If you blogged any slower you wouldn't need an blog timer...you'd need a blog CALENDER !

How amazing is it that hotels, or atleast a fantastic one in Montreal -that apparently used to be a chinese restaurant before switching to a hotel- keeps left-behind items in an archive sorted by room # and date found in said room. I am now happily re-united with my overnight bag I stupidly left in Montreal. I have in my possesion two of everything; a genuine "Noah's Ark" of bathroom essentials one set (the older ones) I am leaving in my parent's house, the newer ones come to live with me in Hamilton. This all turned out to be a rather pleasently surprising end to my minor woes from my time in Montreal.

In more recent news, everyone needs to go mark their calenders RIGHT NOW !!! (well not really...but go ahead if you want.)

I received in my email today a message from a friend that had been passed along through so many "reply all" lists it literally took a minute of scrolling to reach the text. The point of thismessage was clear. According to the math if we (we being EVERY SINGLE person in Canada and the U.S.A.) do not purchase any gasoline or oil from any of the big oil companies on Sept. 1 2005 we might single handidly topple the big oil industry. How, you might ask, could this modern day David&Goliath standoff be resolved in one day ? The calculations say that if not a drop of gas is purchased for the whole day it would cause a loss to the tune of 4.6 Billion dollars to big oil, causing them to lose money on their bottom line and "choke on their stockpiles." The penultimate line of the text is a vague threat that a unifed left will continue these sorts of daily protests if it does not work on Sept. 1st and the finale of the message is a half hearted "it's worth a try..."

Now to carry on in a vein of what I believe to be enlightened constructive-criticism of the left or counterculture movement's tactics - which you may or may not realize is more prone to losing it's way and picking the worng methods of resistance than we like to think - this "buy no oil day" is a classic example of misguided efforts. One mass day of action seems to be more about "freaking out the squares" and giving a warm fuzzy sense of satisfaction to the counterculture by making them think the sheer radicalness of their action will be like mind bombs bursting throughout the collective conscious of the staunch right. It seems like "lefties" often give up more realistic solutions (government regulations, biking/public transportation etc) in favour of a totally radical, complete overthrow and toppling of the existing societal structures. I do however wish them luck in getting EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN CANADA AND THE U.S.A. TO NOT BUY AN GAS ON SEPTEMBER 1ST 2005. I just don't see that much supposrt being rallied through email or how this could actually work as promised. But hey, prove me worng radical action, prove me worng.

Onwards !

I have had a lot of free time this month and I have chosen to fill that time with books instead of XBOX, as seductive as she may be, and found myslef thinking more and more critically as a result. I have extolled the virtues of critical thnking in an earlier post here but now I really feel like I am reaching a better handle of the world around me. Don't get caught up in "slogan politics" and don't get your news headlines from a talk show host. Yes, John Stewart IS hillarious and fairly insightful, but don't watch him and then decide you are up to date on the news. Try watching the actual news or better yet READ the newspaper. Your brain works harder when you read as opposed to watch something.

In the coming days you will see a new section appear in my sidebar with books I have recently read and I believe to be extremely relevant, genuinly entertaining and insightful to a variety of today's more interesting issues. I am no english or litereary critic I just have a genuine belief in the force of printed text, the ability of publication to express ideas and create change. Go read a book! but not a piece of fiction, although fantastic and enjoyable, reading does not need to exclusively be an escape. Just because it is summer time and years and years of schooling have conditioned you to view books as work unless they are fiction which means they are for pleasure, doesn't mean you can't enjoy and learn at the same time. Reading is knowledge...there is so much happening in the world and television simply does not engage our minds to a justifiable degree. Reading to inform yourself seems more valuable than reading to escape the real world. With that said I will be putting up some links to a few book that I have recently read and felt impressed by. Do with my choices what you will, but atleast try reading for a while instead of zoning out in front of a t.v. You might just enjoy it.

Also stay tuned for my next post titled... What the hell is this !?! I said "a nice coffee" not "an ice coffee"

Coffee, ice and a crazy lexicon of made up words. This couldn't get better even if Jesus, Santa AND Starbucks endorsed it.