sick of electioneering

i haven't been watching as much news as usual the last few days. it's pretty depressing right now, what with the constant threats of elections and the cloud of gomery hanging over ottawa like a senators' playoffs stinkfest (thankfully we've been spared that this year).

i'm sick of it. sick of the bickering, sick of the media attention given to the bickering, and sick of the potential bickering fallout, the threat of another string of years of ineffective (more than usual) governance and the guarantee that real news will be given a back seat to political posturing for the forseeable future. yesterday stephen harper slipped to a new low in suggesting that the liberals were pushing back a non-confidence vote just to see if the health of two conservative mps would turn for the worse. of course this was for naught as the conservatives flew in the members while the liberals let their ace in the hole (who was resting up from his cancer treatment and couldn't attend) remain in treatment and continue to wait for a by-election in a riding they are somewhat guaranteed to win. there was little sense that the conservatives would wait for those two problems to rectify themselves, but that didn't stop harper from sticking his foot so far into his mouth he was tasting knee.

not that the liberals (in their current reincarnation) are blameless amidst this disgusting affair. i blame them most for missing ve day - that was a national disgrace without precedent. as obvious a ploy to demonize the opposition by positing that they would call a vote while the prime minister was across the pond recognizing the sacrifices made by canadian soldiers 60 years ago, i was surprised the opposition didn't raise more criticism, or make their own efforts to get their collective asses overseas.

it appears that the canadian public is shedding the liberals like a winter parka - it's spring and the suffocating stench of smugness has become too much. but no one is running into the arms of the conservatives, with good cause. they are a rudderless craft, still trying to iron out the lumps of a union that was both cryptic and fragile. cryptic because at the time the differences between the two parties seemed monumental, especially given their unique and quite distinct histories, and fragile because of the infighting and general feeling of loss by the members of the conservative old guard. harper has been acting like a power hungry henchman the past few months, spewing forth venom as if it had political wings, chewing up the scenery in his brooding suits and plastic hair. i have yet to hear anything resembling policy escape his lips since the last election, except when he giddily announced that the liberal budget of 2005 was a conservative budget. of course this glee lasted all of a few days before the general malaise of parliament hill rolled back into ottawa.

the only person coming out of this mess in a positive light is jack layton who has made the only constructive efforts to keep parliament going and produce something for the past 10 months of bickering. jack has even kept his smugness to a minimum, a feat of monumental effort that appears to have wrangled a number of dissatisfied liberals his way. this of course is merely speculative as the polls could shift back in favour of the liberals once conservative and bloc gains scare the canadian populace into believing that we're headed toward a conservative majority. expect to see a few more ndp come to ottawa in the next election but don't bet the house on a flood. depending on the make-up of the support we might just see a stronger liberal / ndp union next time we go to the polls if the liberal support bleeds orange. of course i'm still holding out for a green or two to make it in, especially in vote rich b.c., but i won't be holding my breath.

cultural difference as defined by grocery carts

at the no frills yesterday, waiting in line behind someone with an obvious lack of education on healthy eating (cart overflowing with food so manufactured it was the quasi-culinary equivalent of michael jackson's nose) and i got to thinking about my time in ecuador. the check-out lines in most of the country are about a foot narrower than the lanes in canada while the carts are perhaps an inch or two wider. this means that there is a constant battle to get the round peg in the square hole syndrome as people rear up to make an effort at the cash but have to resign themselves than they're not gonna fit, no way, no how. so carts are casually flung aside, directed toward people waiting in other lines or simply steered into the void, sent careening in the direction of cereal displays or sample wranglers (my term). it's somewhat fun to cast your cart aside when you reach the till, let the people behind steer it away like some wonderfully obtuse game of pass the buck. the thinking is that some employee, usually an acned male teen will tackle the carts before they do damage or create metal beaver dams to flood the front of the store with impatient customers. and you do see these employees roaming about, sometimes ripping the cart from the hands of someone who has recently emptied their catch at the cash and maneuvering it toward a cache of other carts waiting nearby.

i guess they are trying to avoid anyone stealing the carts, and given that labour costs are so low they can afford to hire a few extra hands to help people get their bags to their cars. i find it silly though because they simply load up the bags on other carts (double knotted bags - they tie your groceries off) and wheel the whole mess to your car, a process that could easily have taken place with the original cart had it been designed to fit through the cash area.

extended big country mega mix

i love multi-tasking. it's really amazing that microsoft has not incorporated tabbed browsing in explorer - what are these people on? they're so behind the curve now they deserve italics - they're so behind it's silly. google main on auto update lets me know if there are any bites on the job front - i got a curt but cordial reply to my inquiry yesterday saying that they will be contacting shortly those lucky few who have a shot for the position so that means i'm still in it. and therefore, because i'm using the oh so sexy firefox browser i can see if there are new emails by simply gazing northward because the tab will refresh and read 'inbox 1' if anything comes along. and yes, i am aware that i could have the same update goodness in explorer by looking southward but really i have so many tabs open at the moment (just because i can!) that they would all be compressed into one laddered tab that would say something along the lines of 'microsoft internet explorer (5)' or something and require extra button pressing just to find out the same information.

part of my multi-tasking binge is the use of shareaza - a bunch of my cds never made it to ecuador and therefore i'm a little short on the musical side of things. i did recently purchase the new ben folds, a wonderfully subtle take on the early bf3 stuff with lots of piano drums and bass, but it's the older stuff that i miss, especially in the wake of that cbc show last year - 50 tracks that woefully overlooked some of the most innovative and memorable songs of my cancon cannon. among the many with the most impact upon me were the incredibly catchy 'things i do for money' by the northern pikes and 'she's so young' by the pursuit of happiness. so i snapped the both of them off the hard drives of other afficianados and stumbled across a few other older jems that had slipped my mind. one of which prompted the title of this entry - big country's odd titled 'living in a big country', but it was some extendaplay version that added annoying ruffles, bells and whistles to the otherwise perfect slice of 80s musical one hit wonderness.

so today i will continue to plod forth on the newspaper article - it's a concise and disappointing two paragraphs at the moment (those were hard fought paragraphs too...), and make an effort to pick up some food for the household as we're dangerously low on provisions. christine also seems to go through cottage cheese like it was logic to stephen harper's spastic conservative reasoning.

living here in london has made me think about a few things going on in kingston recently. the whig is gaga over the john labatt centre and it's impact - both positive and negative - in london and the potential parallels that may form once the untitled (probably springer something or other) kingston arena finally breaks ground. the thing is that london is in the midst of a lengthy and very expensive revamp of the entire downtown area, a main part of which (but definitely not entirely made up of) is their spanking new arena. there are also a new library and convention centre, not to forget the sparkling newish covered market (that sits across the street from the jlc). each of these is hoped to bring new life to a downtown that largely sits lonely on the curb, waiting for crowds. most people in london navigate the periphery, bypassing the downtown and venturing down only when necessary. the main east-west artery, dundas street, shuts down after 6 basically and becomes a dimly lit playground for the shadier element of the population. richmond is fairly thriving and appears to be a nice sister street to something along the lines of bank in ottawa, packed with trendy bars and boutiques, but it doesn't act as much of a funnel to the other, more distressed parts of downtown. and even richmond could use some sprucing up, more streetscape upkeep and signage to make it a destination.

what i'm saying is that london is not a viable example in kingston's hunt for a new arena. the jlc has been wildly successful in luring people to events and most londoners i've talked to have been bullish in supporting it's being built but the conversation rarely ventures into financing or more controversial aspects of the construction. further i'm hard pressed to see any spill over effects on neighbouring streets (although i have heard that restaurants are enjoying the spoils) - and the arena is smack dab in the middle of a bunch of pubs and eateries - unlike the anglin bay proposal which is a good hike from princess st. it could also be that i'm used to a bustling downtown and can't imagine london's being all that worse when in fact it could have been a lot worse before the jlc was built.

i can somewhat understand kingston city council's decision to locate the arena on the bay - they are trying to expand downtown northward along wellington, to justify the north block study and create a magnet for this growth in the new arena. this would take pressure off of ontario st. and better allocate parking, but it appears to me to be a case of the chicken and the egg. it's the same situation with the lack of an overpass linking centennial drive while they continue to develop gardiner's road. we'll see.

putting together my post-ecuador life

it's officially a month since i got back to ontario leaving behind the mountains and smells of b.c. and hammering the final nail in the coffin of my internship in ecuador.

so far life has progressed at a rather leisurely pace since then - there has been progress on a few fronts - i managed to address my mom's landscaping needs by planting and manicuring some of the beds around the front and side of her house and i placed a few stones and things around for ambience... i also did some painting for my mom and sister (the fumes eventually made me a little iffy and gave me a dull headache-like dizzyness that was none too fun) and wrestled with my brother's newish (one year old) dog that is shaped like a sectional and produces enough dog saliva to irrigate saskatchewan. eventually i headed off to london (ontario) where christine is holed up in a charming little flat just to the west of downtown. i spend most of my time checking job sites and crafting emails or resumes or cover letters in the hopes of landing the big one.

it's may and there are a number of jobs out there but they're mostly directed at students and require that one is heading back to school in the fall. as i've already had one of these jobs anyway (kingston millenium - that's how they spell it - project, building a website and such *the project was called biotech kingston) and don't plan on returning to studies in the fall anyway i'm not suitable for such opportunities. what i'm thinking at the moment is that most available jobs in my field right now are dependent upon the funds offered up by the gov - why hire for keeps when you can float a summer position that's basically covered by a series of federal grants. that means that i'm in the lurch trying to plan my next move, trying to guess when the flood of these positions comes to a close and they begin with the real hiring of live bodies.

the position in ottawa with friends of the earth international is appearing to be a dead end but i am still clinging to hope. i sent out an email today, the one week anniversary of the closing date for applications, spelling out my skills and abilities and asking to be considered and hoping that they liked my resume blah, blah, blah... reading over the posting it does appear that i'd be a good fit with the group but i might not have the goods for an interview... we'll see.

i was going to phone them but they had gone out of their way to state that phone calls regarding the job were not appreciated so i typed up my missive instead. i fretted over the address at the beginning of the email, oscillating between hello and hi for a few minutes (i went with hi) - both seemed rather stiff but i wasn't about to go writing down dear or some kind of derivative... is there a protocol on that sort of thing?

so now i'm gonna get started (again) on a letter for a newspaper - probably the whig - detailing my experiences in ecuador and appealing for people to give CIDA internships a try. i was approached, electronically that is, by someone who's compiling different web journals or blogs by expats for a website. i told him i would love to have my site included in his listing and would provide any kind of info or help he needed to get the site up and running (should be good to go in about a month or so... i'll post the info here when it goes live).