Yesterday was Thursday!
Tomorrow is Saturday!
And Sunday comes afterwards!
(Lyrics courtesy of a strong contender for The Worst Song Of All Time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0
I’m so happy about today’s events (more on that later) that I no longer feel depressed by the very existence of this song. I do apologise to the rest of you, though, especially if you were previously unaware of the phenomenon that is Rebecca Black.)
I’m finally starting to get over this horrible cold, just as we hit some sunny days and the cherry blossom started to come out. Things are looking up, in Vancouver as well as in Ottawa – and to celebrate the fact that for the first time in ages I felt like doing something other than sitting motionless on the sofa, we went out for a pre-weekend dinner last night. Hey, it’s all for charidee, mate – you gotta do your part!
I ordered sliced duck breast with spaghetti squash, spinach, and fig jus, and after enjoying a fine local beer, I decided to try the “sloe” gin fizz. We don’t have sloes here, so they used Saskatoon berries instead, which is just fine by me. What I hadn’t spotted from the menu was that all cocktails arrive “deconstructed, Bento-box style”:
Some assembly required
Luckily, the instructions were pretty straightforward,
I like the "do not shake soda" part. I bet they've cleaned up a few messes.
and the next stage was pretty obvious!
"Get a hair cut, you damn hippy" is on tomorrow's to-do list.
He *almost* managed to get it fixed before I could take a photo. But not quite.
Yay, weekend! I hope you all have a good one!
I love that you had to put your own drink together. I’m guessing they don’t have a lot of drunk people hanging around, given you seem to need a PhD to be able to have a drink!
Wow… I go out for drinks so that I don’t have to make them for myself. This just seems like the Ikea of drinks, except Ikea has better illustrations in their manuals.
The secret of cocktail-making is all in the succussion, and of course appropriate dilution. I think this could be a good career change for a certain group of (hopefully) soon-to-be unemployed alt med peddlers.
Those drinks look pretty cool. 🙂
I would agree with Anthony though, ikea style illustrations would top it off perfectly. Maybe making those could turn into my new hobby…
Succuss, success, suckers!
1) I first heard that horrid song yesterday… it is dreadful. I know she’s young, but middle-school poetry doth not a good pop song make. And if your singing voice and/or pitch are so bad that you need that level of electronic processing… well…
2) I’m certainly not the biggest fan of the present government, but I’m completely unconvinced that the alternatives have anything to offer. Bad situation for us to be in, especially since the budget allocations to the science funding councils, Genome Canada and others in this budget are now essentially frozen until the thing passes (or doesn’t). Fortunately, those don’t seem to be points of contention between the various parties.
Oh well, at least all this confusion should weaken the Canadian dollar, which is good for (a) the film industry, and (b) my US dollar bank account…
I dunno, ricardipus, I’m pretty convinced that the science funding was thrown in as a last minute addition so that the conservatives could say “If you don’t vote for us, science funding will go back to zero… notwithstanding that the conservatives were the ones who set it to zero to start with.
Frankly, I don’t think the other parties could be any worse than the conservatives – at least they others don’t rule by personality cult, which is one of the main things that has always annoyed me about the “harper government”
Yesterday was Thursday! Tomorrow is Saturday!
Ah ! Take this, all of you out there who say that a PhD is useless !
A friend of mine puts “pre-Friday” as her facebook status just about every Thursday, but this is pretty good too 🙂
Mmm – good points, Anthony, although that \if you don’t vote for us\ rhetoric hasn’t been advanced as far as I know, so I don’t think you’re necessarily right there (putting words in the mouth of the government?). There is no doubt that the present administration axed Genome Canada to zero two years ago, though.
It is certainly the case that Mr. Harper controls his cabinet very, very tightly, something he’s been criticized for many times (and definitely not how I’d like to see the country run). I’ve not a lot of use for Michael Ignatieff, who is sorely lacking in international political experience, and even less for Jack Layton, who I believe would promise us all personal jetpacks, free prescription drugs and resurrected dinosaur amusement parks if he believed we’d vote for him.
My biggest beef with all of this is that just when Canada’s economy seems to be picking up, and our dollar is strong, these opposition bozos decide to pull down the government. I am totally against wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on federal elections every two years, in the face of no clear improvement in government.
Hi ricardipus,
You’re right, I haven’t actually seen them say it explicitly, although I would be willing to venture out on a limb and say we will see it. The headlines today are full of Flaherty saying the budget will not change if they’re re-elected, and I expect to see two more messages from the conservatives: They are the funders of education and science (as they’ve increased funding for both in their budget), and that the only way to guarantee that funding is to vote the conservatives back into power. If you don’t hear both of those in the next 5 weeks, I’ll eat a hat.
I do agree with your assessment of Layton, in that he does promise more than I believe he can deliver, without regard for the cost of his promises, but I’m not convinced about your comments on Ignatieff. He, at least, has lived outside of Canada – and few politicians have international political experience before gaining office. What were Harpers qualifications in that regard before he became PM?
Anyhow, I have absolutely no qualms about the “bozos” pulling down a government that has been plagued with scandals, refuses to answer questions (honestly) about it’s actions and that abuses process to stay in power (prorogue is a word we all know now, btw). While I don’t necessarily expect better from the liberals and NDP, at least they haven’t tried to demonize cooperation between parties (which is a hallmark of the Westminster system of parliament).
Finally, yes, the money is a waste – if the political parties don’t learn from their mistakes, but I’ll keep hoping that maybe they’ll finally move away from the negative adds and tell us what their platforms are, instead of what they’re not. The liberals have started down that path, while the conservatives keep attacking Ignatief, instead of telling me what it is they would do if they got back into power… like funding science.
Alyssa, they seemed pretty popular! It’s a fun gimmick for one drink – not sure I’d want to do it more than once though.
Anthony, it was tastier than anything Ikea sell though! How Mr E Man can eat those $1 hot dogs they sell is beyond me… [shudders].
It’s a weird thing for a bar to do, really. It probably takes longer for the bar staff to assemble the tray than it would just to mix the drink… and it creates way more washing up.
Frank, I imagine it takes MUCH practice to perfect the technique. I’ll get to work…
Chris, welcome to the blog! Some of the other cocktails on the menu looked much more complicated than my simple gin fizz, so maybe illustrations would be the way to go there!
Cromercrox:
“Succuss, success, suckers!”
[snickers]
Ricardipus, yeah, it seems mean to mock someone who’s basically a kid, but hey, we can mock the writers / producers / random “rapper” dude (for want of a better word. As my Dad likes to say, “that’s rap with a capital C”). I know I listened to some absolute shite in my teens, but none of it was as bad as that drivel!
I intend to quiz any candidates I come across very closely about their commitment to science funding, among other issues I care about. And then vote tactically on an ABC basis (Anyone But Conservatives).
Anthony, I’m actually surprised the Tories think anyone cares about science funding… they certainly don’t seem to think that anyone cares about prorogues and being the first government in Commonwealth history ever to be held in contempt of parliament…
Massimo, oh, whatEVER, you North America-centric you. We learn that stuff as final year UNDERGRADS in England.
Ricardipus – you’d rather something like being found in contempt of parliament should just be let go, then? Just… let it slide, sweep it under the carpet? I think it was the last straw after Harper tried to remove funding for the other parties, prorogued parliament TWICE (once to avoid an earlier vote of no confidence), and consistently stonewalled on the true cost of the fighter jets and corporate tax cuts. I’d have been horribly disappointed if the opposition HADN’T toppled the government.
Too bad the opposition parties are doing a terrible job of communicating the above to the electorate…
It’s been interesting coming to a new country where you don’t have a family or personal history with any particular party – like having a blank slate. None of the parties really feels like “home”, and I imagine that unless a particularly inspiring leader or policy rises to the top of either left-of-centre party, I’ll probably flip back and forth between the NDP and Liberals over the years. This time round I’m lukewarm on Ignatieff, but I think he’s a smart guy who’d do a decent job with the right team around him. I like Layton as a person but he’s not prime minister material IMHO. Having said that I’ll be voting tactically, which in my riding probably means NDP. I really like our NDP incumbent, having written to him (and received an instant reply) and met him (he recently threw a party for all constituents who got their citizenship in the last couple of years). He’s active on Twitter and Facebook, letting everyone know what speeches he made and how he voted on each issue, which I also like – especially because he tends to make speeches about environmental issues and such. Mind you, I met the liberal candidate last time (before I could vote) and she was absolutely lovely, taking the time to talk to me about what issues I think are important even after I told her I wasn’t a citizen and couldn’t vote. She’s running again – I saw her being interviewed by the CBC yesterday, a block from my house! But no-one’s knocked on the door yet to be grilled by yours truly – can’t wait for that!
p.s. awesome conversation – keep it up, fellas!
Oh, and down with negative ads!
The “contempt of parliament” gambit is just political posturing. Yes, the current government has been sweeping things under the rug and should be called out on it, but so has every other administration in Canadian history. Honestly, I’ve no use for them, but also honestly, they’re no worse than many other governments we’ve had in the past. Remember the arrogance of Trudeau, and his legacy of crushing national debt? The side-stepping power brokerage of Chretien? The incredible unpopularity of Martin, the leadership vacuums of Turner, Clark and Campbell, and the boozy fug that was MacDonald (ok, I know, none of us remember that)? They’re all crap, all of them.
Nevertheless, an election it is and an election it will be. My riding, until recently staunchly Liberal, was within the last few months the site of a by-election caused by our MP bailing out into municipal politics and becoming mayor. That cleared the way for Julian Fantino, popular promoter of retiree’s rights and ex- police force commandant, to jump in and plant the Conservative flag. So forgive me if I’ve already got election fatigue, ’cause we did this sh*t a couple of months ago already.
Last thought – if Bob Rae were leading the Liberal party, I’d vote for him. Very unpopular as an NDP Premier of Ontario, but I think he’s got the statesmanship necessary. I’m predicting another Tory minority though, like it or lump it.
Wow… just a few comments in reply to your last post, ricardipus. First, I don’t remember Trudeau’s gov’t. I was only 7 when he left power, although I don’t doubt that back then politicians were just as corrupt as they are now. I’m not speaking at all in defense of past governments when I suggest that the conservatives under Harper are not doing any good for Canada.
First, the “contempt of parliament” gambit is not just political posturing. It is a serious vote of non-confidence in a government that has lied in parliament, has abused it’s power and has violated election laws. I’m not saying that other governments aren’t guilty of these same abuses, but they are serious and deserve to be taken seriously.
Beyond that, do you remember Harper saying “There is no recession” (Sept 15th, 2008), There will be no deficit (Nov, 2008). How about Harper’s promise to work on an elected senate, followed by his packing of the senate with conservative cronies? Really, the complete dishonesty of the conservatives is disheartening – and that’s not even counting the attack adds where they make it sound like working outside of Canada should disqualify a person from being Canadian and trying to equate “coalition” with “undemocratic”.
While I can’t stop people from voting Conservative, the contempt of parliament is a long, slow building frustration that the opposition has with a government that refuses to share the information – information that the opposition requires in order to do it’s job correctly.
Democracies are safeguarded by the people’s open access to information, which allows us to verify that the government is acting in our best interest. The conservatives have done more to silence their critics and withhold information that any other government in the past 20 years.
I take the checks and balances of democracy seriously.
I’m with Anthony on this one.
Obviously, every voter will base their vote on a different set of issues that are the most important to them – if there was any “one true way”, we wouldn’t have different parties and systems! But for me, Harper’s consistent disrespect for democracy and parliamentary procedure is absolutely fundamental. It should NOT be tolerated, and like I said, I’d have been very disappointed if the opposition hadn’t brought down the government.
Given the events in the news recently, I am just so incredibly thankful to live in a country where governments are brought down by democratic votes, rather than with guns and bombs. (As it happens, the federal government fell on the same day the BC government announced the date of the HST referendum. This BINDING vote started life as a grass-roots petition. Now that’s what I call awesome – regardless of your personal views on the HST, you gotta admit that it’s a great system where if enough people care enough about a given issue, the government is forced to respect their views).
Democracy is a rare and beautiful thing. But if the government has no respect for it, it begins to lose part of its value. That, for me, is an absolutely fundamental issue, and is at the core of my voting preferences this time around.
I do agree that two elections within a few months is ridiculous even for Canada 🙂 But hey, that’s one riding out of 308 :-p
Oh, and see my previous comment about blank slates for why I’m not basing my vote on any previous governments’ shenanigans! All I know about is what’s happened since 2002, when I moved here. It’s very refreshing not to have the preconceived ideas about Canadian politics that I do about British politics!
p.s. I liked Paul Martin! I remember a segment on the Rick Mercer Report where he showed a photo of Harper and then one of Martin, and said “not looking so bad now, am I!”
And I’m hoping the current Vancouver mayor, Gregor Robertson, will eventually find his way to the head of the federal or provincial NDP. He’s the only politician in decades I actually find inspirational! (Although I’d vote for Rick Mercer in a heartbeat too 🙂 )
Ok, I’d totally vote for Rick Mercer too.. Rick Mercer for PM!
I like Rick Mercer, but can you imagine listening to more than one of his rants a week?
Cath – there were two by-elections at the same time.
I’m still not buying the contempt thing. Agree that the government’s actions were reprehensible. But don’t agree that this is the right approach. If contempt of Parliament were trotted out every time the reigning administration did something against procedure, or even illegal, we’d be having elections all the time. Oh, wait…
I still think Rae was a missed opportunity, as was Clark before him (different party of course, and not the first time around – when he was available later, having served a bunch of years on the international diplomacy stage).
So – who am I to vote for? Would anyone care to make a recommendation?
P.S. “Green Party” is not a valid answer to my question. 😛
BQ, then 😀
hi ricardipus,
I think you’re confusing \contempt of parliament\ with procedural sanctions – there is a whole parliamentary system for dealing with procedural errors and the due parliamentary process – that is exactly why we have a speaker and rules of order. Contempt of parliament happens when someone or some-party flaunts and abuses *those* rules. Hence, why I take the contempt of parliament seriously.
And, for the record, I wouldn’t presume to suggest which party someone should vote for, but Cath did tweet CBC’s \who should I vote for\ tool: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/votecompass/?ref=rss
I also later tweeted an article suggesting that the CBC vote compass is seriously flawed, so caveat emptor!
When people tell me that they don’t vote “because they’re all the same”, I advise them to find just one issue they care about deeply on which the different parties have different policies – you can always find something. Or vote for whichever of your local candidates you think will do the best job, regardless of which party they’re from. Or vote tactically in your riding, as I’m likely to do. There are lots of good ways to choose…
…or else run for office yourself, as an independent 🙂
Anthony – I’m not confusing anything, but thanks for your concern.
That CBC site suggests I’m just slightly closer to Liberal than Conservative, and farthest away from NDP. Hm.
ricardipus – glad to hear you’re not confused… care to clarify what you said above, then?
(Barging in before any lines are crossed – which they haven’t been yet, IMO, but we’re moving towards them).
Arguments are good, but let’s keep things respectful, please!
Thank you!
Now carry on 🙂
Hey.. not all political conversations have to turn nasty!