Our on the streets issue has no photo this issue! We WANT YOU to send us an interesting photo, along the lines of something we would publish, in this one time only reader submission. Why not?
Issue 14, Volume 1
Thursday, October 13, 2011
24 Minutes
This week I thought I'd challenge myself. Having a lot to put together for the metal issue, and a short time, it's still in the making. Instead of not doing anything, I thought I would write and put together a new issue the simple way - the way I would just write my thoughts down before I decide to have so many different sections. The time frame? Twenty-four minutes while I wait for my GT-5 upldate to complete. Here are the issues.
Change - And A Government, what that means?
Obviously one of the largest topics that doesn't include a knife, unless you're talking about a proverbial backstabbing one, is the discussion of 'Change' and a proposed provincial election. Already the Wild Rose Alliance is dissing Redford for not calling an election, and not making $110 million worth of school funding reversals happen. This I'm glad about, because that's impossible.
Change is thrown around at every election. But what can we expect from politicians? Can we expect change at all? Politicians are people who win, or are appointed to, their jobs. They then go in to work like every other person on this planet, and I'm sure a lot of them phone it in. If they really wanted to change things, we probably wouldn't have things like recessions. It is because they change things we have some sort of liability to the way things were. Most changes for the positive in good economic times turn out to be changes that screw us over in bad economic times. Take healthcare for instance. Tommy Douglas was a man that inspired change. Universal healthcare was great. The problem is it's a huge liability when it comes down to affording it during times when Canadians are out of work and have to draw assistance rather than give it.
There's also the hero/villain boom/bust cycle. See, any politician that is in power when the economy takes off and times are good for everyone looks like a hero. Be a politician during a time of recession, and even if you keep your province out of it (Alberta did the best of any province by the way, and if Canada did the best of any country through a recession than we obviously did pretty good - but we still had it hard) you're on the losing end. Any politician elected now is going to probably look like hell, and then not so bad, as their term extends out of a recession into somewhat of an economic recovery. It's like they're doing things, but really, they're not. It's the economy all along.
No One Wants To Hear About Your Cats
This isn't true. Sometimes we want to hear about your cats, but only in a very amusing sense, especially if it's followed by video of your cat doing something hilarious. Occasionally hearing about your cats is okay, given it's not the primary thing you want to focus on. So here's a guide about status updates:
-Don't talk about your fucking cats
-Don't talk about your religion or what you're doing with it
-Don't talk about your kids
-Don't talk about your divorce and/or child custody battles
-Don't talk about someone else's divorce
-Don't repeat the same type of post over and over again. For example, if you're a programmer, it's okay to talk about programming every once in a while, especially since your other programmer friends will get it (OMG PROGRAMMERS HAVE FRIENDS) kidding, of course. But if every post comes out to be something like "I spent all this time today reformatting my SQL to fit my DEV framework only to have by debug line code //you are not here and then I freaked out //RETURN and found out the database wasn't what we needed anyway. Or whatever.
-Facebook has this annoying deal of doing this thing where if you comment on someone's photo that has 'friends of friends' security clearance on it, I get to see it it my news feed, even though I don't know the person. I haven't decided if this is good or bad, because I've seen some fairly bizarre, and funny stuff of people I don't know at all. Have not seen nipples. So I guess it's bad.
-Don't write cryptic shit people don't get, because it's frustrating.
Here's a good rule of thumb: if it's none of your business, or if it's none of anyone else's business, or people wouldn't want it to be their business, then don't post it. If you got into an accident, are sharing an amusing link, especially SMBC comics, then it's all good.
INSTALLING
(this means I have some time left)
Idiocy in Idealism
I'm not going to comment on the occupy/99% thing here, this is fairly interesting, but I think it's hypocritical. I'm sure most of these people, given the chance to be in the 1% would. I'm not sure what they expect to happen either. A redistribution of wealth? Okay then. There is likely someone poorer than you too, so how about we make everyone in the 50%, including them, and use your 85% to get them there? I'm not specifically against this movement, I just get that this is part of the recession, and there are some economic changes that need to be made - like bailout packages. Back in the day, if something went bankrupt, it went bankrupt. You don't see Packards or AMC cars on the road. The idea is, in competitive markets, this should be great for competitors. That or people will want to get out of that market, because no one is buying what you're selling. Either way, it used to be the natural cycle of things. The problem is we let companies get way too huge, and form cartels, monopolies, and tacitly collude so they can screw us over. One company might have so many subsidiaries, that letting it die would put a ton of people out of work. It should have never been allowed to get that big in the first place.
Here's some other idealist isms that are driving me nuts right now:
Story of the Mermaid or the Whale
You've heard this one, where the gym says you want to be a mermaid or a whale, and the parable ends with it saying women want to be whales because their excess weight is love and experience. I have no idea how so many people thought this was a beautiful story and bought into it. What you need to do is let your body weight and idealism be about you when it comes to this type of thing. Carrying a lot of excess body weight (may not but) could mean that you are at risk of hypertension, diabetes, and a slow and paintful death So how about instead of thinking about being a mermaid or a whale, and if it means you're a mom, or have experience, or love to give, why not think about how you can be in a shape that allows you to be a strong, independent, loving woman for longer, and feel better about it.
Out Of Time
Letters To The Editor
rbw2@ualberta.ca
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