The wild west

The town of Wendover was interesting in only for the stark contrast of State laws. The Nevada half was all neon casinos and the Utah half, literally divided by a white line painted on the road was normal.

The Great Salt flats are really flat. And kinda white but not exceptionally interesting after a few minutes. It was kinda wet when we got out to walk on them and it was more like clay but the little pools had salt crusts around the edges.

Salt Lake City looked much like Reno - and almost every other city since the age of the car. So we decided to spend the day on Antelope Island state Park where the wild bison roam. We did a geocache there and looked around. The Great Salt Lake is kinda neat in that it was so salty I could feel it in the thickness of the water on my hand. Too bad it was too cold to go for a float!

We were just cutting across the top part of Utah so we were soon in Wyoming. Wyoming is the wild west, all dry and empty but for barbed wire cows and antelope. Odd thing about Wyoming - everyoen drives a full size pick-up truck with a big push grill on the front. Then again maybe its not that weird?

We did check out the Devil's Monument as seen here:

It's actually more impressive in RL. Sadly I can't really say the same for Mount Rushmore which we also visited. But maybe that's just my is towards nature versus man made showing through?

The Black Hills are very cool if overly touristed now. Too many billboards and such for my taste. I did have a meal to my taste at the Gem Saloon in historic Deadwood.

The Left Coast

From Seattle we drove across Oregon, a state that really, and I mean really supports their college football team. Go ducks. Nice enough, very green but really we were just zooming through to get to the big show – Redwood national Forest in northern California. Which was awesome. Awesome, awesome. So awesome I'm not going to bother posing any pics because pictures not only can't do them justice but pictures will make you thin they are less impressive than they are. OK one pic:

Thats us at the base of “the big tree”. It goes waaay up in a way that is impressive like no skyscraper ever will be. I wonder if it is the biggest Redwood left or just the biggest one that is easy walking distance from the highway? In any case it's huge.

We did make a stop to step into the Pacific ocean. It was a bit cool for a dip. One of the awesome things about visiting these places in the off season is that they are not maggoty with the unwashed masses. The beach was empty and the Redwoods nearly. This was especially important for me in the Redwoods to be able to appreciate the quiet. Just the sounds of my feet and the constant drip of water in the humid air.

Due to my passport gaff we had to leave San Francisco and environs for another trip and so we went across northern California directly to Reno, via Redding. In Redding I ate at Carl's Jr. That too was awesome, heart stoppingly, belt snappingly awesome. Before Redding I drove the craziest stretch of highway I've seen yet. It was like 5 miles (8 kms) of continuous S turns down the side of a mountain. I was the driver and still getting nauseous.

While northern California was pretty interesting in the variations of topography Nevada was very dull. About the only thing of note in northern Nevada is that the locals recognize that it is so dull they have put casinos everywhere they can find an electrical supply. We're not gamblers so it was a dull drive for us. Maybe the prisons didn't have casinos? Maybe.

In any case we were looking forward to the Salt flats and I didn't bother taking any pictures so here's one more of the redwoods.

Banff and Beyond

First I’d like to once again say thanks to my family for coming out
and I hope they had a good time. I’d also like to say thank you to our
other guests and hope they had a good time too. Banff is a cool place to
see, good for a few days poking around once in a while and I definitely
prefer the off season without the crowds.

Banff from Sulphur Mountain

The drive through the mountain passes was cool. It is neat to watch the
precipitation change from rain to snow and back to rain with the
changing altitudes.

The Okanogan Valley is long, and warm. It would probably be a better
place to visit in the summer - except for the crowds. It’s interesting
to me that there is a huge concentration of Canadian wineries towards
the south but only a scattering across the imaginary line that is the US
border. Yeah we bought a case of not good but awesome fruit wines from
the Forbidden Fruit winery. If you’re not jealous it is simply because
you don’t know any better.

Washington State didn’t look any different from BC really and then it
got dark. We had no trouble finding our friend’s place in the Seattle
area thanks to our handy dandy TomTom. Thanks again M&M for hosting us
in your lovely home we have a great visit. One of the great benefits of
having friends to stay with in a new area is it allows you to mix in
some real life experiences with the tourist trap stuff.

We did do some tourist stuff like Pike’s Place market where I got to
witness a drug bust in the public washroom and see other drug addicts be
forcefully told that they have to stay on the other side of the street
from the touristy part. I also bought and ate some great cheese there.

We also did some geocaching on the park trails. 

Geocaching on a chilly day

We actually had two days of sunny while we were in the greater Seattle metropolitan area. We had great weather our whole trip really.

Cross country

I started my big trip alone, heading out to Western Canada to get
married. Due to an expired passport and a Wawa washout I ended up taking
the ultra-long Arctic circle route. This added about 8 hours of driving
time to my trip but as a silver lining I got to visit with a long-time
friend and his growing family.

The drive from central to western Canada was interesting. Northern
Ontario was flatter with more working farms than I expected. I've
always pictured it as Canadian Shield covered in Evergreens not that
there wasn't a lot of that too. My most vivid memory was the warning
sign along the highway that I was approaching the last McDonald's for 510
kms (gasp!).

Nipigon is a beautiful area and I would definitely like to canoe it
someday. After Nipigon was a long stretch of highway north of Superior
that I bicycled in my cross Canada trip of 2008. Zooming by in an
auto mobile is very different than bicycle speed. My memory of north of
Superior on bicycle is that it was long and hard and repetitive – the
one section of the ride I just wanted to get over with. But now that
I've got both perspectives I’d have to say bicycling was better.
On a bicycle you have the time to appreciate where you are and what you
are doing. Highway speed doesn't really allow for that.

Manitoba was much as I remembered it - rough roads. It’s main
distinction on this trip was the the massive amount of road killed deer
(at least until I hit Wisconsin) – one of those was being eaten by a
bald eagle. Bald eagles are big birds.

I didn't see much of Saskatchewan as it was pretty much covered in
fog or darkness. Creepily like the deer respected the Manitoba
provincial boundaries the fog respected those of Saskatchewan - and the
cold Alberta.

Alberta was cold and snowy. It was the coldest and snowiest
jurisdiction of the whole trip. It also had the best beer. And I got
married there.

A week of living

I just spent week working for room and board at Blue Mountain Biodynamic Farm in Alberta and now I feel like a chump. Not for the week of  free labour but for the 15 years of trading my life for the mountain of junk that is either contributing to the landfill problems, occupying second hand store shelves or worst of all, anchoring me to the wage slave economy.

Sure, some of that stuff will be useful to me when I start living for real but I probably could have accumulated that in 5 years of living frugally. So OK, only 10 years truly wasted making other people wealthy.

The week on the farm makes me more than ever want to make the jump and soon - even if I can't see the bottom. It's not like farming isn't easy, the days are long and not always pleasant and there will always be an inescapable connection to the market economy but the work has some things that no job has ever provided - satisfaction and a sense of purpose. And its not as hard as our elite would have you believe, the hard parts are the same as for any small business.

And maybe farming is not for you, maybe you hate fresh air, getting dirty, manual labour or watching things grow but if you are having trouble finding happiness despite the security or a "good job" consider entrepreneurship. The detractions of insecurity and struggle aren't really detractions - they are living.

Road Rage

Some observations from my recent long road trip.

People who should not be allowed to drive ever again:
1. blind People
2. drunks
3. children, of any age
4. people talking on their phones
5. people texting
6. people reading print material
7. ruberneckers
8. people who do not understand the use and purposes of the external lighting array of their auto mobiles.
9. minivan drivers

Vehicles we need to get off our road system:
1. those silly Chromed up Hummers with race rims
2. low rider pickups (can you say abomination?)
3. all the "full size" SUVs (really just buy a short bus, it would be more appropriate)
4. all the SUVs that don't have off road tires and dirt
5. the Sexima
6. minivans
7. the GTXxx
8. e-bikes

Vehicles we need to see more of more of:
1. micro cars
2. motorbikes
3. scooters
4. vehicles with a matte finish 

Score one for the freaky hippies

What is usually the worst part of my allergy season has passed without me having to use a single loratadin tablet! Sure there were a few sniffles and sneezes along the way but nothing too severe and no itchy burning eyes at all. This is especially impressive since I have started wearing contact lenses occasionally again this year.

I credit the delicious raw honey I've been eating and drinking all winter, courtesy of my hard working girls. The freaky hippies claim that the pollen and such in the raw honey retrains your body to remove the negative associations with that pollen that create the allergies. It makes as much sense to me as the idea that you develop allergies as you get older as your body's defences learn to associate actual airborne toxins with specific pollens. This is the explanation I was offered for why I was allergy free as a kid but have allergies as an adult.

I've even gone to so far as to push the envelope by eating mucus forming blocks of delicious cheese. Still no clogged sinuses. Allergy round two comes in August so lets keep our fingers crossed.

Sunday afternoon

I went out onto the mean streets of Mississauga today to get re-acquainted with an old friend. With her usual grace and brilliance Smoove treated me to a wonderful afternoon. The nice weather helped.

This was also part of my tune up program for commuting by bike this summer. The combination of girth, gas prices and the Accuweather App on the iPhone have me planning to bike in all but the worst weather for the summer. Gotta be in suit shape by August at the latest and I'm losing the juicer this week :(

I'm pretty sure that the commute will not be as pleasant as my ride today but its still go to be better than the traffic I've been sitting in lately. Which reminds me, I have to dig up my good backpack.

Science Fiction

When you say science fiction many, perhaps most, people think of lasers and space aliens and not much else. But good science fiction is so much more, and less. I just watched an excellent science fiction movie with neither lasers nor space aliens - Moon.

It was brought to my attention by the ECJ who also told me that he couldn't tell me what happens just that it was worth watching. I agree, so I'm not going to tell you about the movie just that is very good. What makes it good is that it makes you think – as a bonus its well done from a technical standpoint as well.

It's a shame really that we can't have two different names for the different types of science fiction. Its unfortunate that movies like Independence Day and Moon are lumped together as science fiction when aside from the setting one is an action movie and the other a... not an action movie. But I guess you could say the same thing for other genres like war movies and westerns to name a few some are mindless fun and some have something to say. I think there is a place for both I just want an easy (lazy) way to differentiate.

Disrespect can be earned too

An NFL coach is the hot topic of conversation du jour for stating that certain championships have a stain on them. He's done lots of backpedalling since in an attempt to avoid the heinous crime of disrespecting an opponent and I think that is unfortunate. Mostly because I think he's right. The championships he was referring to are the New England and New Orleans Superbowl victories. The stain he referred to comes from both teams being sanctioned by the league for systematically breaking the rules during the periods they won their championships.

A lot of the talking heads focus the debate how much value or competitive advantage, if any, was gained from the forms of cheating they did and the fans of the teams always rest on the cheaters' eternal claim – that everybody cheats. Well, everybody doesn't cheat.

Philosophically my problem with cheating in sports comes from the fact that sports are silly to begin with. People agree on an arbitrary set of limitations and objectives and compete to achieve the objectives within the outlined constraints. In that sense to cheat is simply to privately admit defeat. Cheating is admitting to yourself that you don't think you can achieve the objective within the agreed constraints – admitting that you think our opponent(s) is (are) better than you. In recreational sports this is the height of pathetic.

In pro sports it is unfortunately understandable but I still object to cheating in the pros for two reasons. The first reason is because, like it or not, the pros are role models for other athletes so when they cheat it encourages cheating at all levels of sport. The second reason is the reason that cheating in the pros is understandable - because professional sports is all about the money and I don't like to be reminded of that.

One last problem with cheating is the result. Now some people will say “hey, they won” that's what it's all about. But really, for the reason I outlined above they didn't really win and when your talking about the kind of questionable advantage cheating these teams were engaged in you can only wonder, could they have won fair and square? I'll never know, you'll never know, and they themselves will never know if they really could have been the best playing by the rules.

That's the stain and cover it, conceal it or ignore it but it's still there.

Albert's Honour

So there's this winery with a misleading name. In my opinion. The winery's name is Malivoire. Maybe it's just me but its kind of a negative sounding name. Mal, voire, sounds like bad, look en français to me. 

I've had a couple of their wines - the 2008 Red (a GSM blend I think but am too lazy to look up), fabulous. Buy it, enjoy it. But the real prize - Albert's Honour, Old Vines Foch: Best. Wine. Ever. Buy it, (maybe invite me over for the evening), open it, breathe it, drink it, live it.

Your Welcome.

Soon I'll have to try their Guilty Men.

I came across the Albert's Honour when on a Niagara region wine tour we purchased a bottle of Maheral Foch from Caroline Cellars. It was excellent enough that I went hunting Foch wines at the LCBO. They had three different ones and all were very good but the Albert's Honour was the best. Ever.

In wine speak Foch = awesome. Apparently. I wonder why there isn't more of it?

Cottageing

I had a pleasant day at the cottage today. I did have three attempts on my life however. Three female assasins tried to make my death look like an accident on the road. Or maybe there is some truth to the rumour that women can't drive? Gender aside, I prefer the paid asassin theory. I prefer to think people are actually trying to kill me rather than acknowledge that people that oblivious can be granted permission to operate the steel and glass high speed human killing macines more comonly know as automobiles. But yes, really there are probably three women sitting at home completely oblivious to the fact that if I was not a defensive driver they would have been in a high-speed highway accident today. But I digress.

 I had a pleasant day at the cottage today. Perfect working weather and I got a lot done without working hard. The cottage you ask? Well, looking at my to do list for this year with the Boss out west I think it looks a lot more like puttering than working and so, combined with the comfort afforded by the bunkie I have decided that for 2012 it will be the cottage. And I shall go cotageing as if I well a real Ontarian. Ok, not quite, I still don't have running water, or electricity. Much less cable TV.

 So what did I get done? The Gazebo Unit water collection apparatus, the compost facility and I put an awning on the cottage. And then I cut some brush for fun. Oh and a couple of Robins built a nest on the back wall of the cottage. But I may have scared them off putting up the awning?

Hola amigos!

I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya but I've have a lot going down. Mostly though I haven't had a home interweb connection so combined with being busy I haven't had much chance to post. It's definitely not a lack of mental wanderings with which to regale you so expect a torrent of posts in the next few weeks. Clear your schedule.

Tonight is my Bee course final exam and I hope I do well since I already bought me my present for passing. Maybe I should have done more studying and less shopping but I didn't. I'm not bring my present back in any case.

Spring is early

The trees are starting to bud and its in the high teens so yesterday I decided to go check on my bee hives. Out of four colonies two succumbed to varroa mite infestations over the winter. I will have to be a bit more aggressive this year in trying to get rid of the mites. It was sad to open the hives and see the little clusters dead on the frames. Both of the dead hives had probably half their honey left so I ledt that out for the other hives to rob. Hopefully that will give them a boost this year and if I'm lucky maybe I can catch them before they swarm and divide the hives.

I'm also trying to buy a few starter colonies, called nucs, but I am waiting to get my registration number. Like everything in a nanny state the government needs to look over my shoulder until I incorporate and get big enough to make my own rules.

A sad goodbye

After nearly 20 years of faithful service my toaster oven has given up the ghost. This toaster oven heated a lot of meals for me ever since my university days. Even after I opened my eyes to the fact that bread is poor people food, not something one should not eat excepting starvation conditions the oven has broiled wieners, reheated spring rolls and cooked many a small meal.

It was an excellent gift bro and one that shall be missed. One last little look:

Two wrongs can make a right

I'm doing a Woodworking 101 course this winter to learn about joinery. In the past I've tried a couple of times to make frames for pictures but usually it hasn't worked and now I know why. Making a frame is not so simple as cutting some wood and glueing the corners. The glue won't hold on end grain so you need to insert a biscuit into the joint for the glue to hold. It's not that complicated so it's what I'll be doing in the future.

I do have one frame that is an exception. Despite not knowing or following the rules it has held up. I think it's because the frame is MDF moulding glued together with a particle board backing. These cheap materials doing have any grain, end or otherwise to pull apart with changes in humidity or temperature.

It's one of those rare instances where two wrongs have made a right. Wrong material plus wrong method but it has gotten the job done. Here's a picture:






















(the art in the middle is not my creation)

This can't good for me

I hate Dalton McGinty. I hate him to an extent that it will probably keep me out of heaven if there is such a place. I hate the man for one reason and one reason only. The Ontario Health Care Premium.

I have come to hate socialized medicine. I want to see it abolished. Now don't get me wrong, I like health care. (Sort of anyway, I'm not a huge fan of "a pill for every ill" but I do like knowing some skilled individual will be available [eventually] to stich me up should I every get hit by a random bullet when in the Big Smoke.) I just think it should be an insurance system - this is odd as I normally think of insurance as legalized extortion.

My hatred of Dalton helps me explain this. Every year I have to pay a special Ontario Health Care Premium of an amount calculated based solely on my income. I think this is a HUGE injustice. An injustice worthy of stoning. In a country where the medical system is clogged with people who make poor lifestyle decisions in regards to their health I think any health care premium has to be based on those lifestyle decisions and not on income. I don't care if it's a private or public system, I don't care if it becomes "tiered" and I don't care if some people can't afford it. I don't even care if my insurance premiums would total more than my current Ontario Health Care Premium and the percentage of my taxes that already go into the health care system I just want to feel like it's at least pretending to be fair.

Good news for ugly folks

George must be happy that his buddy Steve is so good at what he does. I recently saw the Adventures of Tintin in 3D and I have to say I was impressed. For the second time in my life I also got a private viewing being the only person in the movie theater. (The first time was a midnight showing of 3000 miles to Graceland, which was also better than expected.)

The animation in Tintin was excellent to my untrained eye and while the characters were human the fact that they were also obviously cartoons was a lot less creepy that some recent attempts at animated tales of humans. The action was fun and the story good.

I'm already up for the sequel and that's a rare thing these days.

You might be wondering how the title fits this post? Well with animation this good it won't be long before good buy ugly actors will be able steal the leading roles from the no talent pretty people.

Good TV

I just finished watch the TV series “Breaking Bad”. For those who don’t know about it, it was on AMC, lasted four seasons and was about a high school chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with cancer and turns to cooking crystal meth to pay his medical bills.

It was good. The first two seasons really good, seasons three and four were also good but I felt the story was being drawn out in comparison with the first two seasons. If the show had maintained the original pace seasons three and four would have been one season IMO.

Essentially the show looked at the values of America. In theory all of the shows charcaters are in pursuit of the American dream, or at least one of them. Walt wants to be independent, Jesse wants to be left alone to do his own thing, Skyler wants the white picket fence and most everyone else wants to be rich.

What the show examines is when these desires come into conflict with the real world, with law and order, and with what happens when you decide to abandon the rules. The spark is Walt's cancer. His insurance isn't what he thought it would be and he's too proud to accept charity so he rationalizes abandoning the system that he feels abandoned him. Then things get out of control.

Things’ spinning out of control when there are no rules is definitely the leitmotif of the series. In many ways it's about the need for rules even if they seem unfair.

In the end I think what I liked about it most is that the show wanted you to think about issues and ideas, about right and wrong, values. TV needs more shows like that.

Society Collapse Disorder

I’m taking a University distance education course on Bees this winter so expect a few bee related posts. This one comes from a phenomenon concerning honey bees called Colony Collapse Disorder.

In CCD large amounts of bees disappear from the hive resulting in its non-viability. In light of the bees eusocial society I can see why this phenomenon is so disconcerting to beekeepers. I also think maybe it should be disconcerting for sociologists. A eusocial society is the ultimate expression of all for one.

No one really knows what is causing CCD. It’s not like the hives are full of dead bees or surrounded by dead bees, the bees simply disappear - apparently abandoning the hive and their queen. It is known that the colonies that fall prey to CCD usually have a variety of stressors present and this is where I think sociologists should pay attention.

Honey bee hives today face an ever increasing variety and intensity of stressors – constant movement of bees used as pollinators, GM crops, new pesticides (in particular neonicotinoids, unprecedented levels of radiation and new natural pests (varroa mites, nosema).

We don’t live in anything approximating the strong bonds of a eusocial society but I do see the ever increasing and variety of stressors also affecting humanity – GM foods, the chemical soup we call modern living, the magnification of background radiation and what seems like an awful lot of allergies.

Some biologists say the bees are to the environment what the canary was to a coal mine. For humans I say look at our reproduction. Not so long ago we were desperate for birth control but today who doesn’t know a couple, or a couple of couples, who have invested thousands of dollars in fertility treatments?

"The future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed"

The title is a quote from William Gibson, an American-Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of cyberpunk. He coined the term cyberspace .

I'm cutting and pasting the story because I don't know how long the link would last. The story is from Yahoo.ca news and his guilt or innocence is not my point.

"Muslim man: My workplace quip made me a terror suspect

>By Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – Thu, 2 Feb, 2012

MONTREAL - A casual text message to work colleagues encouraging them to ''blow away'' the competition at a trade show allegedly plunged a Muslim man into a terrorism probe.

Telecommunications sales manager Saad Allami says the innocent message, aimed at pumping up his staff, has had devastating consequences on his life.

The Quebec man says he was arrested by provincial police while picking up his seven-year-old son at school. A team of police officers stormed into his home, telling his wife she was married to a terrorist. And his work colleagues were detained for hours at the U.S. border because of their connection to him.

Those are the allegations Allami makes in a lawsuit filed last month.

The Moroccan native is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants, and the provincial government. The six-figure sum is being sought for unlawful detention, unlawful arrest, loss of income and damage to his reputation.

On Jan. 21, 2011, Allami sent a text message to colleagues urging them to "blow away" the competition at a trade show in New York City.

According to his lawsuit, he was arrested without warning by police three days later and detained for over a day while his house was searched. During his detention, a team of police officers allegedly conducted an "intrusive" four-hour search.


"The whole time, the officers kept repeating to the plaintiff's wife that her husband was a terrorist," the filing reads.

"The treatment of the plaintiff and his wife was cavalier, illegal, aggressive, accusatory, and in violation of their most fundamental rights."

Allami, who was 40 when he was arrested, says he has no links to terrorist organizations or the Islamic movement and that police acted without any evidence or research. He has never been charged in the affair. A search of Quebec's courthouse database finds no other references to him, either.

However, Allami says he hasn't been able to get a certificate of good conduct, which he would need in order to get a job working in finance.

His allegations have not been proven in court and the application is to be presented at the Montreal courthouse on March 5.

Provincial police spokesman Guy Lapointe says the force is aware of the case but will not comment as it is before the courts. A Justice Department spokesperson also declined to comment.

Police had in Laval, Que., where he applied for the certificate, found terrorism accusations and public mischief on his file, even though his public file shows no signs of the allegations

"Without the certificate of good conduct, the plaintiff can no longer work in his profession," the document states.

Allami is being represented by Julius Grey, a well-known Montreal lawyer.

Contacted earlier this week, Grey said neither he nor his client wished to speak about the facts.

"It presents interesting issues of law and profiling but I feel uncomfortable debating it outside the courtroom," Grey said.

The motion he filed makes allusions to the profiling issue.

"Without any evidence, and without any follow-up, the (provincial police) just cannot go about arresting North Africans, of Muslim persuasion, inferring they are terrorists, giving them a police record, and destroying their reputation, credibility and livelihoods," the motion reads.

Allami says he sent the text message in French and used the word ''exploser,'' a term he claims is commonly used in finance to mean grow or succeed.

His case has surfaced after another story about an unexpected national-security case, triggered by what appeared to be a meaningless comment.

There have been reports of two British tourists who said they were banned from entering the United States — with one of them handcuffed, arrested and flagged as a threat by the Department of Homeland Security over Twitter tongue-in-cheek messages about going to ''destroy America'' and dig up Marilyn Monroe's body."

And here's the link:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/muslim-man-workplace-quip-made-terror-suspect-211334769.html">http://ca.news.yahoo.com/muslim-man-workplace-quip-made-terror-suspect-211334769.html

The story of the hummingbird

One day the great forest began to burn. All the animals fled in terror before the great fire. They ran to the edge of the water and cowered in fear. The tiny humming bird looked about and went to the water and sucked up as much as he could and flew to the fire and spit the water out onto the flames.

Back and forth he flew all day carrying drops of water while the other animals watched. Finally one of the animals said, “What are you doing tiny hummingbird? You are too small to make a difference.”

And the hummingbird replied, “I’m doing what I can. What are you doing?”

5 books that have influenced my world view

By no means is this list exhaustive or even definitive and are listed in no particular order:

• Stolen Continents, by Ronald Wright - For me, this is the Rashomon of Books but better, because it’s not an imagined story, it’s a bunch of real events. What this book taught me is that perspective is everything. Everything. You always have to consider the source of information - and the potential motive - if you want to have any chance at getting to your truth. That is, the truth from your perspective. There is no "the truth" except for the driest of dry facts.

• A Short history of Progress, also by Ronald Wright - Yeah this guy has had some influence on me. This book told me two things. First, that there is no such thing as progress without a clearly defined objective or end point. Everything else is merely change. The second thing that it told me is that I live in a global society that is on the downside. It consumes more resources than it produces with ever more of those resources concentrated among the elite. In the past, over and over again, these have been two sure signs of imminent collapse. Imminent on a different scale than a mere lifetime. Will collapse come my lifetime? No one knows the future.

• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley - Scariest book I’ve ever read. Most people think of fascism as the “hard coercion” exemplified by Orwell’s 1984 but I see the “soft coercion” of the BNW every day. For a book written in the 1930’s there are just too many elements that are too similar to the modern world for me. I’m not saying that we are living in the BNW today but based on the time line of the book we’re on track to get there. It only got worse when I listened to a lecture by Huxley from the 1970's about how the science of psychology had determined that "soft coercion" was quantifiably much more effective than "hard coercion". More flies with honey...

• The Tao of Pooh, by Benjamin Hoff - I’ve read more than a few books on religion and philosophy but this one is by far the most brilliant. The characters of the hundred acre wood were well known to me and to see Taoist philosophy explained through their actions from the original stories was great. It made me a fan of the adventure that is the river of life. Which is to say this book gave me my framework for interpreting the universe I live in. (The key is to not get bogged down in the details.)

• Hearts of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad - This is a different kind of river, the book being better than any of the movie adaptations of the theme. I would have to say that this work of fiction more than any other resonates with what I have seen as human nature. Social distance matters more than anyone wants to admit.

Depressed?

Are you depressed? Mildly dissatisfied? If so, I'd like to ask you to participate in a non-scientific study in 2012 and grow a garden. Vegetables are preferable but flowers will do and for apartment dwellers even some window boxes would help.

I was recently reading through some back issues of Psychology Today magazine (seriously) and I came across an article about the magic of soil. But it wasn't very magical since it was all science stuff. The article was talking in mostly layman's terms (which is why its a good magazine) about some studies done on the effect of gardening on mood. Everyone already knows gardening makes people happy so they were asking the why/how?

In a nutshell, soil that is rich in organic matter is also rich in mycobacterium and these mycobacterium have the same effect on the human brain as prozac type drugs. So when you work in garden soil you end up inhaling these mycobacterium and it makes you feel better. And all along I thought it was just the moral satisfaction of honest work but no, it’s actually just chemistry.

So anyway, plant a garden or expand your current one and let me know if you feel any better at the end of the season. Pictures of your garden and harvest (if applicable) would also be appreciated.

Smart or not so smart?

In preparation for my new year of restraint I waited three weeks before indulging in my Fuller's 2011 Vintage Ale. I don't know if it was my extended wait time (I normally wait three days) increasing the anticipation but this year's brew was definitely the best since I've been sampling them. that would be 2005. Now I wish I'd bought another :(

The first serious mistake of the new year came yesterday. Me and the Boss took a Smart fourtwo pure for a test drive. I've been ogling these tiny little cars since I first saw them in Spain in 2002 but they seem like a second car for someone like myself. I really can't see hauling the Tigress up to Algonquin or Killarney on top of one of them. Though it would force me to pack light.... But with the Boss and I having a pick-up truck a second car is what it would be. While I still love my Sugar the Boss is not so keen as she doesn't like the manual transmission. Or the broken AC in the summer months.

So we are considering changing up the car part of our two car household for something she can drive that's easy on the gas. We were considering the diesel model of the Smart but they apparently don't sell them anymore as people found them underpowered at 46 HP. Which is bout the HP of Beatrice but then, she never goes on the 401.

Anyway the Smart Car is awesome and now I want one more than ever. At the price range for an off lease model the other cars we are looking to test drive will have to be pretty super to have a shot.

2019 already?

204 pounds, 23% body fat adds up to a metabolic age of 46. Starting 2012 I’m cheating myself out of a potential 7 years of life.

So while I don’t make new years resolutions I am going to have to do something about this in 2012. I’ve got lots of ideas - a return to hot yoga, running, weights etc. combined with a ketogenic diet transitioning into modified paleo but the real new weapon against obesity is my new paper notebook.

The 2012 plan is to record every penny that slips through my grubby paws. One of the negative aspects of modern urban living is that money seems to evaporate. I suspect that far too much of it goes to connivence food and i want to find out.

The factors in favour are that I (hopefully) get to kill two birds with one stone - get healthier and save more escape money. And for me focussing on my inner miser should be easier than my inner health nut.