Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Went for Bus and Boat tour around city, and saw the islands from the boat. Apparently the city concealed the “clothing optional” beach with weeping willows. One bus the mic didn’t work so they used a megaphone. The guide was at high risk of overhead cable-neck damage.

Went to fringe show called “Big Sexy” with Kelly and Tracy, and had a sub after, similar to lunch. Ate lunch on campus in sci-library cafe which was probably on low gear for the Summer. Got some free Internet time to check the forecast, and hopped on the bus again.

Met CC, Buckets, and some other bloggers and a podcaster after supper. www.godlessradio.ca is the podcast. Bought CC a beer on College St. near the CFI.

Got a free Viva ticket on the way home, woo hoo, and got to bed by 1:00AMish after an evening walk/jog.

I didn’t post a Day 2, yet.
Canada Day, I hung out with Kelly and Tracy downtown. We had middle eastern lunch, did some window shopping, strolled through the Eaton Centre, and down some trendy and cultural streets. The weather was perfect because I brought an umbrella. I left the XO at home base today, it would have broken my back. I left a little room to pick up a book and some trinkets. I’ll probably do more shopping tomorrow after meeting with some bloggers at the CBC. If you want to join the tiny group, leave a comment or email to get the details.

We’re headed to the beach to look at the Ontario Place fireworks. There was a stage off Dundas Square that had entertainment. OP is run by the province, so the city couldn’t cancel it because of the garbage strike. Most people I’ve talked to are not in favour of this strike, they don’t feel employees paid by taxes should have the right to strike or ask for pay better than non-unionized workers.

It’s hard to act globally, unless you go to a standard grocery store, and then you’re a global actor in many ways. So to act locally, grow a garden, and support your local farmers’ market. The Rurban Fringe has challenged me and you to the 100 mile diet. For you metric people out there like me, that’s the 160.9344 km Diet.

- One of two chokecherries I planted that actually took off and produce fruit now.

I don’t know if I’m up to being really strict with how far my farm food comes from, because I could probably get 200km beef, and still be doing better than by buying at Extra Foods or Sobeys. And it would take a long time for an apple tree I plant now to bear fruit, and I don’t know even if there are local orchards for that sort of thing here. Creativity would help, and I don’t know how much additional energy I have for that this year.

–

And while you’re eating better, you might even reduce the likelihood that you’ll end up on this wall of cancer survivors and those who didn’t make it.

Astronauts like to take pictures, and they go onto the Internet. I like the Internet.

A cupola is going onto the ISS too.

–
Hat tip to Space Weather

==

The garbage (and other services) strike in Toronto looks to me as if it will go on for some time. The city can’t help but to be arrogant, when there are so many clueless taxpayers (I was going to write “citizens”, but many probably wouldn’t qualify in the sense that they contribute positively to the country) complaining about unions on newspaper comment sections. The profound ignorance and greed is tough to bear. They propose things that are illegal, and frankly stupid.

The steady stream of negative comments come from people claiming not to belong to a union, and they make less money and have fewer benefits than the city workers they see as beneath them. Go figure eh? And unions aren’t good because they give their members better benefits and wages, and protection from employers who are abusive?

These people feel so strongly that the city is trying to cheat them and beat them down, that they are going WITHOUT PAY to protest and protect collective bargaining and the spirit of democracy. Sure, they could just quit and get other jobs, but then they leave one of the clueless commenters at the Star to get hired and stepped on by a declining salary and benefit package. So the complainers may get just what they want… a city without unions, and lower paying jobs for city workers, and they’ll get those jobs. Goody for them!

The last notice of Conservaspam I sent out on my blog came from the Liberal Party of Canada. Yes, Huffb1 spotted that bit of trash in his mailbox. Well this time the Conservatives have taken the lead again in the slimeball activity of spending your tax money on political propaganda. The latest accuses Michael Ignatieff of wanting to raise taxes.

MP Ray Boughen is the latest Conservative to have shame brought to his name by unethically, and quite possibly illegally, mailing propaganda into Ralph Goodale’s Wascana riding. The mailing also refers to the ridiculous “Just Visiting” ad campaign they wasted their money on (let’s hope the Conservatives spent their money, and not ours). Then it has a lazily edited fake ballot asking “Who is on track to keep taxes low?” It’s lazy because they replaced Dion’s name with Ignatieff’s, and didn’t alphabetize it like before.

And what’s most frustrating about this kind of ad, besides everything else I’ve listed so far, is that it should be a crime to tax the future as badly as the Conservatives do (and have historically). If taxes are being kept artificially low now, it only stands to reason that the only people who can pay the bill, will be people of the future (AKA children). The Conservatives’ infrastructure deficit will be paid by future generations, and so too will the growing debt. You can’t bill the past, but you can sure bill the future. And Conservatives, and their Liberal enablers, are chewing up the hopes of high future living standards, and are bragging about it in the mail — using your money.

Also, about 90% of these junk mails were tossed out in the bin under the mailboxes in my building. They are only making printing companies richer, and anyone who reads them and believes them… dumber. Dumb, just how Conservatives like their voters I suppose.

Here’s one of Regina’s many artists’ websites. This kind of art I really like to see on buildings, although I find them too bright for indoors.

–

ADDED: This photo project in North Central sounds interesting too.

It is apparently not a joke this time. The king of pop has passed away.

The controversial pop star almost went to jail for alleged molestation of children at his theme park. He was also famous for his health problems. Now he’ll be plastered all over CNN for the next week because he encountered the ultimate health problem: death.

Other than that, he seemed to have his heart in the right place and inspired millions. Weird Al of course was inspired by his music too.

–

Apparently Farrah Fawcett has also passed away from her cancer.

–

I wrote about this in part because Google loves taking random searchers to blogs to read news about people who have died.

–

Theories on Friday that Fawcett’s family is glad to have a “bigger” celebrity die at same time to spare them some of the media spotlight.

Also, MJ has faked his death to make the “comeback tour” an even bigger comeback. Hasn’t been this big for 2000 years.

I think it’s cool that owl vomit is teaching us about the animals around us. Sometimes a good ol’ puking is just what the doctor ordered after consuming something that should not be digested. Owls know that better than most animals.