Author: admin

http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060417fege09

Please take the 10 minutes and read this article on 50 ways you can help the environment (and yourselves!)

I challenge all my faithful readers to do 15 of the things on the list at a minimum. It may be a pain at first, but it will become second nature in time.

Case in point – When I was younger, I used to let the water run while brushing my teeth. Then I heard that that’s a waste of energy. It took some getting used to, but it’s now second nature to me to reach for the tap to turn it off while I brush my teeth.

• If you haven’t picked up the new Tool album do so just for the album packaging. I’ve never seen anything like it.
• Also, pick up the new Pearl Jam album.
• I read Isaac Asimov’s The End of Eternity. It was amazing. My first foray into Asimov was not a disappointment.
• I biked down Trim Road towards Navan on Monday. It was fraught full of traffic and smells of manure from the farm. Something tells me I should head towards the Ottawa River next time.
• Alias is back on TV and it’s getting good. Too bad it always gets good near the end of the season and then is kaput. This time around, it’s really gone as in the series is ending.
• Mission Impossible III is out…tomorrow? Sometime this week…I will definitely want to go see it for the sole reason that J.J. Abrams (of Alias and Lost fame) is helming this one.
• I started my new class last night – Theories of Communications. My professor’s name is Doctor Strangelove, and yes, he changed his name to that. I think I will enjoy his class as he seems to have an unorthodox style of teaching in him considering I entered the class and he was playing a music video for Alice Cooper – Poison and then through on a Rammstein DVD. Then he was talking about how we’ll take a look at some cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants and talk about Anti-Americanism in the world. It’s two nights a week for 6 weeks so that will be rough, but I don’t think I will be bored. The classroom setup blows though.
• I got an A- in my English class. Why didn’t I get marks like that when I actually went to school?
• The Canadian dollar is at an all time high. Is it time to make a trip across the border to buy some merchandise before we need barcodes tattooed to our skin to get across?
• I had to kill some ants sprouting up around my house yesterday. I bought some powder to do the trick. This morning I saw a few roaming around. Don’t know if that’s a bad sign or not.

Does it never end? I thought I would have a week to myself without any classes or exams to worry about.

My last exam -> This Saturday night.
The start of the summer class -> Three days later on the Tuesday.

*sob*

There are so many things I wish to write about but didn’t have the time yesterday but perhaps I’ll start off with a little story of our friend Agelaius phoeniceus.

I was thinking that I had the bird beat a few days ago when I decided to move my car eight spots farther down the parking lot to avoid Agelaius. I pull into the parking lot space #8 while listening to some morning news, minding my own business when I put it into park and am about to hop out when I freeze.

“Where is Agelaius?” I ponder.

I scope out the territory and don’t see Agelaius anywhere so I think I am safe. It is raining out there so perhaps birds lay low for the time being. I reflect on the fact that I don’t really know a lot about birds at this point in my life and wonder if I am missing out not being a bird watcher. My own mother emailed me the other day and indicated that it is not a morning dove, but a mourning dove. Funny how the spelling of a word can bring such a happy picture of a bird to a tragic one.

I exit the vehicle seeing that the bus is waiting at the stop and it has been known to pull away at the last moment. I have 50 meters of pavement to dash across so I close my door and look around. I’m safe! Agelaius is not to be seen!

At the half way mark I am feeling pretty good until I hear the shrill cry of the Banshee. In other’s ears, they hear “Tweet, tweeeet!”. In mine I hear “You thought I was gone. I have returned. I will wreak havoc on your vehicle.”

In fear, I turn suddenly to find out where my arch enemy is to find that he is hopping and shitting along someone else’s car. Excellent. Perhaps he will be amused for the entire day with this other person’s vehicle, although I now wonder if I should leave a note on their car indicating that I wish to create a task force (perhaps Delta Force?) to take care of this problem.

All was well when I got back to my car that night to find it had rained on it all day long and most of the crap on the car that I had failed to wipe off was gone.

Fast forward to this morning, I am feeling like a new man. I still decide to pull into Parking Spot #8 (a few meters away from my old spot, but all that more to run to the bus with) and am feeling good. The sun is shining, I hear Bluesfest is coming to town (holy crap, I just read Dose on the bus this morning and found out that Matt Mays and Sam Roberts are playing together. I am in heaven.), and life is good (other than the exam I have to write on Saturday night). I hop out of the car.

“Hey buddy, how’s it going?” I hear.

I peer to my right and there he is. The bane of my existence. Agelaius up in a tree. I look around. There are no other cars in this section because I came in a little early this morning.

“Oh no.” I think. What do I do?

The bus pulls up and I have 45 meters to cover. Do I go back to the car and park it on the far side of the lot? That will mean I have to wait 10 minutes for the next bus. But I will have peace of mind when I think of the bird shit and the bird clawing away at my paint job. In a rash decision I run to the bus thinking that Agelaius will find other cars closer to his tree to bother today.

But I still felt the pain when Agelaius swooped in towards my car and started to hop around the side mirror so it could see its reflection in my window. You’ve won this time Agelaius…but the war is not over.

Pros:

• The feeling you get when you think you’re ready.

Cons:

• Missing the Jeff Martin concert.
• Missing the Jeff Martin concert with surprise guest Oliver Black opening up. (insert Darth Vader’s ‘Nooooooo!’ yell from Episode III here)
• Finding out that 85% of the questions on the exam were the same ones in the three test the Prof had in class.

Pros (again):

• Realizing that you definitely aced the exam…but you could have made it out to the concert.

Lesson Learned:

• Never stop rocking. Go to the concerts no matter what or a magical night will escape you.