Snowy Owls.

I've seen so many snowy owls this winter, more than I've ever seen before. If you just drive down the number one highway, you'll see them roosting on signs, fence posts, and poles.

The Conservative Myth

Ah yes, the good old "Conservatives are good fiscal managers" meme.

O RLY?

Stolen from Cathie.

Good Advice

NonStampCollector on the 10 Commandments

Why Twilight Sucks

This video is exactly what I have felt about the series from the beginning but couldn't quite articulate as thoroughly as Laci does here. I weep for all the young teen girls out there who read Twilight and think that Edward and Bella's creepily dysfunctional relationship represents ideal true love.

Climate Denial Crock of the Week

The Marketing Industry in a Nutshell

Not Surprising

Save the CBC - Sign the Petition

Fucking Depressing

And all Harper can do is sit there with his thumbs up his ass muttering about "ethical oil".

Straw Feminists

Yes.

Renewable Energy - Totally Possible and Absolutely Necessary

That's right. It isn't that hard.

And No matter what spin they try to put on it, the tar sands are not "ethical oil". They are a blight on this country and need to be stopped immediately.

Praire Music

I was at home last weekend and we had a nice bonfire and weenie roast. I stayed out afterward to watch the meteor shower, but unfortunately due to the full moon and some clouds, I didn't get to see any shooting stars. The coyotes were out though. Nothing makes the hair on your neck stand up like being alone in the dark on the prairie and hearing the coyotes howl.

Here's a video I took a couple of summers ago while hiking in the coulees at dusk. We had spotted a mama and her cubs earlier, and this was the sound of the mama telling her cubs to get a move on.

CWB Vote

Check out the Canadian Wheat Board Alliance. Show those bastards in Ottawa what you really think of their plans for us. Stephen Harper and his band of conservative yahoos don't give a good goddam about farmers. Don't let them fool you. As far as they're concerned, rural communities can just dry up and blow away. Makes it easier to get at the oil.

H/T to Impolitical.

Heatwave 2011

This is happening people. Whether you like it or not. It's amazing how well these idiots on the right, with their "deny, deny, deny" strategy have actually managed to persuade people, or at least seed doubt in people's minds, about the reality of global warming. I know very intelligent people who say they don't believe in global warming, or are "on the fence". And here's us with a stupid Conservative government that hasn't done a goddamn thing to address it, or any other environmental issue since they took office. They spend all their effort on campaigns about how wonderful the oil sands are. We are so fucking screwed.

I try hard not to show my disgust

I've been going to the gym a lot lately in an effort to lose some extra poundage, and by the gym, I mean Curves.

I have mixed feelings about Curves. On one hand, it's a good workout, and you know you're working all the major muscle areas, and you just go do it, you don't even have to think about it. Half an hour, and boom, you're done.

But, I hate the way they're constantly trying to get you to buy Curves crap. They've always got displays with bags, and nutritional supplements, and shirts, MY GOD, the shirts (how many workout shirts does one person need?), basically a whole bunch of crap which you MUST buy in order to lose weight! And I also hate the overly friendly staff who are always asking you how you are, and what are your plans for the weekend. Yes, there is nothing I like better than to divulge the intimate details of my life to a stranger while sweat drips off my forehead and I gasp for air. Strangely enough though, now that the staff know me, I don't get those questions anymore. They learn quickly. And then there's all the lame gimmicky games they try to encourage people to play. Wear purple socks on Monday, and you can enter to win a prize (which usually consists of leftover Curves merchandise which they couldn't unload on anyone). Oooh, yay. Sign me up.

But here's the thing. In addition to all the usual things that annoy me about Curves, I now have to deal with Sweaty Arms Lady (SAL).

SAL has unfortunately taken to coming at the same time as me. And when I say this Lady has sweaty arms, you have no idea. Her arms glisten in the fluorescent lights. I have seen rivulets of moisture coursing down over her elbows. I have never seen anything like it.

To her credit, she does haul around a towel with her and sometimes gives the machine a wipe when she's done. Unfortunately, on the two arm machines, you insert your arms between two round pads which are not made of easily wipeable vinyl, but instead are made of a spongy substance. This of course cannot be wiped off, and merely absorbs SAL's sweat, only to ooze it out later on whatever poor girl uses the machine after her (and probably anybody who uses it for the next hour... her arms are really sweaty). So I'm totally disgusted and I'm sure I cringe whenever I slip my arms in the the machine. I feel bad about it, because it's great she's working hard, but why her arms? I sweat too, but it's mostly confined to my forehead and between my shoulder blades and thus does not get on any of the machines.

So I'm not sure what to do. Due to their stupid hours, I can't really change my workout times, but I'm not sure how much longer I can keep doing this. Perhaps it's time to find an alternate venue.

Rap News on the Death of Osama bin Laden

"Osama clubbed to death by seals" - LMFAO

Damn you Firefox...

Why did you have to switch around the order of "Open in New Tab" and "Open in New Window"? Now I have to totally retrain myself! Gah!

Think Happy Thoughts

Well, that wasn't what I was hoping for. It was exactly what I was not hoping for. Sure the NDP are now the official opposition, but I'd have honestly rather had anything other than a Harper majority. If he'd had a minority, an NDP opposition could have been a wonderful thing. As it is, we've got four more years to look forward to of Stephen Harper riding roughshod over our parliamentary democracy, the rights of the Canadian people, and putting his ultra-conservative ideology ahead of all other considerations including common sense and common decency. I'm going to lay the blame squarely at the feet of hyper-partisan and/or right-leaning liberals who voted Conservative rather than see an NDP government. Well congrats peeps. You reap what you sow. I'm also going to lay some of the blame on Bob Rae. Ontario is the place where the Conservatives gained ground. They either held steady or lost seats everywhere else. I wonder why Ontario was so reluctant to vote NDP?

Oh well. I guess I'm going to try to spend the next four years meticulously documenting every travesty committed by the Conservatives. I think the list will be a long one. In the meantime, here is a video of my kitty to cheer you up. He always cheers me up.

Cool Tools

Here's some good tools for the folks who are voting strategically:

How did your neighbourhood vote in 2008? - an overlay of 2008 election results not just by riding, but by polling station on a google map. Interesting to find out how your neighbourhood leans politically.

Project Democracy - It's all well and good to vote strategically based on the 2008 results, but what if the current polls mean that another candidate would be better to vote for? This site's your answer. Seat projections in every riding based on the available polls and the suggestion for which progressive candidate you should vote for in order to stop the Cons.

Happy voting everyone.