Device-ive

I guess its better than banging junk, but the scope of the usage far outweighs the heroin problem.

WTF is wrong with you people? Are you so bereft of the ability to comprehend that a beautiful reality is happening around you right now in HiDef that you have to hide inside some digitally created falsehood that you long to call your life?

I don't care what you posted on Facebook, I don't care about your latest Tweet, and I don't even care if you care to read this post.

But I know you. I see you every day. And I do care about you.

So let me say this to you.

Real life is happening out there.

It is not happening in here, no matter what they try to tell you.

So stop reading this blog, De-Facebook and Un-Tweet.

And go fly a kite.

I mean that seriously. Go fly a kite, it will make you a great deal more happy than sharing your opinion about the latest Mad Men episode or Lady GaGa vid.

Better yet, go fly a kite with a friend.

Either way, each and every one of you should go fly a kite.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

Happy Turkey Day!

First of all Happy Thanksgiving Day to my American friends. But that is not quite what I meant by the headline. As of yesterday, I leave for Turkey in three weeks.

At least I hope to fly in to Istanbul. As of this writing my passport is in the hands of the Syrian government while I await the results of my visa application. I'm pretty sure that I will get my passport back, I'm a little less sure that my visa application will be accepted.

A Syrian visa application asks you to list a reference in Syria. It also states that the application must be filled out in full. It also asks you if you have ever been to "occupied Palestine". In most Arab countries, if you have an Israeli stamp on your passport you will be denied entry.

Also something that I have never encountered before on a visa application is a request for entry and exit points. I could not find the exact name of my border crossing from Antakya, Turkey to Aleppo, Syria, so I put down the route.

Even better, I did manage to figure out the name of my exit point from Syria to Lebanon: Mansaa. I was able to confirm this because a Lebanese soldier was shot there in a drive by shooting the other day.

And now on to Lebanon, where things get even better, with a big nod to Ironyman. Thanks to a rare fit of actual journalism, Lebanon "is on a knife edge", a "storm is brewing" and apparently the "country is holding its breath" as it awaits a UN report that indicts Hezbollah on the Hariri assasination.

Ironically, it is my own government sponsored news agency that released this story that set off a firestorm in the Middle East. It is a fine piece of journalism, even if it makes my itinerary problematic.

All I know at this point is that if I get my passport back, I will be landing in Istanbul on December 16th; and if I don't get my passport back, I won't.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

Suddenly 1994

Personally, I blame Pat Burns. I was already feeling very sad about the passing of the former Habs/Leafs/Bruins/Devils coach. I never met the man, but dang it, I liked the guy and his death sent me in to a fit of melancholy out of all proportion.

But apparently I did not understand the lesson, at first.

And thus it was that an envelope was proffered as I tended the bar. It had been kindly left by my ex wife, and contained photos of bygone days filled with bygone people.

Perfect, more melancholy, but then the lesson.

I wasn't mourning the loss of Pat Burns, I was mourning the loss of a time and a place in my own life. Mourning the fact that sometimes things don't work out as we planned, that we lose loved ones along the way, and that time is littered with squandered opportunities.

Partially I was mourning the fact that it is not 1994 anymore, but at the core of my lament, I was mourning the fact that with experience comes the forlorn ability to see the ever shrinking road ahead and to know it in the fullness of its own relentlessness.

Plus that was a total high stick by Gretzky on Gilmour in game seven.

Right coach?

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

Which Tribe, What Hate?

Before I start my rant, you should read the following link. Obviously this is a tragic story, and a decent man had his life taken away by an odious action in the heat of the moment by an unrepentant thug. His conduct is indefensible and if his sentence was doubled, I would not shed a single tear.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vancouver-gay-bashing-ruled-a-hate-crime/article1790162/

Nonetheless, I am horrified by a lot of comments regarding this story on major Canadian websites. Many of these comments pertaain to the fact that this "straight" man had no business being in a "gay" bar.


Jew, dyke, Muslim, fag, Christian, people of colour, LGBT or whatever stupid tribalism that you choose to subscribe to does nothing but divide humanity from itself and the comments regarding this heinous crime only served to divide us.

If a "straight" (yeah obviously the perp has issues) man has no business in a gay bar, then a "gay" man has no business in a straight bar? It is this kind of stupid tribalism that separates us from each other.

It has been said that the only people who can stop radical Muslims are moderate Muslims. I would say the same for the Gay community.

Last night as I sat in the office I watched two men avail themselves of the ladies washroom. They disappeared for at least five minutes. What they were doing, I know not.

But I do know that within a minute or two after they left, a young mother took her young daughter to the same bathroom.

Equality is a two way street.

Let us all wave our flags and pretend that our cheap tribalism is somehow a step forward.

Respect is earned, and not entitled.

I'm just happy that the adorable little girl was not subjected to what these two aging degenerate desperadoes might have been doing in the women's washroom.

Then again, to complain about such behaviour could lead me to the front of a Human Rights Commission.

And those in the "community" turn a blind eye to the conduct to a level that would make the Catholic Church blush.

We can bash priests, but fags are sacred.

It is well past the time that the LGBT community started policing itself. Sadly, petty tribalism will prevent this from happening, as the "community" looks away.

Surely, decency should enter the equation at some point, or is there some acceptance within 'the community" that a five year old girl going to the bathroom should be subjected to witnessing whatever it is that two fat aging desperate bears might be getting up to?

But hey, I'm a straight guy, so it is not really my business if two men want to go to a womens washroom within seconds of a five year old girl. To suggest otherwise might be perceived as a hate crime.

I care not about you, your perferences, your genitalia, or your beliefs. If two people love each other, then I care not one wit about whatever equipment they may have been born with. Nor do I care about anyones proclivities, other than my own and the person that I share my bed with.

But I do care about about that five year old girl and her right to be taken to the bathroom by her mother unfettered.

While I agree with Mr. Trudeau and his sentiment that "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation", I am equally certain that bartenders and bar owners have every right to know what is going in their washrooms.

Make no mistake, your blind willingness to subscribe to your tribe is the epitome of a step backwards that is only eclipsed by an ignorant willingness to accept unacceptable conduct based on sexual preference.

And this is a source of Pride?

http://www.goyestoeverything.com

Vehicle Owner

I actually meant to buy a bicycle, but I ended up owning a vehicle. But I am jumping ahead a bit here, and let this be a cautionary tale about wandering the internet unguided.

I cannot recall why I initially thought about exploring the idea of owning an ebike, but in hindsight I blame Hanoi.

By the time I reached Hanoi, I was starved for conversation. So I flagged a moto in the Old Quarter, hopped on board and off we went. My destination was a British style pub, a few blocks from my hotel.

After a few meters, I realised the thing uopon which I had hopped was electric.

Very cool and very slow on the hill. Mind you, we were carrying over 300lbs on an ebike with a maximum capacity of 250 lbs.

As the driver dropped me off, I looked at his ride and registered something. Something that rose to the surface about ten days ago. So now I own one of these

I didn't just buy an ebike, I bought the Cadillac Escalade of this genre.

Originally I deluded myself into thinking that I could drag this pig up the stairs, but I soon realised my quaint notions of a utopian bicycle would fade quickly, like Egorillas in the mist. The law classifies my vehicle as a bicycle, but it is a bicycle in name only.

And the Talking Head lyric "watch out, you might get what you're after" has been playing in my head for days.

And so it is that I did get what I'm after, and what I'm after does not require insurance, can be parked on a sidewalk, and driven in a bike lane.

An ebike is also universally hated by the police, motorists, and those lycra spandex clad traffic law breaking moralists known as the urban pedal set.

Throwing in the nonplussed reaction from a few friends only serves to cement the fact that I'm on the right track. Some people like change, but most people don't. Real change threatens deeply held beliefs.

Sure finding parking/storage is a problem, but it is a problem I solved. And with fuel costs under $50 per year, the lure of an ebike is hard to resist. Make no mistake, you will see more and more of these vehicles on the streets of Toronto and around the world.

So I'm gonna proudly drive my ebike around town come spring, and if you bleak dreary auto addicts don't like it, then too bad. And ditto for the lycra crowd.

I've seen the future of personal urban transport, and if you haven't, then that is your problem.

http://www.goyestoeverything.com