Friday

IT HAPPENS IN FLORIDA

Happy Friday everybody. Here is a video clip of Chris Klein singing karaoke in the movie Hank & Mike (2008). The song is called 'It Happens In Florida' by the Burning Hell. I love this song even though this is not necessarily the best version out there. The visuals from the film are great.

Alison Redford

I just saw Alison Redford at Mount Royal University. She walked into the building and walked right past me. I was so starstruck that I just froze up. I should have yelled: "SAVE FORT CHIP! SAVE THE ATHABASCA!" I know that she is just one person in a giant government institution but she can still make a difference. I don't think she would have been impressed if I yelled at her. Her security guard had one of those ear pieces with the coiled wire sticking out. He probably would have tazed me. Don't taze me bro.

I think I should do another post about the Alberta oil sands. The saddest part about the Alberta oil sands is that Alberta is like a drug pusher and the USA are the junkies. It is the best analogy for the Alberta oil sands. We are locked into this pusher-junkie relationship whether we like it or not. Not even Alison Redford can save us now. Holy smokes.

I love cats

I love my cat and I would love to have more cats, but holy smokes! How many cats does she have? I surmise that she takes very good care of all of these cats. Check out her signature gif she uses on this forum.

Link Goes To Forum

NHL Lockout Lager

I work evenings at a liquor store near the university where I take classes. I stock the wine racks and the beer cooler. This week we got a huge delivery of these Calgary Flames special edition 15-packs of Budweiser cans.  

This is really sad for me because there is an NHL lockout and this just reminds me about the greed of the NHL. Tickets to hockey games are so expensive and when you go to a Calgary Flames game the beers are $7.75 for a small glass. Nothing about these Calgary Flames Budweiser 15-packs makes me feel happy.

Calgary By-Election

I have cast my vote today in the Federal by-election for the Calgary Centre electoral district.
The previous Member of Parliament was Lee Richardson who jumped ship in May to go work with the Alberta provincial government and has left his job vacant since then.
Tonight we will see who will be elected as the new MP. Please add your comments below about golden-handshake pensions for politicians.

**UPDATE:
PC Candidate Joan Crockatt won the by-election

Calgary Archery Center

LEARNING TO USE A BOW & ARROW

Warthog

So we went to the Calgary Archery Center on Saturday and it was pretty cool. It is setup inside a warehouse in southeast Calgary off of Peigan Trail. We made it during the last hour of the day so they let the two of us shoot arrows until they closed for the discounted rate of $14 per person. That covered our rental of a bow and an hour on the range. It was pretty sweet.

Puma/Cougar

   As we passed through the archery Pro-Shop on the way to the target range we were being watched by so many taxidermied animals that were mounted on the walls. I have a couple of pictures but seriously there are so many antelope, deer and caribou. One wall must have had 20 heads of wild animals mounted on the wall above displays of hunting supplies and archery gear. 

The archery range itself is nothing too fantastic. There are targets on walls that are set up at several varying distances away from the shooting line. The people with the really nice professional compound bows are shooting at the far targets. We were in the amateur section with a bunch of others using regular traditional bows on a mid-range target wall. The guy from the archery range gave us a 3 minute instruction session and then disappeared.

In addition to the walls with targets there were 3-D targets on the range. A big pink hand-written sign that says that you have to pay another $6 if you want to shoot at the 3-D targets. The 3-D targets are styrofoam animals that you can shoot arrows at. There was a wide variety. There was even a giant cobra. I couldn't photograph the cobra because I didn't have enough time when we went to retrieve our arrows. 

One thing that surprised me was that they had these two styrofoam targets sitting on the side. There was a 3-D target shaped like a Darth Vader head that was sitting next to the head of what I can only imagine is Mark Twain. The Darth Vader head was unscathed but the Mark Twain head was perforated with dozens of holes from being used for target practice. What's up with that?

Is that Mark Twain?

As I mentioned before I was under a time constraint to take photographs. The way that it worked was that everybody had the chance to shoot three arrows. There were about a dozen of us using the archery range so once everyone had shot their arrows we all put down our bows and went to retrieve our three arrows. I would stop to take pictures and I did not want to seem as though I was holding everybody up. Also one of my problems is that I would aim too high and my arrow would go over the target wall and end up in a auxiliary storage area for 3-D targets so I would have to climb over every time to get them. Honestly I was 'that guy' who was holding up the whole group. I really wanted to get a picture of the cobra but it just wasn't in the cards. I did manage to get this snapshot of bigfoot. What a yeti! You know, in case you wanted to practice shooting arrows at the sasquatch. I don't get it? Why would anyone want to shoot an arrow at bigfoot. Okay, maybe in self-defense. I just wonder if the sasquatch has enough dexterity to use a bow and arrow. I would hate to get caught off guard by a sasquatch that was armed with a bow and arrow. If you look closely at the photograph you can see that they have a dinosaur target. Great. Now I can simulate the experience that creationists' ancestors went through! 

Styrofoam Sasquatch target is scowling. You can also shoot at a dinosaur.

Four Dollar Find

VIKING TALLCAN BEER HANDLE

 

I scored this from the value basket at the local independent liquor store. I still haven't drank the beer yet. I have never heard of this beer before.

Graffiti in the stairwell at school

Mount Royal University Graffiti Review

I photographed this graffiti in one of the stairwells at Mount Royal University in Calgary, AB. This really caught my eye because it deals with a subject that we have been thoroughly discussing in one of my classes. That topic is the systemic discrimination against the First Nations people of Canada. Aboriginals in any part of the world have a rich cultural heritage and strong ties to the past. Sadly, the history of Aboriginal Canadians is a story of oppression and marginalization. That's why I am proud to celebrate native culture in today's graffiti review. It is good to see positive messages out there for a change! 
On a graffiti rating scale of 5 categories this artist receives the following grades:

Visual Style                  2.5 out of 5
Artist Dexterity              1.4 out of 5 
Creativity                      4.1 out of 5
Effort                            1.0 out of 5
Cultural Relevance         5.0 out of 5

    TOTAL:                 14 out of 25 


56%


Comments:
I am pretty stoked on your message but I think you need to work on your visual style. I understand that you may have been in a hurry to get it written and then get out of there before anyone saw you. Keep the positive messages flowing and work on your penmanship. Good job! 

CATURDAY

HAPPY CATURDAY EVERYONE!

I took this picture of Snicklefritz a couple weeks ago. People have a hard time taking me seriously because my cat is named Snicklefritz. The day that I took this picture I was going to crack open a beer but then I decided to be creative and mix up a martini instead. It was pretty good. I am always up for a new challenge.

Graffiti in Edmonton

Edmonton Graffiti Review

I wasn't sure if I should take this seriously. I decided that I would give it a chance.
This was on the back of a hotdog stand off of Whyte Avenue and Calgary Trail in Edmonton, AB.
On a graffiti rating scale of 5 categories this artist receives the following grades:

Visual Style                  2.0 out of 5
Artist Dexterity           -2.0 out of 5 (negative)
Creativity                     2.7 out of 5
Effort                           1.0 out of 5
Cultural Relevance        5.0 out of 5

    TOTAL:                 8.7 out of 25
35%
Comments:
Good use of the background but still absolutely dreadful. 
SEE ME AFTER CLASS

Strength

Strength in the face of adversity 

means that when someone is 

screaming in your face 

you are still strong enough to 

do the right thing.

Statue in Edmonton

This is a photograph that I took in September of a notable statue in downtown Edmonton, AB.
This statue is located on the south side of the Stanley A. Milner Library.

This statue is titled: "The Trader" and it depicts a white man giving blankets to an Aboriginal Canadian.    The controversy is that there are allegations that white men intentionally gave smallpox-infested blankets to natives as a form of ethnic cleansing. I am not contesting the argument that the colonization of white european settlers had an irreversibly negative effect on Aboriginals in Canada. White colonization of North America is a shameful part of history. I think that the failure of white colonists to integrate with the Aboriginals in Canada is one of the highest forms of racism. The small pox blanket allegations are probably based on a real-life scheme. I would not put it past white colonists to pull-off such a diabolical plan.

In light of the smallpox-infested blanket allegations I think that this statue is insensitive. I will admit that this statue sheds light on a darker part of Canadian history and that acknowledging these problems is an important part of starting a dialogue and moving forward. I think that this statue is disrespectful because not every person who sees this statue is going to think critically about its significance. I believe that this statue was installed with the intention of depicting a peaceful exchange between the natives and the white colonists and this is misleading.  This statue does not tell the full story.

How do you feel about this statue?

Don't Drink The Water

I THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE

So I've started back at school full-time at Mount Royal University and I have adopted a learning theory where I intersect the contents of my five courses so that I can maximize my learning. 

In my first class, Research Design and Methodology, I learned about the professional guidelines for designing, conducting and publishing research. The content of this course is applicable to all fields of study.

Writing in a Digital Context is the class that inspired me to create this blog.

In my Scientific Math & Literacy class I was given an assignment to debate whether or not hydraulic fracturing is safe. I loved this assignment. Hydraulic fracturing or 'Fracking' is a dirty process where natural gas companies pump a mixture of water, sand and 596+ chemicals into the ground in order to create a fracture in the shale that will release natural gas. Fracking can lead to contamination of the ground water. Maybe you have seen the videos on the internet of people who can light their tap water on fire. That flammable water was also featured in the documentary Gasland. I recommend this documentary to anyone who loves nature and anyone who loves drinking water. There is no doubt in my mind that fracking is a waste of fresh water. I think that fresh water is a valuable resource that is going to become an expensive commodity soon.

In my Urban Sociology class we talk about how city planners have shaped cities in the past and how they should shape them in the future. We talk about how major cities are shaped by the interests of the business elite and the political elite. We talk about sustainability. One theme that is recurring is the theory that suburban sprawl is not sustainable. Residential developers will not be able to continue to build communities the way that they are being built today because we do not have the infrastructure or resources to continue living the way we are living. Our energy demands are too high. We have read several studies that suggest that in about 20-25 years people will have no choice but to radically change the way that we live. 

I did not make this macro.

And finally in Sociology of Health and Illness we discuss the social determinants of health. Some people are proud that Canada has potable tap water. The United Nations have declared that "clean water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights". In this class we discuss how in Canada the government is supposed to be responsible for providing citizens with clean drinking water. We also discuss how the water cycle has been polluted by industrial development, wide-scale use of pesticides and everyday human pollution. This is where I am perplexed. We have been heavily polluting our water system for more than 50 years and we still expect that our government is ensuring that our tap water is drinkable. 

UNSUSTAINABLE

So where do we go from here? We already pay for water on our utility bills. People are probably scared to buy their water from a private company because we are worried about commercial interests controlling the price of water. Nobody wants to be extorted for something that we all need to live. On the other hand there are people in developing countries that have very limited access to potable water. Maybe things are too good for us. Maybe we should be paying more for water. Maybe we need to be more conscious about where our water is coming from and where it is going to come from in the future. 

Go change your Brita filter. This is not my photo.

Do most people care about their drinking water? Do people just keep using their Brita without changing the water filter and then all you get is those little black sediments. What are those? How much do we really care about what we are drinking?

When was the last time that you tested the water that you drink? When was the last time that you tested the water that you brush your teeth with?

I watched a documentary called Radically Simple about a man named Jim Merkel. He said that an important part about making social change is that we should not blame anyone. We should not point fingers. Nothing is accomplished when we accuse each other of being 'unvironmental'. We need to start small and make changes the are positive for the planet. We need to reduce our energy demands. We need to reduce the number of vehicles on the road and we need to reduce our travel times. We need to produce more food locally and we need to take energy from clean sources. Many of these things can be accomplished on a very small scale. If every person does one small thing to make the world a better place then we can gain momentum. 

Should we salvage the drinking water systems that we have? Should we encourage our government to subsidize farmers and food producers so that they can use processes that do not negatively affect our drinking water system? Should we encourage the federal government to provide funding for municipalities to develop better drinking water programs in their communities?

Greetings!

Hello,

    Today I have started this blog. I have grown tired of using Facebook as a pseudo-blog and I am ready to come out of the blogging closet. I am a blogger. It is official. You heard it here first. We are going to blog about a little bit of everything and I am very excited to be able to share with you.

    My interests range from survivalism to street art. I am a prepper. This means that I store water, food and supplies in my basement in the event of a disaster. I am interested in all kinds of literature, film and art. I am a street art enthusiast and I have photographed graffiti, stencil art, wheat pastes, tags and stickers all over the world. I love traveling. I have been to Africa three times and I want to go back again some day. The only continents that I have not travelled to are Australia and Antarctica. 

    In this first post I would like you to see where I am blogging from. This is my dinning room table and that happy camper in the beer flat box is my cat Snicklefritz. She is a well-behaved and sociable cat. She just looks grumpy because she is perpetually waking up from naps. I will try an post a picture of my cat every Caturday.