Hey, I'm not just a newsclip poster!

Although it is much easier to post new clips during the workday, I know posting a message here in the flesh is long overdue.

In all honesty, not much went on this weekend. It was the quietest Thanksgiving weekend ever for me. I slept a lot which was great but I did miss out on turkey which I really regret. I talked to my mom last night and she was going on and on about all the big meals that they served or were invited to over the long weekend (actually the gorging started on Thursday...). They had lots to celebrate though, and we all know how much small town people like to celebrate! Owen and Chloe were there with Treslie (her first big trip), and the Wilsons (my dad's sister's family) have about five birthdays all at the beginning of October, so there were parties and eating and drinking all over the place. I was starting to regret that I didn't go! But alas, I got some long-overdue rest out of the deal, which would not have happened out there.

Jeff, Nick, Ryan, Raymond, Joe and myself went out to Twisted on Saturday night. I really don't feel very sociable in that bar anymore. I see all of the same guys in the bar that are my age, and I realized that they are still there, like, every freaking weekend, and it made me sort of sad. Sad that they thought of no alternative but to be at the bar on a Saturday night, but also that I was as old as them. Oi.

Joe had the whole weekend off which was great. We got to spend a lot of good time together, which is rare these days. Good news on the work/strike front -- Joe's company and the union have reached a tentative deal, so after the union vote in two weeks, they will most likely be back to work.

I got to have my happy-fun-shiny-cheer-cycling time yesterday. It was 20C out so I couldn't resist. I hooked up with Frank and we went for a 102km trip around Cochrane, and did a very euro coffee stop at a cafe on the way back in. Good times...

Of course I got time to read more 'alternative' news reports, essays, blogs, etc. this weekend which got me thinking again. Oh NO! I really don't think the things that will happen to us in the future are going to be either horrible or rosy, just somewhere in between as they always are. But that shit on the Arctic ice melting and changing global climate? Geez crap! It's so obvious that it would affect things in ways that we don't even know or understand on a global scale (it's been there, regulating global climate for over a million years), and it appears to be happening very, very quickly. Some experts think that it works sort of as a self-feeding loop, and now that it has begun, the melting will cascade into something that can't be stopped -- or that it may be irreversible already. *hyperventilating* I think I'm losing it! What to do...What to do...I think as I fritter in the corner, rocking back and forth, back and forth.....

I also came to terms with the fact that we've been set up to be on this path to our economic vs. environmental vs. social destiny for fifty years or so post-World War Two with foundations to the path beginning in the 1800s, so why should I worry about it? There's absolutely nothing I can do but make those choices on a personal level that I feel will make a difference. That's all that any of us can do and should do. There's no doubt that we will witness something globally transformative in our lifetimes. I just don't think it's going to be something good. There's were my essential pessimism lies. I don't know what to do to protect myself from it, and it's sort of hard when you don't know what to protect yourself from. More mortality musings...I'm much calmer now.

Why the hell is Jon Stewart not doing live shows again this week? I'm so pissed off! That guy takes as much time off as GWB! I jest. No one comes even close to him.

I might as well head to bed. Nite nite.


[Voice of the Wicked Witch from 'the Wizard of Oz'] Help me! I'm melting!