Installment #2

9:42 PM, Sunday 23 January 2005

Well here goes week two of what you so lovely coined That’s Stefan This is Kyle or what I renamed That’s Kyle This is Stefan. I was pretty tired this weekend and couldn’t come up with anything more original.

Anyway this week has seen a lot of talk over the whole gay marriage debate. The National Post declared front page that legal gay marriage would mean legal polygamy. This oddly all-coming right after the conservative party announces an ad campaign against gay marriages. I find it all so funny how so much time and energy is being spent on something that doesn’t even affect the people of this country. I mean if two guys (or chicks) get married what harm does it do to anyone? Despite my own personal opinions on homosexuality I still cannot see what people are getting all crazy over. There are bigger problems in this country then two people getting married. I mean there is a massive homeless problem in our major cities, missile defense something that could considerably change the security of this country is being swept under a rug, universities graduates cannot find work, I mean is gay marriage really the top issue in Canada right now? Am I missing something here?

I was watching some political show on CTV today and they were saying how the Liberals stated the meeting with Bush during his visit to Canada was purely coordinal and that missile defense was never even discussed. However now according to a US paper the Liberals talk quite a bit with Bush about missile defense. Apparently Bush told Martin that he couldn’t see why any Canadian would be against making their country safer. He also went on to say that some future president (not him of course) might one day be under the attitude of “Hey why are we defending Canada anyway?” That sounds like a threat to me, and in my eyes I think Canada would be a lot safer staying out of the missile defense and needs to realize that the biggest nation we need to defend ourselves against is the US. Did you catch any of the inauguration BS this week? “I have 4 more years to spread Greedom And Democary.”

Do you like how Phil Esposito called out the players this week on the salary cap? Or that guy who died just recently (famous guy who’s name seems to elude me right now) saying how the greedy players and league robbed him of watching hockey in his last year of his life. No season this year I guess. I suppose I will have to resort to watching football, maybe the Eagles can bring a championship back to Philly for the first time in a long time.

So Kusch I want to know really how much work a masters program is? Is this night and day compared to your undergrad or is it easier than you thought? Also how are your TV habits, what are you watching these days?

Hey I saw that you got audioscrobbler working. It was pretty easy to setup hey?

Stefan

9:17 AM, Monday 24 January 2005

That’s exactly what I hoped you’d name it! Yeah, I couldn’t think of anything good either. When in doubt, keep it simple.

Gay marriage is probably about 999th on the list of our thousand biggest problems. It’s not the government’s position to legislate morality or be a babysitter. People decide moral standards and the government simply reacts to them. It’s obvious the people want, or at least are indifferent to, gay maariage. It’s Canada, you should be able to marry a fucking desk lamp if you want to. I mean, when Don-fucking-Cherry comes out on national television and says he’s not opposed to gay marriage, then I think it’s time we accepted it. While homosexulaity is always going to be weird and foregin to me and I’ll never understand it, it also doesn’t take away any of my money or hold up the line at the post office. It’s not hurting anyone. It’s not as if the rest of the country’s going to become gay by osmosis or something.

With no TV (more on that later), I managed to avoid all the inaugurational bullshit. I didn’t even know it had happened until I heard about the Condoleezza Rice confirmational hearings on CBC. Canada should be courting the EU and Asia instead of constantly trying to appease the States. My old history prof at Calgary, the brilliant Doug Francis (my favourite prof there), put it this way: Canada’s old name was British North America. The first part of our history, we emphasized the ‘British’ part. The second part of our history, we emphasized the ‘America’ part. If we want to succeed in the future, we should emphasize the ‘North’ part.

Phil Esposito is renowned in the hockey world for being remarkably out of touch with reality, so I don’t listen to anything he says unless he talking about anything before 1984. I made up for my hockey fix in part by going to a PG Cougars game with my buddy Mike Hurley on Saturday. $11 for eighth row tix. I love junior hockey. They were playing the Hitmen so we wanted to check out Getzlaf and Ladd. Calgary won 3-1, pretty lacklustre game. We had more fun making fun of everything at the game, especially the crappy music on the sound system. I think they just grabbed Big Shiny Tunes 9 and DanceMix ‘97 and just started alternating between the two. The Hampster Dance? Come on! Also, all the free giveaways just went to the same three section on the other side of the Multiplex. Lame. The best part was the Timbits game in the first intermission. This one kid just kept crosschecking everyone in front of him and pounding people. Hilarious!

Grad school is everything you think it is and more. I’m here at school either in my office, in class or in the library about 50 hours a week and I’m still falling behind slightly. Throw in teaching two GIS lab sections and it’s fucking hectic. It’s totally worth it, though. I get to work on stuff I’m really interested in (small town geography) and I’ve made so many friends here it’s insane. Every day is jampacked, so at least I’m never bored. As for my TV watching habits, I don’t have any. The only TV I’ve watched since I’ve been back was the World Junior Finals and SNL (which was fucking horrible this week) two days ago, both at Mike’s house. My landlord has a dish but I don’t go up there very often. It’s amazing how much I don’t miss TV when I don’t have it. If it’s not an option, you don’t consider it. But I do miss Family Guy and Chapelle’s Show. Other than that, it’s probably a good thing I don’t have it; I’d be too bust to watch it anyway. How that’s for an answer from the guy who used to watch 70 hours a week?

Audioscrobbler is very cool. I’m just worried I’ll start skewing what I listen to in order to make sure one band or one song doesn’t get too far ahead on the charts. I finally ripped some CD off my friend Alan this weekend: Beatles’ White Album and Rubber Soul, Public Enemy’s Fear of A Black Planet, Metallica’s Ride the Lightning and Beasties’ Ill Communication. That probably explains the skewed statistics. I need some new music to balance out the old stuff but downloading at school isn’t an option. Have you heard of the band Clinic? I’d like to get my hands on that.

Kyle

7:58 PM, Monday 24 January 2005

From 70 hours a week down to almost zero. That is quite an accomplishment for you Kyle. I would have never expected it. So does that mean you left your TV at home in Nakusp then? I personally have also written off TV, well at least for the most part. I can still watch TV on my computer but the amount I actually watch is very minimal, less than 10 hours a week that is for sure. I find it refreshing not having TV, plus I find I read a lot more and right now I have a pretty big booklist to get through. Currently I am reading The Da Vinci Code to see what all the fuss is about (and because it was a Christmas gift). After that I will likely read Shake Hands With the Devil. What have you been reading lately; I imagine just all school related stuff.
It is also good to hear you have a social life in PG Kyle. I mean last time you were up there you didn’t really hang out with anyone did you? Have you started a new friend list? Top 10 friends in PG and pit them against your Nakusp friends? Haha, ok I will stop now with that nonsense.
That instructor of yours Doug Francis sounds like he was a really good instructor. I like his saying, and agree 100%. Did you see today that Canadian Postal Workers and the Council For Canadians have challenged NAFTA saying that the agreement goes against our constitution? It will be interesting to see the outcome of this court case. Regardless of this case though I think a lot of Canadians are realizing how bad NAFTA really is for us. A lot of people who I have talked to who I wouldn’t normally think would be against NAFTA actually realize we are getting fucked and are against it. Time will only tell I suppose.

So today I had a CT scan done. I need to have my two bottom wisdom teeth take out, however on the x-ray it shows that my wisdom teeth roots are at the same area as my nerve. Without knowing where the nerve is it is possible they would rip the nerve, which would make me lose all feeling in my lower jaw. Thus the CT scan was done to get an idea where the nerve is in relation to my wisdom teeth and whether or not they can pull them out. Losing feeling in lower jaw would suck, thus I am somewhat happy the oral surgeon didn’t just go right at it and rip those suckers out, even despite the $300 charge the CT scan cost. Granted I think my medical will cover that for me, lets hope.

Stefan

9:17 AM, Monday 24 January 2005

I brought my TV not knowing what the situation was (landlords had a dish and not cable), so basically it’s just sat on the floor unplugged for five months. The old VCR has found some use though; I use it as my laptop desk on my bed. Unfortunately I have virtually no time to read anything that isn’t school related. Therefore, the most recent book is a historical geography of Finns in Greater Sudbury. I do manage to read my National Geographics from time to time; I’m almost caught up on them. Funny story a few months ago on Point Roberts, WA in which the author called Tsawwassen across the border a ’strip-mall hell’. Needless to say there were quite a few letters in the next issue from Delta residents taking offence. What is the Da Vinci code? I see it everywhere but have n idea what it is. If it’s one of those stupid ‘parable of life’ books like Ishmael or the Life of Pi then it probably wouldn’t interest me. Say, I hear that Dianetics is a great book!

Yeah, the first time in PG I made no friends (None. At all. Zero.) so my entire time was spent in my room. It was horrendous. Compare that to now where I’m coming home at 1:30 every weekend. Lot more fun this time around. And, yes, I have a PG Most Popular list now. And I will pit them against the Nakusp list in my next story where everyone fights in a 60-minute Texas Death Sexual Endurance match. I will use the word ‘fuck’ 377 times and someone’s clitoris will be punctured! (sarcasm)

Didn’t have time to catch the radio this morning so I didn’t hear about that, but it just goes to show how nonconstructive NAFTA really is. Who’d have though Ross Perot was right? Anyway, just read the story you liked to on your site, and it’s just more proof of the idiocy of NAFTA. Basically, UPS wants all mail delivery privatized. That would be like suing for the right to print your own money because the Canadian government unfairly subsidizes the Royal Canadian Mint. Fuck UPS. If you’re going to go with private couriers, we’ve always gone Loomis or DHL. But Canada Post should be left alone. If the government back down on this, we’re in big shit.
I’m very lucky that my wisdom teeth never came in. But my molars are beginning to deteriorate (took 24 years but I finally have cavities!) and I have no coverage. My parents and I are discussing solutions. My friend Leah from North Van just got hers removed in December and it took almost a month for her gums to heal. So have fun with that. Or at least enjoy the drugs you’ll be on.

Kyle

9:41 PM, Tuesday 25 January 2005

The Da Vinci Code is a novel about a secret society and deals with controversy with the church. The novel is fiction, however many people who have read it have been taking it as fact, while a bunch of what the author has written is fact a lot of it is not, or is being represented out of content. This makes for a bad combination as most people reading the book are going to think that what they read is true. Apparently churches in Paris and Italy have had to put up signs telling fans of the book to stop snooping around for clues from the novel. Anyway it is a thriller and is pretty exciting and if you take it for what it is (fiction) then it is a fun read. I read a really good article on the book in MacLean’s that you might be interested in reading to get a better idea: http://www.macleans.ca/culture/books/article.jsp?content=20041220_95307_95307
I am planning to have my wisdom teeth out on a Friday, that way I can take loads of codeine and fly all weekend. When I had my top ones out I was better in a day, however the top two had room to grow out and had already poked through the gums. The bottom two are a little more… tricky. As for your molars do you floss? Or is it just the sheer amount of sugar you consume that has final gotten the best of them? I can’t believe these are your first cavities, I mean you probably take in twice as much sugar as I do; hell you should see my x-rays!

Anyway looks like I spoke too soon on the whole electoral reform. Today I got in the paper a nice little pamphlet explaining what had happened over the last while and why this new system is good. I think if every BC voter reads at least the first page or two of this they should be convinced.

Today you posted a comment on my site concerning Nakusp turning into a resort town. Thinking of where Nakusp is situated and the emergence of Revelstoke and Rossland as huge ski villas with major money backing them trying to rival Whistler do you think there is any hope? The one problem I personally see with hills in Revelstoke and Rossland is that they have no access, or limited access. The type of clientele they are trying to attract are not going to be people who will want to drive in, they will need some type of airport if they expect to make it. I suppose there is an airport in Castelgar and Rossland is close to the border but still, how are the people going to get to these hills? Granted when I went to Calgary over Christmas I couldn’t believe how many Albertans I saw in Revelstoke, I think the population had doubled over Christmas. There was a snowmobile and truck with Alberta plates parked on every logging road between the ferry and Revelstoke. So maybe the investors are going by the “if we build it, they will come”. Another fear is that if Revelstoke starts to make it big and attract a lot of attention it will bring a lot of attention on Nakusp and the hotsprings. Sadly it would only be a matter of time before a private investor would give the town an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Stefan

10:24 PM, Tuesday 25 January 2005

Read the Maclean’s article. Well, as a piece of fiction and knowing that some of the pacets of the story are created for the story, I don’t know if it’s a book I’d be interested in. I’d much rather read a non-fiction book based upon the same context. Sorry. Just not a fiction person, especially dramatic fiction.

I resent the sugar remark. Since I’ve been here I pretty much have no sugar other that what’s in the four cookies I eat every other weekday in my lunch. If I have two slurpees a month that’s amazing. I had my molars sealed at the age of 12 to protest them from cavities. After about 10 years the sealant wore away and the teeth degenerated pretty rapidly. Mind you, all those slurpees I drank in Calgary probably helped wear down the sealant pretty good. But I’m certainly not a sugar junkie. At least not anymore. I can’t even get through a one litre Pepsi without getting at least a small headache. Unless it’s chocolate and someone gave it to me, I really don’t eat sugar anymore. (No TV? No slurpees? What’s next, conversion to Pentacostalism?) At least you get to be high for once, a good excuse for drugs for a non-imbiber like yourself.

The day after we had the electoral system talk I saw ads in both PH papers from the Citizen’s Committee. I hope people will go for it. It would really fuck things up for any party looking for a slam dunk electoral victory (just ask the 1952 Coalition government). Look it up.
Dude, the Village has been trying to lure developers up to Nakusp Hot springs for the better part of a decade. They really are sold on this boundary expansion idea that would see Nakusp reincorporate as a district (bypassing town and going right to district is a big step) and take in the entire lakeshore up to Halcyon to generate tax revenue and start putting in resort development. I worked at the Chamber of Commerce for five years and saw the stats firsthand, the Albertans are coming and they are buying vacation properties. Ever looked at a property map of Trout Lake? The shoreline is about 40% Albertan-owned. Trout-fucking-Lake with the gravity-fed gas pumps. Trust me, it’s coming. we won’t notice it for a few years yet but we will. And between Mt. Mackenzie and Red, that’s $400 million in investement, an absolutely egregious number. Something’s going to happen. And let’s face it, Nakusp needs some to jumpstart it. But once it happens, don’t expect it to be the same place we grew up in. I don’t want to have to start telling people I’m from ‘north of Nelson’.

Kyle

8:12 PM, Wednesday 26 January 2005

Well I looked up the 1952 coalition government and see that you must be talking about how the conservatives and liberals formed a coalition then instituted a new electoral system to help defeat the CCF. Then in ’53 Bennett seemed to abolish the alternative voting system. That is pretty interesting stuff. What was this alternative electoral system, how did it work? It looks like after the 1950’s the Liberals were basically non-existent until the early 90’s. It is also funny how many scandals we have had in BC politics since the early nineties. This Liberal government has run a pretty tight ship (granted Campbell did get drunk in Hawaii), they have done almost everything they have promised. Granted they didn’t have to say much to win the last election. Hey, how many former premiers have made there way into their position by way of Vancouver politics (by either being mayor or a otherwise). Also do you think Larry Campbell will ever go Provincial? Most everyone in Vancouver loves the guy.

I remember reading in the Arrow Lakes News that at one of the town hall meetings some members wanted to officially change the name of the town from Nakusp to Nakusp Hotsprings to try and cash in further. Man I really hope things don’t get over populated, over run in our valley. I think most of the beauty of the Arrow Lakes is the fact it is so uninhabited and pristine. I mean I could get into a boat on a weekday in Fauquier, go south and probably not see a person or another boat for my entire journey. When I was a kid I used to dream of Fauquier becoming a big town, I had it all planned out where the arena would be and the big mall and the apartment buildings etc. It is funny but now I kind of would like to see Fauquier and area preserved in its raw state, there is something tranquil about being in a completely remote setting.

Speaking of Nakusp is it any wonder that the attempted murder was on Ken Janzen? I mean how many times has this guy been in drug related busts and shootings? Yet he always seems to get off, come back and do it some more. I guess some things about our lovely valley aren’t all peaches and cream.

K-l-o-p-p yeah you know me…

9:50 PM, Wednesday 26 January 2005

The alternate voting system the Coalition government put in place was a pure STV system. Each party had a candidate in a riding like normal but you ranked them 1,2,3, etc. Related to the BCSTV the citizen’s committee wants in, only instead you’d be voting for multiple ridings at a time (and thus multiple party candidates) adding a bit of proportionality to it. Basically, Bennett left the Conservatives and started the Socred party. Everyone laughed him off kind of like Paul Nettleton nowadays and went on with their lives. The Coalition figured all of the voters who didn’t want the CCF would just rank the Liberal and Conservative candidates 1-2 and that those who did vote CCF would be forced to put a Coalition candidate second. This way, the votes would transfer and the Coalition would win. Had the regular ballot been used, the CCF would have won and the Coalition knew that would be the case ahead of time. What they didn’t count on was the huge number of second-place votes the Socreds got. Even though the Coalition had been around for over a decade, people who voted Liberal federally sure didn’t want to mark the Cons as their second choice provincially and vice versa, so they put the socreds as their second choice, as did basically all the CCF voters who would rather have a ‘fringe’ party as a second choice rather than the capitalist mainline parties. Thus the Socreds snuck up the middle and won. Bennett then junked the system as there was no use for it since it killed the Libs and Cons in BC pretty well permanently (it took 40 years for the Liberals to be a factor in politics again under Gordon Wilson; the Cons never won a seat again and don’t even exist provincially now; that’s why Campbell and what was left of the Socreds in ‘95 had to hijack the Liberals from under Gordon Wilson).

The Liberals did everything they promised and a lot of stuff they didn’t as well. It’s that stuff (BC Rail, health care and social cuts, replacement of good-paying jobs with underemployment they can call ‘new job growth’) that the NDP must capitalize on. Right now pundits are saying 45-34 for the Liberals, a big chunk taken out but still a landslide. In three months when the election begins we’ll see how well the new NDP does. Are you registered? Not being a Vancouverite I have no idea what Larry Campbell is about other than he was the coroner they based Da Vinci’s Inquest upon, he belongs to COPE and he brought in the safe injection zones. What do you think of him?

It wasn’t even a town hall meeting, it was a council meeting (we don’t have town hall meetings; I think the last one was 1999 when the bypass was approved). And it wasn’t community members, it was Mayor Cowan and councillor Wally Curran (who’s lived in Nakusp just over three years). I remember seeing a bunch of petitions in stores that went almost totally unsigned. No one really bought that idea (remember, there was a town of Nakusp quite a while before white people even knew about the hot springs; it’s not like Radium, Harrison or Fairmont where the villages grew up around the springs. Fauquier is a very pretty town and it shouldn’t be changed abit except for maybe the addition of a slurpee machine at one of the stores and the purging of a certain motel owner (having dealt with him on the phone at the Chamber I can emphathize with you down-the-lakers).

I had/have no idea who Ken Janzen is and that’s probably a good thing. My mom sure does, though, and she wasn’t surprised by that happening at all. Still, Nakusp is now approachin 15 years without a homicide. Even most other towns our sizes can’t say that.
A-R-I-B-A-Z-Y, it rises to me.

Kyle

8:57 PM, Thursday 27 January 2005

“Replacement of good-paying jobs with underemployment they can call ‘new job growth’”
That could have been taken out of 1984. You’re right though it is totally BS. One thing I totally hate on TV are those stupid BC ads about “Your Hired, your hired, BC has the largest job growth in all Canada blah blah blah.” All the while showing shots of guys like Jim Pattison shaking hands or hiring people. I suppose it is the least the BC millionaires could do for their buddy Gordo for slashing all those wonderful taxes on the rich and putting the brunt of the provincial tax burden on the middle and lower class citizens. What was it, something like a 30% tax break to the top 3% of our population? Of course you will get the extra right wing defense that by keeping taxes very low for the rich you promote the rich folks to move here, buy up our homes and give us great jobs. Hell why don’t we lower the minimum wage while we are at it, maybe we can lure some more call centers here.

I was just looking at the NDP roster for this year and noticed that the guy running in Columbia River Revelstoke’s name is Norm Macdonald. I mean with a name like that and a few good jokes this guy could slide right in. Think Suffredine will win our home riding again this year, or will people be fed up enough over the whole hospital amalgamations and closures to vote liberals? Our riding is Nelson-Creston right? I think there are a lot of lefties in those parts wouldn’t you say?

As for me being registered I am not sure. How do you do that? I thought I was registered by doing my taxes and such, or do I have to do something special? I guess I will find out as the time gets a little nearer. I will be voting though that is a fact, especially with the whole electoral reform issue on the table.

To switch things off politics for a minute, there was big talk this week about Neil Young playing the Juno’s with The Hip. Don’t get me wrong I really like Neil Young but I don’t know if I can really consider the guy a Canadian anymore. I think he is a Californian now. Granted he did go to a bunch of Sharks games in the playoffs. Regardless the guy can be seen at many political and social events that concern the USA however when something similar happens in Canada he is nowhere to be seen. Hell the guy has enough pull behind him that he should be the guy to organize or arrange for similar things in Canada. I think he just doesn’t care.

Stefan

8:28 AM, Friday 28 January 2005

Of course BC has the largest job growth in all of Canada! When you hit rock bottom like we did in 2002, there’s nowhere to go but up! Yay, Wal-Mart! Yay, LiveBridge! Notice the explosion in campuses of Sprott-Shaw Community College? Everyone will be making 410 an hour while we export our natural tesources and all of their accordant profits out of the country! What a wonderful fucking economy.

There are certainly a lot of lefties in Nelson-Creston. Not so much next in Columbia River-Revelstoke (Alberta resort country-notice how the NDP candidates almost always come from Golden, a mill town, or Kimberley, a mine town). However, Wendy McMahon is so universally reviled there that Macdonald has a really good shot (we can just give him Kimberley right now after the hospital closure). As for Nelson-Creston, it all depends on whether or not Corky wins the nomination. The name recognition factor alone should help. On the other hand, he carries a lot of baggage from the last time the NDP was in power. With less of a Green Party presence this time around, there won’t nearly be a smuch vote splitting. I expect a close one between him and Blair.

You fucking dork! You don’t know how to register? If you didn’t vote in 2001 then you probably aren’t. You can make sure by heading down to your local voter registration office or by going to the Elections BC website to see if you’re on the list. If you aren’t, you can just register online with your driver’s license. I’m lucky, since my driver’s license is still registered with a Nakusp address I can vote back home with an absentee ballot.

I remember very distinctly when Neil Young did a MuchMusic Intimate & Interactive show and he was asked whether he feels attached to Canada, to which he replied that he considers the whole continent America so it doesn’t feel any different. Wow, fuck you, too, Neil. Let’s face it, he’s a Yank. They guy hasn’t lived in Canada for almost 40 years since the old Buffalo Springfield days. And if anyone’s still paying attention to awards shows at this point, that’s sad. It’s so fucking arbitrary. You can have the ‘greatest’ music (and you need time and influence to properly gauge that, like about five years minimum) but you can’t quantify the ‘best’ music, it’s too subjective.

Kyle (some people call me Maurice)

10:27 PM, Friday 28 January 2005

So Kusch I was going to send you a wonderful final reply, however today my computer crashed and I have been spending the last X hours working to get it back. It is finally booting now but far from restored. Looks like you got the last word this week as well.

Stefan