Year-End Wish List

Here is my wish list:

1) Bring the troops home, now!
Warmongering and establishing Vichy governments is not really the Canadian way.

2) Immigration designed around extending family instead of economics. My priorities tend to arts, sports, family, and culture. Sorry to all you stock market freakezoids.

3) It's the Environment, stupid. I hear there is a good deal on picking up some heavy manufacturing facilities in Ontario. Some urban utility vehicles and wind turbines made in Canada might be nice. Gotta end NAFTA.

4) The coalition should demand proportional representation ... if nothing else.

5) An end to sexism in child custody ... that alone should eliminate the gender gap.

6) And, of course, a world blockade of Israel.

Happy New Year.

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Woken Up

I was woken up at 2:00 AM by city crews removing snow from the road under my bedroom window. Loud, repetitive, forthing and unforthing ... how can they clean up the city when they have to go back and forth so many times?

Eventually I gave up on trying to sleep. I went onto the little balcony in my shorts and watched them work. Then I said to myself, "why not make a little recording of their efforts?" So i did.

I really have no idea how to put a video on the internet. YouTube, maybe? Instead, I thought I'd make a little project of it. I made three movie files: a flash file, an MPEG file and a WMV file.

The flash file was 1.57 MB and crappy quality, so I deleted it.

The MPEG came out huge at 68 MB! A tad big. So I deleted it.

I made the WMV and it was a mere 18.8 MB for the 37.12 second clip. High Definition. 1280 x 720(30p).

Took a while to FTP it to the webserver. Here is the link: WOKEN UP.

I suppose now I should try to figure out how to make one of those cute little movie boxes where all one has to do is click the "play" button.

... update ... oooo, this is too easy ...



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Going for a run

A picture of Christina going for her daily run. Two days before X-mas with Cayenne (the dobie).



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New Glasses

Time for new glasses. The demands of acupuncture training have necessitated a pair of progressive-lens glasses. No more peering over or under the old frames. And Christina forbade me wearing my old-old pair of aviator style glasses even though they were progressive lenses.

Here is an animated gif of all three glasses. I rather like the new Lenon-esk frames.



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Ecological Footprint

I took another FOOTPRINT test. The last one I took was in 2005 and my score was 2.9. Or, we would need nearly three earths for the world to live as consumptively as I do. Well, x-mas 2009, my score with a more refined test was ... 3.18. I'm getting worse!

Ever play with a child's balloon, especially a longer one? Squeeze one end and the other gets fat. Always fun trying to prevent the non-squeezed end from expanding. That highly elaborate balloon analogy applies to the real world, too. It popped into my head as I read Capitalist Pig's ancient posting on footprints.

His posting was about ecological footprints or, alternatively, how much of the rest of the world do we have to suppress in order to maintain and improve our own standard of living. Socialist Swine (CapPigs counterpart) has to dominate 4.5 times his entitlement for the priviledge of living as he does. And I have to hog 200% more than is due to me. Plutocracy is so unbecoming and hypocritical.

Back to Balloon Theory: how does one make the sides more equalized?
Hint.

See how many earths it would take to sustain your lifestyle. My score in 2005 was:

Good thing the world has plenty of poor nations filled with poor people or we'd really be in a pickle.

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Summer of 2009

I have not made a Retreat posting in quite a while. This is the tentative plan for the summer construction season of 2009.



Yup, a garage with a storage loft. Initially to be used as a garage and storage structure but later to be turned into the power building. The power building to house batteries and electrical for the wind and solar components of the Retreat. We have water generation in the plans, too.


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Last of the X-Mas Shopping

The girls are finally back having finished the last of their x-mas shopping. Phew! The credit card strain will be severe this year, I'm sure. But sometimes these things simply have to be done. The next several years may be lean by comparison ... and I am not complaining. Perhaps nothing is better for the environment than a grand downsizing of the global economy as human-kind can't seem to get its global responsibilities in order of their own accord.



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In the Top 100

Hey, I'm in the top 100 herbal medicine blogs. Thank you Christina Laun. I was in the top 50 Alternative Medicine blogs just a little while ago. Maybe I should lobby for a new, and relevant, Canadian Blog Award category. Best Health?, no. Best Green?, hmm, maybe but who knows if I'll be Green next year what with all their warmongering and disrespectful (politician-like) ways. Best Always Right in the Long Run?, naw. How about Best Would Be Dictator of Canada? Closer. How about the Best Peace, Order and Good Government Blog? That sounds good.

Could expand on that; perhaps there should be a blog roll: no warmongers, no sexists and no political hacks. I smile ... that would narrow the field some, especially on the PB roll.

Every year it's the same thing ... sour grapes. Guess I'll just go play (the not so great) Call of Duty 5: World at War.

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Festive Dinner

Well, we had a bit of a festive family dinner at the Petroleum Club in Calgary last night. The talk may have touched upon the economy a bit. The concensus is that as long as we can keep on working then all will probably be well. Our business, Arcady Holistic, is a bit quiet now but that is expected for us this time of year what with the the winter weather, hideous Calgary traffic, and seasonal diversions. The economic adjustments necessitated by NAFTA and globalization probably will not affect us that much.



Still, I can't help but think about what could have been had we not sold our rights (under NAFTA) to employ our citizens productively. Maybe we would be producing some spiffy little urban utility vehicles, or even a wind turbine or two. Perhaps even evolving unique Canadian livable communities. But, no, vanilla culture is the order of the day.

I suppose the old free-trade saw of no government subsidy is passe now as all rich governments are doing it. Is that one of those do as I say things?

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Present Creep

There appears to be some serious present creep happening under the Christmas tree.



And there are a few more days yet to go. May be a motherload of an x-mas, this year.

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X-mas Concert

It has been a while since I have been to a Christmas concert. Anyone with kids knows how wonderful they truly are. Now I get to go to concerts to see Christina playing the fiddle. She picked up the instrument 10 weeks ago ... her very first instrument!




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Still alive

I am still alive. Not blogging because I am back in school. This is taking up most of my time ... and I continue to work part-time. It is all very, very difficult for an old fart like me.



I ride my bike to school, and back, each day.



Boy! Am I glad that we are now in x-mas break. The temperature is -32 C (without the wind chill factored in!).

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