Orchids

My Orchid just started flowering again. I was amazed seeing as it is the middle of december and the light is just about at minimal. I just cut the stalk one node behind where the last flowers were. The other plants in the picture are a Tepin Pepper (World's hottest) and an Aloe Vera. They have also been thriving in this south facing window.

That time of year

It's that time of year again, Christmas no, Alberta PC party convention no, liberal party of Canada election no. It's time for my annual movie revue. I am an avid movie watcher, but in recent year I have been established a zero tolerance policy for shitty movies. If it sucks, I'll walk in the middle, I'm not the type of person to sit there to get my money's worth. Speaking of which Munich sucked, Capote, haated it! Although Seymour Hoffman is a great actor. Anyways the movies!

Best Alec Baldwin Flick - Mimi's First Time (Alec you stud)

Best Documentary - Grizzlyman (He must of had some big balls to film that bear fight!)

Best Acting in a Shitty Movie - Mark Wahlberg in Departed (Great performance by Marky, but who wrote this script?? It was like they realized it was to long and tried to end it all at once, like a guy blowing his load in a porno)

Best Feel Good Hit of the Year - Invincible (Best football movie of the year as well)

Best International Film - Tsosti (Loved it)

Best Movie Enhanced by Movie Enhancer - The Illusionist (Ed Norton turns tricks)

Global Warming

Global Warming is a hot topic these days. I think their are a lot of political and social tensions behind it as well. I just though I might express what I have been thinking about global warming. I do not have a conclusion only thoughts.

That Al Gore movie was good, but I believe it was a US political drama. Gore says each individual must be resposibile for his/her carbon emissions. He really sets an example in the film by flying around the world in a private jet and cruising the states in his Lincoln. I believe in leading by example not by words.

Humans in essence produce carbon dioxide (C02). Every breath we take, we use up oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. If we make a fire to cook our food or keep us warm, we burn trees and produce carbon dioxide. It is impossible for humans not to produce carbon dioxide. In addition to this the human population increase 10 fold from 1770 to 2000. In that same period carbon dioxide levels rose 1.3 times. This shows that our carbon dioxide levels didn't really effect the balance.

Plants must be converting our carbon dioxide into oxygen for us to breath. Plants grow faster in a room full of CO2 than they do in a room full of normal air. If the carbon levels continue to rise we will see increased plant growth and yield. In fact we all ready have.

Fossil fuels to me are a very rudimentary technology. North American believe that they enjoy such a high standard of living, but meanwhile are breathing in more toxic pollutants that any other countries. I think we are living in the past burning these types of fuels. We can do better than this.

The other thing is that oilmen and their descendants are the royalty of the United States. The 13 colonies broke away from Britian to escape the crown. Funny enough a new breed took over the upper echelons of society. With some exception the richest people in the US are descendants of oilmen. Families like the Rockfellers are the royalty of the US.

Grizzly Man

Have you seen grizzlyman yet? If not you should. It's an amazing story.

I think he wanted to be eaten by the bears. For him it was the only way to truely become a bear.

And for the people that disliked the grizzlyman in the movie, they were just jelous of that fact that he got so close to the bears. That one guy in the musuem throws out the "my people" didn't go near the bears and it was disrespectful to the bears to go into their territory. He worked in a museum so it would be hard to believe that his opinion is indicitive of the indigenous people. What about hunters? are they disrepecting the bears by going on it's territory?

Languages by Rank

Hi, I was surfing wikipedia and found this interesting chart of languages ranked by number of native speakers. It's pretty interesting.

1. Chinese 850 million native
2. English 425 million native
3. Hindi 400 million native
4. Spanish 390 million native
5. Arabic 272 million native
6. Portuguese 210 million native
7. Bengali 194 million native
8. Indonesian 222 million native
9. Russian 145 million native
10. Japanese 130 million native
11. French 120 million native
12. Persian 101 million native
13. German 100 million native

Ethanol and Biodeisel

Ethanol sounds very promissing, but Biodeisel sounds amazing. The fact that it can run in any deisel engine without alteration is the most interesting.

I just finished reading this article on chronic marijuana use. They studied 4 patients that smoked 8 grams of marijuana per day. The study found that there was a mild difficulty with attention and concetration as well as a mild pulmonary risk. The study also noted that cancerous tumors have never been found in smokers of only marijuana. In addition, the study suggested that marijuana in conjuction with tabbacco may negate some of tabbacco's negative effects.

Previous studies done on recreational and chronic users were done in Britian (1894), New York (1944), Jamaica (1975), Greece (1977) and Costa Rica (1980). They found no differences between non marijuana smokers and marijuana smokers. In the Jamaican study marijauna users (of 3 spliffs a day for at least 10 years) actually scored higher on intelligence tests that not marijuana users.

All these studies are outlined in more details in this article.
http://www.medicalcannabis.com/PDF/Chronic_Cannabis.pdf

Canada Eu Summit

Nobody likes a coward

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20061104%2fharper_summit_061104&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True

Dem Music are Empty

Peter Tosh 1976
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTI2Xv6qqkE&mode=related&search

maples trees of Canada

Here's a good to link to the maple trees of Canada.

http://www.lino.com/~marcelg/erabl_an.htm

Rona Ambrose

Hmm, so she does reply to emails. In july I wrote a letter to Rona Ambrose and I assumed there would be no reply. Apparently I was wrong. I do still have this criticism though. 2010 is a while away and it is too late to take action on the greenhouse gases.

Then again you can't blame the government. People here in Alberta leave there cars running for several minutes at a time. They're probably the same people who complain about high gas prices. The rule is 10 seconds: if you stop you car for more than ten seconds then it uses more gas than starting it.

And if you give a shit about the enviroment fill up at husky mohawk with the mid grade. It contains ethanol which burns cleaner than gas. Ethanol is also made from plant materials, the plants use Carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. When it is burnt it uses up oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. The CO2 used up to create the ethanol is equal to CO2 produces from burning it. Therefore it does not increase the amount of greenhouse gases on the earth.

rosemary and tarragon beef and potatoes

I came up with a nice dish the other day and I though I should share it with you. It's quite simple. You take a steak and cut it up into strips. Put it on a plate and cover it with a lot soy sauce. Next sprinkle a healthy amount of rosemary over it. Let it sit.

Then grab a few potatoes and slice them as thin as you can (just like potato chips). The put them in olive oil and fry them in a pan with some tarragon (fresh if possible) until close to golden brown. Next add the beef. Cook it until browned on all sides. Not to much though because you want the beef to be tender. You should have some liquid in the pan still. When everything is more or less cooked you want to add about a 1/2 cup of red wine (125 ml). Simmer for a couple more minutes and add a little corn starch to thicken the liquid into a sauce. Voila.

theobromine

I've been fishing and driking Chimarrao (yerba mate, erva mate, ka'a...) Many names it just depends on the language. Anyways I am very interested in psychoactive plants (coffee, chocolate, marijuana, san pedro, coca plants, yerba mate). I think plants have a special relationship with humans. Some people consider psychoactive plants drugs. I take offence to that. Because in my system of mental reasoning there is a distinct difference between drugs and plants. I see a plant as a plant until it has undergone chemical processes other than boiling or freezing.

An example of a plant that is no longer a plant is cocaine. The coca plant put into 14 complex chemical processes such as hydrochloric acid and kerosene baths to alter the plant into a drug.

There is an exceptional low rate of cardiovascular disease among Peruvian and Bolivian coca chewers, where as users of cocaine suffer from heart problems and run an elevated risk of heart attacks. There is absolutely no correlation between the coca plant and the drug cocaine. Read More

Well now back to yerba mate. I have never really liked coffee. When I was younger I didn't like the taste and now that I'm older and don't mind the taste I don't like the buzz. I find it is harsh, a 45 minute up followed by a sad feeling. With Yerba mate and chocolate I get a more sustained mood brightening buzz. Why? because coffee contains only caffeine whereas yerba mate and chocolate contain caffeine, theobromine and other similar chemicals. It is a boquet of alkaloids. Which is very important.

So what is the point that I am trying to drive home??? That the whole is not just a some of its parts. It is something else. Yes yerba mate, chocolate, coffee and wake-up pills all have caffeine in them but they do not produce the same buzz.

In addition yerba mate and coca leaves contains pottasium and other minerals which lower blood pressure and regular heart funtion. Stimulants only= unhealthy. Stimulants in combination with minerals and other heart regulating alkaloids= healthy.

The Illusionist

Romeo and Juliet meets The Usual Suspects. Go see it...Or I'll keep using the hand trick on you.

Gilberto Gil

I'm listening to Gilberto Gil - Electracustico right now. He is amazing, I put him on the same plane as Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix. He has that energy which is so rare these days. He was friends with and toured with Bob Marley in the 70's and lived in England during the late 60's when he was exiled from Brazil.

I got to see him live in Rio one night and I felt as if I went back to the late sixities. In some songs people were sitting cross legged on the dance floor just fixated on the music he was making. My favourite albums of his are Unplugged, Electracustico, Live in Montreux and Kaya N'Gan Daya. The latter is mostly Bob Marley songs that he recorded in Jamiaca with Rita Marley and some of the other artists from Bob band. Few people can get away with covering Bob Marley but these are as good as the original but with a Gilberto Gil flavour.

Rockstar: Superloser

If you think Gilby Clarke was the guitar for G n' Fuckin R' then you wrong. He filled in for Izzy Stradlin on the use your illusion tour after Izzy recorded the albums and the left the band. I have to say Izzy has put out better solo albums than anyone else in the band. They're amazing actually. But I'm drifting

Bassist for Metallica, wow. Words can't explain how lame I think metallica is.

Tommy Lee, has been. He's just living off his reputation.

Dave Navarro is the only talented one in the bunch but he's not even in the band.

Let me put it this way, have you heard anything about the INXS lately?

"Hate rock" and "Teenage Rock"

And in other musical notes, I hate "Hate rock" and "Teenage Rock." Hate rock is pretty much any band that wants to be heavy, but is just shitty. Alice in Chains and Nirvana were amazing because they were heavy and melodic. Hate rock is just noise. Teenage rock on the other hand is worthless dribble for kids, the singers all where black make-up around their eyes and do that stiff neck dance. If you wondering which bands I mean here are some examples.

Hate Rock = System of a down, default, linkin park, Nickelback, Hoobastank, etc.

Teenage rock = Hedley, Franz Ferdinand, jet, etc.

It is easy to tell what kind of music is hate rock or teenage rock because they suck.

WILCO

I was living under a rock until I heard of Wilco. If you haven't heard of them your living under a rock as well. I'd say they're the most original and innovative band of the 00's. I had a chance to sit front row at thier show in Edmonton and it was amazing.

Check out these songs:
-theologians
-company in my back
-handshake drugs
-spiders kidsmoke
-late greats

making out on the high level

I was walking across the high level bridge last night and saw two people lying on top of eachother making out in the middle of the pedestrian lane. It was pretty wierd/hilarious. As I walked by I sang them the chorus to "only love can break your heart." I hope it fueled their wild passions and made their loins burn.

Mel Gibson

Hey Mel, nice work on the drunk driving. Should I still take you and your movies seriously? Oh wait I never did. hah

"I'm looking forward to his seemingly unhistorical film that makes the Mayas look like savages."

Equal Rights

I really like this song of Peter Tosh's, Equal Rights. Check it out in the music file

Time is on My Side

My take on "Time is on My side" It should just load in windows media player or some program on Apples.

Please Stop

I hope Isreal's government comes to it senses and realizes that the killing that they are doing in Lebanon is no different then the killing that took place in the Holocaust. Innocent people are being brutally murdered, not to mention the fact ancient cities are being destroyed forever. I think that the nation of Isreal has tarnished the reputation of Judaism. It is a bad idea to link government and religion. I can't think of another country in the world that is based on a single religion with no tolerance for other religious beliefs.

Burnin' Live at Leeds

I recently adquired by way of Bittorrents Bob Marley and the Wailers - Burnin' Deluxe Edition. It is ridiculously good. Disc two is a live concert in England, which by far the best live Wailers I have heard as well as the best live performance I have heard. This is the last album in which Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailers worked together. Personally I prefer Bob Marley's work prior to 1972 because it included Peter and Bunny. I'm a big fan of Peter Tosh. His voice it so unique, well same with Bob, but Peter's is something else.

I put a track from it in the music folder

Tubin'

Hot on one side, off on the other, we're cookin' with indirect heat. Oh Yeah!

World's Healthiest Foods

I just discovered this site which lists the nutrition values and cancer fighting effects of certain foods. I was eating some fresh beets from my garden and I wanted to know what kind of nutrients they had in them. Beet greens by the way are amazing! I had never eaten them before tonight and after I tasted the first one I scarfed down about 5 more.

Here's the site WORLD'S HEALTHIEST FOODS

It doesn't list Acai, Guarana, Erva Mate or Graviola, but they are relative unknown outside of Brazil. Graviola in definately my favourite, the white juice it produces is out of this world. It is said to have very high cancer fighting properites, but all I care about is that it tastes so good.

Here's a picture of a graviola.
And here's a picture of a cashew fruit which also has amazing juice. Can you see the little cashew on top?

The Good Life Blog

Here's a site I like. I stumbled across while looking for information about cloning willows. I found an amazing type of willow the other day with pink and orange leaves. It was breathtaking. I've also discovered several other types of willows and huge amound wild raspberries. There are saskatoons as well, but the berries are so high that I will need a ladder.

http://sustainable-life.co.uk/blog/2006/02/willow-propagation.html

Jamming in the Great Room

There's a room in my parents house called the Great Room, it's got a nice high ceiling and has great acoustics. Anyways, when they are out of town, we move the drums and amps in and get stoned and jam as much as we can. Here is one of our more popular jam's on mp3.

"Lime Green and Grey" is what we call it

Kris Ricci is on Drums
Curtis Paniak on Lead Guitar
and Me on Rhythm.

Curt gets a little crazy sometimes, but we let him go, just as long as he comes back.

Gst Cut in Canada

How about that Gst cut, yeay! To tell you the truth I didn't even notice it. 1% savings, thats amazing. If you spend 40,000 per year, which the average Canadian doesn't, you would save $400 a year. I wonder how much it cost to change the GST from 7% to 6%. I bet it was a lot. More than sending every Canadian a $400 cheque, that's forsure. But let's remeber who's in power. The poor get very little from this GST cut because they spend less, the rich on the other hand save much more. Stephan Harper makes Ralph Klein and his Ralph bucks, look like god.

His mistress Rona Ambrose isn't any better. She is the enviroment minister and she hasn't done anything worthwhile. Spruce Grove and Stony Plain, two cities in her home riding do not even have recycling depots. In addition, the Conseravative government is planning to make 5% ethanol mandatory in all gasoline sold in Canada by 2010. Wow, talk about a half assed attempt, Husky-Mohawk already sells a 10% blend and the Ontario gov't has already made 10% mandatory by 2010. How about making 85% ethanol availble at every gas station, or atleast a 15% blend. Rona Ambrose get serious, get educated on the issues and get off your ass and do something worthwhile.

Richard Linklater

I'm a big fan of Richard Linklater's films. They make you think and keep you captivated the whole time. I've seen Waking Life about 10 times, needless to say I own it. It goes great with a little movie enhancer.

A Scanner Darkly is coming out right away and I'm looking forward to seeing it. The animation looks even better than waking life. You can check out the official site.

If you want to see some other Linklater films check out:

Dazed and Confused
Slacker
Waking Life
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset (I haven't seen these I hear they're good)

Oilers Game #6

The "we want the cup" chant in the last period of Oilers game last night was spinetingling. All the loonies on Whyte ave. were chanting it as they walked through marshall law. It's a good thing nothing got broken, but did the cops realy need to shut down half the crosswalks?

Two types of writing

For me there are two types of writing, stuff that I read in it's entirety and stuff that I read just the first and last paragraphs. This article written by a friend was the former.

http://www.martlet.ca/view.php?aid=38704

Ethanol Redux

Here's some more info on Ethanol.

In and earlier post I said "Ethanol blended is a marketing scam, like Eminem," I was wrong...about the ethanol,

"Implementing a 5% blend of ethanol in gasoline will generate hundreds of jobs in rural Ontario, create a market for an additional 50 million bushels of corn every year and reduce greenhouse emissions by the equivalent of 200,000 cars. And it all starts on the farm." (Also your engine will last longer).

Husky Mohawk sells a 10% blend, double the above figures. To find a ethanol blended gasoline near you go here http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/transportation/fuels/ethanol/station-locations.cfm

Here's some links about ethanol (a.k.a. the future):
http://www.greenfuels.org

http://www.cleanairwisconsin.org/publications/ethanol.pdf

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/eng4473

I talked to a friend from thunder bay and he mentioned that they use it in Thunder Bay. Here's a link about a proposed ethanol plant in Ontario. By 2010 all motor fuel must contain ethanol in Ontario. Not a bad goal.

http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/regionalReports/ThunderBay/01-05-Hearst.asp

Alberta could easily bring ethanol into the picture. We have huge fields of grains, which is a perfect source of ethanol. I read that it takes 3 barrels of water to extract one barrel of oil from the oilsands. That's ridiculous. Do they know that humans can't drink oil?

message to all the pedestrians out there

Here's a little public service anoucement for all you pedestrians out there. If I stop my car for you to cross the street then you cross the street. Don't give me that bullshit where you wave me by and then make the car behind me stop so you can cross. I've already stopped the car, the road it yours so take it. And if you don't cross, I'll drive up on the sidewalk and hit your ass. Unless your a senior, then you're allowed to wave cars by because you might take a little while crossing sort of thing.

Some dude tried that shit on me today, he gave me the go on by wave and I just sat there until he crossed. I would have sat there all day, it drives me crazy when people give me the go on by wave.

Thinking

This is me thinking about what to write on the blog.

Davis and Dylan

Recently I've read both Bob Dylan's and Miles Davis' autobiographies. Personally I like autobiographies because they are really the only way to get into someones head. Biographies are great, but I think lots of times they are full of bullshit facts and the author always puts his/her slant on the person the book is about. But back to Davis and Dylan.

I found that they had a lot of similarities. They are both American legends in that they took a existing musical style changed it greatly and brought it to a new generation. Miles with Jazz and Bob Dylan with folk. In addition they both steered towards rock music in the later parts of their careers, but who wasn't playing rock in the 70's? The are both geminis (and believe in astrology) and they both had run ins with the Grateful Dead. The both came from the midwest and moved to New York to pursue their musical careers. Miles started off in East St. Louis and Bob started playing in Minneapolis. They both recorded for Columbia Records for the majority of their careers and they even met eachother at a party at Miles' house. Miles broke both his ankles in his Ferrari and Dylan had a bad motorcycle crash.

Anyways I thought Miles' book was far more interesting, he has some pretty crazy experiences, I think a lot of it has to do with being addicted to hard drugs (Herion from around ages 19-25 and cocaine from ages 39-54). Although he does have interesting experiences during his clean periods in his life, which in my opinion he made his best music. He hung out with Jean Paul Sarte in France and travels to Brazil, Japan and Europe. Also Miles' book covers his whole career where as Dylan's just covers a few specific periods of his life. Lastly, Miles is older so he talks about how the 40's and 50's were which I found very interesting.

In summery, I recommend both books, but Miles' is much more entertaining. And really you don't get much more bad ass than this.

Arrivals in the Americas

I think there is a fair amount of confusion as to who arrived in the Americas first. The reason for it is because there are several figures who led voyages to totally different parts of the Americas.

First of all we know that people have lived in the Americas for atleast 13,000 years. Archeologists have many different theories as to when and how the first people arrived in the New World. Some believe they crossed the Bering land bridge, where as others believe they travelled by boat. It is believed that the ancient polynesians posessed extremely advanced sailing and navigation techniques. Even today they can sail to any island within the triangle of Hawaii , Easter Island and New Zealand with the same technology they have used for thousands of years. If the polynesians could sail this far they could have easily reached South America.

In addition to this, remnants of Coca leaves found in an Egyptian tomb suggest that there was travel across the Atlantic during the era of the Egyptians beacause Coca plants are native only to South America.

The first Europeans to arrive in the Americas are the Vikings. Not much is known about this arrival, but we do know that they arrived somewhere in eastern Canada in the 10th century.

After the Vikings came Christopher Columbus who was an Italian sailing for Spain. He and his men left from Lisboa, Portugual and arrived in Santo Domingo, Dominican Repulic in 1492.

The next European to arrive was another Italian named Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot). He sailed from Bristol, England to Newfoundland, which was originally called Terra Nova (New land in Italian). Nova Scotia is also Italian and means (New Scotland). Cabot is generally credited with being to first European since the Vikings to arrive on mainland in the Americas.

The first European to arrive in South America was Pedro Alverez Cabral a Portuguese explorer. He arrived in Porto Seguro, Brazil in 1500.

Statues and Monuments

In an earlier post I said that Canada didn't have enough monuments. I was wrong. Ottawa and Montreal are filled with them.

Da Vinci Code

I saw the Da Vinci Code the other day and I liked it. I think it is due to the fact it was based on a book because usually I could care less what happens in the end of movies. With this one I was captivated and I didn't have any trouble paying attention. I give it 4.5/5 Stars.

Eastern Canada J walking

I'm in Montreal now and I've always like how everyone j walks here. If you tried that in Edmonton you'd end up getting a $150 ticket, that's bullshit. It's just because the cops don't have enough real criminals to bust

Ottawa

I'm in Ottawa right now, it's the first time I've visited and I like it. It reminds me of Edmonton, just more cultured. I love the fact that you can hear more than one language being spoken when you walk down the street.

Sex With Dog

Occasionally I check how has visited my blog through a sitemeter. Anyways someone florida searched Sex com cachorro (Sex with dog) into a search engine and my page came up. I guess this is the most popular site about sex with dogs, but that's not saying much.

Alberta Plants

Here's a list of plants you can grow in Alberta. It's quite an interesting link.

http://www.theurbanfarmer.ca/plant_profiles.html

How about that Oilers Sharks series by the way. They are some of the most physical hockey games this year. So many big "clean" hits. I think Torres might be a little crazy. Go Oilers Go!

Ethanol

Ethyl Alchohol, we love to drink it, so why not put it in our cars. I just read this article about the introduction of ethanol as a fuel source.

It talks about new cars in Brazil and how they run on either ethanol or gasoline. I bet you thought hybrid technology was the next big thing. No, but maybe a hybrid that runs on ethanol!

In Brazil they are producing ethanol from sugar cane, which is the same way they produce the liquor Cachaca. Ethanol is a renewable resource and it pollutes less than gasoline. It is more pure than gasoline so it's only biproducts are CO2 and Water. Theoretically the combustion of gasoline has the same bi-products. But in real life gasoline is poorly refined and produces carbon monoxide and other pollutants.

*Ethanol blended is a marketing scam, like Eminem*

Canada could do a similar thing, ethanol can be cheaply produced from grain (the Russians have been doing it for centuries). And GM could sell us the same cars that they are making in Brazil.

No cards

No cards, no cards, bank machine over there. That's what a guy told me the other day at the restaurant. I didn't have any money in my account so I had to cancel the order. But as I walked out I started thinking.

Why doesn't he take cash? What's the advantage of that? Tax Evasion. He doesn't accept cards because then he would have to report all his earnings to the government and pay tax on it. Then I thought about the bank machine, it was one of those pay 2.50 extra models. Take a couple bucks from the costumer

If I took the money from the bank machine I would have had to pay 2.50 extra plus my banks fees of 1.50 to help him evade his share of taxes.

It's like getting fucked over twice.

Mexico and the War on Drugs

Check out Mexico's new approach to the war on drugs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/29/world/americas/29mexico.html

Sassy

Is it just me or do north american girls get sassy when they play Shakira songs?

New Mix

I've made a new mix and put it in a zip file in the music folder. It's called Vitrola.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~derekw/music/

If you burn it to a cd, I suggest putting normalization on at 95% because the volume levels of the track are a bit different.

If you have an Ipod, PLAY THE WHOLE TRACK. I can't stand that, here's a good song...15 seconds later...oh check out this one....10 seconds later....no wait this one is the best......

Tsotsi

We went to see the Inside Man last night. I've always like Spike Lee joints, I'd have to say my favourites are Summer of Sam and Bamboozled "Feed the idiot box, feeeed the idiot box."

Although, we accidentally walked into the wrong theatre. 20 minutes in we figured out that Denzel Washington wasn't going to appear. Maybe the fact that noone was speaking english should have cued us in. I found out later that the film we were seeing was called Tsotsi and the people spoke Zulu, Xhosa & Afrikaans. Man, African people are so linguistic advanced, I had no idea that they were switching between several languages. There were even english words, that must have been part of the Afrikaans. s' good s' good was a common phrase.

Anyways the movie was amazing, one of the best movies I have seen this year. One thing I liked was that it was a movie about Africans in Africa, instead of a movie about foreigners in Africa. Constant Garderner was good, but I'd rather see a movie based around African people.

bad terminology

Words like third world, first world, developed and developing are bullshit. People spout them out like they know what they're taking about but really they are just ignorant. First of all the definition third world implies that a country is neither aligned with the West (USA, etc) or the Soviets. It's a term from the cold war, so pretty much it is outdated and doesn't mean anything in today's world.

As for developed and developing, they're BS as well. Not even Europe and the USA have stopped developing, the may have run out of land to exploit but there is still room for development. Developing on the other implies that someday these developing countries are going to live like people in "developed" nations. That would pretty much be the end of the world, the amount of waste and inefficiency that takes place in developed nations could not be sustained worldwide. What is development anyways? I consider female prime ministers like Chile's a sign of development. The majority of "developed" nations haven't reached that point yet (Well Canada if you consider Kim Cambell taking the fall for Brian Mulroney). People refer to Brazil as a developing nation but have you seen GM cars that run on either alcohol or gasoline in the states yet? Don't worry they be arriving soon.

Anyways I'd like to suggest some better terms. Over wealthy and not as wealthy, draw the line in the sand where you see fit. Hmmm...maybe Overconsuming nations and underconsuming nations is better.

safari

"Harper, why can't you dress like me and Vincente here"

Express Yourself

I think it's important to express your emotions no matter how insignificant they may be. For example I was in Hub mall this morning getting a sandwich, I waited at this one place for a few minutes while the guy in the back was paying no attention to me, finally I said Hi and he took a another minute or so to come to the till. I ordered what I wanted and he said in an unfriendly way that it would be a few minutes. He went in the back to make it and I though "Wait a minute this is the worst service ever," so I just went to another restaurant. Totally insignificant but I felt good that I didn't tolerate poor service.

Then I was calling about a job add in the paper, I called and asked how many hours a week it was and he asked how old I was and I said 24. He said abrubtly that it was too young. When did age become a requirement for courier jobs? What about work experience? I wasn't impressed so I prank called him. How childish! but it felt great, if I didn't do it I would have walked around all day irritated.

Telling you what you want to hear

The internet will pretty much tell you want you want to hear. If you type "dangers of marijuana" into google, you'll get a ton of pages outlining how bad marijuana is. If you type "benefits of marijuana" you'll get another ton of pages telling you how good it is. Niether side has any worthwhile information, they're full of so called studies done with only 10 people. Very few people have studied the plant without alterior motives.

Another problem is that there are so many types and growing methods of marijuana that it is virtually impossible to draw any conclusions. Bottom line: It's a plant and should be grown 100% organic, any additives can cause health risks. This applies to everything from carrots to advocados. Lastly, the only way you can be sure what your smoking is to grow it yourself.

Site Meter

If you haven't noticed at the bottom of the page I've installed a little site meter. It's pretty much told me that noone visits my site. haha. But I'm going to do a little experiment. I've had about 30 visits in the last month. Now I'll see I can double that, how you ask? Search engines...

sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex sex

Statues and Monuments

How come North Americans don't like stautes and monuments? If you visit a European or Latin American cities they are filled with statues and monuments. Guys on horses, military generals, bust of past presidents and monuments of historical dates? North Americans don't seem to big on this kind of stuff. It could be the European and Latin American cities are older, but really Latin American cities aren't that much older than North American ones. Maybe it's english? I wonder if there's lots of statues in England? Maybe we just don't care about our history. I'd like to see more of these.

...Sigh

...sigh...Things were so much simpler when Britney and Justin were together.

100 minutes

Why do directors think they have to make 2 hour movies for them to be good? I've seen enough sagas. Seriously if your movie isn't about the colonization of the Americas or the Ming Dynasty it shouldn't be longer than 100 minutes. It could be my attention span, but I've sat through 3 hour flicks before, they just need enough nature scenery.

I'm imagining the self rightous hollywood director right now. High on coke, all excited about his shitty film except for the fact that there isn't enough guns. It needs more guns and let's make all the bad people ethnic. Immigrants are the downfall of the USA, lets show that in every movie we make.

Hollywood! Entertain me, Pleasssssssee I'm begging you.

Peyote Study

Here are some interesting excepts from a Harvard study on the use of Peyote.

After five years of research, Halpern and other McLean researchers did not find any evidence of brain damage or psychological problems in church members who frequently use peyote, which contains the hallucinogen mescaline.

In fact, they found that members of the Native American Church performed better on some of the neuropsychological tests than other Navajos who do not regularly use peyote.

Test results for 61 church members who have used peyote at least 100 times were compared against those for 79 Navajos who do not regularly use peyote and 36 tribe members with a history of alcohol abuse but minimal peyote use. Those who had abused alcohol fared worse on the tests than the church members, according to the study.

16 Blocks

I saw a special screening of 16 blocks last night, so I feel olbliged to give a review. Ok, you gotta understand that this is a totally different role for Bruce Willis. Instead of being a young bad ass cop who has to save the day he is a washed up old cop who has to save the day. Wow, I'd say it's more of a character change than when Robert Deniro did Awakenings. As for Mos Def, I liked him better in Spike Lee's Bamboozled or when he was an underground lyricist. The plot, well its a rollercoaster ride of emotions. It switches between waiting for the movie to end and laughing at how bad american movies are these days. If you've seen Assualt on Precinct 13 or Hostage then you've already seen 16 Blocks.

Dream Video

Here's a little video from 2004, i just edited it now but whatever. It supposed to be a dream.

Just click here and it should play

Wade Davis

I checked out Wade Davis at the university tonight. He was amazing. I think psychotropic plants must increase your speaking abilities. People asked shitty questions at the end though. One dude asked how many people should there be on earth? Lame. I wanted to ask, what is the importance of cultural context in the use of halucinogenic plants? Nonetheless, it was a motherfucker, I'm glad I went.

Champagne D

We'll it was a wild ride. But Champagne D is gone. So many memories. It was as if she was taken away to young, only 145,000 clicks. Here's the condensed version of what happened.

Stolen from behind my apartment.
Cops are dicks.
Insurance Ajusters are con artists.
Fixed and in mint condition again.

One month goes by

Teenager in F-150 Rear ends it.
Cop are dicks

Someone steals it again from the parking lot behind my apartment.

Who steals a car that is clearly written off? A 1992 Chrystler Dynasty with a crumpled trunk?
I'm waiting to talk to the ajusters...

Salvia Divinorium

You may have recently heard about a plant called Salvia Divinorium. It's totally legal and is sold in extract form in marijuana stores around Canada. I encourage you to go out and try it. Just remember that you need only need about 1 or 2 hoots from a bong and no more. Unless you like scaring the shit out of yourself. Oh and make sure someone is watching you...

http://tryptamind.com/salvia_divinorum.html

Soft Drugs

I saw this chart while surfing the internet, I thought it was pretty interesting.

I think it definately shows a distinction between soft drugs (Caffeine & Cannabis) and the hard drugs (Heroin, Alcohol, Cocaine and Nicotine).

Germination Table

Check out the table I built for starting out seeds and growing spices.

New songs

-------------------------------------------------------->
There's a couple new songs in the music folder
Neil Young and Pearl Jam - Scenery
It's a FLAC file and it's 60 Mb

Chico Science & Nação Zumbi - Computadores Fazem Arte
It's a MP3 file about 6Mb

I saw Nação Zumbi in Rio last week, it was amazing. They had 5 drummers, a bassist, a guitarist and Fred Zero was singing through a sampler, so after he sung something, it would record in the sampler and he would be playing it back in slow motion or with tons of reverb and shit. I've never heard anything like that live.

For info on FLAC files go here http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=FlacFrontend

Election Result

In my opinion the NDP party won the election. Neither the Alliance or the Liberals have enough seats to pass any bills. If they want any bills passed the will have to get the NDP seats on their side, which means satisfying Jack Layton's wants.

As for the GST cut. That's the stupidest thing I have ever heard. A 1% cut in the GST? That would involve changing over thousands of older machines, not to mention a shitload of administrative work. For what? %1 GST cut. Yay Harper, thanks for saving me 1 cent on my can of coke.

Swearing In

Hmmm, I wonder if Steven Harper will have a indian purification ceremony at his swearing in like Paul Martin did. Maybe the Alliance has something else planned.

Election Day

I woke up this morning and saw Lynda Robertson on the news. She said that it was very important to vote, especially in this election. How could I not of voted after such a omen. So I went voted for the green party, then I smoked a joint.

Sidebar: I never actually saw the guy putting the ballot in the box. I gave it to him and he said "Thanks guy" and he just kept it in his hand. I started to walk away and looked back to see if he put put it in the box. I didn't see him do it though. I was thinking he might have just put it in his pocket if he didn't like who I voted for.

Florianopolis

Steven Harper

Do you really want this man to be the next leader of your country?

Congratulations

Congratulations to Chile on being the first country in the Americas to elect a female prime minister. I saw a news clip of her driving her own car to cast her vote, I thought that was pretty cool. Let´s hope that States doesn´t back a coup to murder her and install a brutal right wing dictator like they did the last time a socialist prime minister was elected in Chile.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4087510.stm

Nice Waves

A nice swell started to roll in the last few days, so the waves have been sweet. The water on the other hand is cold as fuck for some reason. You can´t stand more than an hour in the water without a wetsuit. The were some locals shooting fireworks at people they didn´t know on the main peak. Leticia´s brother told after, I just thought it was a celebration of the good waves. hahh.

Canadian Politics

No posts....Summertime and the livin´is easy

With the election coming up I thought I´d decifer Canadian politics.

Conservative Party = Tax cuts, which means less government spending or more debt.

NDP = Government spending, which means higher taxes or more government debt

Liberal party = A little bit of both, and a little in Paul Martin´s pocket

Green Party = The 3 other parties sucks.