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Menu HTML CSS JavaScript	Content goes here Pedagogy and Pitchforks - Pretense in the Public Education Institution and Provincial Politics in Alberta. I invite you to watch this rather bold and surprisingly elegant             Hochtaler commercial I was exposed to in the early eighties... (sing) ...and this is true, my Dear! This song's been looping, for two decades - around my mind once clear. As for the wine itself, the mere mention of Hochtaler only conjures images in my mind of pale yellow cardboard cartons concealing foil bladders sporting a stubby plastic pee spout that pokes out the bottom of the box. As for the public education system, I say enough with the wasteful bureaucracy and let Canada return to the one room schoolhouse model. Two or three students from each of the twelve grades inhabiting one classroom at the same time. Two or three top teachers. A big chalkboard and maybe a globe. Reference books and ink wells. A woodstove in the corner. Perhaps even a few chickens and rabbits in the back. All these simple and effective things we've traded-in for asbestos insulation behind overhead flourescent lighting, glossy markerboards with their shitty dry-erase felt tips instead of beautiful chalk and slate, stacks of relatively obsolete laser disc players and reels of crumby films collect dust in the corner of one of the many store rooms brimming with obsolete junk from the last two decades. The type stuff only a whacked-out artist or gonzo engineer would consider hoarding. Oh how scarce are those beautiful creatures, the teachers with lovely voices fervorously reciting literary greats... or hammering out some folk tunes every Friday on the upright. Oh no, that sort of thing has no place in our corporatocratic vision of learning. No, in the 21st century we need to install Wi-Fi in every classroom. We need vending machines and supply chains. We can't teach our kids a few basic lessons without security cameras, cafeterias, photocopiers, and corporate partnerships. Point being, it's getting pretty fucking expensive to "educate", and in some instances "innoculate" the kids. Kids are getting fatter and more defiant. Why not make the mere act of just GETTING to school half the battle again? Every single kid walks to class every single day to the big schoolhouse at the top of the hill behind the church. Let us quit wasting money on a bloated public school system administered by flocks of headless chickens. My home province of Alberta is having a provincial election very soon and I'm tempted to start dangling proverbial pitchforks within reach of the combatants, I tell you. Isn't a good old fashioned lynch-mob what the people really want to see happen in the end anyway? Entertainment for the masses? Opposing camps angrily forking one another to fully impress their own supreme agendas? Bloodsport. That's what all you broke losers want, isn't it? In any regard, it's a relief to see that Alberta is still home to at least a dozen different provincial parties vying for seats in the legislature including: Alberta Party Social CreditParty New Democratic Party Communist Party Progressive Conservatives Marijuana Party Liberal Party Wildrose Alliance Green Party Way to democratize, citizens of Alberta. While I mostly support the platforms of both the Alberta Romance Party and the Bully Big Oil Baron Party, I'll likely vote for the Grassroots Magic Party this time round. all manner of public opinion. From the most eloquent and graceful submissions to the vilest of chattle tripe, I'd like to be the first to witness the unfolding, blossoming, and decomposing of our ideas over time.
ISSUE 1 FRIDAY April 6 2002

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I think every UPS driver should have a standard issue rifle and optional sidearm.

Proud Prophet Productions

Man, that last post I made was embarrassing to re-read. I'm such a cheese sometimes. Good news is that aside from the gout I'm feeling alright. Having a bit of a tough time with the jogging, but I'm sure I'll be counting down the sidewalk tiles again before long.

Being affected by what is called "THE gout" is like instant Karma for rich indulgence in food and drink. Too much red meat, liquor or shellfish and it's not long before you wake up to find yourself having to hop on one foot all the way to the washroom.

From perfect health to invalid overnight. The pain of The Gout is almost unbearable. You break a sweat putting on a sock and would surely go into shock if you so much as stub a toe on the foot affected by The Gout! I wouldn't wish this terrible condition on my worst enemy. It's a cruel and painful cross to bear - The Gout, my friends... and I thank God Himself that I am blessed enough to live a majority of my days not afflicted with the royal mercilessness of this fleeting but acute form of arthritis that they call The Gout. While I enjoy striving for greatness, I've always had a firm handle on the things-could-be-far-far-worse mentality.

If you're one of the growing numbers who are unlucky enough to be afflicted with The Gout, one of the best things you can do is to eat tons of berries - especially the darker ones. Now that I think about it, last spring / summer I ate handfuls of choke cherries from the park down the street and I didn't suffer a single episode of The Gout. Even gathered enough to add to my morning oatmeal one day.

Oatmeal can be so delicious if it's prepared properly. I like a combination of oats and flax seed. Reconstitute some dehydrated fruit in the boiling water and add a generous serving of yogurt and honey to your breakfast pudding. Be daring and cover it with brown sugar. Talk about healthy eating without compromising taste, eh? 

So there you have it, folks. If you have The Gout, include lots of berries in your diet and stay well away from the inexpensive beers. Take it from me because the proof is in the pudding.

Been trying to work on a brand new website between engagements these last few days. The graphics and formatting are easy enough; it's the questions concerning its' content that pose the trickiest of  challenges. What do people want to read about? Who will be my audience? Why do feel compelled to do this? Will my efforts pay off? If so, when? Where's my Magic 8 Ball?

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1. Feb

   1

   After some deliberation, I rolled some cigarettes, threw on my jacket, brushed my teeth using Arm & Hammer baking soda, and grabbed my Swiss Army shoulder bag before twisting open the deadbolt on my green steel apartment door. My sneakers I was already wearing as an insulator against the cool stone tiles lining my ground floor dwelling. I estimated that this would be at least my eighteen-hundredth trip to the booze-mart a couple of blocks away since moving into my downtown suite in the summer of 2006.
   
   Do I have a problem? Doesn't everyone? When the urge to drink begins swelling, I know it's simply a matter of time before I make that lonely trek across the hand-railed overpass to 109th & 99 Avenue commercial strip that houses my favorite East Indian family enterprise I lovingly refer to as "The Boozeistan".
   
   Using almost half of the last of the birthday money I'd received from my dear Mother only two days prior, I purchased a magnum of Gato Negro Cabernet Savignon. Several hours earlier, I'd promised her on the telephone that I wouldn't be spending a nickel of it on liquor. Technically, wine isn't liquor, but I still couldn't believe my own audacity. I was compelled - nay, divinely propelled, to imbibe.
   
   I'm drinking it now while I write this piece of self-deprecating drivel. My insurrectionary proclivities are too much for my ping-pong-ing brain to quell. My less than feeble convicting judgments whisper, "Do it Blake" in rasping harmonies. Am I a musician? Am I a writer? How long must I endure this poverty of stimuli? Will I be a capital-'I'- Internet addict forever?
   
   Addiction. Who isn't addicted to at least ten different things? I can name ten substances / stimuli right now: booze, coffee / tea, Coronation Street, weed, bad girls, Internet, driving fast, the opine arts, nerdy chicks, and gourmet cuisine - about in that order. What sorts of things do you fancy, Dear Reader?
   
   Understand that these lusts for life shouldn't necessarily pose a major threat to anyone's functionabili-googie in society. Lots of people smoke weed and watch Coronation Street religiously, I'm sure I am. The thing with me is, is that my folks pay for all my rent & utilities... so therefore, Mom & Dad play the trump card on any of my philosophical leanings.
   
   Am I that bad? I just turned 35 and haven't had a steady job in almost three years. Sure I do odd jobs here and there: dog sit, sweep stairwells, babysit, teach music lessons, run little errands, play open stages... but I don't exactly make a bundle. I spend too much time playing computer games and cleaning up after my malatrose (I don't know if I just made that word up? French?) friends who like to pop-in unexpectedly. It's like a never-ending cycle. A timed, revolving door of eccentric n'aer-do-wells' egos? Where the hell have I been living this last half-decade? One thing's for certain... I've certainly been of course to lead a shortened life of astounding decadence if I keep chasing my own Dragon's spawn.
   
   Making silly songs and embarrassssssssing video takes for Your Tube. Imagining myself as a mucho big-shot, upcoming producer. Spending hours, hacking away at social media sites. Learning the ol' html macro scripting. Learning a great deal about the micro and macro workings of social media. Editing video and audio and recreating the mouse-trap and all. Big money is all I'm after. That... and of course getting closer to Jehova.
   
   Let's say The Blakemeister is visiting one of his friends who happens to be in a drunken-stupor. He's all alone- and this wasted-drunk devil calls you up for a little "face-to-face, let's-share-a-drink-" type chit chat at his place. Still... I never bully too hard... not ever, and try my musician's best to stick-up for my bros. I do my best not to let my ego supersede my observance of others' limits.
   
   Well, Dear Reader, I just so happen to be an "edit-on-the-go" -type of person so there's a high likelihood that I would most definitely concede to my friend's boozing proposition whenever I'm feeling down-and-out, eh? Given the high likelihood that he's holding more booze than he can drink, it might just behoove me to charm him out of it. If this proverbial friend of mine happens to love my company as much as I love booze, then I'm drinking Scot-free tonight. Smokes too... hopefully!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
     
   
   
    

   Posted 3 minutes ago by Romance Alta.,

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2. Oct

   17

   LINUX VIDEO: ubuntu - Example of live video, sound, and desktop capture.

   
   

   Though nothing astoundingly special, the above video was produced start to finish using free open source drivers, software applications, and networking controls - more specifically, the "Ubuntu" v. 10.04 rendition of the Debian Linux-based operating system for home computers.

   The live picture-in-picture video of me was achieved with a Hauppauge brand video capture card's S-Video input which was connected to the A/V output of my Panasonic video camera - giving me a nice black & white video feed right into my computer's video card. Using the free XawTV software, I was able to feed the video image from the camera into a neatly re-sizable desktop display window.

   Now I have the power to make some nice multi-media presentations through the placement of various application windows within the screen capture area provided by the XVidCap software. Computers, being so prone to glitches as they seem to be when you're me, I could hardly believe everything was working as it should; not many tweaks needed to be made., and nothing crashed or spat an error out. I stuck an Audacity sound tracker window in the picture and a gedit notepad window to the east.

   This too can you do with Ubuntu on your computu!

   
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
   

   Posted 17th October 2011 by Romance Alta.,

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