Kovalev

THIS GUY'S CRAZY!!!!!

Juno

Under my sister's recommendation, I made my way out to the cinema last night to watch Juno. Also, over the last week, the movie was the subject of a great deal of hype given that there were a number of Canadian actors starring in it. Its Academy Award Nomination for best picture also gave it a little bit of visibility.

IRREGARDLESS.

I was amazed. The film was incredible. I was totally shocked, completely miserable, anxious, and overjoyed right there along with dear Juno MacGuff and Vanessa Loring: I was drawn in by the characters from the get-go and was soon inundated by overwhelming pangs of compassion.

That means I cried. It was absolutely beautiful.

A Controversial Ass! Of Fame!

Given the time I've thought about it I've come to the conclusion that I disagree with this.

There is no good reason for it. Any reason that there is for it is the product of a society that has people think themselves far more powerful than they actually should be. A society that makes us all slaves of good times, nice things and our own "better judgment".

However, I feel that the shame is not so often in the woman. I'm sure that most women who decide to have an abortion feel that they have no other choice - that they are trapped. I'm sure that many of the women felt that they had no choice in being put into the situation in which they were asked to decide.

A woman does not deserve to be put in such a position. The shame, therefore, lies with society. A truly loving society would not allow or do something that would foreseeably require a woman to decide whether or not to destroy a life in such a way.

But ideals are hard to manufacture into reality. And still, women deserve better from us all.

"There's one more kid
That'll never go to school
Never get to fall in love
Never get to be cool."
--Rockin' in the Free World by Neil Young

Palestorm

I simply have to get these guys back together.

Sex and Politics

SEX

This is probably the most sexually-charged commercial that I've seen in a long time. I'd call this a Triple-E, but it doesn't have a lot to do with the music: that glance is gold.

POLITICS

It's about time someone did this. I figure it's just a matter of time before they find out the whole thing was just a sham.

Fly SFO - Gateway to good times!

If there is one thing in this world that can never be considered over-rated, it is a weekend in Jasper National Park.

This past Friday, Sean and I hopped in the ol' Cårefjallen and burned it down the 16 to the glorious treasure trove of alpine majesty.

We checked into our hostel and shortly thereafter found ourselves playing drinking games with a Dutchman and a German. Skiing the next day was a bit of a challenge, but Sean and I rose to it. Blasting down the powdery slopes, which were not yet skied-off even though the last big snow was almost a week before, we each ripped up new territory. Sean had never been there before, and I took him down some runs that I'd not done yet, either.

The day was capped off with a bit of a nap and then a rampage through Jasper, culminating at a nightclub where I ran into one of my cousins and her cousin. Our German friend had come along with us and went on to basically annihilate himself with birthday drinks which were purchased for him. Even though he had to be up at 7 am to catch a tour bus, he still slugged it out like a champion.

The next morning I awoke in my cousin's hotel room. Despite what you may think, Sean and I skipped out on skiing the next day not because of hangovers - as we had none - but because my knee was showing signs of weakness and wobble from dancing and skiing the day before. We decided not to risk it and so we took it easy by doing something that would have been considered quite romantic if either Sean or I were born a lady: we went skating at Jasper Park Lodge.

Then, at about 1 0'clock in the afternoon, Sean and I bid adieu to fair Jasper and made the trek back to Edmonton. It was an incredible weekend - much of which I cannot do justice on this blog for it requires animated gestures and an emotive voice.

But there you have it.

By the way, no goat licks were harmed during this weekend.



Goat Lick!

Back from the Dead

--This was written months ago in the summer of 2007. I was totally blown away by this place.--

So, here I am in Galore Creek. It’s a very remote place. I traveled here by way of a flight from Edmonton to Vancouver, after which I transferred to a flight which left Vancouver for Smithers and then Bob Quinn Lake. Upon arriving at Bob Quinn, I jumped a shuttle to an encampment from which I rode a helicopter that stopped in two other camps before finally touching down in the one that I would be staying at: Galore Creek Camp.

It’s quite amazing really, the amount of money that is being poured into this operation. How much it must cost to buy food for all of the people in the camp, give them all TVs, give them each their separate rooms. And the helicopters are pricey too. One of them up here (the largest in the world, I’m told) burns 3,000 L of fuel per hour. Insane.

The weather is quite predictable. It’s been cloudy since I arrived here. I personally do not know how they got the satellite photo of this area as shown on Google Earth, but they must have been waiting forever to let the skies clear up.

However, the rain here is sort of strange. I don’t know if it was just how the rain was today, or if it is this way all the time. Regardless, the rain today was very persistent and quite a lot of water was coming down, but it was in very, fine drops. Not quite like mist, but fine enough that you couldn’t really hear them or feel them as they struck your clothing. At one point, I couldn’t tell if it was raining or not anymore so I took out my hand from my glove to feel for it. It was indeed still raining.

Now, at this point I began to let my mind wander a bit. Don’t tell it to the Safety guys around here, but for this moment, I was not thinking about safety at all. As I stood there, hand held in front of my face, I noticed the sheer absurdity of the situation. Yes, this was my hand. Yes, it was raining. But the fact that both my hand and this rain were happening at Galore Creek all of a sudden struck me as very odd. Extremely odd. I wanted answers.

Sure enough, I found one. On that very hand I was wearing my Iron Ring. I had not noticed it all day, but now there it was, talking to me. I lifted my eyes from the ring and looked at the landscape. Glaciers, hundred-year-old snowpack, mountains, thick forests, a drilling rig.

They always said that Engineering would take you somewhere. They always said that it would take you far. And if you wanted it to, it could take you farther than you had ever imagined.

I suppose that they were always right.

Total - a Responsible Company

Earlier this week I read an article about Total - a Paris-based oil company - and how they are more socially-responsible compared to the "homegrown" Alberta oilsands developers. Being based in Europe, they are supposedly more experienced with and more accustomed to dealing with environmental and social issues in an ethical manner, as well as giving back to the community.

Then, just today I found a piece of news about the same company, but showing a very different face of it. In 1999, a tanker chartered by Total sank and released 20,000 L of fuel into the Bay of Biscay. Total was just today found to be a guilty party in this event.

Now, not being well-versed in international and/or French dangerous goods, transportation or environmental legislation, it may very well be that Total has a case for an appeal.

However, this is a chance for them to show just what kind of a company they really are. Their reaction to the court's decision to convict them could reveal if they are the friendly, arts-and-culture, socially-responsible entity depicted in the first article. Or else, if the decision is received grudgingly, appeals drawn out for the sake of "saving face*", or cleanup efforts for which Total is responsible are carried out at an unnecessarily slow pace...

Well, then they'd just be like everyone else, right?


*- This would be an interesting topic for a graduate student in sociology or industrial ecology: What is the net effect on the "value of a company" due to blame for, and the results of legal proceedings stemming from, environmental disasters? IE: Is there a point to drawing out appeals when the fine you'd have to pay is a drop in the bucket anyway and the damage to your reputation is likely already done by an impatient and unforgiving media?

Little Revelations

Today I decided to try to take things slowly and open my mind to appreciate and/or notice some little things that I might not have truly appreciated or noticed in the past.

Bonus points for things that have been staring me in the face for a sufficiently long period of time that I really should have noticed and/or appreciated them.

Stuff I learned to appreciate!

• Fleece-lined jeans. These are dandy for field work, even if they aren't the most stylish in denim leg-coverings.
• Edmonton as a concert-going city. Apparently, even up against super-venues in much-more-massive cities, Rexall Place still cracks the top 15 for concert attendance.

Stuff I noticed!

• On my route home from work I discovered that there is a strip club only a couple blocks from the office. No, I don't think that the club just recently opened.
• If you drive a full-size van (an Econoline, for example) and you insist on driving after dark without your headlights on, you immediately become suspected of being involved in some sort of shady pastime*. No, I was not the driver of said van. Nor was that van on its way to the aforementioned strip club.

*pedophilia, drug dealing, stalking... etc.

Nineteen Eighty-four

I recently finished reading what is quite possibly the greatest book that I've read up to this point in my life. Orson Welles' Nineteen Eighty-Four was spectacular. The thing I found most remarkable is how so many other things that I've recently taken in have somehow synergized with the message in that story. It's given me pause to think a little bit longer about an awful lot of stuff that I read and watch and hear...

After having finished reading Nineteen Eighty-four, one of the things which seems to have had an amplified impact on me is the song "God Bless the Canadian Housewife" by SheDaisy.

Just before the end of Part II of the story, the protagonist, Winston, is looking out his window at a woman who is described as being "a metre across", her skin roughened by years of household work and child-rearing. She pins clothes up to dry as she hums a pleasant tune over and over again... She does not have a conventional "prettiness" about her.

And yet Winston remarks that she is beautiful. Indeed, his reason for finding her beautiful is likely because he feels that she has a bit of freedom that he cannot have. She is below the suspicions of the Party, yet somehow above being oppressed. But in her freedom, she chooses to - I can imagine - live a life of love, caring for her children. Indeed, in love there is a very intense sort of freedom.

Now, I had just finished the book, and the images in this scene were still freshly rolling about in my noggin when "God Bless the Canadian Housewife" came positively pouring out of the speakers in our car.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the latest Triple-E. The vocals in "God Bless the Canadian Housewife" are nothing short of heavenly, and the lyrics, while tongue-in-cheek, strike me sharply. How beautiful it truly is to be a housewife. The elegance in organization, the grace in balance, the wonder in compassion... It is amazing.

God Bless the Canadian Housewife
How she does it all I'll never know

And yet, beneath this admiration for women who would be considered housewives, I cannot help but feel that there is something more to my admiration of the song. Something more deeply moving that I cannot quite comprehend or verbalize.

Regardless, the song is fantastic!

Chicken Soup for the Sidewalk

Arriving home from a night of dancing and tomfoolery, I parked my car along the side of my house.

As I walked to the front door, I saw sheets of paper strewn about the street and our driveway. At first, I thought it must have been a collection of pamphlets that a canvasser dropped as they made their rounds in the neighbourhood. Upon closer inspection, I found that the papers were all numbered - these were pages from a book.

Chicken Soup for the Soul, in fact.

I wonder what would have caused a person to destroy such a book... Or, if jumping to the conclusion that the book must have been destroyed is too romantic, how these misplaced pages fell from the book and ended up all over the neighbourhood.

A mystery this shall be!

Stimulus - Response

As it turns out, my last post was far too angst-ridden to be taken seriously.

I will do my best to turn this around. I think the best way to accomplish such a goal will be to post a link to something hilarious.

Enjoyment!