A bit of rage for everyone

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... Today there is no target, no real issue at hand other than my future. I feel angry, and it's maybe unwarranted, maybe not. I won't be keeping my job past my pre-determined period. I didn't expect to but I had a small sliver of hope that maybe, they would keep me aboard. I worked hard, and I did my best to be as good as I could be. The most I can hope for is that if Coles has an opportunity open up, they phone me to fill that position, but really the time for bitterness is past.

Why was I bitter? A large part of me feels that I wasn't given a fair opportunity as the other holiday season part-timer. They got more hours than I did every week, and in the end, they were the one to keep their job past the Christmas season and I wasn't. It's pointless to idly speculate as to why this was the case, assume that it was prejudice and bias that influenced the decision when that probably wasn't the case. I could blame myself and my work ethic but that probably didn't play too much in to it either. I showed up, I never flaked on a shift, I gave every shift my best effort even when it maybe didn't call for it.

Now that my future has a relative uncertainty I feel partially responsible. Maybe excluding a job from the kitchen restricted the few "opportunities" (a rant I will get to in a moment) that were avaliable for me. I wanted to work for a retail outlet as a chance to flex my customer service skills. Contrary to what you may conceive (as, I really do hate people and by and large cannot stand their consuming habits) I do like working around people, helping them and talking to them. I'm a better salesman than I give myself credit for, but if it's not something I'm interested in I hate trying to sell people anything. I fully endorse reading so, I love selling people books. Working in coles was something I really enjoyed.

I've worked Kitchen jobs the better part of my working life. The Kitchen is a rather rabid environment of hostile personalities and hostile practice. It's a very downtroughten profession with very little praise. Often thankless, the hard work people put in to the kitchen is often given very little to no praise. This makes working in the kitchen fruitless and very un-endearing. It's something I've had more than my fill of and if I have to go back to it, so be it, i'll hardly consider it an opportunity, just a paycheck.

"Opportunity" is a bullshit word we've thrown around far too gratuitously. An opportunity is something good, in my opinion. Where as sure, it would be nice to be working and making a pay check, it's hardly an opportunity for anything other than to sustain a concrete living situation. There's so much bullshit to worry about, paying bills and buying food to keep on fueling the vicious cycle that I have no time to even worry about any TRUE opportunities that are open to be. Heaven forbid I have enough stability to shed away all this extra clout that's on my mind so I could fuel my hobby that makes me happy. Nothing kills my muse faster than the depression of many of the subjects that have been on my mind lately. Losing my job, losing the car, the possibility that I will get to live on kraft dinner for a little while.

A true opportunity would be me, getting to go to college, for that I would need my drivers license, hooray, there's more fucking money down the tube. I would love to go to college, but for what? I don't even know what I want to do with myself. First I believed I wanted to be a journalist but when that holy light came crashing down and the truth eroded any faith I had in that profession, writing came a calling. I enjoy writing but I haven't felt motivated to write anything in months. So I don't feel as strongly in it as I once did. There are things I'm passionate about but to aquire a college education to further my life in a direction that I'm unsure about is not an investment that I am sure I want to make. My highest priority right now is happiness and the best way to ensure that, is to get some stability to my situation. College is bullshit.

When the people around me are a bit happier, that will give me room to be happy. Right now, things are far too unstable, people are not happy, people are stressed the fuck out and there's nothing I can do about it which in turn, stresses me the fuck out. Yeah, you may feel like I'm bitching and I am, this is my forum to do that and I'm taking that opportunity in stride.

Blame the economy, blame the suits, blame the government. There are a lot of places I could point the finger, and I'm going to point it at myself. I'm accountable for where I'm at right now, and there's no finer truth than that. I am responsible for righting my own ship, even if it means I have to swallow some pride and happiness to take a less than desirable job somewhere I will probably not (but maybe) enjoy.

I must feed my cat, a terrible way to an ending but she's starting to annoy me. Next time I promise I'll have something less selfish, and hopefully, more opportunistically important to talk about.

PEACE.

You're With Us Or You're Against Us

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... There's a storm brewing that's causing a rift in the ocean so powerful it could almost push the earth off of its electromagnetic balance. There are power players on both sides of the war with all kinds of influence. Adults, teenagers, maybe even children. There's a rejuvenation in it, it's re-launched what was once a niche fiction genre into a zone of popularity that it possibly never enjoyed. What I'm referring to is Twilight, and Vampires. And as far as I'm concerned, you love it, or you're dead to me. (kidding of course, but really, love it or hate it)

I've made my views of Twilight impossibly clear. That book series bastardized vampires, yet they're as popular as they've ever been. Before Twilight, the most popular thing to be associated with vampires was arguably "Buffy: The Vampire Slayer" and really, that was only because we felt like getting cock blocked by Sarah Michelle Gellar week after week. So where did it all of a sudden come from? You've got the shows Vampire Diaries and True Blood Vampires are on the forefront of popular culture, in the face of everyone in a way they've never been.

What was once a mockingly meek fictional foray is now a legitimate force of imagination. Even though the formula has always been dreadfully linear. You've got a girl, you've got a vampire, for one reason or another, they can't get together no matter how much they may want to (In the case of true blood, sure, they fuck, but there's still all this drama...) People are intrigued by romance, even if its in the case of a lovestruck girl, and a beast of the night experiencing feelings he has not felt for hundreds of years.

I love True Blood. There's something about it, maybe it's the fact that it reminds me so much of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Sure, she's not a slayer in that sense but its the relationship of the bubbly blond in love with the tall dark and handsome vampire. The mysterious stranger that she doesn't understand yet she feels as if she has the ability to shatter whatever barrier he's using to hide himself from her. I don't give a shit about Sookie, or Bill. I like the characters that surround the main characters. Its the side-plots of that show that make it interesting, so much so to the point that I'm interested in reading Charlane Harris' series of Sookie Stackhouse novels.

I'm confident those novels would be a lot more interesting and entertaining than Stephanie Meyer's drivel, which has somehow managed to captivate the imaginations of millions of teenaged girls, girls who's opinions I would not be likely to value one way or the other to begin with. I've read about the novels and I've researched Twilight enough to know its nothing that I want anything to do with. Its engrossed our popular culture to the point that even though I want to avoid it, I can't.

I can't go to work without hearing about Twilight, or seeing a Magazine about Twilight, or reading a issue of Time magazine without encountering an article about the magesty of Twilight and the story of its oh so humble upbringings. Without hearing about how my co-worker's going to go see New Moon again, even though she's slightly embarrassed to be such a fan of Twilight to begin with. I've started referring to these people as "Twilighters" because, clearly, if you're one of them you're not one of us. (Somebody who doesn't want anything to do with the bullshit.)

Stephen King equated reading Twilight to reading about Stephanie Meyers sexual fantasies put on paper. That is something that's kind of disturbing to me. I don't think that teenagers should be exempt from sexuality because they're thinking about it more than we are, and if they want to be exposed to it, they will be. While christian groups ignorantly parade around Twilight as a book that's a 'great example for girls' because of how the main characters will not just dive into... whatever it is that they share or want to share. They, as they so often chose to do, ignore the finer details of what the book is about while applauding one solitary (and from what I've gathered, minute) aspect of the novel.

Whatever drives Twilight Fans, that same force repels me. I don't care to know whatever it may be that makes Twilight accessible, not only because I find Twilight disgustingly stupid, but because I know there's BETTER Vampire fiction out there. Vampires have been and still are one of the things that I've been on the fence of. Growing up with Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire bullshit really waned me off of Vampires from an early age.

It wasn't until I (embarrassingly enough) got into LARP and White Wolf's World of Darkness role playing game that I learned of a world of Vampires that could actually be cool. A world where Vampires didn't just live in society, secretly, among humans (and other elements of the supernatural) but they might just well run the society that we took for granted. The influence of Vampires was everywhere. That's why I like True Blood, it takes the sensibilities of Vampire society that I found so intriguing about that world of darkness. That Vampires aren't agents of love, they see people as fodder, much like people see cats or dogs. Except without that aspect of domestication. Maybe more pointedly, how people see beef or chicken, its just another notch on the food chain. Vampires look at humans disgustingly as a source of food. They're pathetic and utterly replaceable. To hold feelings for a human isn't just embarrassing, it's borderline shameful.

True Blood presents a type of Vampire that I can find realistic, and enjoyable. They're dark, they're evil, they're greedy, they are everything I've ever enjoyed about vampires. Sure they can have feelings but they really don't want to even admit it. To be a 'mainstreamer' as they're called in True Blood, is a downright disgrace. Enough to alienate you from your entire vampire brethren. Vampires are public knowledge (which is a twist that I'm welcome to see) and trying to become accepted by humanity. Maybe it's a power play, maybe it's something more. Something deeper. The main vampire, Bill, is an enigmatic, thousands year old civil war veteran who has lost everything, and yet is intrigued enough by Sookie to turn his back on the Vampiric traditions he's been accustomed to for so long. Their bastardized romance is so ridiculous, yet believable. I can believe this Vampire would be capable of feeling something other than pure evil. (which, I've admitted in the past as bullshit and I still think its a bit hokey)

So, you Twilighters, you can keep your sparkly, bastardized, pathetic "vampires" and you can be happy about it. I'm happy for you. I hope you and twilight are really happy together and much like christians and their religion, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. I don't give a fuck. I'm happy for you, just don't spew your pathetic venom onto me. I'll keep with my True Blood, my Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, my Blade. Vampires will continue to be in the "meh" category, for me if they aren't super-powered heroes in oddly coloured costumes it won't really do anything for me. Batman could kick the shit out of Robert Pattinson any day of the week.

- PEACE

Rights and Freedoms are not a part of Stephen Harpers vocabulary.

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... A while ago, I scoulded health canada for 'flaunting its power like a raging boner'. When the 'war on smoking' was turned up to 11, and smoking retailers were forced to change their tactics of abstain from the sale of cigarettes all together, I, being part of a smoking retailer at the time, took great offense at the grievance this situation had cast upon my daily activities.

Now however, I am here to 'bitch' (for lack of a better term) about something far more serious. The "Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act". That would in sum give the state an alarming amount of power all in the name of fighting Child Pornography.

The Bill would grant the law the power to demand ISPs give personal information to the goverment, (including names of the Customers, as well as their Mail, E-Mail and IP addresses) on demand without judicial oversight. This is especially dangerous because the courts after all are the one body of power which are supposed to keep everybody, even the government, in check. How is it democratic if the government can do what it wishes in the name of 'all that is good' without the oversight of the courts?

The ISP's would be required to install surveillance software at the partial cost of not just the companies, but the tax payers as well. Smaller ISP's would be given a grace period of three years before they would have to adhere to the laws themselves. (My guess is to have time to adjust their systems given they would not have the immediate financial backing that larger conglomerate ISP's such as Telus, or Rogers would have.)

Government isn't the only beneficiary of power to this bill however, The Police would be given considerable power advantages as well. 1) They would be able to abtain information on internet-based messaging, including the web-sites that people are visiting and who they are talking to. This information WILL be subject to a judicial order so there is some semblance of sense there, albeit minimal. 2) Police will also have the power to demand ISP's hold information on their users 3) The police will have the power to obtain a warrant to remotely monitor and record telecommunication devices such as cell-phones. 4) Deals more with computer virus' so that it makes it easier for Canada to collaborate its efforts with international authorities.

This will effectively give the power the ability to censor us further. It's laws like these that are very damaging to the rights and freedoms that we take for granted (and rightfully so!) on a daily basis. If the Government has the ability to go around the courts, and monitor our activities. Who is to say that they won't abuse this power? (I can almost assuredly assume that they would. Be damned any common sayings about assumption...)

Jesse Kline said it best in Western Standard. "It is essential that people have the ability to publish their opinions and ideas anonymously to prevent government censorship and allow a free flow of information in the marketplace of ideas. The proposed legislation would make it easier for the government to monitor online communication and obtain the identities of those who wish to express themselves on the Internet. With the amount of information people send over the Internet increasing all the time, this issue becomes even more important. Anyone who thinks they have nothing to lose by giving big brother the right to watch them at all times is sorely mistaken. This is not 2009 folks, it's New Year's Eve, 1984."

The Internet is a free for all, and it should continue to be so. That's what makes it so great, it's a place for everyone to come and shed their identity and reveal their true colours. (For better, or worse) I don't want to have to worry about the federal government breathing down my neck every time I feel like calling Stephen Harper a smarmy son of a bitch, because he is, and I do it often. It makes me sick that initiatives like this are even being established. If you sit there wondering why this is such a big deal, under the guise of 'well, I do nothing wrong so I have nothing to worry about'. Think of the fact that, even if you were in contact with somebody who was found guilty of fraudulent activity on the internet. You are, all of a sudden, guilty by association for effectively, doing nothing.

I think that Government in general, is going way outside its necessary protocols in the name of what it would consider the 'greater good'. Canada is a country where the Liberal Government's practices that pat the asses of oil companies that bribe and blackmails their workers into abstaining from the vote so that a mere half of the Provence will vote in its provincial election, allowing a drunk hypocrite to be elected to his third term of premiership. Such was the case when B.C. held its provincial elelction this year and re-elected Premier Gordon Campbell with less than a quarter of the province supporting him.

A country where, not one re-election is good enough and another looms yet the country is virtually divided in half over which aura of incompetence we would decide to chose to run this country. Do we chose Stephen Harper, who alienates everybody who doesn't blindly support him. Or Michael Ignatieff, a politician who has come out of nowhere to lead the crippled Liberal party. The conservatives have painted him to be an American parading in Canadian colors, and that's reason enough for me to not want him running this country. The NDP Leader Jack Layton might as well be a blind, deaf, mute because the party he's representing has had its reputation tarnished almost irrevocably. He is not an individual who inspires anything other than cowardice, and as such, will not be voted for by anyone who isn't just tossing their vote to the NDP out of mercy.

Yeah I kind of took a left turn there but my main point is the fact that so few Canadians care enough about politics, and those that do are more concerned with AMERICAN politics that they refuse to read between the lines, see the warning signs and care for the country in which they live and breath. Canada is a shallow husk of masked identity, and its disgusting. Its laws like these that only fuel my fleeting Canadianism. Nobody gives a fuck, why should I? Well this is something I think we should all pay attention to. And when the government comes knocking, curious about your suspicious internet activity. Well, you can definitely expect that I'll be the one singing "I told you so!"

- Peace.

Investigative Powers For The 21'st Century

Government of Canada Moves To Monitor Internet Users

Legislation Would Allow Canadian Government To Monitor Internet Users

De-motivated

I don't think I'm inside my own mind... it's 2am. I'm killing time looking up De-Motivational Posters. Here are some of my favorites.

Solving The Riddle Of Creative Output

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... I sit at this computer with an anticipation inside of me that I cannot yield. I want to create, I want to write but then there comes the all too familiar stifle. Where do I start? What do I write about? Do I write something new? Do I continue something I've already started? Do I work on something I've already written and make it better? It seems that, no matter how pure my intention, even with my hobby I cannot seem to find that glowing path (not unlike in a video game...) that will lead me where I need to go. Obviously, that's because there is no path. I'm just saying, it'd be nice.

Kind of like this time I called my grade 12 English teacher a "stupid bitch" (Maybe just out of spite, trust me when I say she deserved it, but I just hated her.) for chastising my lack of effort on an assignment. The criteria was far too vague (so far so as to say that it wasn't really criteria for anything at all...) to warrant any effort on my part. The creative muse isn't always a willing participant in the creative union, just like how my teacher was not a willing participant in that educational endeavor. However, with creativity there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, sometimes you've just got to dig around the tunnel a little bit to find it.

A lot of my more creative friends often tell me, when they're not up to it, that they 'cant figure out what to write'. They want to, they just don't know what to do. Well writing doesn't work like that. There's not always a stalwart force to direct you where you need to go. Sometimes, you have to be that stalwart force and today I do not feel like a force for anything, much less a immovable force. The muse is only as good as you nurture it to be, like a child or a plant. You have to feed it for it to grow. (Not literally, I mean I've just been reading a lot more lately) I haven't been feeding my muse as much as it needs, but as of late it's been getting far more nutrients than it has been prone to receiving over say, the past 16 months. As such, my muse has practically been in full gear.

Ideas have assaulted my mind on a daily basis, some good, others not so much, but always intriguing and motivating. I find myself constantly in this position that when I am at work, or otherwise indisposed, I'd love to be writing and diving into a world of imaginative bliss. But when I'm at home, free to do as my whims would heed I feel as if I need to sit down in front of my Xbox and embrace a healthy session of Madden 10. Madden, as lovely as it is, does not fuel my muse other than to make me ponder if I want to switch up teams in my Franchise Mode... I just read Maddox's The Alphabet of Manliness. Which was a great read, it's fueled my muse to blog but I must constantly remind myself that I am, in fact, not Maddox, so I shouldn't try to write like him when I'm blogging, no matter how fun it might be.

Creative types are, dare I say, enigmatic people. Driven by passion and reason, their only solace comes in the output of something from the heart. Be it something as small as a haiku, or as grand as a thousand page novel. A painting of a hummingbird or a mural of a world war two battlefield. Today I watched a trailer for the upcoming movie Cup of Tears, a very bad ass looking Modern/Sci-Fi Samurai movie, with violence, hyper stylization and even room for Ninjas too. This kickstarted my desire to write something with a Samurai. I wouldn't always recommend trying to exersize your muse by watching something but this was the one rare example that it did in fact work.

I've been reading a fair number of comics lately and that's tempted me to write in my own worldsetting. I don't really write for the purpose of getting published, that's my goal, but I'm still trying to find myself as a writer. I've got my own characters and sociology that mirrors our own. I've been torn on weither I should push the world forward, or if I should go back to stories past that I've since abandoned and re-work and finish them.

When I started out I had this fear of not finishing a story. I had tried to write a few stories and I couldn't finish anything, so when I finally started my first complete story titled "Superhero Anarchy" I made a goal for myself. No matter what, I would finish that story, and I did. Sounds easy but it wasn't. I almost failed the 11th grade writing that story and if it wasn't for an english teacher who knew I had more potential than the C-, 51 percent passing grade he gave me (That's right, I passed by 1 percent...) then I would've been in high school an extra year and odds are, I probably would've dropped out and dissapointed the shit out of my parents. Thank christ that never happened.

I got distracted by habitual smoking of marijuana (as fun as it is, when you're smoking a lot of it the only thing you're good for is sitting on the couch and eating all of your food. It can help the creative process but that's another story.) and that really thwarted my created efforts. Stories became too overambitious, I was stretching my efforts thin and in writing this I've come to realize maybe I need to simplify the process to achieve what I want to. So I'm still kind of back to where I started, do I go back to what I abandoned or do I leave it in the past and start on something new?

That debate will probably never get old. I think in the mean time I will just try something new and see how it goes. Trying anything will yield results and that's my main point. When in doubt, just do. You never know what you'll discover. Half of the act of telling the story occurs while writing it, you might take the story in a direction you never thought it would go. Some surprising, intriguing direction that you'll run with. Kind of like a blog entry, many times I've started an entry on nothing but a firecracker under my ass and rage in my heart only to find the answers to my questions yielded different questions than the ones I initially had in the first place.

Until next time I feel like something needs to be said, be it good, or bad.

PEACE

PANIC! ITS THE FLU!!!

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... This mass hysterics, H1N1, swine flu BULLSHIT has got to come to an end. Get a grip people its the GODDAMN FLU! If you haven't died from the flu before, chances are this swine flu isn't going to kill you either. It might make you feel gross for about a week, THATS WHAT THE FLU DOES!

You have to worry if you fall into one of three cattegories.

1. You are an infant or young child

2. You are an elderly person.

3. You have a weakened immune system.

If you don't meet one of those three (technically, four) criteria than the odds are in your favor that you will be okay. You don't need to hit the proverbial panic button. You don't need to do a clean sweep of everybody you know and make sure that everyone is just as freaked out as you are because what you saw on FOX news has made you certain that you will get the swine flu and die (For those of you who are more ignorant, Fox News is NOT to be taken seriously by anybody with the ability to cognitively assess logic and common sense)

Maybe you're reading this and thinking, "But Bryce... this is a pretty serious problem, people are dying." Let's look at the cold hard facts. The NUMBERS. In 2009 there have been a confirmed 5,382 deaths to the H1N1 Virus. Of those deaths, over 2600 have occurred in South America. 49 of those deaths have occurred in Canada. That's .09 percent, not even 1% of 2009 swine flu deaths have occurred in Canada. Total, there have been 89 Canadian fatalities to Swine Flu out of over 12,000 confirmed cases. That means, statistically, your odds of surviving the swine flu are pretty good.

Then you might go on to think "That's only a certain demographic (The only one that matters to me, technically, because I'm a Canadian) the U.S. is being hit pretty hard by the swine flu... so we should worry because they're worried" WRONG. Of nearly 59,000 confirmed cases of swine flu in the united states, there have only been just over 1,200 fatalities. I agree, that's nothing to ignore, but lets look at this from a different angle.

In South America, there has been over 2,600 fatalities from over 100,000 confirmed cases of swine flu. So that would extend that, if you live in South America, you might be more likely to get Swine Flu.

THE Flu (as in, the one we've always been worried about getting since the dawn of time) is responsible for 250,000 to 500,000 deaths annually (Roughly 20,000 or so Americans). That means, every year about a quarter of a million people DIE from THE FLU. Compare that to something else everyone worries about dieing from, Cancer, which kills about 550,000 people annually. That would mean, statistically speaking you're half as likely to die from the flu, as you are from cancer. (Only in the sense that Flu kills, from half to about as much people as cancer does every year. This doesn't really go in to consider that you're more likely to get The Flu than you are to get cancer.) The flu is the 7th leading cause of death according to the center of disease control.

So all I really want is for the world to take a deep breath and ask yourselves a few questions 1) Have you ever had the flu before. 2) Have you died from the flu? If you've answered no (and undoubtebly, you have if you're reading this.) than you really have nothing to worry about! Yes. The Swine Flu is sweeping across the world, yes, people are getting sick and furthermore a small percentage of those people are dying. THATS NO DIFFERENT FROM THE REGULAR FLU. Which, for some reason, has not incited world-wide panic even though it's got more than adequate enough of a resume for the job. Eat it: SARS, Antrax, Bird Flu(which I guess is the swine flu now isn't it?), Terrorism.

Do the resurch for yourselves, get the facts, inform yourselves. Don't just believe whatever the hell FOX news or CBC is feeding you because its skewed from the point of view of somebody who wants YOU to see it in a certain way. Not in a way that would allow you to think about this situation critically and logically as you should be allowed for it is only human nature. But from the point of view that would project your opinion in the direction that they want you to (aka: panic!) If its not inciting panic on a country or planet wide scale, than it's not news worthy.

Until next time that something incites me into a near undecipherable rage that I cannot seem to unattach myself from, or maybe even for once something cool, positive and maybe even (heaven forbid) happy...

PEACE!

Apparently dietary indescretion is grounds for hate crime

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... Has society become so overly-sensitive, or have I just become the worlds biggest douchebag? I am not a racist, I'm not a sexist, and I don't even like to believe that these ideologies exist. We live in a society that should be able to accept everyone regardless of their skin colour, sexual orientation or personal habits and sometimes I forget that not everybody is as open minded and 'loving' as I am. (I use the term loving, just because I don't actually love everyone. I hate people, but I hate biggot's and hypocrites too. So when it all boil's down, I treat everybody equally, and so should you.)

Reading about this today, has opened my flood gates of anger. Now, let me set the record straight right here. I don't hate fat people, I don't really have any preconceived opinions about fat people. I like to judge people right when I first meet them. If you leave a good first impression, I'll like you. If you set a poor one, chances are I will hate you. Its not that I won't ever come to like you, its just that first impressions are very important to me. Thats how I judge people. I don't look at someone and say "That guy probably loves fried chicken." because he's black or, "That woman is probably a terrible driver" because she's asian. Though we like to laugh at jokes depicting these situations. I don't push upon these preconceived notions into my daily thought train.

Fat people, pushing for 'equality' sorry. That's complete bullshit. I happen to be a very tall, very skinny person. I get made fun of for my size (or lack their of) all the time. Do I want to climb to the rooftops and start rallying all the pasta and sushi loving geeks to let the world know that WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS BULLSHIT ANY LONGER? Fuck no because I know how ridiculously stupid that sounds.

"Protesters want the UK to follow San Francisco, where a law bans "fat-ism" in housing and employment and stops doctors pressing patients to slim down."

Lets stop the crazy train for a moment and think about this. If your doctor is pressing for you to slim down. It's because you're in a position that your habits and lifestyle could END your life. In a less tactful style, you're so fat you're putting yourself in an unfavorable position. I get it, everyone makes fun of the fat people. But the fact of the matter is, its something you can CHANGE, something you have complete control over. You don't have to, but don't whine like a goddamn seven year old whenever somebody takes a jab at your waste size or eating habits.

Obesity is an EPIDEMIC in the united states. That means its a more serious problem than swine flu, the war on drugs or terrorism, yet nobody gives a shit about it. If you want to croak and have a heart attack because you can't get enough eclairs in your system or because you love to eat potato chips. That's not MY problem. I have enough common sense to realize that biology does not dictate that we are all born to be skinny and thin like the popular culture would like us to realize. There are more important things to worry about than your fat ass. What about all the hundreds of thousands of UNEMPLOYED, HOMELESS FAMILIES that aren't eating anything because they have nothing? Who gives a fuck about them, right? So long as you get to eat KFC whenever you fucking feel like it, as long as you can eat it without having to be hastled about being a fat ass, right?

Now, the few of you who actually read things through might be saying. "Well Bryce, the article is about people being discriminated against because of their size, its not about the fact that they don't like being called fat (Which they probably don't) its about the fact that the chances of them being hired for a job, for example, are being affected because they are fat.

"For instance, people in inner cities are much more likely to be overweight because of poorer education, poorer housing and poorer job opportunities. "Not everyone has a free choice about controlling their weight."

Okay let's stop right there for a second. Now fat people have no control over their size. Suggesting obesity is an epidemic, wouldn't be unlike suggesting it is a disease. Is physical activity too much for these people? I don't hate fat people but I fucking hate lazy people. If you're too lazy to get up off of the couch and go for a walk every day to help out your size and health than you will not get ANY sympathy from me.

And then there's this... Apparently the issue is big enough that somebody has taken the time to put together a very simple one page website outlining the problem of "fat-ism" without taking any time to put forth any kind of evidence for the case of fat-ism.

Fatism (n) -

1. Discrimination or prejudice based on a person's weight.

Fatist (n & adj) -

1. A a person with a prejudiced belief that one persons weight is superior to others.

2. based on intolerance to a person's weight.

(this is pretty much the only practical information on the fatism website)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the internet equivelant of me walking out onto the street and screaming and passers by that Stephen Harper is, in fact, a smarmy slimy worm and that I do not like him. The fact that the webpage for fat-ism has very little to do with the actual combat OF fat person suggests to me that someone very lazy made this web site. And then we spiral back to my previous argument. If you're Fat and willing to change, than I can support you. If you're fat and lazy and you want to continue to be fat and lazy without people bothering you, that's your right. Just don't cry when somebody takes a jab at you for diving into a burrito or buying a few value meals from the drive thru at a Wendys.

Further resurch into this development tells me that this is becoming a wide spread cultural problem. Give me a fucking break! Do I get to start parading around about the moron's from Fox News for pushing their anti-videogame propoganda to the moronic parents who buy into every little thing that they talk about on their news program? NO because I have the sense to realize I am only ONE person, and in our society there are much larger (heh), much more important problems to think about.

To shift gears for a moment. Maybe I am a "fatist" but I wouldn't discriminate against a fat person for being fat, am I the only one who sees how ridiculous this is. I guess that's my issue, the fact that being fat is considered discriminatory at all. And the fact that the fat people need to cry about it to the world because they feel slighted by the way society proposes one is to be acceptable is to be skinny and beautiful. Where are all the ugly people at? I'm sure they're being discriminated against too, right? Where's Steve Buschemi when you need him.


"we live in a culture where we obviously place a premium on fitness, and fitness has come to symbolize very important values in our culture, like hard work and discipline and ambition. Unfortunately, if a person is not thin, or is overweight or obese, then they must lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, etc., and as a result they get blamed and stigmatized."

This article suggests that biology is more responsible to size than we lay claim for. Something I've always believed, so finally the argument against 'fatism' has some thing to back it up. Just the fact that the fat people are feeling discriminated against to the point that they have to complain that its' anything close to racism or sexism is something I find a tad obtuse. I am being a fatist in saying that most of the fat people I know don't do anything to change the state their in. There's nothing scientific about that, they're just lazy. Go for a freaking walk. It's not about science and excersize, it's about being ACTIVE for christ sakes. I eat about as poorly, and as much, as some of the biggest people I know, and for the life of me I can't eclipse 180 pounds. That's biology at its finest right there folks. Could the fact that I walk damn near EVERYWHERE play part into that role? I'm willing to bet that it does. Don't blame the economy, and say there's more to it than that when there's not. When your rolls have rolls, it's no longer biological, its the fact that you do, in fact, have a problem!

In sum, because I don't care to talk about this "issue" anymore. I don't advocate 'fatism' but I don't really see it being portrayed as a legitimate issue until people start to present it more seriously. I found one practically informative article out of all the crap I read though, that's bullshit too. I just think that if people did a little less time complaining about whatever that is that bothers them be it discriminatory or, other. And a little more time taking steps to battle whatever it was that is slighting them whatsoever. Maybe the world would be a better place. There certainly would be a lot less of the pointless bullshit complaining that pisses me off, and that would be a great cause for celebration.

Until next time that I read something that sets off my spider-sense of bullshit that spawns an unorganized, but ultimately informative rant...

-PEACE

Seriously, fuck off with this bullshit!

*DISCLAIMER: I SWEAR IN THIS ENTRY, A-FUCKING-LOT. (Fair warning so you cant whine about it after reading it, I'm angry, get over it)*

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... You feel this pain, I'm sure. You just dished out a good 200-300 bucks on a shiny new iPod nano that has all the features your friends 'pods have and you now, feel technologically adequate right? Then you watch the commercial and see the NEW nano with its goddamn camera, and you look at yours and your world shrinks just a little bit? Maybe not, mine certainly doesn't but something comes to mind. Why the hell does technology have to keep moving forward like this, can't it just sit and breathe? Your iPod, or computer or Xbox or Playstation is all of a sudden inadequate. This rant isn't about iPods, but I felt it was a good place to start. This rant is about technology raping your wallet, and then all of a sudden what you just shelled out 600 dollars for is half that price. I'M LOOKING AT YOU PS3!

Down the grapevine I've heard that, if Gears of War 3 happens. It won't happen until Next Gen. NEXT GEN. Jesus christ we're just tapping into this gen. It's finally gotten to the point that the people who want this shit, the people who bust their asses 40 hours a week putting up with ridiculous bullshit for bullshit pay just to BUY the goddamn machine for the hundreds of dollars that it costs can actually afford to buy it and already we're talking about NEXT gen. Sony is already developing the PS4 and I'm sure Xbox is already in the works for their next doorstop, inadequately produced, 67% failure rate right out of the gate piece of crap.

I was lucky, I managed to score a 360 off of my friend, used, for a great price. With games, and an extra controller. (Luckily, just before he learned of the joys of Guitar Hero... so I lucked out pretty good) First run so it's currently one of the 34% that hasn't failed right out of the gate, and I consider my self VERY fortunate for this fact. I was already a couple years behind the 360 bandwagon and chances are there will only be a handful of years left in its cycle to begin with. This ENRAGES me. Why the hell do things have to move on so quickly. We're in the middle of a fucking recession and these companies think we can just pull hundreds of dollars out of our asses to entertain ourselves. The companies that make the games are either catching up to the current technology or planning ahead for what's to come? What the hell is that? When the gaming companies can't even take the time to make a proper game for the systems that are currently out because they just want to pump that bitch out and cash in on it. But that is a separate rant for a different day.

I think it's ridiculous that this kind of technology doesn't even have a lifespan of at least a decade, for the kind of money people spend on it (thousands of dollars by the end of it if you add up all the games and controllers and other this and that's that comes with buying a machine that is capable of what these machines are) you would expect that your investment would be worth it, and last. Not to just fail with a fucking red-ring-of-death after a couple of weeks with a warranty that only lasts a year (or three, after outcry forced Microsoft to extend their goddamn warranty) I'm sorry but if I'm paying more than 400 bucks for a fucking box. That shit should be guaranteed for LIFE. Not a year or two, that's BULLSHIT.

Look at the Xbox/PS2. PS2 was introduced in 2000, but by 2007, it was obsolete as the PS3 was being introduced. Unlike Microsoft however, sony still puts games out for the PS2, so I guess you don't have to consider it obsolete but it's certainly more than pointless to buy one. Its pedigree speaks for itself though as it is the highest selling console of all time, having sold over 145 million units. The Xbox, in comparison, was released in 2001 and the 360 was ushered in rather infamously in 2005. That's a 4 year life span for the Xbox and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they continue to make games for original Xbox. It's safe to consider it obsolete. This is typical Microsoft as PC's seem to become obsolete mere months after one another (not Microsoft's fault but I'm playing the blame game here). However, the quality of the 360 was not really assured until their "360 elite" was released with the championing game of the system, Halo 3.

So lets look at it like this, the elite was released in 2007, so a reliable 360 has only existed for a couple of years. I only shudder to think how many people who already payed 400-500 bucks for an xbox pumped out MORE money to buy a 360 elite. These people easily payed more than a thousand dollars just for the bloody BOX. And I wonder just how many of these there were out there. And it's safe to say that they will not even have a good 5 years to enjoy their 360. Their 600+ dollar base investment, pretty much down the drain as soon as Microsoft decides to unveil their newest cash cow, most likely to co-inside with the PS4 whenever it is released. The next gen (I hate that we're already considering that) wait let me take a step back. What will we even call the 'next' gen. THIS gen is "Next Gen". So what will the actual next gen be? Its inevitable, and it will no doubt, be expensive as fuck.

In sum, It just really pisses me off that not just myself but gamers everywhere are basically having their wallets continuously raped. Look at Games Workshop and their "Warhammer" games. I, personally, cannot attest to this but they're vagrant offenders of this as well. I've seen many of my friends continually throw hundreds upon hundreds of dollars at this game just to keep up. Where is the pay-off. When do you draw a line? I suppose, if they keep buying it you have the right to charge whatever you want. But at some point, there has to be a consensus of "okay, fuck you, we're not paying this, for this bullshit."

How long is the next gen going to last? A few years, before buzz of the "Playstation 5's" are coming about and companies are boasting that their highly successful game's sequel won't be available until THAT system comes out. Why don't we reach the potential of what's already out there. Make the most out of what's present in front of us before we worry about the NEXT GENERATION. Let's run this course for all its worth and when there's nothing left, and gaming as an industry begins to stagnate. (Oh wait, too late, games are already stagnating... again, another rant for another day) THEN lets move forward to the next generation and higher possibilities. Technology can continue to grow, but how is this consumerism we all know and love supposed to thrive when the consumers can't even keep up.

Anyway, a little food for thought. Maybe I'll have something more important and focused to say next time but until then...

PEACE

An unorganized update about change.

Usually I've got a focus, a vision, and I try to avoid the 'today I had a shower and I tried this awesome new shampoo' rout of blogging so many enjoy to entertain but consider today's entry a 'update' because I'm not angry at the moment and I don't have anything particular to say. There's just a lot to talk about. Why haven't I really bothered to speak my mind lately? Let's just say I was getting to know the BC Bud... ANYWAY

First off: I moved from Nelson and I don't think I could be any happier about it. Moving there seemed like a stoners dream, a hippy culture, a town trapped in a time warp. What more could a young hipster like myself ask for right? WRONG. The lazy 'entitled' citizens of that town slowly began to alienate me. Feeling like you're one of the few people you know that just puts in an honest days work can be a tad frustrating day in and day out and by the time I got out of there I was glad to be out.

Now I live in Nova Scotia, I find myself on the other side of the country in a region dominated by maple trees and Tim Horton's. When I left B.C. I left it in the wake of Gordon Campbell somehow getting another term as the provincial Premier, on the cusp of ushering in an Harmonized Sales Tax, a tax that Nova Scotia enjoys. Good or bad? I don't know. I just know I hate Gordon Campbell and I'm very relieved I don't have to waste time and energy projecting my hate toward him in a very 'force-like' dictate hoping that maybe, just maybe, I could maybe strangle him with my mind or something. You know, Darth Vader style.

As the fog of THC clears my mind I begin to see things more clearly, think with just a little more fire and passion and feel certain joys coming back to me. The flip side of things is I cannot sedate my frustrations with a toke anymore, at least for now. I see it as a good thing, I'm reading a lot more, writing a lot more. I feel clearer, and honestly I couldn't thank it more because I've needed it for a long time and I knew that as long as I lived in Nelson I would not get it. I can't watch the news because guaranteed I will see something that, if I were in the right frame of mind, would inspire a very aggravated rant on this here website for all of you to read. So hopefully I'll start to utilize my little frustration outlet a little more often as well.

Things are different here in Nova Scotia, people smile and ask you how you are as you pass them on the street as opposed to glaring at you scathingly or asking for any spare change you might have. People are joyous, polite, courteous, they think! B.C's a depressing state, and it single handedly fueled every ounce of my fleeting 'Canadianism' as I've more and more found myself inclined to call this country I live in "America Jr." Things are not like that over here and for that I'm thankful. I see the maple trees that line my yard. The giant war monuments just beside my house and that gleaming national symbol. That red and white flag waving mightily in the wind and in my soul I feel that perhaps this is more like Canada than anywhere else I've ever been, and Tim Horton's is actually good... something I never imagined to think possible.

Change is imminent for me and its for the better. I find myself in a not dissimilar position to when I first arrived in Nelson. Things were optimistic, everything seemed like it was within my grasp. I hadn't quite found a job closing in on three weeks of residency and that wears on my mind but I know that I will gain employment, even if I have to swallow a bit of pride and look for yet another kitchen related job that I don't want. Maybe like when I applied at Thor's Pizza, I will find a job that offered friends and people that I won't forget, and relationships that I hope to continue on for the rest of my life.

Ignatieff is on the cusp of triggering yet ANOTHER election. I was practically screaming for the Liberals to push anyone to the front other than Stephane "shrugged shoulders" Dion but I'm not convinced, this could be due to the Conservatives rather effective attack strategies. Harper's smarmy as fuck and I still don't like him, but to be honest I don't see any change on the horizon

as far as the political forefront is concerned. If it were up to me, I'd cram Ignatieff, Harper and Layton into the Magic 8 Ball that is Canadian Politic's, shake it up, and spit out three new candidates. If these morons haven't realized after two very close elections that Canada doesn't really want any of them. A third will not change that. Ignatieff is not the "Obama" of Canada. If you asked me. I would want someone who bled Red and White and Maple Syrup. Who stood up for Canada and what it was. Who would not just bend over to wipe the ass of the americans whenever their furrowed brow was pointed at our direction. In effect, someone who was not America's Bitch. But I'm not convinced that day will ever come, Political ENDRANT.

I sit here with the future a complete blank slate and I'm excited to start making something of it. School isn't outside of the conclusions I could jump to though it's not quite in the cards just yet. At the very least, I need to get my drivers license first and well it's a hell of a lot easier to get one of those in Nova Scotia than it is in British Columbia. I want to start writing more, something a bit more focused than random moments in my notebook, which, Brad and Michelle if you happen to read this, I'm almost finished. I've got so many ideas and a lot of passion to keep my hobby going, I just need to channel my focus to see whatever I chose to push toward the end. I've got story ideas I've left floundering and betrayed, others that I've been building in the hope that enough preparation may help my efforts once the actual 'writing' process begins. When it comes to me and writing, I can hardly make my mind up and my ADHD is just as evident with it as it is anything else in my life. But I've proven myself to myself in the past and its time to do that again.

Everything is open, and this is the first time in my life I've honestly felt like I could do anything I set my mind to. Hopefully this will open a more optimistic page in my life's grand book. But I've never banked too much in hope, or faith. I've only ever really put stock in myself and so far I've done pretty good. Until next time, I promise I'll be spitting bile and taking names next time when I don't quite feel inside my own mind.

PEACE!