Give Me Something To Look Forward To

So it's what, January twenty-something today? Yeah, and it feels like it too. It feels like January twenty-something and I feel like a January twenty-something. Found this article on the web that helps to expain it...maybe. I don't have the New Year's Resolution thing that it talks about. I know this because I didn't make one; I'll fail enough times without consciously adding another way to do so.

So maybe it's the weather. Or not. It has been unseasonably warm since Novermber, and I don't mind it when it is unseasonably cold either. Those are the times when you can remind yourself that you're really only one layer of clothing away from freezing to death. Not that this is a pleasant thought, but it keeps things in perspective at least. I think that the key sentence is this: "People feel bleak when they have nothing planned." I can't help but remember that last year at this time I was getting ready for this:Mosquito bitten legs and bad farmer-tan aside, it looks pretty good from where I'm sitting right now. And then there was this:

And, like magic, this mood becomes a bit more understandable. The only question now is what to do. I'll think about it, taunted by the fact that this guy, apparently, has long since figured out for himself what I cannot.

There's Something Amazing About That Blue

So the election is coming up in a week and I have been thinking a lot about voting strategy. Which of the three major parties do I want to form our government? NONE!...and also...WRONG QUESTION! Bill Blaikie, an NDP candidate for somewhere in Winnipeg made a good point the other day on a panel discussion on the CBC Local News. He said that when Canadians vote, we don't simply vote for the party that we want to be in charge. Rather, as a whole we vote for a particular melange of people, from the various parties, that will make up our government. Thus, the question I should be asking myself when thinking about how to vote is not "Who do I want to win?" so much as "What mix of people do I want in our parliament?"

Thinking in this way allows me the possibility of voting against my conscience without feeling bad. I'll explain. Suppose the NDP were poised to win a landslide victory. I might then vote Conservative - if they had a chance of winning my riding - simply to put a dissenting opinion in parliament even though under normal circumstances I would rather die, be reincarnated, and then die 4 times at once, than vote Conservative.

However, since the above scenario is probably the exact opposite of what is going to happen, I will likely vote NDP. First, because they are the only party (besides Green) that doesn't have a short-sighted, knee-jerk "tough on crime" policy. Second, I just discovered that I live in the second poorest riding in all of Canada. Thirdly, based on an extensive study of my impression of the number of signs in front yards in this area, the NDP are going to win anyway. Finally, though the NDP are reputedly the least fiscally responsible party, I don't believe the Conservatives (or the Liberals, obviously) to be any better. Their plan of attatching ourselves, mollusk-like, to the sinking ship that is the US of A is faulty. If they were the shrewd business people they claim to be, they would choose a Chinese party leader and make Mandarin our third official language. Plus Stephen Harper looks creepy. Here's a picture I took: Let's get tough on crime.

Here Goes Nothing

After being reprimanded at Christmas for not having a blog I decided to step up. I thouroughly enjoy checking others' blogs, but realized that it is kind of creepy to just be reading other blogs, not commenting, and not having a blog that others can read. Kind of like stalking in a way. So now it's time to give back.