rant of the moment

welcome to the 'rant of the moment' page. every now and then i like to get on my soap box and sound out about something that irks me. it could be something in the news or something someone said to me during the day. additions to this page will be sporatic at best so bear with me.

aug 14th, 2002: traffic gridlock here in toronto

this is just a mini rant. i was just watching the news and they were interviewing people here in toronto on what to do about the traffic gridlock in this city. everyone says the city needs to increase the train and public transit capacity, cuz then they'll take it. man - that is total crap! they only want the city to increase it so other people will take it, and then they can have a nice smoothe drive into work. people are so dumb. people love to drive. there's only one solution: teleportation. that is the only solution. and you can quote me on that.

aug 14th, 2002: strikes, unions and pure laziness

well, it has been a long time since my last rant. i have been quite busy at work and hopping between the east cost and west coast of this huge country. lots of airmiles needless to say. anyway, i wanted to talk about the garbage strike and unions in general. i was fortunate enough to not really be affected by the strike as i was out of town for most of it and the garbage collection is already privatized in my area. pretty sweet deal. but, i must rant anyways. heh heh. there were some pretty bad areas in toronto where the garbage was piling up, especially in china town and restaurant districts. man, those place pump out a lot of garbage every day. you all saw the pictures on the news. madness and a stench that would make your stomach churn. the timing of the garbage stike was pretty bad - during the gay pride parade and right before the pope arriving. i had visions of the pope having to part the garbage seas just to get through. that would have been pretty cool to see. luckily everything was restored and we're all back to normal now. but, could this have been avoided? i've never been a fan of unions. personally, i think they promote employee laziness. way back when, i understand why there was a need to have them - to ensure employees were paid properly and to prevent companies from abusing their large workforce. but these days i don't see the need for this, or proof that unions are even doing this. all i see is people becoming lazy, expecting job security and doing a half assed work - all behind the shield of a union. it's ridiculous. i've seen people drop what they are doing right at 5:00pm "cuz that's what the union syas is the law". it's silly and creates a suffocating environment where things take forever to complete. on top of that, the garbage workers are pretty damn stupid to expect "jobs for life" in today's environment - that's totally impossible. it's pretty much the same thing as winning the lottery - "we'll pay you forever, even if you totally suck at your job". our wonderful mayor was also pretty damn stupid in promising "jobs for life" to the garbage workers to end the last strike. he's in quite a pickle now. that's all for now.

mar 28th, 2002: recycling and the environment

the recycling movement has really had an impact on the world over the past couple of decades. i remember when we got our first blue box in order to put recyclable materials in it. it was pretty neat and everyone felt better about themselves because they were recycling. but, where has it gotten us? are we better off now? have we made an impact? i've often wondered where the contents of those blue boxes go. do they actually get recycled? i've seen on many occasions a janitor simply dump the recycling bin in the garbage bin and continue along. does this happen on a large scale or is it just isolated to lazy janitors? vineyards, breweries, beer stores and the lcbo all make a big deal about recycling and i'm pretty confidant that they do since it's in their interests to reduce the cost of producing glass bottles. i took a few environment impact course in university and did several studies on renewable resources as well as the safe disposal of nuclear waste. at the time, aerosols, CFC's and the ozone layer were the hot topic of the day. back then, it was determined that even if we stopped 100% of all CFC output at that moment, the earth and the ozone layer were still screwed. the damage had been done beyond repair - global warming was an unstoppable reality. unless we find a way to re-build the ozone layer - we're in big shit. i've always been a big fan of incineration to get rid of waste. an incinerator burns so hot that it breaks down the garbage to it's original benign molecular components. there is no evil byproduct, no sludge or leachate produced. incinerators have gotten a bad wrap because of poorly maintained ones in the USA where they were incinerating nuclear waste in an incinerator that was not at the right temperature. so, naturally everyone freaked and deemed them bad. i say we need more of them to handle all the crap we are producing. it's incredible. i try to recycle whenever i can but i'll be the first to admit i don't do it very much. i always wonder what's the point? is the point simply to make the future 'not as bad as it could be'? if that's the case then why bother? we're screwed anyway. we should be focusing on how to reverse the effects, not stop them. we all fall victim to the 'not in my backyard' mentality as well as 'the next generation will take care of it'. well - they've been saying that for many generations and i suspect we're closing in fast on the last generation that will be able to make a serious difference before we have to move off this planet. if only we could go back in time eh?

feb 10th, 2002: public urinal rules for men

alright. this one really gets me. the other day, while out to dinner with friends, i had to use the facilities. so i stepped up to a urinal and proceeded. since i was the only one in the room, i used a urinal right on the end. another dude walked in shortly after and began to use the urinal right next to me even though there were plenty of other urinals available that were not next to me. apparently this guy was not aware of the rules. the rules are important - they are the very fabric that keep fights from breaking out in the washroom. people's lives have been spared because of the rules. no one knows when or where the rules were invented but i'm pretty sure it came shortly after urinals were invented.

so, in an effort to spread the knowledge, here are the rules. given a string of unoccupied urinals, you must choose one on the outside. when one outside urinal is occupied, use the other side, then middle. avoid standing directly next to somebody at all costs. this is the key. if the only urinals available are next to somebody and there are no privacy dividers, then start to use the stalls. if the stalls are filled up then you must wait. sorry, but it's the rules. while using the urinal, don't look down - look straight ahead. flushing is optional, over time the water will turn a rich orange, at this point flushing is mandatory. don't start unzipping until you're protected by the privacy of the urinal. don't step back until you've thoroughly shaken off and closed your pants again. Don't talk to somebody you don't know. you may chat quietly with an acquaintance, but must absolutely not call attention to yourself. a quick glance in the mirror is permissible, but absolutely don't spend a significant time arranging hair, clothing, etc. zit popping is only permissible after checking to see nobody else is around. no profanity of any kind. this is reserved for locker rooms, only. if you must wait, form a single-file line, ragged, and be sure to keep looking around. read graffiti or count the tiles on the ceiling. now spread the word!

jan 31st, 2002: canadian army in afghanistan

is it just me or does it seem like our government got down on it's knees and begged the u.s. to be a part of this war in afghanistan? we made such a deal about not being invovled in the war that when we were finally allowed to participate we had a huge fan fare to send what... all ten of our boys off. i have visions of chretien down on his knees in the white house saying to bush: "please, please, please, please can we play? i promise we'll be good. you won't even notice us. please, please, pleeeeeeeease?!? i'll throw in a 100 cases of molson canadian if you let us play". what are they doing over there? is our army cooking the food for the americans? are we doing the laundry? are we actually contributing to the war effort? let's face it - when people think of canada, the first thing that comes to mind is most certainly not our huge army and all it's war heads. in fact, i'm willing to bet most people will say "canada has an army?". it's pretty sad to be honest. for crying out loud the west edmonton mall has better submarines than our navy! we should just allow the u.s. to protect us and focus our defense budget other things such as housing, homeless issues, health care, monster trucks for everyone etc...

what's that?

eh? you don't like my rant? got a problem with something i said? you getting hot under the collar with my opinion? give me a shout then - i'd be more than happy to discuss it further and prove you wrong - heh heh. i'll even post your feedback up on this website if you like.