It’s all fun and games until somebody gets E. coli

But luckily, that’s not the case here in the Vancouver area. It was found there was no E. coli in Vancouver water. Phew. Let’s hope this is a sign of the water advisory being lifted soon.

In other news, ‘Prime Minister’ Stephen Harper continues making incredibly bold, highly conservative based decisions that are nailing the coffin shut on his entire political career. First off, he plans to privatize Cancer information in hopes of saving 400,000 lives in the next 30 years. You can tell this douchebag is from Alberta. Harper is obviously intent on privatizing health care in this country. I guess he didn’t watch the final episode of The Greatest Canadian. We, as Canadians, voted Tommy Douglas as the Greatest Canadian. Why? Because he gave us health care. Not a single, warm blooded, proud Canadian would ever give that up.

This is obviously a step towards privatization, not toward stomping out cancer. If Harper wanted to stomp out cancer, I would suggest this. Make smoking illegal. Period. Drugs such as marijuana and cocaine are illegal, primarily because they are harmful and potentially fatal. Smoking kills some 45,000 Canadians each year, more than all illegal drugs combined. Hell, if smoking were made illegal, would it not follow that we’d save the lives of 1,350,000 Canadians over the next thirty years? Even if I’m off in regards to the figures, 33% of that figure would meet Mr. Harper’s target. This is one Canuck who simply won’t let the asshole from Alberta fool him.

Mind you, this is small potatoes compared to the bombshell Harper unloaded in the House of Commons earlier this week. He wishes to officially recognize Quebec as an independent nation within Canada. What the fuck? This is the person, nay the imbecile, whom we voted to lead us, as a nation, UNITED? When I talked to a certain, Conservative friend from back in New York Jr. Toronto, they happily thought the idea was brilliant, saying, and I quote:

“Quebec gets what they want, to be their own nation, and Canada can be like their parent.”

It seems this friend is not under the Harper gag order. Nothing like someone who says what they mean. It would appear from the comment, that particular friend views La Belle Province very condescendingly. Only a generation since Meech Lake, since the debate, since the echos of the Trudeau ideal, and it seems the teachings are being lost. Quebec is an integral part of our past, our present, and future. If we as Canadians are to grow as a multicultural nation, we must learn to have a stronger partnership with Quebec. It is a shame that the attitude of so many Canadians outside of Quebec is so shocking. We are pushing them away just as fast as they want to leave.

In retrospect, Harper’s move could serve at least one of two purposes. Firstly, he may want to destroy all of Trudeau’s legacy here in Canada. Unfortunately, unlike our differently brained neighbours, the term Liberal is NOT meant as an insult, so there must be more to it. Maybe somebody will finally slip the gag order, and Harper’s true, diabolical intent may be revealed. Bear this in mind. As a member of the opposition, sitting beside Preston Manning of the Refooooorrrrrrrrrrmmmmmm Party, he voted against regarding Quebec as a distinct society, let alone an independent nation within Canada. But Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, has given his support to the motion of Mr. Harper. Maybe the writing is on the wall, and Harper is creating a backup to stave off the inevitable defeat of his minority government, by creating a strong ally in the House of Commons. Alas, the latter is true, as many Canadians are realizing that Harper is currently, and always has been, firing duds. And I don’t mean JUST in the sack.

That is all.

Water Cooler Episode II - Three prawns are hardly a galaxy

One week later, and still I’m still unloading freezer trucks into cold storage. To which leads more water cooler conversation. And, for the last two days, we’ve been unloading a veritable galaxy of prawns. To which it lead to this piece of trivia about The Simpsons, which taught me I haven’t memorized every episode like I have with Twin Peaks, any David Lynch film, or the Star Wars saga. To which I was asked to identify this quote, which suprisingly relates to prawns.

‘But the menu said “galaxy of prawns”. Three prawns are hardly a galaxy!’

The only hint I received was that it was a guest star playing him or herself. Being fixated on galaxy, I guessed Mark Hamill, Leonard Nimoy, and Richard Dean Anderson, fixated on the galaxy portion of the quote.

Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The answer?

I’d never guess.

It was Gary Coleman, complaining about his seafood order…

Meh. I can’t always be right, can I? Well, to add my two cents now, I don’t think I’d be too impressed if I ordered a “galaxy of prawns” and only got three. Luckily though, I won’t have that problem, as prawn is not on my desired menu by any stretch of the imagination.

Which is probably why I’m happy the prawn pallets are all done now. Not only do I not like prawn, not only did I move more prawn in the last two days than most people will eat in a lifetime, but also working in -25 °C conditions is not my idea of fun in the middle of summer.

Which brings me to my last snippet. The boxes we were moving were labelled “Prawns Cooked”, in beautiful Shelly Volante font. Prawns cooked? Is this new english? I went to the distributor’s site, to which I found out they sell prawns in packages labelled “Cooked Shrimp”. So, aside from the commercial name for prawn, obviously my sense of grammar is not completely out of whack. To which I get this feeling every time I see “Prawns Cooked”, being cooked in what?

The best thought I’ve come up with yet is prawns cooked in rich, creamery butter, topped off with cheese, ham, bacon, and a fried egg. We call it the good morning prawn.

That is all.

Water Cooler Conversation

It’s just a little bit of an understatement, seeing as the water was in the form of ice, and cooler should read freezer, as I spent the better part of today in -18 degree climate, unloading rigs of seafood onto pallats. Well, so long as the Canadian dollar is strong, film work is weak, and thusly I must do what is necessary to pay the rent.

Luckily, I had the pleasure of spending the last two days of work with a delightful chap hailing from out east like myself. And, seeing as the labour itself doesn’t require too much mental capacity, the time was filled with a plethora of discussion on a variety of topics.

Now that we’ve seen two full seasons of the new Battlestar Galactica series (which, incidentally, is shot right here in sunny Vancouver, British Columbia), it is one of the few remakes that seems to have worked artistically, as the original series seems a lot cheesier in comparison.

Speaking of cheesey sci-fi from the 70’s and early 80’s, Buck Rogers is so cheesey that it makes the Batman series from the 1960’s seem like Shakespeare in comparison.

Ishtar is by far and away the worst movie ever made. And as a teenager, I paid $2.25 at the theatre (on cheap night) to see it. And I was ridiculed today for it too. Meh.

World War II started in September of 1939, not December of 1941. This was not an issue of debate, but rather a sad look at a small group of differently brained friends down south who decided to stir shit on this post by a good blogger, the Martian Anthropologist. Mind you the post wasn’t about the dates, but rather that Bush is less effective than FDR in ridding the world of it’s current incarnation of evil. What is amusing is the misrepresentation of their “facts”, and calling the actual fact semantics, and trying to prove their point in the process. Sounds a little too much like religion to me.

How it is the typical medical standard to perscribe drugs such as legal barbituates to help with drug addiction problems with illegal street barbituates. That doesn’t conquer the addiction, but rather just replaces one chemical with another similar chemical, now legal. Does the government want to be the new dealer on the block?

Why on earth did Lucas change A New Hope to make Greedo shoot first?

How sad is it now that they are remaking James Bond films?

With some of the people I’ve worked with doing temp work, it is a refreshing change to have someone to banter with on the job.

As for me, and after this post, will be away for a period of time, but never fear, I shall return.

That is all.