Hamilton, as a whole, has a pretty shitty reputation in the Greater Toronto area. If I had to compare it to a city, I'd say it's a Canadian Philly. Not as built-up, though, but the same idea: steel town with crime issues and infrastructure that hasn't been touched since the 60's. There's two areas, essentially- Down the Mountain, and On the Mountain. The city is split in two, with the better parts of town up on the Niagara Escarpment, and the pollution and poor folk down below. My buddy just moved to Hamilton, and he did not move into the nice section.

So I spent yesterday cleaning out the basement of this low-rise that my hombre became the super of. He's doing his best to make it seem like a decent place for people to live- most of the crackheads are gone now, and there's a decent set of doors on the place. However, all the mailboxes are jimmied open and there's plenty of vandalism and old shit to deal with. He might be offering me subcontract work to help him.

So, anyways, to get to the point of this story, me and him and his woman were sitting outside the building after excavating the boiler room (who keeps 130 burnt out halogen bulbs?). She had bought some beer for us, and we were relaxing in the afternoon sun. So I'm looking around the 'hood. It's not nice...but I can see the argument for it 'just being old'. So I'm sitting there and I start looking around. Well what do you know...next building over has three apartments with the windows covered. Not blinds-covered, but cardboard and tinfoil. Then we started finding the stem pipes.

Stay classy, Hamilton. By the end of the day, we had found kitchen knives stashed all over, dime baggies, stem pipes, actual pipes, at least three Improvised Bong Mk Is, and a box of 8-tracks. I have to continue helping moving them in on Monday, but yeah. I'm starting to really wish I could carry, because it's not an area I'd want to be out after dark in. So all you Americans, give your pieces a little extra CLP tonight. Not all of us are so lucky as to be able to have tools for self defense on our persons.

Des

Atlas Shrugged (but only out of indifference)

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." -seen on ZS

Honestly, I tried. I tried to like Ayn Rand. I like her ideals, but like Heinlein, she is a much better essayist than fiction author. Nothing against Heinlein, but his stories were as much oratories as anything else. It was so brutal, I just couldn't keep reading it. The closest I've come to finishing the titular book is beating Bioshock twice.

At least Bioshock is fun.

Deschain

And now what?

Well. I've been punting my resume all over, but it's like dropping it into a black hole. So I'm working out now, more than just the odd jog. I mean, I might as well get healthy, right? So I've been talking to folks, and I've gone over to the dark side.

Supplements.

No, not the illegal kind. A monster multivitamin laced with MSM and glucosamine for my joints, mostly. Like always, I'm using science to help me along. My main goal right now is to lose little baby Johnnie Walker. Yeah, I've got enough gut to warrant a name for it. And, when you think about it, all that shit around my middle is what, 30 pounds? More? That's like wearing a full-to-the-tits battle rattle everywhere. No wonder I'm so slack. So I'm chipping away at it with two runs a day and swimming every other day. I figure, might as well do something constructive with my time right now.

Deschain

Drop in the Bucket

I was reading Scumfuck in Babylon, and I was thinking...the modern household is a drop in the pollution bucket. You can live the maximum-green lifestyle, off the grid, etc. but in the end, it's not going to be the average consumer that makes a difference. Combined, even- you take every household in America, in Canada, etc. and add it all together, and their combined waste and pollution, and you have like five days of operation of China's industrial sector.

That's it.

Seen the Yangtze lately? It looks like a post-apocalyptic nightmare! Beijing has worse air quality than Cairo. I'm not saying don't go green; I'm saying that if you're expecting serious results, what environmentalists SHOULD be doing is not buying products from companies that base production in China and India and other places where pollution laws are so lax. They should be drawing attention to ship-breaking in India, the rivers of China, things like that.

Wait, no, no one cares.

Industry is killing the planet. Maybe it's already mortally wounded. While self-reliance and stuff helps, does it help enough? Christ, I don't know. I'm still of the mindset that it's all coming to an end sometime. A new Dark Age, maybe.

Deschain

Finally!

Well, I'm done school, at last. I'll be posting more that I'm done, between working out and looking for a career (as compared to a job). If I haven't found one by September...well, I have to seriously consider going back to the army. My buddy wants to change regiments, and wants to take me with him. It honestly sounds like a decent go, but yeah.

We'll see how everything goes.

Des

Role Models

This man is brilliant. Period. You know what? I think that in addition to lack of cause, kids these days simply don't have role models. Who do they look up to? Is it Fitty, or Doc Tyson? Is it Weezy, or Rodger Young? You got no cause, you got no role models, you got a life as a cog in a corporate machine to look forwards to...well, why am I not surprised then that young people look to protest leaders and Greenpeace idiots for leadership? It's not like there's a ton of people presented to them. Ask a high school student if there's bee any Medal of Honour winners in the last ten years, and odds are the question you get back is "What's a Medal of Honour?"

Shit in, shit out.

Deschain

PS- Oi! You! Get back to work on Last Call, Last Stand! It's the best thing I've read since Neuromancer!

Kyrgyzstan In The News

Once again, Kyrgyzstan is in the news. You have to admit- when you hear about revolutionary activity, you think of the French rising up against autocrats, not people rising up over utility bills. But, apparently, that's what it's come up. Only a couple of years ago the current president rode a coup into power, and now he's being chased out again. Depending on who you believe, either the government is crumbling due to massive police casualties and the death of the Interior Minister, or there's a brutal crackdown occurring where endless waves of protesters are being mowed down in the streets. It could be both, it could be neither. Still bears watching.

Des

Further Rumination Has Revealed...

Opportunity.

Me and a classmate were considering establishing a consultant business in the Emergency Management field. Part of it is, as always, putting yourself in the right place at the right time. Certain markets are ripe for consultant work. This province is not one of them- private buildings are running to the McDonald's version of EM- security companies using students for 13$/hr, working them to the bone till they quit, or tossing them once the flow of contracts (necessitated by changes in legislation) dries up.

Like any good capitalist, the wheels are turning in my head. I mean, sure, they're helped along by an energy drink and a healthy dose of slivovitz, but the wheels are a turnin'. I can feel the Great Chain of Industry in my hands, almost.

I think anyone who reads this blog would do themselves a favour if they played Bioshock awhile. How's Mr. Ryan put it?

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

Deschain