James Howard Kunstler on "Land-Whales"

I read a piece by James Howard Kunstler today that nearly killed me with laughter - check out the first sentence of this diatribe;

Having just returned from a week in England where, among other things,
walking more than ten yards a day is quite normal, I was once again
startled by the crypto-human land whales waddling down the aisles of my
local supermarket in search of Nabisco Snack-Wells, Wow chips, and other
fraudulent inducements to "diet" by overindulgence in "low-fat"
carbohydrate-laden treats. And they did not look happy.

Full article

One of the first thing I noticed coming back to Calgary was the size difference between the average Montrealer and here. Enormous! Yet still, on trips down to the States, the average American is fatter yet. Canadians in general, and I can't prove this so I'm saying this subjectively, are much slimmer people, and Montrealers are the slimmest of them all. I credit much of it to environment and exercise. Few young people have cars in Montreal, most walk, bike and do other things to get themselves around. Its not that they can't afford them, its that there's no need for them in the City, and its a pain in the ass to find parking anyway. Switch to Calgary where parking abounds, you can't go anywhere by foot, and big box stores abound and you have the makings of a crypto-human land whale environment. I think there's a lot of possiblity to taking out a lot of these big box stores and turning their MASSIVE floorplates and parking areas into entire town sites, god knows there's enough land area to put in an entire block of interesting mixed-use stuff.

I went to the local dog park today and wore out the animal. Enormous numbers of people there with big goofy dogs, drool dripping and hanging in long streaming ropes from bulging jowls, tails wagging excitedly. Its great to see so many off leash dog parks in Calgary, especially along the river. There's lots of space to run and play, hide in the woods, cycle and do all manner of activities. You can walk through open grassland, enter into a thicket of poplars and alders, drop down into the river edge and struggle through brush, climb a sandstone cliff carved into hoodoo like formations. It's really good, and there are so many in the heart of the City. This one that I went to was administered by the Southland Nature Park Society, a community effort. It's one of the things that makes Calgary livable, this attention towards real, meaningful and useable green space. Who cares it it isn't nicely landscaped? Nature did a wonderful job thank you, and it bears keeping in mind to keep wild areas like that for non-wild purposes.

I'm going to Vancouver on Wednesday to keep looking for a job and see friends. I'm looking forward to it, but I hope I can find a job soon and get a little bit of momentum going with my life, and get out of the holding pattern I'm currently in.

My opinion on William Sampson and the future leadership of Canada

There was a write up on the William Sampson case yesterday in the Globe and Mail. They asked political leaders for their opinions. No suprise, the NDP had one position and the Canadian Alliance another, while Mr. Martin said "No comments at this time." No comments??? This is the man we are going to be stuck with as future Prime Minister, and the man stands for nothing and refuses to state a position on any matters. It baffles me as to why anyone supports this man, or any other politician in general. We've done such a great job of making politics such a repugnant profession that it only attracts the lowest of the low, and those who seek power for powers sake. No wonder the voting turnout continues to bomb. Prime Minister Martin. It sounds to me like we're about to have ourselves subjected to another decade of inactivity and inattention, while Canadian living standards and global influence continues down the drain.

I find it mildly funny that I have more than enough time to figure outhow to do CSS and create this weblog, but when it comes down to working on the thesis writers block hits and sinks its pearly fangs in deep. Funny in a sick, rub salted leaches dipped in hot sauce into your 3rd degree burn on your forehead kind of way. I'm ill just thinking about it. I am 20 pages away from the culmination of an entire phase of life and the beginning of a new one, and I can't get past one freaking sentence.

Calgary is perplexing me. It has so many sterotypical subdivisions and sameburbs, massive expanses of asphalt and marching rows of used car dealerships, but at the same time little pockets of urbanity - a village green here, a dog park there, lovely bike paths running along the river valleys and a fantastic assortment of pubs and restaurants. My emotions range between calm relaxation and pure loathing as I wander around. I visited a park over in Oakridge, on the south side of Glenmore Lake. The area between the residential neighbourhood and the Blackfoot reserve has long been held as a right-of-way for the Sarcee Trail expansion as another north south connector on the west side of town. To do it, they would need to build out a viaduct then a full bridge to get over the Weaselhead valley and the Elbow River. The project would be at least a 4-lane highway. I used to play and watch wildlife in the weaselhead when I was a kid, its a nature reserve and absolutely beautiful. A home for black bear, coyotes, deer, everything. Will a bridge kill it? No, because I'm sure it can be done in an environmentally benign way, but its the right-of-way that kills me. It is a fantastic open prairie right now, a bike path, joggers, cyclists, dogs running happily about, another patch of green space about to be turned over. And for what? To relieve congestion off 14th Street and provide another way for the massive suburban communities spreading like a disease out to the south and west. Here's an idea. Where are the limits to growth? When will someone stand up and say No, you can't build there, there are no roads, there are no services, and we aren't going to put them in. I fear for Calgary 15 years down the road. It's changed so much in the last 15, grown outwards so tremendously. The City will go bankrupt I'm sure from the enormous cost of infrastructure. What will the suburbs do then? I read in the budget that over 50% of costs are spent on the road network right now - that isn't including all the externalities that get factored in - police, firecrews, landscaping, environmental protection, storm and sewer run off, chemical spills and the like. If 75% of the City's budget relates to the roads system I would not be shocked indeed. This City is growing beyond its means area-wise, and it does not have the density to maintain it. Calgary is unsustainable, and I wonder just when we'll hit the wall and how hard the fall will be.

I am testing out some features here because I think my web browser is farked, grr, yet another reason to despise another crappy microsoft product. BLOGGER - Knowledge Base

So I am going to test this blog out now by putting up a big post. Here goes.

Alleys are also ideal places for the kinds of informal activities that can help create a sense of community. Alleys can be places for working on a car or boat, building a tree house, playing basketball or soccer, building a storage shed, or simply chatting with friends or walking a dog… Alleys can thus be seen as not only functional storage zones but also as important activity spaces where informal activities that glue neighbourhoods together but are often discouraged out front can thrive. They can act as avenues of social connection (Ford, 2001, p. 277).

Hopefully, formatting should have worked properly. This is cool, I'm learning CSS on the fly. I have learned though that little quote thingeys don't work. Here's a test of a web link Fark.

Another upgrade and template change to work the bugs out.