Earth Hour 2008 - Think Globally, Act Globally

So it's officially one month until the world turns off its lights for 1 hour in awareness for energy consumption and global warming. I first heard about this amazing event in December. Last year, Sydney Australia turned off all unnecessary lighting and appliances (homes, office buildings, commercial buildings, billboards, etc.) for one hour. The energy and carbon emissions saved from that one hour was equivalent to taking thousands of cars off the road for one day. This year, cities from all over the world, including 35 alone in Canada (Canada is, so far, the country with the largest amount of confirmed cities), will be participating on March 29th, 2008, by turning out all unnecessary lighting and appliances for one hour, between 8 and 9 pm.

Of course there will be the skeptics and nay-sayers that will quickly jump on the idea and try to slit its throat. Yes , I understand that one hour can hardly change the world and stop the negative effects of global warming. But the event is about awareness, to make each and everyone of us understand just how much wasted energy we consume each and every day which is completely unnecessary. I am confident that every step taken to raise awareness will drive the point home to the extent where it can no longer be ignored.

Once you know something you can't un-know it. You can just chose to be ignorant and part of the problem. Or you can do something about it.

Many cities across the world are organizing public events for Earth Hour. Here in Toronto, Nathan Phillip Square will be hosting an event. I urge everyone to participate and spread the word to others.

For more information, please go to:
www.earthhour.org
www.wwf.com

Divine Inspiration of a Drunken Dead Man

I was walking home from work and realized the night sky was overwhelmingly beautiful. Last night's clear skies made for a perfect view of the lunar eclipse, and tonight the full moon shone brighter than I think I've ever seen it, encompassed on each side by Saturn and the brightest star in the Leo constellation.

As I was walking, I realized that in winter, the clearest most beautiful nights are often the most frigid. Something to ponder...

I was also reminded strangely of my favourite poem, by my favourite poet, Irish Romantic Thomas Moore. I thought I would share his words on this crisp and cold winter's night.

OH! think not my spirits are always as light,

And as free from a pang as they seem to you now,

Nor expect that the heart-beaming smile of to-night

Will return with to-morrow to brighten my brow.

No: -- life is a waste of wearisome hours,

Which seldom the rose of enjoyment adorns;

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers,

Is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.

But send round the bowl, and be happy awhile --

May we never meet worse, in our pilgrimage here,

Than the tear that enjoyment may gild with a smile,

And the smile that compassion can turn to a tear.

The thread of our life would be dark, Heaven knows

If it were not with friendship and love intertwined;

And I care not how soon I may sink to repose,

When these blessing shall cease to be dear to my mind.

But they who have loved the fondest, the purest,

Too often have wept o'er the dream they believed;

And the heart that has slumber'd in friendship securest

Is happy indeed if 'twas never deceived.

But send round the bowl; while a relic of truth

Is in man or in woman, this prayer shall be mine, --

That the sunshine of love may illumine our youth,

And the moonlight of friendship console our decline.

The Stupidity of the Storm

Sometimes I see things happening in this city that I really can't even begin to understand. The recent snow removal initiatives that the City of Toronto are attempting to implement after several major winter storms are quite possibly the most poorly thought through initiatives I have ever seen.

Yesterday I was on my way home from school on the 60 bus that runs along Steeles West from the University. I was happy because class was ending early and I was able to get on the bus around 4:15, about 45 minutes before the road would become a war zone due to rush hour. That amount of time should have gotten me off the bus and home before 5 pm. I was blissfully unaware, listening to my MP3 player and catching up on some readings when I realized the bus had slowed to a near crawl, and we were only a few blocks onto Steeles. The bus window was clouded over with condensation and dirt, making it nearly impossible to see out, and was packed so tightly with people I had no ability to see the road or what the hold up may have been.

My usual ride takes between, from start to finish, about 30 - 45 minutes. At about 5:30 yesterday, an hour and 15 minutes after departing from the University Commons, I was still sitting on a bus that would move a few feet every 1 - 2 minutes, only to come to a dead stop once again. Dozens of probable causes ran though my mind, from a simple stalled call in the middle lane to a horrible car pile-up, or a pedestrian being hit (especially during rush hour when people who usually drive like maniacs with horseblinders on step it up to a whole other level of insanity). Finally, after 1 hour and 45 minutes, I decided to suck it up and get out at the next stop (I still had no idea where I was or how far I was going to have to walk). After pushing through a whole mess of people and finding myself about 5 blocks from my stop, I went out onto the sidewalk and noticed that all three lanes of traffic going east were blocked off by police cars and barricades. I walked a little further and saw huge dumptrucks and front loader machines scooping up the snowbanks from the side of the road.

A blocked section of road from 1 intersection to the next caused the time of my commute to more than double, and stopped rush hour traffic in a city of over 2 million people in all four directions for near kilometers. All so a few banks of snow could be removed.

Are you kidding me Toronto?

I couldn't figure out why removing snowbanks that had already been innocently sitting there for weeks needed to be removed so promptly, and why this had to be done on a major artery of traffic at the heart of the rush hour commute, which the City very well knew would be occurring at the time of the procedure. So I looked into it, figuring there must be something I'm missing. Here's an excerpt of an article I found in the Toronto Star today:

Major snowfalls this month, combined with a thaw and freeze, have created icy snowbanks that spill outward and impede traffic flow.

Crews worked through the weekend removing crusted snow from major downtown routes, as well as the Gardiner, Don Valley and Allen expressways.

"The concern is that people aren't able to park on side streets because of the amount of snow," says Noehammer. "And now, with the very cold temperatures, it's frozen into a hard, icy mass."

Crews have to break up the snowbanks and push the snow into the road so it can be scooped up into dump trucks.

On some major streets, the city used massive snowblowers to shave down banks.

This "makes space for additional snow to be stored in the next storm," says Noehammer.

To most people, the sooty white piles between a sidewalk and road are just snowbanks.
But to the city, those areas are storage spaces for snow – and they must, according to policy, get whittled down once they reach a height of 30 centimetres.

Once again, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? You're doing this to make the sidewalks more accessible? You mean, the same sidewalks that have over the past few days become treacherous sheets of thick, uneven ice that haven't been treated with a speck of salt or sand, most likely because you are too busy removing "harmful" snowbanks that will "impede traffic". I don't know about you, but somehow I think shutting down large sections of major roads during peak traffic periods is going to impede traffic and be a lot more dangerous for driving that a few pieces of snow or ice falling into the road from snowbanks. Here's an idea - make it illegal to park on the sidestreets during the winter if you're concerned about snow removal and impeding traffic. It's called a garage, a driveway, or a parking lot. There's hundreds all over the city - and it will boost the economy at the same time. Instead of spending 20 million to remove snowbanks, we can benefit of the cheapness of drivers who don't want to pay to park their vehicles, and would rather clog up the neighborhoods of others.

P.S. I'm supposed to be in class right now. Steeles is still shut down, and I couldn't even get to my bus stop to even try and get on a bus going in the direction of the university. The sound of ear piercing honking is still ringing in my ear, and who knows when/if I'll be able to attend classes again. Who wants to bet I'll be reimbursed the cost of my missed class by the city? Yeah right.

Oh. It is Love.

You know it's love when a wireless internet router is your Valentine's Day gift, and it's one of the most thoughtful Valentine's gifts you've ever recieved.

In other news, I've been pondering a heated dilemma that's been plaguing humankind for as long as humans have existed. I believe I have come up with a draw between forces. It's possibly the greatest inovation since Hot Pockets - Humans version 2.0: the link between the Evolution Theory and the Higher Power Creation theory. Just like computer programmers, God introduced humans in stages, versions if you will. Maybe a little beta testing before the final grand introduction to the public. Ask the anthopologists for the exact number, but I'm sure we'd be somewhere around version 2359086.2. Or you know, whatever.


Karen fact number 233.5: I have a guilty pleasure in monster trucking and all machines that make big noises and tend to light on fire from time to time. There's a little Middle America in all of us, I like to think. Hence my masterpiece, in all it's copyright-tastic glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDOJrPercE8

Now I must go sip my mimosa and cuss out random faceless Internet players on Guitar Hero. Rock on my friends, rock on.

Double Standard: Round 2

"[In the 1950's] daughters were instilled with different fears from those visited upon their male siblings. Occasional rhetoric condemned tomboys, but the real anxeity was not loss of sexual identity but loss of sexual control. Society put the burden of sexual purity on the female. Boys were expected to initiate, and the girl was suppose to decide what was appropriate. The boys were suppose to prove they were men, and the girls had to prove they were respectable. This belief was at the heart of the famous double standard."

- Douglas Owram, Born at the Right Time

It's over 50 years later, and this nasty injustice is still deeply engrained in the foundations of gender roles in contemporary society. Perhaps not entirely so cut and dry in terms of direct instruction by parents, teachers, and other authority, double standards of sexuality are still perpetuated to children starting at alarmingly young ages (think "boys play with G.I. Joes, and girls play with Barbie". Heaven forbid if one picks up the other). Although we have a term for it, can understand the inequality, and have "Girl Power" in the form of the Spice Girls, and groups like Destiny's Child hollering "I'm a survivor!" on our radios, we still can't get over or around it.

And when I say we, I mean us girls, because we're the ones getting the short end of the stick on this one. I hate to say it, but newest revelation is not going to make any advances in helping us out. So hold on to your garters girls, because I've discovered that even when you think you're nice and safe in your warm and fuzzy long-term relationship, you're only just beginning.

I've been with my boyfriend for years now, and I've noticed a strong and constant trend - nearly every girl that he knows/is friends with dislikes me, whether she's met me or not. Already, this is grounds for problems. What also doesn't help is that most of my boyfriend's friends are girls. Likewise, most of my friends tend to be guys (for this reason among others, I usually can't stand girls and just get along with guys better. Simply put, guys = less bull.). However there is a huge difference in our friends, as my guy friends have no problem with Justin. In fact, we often all hang out together and they have generally nothing to say but good things about him and our relationship.

My boyfriend gets super jealous and moody when guys call me or I make plans to go out with them. I've made concious efforts to say "hey, babe, let's all go out together", even changing days and times to correspond to his schedule. While he was in Whistler last year with drunk girls coming into his bedroom and mouthing off to me via cell phone at midnight, I was waiting patiently (and faithfully!) for his 5 month trip to end and return him to me. But lets get to the point at hand - my boyfriend knows my guy friends, and pretty well may I add. If he hasn't directly met them, he's heard me tell him pretty much everything there is to know - who he is, where me met, where we chill, what we do, etc. However, my boyfriend often gets calls on his cell phone from "Sarah" or "Nadia" or "Jessica" or God knows who else - girls names I've never heard of. He apparently thinks it's ok for him to say "I'm going out to dinner" and not specify with who or where. When his girlfriends have directly insulted me in front of him for little to no reason other than I exist, he's asked me "why won't you give her a chance?".

This is offically a whole other level of double standard. Perhaps this should be called the relationship double standard - once you think you're out of hot water, you realize you've just crawled into a bigger pot. I don't know about you, but I think I'm done being the wilting flower, and I think it may be time to fight fire with fire. Who's with me??

Running of the Books

For York students, such as myself, tomorrow kicks of the annual week of reading, AKA Reading Week. While many students with more money than brains decide to spend the week flouncing around tropical climates whilst beating their organs relentlessly with alcohol and substances, others actually take the time off to (gasp!) catch up on their readings and quell the anxiety attacks lurking in the cockles of their hearts.

As I'm sure you've already guessed, I'm of the latter group mentioned. Even if I did have the money to go on some sort of spring break vacation (and after four years of university, I still cannot for the life of me figure out how these kids can go on vacations and still afford tuition, books, rent - you know, general survival and the like. I enjoy eating and having a roof over my head, so Mexico just doesn't fit into the equation at the moment), I'd be holed up in my hotel room writing papers and reading material from the 3 classes I've already fallen horribly behind in despite by best efforts. I've quickly discovered that it's very hard to sit in your study and read modernist poetry and pages about the lives of the Babyboom generation when you can just imagine the sun, sand and/or snow (whatever floats your boat) that many of your peers are enjoying at that same moment. So, to somewhat remedy the situation, I booked off an entire weekend (something I haven't enjoyed since the end of August) from my work, and am in the process of planning a somewhat exciting and leisurely weekend. I'm thinking skiing....that's about as far as my overworked mind can get at this point. But I've still got some time. Any ideas anyone?

Happy reading week! And remember: read responsibly.

Drive-By Wisdom

People who know me and know me well are aware that I'm an incredibly firm believer in a higher power and the human subconscious' ability to stay closely connected to that power at all times, regardless of our conscious knowledge of this connection. I believe in fate and reincarnation, and that this life each and everyone of us is living has been planned out to the last detail and that there are no such thing as coincidences, just instances of experience where we are pushed back onto our life path when we deviate, or alternatively, a little vote of confidence that we are doing the right thing when we may be questioning ourselves.

So now that half of you reading this probably think I'm a crazy person (although I've read dozens of books on the subject, and there's just too much solid proof through documented individual human experience alone that I still can't believe there are people out there ignorant enough, and ignorance is what it is, to believe otherwise), I will move on.

Sometimes it's just funny where some of these affirmations come from. The past couple weeks I've been re-evaluating my belief in karma (that "goes-around, comes-around" belief) especially after my purse got stolen (which occurred after nearly a dozen occasions where I've found purses, wallets, and credit cards at my store and immediately called banks and tracked down phone numbers to alert the person who lost it). That mantra "nice guys finish last" has been repeating itself in my head as of late, especially when I see truly nice and kind people taken advantage of over and over again (and of which I can't only blame others, as it's happened to me on occasion where I don't stick up for myself as I should. But that's very rare now - luckily I think that that aspect of my life is on the decline, and good riddance!). Lately in the recent past, there have been occasions where sums of money have presented themselves of which were easily accessible and of which no one would have noticed missing. And if so, could have easily been passed off on someone else who would get a slap on the wrist if nothing else. The temptation was great, especially when the money was coming from a source largely unappreciative of my contributions (we'll just keep the details at that!). After some deliberation, I decided that regardless of all this, and my failing faith in karma, I didn't take the money.

Yesterday when I was at work, I went on cash for a few minutes to take over a girl who needed a break. I was on for less than two minutes when an old man came up with his milk and eggs. Nothing out of the ordinary, and he didn't say much past a "hi, nice day" while I was checking his purchase out. He began to walk away, was half way out of the door, when he came back, looked me in the eyes and said something to the extent of: "Always be a good person. As a good person, you'll be kicked in the teeth time and time again. But you're beautiful and good, and when it comes down to it, you'll be the one who comes out on top." And with that, he simply walked away.

I thought it was strange at the time, but later that night when I was thinking back on it, I realized it was exactly that which I needed to hear. An affirmation of my continued faith in a world gone bad. Now I'm not saying it was an angel sent from God, but I definitely think it wasn't a coincidence. Like I said, I don't believe in coincidences.

Snow Day!!!

I don't mean to scare you, but I believe the apocalypse may be upon us: York University has canceled today's classes, and all is likely to crumble with it. In my four years of attending York, and through many a terrible storm, York has often been the only school (and often institution in general) to keep its doors open and classes running in a hundred mile radias. I am actually afraid to even look outside for fear of nuclear warfare or the 4 horses descending upon us.

So instead I'm going to tuck myself away in my bed and get caught up on the wonderful world of 20th Century Canadian History. If the country exists after today, I figure it will be worthwhile...

Happy snow day!