hubba and Hubba Hubba tents for an MSR Fury. maybe. we’ll see. or an Integral Designs MK2 Lite. maybe. probably not, but maybe.

aaaaand…. that’s all for now.

Don’t even try to say no, you did.

Here’s mine (see if you can spot the progression of drinking):

P: Free box seats at a WHL game. Winning.

P: I do t know if I can go back to regular seas after a sky box…

D: Ha try the box seats at Rogers arena. You’ll never accept normal seats anywhere again.

D: Also we are recording a video later about Spartans.

D: And and I will eat 5 McDonalds cheese burgers in 2 minutes. You need to move back.

P: Nuiiiice. How muxh free booze have tou ha to ight? im on number 6 rum and coke counting doubles.

D: I had had one pathetic free shot. I’m going to throw all this back in your face one day you’re aware of that right

P: Hey. Hey. *Inside joke that shall not be repeated here* Remember tht. Hahahahahahah

D: I Donny care. Tell anyone you want. I have avf now… and she had a vagina.

D: HAS HAS HAS

P: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA fcking smoooooth dude

D: Yep that’s me Smith as such

P: Fxkin A buddy, fuckin A

D: Fuck tag!!

P: Hahahaha that makes no sense but YES

D: It makes ask the sense in the works

P: Totally hahahaha i should raid the mini bar before we leave hahahaha

D: I succotash you as a friend if you’d dont

P: Notd Sylvester the Cat. I finished off all the rum in the box. time for SCOTXH

D: Breanna! Briggs!

P: Wrf are those porn stars?

P: Dide. Dude. Deunk texts are AWESOME

D: Duh, why else with they VCR

P: Fuch eah. What?

D: Fico yeah!

P: I c

P: I convinced a lady at work i didnt know what a vce was and she belwived me hahahahahahahah

D: Hahahahahaha what a snug curvy

P: Lman. When we read this conversation tomorrow hahahahahah

D: I pan on latching Mg a Off

P: Fum yeahdude. Fk. Ardbeg or Kilchoman or Bowmore?

D: Arsbeg

P: Good call. Good call. Sae mobey. Biuy it out here.

D: Ween doo

P: Hahahahaha that sounds like star wars

D: Fucking need

P: Whatwver it’s teue

D: …….Ducking nerd

P: Fuck you started that shit whate et

P: Napolean Dynamite is on thefuck f rv.

And that, boys and girls, is a prime, textbook case of a drunk text convo that you won’t regret in the morning.

Let’s also get one thing out in the open: I am fully in favour of advocacy that brings attention to world problems. No one will argue that awareness is a bad thing, and I count myself as someone who believes this entirely.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…

KONY pisses me off.

Rather, the people who belong to the intended target audience piss me off. I’m thankful that I know people who actually took the time to research Invisible Children, the LRA, Kony himself and the current situation in Uganda. I don’t feel sorry for the people who didn’t. Those people piss me off.

I had heard of Kony and the LRA prior to this entire video blasting its was around the world. I will fully admit that I did not know enough about it to make an educated opinion about what immediate solutions should be put in place to find him and stop the LRA. It is because of this that I sat down and researched what exactly that video was going on about. THEN I could make a better educated opinion.

How many people do you know who supported it right out of the gates without knowing fuck all about the actual history of Uganda, who Kony is and what’s going on there now? I’m going to say, unfortunately, probably many.

How many of those people, now that more expert opinion has been made clear and the opinions of actual Ugandans has been heard, have now lowered their eyes and mumbled, “well, I guess it’s not exactly what I thought…”? How many have remained militant about “AWARENESS!” ?

Look we get it. Awareness. It’s a good thing.

Let me ask you this, Awareness, now that you’re aware of what’s going on, what’s next?

Got a plan?

Got supplies?

Got some kind of directive that some organization can use to, you know, actually go help people?

Or are you content enough to yell AWARENESS! at everyone and simply assume that since we’re all now very Aware of what’s going on, that you’ve done your part and the situation will somehow magically solve itself and you can pat yourself on the fucking back because you think you’re a part of some greater good?

Get fucked.

I was talking with Danielle earlier, who brought this and this to my attention. Apologies for the facebook links, they’re the only ones.

First off, I’ve been blogging since 2004. I like it. I like other bloggers. One thing that raises my ire about bloggers, is the whole attitude of “I’M LINKING THIS AND IF I LINK THIS I’M TOTALLY GOING TO HELP SOLVE A WORLD CRISIS!”

Fuck off.

Page views isn’t fucking international aid. Page views aren’t a judge and jury at the Hague.

Secondly, one of her comments was that the Vancouver event looked like it was a whole bunch of fashion bloggers supporting it.

Let me give you an idea of the calmer status I put up earlier today about this:

Saving the world isn’t a fashion statement. People aren’t helped by your sense of self satisfaction after clicking a button and wearing a bracelet. Don’t think you can provide an instant solution to a problem you have absolutely no understanding or prior knowledge of. If you can’t manage to understand that, I hear jerking off in public and getting arrested might make people sympathize with you again. But probably not.

Ok, so we’re good there. Gets the point across and everything. Now let’s see a response I hovered over publish on on a fashion blogger’s post:

I’m sorry, but no. Tell me how screening it in Vancouver a month and a half after it’s been seen 100 million times online will do any good?

Let’s ignore the ‘raising awareness’ argument. No one’s going to argue against that aspect.

How about the fact that it was screened in Lira by people connected to Invisible Children, 5000 people showed up, and all future screenings in Uganda have been cancelled because the UGANDANS THEMSELVES are saying it will do NOTHING to help, is self centered on the director, explains NOTHING of the current situation in the country, and offers no actual help other than making lots of noise?

How about follow up comments by everyone on here who’s commented earlier? Have you read any of the subsequent follow up in the media? The investigative reports on Invisible Children? The analysis from actual experts in Uganda who say that this film and initiative does shit all to actually help people there? Have you all of a sudden decided that it’s not worth your time? Or if you’re still supporting it, have you bothered to ask where any money or time you’re giving this cause is ACTUALLY going? You know, like the 70% of funds spent by Invisible Children on things other than direct aid?

I bet most, or all you, had never heard of Kony before this. Well congratulations, Invisible Children, you’ve succeeded in making people think they totally understand something they had absolutely no fucking interest in five minutes ago.

How about that event poster, hey? Yeah that’s just fucking great. You’d probably never heard of Kony before you watched this video and all of a sudden he’s worse than Hitler.

I’m sorry, but if you think that Kony and his army, who’ve been basically rendered to nothing more than living in the jungles in four countries OTHER THAN UGANDA for the last six years, is worse than the man responsible for the worst human atrocities in modern history, you need to get your head out of your ass and realize that saving the world goes a bit beyond wearing a fucking bracelet you bought online so you could feel good and think you’re contributing to the betterment of humanity.

it’s like the week that keeps on giving sort of kind of. every once in a while. it gave us snow. lots of snow. lots and lots of snow. a byproduct of this was entertainment because people get stuck, and watching them try to get out of a pile of snow by matting the accelerator is just funny.

oh, and birthday stuff. it gave that too.

and cake. cake is good.

it’s warming up quite a lot out now, so the giant dump of snow we had is all turning into gravel filled slop. it’s great for your vehicle. I should have gotten a giant barrel and done one of those rain water barrel water catchers you can use to water plants with. not that I have any plants to water right now, but still. melt water in anticipation of said plants being there to need water, right? right.

exactly.

I’m going to go help out at the Red Deer Outdoor show today. I was told to tell whoever that I’m working security. I have no idea what that entails at an expo show for people drooling over ATVs and stuff, but it’s something to do. actually, it’s the first time in two year that anyone from the Red Deer Fish and Game club has asked me to help out with anything. Should be a good afternoon, even if I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. If it gets me in for free, all the better, because then I can ‘securely’ look at displays and make sure they’re secure and stuff…. securely. you know?

yep.

Aimée got me the Senna documentary, I watched it last night. you want to yell at Prost the whole damn time. it also makes me wish there was a karting circuit here. There’s one in Calgary, but it’s kind of expensive. there’s a little go kart track in Sylvan, but somehow that isn’t quite the same now is it?

erm. yeah. that’s all I got.

today I’m not longer made up of prime numbers. I’m made up of quarters. birthday math. bazinga.

for those of your wondering, 28. I am 28. which, when broken down to the lowest common denominator is a quarter. MATHS! BOFFINS! BIRTHDAY TOP GEAR!

this is the first time in five or six years that I haven’t been at the Cambie or Blarney Stone on my birthday. it’s also the first time in years that I haven’t been out with friends, so it’s a little weird I guess.

I was vegging out last night watching Terminator 3 and Danielle texted me saying it’s my birthday and we’re not at the Cambie getting wasted. though I think if we’d gone out again this year, I probably wouldn’t have tried to match the results of last year…

however, given the fact that we’re not going out this year, Aimée said that for dinner she’d make me a homemade Cambie Swiss Mushroom burger and we’d wash it down with some winter ale. I believe that this is evidence enough as to why she’s super awesome and will totally forgive me for repeatedly poking her nose while she was still half asleep this morning. This calls for wearing my Chuck Norris Cambie shirt today.

Yesterday my dad and I went to an auction in Edmonton. He’s been to that particular one a few times before, this was my first time. I wanted a shower after we left. It was seriously like People of Walmart except at an auction. Those people are the reason most of the public thinks gun owners are crazy. full on Canadian tuxedos, fur lined Crocs, Carhart bib overalls, cowboy boots, NASCAR and Harley jackets fucking everywhere, hats with flames on the side, camo, camo, more camo, and then you watch what these people pay for the shit that was there. and I mean shit in the most honest sense possible. out of 166 some guns, there were 5 that weren’t fucked up. You have to wonder what goes through the heads of these people when they pay three times the value of a shotgun that’s rusted out and a shit brand in the first place. the biggest jaw dropper was the moron who paid $1050 a piece for three Winchester Commemorative models that are worth $300 each. Add the ignorant sounding auctioneer and mistakes in the buyers guide, and you wonder why people bother with that place.

oh right, because they don’t have to shower, get to wear their camo in public and can collectively bitch about Obama and gun registration.

eyeroll? eyeroll.

So far, two gift cards to MEC, two books, a spec fit Viridian Green Laser, (anyone else notice the safety’s off in that picture?)  and a pre-order of the Senna dvd courtesy of Aimée. right now she’s also making coffee bacon for breakfast. I only asked for a MEC gift card and the Senna dvd, so anything else, up to and including coffee bacon, is a super awesome bonus.

in 2011 I only blogged 55 times. I’m a little disappointed about that. I think this year I’ll manage more.