The Urban Refugee

MP Colin Mayes recently made — and then retracted — this provocative statement:

“Maybe it is time that we hauled off in handcuffs reporters that fabricate stories, or twist information and even falsely accuse citizens.”

I’m both horrified and outraged as it’s obvious what Mr. Mayes is up to. He’s proposing nothing less than shutting down our beloved Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and imprisoning their entire workforce, both past (run for the hills Nancy!) and present. This goes beyond the pale and Mr. Mayes should be ashamed of himself for attacking a national institution like the CBC.

How un-Canadian.

• Glove On The Clothesline
• Frozen Downspout
• Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow…
• Fresh Chop
• Abstract Frost On Branches
• Frost On Grass By Shop
• Shibui
• Snow On The Dill
• Snow On The Branches
• Tire At Rest

There are times when I despair of my ability to make a good image and consider donating all of my gear to Goodwill. Ray is responsible for triggering the latest bout of photographic depression. Nice one, asshole.

Last week we had a foot of snow in our yard. Today the sun is out and the foot of snow is suddenly turning into a foot of mud. The snow is melting quickly and torrents of water are frantically searching for somewhere to come to rest in our yard. There’s so much water running across the yard right now that it’s not hard to imagine that I’m standing next to a small stream rather than just outside my office door.

It’s wonderful.

I passed the Xplornet Ka-band satellite installer exam today with the highest score in the class. According to sc0rp, I’m now qualified to upgrade tumbleweeds from RJ11 to RJ45. Sounds exciting. I’ll have to think about it more once I get some sleep.

The KA band hi-speed Internet satellite dish is installed and online. I’m busy streaming movie trailers from Apple’s site for the first time since last summer. Life is good right now.

I was amused to read on your blog that, despite your best efforts, actually having a technical skill makes you money. Funny how that works. — Jay Currie

It all depends on where the person with the technical skill lives. A good friend of mine (an ex-coworker and boss), was laid off with me eleven months ago. Perhaps I’ve got a bit more hands-on experience with a few things than A.J. does, but I would trust him with any enterprise network. He’s extremely intelligent, his ethics are spotless, and he does a damn fine job of whatever he chooses to work at. So why, in Alberta’s 3% unemployment rate job market, does it take someone like him eleven months to find a replacement job?

My friend Mark in Maryland was laid off from his job of 24 years at the end of December last year. He’s still looking for work and he’s got a resume that puts mine and A.J.’s to shame. I am utterly gobsmacked that no one has snapped up Mark yet. That’s why he’s busy selling movies when he should be running a network the size of Verizon’s.

If either of these two were to move out to the country, they would have no problem getting paid $80/hr to clean spyware out of computers at the customer’s home or business. They would feel welcomed and respected, not like some sort of geek leper as they’re treated in the cities where they live.

Yeah, technical skills are nice, but selling a skill is like selling a house — it all comes down to location, location, location. Right now, the urban center is not such a nice place for people with technical skills.

On democracy

Stephen Harper says that we’re in Afghanistan to spread democracy. Well, that’s nice. The problem with democracy, at least from where I’m standing, is that you need a somewhat informed populace for the whole concept to work properly. I can’t see how a populace that thinks implementing Sharia law, stoning women to death (the ones they haven’t locked in the kitchen), executing converts to non-Muslim religions, and killing homosexuals could possibly be passed off as an informed one. And we’re going to give them democracy so they can elect governments that reflect their views. Like the terrorist government that was recently elected in Palestine.

What’s next, handing out AK-47s to five year olds?

On capitalism

Markets are driven by the choices made by individual consumers. In a perfect world people would make choices that are in their own best interest and in the interest of their community. In the real world, people tend to go for instant gratification without thinking of the long term consequences of their actions. A good example of this is the dietary choices made by an ever increasing number of overweight Canadians (the obese author of this post among them).

We want the biggest sensory hit (”Celery? No thanks, but pass me a doughnut and that double-double, wouldya?”) and the best deal possible (”A mountain bike for $25? Awesome! Who cares that we sent all of our jobs to China and we’re propping up one of the world’s most murderous regimes through our purchase!”).

We’re getting fat, we’re sending our jobs overseas, we’re borrowing more than we can possibly pay back, yet we’re told that this is a healthy free market in action. Yeh, sure.

This is why I start shitting bricks when people tell me that a free market can cure all the ills of our health care system.

On aging

The older I get, the less absolute absolutes look, y’know?

An Edmonchuk school bus driver has just been circular-filed for telling some kids on his bus to sit down and shut up in a less that politically correct manner. The parents of the poor little misbehaving dears are offended. Me, I’m on the bus driver’s side.

I spent over two years riding Edmonton Transit to and from the office. You could usually count on school age children being on the bus on the mornings for sure, and sometimes on the way home depending on what time I left the office. How well behaved were these kids? Hey, if it were left up to me, I’d be issuing each bus driver with ten gallon cans of pepper spray and those spiked clubs that the seal hunters use. Even better, I’d give them pay bonuses for the number of teenagers they manage to incapacitate or kill during each shift.

Think I’m exaggerating? Spend a year riding Edmonton Transit yourself and get back to me, but don’t be surprised when you find yourself feeling that I haven’t gone nearly far enough.

A tip of the hat to Darcey at Dust My Broom.