big fines

i can't believe this shit, BUT it's true.
i am no longer welcome at the library. ME?!

keep watching. or we'll FIND YOU.

i was trying to watch some clip of a ctv show (long story sorta) and had to sit through a commercial for desperate housewives. i found myself kind of drawn into it, thinking "dang you can watch it for free online... hmm" (ugh, i know, what's wrong with me?!), and then this screen came up.



ahhh!
it almost sounds like a threat.
needless to say i realized i was being hypnotized and closed the window.

"fucking idiot"?

yesterday was the first "blizzard" of the year, with some crazy winds and a lot of snow everywhere. my ride TO work at 4:30 am was normal, but it snowed ALL day, so the ride home was the challenge. around 5, after paul finished work, we decided to ride to kensington, then go up 10th street, and then hit up the home depot on 16th ave before going home. so how'd i do? RIDICULOUS. the bike pathways on the way to kensington was sketchy and i fell once. couldn't make it up 10th street on the road, so had to walk up the snow drift sidewalk. then we decided to ride right on 16th ave because it's 1000% easier and although it's a highway, traffic was going pretty slow. i still had someone shriek "fucking IDIOT!" at me, and paul got "ride on the sidewalk!!!!". not sure if our friend tom, who was ahead of us (him with gears, us on fixies) got a third insult or not. getting home from this point was the trial of my life. i cried, i threw my bike, i slid out and fell like 30 times. it took us SO LONG to get home. riding on majorish roads was the easiest part, but then you have to deal with cars. sidewalks and alleys were just plain fucked. i know that most people are having the same experiences in this weather (as i type this i can hear a car revving and revving and revving, obviously stuck), but this was my first time doing it on a bike (my fixie with 700c slick tires), and it was pretty hilarious, so i wanted to document it.

oh, the reward of the home depot trek was a hook for our hammock, which paul set up last night in our room. excited for that. i wish i could say i am just going to stay inside all day/weekend and hammock it up, but... not so. things to do, ice to slip on.

get your own bike!

ugh, i hate you bike thieves.

apollo = stolen.

out of my garage. ugh.

good stuff.

does everyone already know how awesome bill hicks is (besides me?) i've been missing out big time.


The World Is Like a Ride in an Amusement Park - Bill Hicks -



also, i already posted this on facebook and bike calgary, but bear with me, i'm proud!



i got the raleigh up and running and i LOVE it. i could probably take a better picture of it; this was snapped right after the first test ride. it's so streamlined and sexy. paul ordered me some gold pedals for it too.
i still have a lot of "fixie training" to do so i can really rip around downtown and such.

i love you all (or i am trying to!)

i just put my blog link on my facebook profile for the first time. so i just wanted to say, in case there are new readers, please don't be too hard on me (re: writing skill or content choice). ok?! and sorry if i ever talked shit on my blog about you (or your gramma) before. also sorry if i went on and on about how much i like you and that embarrasses you. deal with it!

PEACE & LOVE!!

engineering consent

oh geez. ok.

part 1:
if you have the time, please watch this documentary series on Advertising/PR/Consumerism/brainwashing. - it's called Century of Self, it's split up into 4 sections, all are available on google video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151# it's pretty fucked up, even though i already have read a lot of similarly related information, i found this shocking.




for one thing, a single man named edward bernays seriously did a number on us. he is known as the inventor of public relations and is the nephew of freud. if you watch the movie you can really see the full extent of his influence, not just on the above industries, but every aspect of our culture.






just a small sample of his legacy (he lived to be 100+) we have him to thank for the following:

• 1920s, working for the American Tobacco Company, he sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of women's rights marchers would light "Torches of Freedom". On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of 'Freedom'". This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public.

• Bernays used his uncle Sigmund Freud's ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.

• Bernays helped the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and other special interest groups to convince the American public that water fluoridation was safe and beneficial to human health. This was achieved by using the American Dental Association in a highly successful media campaign.

• In the 1930s, his Dixie Cup campaign was designed to convince consumers that only disposable cups were sanitary.



BUT GET THIS ONE!!!
You know the term Banana Republic?
During the cold war, Bernays (working for the United Fruit Company) and the US government made everyone believe that the President of Guatamala was an evil communist, so that they could overthrow the democratically elected leader and put in a puppet government who would allow cheap labour, and therefore cheap production of bananas.


part 2:
we're purposely being kept complacent and calm. they don't trust us and our irrational "animal instincts".

i urge you, please please please turn off your TV. stay away from hollywood movies full of product placements. keep the newspapers shut. don't go to the mall and don't use shopping as therapy.
we are already unique and different through our ideas and actions. we don't need products to "express" our unique selves. we can talk, paint, write, dance, create or destroy to express ourselves. don't fall for the planned obsolescence - if it hasn't worn out, you don't need a new one!!

i know i'm not the first person to say these things, but we have to stay on guard. through the use of psychology our minds are bombarded constantly and they understand how to sell us our "desires" very very very well.

again, please watch that documentary, but most importantly, if you haven't yet, get rid of your fucking TV.

brenda klassen, a reaaal class act.

i probably won't get my damage deposit back, but at least my crazy old (as in previous, and also as in OLD) landlord got a giant fine. ha ha. i happened to be googling her yesterday and found this article from last month:

Despite claims she would rather die than see her tenants hurt, a Calgary landlady was convicted yesterday of jeopardizing their safety.

Provincial court Judge Les Grieve fined Brenda Klassen's Sonchris Developments Ltd. $40,000, for four safety code violations involving fire security breaches.

Grieve convicted the company, which is solely owned by Klassen, of not having its fire alarms and extinguishers checked within the required 12-month period.

Klassen was also found to have not posted signage telling people to call 911 if they triggered a building alarm and had inadequate emergency lighting at her property at 312 3 Ave. N.E.

Klassen was ticketed by fire inspector Jim Heynen after he discovered the violations during an April 17, 2006, check of the property.

In testimony, Klassen said she was having trouble maintaining her equipment after the individual who did the work in all four of her Calgary buildings retired, leaving her scrambling to find someone else. She said she would never intentionally put any of her tenants at risk.

"If anybody came to any harm because of me I don't think I'd want to live," said Klassen, who has owned rental properties for five decades.

But Grieve rejected her claim, finding Klassen's only motivation for not getting the work done was to save a buck.

"Mrs. Klassen clearly longs for the days gone by when one person could do this for little cost," the judge said.

vancouver

was awesome. here is my trip:

we spent around 16 hours on the greyhound to get there, but it wasn't really that bad. it went pretty fast, despite greyhound being so ghetto. i took a bunch of stuff to keep myself entertained on the bus, like some knitting, some pants i wanted to patch up, and a book (in case i happened to be post-carsick), but they didn't have any lights on at all. not the low lit panel that goes along the side, and there were no overhead personal lights. we had to board in the dark and when we got off the bus i ended up seeing a brownish stain on my seat, eww! there was a lot more examples of the ghetto-ness, but oh well, it got us there and it was cheap.

when we got off the bus, we charged our phone at a coffee shop and for some reason Paul bought a china-man hat... you know the ones, right? then we walked directly though east hastings. fucking crazy and it was only 10 am!

we found our way out to Richmond, where we were staying. paul carried all my stuff, and even pushed me in a shopping cart for the last leg. we were staying at some calgary friend's of his, and they have a great apartment filled with bikes and a hammock.
we stayed out there for a few days, going for awesome bike rides and blazin' and having the usual stoner conversation about how the world is messed up.

all of us went on a mountain side ride that was nice. we got to share the path with a million longboarders in training, it was cute. we got off the path for a bit and watched some dragonfly sex and looked at trees. paul and i road in to granville island, stanley park, and downtown 'couver.

for a few days after that we stayed with my friend in the downtown east side and it was a nice change, and kind of funny, suddenly being so close to everything that we had just struggled to ride our bikes too the previous day. we had brought a "fun" chocolate bar along with us that we were sort of rationing. we finally ate the majority of that and hit up an awesome arcade downtown. i love pinball! it's my new favorite thing. i love the combination of digital and analog that makes up the machine. my favorite was the adam's family one. oh look, here is a picture of it that i googled.
we did some more bike rides and i attempted to find shoes because mine were on the verge, but it's impossible. i ended up getting some at a vintage clothing store in kitsilano pretty randomly on the last day.
we ended the trip with the nudie beach at UBC. it was wonderful - so hot and sunny, and being naked on the beach is GREAT.

we decided to fly back and we got a ride from paul's brother, straight from the beach to the airport with no time to spare.

i tend to not take great photos, but here are 5 sort of:

• a slug on the path. we were all kind of concerned he would get run over so we watched him cross for quite a while.
• paul in the only underwear he brought on the trip, on a beach downtown.
• me walking to wreck beach. i knew the nude portion was coming up, so i was half way there already.
• a night bike ride. i think i was actually from a boys' only ride. i was in the hammock sleeping already.
• bamboo in stanley park. paul climbed it, i watched.

soon.

• soon i will have the most organized desk ever. i took everything out, organized it into logical piles and now i'm putting it back in.

• my teeth hurt all the time. well not ALL the time. only when i eat really sugary stuff... which is ALMOST all the time. ow, it hurts. i will go to the dentist soon

• dan leahul is back in calgary for a month. we are hanging out as soon as he gets here.

• i'm taking a long long bus ride to vancouver with paul tomorrow. we just bought the tickets today. we didn't plan very much of anything and now the trip is very soon.

ps - i brought my new bike home today. it's still got a free wheel (single speed) on it, but you can probably guess when i will be changing that.... (SOON!)