CSN:AFU Week 26 In Review

Posted on August 12, 2007 by Gabriel

Mitsou: Canadien

“Dis-moi, Dis-moi“; ‘Terres des hommes’ (1990)
A 17-year old Mitsou gets herself banned from MTV

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CSN:AFU Week Twenty-Six

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This Week Had Two Parts…

During the first part a dear friend came… for a visit. I hadn’t seen her in a few years as she lives in the darkest, coldest country on Earth. I spent the second part reworking some of my Blogs and dicking around with my avatar and WordPress nickname. Guess which one I’d pull an arm off to have more time with.

So I’ve got the avatars narrowed down to nine from six quadrillion. I’ve spent the past week trying each of them out. There are a couple of headshots in there… I guess someone might find them a little pretentious, but fuck them. If you’ve got a WordPress blog chances are one of these will be showing up on your site, so speak now or wait for the next change.

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I have to admit that right now I really, really like the tooth. I’ve also been changing my nickname… I still really like “[redacted]” (it’s not ‘[redacted]’), it’s the name of my first blog so I’m not really married to the idea of changing it. So far I’ve tried my nickname — “Johnny Metro”; “Gabriel…”, which is my real name minus the dotdotdot, and; several variations of FTS, including F.T.S. and a bunch of lower case stuff, you know, really dramatic shit.

“[redacted]” has always been a weird Rorschach test. People have gotten really defensive aboot it… like I was telling them to fear me, like I was “The Seeds” (I’m not). Other people, mostly women, see it as “[redacted]”. I’m not sold on using my real name, because having people use it when we get into discussions actually makes me a little more defensive… weird.

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The Lists From Week Twenty-Six:

Five Strangest Search Terms Used To Find CSN:AFU

5) nice fucking environment
4) bullshit in canada
3) years from 1939 to 2007
2) prostitutes hull quebec
1) If you want to see a Helen Mirren beaver

Honourable Mention: fuck sex canadian; wives fucking little boys; canadian movies suck; gary oldman full frontal nude, and; walrus penis (x4)

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Top Five CSN:AFU Posts For Week 26:

1) CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories — July 02/07
2) CSN:AFU Week 24 In Review
3) Canada: Land Of A Thousand Wives OR Instructions On
How To Become A Canadian Polygamist
4) [my other blog]:
5) CSN:AFU Week 25 In Review

Honourable Mention: Canada: Offering A Safe-Sex Environment Where Humanity Can Fuck Itself Back Together Again

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The Five Blogs I Visited Most This Week

1) Forgetting Myself
2) The Rut
3) Nita: A Wide Angle View Of India
4) Postcards From The End
5) Kamangir

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This Week In General:

The week started with some friends… bringing me out to a Pub — the Pub — for an Open Mike night. Even talented musicians, including music majors, should get their set down before getting up on stage. Just saying. Johnny Cash didn’t roll over in his grave that night so much as he stood up, grabbed his tombstone and beat the four corpses next to him back to death.

What else… oh yeah, one of the people who means more to me than almost anyone else came by for a visit. That was nice, but quick, much, much too quick. To be honest I can’t actually think of a time allotment that wouldn’t be too quick. That’s her red rental car in my humongous parking lot in my POTW.

We met in Toronto where she was a student and I was an unemployed writer researching a book aboot a specific period in Canadian politics, which was a mask for me writing aboot my family. It was a brutal time in my life and she talked me through it… walked me through it, sat me through it, hugged me through it, all while serving me strange drinks… she was standing next to me when I took this shot.

And that’s it. Nothing else happened this week. Not that I noticed anyway.

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Photo Of My Week:



This was taken from the new observation tower… that’s my apartment just above dead centre. Hello.

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This Weeks New Post:

CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories
— August 06/07
Yesterday’s News Sometime Later: Technically the idea behind this post was to compare the news cycles of Canadian, American and British national and local news… unfortunately I haven’t been able to give it as much attention as I think it requires. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can make it work again.

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Greatest Hits: Canadian Inventions — ‘The Wonderbra’
The original Canadian advertisement featured a fully dressed woman dancing on the beach to the jingle: “Wonderful Wonderbra… to be free and alive everywhere that you go, is to where what you dare anywhere and to travel with flare. We care about the shape you’re in, so does he… so does he. Wonderful, wonderful, Wonderbra.” In 1994, outdoor ads in American cities showed a model wearing only the bra with captions like “who cares if it’s a bad hair day” and “look me in the eyes and tell me that you love me.” Sometimes it can be a long way to get back to where you were. Just saying.

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Coming In Week Twenty-Seven:

More News, A Movie, And Smiley Faces For Everyone

Granny Smith Apples, All-Bran with a whole wheat bagel and
a big glass of milk… mmm.

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Posted in Canada, Canadian Music, CSN:AFU Weekly Review, Humor, Humour, Weed | 12 Comments

Canadian Inventions — The Wonderbra

Posted on August 12, 2007 by Gabriel

copyright banner

Buck 65: Canadian
“Wicked & Weird“; ‘Talkin’ Honky Blues’ (2003)

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When does a piece of clothing become more about attracting attention than aboot personal convenience? About twenty minutes after you get out of the bathtub. And the one piece of clothing which has come to symbolize this more than any other would be the Wonderbra, the 1964 creation of Louise Poirier — a French-Canadian under contract to the Canadian lingerie company, Canadelle.

The information available online aboot Wonderbra’s inventor from Canadian encyclopedia’s is pretty sketchy at best. The two main ones, The Canadian Encyclopedia and Histor!ca, don’t even recognize Wonderbra as a search term (no, I did not mean “wonder”) and Louise Poirier may as well have been a time traveler because there’s no evidence online she has yet been born. I’m assuming she was part-engineer and part-super intelligent alien because the Wonderbra is not a design, it’s a feat of engineering. In fact the Wonderbra has 54 engineering elements all working together to lift and support the bust, which created the deep plunge and push-together effect now found so often on subways, Tranny-Bars and in British Parliament, all while using substantially less material and padding than other conventional bras.

Technically the first bra was created in 1914 in New York City by a woman who used two handkerchiefs and some pink ribbon, and for at least that evening was probably the most comfortable woman on the planet. I’m not going to lie, the first few times I took one of these marvels of engineering off my first thought was “hey… where the fuck did they go?” But, honestly, it’s a fleeting thought usually followed by “hey, boobies”.

There were three waves in the life of the Wonderbra, it’s initial release in Canada during the 1960’s, soon after which it was introduced into Europe and, during the 1990’s it was released into American stores.

The original Canadian advertisement never showed a woman wearing the bra, and featured the jingle: “Wonderful Wonderbra… to be free and alive everywhere that you go, is to where what you dare anywhere and to travel with flare. We care about the shape you’re in, so does he… so does he. Wonderful, wonderful, Wonderbra.” In 1994, outdoor ads in American cities showed the model wearing the bra with captions like “who cares if it’s a bad hair day” and “look me in the eyes and tell me that you love me.”

From 1972 to 1977, Canadelle doubled its wholesale revenue from $12.6 million to $24.9 million. By 1979 Canadelle dominated with 30% of the Canadian market and $27 Million in sales. Playtex (both companies were acquired by Sara Lee) was second. By 1980, Wonderbra’s sales were over $30 Million wholesale ($76 Million in 2006 dollars) in a country with only 10.3 million women and girls older than 13.

The introduction of the Wonderbra into the American market caused an explosion in the lingerie and undergarment market. According to research done at the University of Michigan “total sales of women’s clothing apparel increased 6% from 1994 to 1996, [while] intimate apparel jumped 14% over the same period. [snip] In 1989, worldwide bra sales totaled $2.2 billion, but rose close to $3.0 billion in 1995 and approximately $3.8 billion in 1997.”

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Posted in Canada, Canadian Inventions, Civil Rights, CSN:AFU Greatest Hits, Quebec | 7 Comments

CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories — August 06/07

Posted on August 10, 2007 by Gabriel

The Northern Pikes: Canadian

“Girl With A Problem”; ‘Snow In June‘ (1990)

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The First Three News Stories On 08/06/07

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Yesterday’s News Sometime Later: Technically the idea behind this post was to compare the news cycles of Canadian, American and British national and local news… unfortunately I haven’t been able to give it as much attention as I think it requires. Hopefully over the next few weeks I can make it work again.

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Page Jump:
PBS; CBC; CTV

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7pm PBS: The News Hour

1) Bridge Cleanup Starts: It’ll take at least eighteen months to rebuild the collapsed Minneapolis highway. It was a two-bridge system, four lanes each way. By the time they’re done they’ll have to replace the side which didn’t fall. Same materials, same builders, same engineers and same completion date means its outlived it’s safety date as well. There are over a hundred bridges in Quebec which have recently been deemed hazards. Traffic on each of them has been reduced, including a ban on larger vehicles. It’s the same in Ontario and most of the Northern and NorthEastern American States. My grandfather was the project manager / engineer on most of the infrastructure surrounding Montreal. We were watching some of the coverage and he was saying “most of this stuff was only engineered to last thirty, maybe forty years. There hasn’t been a serious infrastructure upgrade [in these regions] in decades so, surprise, things fall apart.”

2) State Of Emergency Declared: These fires have been burning all summer. Just like they do every summer. Having worked (not as a fire person) in a fire zone for several months I can say basically the fire people working on these things are trying a) not to get killed; b) to guide the fire away from populated areas, c) on their days off to get “Townies” to sleep with them. Because the thing is, no human being has ever put out one of these monster forest fires. Not in Canada, America, Australia, Brazil or Thailand… of course, in those last two, no one’s really trying anyway. These kind of fires are only put out when a) there’s nothing left to burn; b) the rain puts it out, or; c) enough people get into the prayer circle. So, on Sunday, Montana’s governor declared a state of emergency. Which means the insurance money can now start flowing.

3) Mine Rescue Ongoing: Seismic counters have been going off since the initial cave-in, which has prohibited rescue workers from searching for the six men trapped underground in a coal mine near Crandall Canyon, Utah. It’s a fairly remote region aboot 140 miles from Salt Lake City.

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10pm CBC: The National

1) Caffeine Boosts Brain Power: A four-year French study has found that elderly women who drink more than three cups of coffee per day are more mentally alert and agile than women who don’t drink coffee. Specifically, ingesting 300mgs of caffeine everyday means women are less likely to have memory impairments, and the effect grows with age. This report, which studied 7,017 people over the age of 65, ruled out the effects of education and income. In the report the researchers said their study isn’t meant to be definitive proof, and they don’t understand how it works, or even why it works, it’s just that it seems to…

2) Ubiquitous Chemical Damaging People: For years it has been known that “Bisphenol-A”, one of the most common chemicals available, in fact it’s in every plastic item made, has been damaging the physiology of animals and possibly humans thanks to it’s ability to mimic estrogen. Remember aboot ten years ago when people started finding frogs with both sexes, or entire colonies of female-only reptiles? Taa-daa. Aboot three billion kilograms of Bisphenol-A is placed into products every year. When those products decompose, Bisphenol-A is released into the water-table. Hearings started today in an American Senate committee to decide if it’s appropriate to ban the chemical. The “American Chemical Council” was quoted as saying “hey, all chemicals need a home. We’re not deliberately evil, you know. We hated our fathers.”

3) Utah Miners Trapped: Six men are trapped 1500 feet below the surface in a coal mine in Utah. They are believed to be still alive, although no contact has been made. If they made it to one of the “safe zones” they should have enough oxygen, water and food for more than a week.

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11pm CTV National News

1) 9yr Old Girl Still Missing: Police in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec — aboot 140 kilometres northeast of Montreal — are still searching for a nine-year old girl, Cedrika Provencher, who has been missing since last Tuesday. Police believe a man approached three other girls in her neighbourhood claiming to be looking for his lost puppy. People were approached by a girl matching Cedrika’s description who was asking aboot a lost puppy. Look… it’s not complicated, if you’ve got a young child you have to street-proof them. You have to make sure they understand that men do not ask children to help look for a puppy. If they’re young either you walk with them to and from wherever they’re going, or you hire a babysitter or nanny. You do not let them walk across town wearing a bathing suit.

2) Death Threats Against Minister: This was, quite possibly, the quickest news item ever to make it to the number two slot on the CTV Newslist. If Tom Clark gave this twenty seconds I’ll eat my blog. Some random Canadian lost a lot of coin when the tax system was changed so he threatened, in a series of emails, to harm, hurt and kill the Canadian Minister of Finance, The Right Honourable Jim Flaherty. The random and unidentified Canadian was arrested.

3) UK Foot & Mouth Back: Sixty animals in Britain have been infected with Foot & Mouth disease leading “Europe” and Canada to ban animal imports from the UK. People travelling to Canada and several other countries from Britain must go through a disinfection process. The British Government, having faced terrorists and extreme flooding in the past few months, called it “an incident, not yet a crisis”. Six years ago six million animals had to be put down, at a cost of US$20B to the economy. At the moment it is believed the virus was released, by accident, from one of two laboratories close to the infection zone. I think the next step will involve either all Britons being turned to pillars of salt, or the main island itself will rise up, turn over, and slowly sink beneath the waves.

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If you find a broken link, or the YouTube stuff isn’t loading
properly, let me know and I’ll find an alternative…
I’m Canadian, it’s what we do. Off the ice.

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Posted in America, Canada, Canadian News, Canadian Politics, CBC News, CSN:AFU Monday's News, CTV News, Great Britain, PBS News With Jim Lehrer, Quebec | Leave a comment

CSN:AFU Week 25 In Review

Posted on August 6, 2007 by Gabriel

Skinny Puppy: Canadian

“Killing Game”; ‘Last Rites’ (1992)
Awesome double bill in Montreal: Skinny Puppy w/special guests Severed Heads

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CSN:AFU Week Twenty-Five

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Technically This Is My 100th Post On CSN:AFU

But a few months ago I imported posts from… my Fear The Seeds and [my other blog] blogs, so this is really my 81st CSN:AFU post. But, seeing as how the counter will be turning over to 100 when this post is published I thought a few stats may be in order.

Since I started this blog, in it’s current format, I’ve averaged 13.5 responses per post and honestly, they’ve all been worth reading. The first person to respond on CSN:AFU was Nita from “A Wide Angle Of India” on January 24, 2007, at EST3.26am — it was on my original “Aboot Page”. To date I’ve had 224 responses on my Aboot Pages. My first Official CSN:AFU Post was “The First Ten Things You Need To Know Aboot Canada”, and the first response was from Louise (aka: the former Queen Minx).

I’ve also been the recipient of three awards, or tags, from people I respect as artists and bloggers (even before they gave me the awards). One for a post aboot the differences between America and Europe in terms of immigration and religious tolerance, one for my music section and one for CSN:AFU as a whole. So here we are… happy 81st to me.

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The Lists From Week Twenty-Five:

Five Strangest Search Terms Used To Find CSN:AFU

5) Jacqui Smith’s tits
4) canida sex 14 year old girls
3) finnish anti-globalization movement
2) When will Canada die from global warming
1) XRAY GLASS neked

Honourable Mention: fucking and the environment

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Top Five CSN:AFU Posts For Week 25:

1) CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories — July 02/07
2) [redacted]
3) CSN:AFU Week 24 In Review
4) CSN:AFU Week 21 In Review
5) Canada: Land Of A Thousand Wives OR Instructions On How To Become A Canadian Polygamist

Honourable Mention: Six Canadian Movies You Need To See That Don’t Suck — Part Three: Heavy Metal

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The Five Blogs I Visited Most This Week

1) Newfoundblog
2) Nita: A Wide Angle View Of India
3) Spin Me I Pulsate
4) Dead Robot
5) Stickynote Theatre

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This Week In General:

I’ve spent most of this week avoiding… cleaning up. A friend of mine has come over from Finland for two fun packed weeks of something, and she’ll be here in my little village for a couple of days. I’m hoping she’ll stop by before she gets bored and leaves. Hopefully I’ll have the dishes done before she gets here.

I restarted my Fear The Seeds blog as a place where I can put my photos, and discuss techniques. So far it has been pretty successful, more so than I thought it’d be at this point. I’m trying to post four or five per week.

I also started another blog, I’m not sure it’s entirely ready yet. I am, however, going to keep it separate from Cultural, [other] and Fear. What else… I had lunch with my grandfather twice, which was great, and he bought me ice cream on Friday. Which was also nice. He took the week off from Golfing because of the heat. My grandfather, at 85, can break 100 on eighteen holes on pretty much any course in the area and, except when it’s over 40C with the humidity, he plays three games per week. Last summer he played 97 games of golf, which was down from 116 the year before.

And that’s pretty much it… I got involved in a discussion on [my other blog] that took up most of my writing time, and the new Fear The Seeds site kind of ate into my blogging time, but once my FinnFriend takes off I’ll concentrate on getting more done here.

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Photo Of My Week:



I’m not sure what that flower is doing reaching around like that but it looks slightly pornographic.

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This Weeks New Post:

CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories
— July 30/07
Investigation into Chilean Soccer Punks mini-riot absolves Toronto Police. Taliban kill another South Korean. Canadian Air Force pilot killed during stunt due to lack of preparation and training. G.W. Bush outlasts Tony Blair, two Canadian Prime Ministers (Jean Chretien, and Paul Martin jr.) the Spanish Dude, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Fidel Castro.

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Next Week:

More News, A Movie, And Smiley Faces For Everyone

Banana’s, chicken soup with a whole wheat bagel and
a big glass of orange juice… mmm.

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Posted in Canada, CSN:AFU Weekly Review, Punk | 2 Comments

CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories — July 30/07

Posted on August 2, 2007 by Gabriel

Martha & The Muffins: Canadian

“Echo Beach”; ‘Metro Music‘ (1980)
Watch for the keyboardist getting weird, especially at 36 seconds. Yum.

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The First Three News Stories On 07/30/07

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Yesterday’s News Four Days From Then: This was delayed because I’ve been preparing for a special guest while dealing with a sudden growth spurt in my life activity. Next week’s going to be weird as well. So… yeah. Maybe I’ll write something aboot the electron microscope. Someone reminded me aboot how a Canadian invented that thing as well… fuck we’re cool.

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Page Jump:
PBS; CBC; CTV

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7pm PBS: The News Hour

1) Brown Meets Bush: It’s not their first meeting, but it’s the first with Brown as PM. It’s interesting to note that George W. Bush, arguably the most reviled American President of all time — certainly the most reviled internationally — has outlasted Tony Blair, two Canadian Prime Ministers (Jean Chretien, and Paul Martin jr.) the Spanish Dude, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Fidel Castro. Anyway, Brown wouldn’t get into specifics but Britain will either be taking its 5500 troops in Iraq home over the next year, or moving them from a combat role into a teaching role. Probably the latter. Either way he’s committing more troops into Afghanistan.

2) US Troops Stay Until 2009: Why not? Army General David Petraeus told reporters that “It’s in our campaign plan… Sustainable security is, in fact, what we hope to achieve.” Two more American soldiers were killed recently, bringing the total to 72 in July. You know… Donald Rumsfeld, before the war, was fighting against Old Schoolers within the Pentagon to reform the military from one designed to fight in Europe, against the Soviets, to a smaller force designed around Special Forces and quick insertions-extractions. And, over the course of the Iraqi War, he has been proven to be right. But, because he stubbornly didn’t put a force large enough into Iraq to secure the peace — out of a fanatical devotion to his mini-army philosophy — he’ll go down in history as one of the absolute worst SecDef’s in history. That could be irony.

3) Iraqi Parliament Recessed: When the Americans said “we’re bringing democracy to Iraq” no one thought they meant Italian-style democracy. Surprise! The elected officials of the Iraqi Government are taking the month of August off in hopes of being able to continue not doing anything when they come back in September. I’ve never been convinced the Americans going into Iraq was aboot oil, but I’m pretty sure the Sunni v. Shiite mini-civil war is all aboot oil.

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10pm CBC: The National

Just A Quick Note: Heather Hiscox was filling in as anchor tonight… she’s very good at what she does, but her delivery can be hilarious. She so wants you to feel her emo.

1) Snowbird Crash Investigation: The Snowbirds are the elite flying team of the Canadian Air Force. In 2004, two of the planes collided during a high-risk maneuver. One pilot was killed. Today the findings from the investigation into his death were released… ends up the pilot, considered a young “rising star” was allowed a certain “autonomy” in regards to training due to his great talent. He had never actually performed the maneuver that killed him until that day. There were the requisite calls for the Snowbirds to be disbanded over cost and safety issues, but the fact remains that accidents, especially those causing harm or death, are fantastically rare and the Snowbirds are a valuable PR resource.

2) Another S. Korean Hostage Killed: The “Taliban” claimed to have killed a second hostage. Originally twenty-three South Korean Christian Missionaries had been taken, there has been one confirmed death. al Jeezera had obtained film of the Missionaries… not surprisingly they all looked pretty terrified. The hostages were taken from an area North of where Canadian soldiers are stationed. A Canadian General almost, kind of, explained the event… he said, basically, the Taliban are doing this sort of thing because they’re desperate. Basically they’re going after the easy stuff because the hard stuff — Canadian, British, Danish soldiers — is just too hard. The “Taliban” are demanding the release of more than 100 prisoners. I’m really interested to find out if the prisoners and the “Taliban” holding the Koreans are actually Afghan.

3) FIFA Soccer Brawl Report: People around the world wonder why soccer isn’t considered a sport in Canada and America. A few weeks ago Canada hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup. With over a million spectators it was the largest sporting event ever held in Canada, and we’ve had two Olympics. After losing a qualifying game a bunch of spoiled punks from Chile punched police and destroyed their bus. Then, when they didn’t stop, the punks were surprised to be handcuffed and arrested. Why were they surprised? Because in their country they’re treated like Gods. One of the little fuckers, after telling anyone who would listen that he had been tasered for no apparent reason (“WTF? I was just punching a cop and suddenly I’m on the ground twitching. I don’t get it.”), admitted later to seeing one of his fucked buddies punch a female cop in the face. Other police, and security guards, were spit on and kicked in the groin… by guys trained to kick. The Chilean players still on the bus were leaning out of the windows, grabbing police officers and throwing stuff at them. Anyway, today was the day the Toronto Municipal Police released their report into their response to the mini-soccer riot, which absolved police of any guilt. Even FIFA was suitably embarrassed by the Chilean punks.

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11pm CTV National News

1) Civil Servants Get Mo Money: Canadian Civil Servants are better paid and have better benefit packages than private sector workers. This is, for some reason, news to the News People. History, even the bits that occurred ten years ago, is an important thing to consult. Fifteen years ago the Canadian Government, under the Liberal Party, decided to get rid of the deficit. But they had a problem… they really, really needed to be liked. So they cut the shit out of the Department of Defence because who, really, needs those dudes? And they cut the Civil Service because, really, they’re a bunch of bastards… but they cut so much they actually, granted a few years later, realized they needed to hire some or most of them back. Only no one wanted to work for them anymore. So they upped the salaries, boosted the benefit packages and here we are today with a Civil Service that’s still smaller than it was fifteen years ago, but 50% more expensive. So of course CTV put the blame squarely at the feet of the Conservative Party which has been in power for… eighteen months.

2) FDA Allows Avandia Sales: CTV, when Tom Clark is hosting, has a weird habit of burying the Canadian news. The American Food & Drug Administration has decided to allow Avandia, a diabetes drug, to continue to be sold despite research saying it increases your chance of heart disease by 48%. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in Canada, and costs the Health Care system CDN$9 billion. There were one million prescriptions for Avandia filled out in Canada last year. The FDA called the research into the 48% number “inadequate” and made the decision because Avandia has “too many benefits.” All of which means Health Canada will be coming out with their own report in a few weeks which will read, probably in the conclusion, “Yeah. What they said.” 

3) S. Korean Hostage Killed: Look… despite what your Holy Book or Carvings or Walrus Penis says, if you’re going into a war zone filled with all the stuff normally found in a war zone, your God — no matter who He/She/It is — will not protect you from any of the things associated with war zones. Look. I don’t know… sweeping up bits of human or picking up some debris in order to create a better world sounds great when you’re in first-year university listening to a taped lecture from some prof who doesn’t even care enough to get to class about how magnificent Noam Chomsky is, and you’re all like “oh yeah, I am so going to a war zone to show people how to live in peace”. But bullets hurt. Then they tear your limbs off. And Noam can’t protect you when you’re outside his range of influence. And Afghans don’t read Noam. And, really, while we’re on the topic, no one else does except first-year university students with lazy professors.

Back

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If you find a broken link, or the YouTube stuff isn’t loading
properly, let me know and I’ll find an alternative…
I’m Canadian, it’s what we do. Off the ice.

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Posted in Afghanistan, America, American Politics, Canada, Canadian News, Canadian Politics, CBC News, Conservative Party of Canada, CSN:AFU Monday's News, CTV News, European Union, Great Britain, Liberal Party of Canada, PBS News With Jim Lehrer, US Middle East Policy | Leave a comment

CSN:AFU Week 24 In Review

Posted on July 29, 2007 by Gabriel

Headpins: Canadian

“Don’t It Make You Feel“; ‘Turn It Loud‘ (1982)

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CSN:AFU Week Twenty-Four

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Fear The Seeds Is Back From Purgatory… IT LIVES!!!

Those left from my original “posse” might… remember that I started with three blogs. Back in 1999, I had my features, creative and personal writing jammed into one blog and the arguments from one area bled over into all the others. It wasn’t fun. So, having learned the lesson, last November — along with “CSN:AFU” and “[my other blog]”, I started “Fear The Seeds” to be my feature-writing and discussion blog. But writing features is time consuming and I gotta have my Littlest Hobo and Froot Loops. 

So, after only five posts, 2258 hits and 122 responses, I closed FTS down to concentrate on CSN:AFU, which has been a lot more fun. But there are still things I can’t do, or don’t feel comfortable doing, on [my other blog] or Cultural… so, I’m going to use FTS as a place to expand on some ideas I’ve recently written aboot on [my other blog]. Basically it’s going to be a photo site — both recent and from the past — but with the memories attached to them and whatever technical stuff I can put together… I should probably also mention that I was the photo editor for one magazine and the primary shooter for a (smallish-n) national newspaper. So, if you’re interested, the New FTS is called “photo graphic F.T.S.“, and I’ve already started posting.

More Importantly Nita Dropped In…

and tagged me with an “Intellectual Blogger Award.” Before you laugh at the idea, she thinks I deserve it… Nita’s a professional (capital J) Journalist who has worked with many newspapers including the Times Of India. Through her blog — “A Wide Angle View Of India” — she’s right in the middle of the most important cultural movement on the planet, and she’s covering the associated issues with insight, intelligence and wit. Nita has been in my “Five Blogs I Visited Most This Week” list for twenty four straight weeks, so that’s how I feel aboot her, and her writing. Thanks Nita.

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The Lists:

Five Strangest Search Terms Used To Find CSN:AFU

5) hook-up-with-a-14-year-old-boy
4) Sarah Galashan Jewish
3) want to become a polygamist
2) manic depressive redheads
1) pubic aroma

Honourable Mention: flickr mohareb pictures

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Top Five CSN:AFU Posts Since Last Friday:

1) CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories — July 02/07
2) [redacted]
3) Greatest Hits: Canadian Inventions — ‘Basketball’
4) Canada: Offering A Safe-Sex Environment Where Humanity Can Fuck Itself Back Together Again
5) The First Ten Things You Need To Know Aboot Canada

Honourable Mention: Short Cuts: Canada’s Gay Anglicans Were Sacrificed For Politics Not Religion… Just Like Jesus And Marc Hall

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The Five Blogs I Visited Most This Week

1) Nita: A Wide Angle View Of India
2) Experimental Chimp
3) Kamangir (Archer) (real news from inside Iran)
4) Dead Robot
5) Pample the Moose

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This Week In General:

There is nothing more frustrating, as a… blogger, than to have your material debated upon in a forum you have no access to, except being able to watch the debate without being able to participate. Worse yet… this one’s taking place in Spanish. Someone in Madrid picked up a post I wrote on [my other blog] aboot five months ago aboot how the myth of ability in manic depression is extremely dangerous, because once someone with Bipolar Disease starts believing the myth their chances for recovery drop substantially.

The group doing the debating are using lots of emoticons, so I don’t think it’s a mensa group. The actual stated manifesto of their group is to promote the belief that Manic Depression adds to a persons creativity instead of what it actually does, prevent its host from leading a healthy life. Manic Depression is a disease that must be managed, or else it’ll kill you slowly or kill you quickly.

Fucking Punks. The last time this happened it was an anti-medication group. Every once in a while you’ll read aboot how insane it is that anorexics are enabling each other on blogs and websites… yeah.

Anyway, this week I made the decision to start eating healthy and it’s going great so far. Tonight I had a few fried potato wedges, two chicken legs and some gravy and that’s the least healthy thing I’ve eaten all week. Otherwise its been whole wheat bagels, bananas, apples, fish and yummy crab meat, orange juice and 1% milk. I’m actually eating a few, albeit small, meals everyday instead of one crappy meal ten minutes before going to bed… this is a huge change for me. What else… oh yeah, my teeth are clean, two of three fillings were filled and, apparently, I have the tooth bone density of a person nearly twice my age. Good times.

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This Weeks New Posts:

CSN:AFU Monday’s Top Three News Stories
— July 23/07
Shootings and murders across Canada in an incredible weekend of violence, and a pedophile gets an incredible deal from a Crown Attorney. A Canadian bureaucrat admits to defrauding the Department of National Defence of $100 million. GM opens negotiations with the UAW: The outlook for the American car industry could be really bad if these negotiations go wrong… Huge fires in Idaho and Utah and massive flooding in Texas. No reports of plague… Surprisingly Britain can’t float.

Greatest Hits: Canadian Inventions — ‘Basketball’
James Naismith credited a game he played as a child called “duck on a rock” as his inspiration for “Basket Ball”. Duck on a rock was played by throwing small rocks at a larger one, which was laid out on a tree stump or another stone, in an attempt to dislodge it or make it fall. One player tries to guard the large rock, and if the large stone is dislodged everyone scrambles to get their stones back… basically you line up a bunch of kids who then pitch stones at each other. In 19th century, rural Canada this was an exciting way to spend an afternoon. Not quite as exciting, however, as beating each other with sticks, which inevitably became hockey.

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Next Week:

More News, A Movie, And Smiley Faces For Everyone

Crab meat, cream cheese on a whole wheat bagel with a big glass of milk… mmm.

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Posted in Canada, CSN:AFU Weekly Review, Punk | 10 Comments