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.

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.

I know that Macs crash, so don’t tell me they don’t – I watch Kevin Rose on Diggnation and he sometimes has problems with his browser locking up and being unable to read his email live on the air. My brother uses a Mac at work and he hates the damn thing due to its shortcomings. And I too have used Macs before – and at the school board where I worked several years back, there were a couple of schools that decided that instead of getting Y number of IBM PCs they would get X number of Macs (and yes, X<Y). Part of our job in the department where I worked was to get the Macs working. And you know what, Macolytes? IT JUST WORKS is a lie. I could configure a dozen PCs a day while working at that job, and these were old PCs I was rebuilding from scrap. It took our best guys – both of which had expertise with Macs – 2 days to get one SINGLE Mac to do what was needed. I’m not even going to get any further into the description of the added nightmare they had trying to get the it just works Airport networking going. If the damn Macs didn’t cost double what the PCs cost, I am sure we would have, as a group, risen up and stomped one of them out of existence. I do have to confess, however, that this was in the OS 9 era, before they started basing things on UNIX/Darwin/FreeBSD.

I’ve tinkered with them over the years since, but never owned one. First of all we just are not in the income bracket to allow it. Second, even if we were in that income bracket, I feel they are grossly overpriced. Third, although I tend to be naturally intuitive about all computers and OSes, it would require me to teach everyone in our house a whole new set of skills. There are other reasons as well… but in this particular situation, most of my concerns are alleviated by getting a fairly-recent, very small and stylish machine that I can tinker with and no one else will be forced to use. The kids have their own computer, the wife has her own computer, and I can flip between my MacMini and my PC as simply as changing a setting on my dual-input monitor.

And that brings me to right here. I have been tinkering for a little while. I installed Firefox and all my “usual” plugins. I started investigating what might be gained and what it would cost if I want to someday install the newest version of OS X (this one has Panther). I discovered that the Mac support on my Ximeta networked hard drive is actually a very limited level of support which annoys me.

But… here are my first impressions:

• It really is a cute little machine, and is well engineered. The Mac keyboard and mouse are solid, and the computer itself, which is just over the size of a large sandwich made on regular bread, has a nice heft and solid feel so it doesn’t feel “cheap” in spite of being one of the least expensive Macs ever made.
• While trying to test out the built-in optical drive, I put in my “Garchive” disk, which is all of the Garfield comics from 1978 to 2003. I didn’t even look at the disk before the drive snatched it out of my hand (nasty little thing!) The pictures came up, but browsing them was no more or less intuitive than browsing pictures on a Windows XP machine. However, it was noisy so I took the disc out and discovered my kids must have been handling it with sticky hands. I mean, this is a CD that on the laser-read side is absolutely filthy with fingerprints and sticky gunk. The Apple drive still managed to read it. That was kind of impressive.
• Installing software is easy, although almost counter-intuitive. You almost feel as though something went wrong becuase it just doesn’t interact with you much at all. I loathe Windows installers that don’t tell me what they are doing and just take over, so this irritates me on the Mac as well.
• It just works! Yes, it does! But… so does my Windows XP machine. I have not had any problems where something didn’t “just work”. I’m not sure who, exactly, has had something that DIDN’T just work – except obviously someone who works for Apple marketing.
• Because I have not played a lot with the Mac in recent years, I now have a learning curve – not in how the system works (although I had a terrifying few minutes wracking my brain figuring out how to find how to reboot or turn off the damn thing) but in what software I should use for my various needs.
• The system required an update in order to connect wirelessly to my router. If I had not had a wired network switch within reach, I would have had some very serious aggravation about this, as in order to get the update, I would have had to download it from the internet, and in order to download it from the internet, I would have had to be connected wirelessly. The standard which was needed to connect existed when this machine was shipped, so it should have had it already properly implemented, in my opinion.

So what do I think?

Exactly what I thought before. From an operating standpoint, it is a computer, no better and no worse than any other properly-configured machine. It is nice to have fewer worries about installing anti-virus and anti-spyware utilities, but on the other hand when someone DOES decide to hunt down a Mac exploit, all the barely-technically-literate Mac users are going to have a really serious problem fixing it, which will make Apple lots of money in support/repair fees. Having to remember I am on the Mac and the implementation of cut, paste and so on is done differently is an irritation but more a function of me flipping back and forth from one machine to the other.

The hardware is pleasing to the eye and feels like it has substance. It is in no way an unpleasant addition to our collection of
hardware. It reminds me a lot of our Wii, and that brings a little smile to my face.

I am now a Mac Owner. I like my MacMini. I don’t like it better than my XP machine, and I don’t like it worse. It’s just different, like having 2 children. There is a difference, though – if I had to give up one of my children, I could never choose between them. If I had to give up one of my computers, the Mini would be the one sold into white slavery.

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.

I am talking about some jurisdictions where they are trying to ban using a cell phone while driving EVEN WITH A HANDSFREE DEVICE. That’s it – no talky at all on your phone while driving. Now – I am going to just completely gloss over the point of:

How the fuck do you ENFORCE this? Have the cops stop everyone who moves their lips while driving?

- and move right along to the much more salient point: If you are banning people talking to someone on the phone in any way while driving, you must also ban ALL other potential distractions. Let’s just disregard the fact that almost all jurisdictions have laws against driving while distracted, under the common-sense offense names like “reckless driving” or “dangerous driving” or “driving while impaired”… rather than use those existing laws as needed in the rare, extreme cases that come up, we need to spell out ALL of the potentially risky things done while driving, and make a law against each and every one.

So let’s make a list!

• People have used 2-way radios for years. Citizens band radio enthusiasts, truck drivers, taxi drivers, police, fire, delivery people and numerous other folks use devices to talk all the time to their dispatch station or other drivers or anyone else on the road equipped with the same type of transceiver device. They are talking while driving – so, these must go too. BANNED!
• Drive-through windows must be eliminated. If you can’t fucking TALK on a handsfree phone you sure as shit can’t be trusted to eat a Big Mac or drink your double-caf extra-froth latte crap while driving! BANNED! And, you know, while you are at it – save the air, turn off your pollution-mobile and GET OFF YOUR ASS FOR A MINUTE.
• Taking a cup of coffee or food from home in the car, for the same reasons as drive-through – BANNED!
• Reading a book or newspaper – don’t laugh, I have seen it. Heck, even looking at a map (for some people) can be a very bad thing. BANNED!
• In the same vein as the map, reading and talking – all GPS navigation devices function in one of those ways. It either speaks directions at you or you have to glance at the screen. VERY distracting – BANNED!
• Also in the same vein as reading – road signs. All billboards and road signs with more than 5 words or anything distracting like a pair of boobs on the plastic surgery ads or anything else remotely sexy or attractive that would make you look for more than 2 seconds must be BANNED!
• Putting on makeup, brushing hair, shaving, or any other personal hygiene or grooming regimen – you are looking in a mirror at your OWN FACE and not the road! BANNED!
• Sex while driving. Yes, people do it, from BJs and hand jobs all the way to intercourse, while on the road. “Oh my GOD, I’m CU….” – yeah, definitely BANNED!
• Having children in the car… one of the worst possible distractions ever. Children bouncing around, yelling, playing, even talking – and because of our nanny-sense society they are ALWAYS in the back seat so the driver has to look behind them to see what they are doing… so, driving with children in the car? BANNED!
• Passengers tend to gab away at drivers. Drivers gab at passengers. Some drivers LOOK at the passengers while talking to them while driving. Well, we already banned the kids in the car, and relegated them to the trunk. Adult passengers also must be – BANNED!
• People listen to music or talk radio. Radios have been in cars since the early days of radio. Now we have satellite radio, CDs, MP3s, DVDs, insane displays on the various players including TV screens on some. The fact is, that even a basic radio can cause a driver to spontaneously burst out in song. OMG – how distracting, trying to remember LYRICS! Music in cars – BANNED!
• Being old and having poor vision or hearing… these things are SUPPOSED to be reasons for people to lose their licenses over a certain age, but most of the time they don’t. So lets spell it out: if you can’t see “as well as you used to” (which usually means you can’t see worth shit), driving is NOT a good idea any more. BANNED!
• Smoking is already being banned with kids in the car in some places – which I am going to have to rant about another time (I am a non-smoker but these bans are the epitome of Nanny-laws) – but smoking in general while driving has not. It needs to be. Ever seen a smoker try to dig out the smokes, find a light, get a smoke in their mouth and ignite it – and then drive with one hand while puffing away? What a potential disaster! BANNED!
• Some people can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, so it stands to reason that DRIVING while doing it HAS to be extremely hazardous. Chiclets in the car? BANNED!
• Finally, hand-in-hand with walking and chewing gum – IQ. If you are stupid, get off the road. There needs to be a law against it. If your IQ is below average – in other words, 99 or less, you should not be driving. You are a hazard. Get off the road, and get a job in government where the rest of the folks like you belong. BANNED!

I think we should start a new group. It will be like MADD. Except it would cover all of these things. Something like:

Mothers and Fathers and Regular People Against Being Stupid, Having Sex, Listening to the Radio, Talking, Smoking, Chewing Gum or Being Distracted While Driving.

Who wants to sign up as a charter member of MaFaRPABSHSLRTSCGoBDWD? The line forms to the right.

T-Shirts will be available next week. Size XXXL only.