Archive for November, 2007

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

{ November 30, 2007 @ 5:15 pm } · { Uncategorized }
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Okay so this is one of the rare times I am just going to bitterly compain about my week. Usually I will talk about interesting stuff, but really, I want to whine. Because I have had the worst week ever….

 To start off with, this week was not supposed to be fun in the first place. I had 2 fairly big essays due on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I didn’t have a chance to work on them until Wednesday of last week due to quizzes, presentations and midterms. So I couldn’t start researching them until last week… infact for the 10-page essay I didn’t even have a topic.

But thats not so bad right? 1 week is lots of time to write two essays! Not when everything else that can go wrong, does go wrong….

For starters, I started a Research Scholarship that is due on Dec3rd, so I had to work on it during the same week as the essays. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that it was quite the hassle to put together. First I had several meetings with my professor to discuss and figure out the research project. Then I had to coordinate the most complicated system of asking for signatures, letters of references and everything else…. Which was really such a headache.

 But it gets better! So on Sunday night, Andy and I are walking back home from the library when we smell a bonfire. We are thinking “Who has bonfires in the middle of winter?”…. well, we sure found out when we got home. As we walk up to my place, we notice smoke coming out of the garage. So we run inside and guess what? There’s a fire in the garage! And the situation goes from bad to worse…. we can’t get the garage door open because the flames are right below the door opener. Oh and what else? The fire extinguisher also happens to be in the fire! Andddd…. we can’t get the garage door open! So we’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find fire extinguishers and such, and we can’t find any! Meanwhile the whole main floor is filling up with smoke and the fire alarm is going off like crazy.

So we call the firemen, and they can’t even find our place right away because it’s hidden in a cul-de-sac! Andy braves the smoke and gets the garage door open and we start pouring water on the fire. By the time the firemen arrived, we got the fire under control.

 So what started it? All we know is a pile of recycling burnt up… so either someone threw something flammable in it, or pop cans spontaneously combust. We still don’t know what started it.

You would think that would be the end of my bad week? It’s not… on top of all that, I hand in one of my essays late because I forgot it at home. I also forgot to hand in an electronic copy of the other essay as well. I didn’t do my stats assignment because of the essays and scholarship, which I then got blindsided by in tutorial. Then I found out an assignment was due on Thursday which I didn’t know about because I was sick for the class the week before.

 Oh ya, and my magazine bill was due today. I haven’t been able to mail it in. Oy.

 Atleast it’s Friday…. this week has to end soon right? Hopefully next week will be better.

We ain’t the ones making all that pollution, so back off!

{ November 23, 2007 @ 10:31 pm } · { Environment }
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So I was reading an article on CBC that said that Stephen Harper is the only leader who is currently not agreeing to revisions to the Kyoto Protocol out of 53 nations. And I applaud him. To be honest, I’m tired of this over-the-top climate change hysteria. Don’t get me wrong, I think that its great that we do things like recycling and using cloth bags instead of plastic bags when grocery shopping. But people need to sober up and realize something very critical about Earth:

HUMANS ARE NOT A SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE

There… I said it. I am Suzuki’s anti-Christ or however you want to put it, but its true. We as humans are not sustainable on this Earth. We multiply much to fast, we use resources way too quickly and we produce garbage and waste at an alarmingly rate. Now unless we figure out how to eat remelted pop cans, making them into ski jackets is not going to make a huge difference to the environment.

 The other problem we are facing here is that only the wealthiest countries currently have the funds and the ability to buy enough hybrid cars to make an impact. This excludes the two largest populations in the world: India and China. They are also creating the most pollution at the highest rate (besides the US, but the US is always making trouble, so count them as #1 in every problem Earth has). Yet we can’t even punish them for it because most areas of those countries are not even fully developed enough to be introducing high-end water purifying systems, recycling processing plants or hybrid cars.

So what is the point? What people don’t realize right now is that all this recycling and such that they are engaging is will save Earth for maybe another 100… 150 years…. and then our great great great grandchildren are going to run into the real problems that are unavoidable: overcrowding, lack of water, lack of land to grow crops and heavy ozone loss.

So what pisses me off even more is when countries like MALTA for Godssake come after Canada for not signing the Kyoto Protocol. Um excuse me, but incase you didn’t notice Canada currently is 2nd largest country in the world with the lowest population density. Even if we tried, we could not come up to a fraction of what the US, China and India are doing to the environment. We have the most fresh water in the world, the 2nd largest forests and the most valuable natural resources in this world probably.

But we also have the horrible OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY!!!!! Ahhhhh run for your lives! Fuck…. the oil and gas industry is currently what is keeping Canada afloat in the recession the US is facing. The oil and gas industry is what is currently keeping Quebec and the other tax-feeding provinces from falling apart. The oil and gas industry, as much as everyone outside of Alberta wants to deny it, is crucial to Canada. And the Kyoto Protocol directly hurts Canada through the oil and gas industry.

 So props to Stephen for stepping up for Canada. We shouldn’t be taking this bullshit about the Kyoto Protocol in the first place…. Canada isn’t even the country making all the mess! So back off already!

The editorial I didn’t send in for the Gazette

{ November 16, 2007 @ 6:46 pm } · { GLQTetc. issues }
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 Okay heres the link to the article I’m talking about: http://www.gazette.uwo.ca/pdf/Gazette-2007-11-14.pdf

 So theres this debate going on around campus about Canadian Blood Service’s policy on not allowing men who have had sex with men (MSM) to donate blood. Its become this big uproar with protest demonstrations by a group called Stand Against Queer Discrimination (SAQD).  I think this is a load of annoying bullshit. The policy was never meant to discriminate again homosexuals. It was directed at a high-risk activity that is associated with high rates of HIV transmission. This doesn’t mean that Gay men are promiscuous or “dirty”, just unfortunately HIV has become more prevalent in their form of sexual activity. The statistics are there and really SAQD should be addressing the issues of HIV transmission is MSM, not CBS’s policy on blood donation. But anyways, here is a letter to the editor I wanted to send in, but didn’t because I’m scared of this SAQD group coming after me… Protest groups on campus are dangerous sometimes!

“Here are some other facts about CBS’s bloody policy that seems to have been overlooked in this debate:

Currently CBS’ indefinite deferral policy also includes two other groups that SAQD has failed to mention in their arguments. Anyone who has received blood transfusions in Africa, engaged in sexual activities in Africa or lived in 8 listed African countries is not allowed to donate blood. Anyone who has lived in the United Kingdom and areas of Europe from 1980 to 1996 are also not allowed to donate blood.

Why isn’t there a S.A.A/E.D (Standing Against African/European Discrimination) group? Because these groups understand that the policy is not directed at their ethnic, racial or cultural backgrounds: it is a protective policy against statistics that have indicated high rates of HIV/AIDS and CJD in Africa and Europe, respectively.

So why is that that one group feels singled out? I think it’s because they don’t understand that CBS is not directing their policy at gays and homosexuals. It is directed towards a high-risk activity that unfortunately seems to be correlated with an increased risk of HIV transmission. Gay men who do not engage in MSM are still allowed to donate, and Lesbian women are allowed to donate too! In fact, as another student pointed out, those men who are not allowed to donate blood still have the option of donating their time and money.

 

So instead of lying on the floor (with misspelled tombstones: Jacob Orosco was 17 when he died), I invite the SAQD to direct their time and energy to more purposeful activities such as volunteering with CBS. By attempting to ban CBS from campus, they are risking someone’s life by preventing a kind-hearted student from donating blood.

 Volunteer positions with CBS are available at www.blood.ca“

 I’d also like to point out something else no one has researched. CBS was created after a scandal in 1980-1996 in which the Canadian Red Cross was brought to court for infecting 2000 people with HIV and 20 000 people with Hep C in a span of 10-15years. The Canadian Red Cross’s blood donation services were shut down and the government created CBS to start a new and more effective blood service system. People have to realize that Canada’s blood supply was considered one of the poorest in the world in the early 1990’s. We must have strict restrictions on our blood supply or we risk the health of the general population and our health industry reputation in the world.  Stephen Harper just offered to pay over a million to survivors of the HIV-tainted blood. Sadly, the majority are dead now. I’m not saying that blood came from someone who engaged in MSM because it could easily have come from anyone of any sexual orientation or ethnic background due to poor screening back then. But we need to be extra careful nowadays and that is EXACTLY what CBS is doing. If SAQD is successful in banning CBS from campus, I’m going to be on of the first people writing to USC to fight it.