February 24, 2011

In an effort to have an adventure during “spring break” here in Canada, it was decided that cross country skiing and sleeping in a wood stove-heated ski shack away from civilization would be the way to do it. 

Erin and I drove the smart car to Duck Mountain, 4 hours from Saskatoon on the provincial border of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and parked in the Batka Lake parking lot at the ski trail head. We then each hoisted 35 lb. of gear onto our backs and cross country skied 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) into the woods to the Moose Lake Ski Shelter, where we slept for 2 nights.

We skied 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) on our second day there, then chopped wood for 1.5 hours before it got dark. I had called the park office at 9 am (Right when they opened) to request that somebody bring wood out, because we’d be sleeping there that night and were low on wood. So 20 KM of skiing later, we get back and find no new wood. I was….frustrated by this . I called them and find out that nobody would be bringing us wood and that they recommend either skiing out or getting to work on collecting whatever we could find.

So I found a dead tree and chopped it down with an axe. Then I dragged it over to the cabin    0.2 KM away and sawed it up with a pocket chain saw into logs, and then split each log into quarters that would fit inside the wood burning stove. Erin also gathered extra logs kindling to use. The pocket chainsaw is amazing, but exhausting. it’s basically a chainsaw chain that you connect to little handles on each side. We both were tired out by using it after a full day of skiing, so we traded back and forth with the saw. In order to use it, I had to prop up the wood on the stairs, put the chain underneath it and work it back and forth cutting from bottom to top. We’re talking a 9 inch across piece of wood that I cut through with this pocket chainsaw. the chop down, dragging, cutting, and splitting of this tree and the other gathered wood took 1.5 hours. It was good that we got back to the cabin with lots of daylight. 

If purchasing a pocket chainsaw interests you, and I HIGHLY recommend it after this situation, check it out at: http://www.epcamps.com/Pocket_Chain_Saw.html

So our 3rd day, we packed up our gear and skied the 5 km back to the parking lot, and found a dead car. The cold had sapped all energy. We then got out the cell phone to call Canadian Automotive Association (like AAA in the USA), and found a dead cell phone battery. We then walked over to the main road to Duck Mountain ski hill or back to the park office. Our choices consisted of either an 8 KM (5 miles) walk to the ski hill or about 5 km (3.1 miles) to the main road and then another 3 km (1.8 miles) to the park office. We elected to walk to the ski hill and hopefully catch a ride. I made a bet with Erin that we would walk the entire 8 kilometers without seeing a single car, and that if I were right, she’d have to buy all you can eat sushi at New Island Sushi in Saskatoon. Agreeing on the bet, we set off. 

It was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) outside, but sunny. However, over every hill, the wind hit us hard in the face. It was, in my opinion, somewhat miserable and I remember saying, at the height of my frustration, “I hope the Christians are wrong about this concept of heaven and hell, because I will undoubtedly be back on this road, walking for all of eternity, because surely I am hellbound,” or something equally hyperbolic.

Onward through boreal forest, up hills, down hills, around corners, NO CARS or signs of humanity. 

7 km into the 8 km walk, a car pulls up and drives us the rest of the way. I lost the bet and owe Erin an all you can eat sushi dinner, which we are going for tonight.

At the ski hill, the tow driver from Kamsack (20 kilometers from the ski hill) refused to drive out to help us because we weren’t at the car, and he’d have to go way past the car to pick us up. He also made excuses about not being able to tow a smart car, etc. The staff at the ski hill had some entertaining comments about the tow driver, and mostly made their derogatory comments because he was “not from around here.” It was still funny, and the guy did abandon us for his own laziness. In the end, two guys drove from Canora, 62 km away, to help us. 

It took us an hour to charge the car battery because it was so incredibly frozen. We finally got the car started and it took 20 minutes until it sounded like normal because the oil was so sludgy and the battery was so dead. 

We got out of the woods at 11 am and didn’t get on the road until 4:30 or so. It was a roughly 5 hour “adventure” from the end of skiing to actually driving the car off the parking lot, with 8 kilometers of walking, 3 hours of waiting (and eating hamburgers), and then an hour to get the car going.

It was rewarding, educational, frustrating at times, pretty fun, but I have, indeed, declared today, “a day of rest.” I believe it is deserved.  

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September 19, 2010
Big Announcement

Like John Stewart & Stephen Colbert, I am promising to announce a big announcement. I assure you that the announcement will be followed by awesomeness in so many ways. 

Can you handle an announcement to make an announcement of this magnitude? 

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March 26, 2010
This is History

I’m reading excerpts from a book entitled “The Cultural Resistance Reader” edited by a guy named Duncombe. In the introduction, he speaks of how people can create their own forms of culture. His was getting into the subculture of punk rock, starting a band. He says that, “punk was a great tool for articulating the problems of my world, and providing a supportive culture where I could develop that critique.” 

Reading along further, it appears that his problems and my problems were quite similar, namely suburban boredom, being corralled into school, being forced into situations that our parents deemed were “in our own good.” We were looking for something controversial. Punk rock opened my life up to create something that was mine instead of having my parents tell me what I was going to do.

When I discovered punk at age 12 or so with Green Day, then Pennywise, then Nofx, I was hooked. I was bored with being shuttled to sports, school, boy scouts, etc. I needed some meaning put into my life that only I could provide. I needed something that nobody else could help with. It had to be up to me and my friends.

A few of my friends were also feeling destined for nothing and took up the cause with me. We felt so controlled, corralled like cattle. We would trade CD’s and tapes back and forth and all of our parents hated it, but some were cooler with it than others. Mine were decent about it for sure, but goodness gracious a few of the parents hated the fact that we wanted green hair or shirts with dogs shitting out a bands logo across the front (that would be the Vandals). They didn’t get what happened to their little angels, so they tried to control us more, which only widened the distance growing between mothers/fathers and sons. Having our parents hate our music only made it that much sexier to us. 

When I tracked down a $50 drum kit and Derrick got his hands on a Fender Squier, we became determined to start a band influenced by NOFX, Blink 182, the Vandals, Pennywise, Bad Religion, whoever! As long as it was fast, loud, and beckoned the youth, they had us by the throats. 

The band set up shop in the backroom of my basement with me on vocals, Derrick on guitar, Ryan on bass, Kevin on drums, and Craig on second guitar. I’d say this line up lasted a few months, before John worked his way into our lives on bass and vocals.

I had been practicing drums every day instead of doing homework. I got better at the double time punk beat with the speedy bass pedal work. We booted Kevin and I sat in on drums and the band became a trio called ’ No Comment’ which paid homage to our suggested apathy toward the institutionalized lives that had been cast upon us like a fishing net.

We learned some tunes and recorded a 10-song cassette, which I still have. Since we were 13 or 14 year olds with no money, we had to do everything ourselves, including recording. Our method was genius. Our buddy Spencer would hold up a microphone, which fed into the tape deck of my dad’s 1970’s technics stereo set-up. We had Chris draw up some artwork, then dubbed 40 copies or something of that cassette, and then we sold them for like $3 a piece at our school. We were the band at the school.

We would play shows anywhere. My yard, church’s, the school, clubs, theaters, anywhere really. We would drive to out of town shows in Illinois or outside of St. Louis in John’s little diesel Ford Ranger with the camper shell. We loved every second of it.

This band was us making our own little slice of expressive culture. We eventually made a CD in an actual “studio” (some dude’s basement) and then jerry-rigged some photo-copied artwork and sold them as a full length. It was great!

The band broke up, but I still talk to those dudes. It’s amazing how much that culture still affects my life. I still listen to the music because it speaks to me just like it always has. It challenges me to hear the problems in the world and to look at issues. It’s so incredibly important to me, even 14 years after I first heard my first punk songs.

This is my culture. This is my history.  This is my life. 

5:47pm  |   URL: http://tumblr.com/Z_1eUySLuKU
March 19, 2010
Change is Always Needed

Change is Always Needed In Saskatoon, we cyclists are lucky to have the things that we have. There seem to be lots of people who ride their bikes and I consistently see bikes chained up at many of the racks around town. We also have a good network of bike paths and lanes to use. Despite the things that we have, we need to keep fighting for an expansion of safety measures. For one, safety education could be a solution to protecting our cycling population. Most people who regularly ride a bicycle haven’t been educated in the ways of properly and legally navigating a city by bike. Dangers, such as being hit by an opening car door, riding against the direction of traffic, or running red lights, are issues that endanger cyclists to a great degree, but many of them don’t realize it. The University of North Carolina conducted a safety research project on cycling and found that “as many as a third of all bike accidents involved simply riding against the flow of traffic” (Mapes, p. 198). Motorists don’t expect to see a cyclist coming from their right and often don’t look that direction, except to glance for a person coming off the sidewalk. I shudder when I see a person on a bike riding against the flow of traffic. During my many rides around Saskatoon, London, St. Louis, Columbia, Hawaii, and other places, I’ve noticed that, although cycling lanes exist in many places, they are often too filled with debris, and other hazardous waste, for a cyclist to safely navigate without the threat of a flat tire or other bicycle damage. The photographs included in this section show hazards in designated cycle lanes, such as parked vans, dirt, and even rocks as large as my hand. In September, I was amazed at how hazardous the cycle lanes around Saskatoon were, so I wrote a letter to the City Council asking them to make regular cycle lane clearance a priority for the road crews. They responded that they would discuss it at their next meeting in NOVEMBER, two months later. I wrote them back and informed them that this was unacceptable because we would likely have a foot of snow on the ground by then, which would make clearing bike lanes of gravel, glass, and other debris pointless. I never heard another response. In our schools, we have courses that teach young people how to be safe drivers, yet countless 16-19 year olds get into accidents and endanger others. When I was in my driving education class, a mere comment was made for me to watch out for cyclists. It wasn’t until I actually started cycling that I realized how important it is for drivers to see us as legitimate users of the road and to be patient with our presence on our self-propelled, two-wheeled machines. David Glowacz, the education director of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, has written a safety course curriculum for bicyclists. I wonder how many of our youth in the coming generations could be turned onto riding their bikes again. We need to make them feel safe and give them the training necessary. We know that many people would cycle to work if only they didn’t feel as if they were taking their lives into their hands everyday when they rode. The U.S. Surgeon General published a report on physical activity in 1996, which stated that “53 percent of people who had cycled in the previous year said they would commute to work by bike if they could do so on ‘safe, separated designated paths’” (Mapes, p. 196). The logic behind this is simple: “motorists have their space, pedestrians have their space on the sidewalk, and cyclists need their space too” (p. 197). A government that truly looks out for the interests of their citizens in this world will heed the call of helping to make their cities as safe for cyclists as possible. Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Portland, New York, Paris, and Vancouver are cities leading the charge for mass-cycling. Our world is changing and “the bike offers a non-polluting, non-congesting, physically active form of transportation…in a world that increasingly seems to need such options” (Mapes. P. 13)

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(Notes: 1)
  
March 16, 2010
Lost in (Our) Translation

In today’s modern society, it is so difficult to maintain a way of life that isn’t, in some way, attached to the ways of the industrialized western world. One way is valued and one way is not. Our schools are set up in the way of valued western cultures and ways of knowing. Our “schools tend to teach us that any knowledge you can’t write down or externally record in some way is ‘low status knowledge’” (P. 293). 

If a family or a community wish to live off the land and reject the western world, then there is little hope of ever entering it because the knowledge that is possessed by these people (self-sustainability, hunting, growing one’s own food, knowledge of land under foot) is not what is valued in today’s economic capitalistic society.

When we learn about regions of land around the world, we are learning in the words of the (usually) white scholars who traveled to a place, wrote things down from their perspective, in their language, and took it back to the western world to share. I have no doubt about these scholars passion for the places and things that they study, but their words will not accurately capture the knowledge of the land that an indigenous population would hold. Living on a piece of land of thousands of years creates a bond with the land that is unmatched because they were on this land, grew up on that piece of land, farmed that land, and know every little nuance of nature in the surrounding biome. These nuances cannot be captured and translated into English or German or French.

If I think of the place that I grew up, I feel as if I know barely anything at all, despite spending 18 years living on the same piece of land. I know that our “lot” was 1/6 of an acre, that it was divided into a parcel of ownership (a concept regarded as absurd by indigenous peoples), and that it backed up to a man-made storm water run-off. There was a remnant of the wooded land that used to inhabit the area that began after the storm water run-off. The wooded land was probably 400 meters across to the houses on the other side, which were clear as day in the winter months when there weren’t any leaves. Having this wooded land behind our house,however small, was considered a major luxury! Other than these trivial observations, I recall pretty much nothing of any deeper connection to the land I grew up on. I know nothing because I never thought to ask. Even if I did want to ask, who would I go to? The Rawles Development Corporation, the company who tore out the trees and put in the streets and houses?

Languages around the world are dying. The speech of indigenous populations around the world are going extinct just like our polar bears. Rasmussen compares this language extinction to “watching someone set fire to half the world’s libraries” (p. 286). One percent of the human race speaks 50-60% of all languages spoken by humans. These populations are the one’s constantly being assimilated, marginalized, “civilized,” and subsequently destroyed.

If these cultures are destroyed, then how will we learn all that there is to learn about the land that these populations inhabit? We will send our scientists there, they will learn what they believe to be relevant, and then it will be written and published. Knowledge is not easily translated from an indigenous language to one of the ten dominant languages, so why should we bother? We won’t get the translation right anyway, so let’s teach these poor bastards English or French or Spanish and THEN they can tell us what they know about their ancestral homeland.

Too bad it will all be lost in translation. 

Citation

Rassmussen, D., & Akulukjuk, T. (2009). “My father was told to talk to the environment first before anything else;” Arctic environmental education in the language of the land. In M. McKenzie, P. Hart, H. Bai, & B. Jickling (Eds.), Fields of green: Restorying culture, environment, and education (pp. 285-298). Creskill, NJ: Hampton.

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March 5, 2010
Thus far…

I’m making ecologically-friendly changes in my life.  Here is what I have done concluded or done thus far:

1. Only ride in a vehicle if there is at least 2 people in the vehicle.

2. If I need to get somewhere, only ride my bike or walk

3. never take plastic bags from the grocery store (including produce tear-away bags)

4. do not turn on lights in my house during daylight hours

5. Compact Fluorescent bulbs in all light fixtures

6. do not eat any meals from restaurants that require disposable packaging (Burger King, Taco Bell, etc……sniff…taco bell.) and don’t buy any beverages in plastic bottles or paper cups. Bring re-usable cup for coffee!

7. recycle EVERYTHING that can be recycled. No more throwing out that small cardboard packaging that contained my kraft macaroni and cheese snack

8. encourage the household to try and lower the heat a few degrees :)

9. purchase little to no new consumer goods. I’m currently on the look out for used stereo speakers

10. any new items that need to be purchased (shoes are coming up) need to be made by ethical treatment of human labor. Simple shoes and American Apparel T-shirts are pretty solid companies.

I’m making small progress.

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(Notes: 2)
  
February 23, 2010
Jesus Saves, Gretzky Scores!

The Question:

Do you agree: “Individuals have become more and not less aware of themselves as critical agents through the process and practices of late modern consumption?” (Bennett, p. 56)

I partially agree and disagree. I agree in the fact that there exists such a great amount of competition that you will almost always get either a) great bang for your buck, b) a morally sound product, or c) all of the above if you take the time to pick the product that is right for you and make informed choices. So many options abound that you can be the most critical consumer ever if you want! You can research companies that are morally sound and then you can purchase accordingly, even though most of us don’t and couldn’t care less that the Nike t-shirts we buy for $20 from the Nike Factory Outlet was made by a person who was paid $0.05 in Nicaragua. But hey, WE got a great deal, right?

A really difficult thing to watch is the mindless purchasing of goods on Black Friday or leading up to the Christmas season (tickle-me Elmo, Nintendo 64, etc.) just because it’s NEW or it’s 60% off! Guess what! The companies who are selling these goods are banking on the fact that you will buy something that you don’t really want or need because they have convinced you that you DO, in fact, need it. It’s sick brainwashing really. And those of you who are convinced that the 60% off on your new digital camera is a good deal should take a moment to consider that the company is STILL, oftentimes making a profit from the sale of this product. They sure as hell aren’t losing money, because the object of a publicly traded company is to make profit for their shareholders. So, even though you think 60% off is a good deal, the company is still profiting, which makes you wonder why the price was raised 60% in the first place.

Don’t even get me started on advertising that sells directly to children who then effectively nag their parents until the parents grow so irritated and tired that they give in and buy their kids a plastic, piece of worthless shit that will get discarded in a week when the kid gets bored with it. I did it, you did it, we all did it. If I ever have kids, I will seriously consider having no television for several years.

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(Notes: 1)
  
February 21, 2010
Culture

Recently, I was asked to define culture for a course, to which I responded that culture is the relation of a group or groups of people through common interests and other areas of relation, such as religion, ethnicity, gender or location. In my spur of the moment definition, I decided that culture is simply “people who share a common interest, which might include one or more of countless possible ideas or interests.” People who are Catholic could share a culture, people who are obsessed with Star Wars share a culture, people who work in libraries share a culture, and people who love punk rock music share a culture. The list goes on. Upon reflection, I would have to say that everything in the world is tied to one or more cultures in one way or another. Every type of tree, body of water, book, ideology, tool, language, skin colour, or sport is cultural. It’s limitless, as Raymond Williams explains when he says that “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” (Williams, 1976, p. 87). The definition of culture, as with art, music, politics, religion, etc. is constantly evolving before our very eyes. There exist many stereotypes and beliefs about the American culture that I come from, but I’m almost certain that stereotypes exist for most cultures. I’ve heard the terms obese, boisterous, mass-consumption, “McDonaldization,” fuel guzzling, wasteful, flag-waving, gun toting, and war-mongering all used to describe Americans. Some parts of my culture I will defend and others I will not defend. The views of the world regarding the United States have been changing for some time now. In the past, I would worry about what people would think of me upon learning I was American. I no longer worry. I have heard so many people say, “Oh, I love American people, but your government is crazy!” I could only have a laugh, and then tell them that I am not defined by my nationality and hope that they don’t judge me so. Like those who are critical of the United States, I believe that the government that represents the American culture is not acting in the best interests of the world’s population or the planet and I believe that the government that represents my culture is a selfish and greedy corporate structure that puts on the façade of representing the population. I believe it is a farce and is quickly turning into an international joke and the citizens are paying the price across the world for the poor representation that they have elected. The people were afraid and people who are afraid are easy to control. We Americans are fed up though, as shown by a recent poll that shows 86% of Americans believing the government of America to be divided, reckless, and broken, with 5% saying the damage is irreparable (Survey: Most Americans Believe Government Broken, 2010). Options exist for different ways to live. The North American culture largely emphasizes the purchase and consumption of goods and services for personal happiness and to keep the economy operating at constant profit. I was led to believe from a young age that possessions and what you have defines your level of happiness. That’s what television taught me. If I ever have children, I don’t even want a TV in the house. I feel that my culture led my astray and for years I felt that spending money was going to be the means and method to reach the ends of happiness. It’s easy for me to say we need to move away from “valorizing the desire to obtain and consume objects of pleasure” in an attempt to find happiness in this world, but there are so many people to support and so many necessary jobs that I lack suggestions or solutions (Sandlin & McLaren, p. 14). However, in spite of all the negativity of war and brainwashed, reflexive consumerism, I find many things to be inherently beautiful about where I come from. The population of the country is so diverse and represented among world ethnic groups that to say “I am an American” means something so much different than to say “I am Chinese” or “I am Turkish.” I have ancestry that has been traced to Germany, Belgium, France, England, and Ireland. When I go to those countries I feel twinges of pride. Another thing that I love about America is the sheer generosity of so many of its people. This is not to say it is more or less generous than anywhere else in the world, but to me, a defining characteristic is the way many communities band together to help out those who need extra help, such as fundraising for operations, but not having enough health insurance, or helping to rebuild neighborhoods after natural disasters. I see all of this beauty in the people and it pains me that we don’t have the government of Norway or France, which are well known for their national health care, maternity support, family programs, and less-demanding work schedules. What is even worse is when I hear horrible news channels insult other countries, such as France or Canada, governments and know that Americans believe what they’re being told. We’ve got a great culture of caring and diverse people, but that generosity is stifled by the powers that that wish to continue being in control. I compare my lived experiences through reflection of the idealized America of my youth and the America that I currently see unfolding before me. When the middle and lower classes of America band together and decide they won’t take it anymore, it will be a new day and era in America.

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February 8, 2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

So this song is called Foozball and it is played by a little band called The Shorties. It was recorded in the balmy month of June, 1998. I’m on drums, Derrick is on guitar and John is on bass and vocals. We were dedicated rippers, that’s for sure.

We couldn’t play to the metronome so Derrick said to me “Just play as fast as you can and we’ll keep up.”

So that’s what I did. Enjoy the magical musical stylings of my band from 12 years ago.

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February 4, 2010
Aude Sapere

Kant sees modernism as “a way out.” He wants to know if today is different than yesterday. In whose opinion is it different? Maybe someone had a death in the family yesterday and today is, in fact, the dawn of a new era. For most people, it’s only a Thursday.

He also posits the “way out” as ” a process that releases us from the status of immaturity,” which is a “certain state of our will which makes us accept someone else’s authority to lead us in areas where reason is called for.”

Have we escaped our immaturity today, when we were unable yesterday? Or were we able yesterday, but CHOSE not to gain maturity? We choose those who lead us, but is the way they choose representative?

I keep hearing the mantra that “the government should fear the people,” but I see apathy across much of the population which is perpetuated by fear. They keep us afraid so that we are easier to control, and when we are docile and easy to control, we remain in a state of immaturity.

A place where reason is called for.

When did we lose our own ability to choose our ways of reason and why did we give our reasoning decisions to billionaire’s and millionaire’s who have their hands in so many pockets of other billionaire’s and millionaire’s?

If we must give our reasoning abilities to anyone, why can’t we give it to each other? Well, because it will descend into full blow anarchy until someone comes out on top, that’s why. That’s what competition does and it’s survival of the fittest here people!

We so often make decisions to let somebody take over and then we give up because our job at the polling station is done! We have not gained maturity in this instance.

Kant proposes that our task of enlightenment is an obligation and that we can only get there by ourselves.

Aude Sapere: Dare to Know. Stand up and have the courage to truly know.

They should be afraid of us, not the other way around. We don’t have to swallow what they regurgitate into our open, infant mouths.

The people can follow the government idly, but this should only happen if the government uses universal reason in it’s decision making.

Universal does not mean at the expense of the poor for the financial benefit of the rich. There are a lot more poor than rich and we should hold the fat asses of politicians to the fire to ensure that universal application of decision making.

That is when we shall truly be enlightened and achieve modernity.

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