Prioritization vs Specificity - Playing Civ VI

Giggled like a schoolgirl and even felt a twinge of tingly anticipation as I waited for the latest iteration of Sid Meir's Civilization to load into my computer for the first time. The impressively animated opening sequence of Civ VI prompted me to hurriedly get weeded-up on pot for a fully immersed playing experience. With Peter The Great as my great leader of choice selected, I thusly ventured forth!

Here I'll endeavour to take down some notes as I play it for the first time:

First Impressions

• Game platform is supersexy and doesn't seem to overwhelm my desktop PC (4 Gigs of RAM and an i3 processor on a basic ASUS motherboard with an installed 3D graphics card) whatsoever. I'd go so far as to wager that it runs even more fluidly than Civ V manages on the exactly the same hardware. I strongly suspect this has much to do with the ever improving refinements and enhancements made to the coding of the Civ series' mechanics - something some of you dev types might want  ask an expert underhood looker about. 

• I must admit, the fact it didn't bottom-out my PC's undercarriage did come as something of a surprise to me. Indeed I was somewhat apprehensive about not having enough compujuice for things to run smoothly.

• Pressing 'c' on the keyboard brings-up the civics tree rather than centering the screen over a unit awaiting orders.
• Totally dig the parchment style texturing used in place of what was referred to in Civ V as 'Fog of War.'  There's much to be said for the aesthetics of Civ VI insofar, and dare I say there's even a nod to the elemental feel of Civ III in terms of the paperesqueness of the platform? It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the person or team responsible for graphic design of Civ VI worked on Civ III.
• Not seemingly able to center the screen around a particular tile by left-clicking on the tile as I would tend to do in Civ V. Not  Perhaps it's an option available in the game preferences? 
• Dig the subtle tilting of the landscape when strategy view is engaged via the world map. Far more comprehensive than Civ V's equivalent.
• If Civ V's overacrching thematic was intensive prioritization, Civ VI's is realistic specificity? Only turns will tell!
• No happiness quotient? 

Noted Conceptual Changes

• The concept of needing to periodically replace worker units after they've really given 'er a go.
• Trade envoys create roads when conducting trade – as they should and would in real life as their convoys routinely trod back-and-forth whatever terrain lies between their trade destinations.
• Creating military escort formations with civilian units. (This is something I dreamed of doing in Civ V believe it or not.)
• Was the righteously angry, ascerbaic and witty Scottish internet personality, Paul Joseph Watson the guy doing the voice for the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote when the Mysticism civic pursuit is realized? Is it the same voice actor for all the quotes?
• When hovering the cursor over a tile bearing a road improvement from a Trade Envoy, I noticed the pop-up specifies that the road is a Classical Road. This indicates to me that if my civilization continues to thrive, it might some day become asphault, a maglev rail, or whatever mode as technology permits.
• Housing and Entertainment instead of Happiness? Makes sense to me as homelessness is tied to despair in the real world, and during economically depressive times,  the average citizen manages to rustle up a dime every now and then to see a show, concert, or sporting event, eh?
• Great Writers aren't expended after being instructed to complete a great work. (Imagine insisting or instructing a great writer do anything in real life? Perhaps such a notion isn't so inconceivable if one just so happens to be a great leader of men?) 
• Special civic tile enhancements like campuses filter-in applicable output bonuses from relevant adjacent tiles corresponding to terrain type. 

I must say I am already  thoroughly engrossed by this inviting masterpiece of a computer game and find myself in the simulative year of 575 B.C. with a budgetary surplus and an established religion at the time of writing this overview.

With a score of 84 seeing me in fourth place, my future prospects in this first trial of Civ VI give me no reason to think I mightn't resign from this conquest with at least some recognizable accolades via the Steam platform's criterea. Pray it is now time to devote my full attention to tactical planning and global domination!

Get ME thinking about lazy recipes?

The easy part, believe it or not, is simply roasting the pork to begin with.

You've just got to rub that roast with all manner of seasonings – mainly coarse salt - before sticking it into a roaster lined with bacon fat.

Chuck-in a half-a-pound of butter for good measure, and then add all your favourite girly fruit-cuts you like, like pomegranate lobes, minced broccoli hearts, or weinestle root. Personally, I find parsnips go good/best with any bestial variety of a properly prepared roasted-beast presentation.

Minced or crushed and sautéed garlic can never harm a dish in my opinion - unless you're weaving it into some fantastically unthinkable dessert - tricky chefery to be sure!

Rock & Roll 101

I'm mainly a guitar player who in my late teens happened to have a set of drums. I paid for them using workers' compensation money after sustaining a workplace injury.

It was the late nineties. Word gets out in a small town (a drummer who actually HAS a drum kit?) and I agreed to try my hand at percussion for a couple of local older cats, they were businessmen brothers who's repertoire seemed heavily influenced by the Rolling Stones.

I enlisted my best buddy to play bass, and we'd typically sneak a spliff before practice not knowing whether these grown-up electric guitar playing siblings would approve of our delinquent behaviour or not... small town and all. Both university educated and well into their thirties, they had a bit of a school teacher aura to them, and we juvenile pot smokers liked to keep our marijuana cigarette smoking habits on the DL.

Let me tell you, esteemed reader, the whole routine of showing-up to practice freshly baked always made for a most ultra-trippy occasion. Practicing rock and roll numbers in a band was far cooler than just staring at the lake or watching TV while pie-eyed - not that that's not a special kind of simplistic and introspective thing to do unto itself or anything. I imagine a good many geopolitical puzzles were solved in just such a fashion throughout the modern era.

These guys had Fender Jazz Master guitars, Fender Stratocaster guitars, AND Fender Telecaster guitars. Our jam spot was a tiny house across from the marina. The elder brother who resided in the lakefront cottage was in the midst of preparing some couscous upon our arrival. This was like 1997 in a small northern town. Couscous? How exotic it seemed to us back then.

The younger brother played rhythm guitar and handled the vocals. Mr. X, the elder brother, played lead. They emphasized the importance of creating a foundation in rock music: bass and drums need to lock-in so as to leave a bit of leeway for the rhythm guitar player, which provides the lead guitar player with a platform to strike-out in any direction – subsequently steering the established rhythm section.

The profundity of this simple approach to a four piece band has remained nested in my mind ever since. My first rock and roll classroom experience.

Why Canadians Should Stop Filing Income Tax

Canada's tax legislation is an archaic pile of nonsense and a monumental waste of working people's time in my opinion. I just quit bothering with the whole shitting mess of it.

Like I'm going to hunt-down six years worth of god damned tax slips just to retroactively claim what won't even amount to five grand... in Canadian dollars no less. To hell with it. They can go ahead and audit me to discover I'm owed money if they want.

We live in an age where an artificially intelligent, self-learning system can dynamically generate web content catered to individual tastes, and sort through billions of list items by using powers of thirty-one, but the Canada Revenue Agency can't ascertain how little I make in a year to cut me a check? And that's a whole other pile of stupid: you fill-in the boxes and submit the forms, and, if the information is inaccurate, the CRA will correct it anyway. So why go through the motions? Is it just an honesty test or an intentional waste of resources?

The only stipulation behind lower income Albertans receiving a carbon tax (wealth transfer) rebate is that a candidate has filed their provincial tax forms. If they think someone like myself has the time to engage in a correspondence war with the CRA over $400 worth of rebates, they should think again. I'm too busy doing things like writing this article to start bothering  former employers for T4 slips dating back to 2010.

As someone who completed a tax preparation course provided by H&R Block in 2000, I feel for small business owners having to jump through the hoops or hire an accountant only to realize less savings than the fees charged by the accountant! My own taxes have always been straightforward as I've always been a single guy who works crap jobs.

In the past, I've only ever needed about eight of the dozens of line items to calculate my rebates. I'm not disabled, I don't have a spouse or dependents, I don't see any capital gains or derive any income from foreign places. I don't live in Quebec and I don't earn gratuities or make charitable contributions. No I don't run a business out of my home to write-off square footage. Every year it was the same tedious dance to complete my forms: yes I'm applying for the GST credit, $13,254, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, dash, ..., $13,254, dash, dash, dash...

I've had enough!

Will phasing-out coal fired plants prove measurably worthwhile from a health standpoint?

It is my contention that claims originating from a summary of research published by the Pembina Institute regarding a connection between positive health benefits from phasing-out coal will prove mostly unverifiable at best as coal-fired plants are phased-out: "an accelerated phase-out would bring nation-wide health, climate and economic benefits."

Even if every province were to install sensitive air monitoring equipment in some grid fashion at fifty kilometer intervals, and collate the nature of each and every hospital visit according to proximal relationships, finding a direct correlation between burning coal and ill-health would still likely prove difficult in my opinion. The way I see it, in a nutshell, such an approach is not unlike telling someone who has spent twenty years of their life working around dry-cleaning chemicals that their breathing difficulty is solely the result of their cigarette smoking habit.  

While it's been no secret for many years that coal related pollution is problematic in many ways, to nobly vilify emissions as having a direct impact upon the general health of a given population is somewhat ridiculous within the context of an industrialized world filled with all manner of perilously harmful toxins. 

Albeit that my position was formed prior to even reading the material, my general suspicions were at least partly confirmed by the disclaimers found in the appendices of the report. Though the contributors admit their estimates surrounding perceived health benefits are conservative, they also point-out that the data used to arrive at their premise borders upon being hair-brained. From the report:

The correlation between air contaminants and health impact may not be as linear as this analysis suggests.

As an academic nobody it is not my intent here to even attempt to properly refute the researchers' scientific methodology, but to encourage a more balanced and less politically motivated analysis of the relationship between particulate emissions and overall health. I say either narrow down a direct relationship, or abandon it altogether before championing inconclusive findings as an argument to speed-up the dismantling of livelihoods and prosperity.

Would not a tripling in the cost of residential electricity bills as a result of abandoning coal-fired power ultimately do more indirect harm to the average person's health than even living close to and downwind from a steady stream of particulate matter? In other words, it's hard to maintain good health if one is perpetually stressed-out about an electric bill biting into a basic food budget.

Would it not make more holistic and economic sense to vigorously pursue improved methods of efficiency relating to a proven, reliable, and affordable method of generating power that is already in place?

Idaho, Here I Come!

I wanna move to Idaho in 2021 or 2027.

https://soundcloud.com/richmath/long-black-cape

Powerful Fashion Statement - Electrifying Solar Garments

From pocket calculators and wristwatches to roof shingles and roadways, the integration and permeation of photovoltaic technology is ever expanding and becoming more sophisticated. Now, with the advent of Wearable Solar Capable Garments (WSCG), you can fulfill all your mobile energy capacity needs with just a jacket and a utility belt.

"The utility belt is intended for heavier applications," explains Matt Brunker, Senior Communications Officer of Photophlex Garments, "but it's optional, and you can enjoy the benefits of limitless energy with only the jacket and tablet-sized conversion interface. It includes two USB outputs, a utility belt connecter, and a five-way selectable DC output for cameras or other devices."

But how tolerable would it be to wear for long periods on hot summer days?

"It's surprisingly lightweight and breathable considering what it is, but we don't recommend it for really hot days," says Brunker.

And just how much energy capacity does it have?

"It depends on many factors, one of which being how many rechargeable battery packs you're willing to carry inside the belt. Without the belt, it will easily recharge an empty smart phone or tablet in under two hours. With the belt fully loaded, it will take around six hours to fully charge all the cells, and on a slightly overcast day, provide around eight to twelve hours worth of juice for a laptop computer once you're out of the sun."

Do we need more creative defense spending in Canada?

I posted this on the National Post's Facebook channel moments ago:

I'm no expert, but I'm thinking that committing to some solid defense spending now, will likely pay-off in the future. Like when NATO numbers come under scrutiny. We don't want to find ourselves scrambling for a deal at the last minute to uphold our sovereignty, and get ripped-off in the process.

Halloween Facebook Fright - Police Visit Man's Residence Over Posting About...

Today around 3:15 pm, my dad answered the door to a member of the RCMP looking to speak with me. This was a first, and of course being the law-abiding citizen that I am, I hadn't the foggiest idea what business they could possibly want with the likes of me. Was a friend in some kind of trouble? An outstanding J-Walking ticket from a bygone era? Was someone attempting to implicate me as part of an elaborate frame-job? 

At the officer's behest, I stepped onto the front porch for a word. He wanted to know if I had ever made a Facebook post relating to the purchase of uranium, and mentioned something about Edmonton. I vaguely remembered making such a post, and dismissed it as an insincere attempt at humour, which indeed it was.  Here's the stupid posting I made:

While it was somewhat unsettling in an Orwellian sort of way, it doesn't bother me that this matter was followed-up on two-and-a-half months after having left this post. To the contrary, I think it reflects positively upon the RCMP to display such vigilance in following through on a complaint in the interests of national security.

The member also requested government ID, and I rooted around for my wallet, but couldn't find it. I told him I'd be willing to bring it into the station, but he didn't seem too concerned. My guess is that he realized it was much ado about nothing.

What bothers me is that the complainant, whoever they may be, deemed it worthy of making a formal complaint. Does he or she honestly think that anyone who is seriously in the market for something so carefully controlled would want to draw attention to themselves by advertising their intent in a public forum? I'm inclined to wonder whether someone has a personal vendetta against me. If this happens to be the case, and you happen to be reading this, then I invite you to please engage with me directly through email: romancealberta@gmail.com.

I might as well take this opportunity to make clear that I am not now, nor have I ever been interested in getting anywhere near any radioactive elements whatsoever. My life is very much a peaceful life, filled with music, art, and learning, and I would like to keep it that way! 

The Twitter Experience

Thought I might document my recent suspension from the great Facebook. What would my life be without Facebook? Twitter.

Here's a glimpse of my Twitter experience as-seen from my computer's flat-panel display monitor.

I know. Funny right? Clever even? No interactions! Needs a hashtag or something I guess. My own brand simply isn't powerful enough to kindle viral outbreaks!

Pokemon GO and Political Dissidents

Would it be fair to say that the machinations of the geopolitical ebbs and flows throughout civilization only become more complex and unpredictable as populations swell and the rate of technological progress accelerates? I suppose such a relationship should be fairly obvious, and there's probably some formulaic expression that could be applied here, but I'd rather just talk about Pokemon GO.

I haven't tried Pokeman GO, and nor do I ever intend to - unless perhaps a complimentary version with more of an emphasis on STAY were released at some point. I do enough walking around without any incentive-driven prompting. My understanding of the game/platform is that it's essentially a 'geocaching' scavenger hunt with a score keeping system. The further you walk between 'known' locations of targets, the higher the point values become for 'capturing' these targets - graphical targets that are niftily superimposed upon the view of your mobile computing device's camera's view of the immediate surroundings. Or something like that.

Almost immediately possibilities began to occur to me: what if such a framework were applied to political dissidents instead of blobular creatures with quirky names? What if sophisticated robots equipped with weapons systems were introduced into the mix? What if the 'players' of the 'game' are really just unwitting, unpaid cartographers being used to fill-in spatial and informational voids that exist withing Google Earth 'street view'?

I foresee global Pokeman conventions, adaptive Pokeman specific technologies, and even Pokeman addiction support groups in the future.

Trump's Dumps

Obviously a man who need not really concern himself over something as trivial as bathroom tissue, Donald Trump takes conservation seriously, and pinches pennies whenever he pinches a loaf.

"There's simply no need to use fist fulls of the stuff if your technique is adequate. You know, some people, some people actually use so much they have to resort to a secondary preemptive flush just to get all that soggy paper down the drain," explains the Republican nominee.

Donald Trump claims he doesn't even use fancy tissues for sticky bum issues. "I mean, I do use two ply, but I find the grittier grade of toilet paper more effective anyway. It really is. Twenty squares tops is my rule of bum. Unless I had KFC earlier. Then maybe twenty-four to twenty-eight squares."

Jackpot! How would you spend nine million bucks?

I don't play the lotto, and it seems people who do, never count on actually winning a substantial jackpot. CBC recently covered a fellow from Cagary who won nine million bucks and posited "What would you do with $9 million" in their Facebook link to the article. Always fun to dream!

Of course the first thing any rational person might do is eliminate any outstanding debts. Many people claim an intent to give to the less fortunate. I would not give a single cent of capital to a charitable organization - I'd sooner found my own charity. Fortunately for me, I have no monetary debts.

First I'd buy a used Mercedes Benz in good condition. Nothing too expensive. The 1988 560SEC pictured below can be had for just $45,000. I prefer vehicles produced prior to the era of computerizing automobiles, and this unit has only 48,000 km on the odometer. I'd prefer it in black, but it seems like one heck of a deal.

Auto Trader

Of course I'd need somewhere to park my car, so I'd probably look around for a something with a garage. Here's a lavish pad listed for $2.25 million. Something that would easily accommodate a multimedia studio of my own design. With five bedrooms and five baths, having friends stay a weekend would never be an inconvenience, but the property taxes would likely be outrageous. It wouldn't surprise me if such a property included a safe. I'd fill the safe with precious metals and emergency cash. 600 ounces of gold, and around $20,000 in Canadian and US tender. Reasonable?

There's no doubt I'd need a serious income to maintain my new lifestyle, which is why I'd purchase a small liquor store. I'm thinking that even in the worst of years, a busy little booze mart could easily generate a net profit of around $70K - more than enough to cover my new home's utilities, maintenance concerns, etc... I think. Plus, I'd get a discount on spirits and wine which would be a substantial fringe benefit if you drink as much as I like to. I imagine the cash flow would be steady, but it's not exactly a license to print money, so finding a top notch manager would be a priority.

Next I'd speculate for a small parcel of undeveloped land somewhere in the northernmost part of the province. Why? I don't really know. It just seems like something that might come in handy some day. Something that I could fit a private runway on, because I would likely take-up flying. I wouldn't buy an aircraft until such a time that I felt exceedingly confident about my long-term financial resolve however.

Here's a rough outline of how I'd allocate a portion of the winnings:

All that, and I'd still have around $4.64 million in cash. This would be a splendid amount for a trusted financial guru to work with. I'd want it set-up in such a way that the principal is as secure as possible. I wouldn't know where to begin, but I'm guessing it's not unreasonable to expect such an amount could generate at least $50K per year through investment dividends, and even swell to double the original amount within ten years if provided shrewd and careful management. Only after an upward trajectory is clearly apparent would I begin to consider things like philanthropic pursuits or travel.

So there you have it. This is what I would do with $9 million. What would you do?

Poetic Musings of the Northwest Mounted Police

Whence upon the divine doth pondereth the divine;
Creators dwell upon thine own noble creations;
And all things bland and spectacualar alike under the sun doth reflect;
Yea, this Dominion of Canada can all but escape their purview.

                   - Constable Randall Kenneth, Northwest Mounted Police - 1881

Internet Silence - A New Approach To Cyber Espionage

I don't know a whole heck of a lot about how bits and bytes are funneled and exchanged by the quadrillions every millisecond across various cyber networks spanning the globe. I do know enough however, to know that all this cyber traffic can potentially be parsed down to the very last zero or one if need be. Binary systems are absolute.

Richard Fadden, the former head of CSIS, feels that Canada should get to have a kick at the cat in terms of cyber-sleuthing in a more offensive fashion; authorizing the DND to allow its operatives to go ahead and do some less-than-ethical hacking against our natural enemies - namely the Chinese and the Russians. I tend to agree.

Here's an idea all my own regarding Canadian espionage practices: we should deploy a bilateral communications equivalency scheme separate and isolated from anything that touches the Internet - apart from a one-way packet filter. Internet traffic could be filtered in, but nothing on the bilateral system could escape the confines therein.  An old-school approach to secretive transmissions of information. I'm not talking smoke signals and carrier pigeons (though such methods have proven effective, and shouldn't be ruled-out in a bind) but proprietary radio signals and unorthodox ways of passing bundles of information. It'd be like an intranet with no potential weak links for hackers to exploit. Something highly innovative and unique that is both reliable and entirely uncrackable from the outside.

If we had such a system in place, the DND could easily switch to "Internet Silence" mode while simultaneously monitoring and evaluating the ongoing bit stream flow in cyber space. Again, I'm out of my element here, but I'm thinking that the mere act of analyzing a remote transmission could possibly trigger an alert to the originator in a two way system. What I envision is a real cyber network that exists in a vacuum. Nothing that enters ever escapes.

 If such a system were elegantly designed and reasonably fast, it would perhaps become the envy of our allies and enemies alike. 

Tax Me, I'm Carbon-Based!

Next, at the risk of validating a straw man, we know that pricing carbon in Alberta isn’t going to solve climate change. - Andrew Leach

I think I understand what the professor is getting at. As much as I'd personally love to see Alberta take a defiant stance in the face of global pressure to make people pay more for everything, it's just not going to happen. Even if Alberta were to treble her emissions, the net measurable impact on the environment would, I gather, still be virtually negligible at a global level. Yet we're still expected to enact upsetting solutions to address what seems a non-existent problem, and we're told to give the bad medicine a chance...for a brighter future of course.  

Will not the adoptive and compliance costs, for both large and small enterprises to conform to the new carbon pricing schemes, especially in the outset, be challenging to say the least? I predict the mere adaptation to, and integration of the new regulatory frameworks could mean the difference between smaller more fragile business operators remaining in business, or folding-up the tent. Large scale industrial players will likely find the means to minimize losses and absorb administrative woes (if not somehow manage to cleverly use the new normal advantageously). I really have no idea, but I think it goes without saying that a carbon tax will force everyone doing business in the province, including average working/consuming Albertans, to streamline their budgets and seriously reevaluate spending priorities. I can however appreciate the sliver of a silver lining to such forced compliance... necessitating sleeker business models. 

Once upon a time, I worked on a casual basis for a talented independent plumbing contractor. He hired me not because I had a background in plumbing, but because I learn quickly and tend to err on the side of caution. Who am I kidding? The former may indeed be true, but I'm fairly certain his choice had more to do with my immediate availability (vulnerability) and low wage expectation... Anyway, the experience provided me with some insight into how services are contracted, and how easily cost overruns can rapidly accumulate. Here's a simplistic example I devised comparing rudimentary numbers between two independent electrical contractors:

For the sake of comparison, we'll presume that Jim & Steve both have impeccable reputations for workmanship, and scored identical contracts, valued identically, within the same week. Somehow, Jim manages to come out ahead. Why might this be? While any number of factors could contribute to Jim's higher rate of efficiency, notice that in Job One, Steve spends almost twice as much on labour, yet assumably completed the same amount of work as Jim. Jim also spent ten times less on incidentals, and half as much on gasoline as Steve did. Furthermore, it took Steve nearly twice as long to finish the job. What all this might indicate is that Jim is a far more careful planner: perhaps while Steve was in a scramble, traversing the city to gather required materials he'd initially overlooked, leaving his helper on-site to drink coffee on the clock, Jim was thoughtfully double-checking the blueprints for conceivable hurdles, and his helper was happily bending conduit and whatnot.

From the point of view of a casual labourer, I could say my own inability to command a high rate of pay, and always finding myself without much leverage to negotiate wages is an indirect outcome of my own lackadaisical and inefficient approach to life in general. A wait-and-see attitude if you will.

It's the stitch in time saves nine principal. Since you neglected to include critical parts on your materials list for a project requiring very specific widgets that now demand priority shipping, you've needlessly inflated your costs. If successive phases of the job cannot proceed without this key component you're now urgently awaiting, then you're also incidentally paying labour costs for little to no value. You've hit the hemorrhage zone. A disorganized inventory can lead to both time and gasoline being wasted cruising around procuring stuff. You get the idea. Failing to get your ducks in a row will result in cumulative and compounded deficits. The avoidable extra hours spent on a particular job could've better been spent wrangling new contracts or tying-up other loose ends related to your business. 

Of course such a comparison is small scale stuff in the context of the greater economy, but a greater economic sphere wouldn't even exist without smaller components; the inverse is probably true as well, considering certain economic sectors and services owe their very existence to the scalar realities of a global economy. Without going into a litany of snakes eating their own tail style hypotheses, basic efficiency speaks to the bottom line, regardless of whether you happen to be examining the financial forensics of a basic household utility budget, or a perplexing and convoluted YOY ROI of some multifaceted global corporation. Here's a very simplistic projection of possible year-end net totals listed by our two fictional contractors inferred from the sets of averages of Jim's and Steve's efficiency rates:

This tells us that despite Steve landing more (or more lucrative) contracts than Jim, he's still seeing less annual returns than Jim. $4700 a year is not a tremendous difference in terms of making a living however. Perhaps Jim has expansionist goals while Steve is content just rolling along and making a buck - secretly shaking his fist at Jim because Jim always seems to have more time off! At the end of the day, both contractors are doing respectable work, and creating a job for someone else to boot. It's easy to imagine, however, that the disparity in efficiency would become far more consequential were it applied to a mid-sized firm competing for major contracts that oversees the day-to-day of multiple contractors. It's also easy to see how the proceeds of Jim's cost-saving organizational advantage will be swallowed up by the new carbon tax scheme!

If you can't say anything nice...

...just write whatever crass invective you can conjure-up off the top of your head.

I've been at this public diary thing for several years now, and I guess I'd be flattering myself to think that my meager words could potentially have any meaningful impact, and yet on I write.

Politics gets me down sometimes. Left or right? I feel like I'm probably slightly left of center, but does anyone really know themselves? It's always tempting to jump into the social media fray wielding an opinion, but that's left me red-faced more often than not. Things are often not what they appear to be upon a first glance.

Computers have provided a healthy distraction. I think it's fair to say that diagnostics are what leads many an otherwise non-technical minded person into the world of binary sensibilities. Something doesn't work, and you need to figure it out. Down the rabbit hole you go, hoping to emerge in some antechamber of cathedral-like proportions where everything is crystalline, obviated. But there's an infinite number of forks in the road... or at least about nine hundred and thirty-seven billion forks.

Been playing more guitar lately. I've got a jam buddy who also has a little dog. On my way to jam the other day, two lovely young women were shuffling ahead of me along the avenue, each with a dog of their own. I was pacing away slightly faster than they were, and made a point of observing the basketball one was carrying as I passed by. Before you knew it, they'd invited themselves and their dogs inside my pal's place to listen to the jam. Nearly twice the average of their respective ages, it's safe to say we wouldn't necessarily have a great deal in common - at least in terms of cultural references (television and movies), but music is the universal language, right?

After a brief Q & A, one of the two ladies found the inclination to play my djembe along with the guitar rhythms, and seemed genuinely enthused to keep time. I sang a song and made them laugh a little before they continued on their way to shoot hoops. Rarely finding myself in a situation to fraternize with anyone, let alone millennials, I tend to form generalizations about who and what the post-X demographic represents, and how I'd expect they might conduct themselves around elders. These specimens were polite and in possession of a good sense of humour thereby shattering all my preconceived notions about most millennials being a disengaged and dour bunch of screen tappers.

I should mention that my jam pal is twenty years my senior, so I suppose you could say in regard to the instance I just described, my role became that of a generational bridge?



 

Latest High Level Bridge Project: Value Subtractive

You try and tell proponents of projects like this that there's got to be a better way, and suddenly you are an unsympathetic ignoramus who doesn't care about mental illness. Of course, the last thing anyone with a shred of decency wants to see is a fellow human being take their own life, but isn't this approach a little unfair to the 99.991% of residents who will never seriously contemplate jumping from the High Level Bridge?

Now you can't even take a picture from the middle of it without crap obstructing your lens. Worse yet, the surface areas of the pedestrian/multi-use lane ways have been reduced by about five percent on either side. The potential for collisions with cyclists is thereby increased by this squeeze.

I've crossed this bridge by foot, bicycle, and automobile countless times in my life. I think I once even skateboarded across. Whatever mode of transport you favour, it has occurred to me while walking alone late at night that I might be vulnerable to predatory individuals. Could not jumping into the river from high above be a reasonable last resort if the alternative is being badly beaten-up, stabbed, or shot trying to get home? I tell you, I'd sooner take my chances with a splash into the North Saskatchewan than a gang of toughies! 

If you ask me, this project was not only a tremendous waste of money, it's a waste of money that represents a value-subtractive net effect on Edmonton and the lives of Edmontonians. 

   

Oil, Wood, Gas. How should I stay warm?

Extreme coldness of climate is the only real disadvantage of northern living. Maybe you happen to be someone who finds themselves amiss outside of tropical regions - a sun worshiper as they say. Tropical regions are definitely not my bag babe. There's more than enough minor irritants in my life already for me to have to worry about nasty green reptiles and giant arachnids crawling into my shoes.

Northern living suits me fine, but it's costly to make a northern home cozily warm. Out west in western Canada, the most obvious choices to keep the deadly Jack Frost at bay are firewood and natural gas. Perhaps geothermal - something I know very little about, and you'll probably want to build a house around it rather than attempt it as an afterthought?

I find myself wondering whether geothermal output levels fluctuate. I imagine it would ebb and flow like everything else in nature.

I do believe the provincial government of Alberta collects royalties from the proceeds of natural gas.

Firewood is comparatively inefficient at a molecular level, and not by nature as clean burning. Wood retains moisture, and incinerating it will create greenhouse gasses.

But let's face it. Were not the Athabasca forest fires equivalent to about eight billion firewood burning homes burning firewood continuously for nine years? I just think it'd seem disingenuous to actually charge people for the 'privilege' of burning wood simply to avoid freezing to death. Or is there some plan to see us all move south?

I remember the oil-fuelled furnace in Ontario. Man. That's a dirty way of heating compared to elegant and gaseous natural gas. Not only is oil as a home heating fuel far less efficient than natural gas, there's a need for a tanker truck to make the rounds just to fill-up yer oil storage tank now and then.

Who has room for a big honkin' oil tank in their basement? Well... probably most people, but it's the size of three bungalow-sized hot water heater tanks. Point being, they eat-up valuable floor space if you don't live in some palatial intrigue. Other than that, oil is reliable and affordable. A fiscally prudent choice if natural gas isn't abundant, and modern furnaces are probably quite efficient.


I'm interested to know what you think.

Keep Yourself In The Hive

Ten years ago, instead of following a link affixed to a submission of gushing sentiment on Twitter and Facebook, most folks would've learned about the catastrophic event in Orlando through the front page of a printed newspaper.

My heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones. Really it does.

Cue the finger-pointing.

Agenda: Mainstream Media Blames Guns, Not ISIS, For #Orlando Massacre https://t.co/LHjjCGkRrk #2a #tcot #guncontrol

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) June 13, 2016

Cue the opportunistic political angling.

Rubio Contemplates Senate Run After Orlando Shooting https://t.co/QpKR7chG0I via @RollCall

— Mark Steyn (@MarkSteynOnline) June 13, 2016

Cue the false-flag conspiracy theories.

Cue the obligatory performances by high-profile celebrities to leave no doubt in anyone's mind regarding their solidarity with the victims.

Cue the Facebook avatar filters.

Without going into detail or providing point-by-point parallels in bullet-form, I do get the faint impression that the official  narratives emerging in the aftermath of mass killings in recent times almost seem to be outlined in advance of the events themselves. I will say that it's not inconceivable that motives are more easily obfuscated when the perpetrator ends-up included in the death tally. Of course, five out of seven people in the western world seem to have no qualms about cementing all manner of intimate thoughts and reflections online. Have you read my blog?

But are they really cemented? Are they not malleable after being written? If I can edit the words on this page whenever I want, what's to stop someone else from doing so, presuming they can access my account? Do these words I write, and images I upload appear the same on my computer screen as they would appear to someone in India? Would it not take a computer forensics specialist to properly ascertain whether or not my genuine submissions haven't been altered in some clandestine fashion?

I'll leave it to you, esteemed readers, to get to the bottom of whatever potentialities may or may not exist. I can promise it'll be a perplexing pursuit given the labyrinthine experience of attempting to research anything online. Conflicting agendas, spin, opportunism, memes, 'click-here'... it's a quagmire of confusion to be sure.

Until next time, I'll continue to avoid mass gatherings and simply experience the world from behind my pixelated 'reality' zone.