I know I have said it before – stop wasting shit… right?

Well it applies to this Gasout/fuel boycott bullshit as well. In this case, the waste is one of time.

Temporary fuel BOYCOTTS will not help. Why? Because you CAN’T have the impact you think you have. If you truly simply stop driving for a few days, and could convince thousands of other drivers to do the same and join you in not burning fuel at all for a few days (fuel that you otherwise WOULD Have burned) you could reduce income marginally for a few days. The key word there is MARGINALLY – and no corporation is really going to care about that. The impact you have would be far greater on your local “fuel guy” if he is a franchisée, because he is the guy who needs people to come to his station so he can feed his family. So, if you want to send a message to the little guy, and give a guy who has little control over the price of fuel a good pummelling in the pocketbook, don’t burn gas for a few days. It’s a big waste of time, but as with most slacktivism, it will make you FEEL like you are doing something!

Lately there have been a lot of rumblings from the same typical group of morons wanting to boycott fuel for the Victoria Day weekend. What a FARCE! People open their cottages, and people get out for the first real long weekend of the summer season. They go out in their boats, and on their motorcycles, and their 4-wheelers. They aren’t going to skip that this year with the winter we had, so you are going to get very little response. IF someone “participates”, all they are going to do is buy gas in advance of the weekend, and that doesn’t change a damn thing except the day the company sold the fuel.

The only way to truly make an impact is to reduce consumption EVERY DAY, and work with others to help them do so, too. That means you have to stop wasting gas, and work at being efficient. That’s going to be very painful for some, because automobiles are ingrained in our culture as the basis of freedom.

How do you send a message about gas prices?

1. Call your MP and tell them to stop sending all the Canadian oil in Alberta to the US to profit American corporations and service Canadians first. DEMAND that Canadians come first – we have more than enough oil for our own needs. We need to start ACTING like an oil superpower for the short time we have that status.
2. Drive less, all the time. Car pool if you can, roll all your errands into one trip, take public transit, walk or ride a bike for short trips. Get a more efficient vehicle.
3. Learn to drive as efficiently as possible (see hypermiling.com)
4. Make investments with the money you SAVE by doing the above in companies pursuing alternative energy – just make sure they are bona-fide improvements, and not simply more-of-the-same (like hybrids – a RIDICULOUS attempt by the auto industry to prolong the inevitable demise of the gasoline engine). We need extreme efficiency and renewable resources – currently biofuels USE more energy than they produce and are devastating food markets worldwide.

If everyone works at this, it lowers demand, and will lower prices or at least slow down the rise of prices. Think about it – if there is a 20 year supply of oil left in the world, and we can use 25% less, it instantly becomes a 25 year supply – more time to develop alternatives!

“Gasouts” and boycotts are a waste of time and energy, and generally are just another way for people to pat themselves on the back for doing nothing.

Well, here it is. My first post using a Mac.

How the heck did I get a Mac? Well, thanks to a very old friend (not his age, he’s younger than I am – just that I have known him since a long time ago although we were out of touch for 10+ years in the middle), I was able to pay in installments to purchase his used Mac Mini. He was very generous to allow me to do that, and the ‘Mini was inexpensive enough to make it worth a little temporary suffering (although at this point, I do have a twinge of regret as I know NOW what I did not know when I agreed to buy it – I need a better lens for my camera which is going to cost big $$$). Anyway, Mike, I really and truly appreciate it and thank you very much, I doubt we ever would have owned one of these if not for you.

Now, many of you have gathered the impression that I loathe Macs. I really don’t. I simply loathe Mac hype and the lies that get spread about them by the brainwashed Mac masses, or Macolytes as I have decided they should be called. They say things like Macs don’t crash, and “it just works” and sound more like a Mac commercial and marketing campaign than an actual user. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the Nanny State!

Yes, it’s true, it is becoming more and more common and our liberties are being tromped on in the interest of… wait for it… SAFETY! Except, it really isn’t safety, most of it is government legislating COMMON SENSE. Coming soon, to a country/state/province/city/town near you, a law that says “Don’t stick your finger in an electrical outlet. Penalty: $5000 fine for first offense.”

I have seen some ridiculous bans. Baby walkers are banned in Canada because kids could go down the stairs in one. Seriously, that is the ONLY semi-valid reason for it, and it is based on the assumption that we are all irresponsible parents using something in an unsafe manner against all common sense. Of course, the government trots out lots of pseudo-scientific information that demonstrates that they don’t “do babies any good anyway”. But the fact is, because some tiny number of fucking MORONS didn’t supervise their INFANT and failed to exercise any due diligence in blocking off the staircase to prevent a fall, importing or possessing a baby walker is something akin to importing or possessing cocaine. Personally, any parent who let their kids go down the stairs in a baby walker or drown because they left them unsupervised in a baby bath seat is deserving of a Darwin award – thanks for reducing the chances of passing on those genes, idiots! The human species is grateful.

Most recently, though, it’s been the cell phones while driving thing taken beyond reason. Don’t get me wrong! No – you should NOT be driving along in the car holding a phone to your ear, or looking down to dial the damn thing while in motion. But that is not what I am talking about.
Read the rest of this entry »