Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Hola!

Well, I got back from Mexico in one piece although I had a few life threatening scares along the way. I'm just at home right now, in good ol' Southey porkin up on turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes... you know, really cementing that metabolic syndrome that I started in Cancun.

I'm heading back to Saskatoon on the 27th where I'll post a bit more on my trip to Mexico, and maybe a picture or two. Then I'm off to Edmonton for a few days before hitting back to my internships... its amazing how easy it is to forget completely about school. Apparently I'm almost a pharmacist, who would've known?

Well, Merry Christmas to everyone and I'll post more later.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Feel the Sun

I know that all my readers out there have been desperately wishing that I'd talk more about my upcoming trip to Mexico... and you know how I aim to please.


So its three days until I leave to Cancun and I'm just finishing up with packing my stuff. I have my sunscreen, shorts and, well, thats about all I'll need all week. So while you are freezing your ass off in good ol' Saskatoon (actually it'll probably stay around plus one until the 23rd and then plummet back to -30), I'll be getting toasty down on the beach.


I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of myself and post those when I get back. But to give you a little taste, I found this picture on google.

I'll also leave you with this little link to The Weather Network so that you can keep yourself updated on what my days are like. http://http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cities/intl/Pages/MXXX0014.htm

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Caption Contest #3

Now I know these haven't been very popular thus far, but I continue to try, oh Lord I try.


Anyways, I'm posting this and I better get some responses or I 'll be forced to come up with something hilarious to say regarding the picture myself... and I'm not going to pretend thats mustard!

Plastique Monkey

Came across this site after reading about it in the Sheaf a while ago (yes, I read the Sheaf sometimes... I don't know why either... I know its stupid, get off my fucking back about it already).

Yes, she is knitting her muscles


anywho... here are but a sampling of the works of art posted on her site http://www.plastiquemonkey.com

She works and lives in Saskatoon, great city that it is. Check it out.

Careful with that vegetable peeler!

Canada Family Action Coalition

So this past week I've been emailing around. First, I emailed Mr. Brad Trost, my Conservative member of parliament. Although I voted for him in the last federal election I felt that he wasn't representing me via his voting record in the House. I have not received a reply from either email I sent. Fuck Him.


Anyways, today I was reading the Canada Family Action Coalition website, which is essentially a hate fuelled discrimination train. With blinders fully on they feel that by excluding gays from marriage, child raising and other equalities given to Canadians, that homosexuals will just 'go away'. Well, unfortunately it hasn't gone away yet and discrimination isn't a new technique... but I digress. So here's the email I wrote this biznitch.

"Ms. Gallagher (maggiecontact@yahoo.com):

I have just finisehd reading your article "The Message of Same Sex Marriage" (http://www.familyaction.org/Articles/issues/sexuality/same-sex-msg.htm ) and had a few thoughts on what you had written.

I wasn't surprised that this article continued upon the vein of children must be raised by two opposite sex parents in order to succeed in life. When "Matthew" stated that he knew people raised by same sex couples were well adjusted, that should have been a cue to say that loving parents who are committed to each other are what matters most to raising children. Divorce is more of a threat to marriage than gay couples, in my opinion and you should be writing an article denouncing 'shot gun' marriages'. Rushes to the alter before being in love is more devastating to a child who has to be raised in a resentful and loveless environment than having two mothers who have fought for years to be able to marry and went through a careful process to ensure they were ready for a child before they adopted one that was given away by careless straight couples.

Yes, your buildup is there in your argument, but I thinky ou have drawn a complete wrong conclusion. You should want gays to marry. It shows heterosexual people that marriage is important to children. Gays can and will continue to adopt, it is people like you who are keeping those children from having married parents. Also, allowing gays to marry creates a sense of concrete relationship that is ripe for raising children. Since gays cannot biologically have children they are great candidates for raising children available for adoption. Making it easier to adopt will help the children you seem to want to protect so badly.

You have a great writing style and I enjoyed reading the points you raised in your post. I firmly believe that you have taken a pessimistic view of this hot topic and lack the insight to see that granting rights to people and accepting them for who they are, allowing them to be part of mainstream society is a GOOD thing. If you would like to discuss this issue further, I'd love to engage in a well informed conversation. I am deeply interested in your opinions on this matter and what background you have that draws you to your conclusions.

Sincerely,
MIchael Stuber"

Feel free to read the linked article and email her if you like. I'll let ya know if she writes me back.

Friday, December 8, 2006

The dust has settled and Canada has decided to stick with allowing gays to marry. It seems like a big deal but the majority of people don't seem to care. Why should straight Canada care that gays have fought so long and hard for something that most people take for granted? Well marriage is just the icing on top of a long and difficult to swallow cake that has been eaten by a not so small minority of people in our culture - an at times invisible and beaten minority.

Lets take a brief overview of the gay rights movement as yours truly tends to understand it right now.

Gays have existed in human society for as long as human society has been around. Although the facts are murky, the oppression of gays is a relatively new occurence. After centuries, then, of oppression the homosexual population (estimated to be ~10-14% of a given population) began to fight back. Just as women were granted the right to vote, gays were on their way to not being sentenced to death for being what they were.

The gay rights movement began in the 1860's when German activist Karl Heinrich Ulrichs came out publicly and began publishing books on same sex love. In North America the women's suffrage movement and liberation activists were populated not only with women fed up with the status quo, but with lesbians who wanted to see change. This allowed a crack in the door to be opened for the broader gay rights movement in North America.

In the 1940's and 50's the gay rights movement became more public and organizations sprung up with members of the social elite, political and wealthy counted as members. Still, homosexuality remained illegal, with many jursidicitions punishing 'sodomy' with death, and gays themselves seen as mentally ill according to the American Psychiatric Association.

However the modern gay movement occurred in the 1960's with the free love movement that popularized activism for women, anti-Vietnam War and civil rights. The turning point is generally accepted to be the Stonewall Riots of 1969 in Greenwich Village, New York. The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar that was frequently raided (as were other gay bars) and patrons were arrested for being homosexual. However on one particular night the patrons resisted arrest and they fought back... for days. Soon after gay liberation groups popped up around the US and other Western nations to challenge the way homosexuals were seen by the rest of the population.

Gay rights have come a long way and unfortunately still have a long ways to go before it is accepted in today's society.


Anyways, that is a very, very brief overview of the gay rights movement as it stands today. It should stand as a hallmark, then that gays have achieved the right to marry someone who they truly love and are recognized as a couple, a family, just as anyone else would be. This is why the recent 'revisitation' of the 'gay marriage debate' is so important to not just gays but to Canadians. Canadians pride themselves on being multicultural. Culture isn't just defined as being Chinese, French, Ukrainian or First Nations... it isn't always about where you come from but who you associate with and with whom you feel at home. In this way there is a gay culture and Canada must recognize that the rights of this culture are every bit as important as the rights of Muslims or Christians.

So, thats the end of my rant... and I hope you actually read it, instead of skimming over for some crude joke involving cunts or abortions.

I leave you with a list of prominent gay historical figures so that you can see that human history has been contributed to by not only heterosexuals.

Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, Beethoven, Freddie Mercury.

There are, of course, many more, but the night is getting shorter and I need sleep. I'll probably put up another post on this topic soon, but I do have lots of filth in between. Thaks for reading!

Thursday, December 7, 2006

At the mall...

So there we were at the mall, stopping for a quick bite to eat from Taco Time before heading back into the fray to search for the perfect gift when all of a sudden we saw it. Well, actually, Lance saw it and hit me quite forcefully on the chest and pointed at the man in the corner of the food court. He was reading a book it appeared, but his back was to us and it was hard to discern. At first I was looking for something more... interesting, I guess, but Lance continued to point and I continued to stare at the man, eating alone.

After a few minutes he did what we were waiting for, he scratched his leg. Yes, he lifted up his pant leg and scratched a scab... picked it really. I know, its quite disgusting on its own... but wait, there's more.

HE ATE IT! He fucking ate his scab, in a crowded food court while people watched. I'm glad I ate before, although I just about threw it up right there.

Wherever you are scab man, I think you're disgusting.