The Drift

learnn'

2006-09-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

Six years. Six years of drifting aimlessly has brought me here. Have you guys seen "King Arthur"? It ranks up there with one of the largest abominations in motion picture history. But one line from that movie sticks out. "All the blood I have shed has led me to this moment" Or something along that line. Ya get the idea. The program is mega-stellar. Mostly people my age with a slew of expierience in the field. People have degrees and diplomas and run thier own non-profit organizations and are already saving the world in thier unique way. Our first assignment is to do something good for a non-profit organization and then present it. In a group. It will be a good four years.

The Beast

2006-06-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

"We could not understand because we were too far and could not remember because we were traveling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign - and no memories. The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look at a thing monstrous and free."

Where oh where can find such a thing. Here, up the river, all we see are the shackled monsters. The mere shapes, according to Conrad, are all we see. But for those brave who man the paddle and sling thier swords and make thier own way down the river.......those are the few who see what monster really is. And oh, how they see it in all its monstrosity and in all of its freedom. And we that grow tired of fearing the shackled beast up river must muster what anger we have and journey down the river and there friends, there we will see what is too be feared. For in that fear we will face much more then a mere beast. We will face every beast and every monster and every fear we have a ever thought be freightening and then we will know our very capacity of being. We will know that the shackled beast up the river no longer has the ability to hold us in its grasp for we have seen and stared down what it once was and longer has the ability to be.

Kids eh?

2006-06-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

A man can hold a sad opinion for a long time. All of a sudden, with no preparation or readiness someone can spring an interesting epiphany on him and it slowly starts to change. For the last two years or so there has been this bleak out look on children from this writer. (In my opinion) There are fewer things more cruel then creating a baby. First of all you make it, the child has no say in whether it wants to be made or not. If it's lucky enough to not be born with AIDS or addicted to crack or FAS, we pull it out of a warm cozy fluid filled piece of paradise into this cold cold cruel world and force polluted cold air into thier fresh tender lungs. "Welcome to earth" we proclaim to this poor innocent life as we cut of it's cord to the womb. Then, if once again it is born healthy, it has to beat the odds of being born decent set of parents. And the odds are not in its favor considering the divorce rate, single parent rate and abuse rate. So if a kid has beaten the odds of health and parents, we as a society berate it with mass media forcing it to look, dress, talk a certain way. Finally through the adolscent, teen and adult years it's gotta avoid the trappings of alcohol, sex and drugs. But here's the problem that I have facing me as of this moment. This cruel, sick and disgusting world that we have is the some world that the Almighty bore his Son into. So it must be worth living, and much to my dismay, it must be worth bearing children in.

Kids eh?

2006-05-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Finally

2006-05-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

I wanna have the same last dream again
The one where I wake up and I'm alive
Just as the four walls close me within
My eyes are open up with pure sunlight
I'm the first to know
My dearest friends
Even if your hope has burned with time
Anything that is dead shall be re-grown
And your vicious pain, your warning sign
You will be fine

Any type of love it will be shown
Like every single tree reach for the sky
if you're gonna fall
i'll let you know
that i will pick you up
like you for i
i felt this thing
i can't replace
when everyone was working for this goal
where all the children left without a trace
only to come back as pure as gold
to recite this all

I cannot live I can't breathe unless you do this with me

Make a sound

2006-05-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

There is a grave injustice in Uganda. 30,000 children have been abducted in the last twenty years or so. Many are raped or killed. The others are forced, brainwashed and coerced to become child soldiers. After having seen "Invisible Children" I have been altered. These were no longer children in some world vision video, but people. For the first time in a while that rascist inside of me was broken down a bit and the whole of humanity was leveled on the same playing field. Slowly, I am learning that one life is not greater then another (I still gotta long way to go).
Visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php and http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/stable/globalissues_uganda?Open&lid=learnmore&lpos=leftnav to find out more. (Check out the FAQ, it has the best actual information). And Also please sign the petition to pressure the UN to act https://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/guest.nsf/childsoldiers_done?OpenForm

And if you are feeling very ambitious you can write the PM
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

pm@pm.gc.ca

And the Petey

Peter Mackay
Minister of Foreign Affairs
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Mackay.P@parl.gc.ca

Victory and Defeat

2006-04-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

This life can be divided almost neatly into victories and defeats. The defeats we remember with agony and have rightoues relish about them. But victories, we hide them in our closest armour, defending them from the bitters and haters that would have to bring them down. Much like hockey, both victory and defeat share the same surface, the same medium. On friday we are victorious; on sunday we are defeated. Sunday is vivid, every blown chance and every brick hand resonates, the sound rings and blows out any sweet sound of the victory bell from friday. But why? Why do we relish in our defeats and hide our victories? Is it perhaps that if we show the masses our victories we fear the haters taking it away and making something once beautiful now ugly? If we cannot celebrate what we have won what is there left to celebrate? Some sort of good chance maybe? Here are my victories;
I bought a shirt that people complimented me on; Five Bucks, Value Village
Flames on Friday
A presentation on rock n' roll that went well
A long friendship
A saturday night movie worth every penny
Another not so long friendship.

There is not enough room to list my defeats and there are too many defeats in the world as it is. These are my victories. I would like to hear some victories from the masses.

Haiku

2006-04-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

Raven Haired Vixen
Flawless flight on griffin wings
Away way away

The Difference

2006-03-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

This is not just the men out there but also for the ladies. Who is hotter, Natalie Portman for going to Harvard or Rachel McAdams choosing not to pose naked on the front of 'Vanity Fair'. McAdams is also a Canadian which also furthers her hotness. It's a tough call but what is truly more attractive, intelligence or decency?

Where is the fun

2006-03-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

The next question, readers, is this; Sould we take a fundamentalist view on marriage? or on any issue really? Or is it one of those issue by issue type things. It would be great to be a fundamentalist, however; I lack the faith.

Nothing

2006-03-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

It's really too bad that no one could answer the question. What is so great about marriage???
I realize that marriage is about commitment, sticking it out and choosing to love; still my question was never answered. And for those who said I should look in the bible for what marriage should look like, first of all there are not alot of great examples of marriage in the bible (Mary and Joeseph is the only good couple that comes to mind) secondly, for the most part, we are evangelical christians. Not fundamentalists. I can say this with almost all certainty, I do not know one couple where the wife actually fully submits to her husband. But why should they, it was Paul who said that they should and why should anybody listen to him. I mean it was Paul who said that women shouldn't teach men and that women should wear head coverings and we certainly don't follow that. My apologies to the Brethren and other fundamentalists that are reading, it's too bad that you guys don't follow mainstream christianity and still read and obey the Bible. Unbelievable.

P.S.
1) This is not a direct burn about women, so please spare any femmy liberal spout that anybody is itching to spill.
2) Does anybody know the divorce rate on fundamentalists versus non-fundamentalist

Rotten with guilt

2006-03-13T20:39:00.000-07:00

Initial Special Mention; Apologies to dear Erin or any other married individual in the masses who was offended with the previous post. Feeling guilty enough, I feel I must justify myself.
I know that it is not anybodys job to convince me that marriage is good, I just would like to know what is great about it.

Also, anonymous, your comments win. Happy Birthday, I love you.

Giving this subject some thought over the past hour or so whilst playing flash games (wrought/rot with guilt) feeling the threashold of something big here. I beleive it is not somewhere I want to go, but we all gotta travel our own road eh?
Do know readers that your thoughts and feelings are appreciated on the subject and if anybody has anything else to say about it I sure could use the hope.

A dream with in a dream????

2006-03-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

Looking around at different married couples in my various social spheres there has been a dreadful conclusion reached. Marriage is for suckers. This is what I need from you, my readers. I need a good sales pitch on marriage. This is my bleak bleak out-look on marriage;1) Wives do not respect thier husbands.....Who would want to live like that for the rest of thier lives? 2) You have to ask if you want to do anything remotley social.....Who would want to live like that for years and 3) There is only a fifty percent chance that it is going to work out anyways....Who would want to risk thier social, financial and emotional lives on a bet with no odds and with only half the chance of winning. For you gamblers this seems like an alright bet, but you sure gotta put the farm on the table. So my question, What is so great about getting married???

I will not accept the following answers; sex, companionship and someone to cook for you.

There are no bad answers to this question, and I promise I will give each response due thought and attention which it deserves.

Stay regular

JML

2006-02-27T16:13:00.000-07:00

Special mention to Joshua Light for getting both questions correct on last post. If you were wondering what the answers are, take a look at the comment section of the last post. A little about Joshua Matthew Light; Joshua lives in Lethbridge and works as a welder. Joshua is also a Edmonton Oilers fan, he is also my cousin and I love him.

Note; My good friend Fair-Bear put up some good thoughts, please check it out, there is a link just to the right.

Canada

2006-02-26T17:31:00.000-07:00

What is there to say? Twenty-four medals. Third place, or fifth place depending on how you count it. It is too bad that we were so close to twenty-five; the goal of the Canadian Olympic Commitee's goal. Mens hockey would have made that a nice total of twenty-five.

In the spirit of the games and the spirit of trying to make this rag interactive I have two questions for the masses this evening. Question #1; The Winter Olympics have 15 different disciplines, how many different events did Canada medal in?? P.S. Canada's was the highest of any country.

Question #2 Why can't Helen Kellar drive?

As per usual, the person who answers one or more of these question first and correctly wins.

Amen

2006-02-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

So growing up, those of us who were raised by parents who call themselves christians had what would be called a tradtion every meal. For those readers of this rag who were not raised in such a household, you may not understand this particular epiphany. So this tradition we have is to thank the Good Lord for our meal before we eat it. Well, the theory proposed is that the word 'Amen', which is said at the end of these prayers, triggers a Pavlovian response to eat. It has conditioned the hearer and sayer to start eating. This may sound a little crazy but do you ever wonder why people are so hungry after church? It's all those amens.

Special mention; Lisa J. Bennett got my last question correct in getting Daytona Splendor's real name correct. Hooray. A little about Lisa......Lisa lives in Edmonton and works.

Daytona Splendor

2006-02-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

I will now take this opportunity to congradulate my good friend Daytona Splendor on answering my question correctly. Indeed it was Stephen Colbert of The Colbert report formerly of the Daily Show who invented the word 'Truthiness'.
A little bit about Daytona Splendor; He lives in Edmonton and goes to school...or works.

Next question, what is Daytona Splendor's real name, first one to answer wins.

Two months

2006-02-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

A month off. Probably two actually. After weeks of trying to figure out what can be learned from this little adventure there are only a very few things that I can really put down as firm true things. Truthiness, is hard to come by. (By the way, whoever can tell me who invented the word truthiness wins). Two things I have learned about drifting which you can all take with you as you drift. #1 We can’t do this on our own. We all need somebody to lift us up and take us for breakfast once and edit our papers. And if we are really lucky somebody will need us to give them a ride once in a while. #2 There is still no denying the awesome inspirational power of M. W. (Dub) Smith’s “Place in this World”. No one with the ability of heartache can listen to that song and not be moved. It’s just the way it is.
I have also have answered the mitten question. The answer is because it doesn’t matter how much a mitten is torn apart or how many times those mittens let me down by letting draft in or what have you; a pair of mittens is made out of a material that is totally fixable and virtually indestructible beyond repair. A pair of mittens always deserves another chance. Why? Because I Love them

Repaired

2006-01-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

I mended an old pair of wool mittens. I was using the gloves for some outdoor work I was doing and needless to say the things hardly held up. I don’t really have a need for these gloves anymore. I bought an exact replica pair a few weeks ago for work and a certain somebody made me an almost exact pair a while ago. So why bother with repairing these other gloves? It started with boredom but then as I started to repair them I wanted to see if something that wrecked could possibly be repaired. I did an alright job but I was just using regular thread so it’s pretty obvious that they are not brand new. But the big problem was not the thread or huge alien length sausage fingers but that these gloves were so worn that there wasn’t enough original material to really bring them up to snuff. Sure they are still gloves and they serve purpose, but why bother using these beat up repaired gloves when I have choice of two other pairs that would be much better for the job?

Brothers

2006-01-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

Brother One only saw a glimpse of his future before being whisked off to experience another one. Brother One was going to be an astronaut or some sort of flying man. Whether by winged arms or mechanical machine, doesn’t seem to matter, he was going to be a hiiigh flyer. Brother One became Brother Down. There was a song with that title once but that’s what they called him…..Brother Down. If we were to be when these transpired a black person may have called him Brotha Down. But it’s hard to tell, the rules over such grammer were a bit confusing. Ebonics. Brother Down, formerly Brother One now lived another life. Now this isn’t one of those crazy science fiction stories where the main character doesn’t remember his former life and goes all crazy ‘cause he gots ta start from scratch. Ebonics. No no, this dear old ex-friend remembered clearly when he was Brother One. He was gonna fly. For some reason beyond Brother Down’s control he took a job from doctor. He acquired his job from a source when shall not name. Perhaps it is not important. In any case, this doctor was a hataa. Ebonics. It seemed Brother Down’s occupation was to test certain stimuli upon the human body. Unfortunately for Doctor Fillz, Brother Down was a little more then human. Needless to say when Doctor Fillz hurled what ever was in his beaker that day and in most cases whatever was left over from the night before, it couldn’t stick. Brother Down’s more-then-humanness seemed to protect him. Still unable to fly, I asked Brother Down if it was because of his more-then-humanness “No” said he, “But at least I have a good job”. Perhaps in this world that Brother Down lives in that would make sense. I think it’s in the future where Brother Down lives.