The busy boring times

This year my holiday season started out with a trip to the Christmas show in Barrie, which is a sickening display of the commercialization of a religious event. Then again, Jesus was probably born sometime in the spring, or so I've been told. I always find it amazing how strongly some people cling to the importance of Christmas Day, even though it's probably a few months off. Further proof that religion isn't anything more than an interpretation of an idea., one that men decided upon centuries ago. Better get out and spend a heap of money to honour the savior though.

And what better gift than a nice little bench depicting Winnie the Pooh going all out cowgirl with Tigger, or maybe Eeyore is more your style? I love the grin on Pooh's face.

I also enjoyed this blitzed-out penguin.He's happy now, but wait for the paranoia to set in, I bet it'll be a sight to see. THE FEAR!!!

 

My holidays this year were actually a ton of fun. We kicked it off back home with  an ugly-sweater party followed by a horrendous hangover. The day of the hangover I had to head back to the party house to retrieve my wallet, and while standing on the porch I witnessed a poor little 17 year-old girl round a corner and lose control on ice, eventually smashing into a neighbours car. I was parked right behind that car, and fortunately I didn't take any damage. I was also fortunate that my parents and brother took care of most of the shopping this year, so I only had a few things to run around to find.

Shan and I took a trip down to Cookstown for shopping, but also to visit her dad's grave. It's amazing that he passed away five years ago, seems like just yesterday. En route to the cemetery we got stuck in a dead-stop traffic jam, which prompted a few drivers to pull U-turns and return to the highway. We figure there was an accident due to the massive amount of blowing snow, and after a few minutes the road cleared up and we started rolling again. Not 200 yards down the road we saw one of the U-turners stuck in the opposite ditch, to which I exclaimed "What a douchebag!" Once we reached the cemetary Shan and I had a long laugh that we would rather ridicule someone than, say, stop and help them out of the ditch. We're such pricks...

After gifts and turkey at my mom's place on Christmas eve, we did the same routine (with ham) at my dad's in TO on Christmas day. My big gift this year was a 50-inch flatscreen, which is quite boner-inducing. I got several other cool gifts along with some stuff for the apartment. The most hilarious gift I got was from my mom - it came in a box about the size and weight you'd expect if you were getting a nice 26er of Johnny Walker or something. I eagerly opened my bottle of Scotch only to find 200 metres of tinfoil. No joke. My brother and his wife sat there with blank expressions on their faces, which exploded into laughter after my mom ran down to the kitchen for some coffee. A short while later I opened a slightly larger and heavier box, again hoping for Crown Royal or something, and joked that "this one must be the Saran Wrap!"

I was ever so pleased to received 914 metres of actual fucking Saran Wrap. What screams GIFT like a kilometer of plastic wrap. First world problems, when put into perspective.

Boxing day was the normal routine of heading down to Chatham for the big family gathering, but Ryan and Mangela couldn't come this year because her family was hosting a similar event. My step-sister, her husband, and my two nieces did make the trip down though. I rode down with my dad, step-mom, and Janu the almost-four-year-old. My highlight was Janu singing "Santa Claus is coming... to WIRE!!" I have no idea how she came up with that, since no wires were in her vicinity, but she seemed to enjoy the lyric.

The dinner was good, and a bunch of us headed over to my cousin Eric's place for several burrs. There was a decent gathering of children so they were all preoccupied running around Eric's new and super sweet house. I'm looking forward to seeing the pool and massive deck in the summer. The adults got worked up with some board games and it was alot of fun catching up with some relatives I don't get to see too often.

The following day my old man and I went out to buy the TV at a solid price, and I headed out for beers with a few buddies. Ended up shooting pool for a few hours then killing the video games at my buddy's work - which is a ridiculous place filled with wide open spaces, free beer, and countless flatscreens. It was actually really nice to be free of the femailiens for a night. Them bitches be crazy.

Speking of, I ended up being the 21st wheel at the NYE party this year, since my date ditched me. I was happy to hear that she was the odd one out at her party too! Yay!

We've since patched that whole thing up, but it's becoming quite apparent that everyone is coupled-up and becoming very middle aged. Methinks ol' Mintvis needs to move back to the big city to be with like-minded folk who still enjoy a solid embarrassing night on the town as singles.

I did teach my middle-aged brother how to bet on sports over the break. He's become accustomed to making $1 wagers and earning a few quarters for his victories. I, on the other hand, do very little research and say"throw $10 on this, $5 on that" etc etc. I think he caught the fever. Unfortunately he pretty much breaks even, since he regularly disregards my stellar advice.

Alas, I've grown tired of this boring post. I need to get back to my novels, which I have actually started... damn this mind-consuming master's degree. Gotta get this shit outta the way and start living again kids!

Finally 28

For the better part of the last year I've been telling people that I'm 28. Now it's finally true. Sometimes life gets confusing, what can I say? Faves of the year:

Top 5 Albums

5.

4.

 

 3.

 

2.

1.

Top 5 Songs

5. John Doe & Kathleen Edwards - The Golden State

4. Pickwick - Blackout

3. Ted Leo &The Pharmacists - My Vien Ilin

2. John K. Samson - When I Write My Masters Thesis

1. Patrick Stump - Bad Side of 25

Top 5 Movies

5.

 

4.

 

3.

2.

 

1.

Open Letter

Dear OC Transpo,

Have you ever heard of the horror movie “The Human Centipede”?

To summarize, a demented surgeon kidnaps and incapacitates unsuspecting victims. He then surgically grafts the mouth of one victim to the anus of another. He does this procedure twice, linking three people together in a chain, and the human centipede is born.

A short while ago I was waiting for the 101 in morning rush hour. This is a bus that’s supposed to come every 10 minutes. After 30 minutes of waiting (something that happens regularly), I finally saw my bus roll around the bend. I then noticed that another 101 was right on its tail. As the first bus pulled up to my stop, I noticed a third bus following the first two. All were showing the same route – 101. And there wasn’t a single car separating the buses, they were just sucking on each other’s exhaust pipes. It was an angering sight for every passenger on that route, let me tell you.

The look of this ridiculous string of buses reminded me of The Human Centipede, and I came up with the following analogy: The buses are the human bodies from the movie, with the drivers being the brains of the people trapped in the terrible situation. OC Transpo as a whole is obviously the demented surgeon. And the passengers? Well, we’re the ones that get on at the front and get off at the back. It’s hardly any wonder everyone hates OC Transpo when you treat us all like feces.

Good day.

Late 20's Now

Top 5 Albums

5. Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
4. Dan Mangan - Nice Nice Very Nice
3. Serena Ryder - Is It O.K.
2. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Ashtray Rock
1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Top 5 Songs

5. Lady Gaga - Born This Way
4. Ray Lamontagne - Empty
3. Arcade Fire - Mountains Beyond Mountains
2. Joel Plaskett - Soundtrack for the Night
1. Queen feat. Bowie - Under Pressure

Top 5 Movies

5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

Hats off, flags down

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

Saccades

Winter was here, went skating. It got mighty cold.

Shannon left, came back, then left again for the heat of Honduras.

Sub-letter moved in, progressively grew weirder and weirder. Boyfriend is cool, but constantly present.

Quit the sign shop.

Finished up my cancer course.

Soccer wrapped up.

Started the Masters at Ottawa U.

Summer came, baseball with it.

Then came the heat, then came the air conditioner, then came the hydro bills.

Black Ops arrived on the scene, heavy pwnage ensued.

Searched forever for a new apartment.

Found a sweet new pad with the wife.

Gradually moving in, waiting for our roomie Shannon to return and party down!

27 next week. Damn I'm getting old.

The Alzhamburglar

As Alzheimer's awareness month comes to a close, I wanted to comment on a book I recently read, titled "Dying for a Hamburger - Modern Meat Processing and the Epidemic of Alzheimer's Disease"


Looking back through history, reviewing scientific literature, and examining the practices of various cultures around the world, the authors make a complelling case that the processed meat industry is directly linked to the growing epidemic of Alzheimer's disease.

It's generally accepted that as people get older, they naturally become foolish and forgetful, having "senior moments" and things like that. Senility is assumed to be a natural development - but until about a century ago this was not the case. All of the great documentors and physicians of the past infrequently reported cases of dementia in the elderly. Yet today we are literally seeing an epidemic of the disease, and the majority of people over the age of 85 develop some form of dementia. And this disease is unlike any other - it robs people of who they are and who they were, not to mention the emotional impact on their friends and families.

Looking to the past, it appears that Alzheimer's disease only became prevalent as modern meat processing facilities developed. And the fact that all parts of the animals we slaughter are put to use - be it for human consumption, animal feed, or a plethora of other uses - it's hard to find many products that don't contain processed animals. (It's in your make-up ladies.)

A correlation is also found between countries that use these mass produced meat products (mainly Western cultures) and those that don't (i.e. India). Basically if you don't eat alot of meat as a society, you don't get many cases of Alzheimer's.

On the scientific front, a new theory has developed in the past few decades that aberrant proteins called prions can interact with normal proteins and convert them to prions as well, in animals and humans alike. This causes a cascading effect that leads to more and more prion production, which eventually leads to the destruction of cells. And it seems that the most susceptible cells are those in the central nervous system, which explains the shrunken and "Swiss cheese-like" brains that are found in Alzheimer's victims.

Coming from a scientific background, it's fairly easy for me to understand the fundamentals of the theory, but to lay it out simply, prions are tiny compared to viruses, which are generally accepted as the smallest infective agent known to the Earth. And viruses are thousands of times smaller than bacteria, which are the smallest organisms we can see through a basic microscope. Viruses can be readily sterilized using known methods, but prions are a new threat that can survive these precautions taken by doctors and scientists. Such evidence for this includes the fact that scalpels used to dissect the brains of Alzheimer's patients have been sterilized and reused on live patients, but still confer Alzheimer's to the living patient.

Scary shit eh?

A parallel is also drawn that shows how similar Alzheimer's disease is to Mad Cow disease and variant CJD - diseases that hit Britain especially hard, and was traced to the practice of feeding dead animals to live ones, in effect creating cannibals out of grass eating ruminants. And the goal here is to increase yields for farmers and make more money - make a cow eat a cow, and they become bigger and fatter. Always with the money...

Speaking of cannibals, the book also examines cannibalistic cultures and discovers dementias are directly related to eating your own friends! So don't eat your buddies, especially their brains.

The end result of the British follies was to prevent cows from eating other cows, and laws were passed to ensure this rule would stand (though mistakes are often made, and sometimes rules are ignored). But here's the brilliant part - you can still feed these extra cow parts to chickens and pigs to make them bigger and fatter. And then you can slaughter the chickens and pigs, and feed their remains to cows! So the prions flow everywhere, and the holier-than-thou race of humans can pat itself on the back. Well played sir...

One point that I found particularly unsettling was the argument against eating ground meats. Imagine 1 in 100,000 cows has prion disease - if you only buy steaks, your chance of getting those prions into your system is 1 in 100,000 right? But if 1000 cows are ground up in a large vat and hamburgers are pumped out, your chance of getting that prion just skyrocketed to 1 in 100. I'm not a big fan of those odds, especially considering how many hamburgers the average Joe is going to plow back in a lifetime.

So I've basically summed up some of the arguments, albeit not so eloquently as the book does, but it's certainly made me reconsider my food choices. And it also makes me want to visit an abattoir and become a vegetarian, but that's not likely. Though I will stick to the solid cuts of meat more often than I used to.

My main criticism of this book is the lack of alternative theories offered for the Alzheimer's epidemic. Many, many things have changed in the past century or so. Countless factors could be involved in this phenomena, but not much is offered beyond the apparent culprit of the meat industry.

Regardless, I highly recommend this book.
Read it, and I guarantee you'll grow a serious case of paranoia about your future in the old age home. Not to mention the paranoia we're bound to feel about our parents who are all getting to that age when the baby boom hits the age of senility, right?

It's just one of those days

Without the alarm going off, I woke up the the following sight:


Because my life is so awesome, I didn't get that extra hour of sleep. It was fucking twenty-to-seven.

Last night was just as rough - the drive home took three times longer than usual since it was snowing and people can't drive in snow. Computer files wouldn't load. The wife wouldn't stop complaining. All the lights were red. And sleep was lacking for the past week.

My stress level was through the roof since I had to give a 45 minute presentation today in my cancer class. After almost 3 years of hiatus, I'm thrown back into the fray with a week's notice. I fell pretty good about it, but there were definitely some questions that left me scratching my head. Plus the guest prof was a complete cock, but then again I already knew that since I had met him before. The guy is only here for two weeks, and I get stuck presenting to him. Typical...

I'm glad it's over though, and I'm glad that I have almost 2 months before my next presentation. And the next prof has got to be better than the one I just had. You can't really get much worse - arrogant, socially defunct, wild mood swings, and worst of all, FRENCH. Couldn't even understand some of the things he was saying as he looked down his nose at me. Prick.

Anyway, this weekend should be good. The bro and old man are in town, and we're hoping to catch some football and hit the canal. And I'm also looking forward to catching up with my cousin Sean tomorrow. Maybe check out some tunes somewhere, who knows.

They made a movie about me and you - it was half good and half true

Last night I had a dream that I was partying all over the US with Anthony Kiedis in the mid-90's. Bitches, blow, booze, etc. Crazy times we had! And for some reason I called him "Tony" instead of Anthony. We were buds tho, so whatever.

It probably came to mind because I read his autobiography a few months ago. Although I found it pretty entertaining, about halfway through it seemed like he was stuck in an endless loop of behaviour that went nowhere. Despite his alleged recovery from drug addictions as the book wrapped up, I was left thinking "this guy is probably ramming a needle in his arm right now", since the book was published a few years ago. And it also occurred to me that half of it was probably true; the other half bullshit.

I also read Heath Ledger's biography a few months back. Boring, boring, boring. Poorly written too.

Xmas treated me well this year.

Sidenote: The wife hates it when I don't call it Christmas... and yes, it has to be capitalized. Yawn. It's all about the money these days anyway. Plus Jesus was probably born in March anyway, so there's no use getting excited about things.

I finally got an Xbox, and it came with a couple of games. Halo 3 is alright, but I'm hankering for COD. And the racing game, Forza Motorsports, is surprisingly entertaining. I haven't played a racing game in years, but this one is pretty solid.

I also got some sweet new sheets and towels for my pad. Never thought I'd see the day that I'd be excited about fuckin linens. But I suppose everybody's gotta grow up sooner or later.
Also got a couple of books - Vonnegut and Bukowski (mint), new headphones, liquor, some custom coasters from my sis-in-law (one of which sports a studly-lookin pick of me), new gloves and scarf (yuppie), awesome new work boots, and a few other things that escape my memory at the moment.

On a melancholy note, I think I just saw our old wise cat for the last time. He was looking mighty frail, and he's definitely taken a turn for the worse in the past two months. But I also got to hang out with my bro's new cat, Ollie Williams. He's got a double set of fangs right now since his adult teeth have come in before the babies fell out, so he looks menacing... if only he weighed more that 3 pounds. Even still, he's something to be feared at the moment with those claws.

The break was busy with travel, but I got to see a bunch of friends and family along the way. TO, Barrie, Chatham, Sarnia, London. And I even wrote xmas cards to the aunts and uncles I didn't have a chance to see. Look at me, all grown up and shit.

My workplace packed up and moved on the 29th/30th, and we had two brutally busy and tiring days for that task. Even now we're still setting up and unpacking like mad.

New years was spent at The Velvet Room, aka the geriatric farm. Actually it was only an old crowd when we first showed up, then the younger crew took over. It was alot of fun, and it was nice to be away from the stupid undergrads for once. Though I could've used a little more cleavage bouncing around cuz I'm a pervert.

And now it's back to the normal swing, with a twist of a "Biology of Cancer" grad course in the mix. I'm looking forward to it.

In conclusion - xmas, xmas, xmas.

The state of love and trust

As far as I'm concerned, the whole Wikileaks situation is one of the most influential occurrences of the internet generation, and for some reason people are really missing the point.

To summarize, the US had established a sort of "2nd internet" system (disconnected from the web as we know it) sometime before 9/11, and it was designed to be kept quite small so only vetted sources could access it. But since that time it's expanded to include almost 3 million users. And now it's happened that one or several of those users has allowed hundreds of thousands of classified documents to be released to the public.

From what I've read, well over 95% of the leaked documents have yet to be released to the public, but the small fraction that has been released has been embarrassing, if not damaging, to various governments. And I have no doubt that the best is yet to come. But the content itself has taken a back-burner to the various spins that have been generated by the media. The most obvious one is the Julian Assange arrest/extradition situation.

When you kick a hornet's nest, you've gotta expect a few stings. So it's no surprise to me that he's being persecuted right now. It's awfully timely that these women have come forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct (I'm not totally clear on the charges), but I think it was wise of him to turn himself in, rather than make a spectacle of his capture.

Regardless of the outcome of his case, the key point should be noted that it has absolutely nothing to do with the leaked documents. (And if found guilty, you have to question the validity of the verdict. It's probably not that hard to cook up a few witnesses or documents, especially if you've got the power of the US gov't to do it.) But the US would love nothing more than to draw the spotlight away from itself in this situation.

Nothing is more damaging to US foreign relations than the truth.

I absolutely love the fact that governmental policies and diplomats everywhere are having their masks removed. These jokers are being shown for who they really are, without all of the political correctness that has passed as the status quo for so long. And I expect that countless people will be fired or removed from their positions once all is said and done.

But I do have to feel for Obama. He's struggling to account for ideologies that have been in place for decades, most of which he had no power over.

On the other hand, I don't have any compassion whatsoever for the gutless companies (MasterCard, Paypal, etc.) that have been the victim of cyber attacks by the Anonymous group after doing all they can to cut Wikileaks down. If you side with the powers that be, be prepared for the day when the masses unite against you.

And I think that's the point we should all look at more than anything - for too long people have turned a blind eye to the deeds of the governement, but recent events have shown that we should've been paying more attention before. And now that the lights have been turned on, we don't fucking like what we see. And if enough people see that light, viva la revolution baby. The future of transparent governments, the interwebs, and society as a whole might hang in the balance. Exciting times we live in...