TwoBlog

In the USA, maybe! I’ll let you decide. Here’s the scenario:

Say I was charged with oh, I don’t know, say running an organized dog-fighting racket. And then say I was charged with 2 yrs prison sentence.

Now, say I failed an official drug test due to usage of Marijuana. Then, instead of serving the ‘hard time’, I would be eligible to enroll in a drug rehab plan that takes place in a minimum security facility. This program lasts about 6 - 12 months after which I would be eligible for early release even though my conviction was NOT drug related. Sounds pretty sweet, huh?

Now, say I was a professional athlete and this early release allowed me to play my sport again while still in my prime. If I’m a really good athlete I could probably turn that 12 months or so I avoided in prison into several million dollars. Sounds really sweet, huh?

Let’s go one step further: I would never have qualified for the drug rehab program had I not previously failed a required drug test. Therefore, that failure can more or less be attributed to the potential millions I could earn should things go as planned.

Summary: failing a drug test made me my millions! Now, do you think it’s worth botching a drug test so that you can put that failure to good use down the road? You never know when you might need to use it to your advantage.

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I read an article in Time that talks about how several states are starting to lease their road infrastructure to private companies, some of which are not even U.S. owned (e.g. Cintras, a company from Spain is gobbling up contracts at a gluttonous rate).  The states are turning towards this strategy as a way to solve their degrading road problem.

Since the Feds aren’t budging on upping the gas tax (it hasn’t moved since ‘93) in order to continue feeding the US greed for oil and negligence upon the environment, the cash towards infrastructure hasn’t moved either.  And the results are becoming visible.  Most notably is the bridge collapse in Minneapolis earlier this summer but there are many other occurrences of degradation.

The way this leasing works is that the state rents out a portion of the road (usually a more lucrative portion like a beltway or bypass around a city) to a private company for x number of years.  Most of the contracts seem to pan out to 99 years. The private company pays up front billions of dollars which is what the government wants:  immediate cashatola.  In return the company is required to update and maintain the quality of the road/bridges/tunnels under their care.  The pay-off are the tolls that the company now controls and reaps.

This is not a new concept and has been done in Ontario (Route 407).  I have major issues with this (there are others but I wont’ get into them):

1.  Are we the taxpayer losing out on long term gains?  Does the $$ up front exceed the long term profits that go into the private company coffers.  Consider that the company is not even local to the country and it becomes an intriguing debate.

2.  How much influence does the government have on the road itself?  One of the benefits of the government running the show is that they will react to what the people need.  For example, if a town/city is developing new business sections or suburbs (god help us), a new exit will play a huge factor in the success of the project.  Will a privately run road respond to the need?  Will it be more costly than if it were politically initiated?

3.  The cost of the tolls are not directly controlled by the government.  They can be influenced in the contract but I’m almost certain the verbage will allow the company to increase its tolls over the years at a very profitable rate to the company.

That being said, I have mixed feelings about this.  But one thing I’d like to pull out of the discussion is the concept of the toll.  I think setting up tolls along the 401, particularly between KW and Toronto would have some serious pay-offs.   There are several problems that we have:

• There are WAY too many cars on this stretch of road
• In each car there are WAY too few passengers
• There are WAY too many accidents on this stretch of road
• We have infrastructure issues with our 400 series highways

Placing tolls on this stretch would be great to address these issues.  Yes, there would be a LOT of complaining, especially by the commuters (not by me since I only go that way maybe 10-15 times a year), but this is the shot in the arm they need to start packing their cars with passengers, or moving closer to where they work.  Either way it’s a win-win.  Don’t change your behaviour means more money to whoever runs the tolls…..which I believe should be the Government of Ontario.

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I am sort of an odd duck I will admit. But I thought I was maybe a little over the edge when I came to the realization of arguablly one of my biggest peeves: People who eat while walking. This peeve had lingered underneath the surface for years. Something just out of reach that was pestering me as I would be out and about the town. But it dawned upon me while passing through the university and around the tech area in town. The places where you’ll find many many offenders.

So, why is this a peeve? Easy. Have you ever seen someone eating while walking. I mean, taken a really close look? Does it not remind you of some sort of primitive neanderthal or a cow in the pasture? First of all, eating is not a very flattering look on anybody. There are very few who could pull off the action of eating and make it look attractive in any way. But while walking, it looks foolish in my opinion.

Most people have difficulty doing two things at once to begin with. Eating while walking exposes you to the world for them to see you in all your glory. I have seen some very unpleasant sights I must tell you. And I believe it may highlight the qualities of a person: arrogant, inconsiderate, the Western World attitude that exclaims I am ‘the man’ and am so important and have so little time that I must eat and walk to show you this.

Is there not time in a day for somebody to sit and eat? Must you perform this unattractive feat in public? Or do you do this because you need to be noticed and validate your life in some way?

Be you attractive, unattractive, ignorant or knowing of your actions, you belittle the look of humanity and you send a signal that your values are skewed.

Crazy? If you think so, than you label Japan as crazy too. Eating while walking is considered to be very poor manners in that country. Why? Probably because they are a culture based upon the importance of politeness to fellow man and that actions convey the soul of a person.

That being said, I will acknowledge exceptions:

-A hotdog at the ballgame

-ice cream on a hot day

-evidence that can convict you in court while being pursued by the law

-chowing down on pizza while walking home from the bar in a drunken stupor

Feel free to provide further examples. They will be subject to criticism however.

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My brother gave me a DVD of the Roger Hodgson concert in Montreal (June 6, 2006). It is very good. Sound and vision wise. He is a superb entertainer and has had a storied career as frontman and creative talent behind the 70’s superband Supertramp.

The elephant in the room on this DVD is the same for all leaders of bands that produced mega-hit after mega-hit: Everybody going to the show wants to hear those songs, not any of the new stuff being recorded. That was obvious in Roger’s concert. He would pepper the hits with some new stuff. Although the new songs were politely applauded it was the type of applause that could be interpreted as “OK, enough’s enough. Get back to the real stuff”. And it doesn’t take an applause specialist to interpret this. I’m sure Roger, sitting up there in front of thousands of adoring fans can sense this too. I’ve seen this in many concerts or heard about it from others. For example, when Brian May was doing concerts after the death of Freddie and Queen, he was embarrassingly experiencing the same phenomenon.

I wonder how that makes these masters of bygone days feel. Pigeon-holed in their past. Very few that I’m aware of have been able to break out of the mold for better or for worse: Peter Gabriel, Robyn Hitchcock for example.

Can you think of any others?

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To celebrate (or mourn) the sale of the Jetta, I installed a new Sony head unit into the CRV.  The old Alpine 3 pack player was showing its age:  wouldn’t play writeable CDs, couldn’t play MP3s, the display was in Klingon.  It was and still is a great player though.  Very powerful especially when I had it matched with my amp and subwoofer.   Back in the early days (97-01) when I still had hair my Honda was a moving sound machine.  I remember the in-dash 3 pack at the time was state of the art.  As time moved on I realized how irrelevant it was to have the ability to load 3 CDs yet not be able to randomize over the 3 CDs.
The new Sony is not as powerful and although it has pre-outs, I opted not to run it through the amp.  I plan to take out the amp and bundle it with the sub-woofer that’s currently sitting in the garage.  Maybe I can sell the combo to a needy teenie.

Yet I love the Sony much much more than the old Alpine even though it is cheaper:  it has a USB port on the faceplate!  You cannot imagine how flexible this makes the device.  I have multiple memory sticks about 1GB each that I can load up and reload up whenever I want.  Since the majority of my music has been moved to my portable hard drive I can even plug that beast into the unit and have access to thousands of songs.  This is much better than the standard inputs that some models have that allow you to plug in your iPod.  What a crock:  the ‘iPod’ ready units cost more than the USB units!  I’m sure many idiots will pay the extra $$ for less flexibility which is why I give credit to Sony and other companies for their marketing genius.

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In my profession, I have a lot of time to listen to music.  I have a large collection and varied mix of music that I have stored on my drive.  I’ve decided that I like pretty much any kind of music as long as it has that extra something.  It’s hard to define that extra something but it is clearly something that invokes some sort of emotional charge.  I’ve been able to find this in all types of music except trance.

This morning, as the random gods would have it, I was engaged in a mini-mix of folk music predominantly sung by Roger Whittaker.  I’m sure there are many of you who know who he is and was exposed to it by your parents when you were young.  In fact, he may be one of the first musicians I can recall.  My father had many vinyls full of Roger and would not only play it frequently on the turntable, but would often be singing or whistling (more often whistling) his tunes around the house.  He was a proficient guitar player and would strum many of his tunes in public and at home.

It has dawned on me that the ultimate pleasure I derive from recorded music (live music is a different story) are the vivid memories that they invoke.  Memories I didn’t realize I had but are recalled in detail by the listening of a song.  With Roger Whittaker this morning it brought up many memories all dealing with my father.  Honestly, quite a powerful experience.  Yeah, Roger is an old-fashioned, very plain folk singer but becomes much more than that when there’s a personal history attached to the songs.

So, I started to think about other songs that bring up other memories and once I started listing them I realized there’s going to be hundreds.  Some bring up very distinctive moments and others bring up general feelings like ‘this song reminds me of 1st year university’ which then peels back layers and layers of more memories.  Quite powerful stuff!  If somebody hasn’t done research on this phenomenon and possible medical usages like bringing people out of comas or through the cloud of amnesia….

Anyhow, for my personal enjoyment and interest sake, I’m going to start a living blog entry that lists songs/albums/band/singer and the memory invoked.

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Living and working here (in a village just outside of a hi-tech city riddled with universities) I get to see a LOT of bikers moving in and around the city. After some time I’ve noticed that it is possible to determine the type of person by the outfit/bike/demeanor package presented by the rider. In fact, one could say that any particular biker is a caricature of a certain social group.

Examples:

• The ‘hard-core’ biker. This biker is very much into biking as a way of life and dresses accordingly and appropriately for the way they intend to bike (think biker shorts with proper padding, sleek helmet, tight aerodynamic shirt with corporate sponsors for which they may or may not be receiving endorsements from) . The hard-core biker is aware of his surroundings, confident and knows how to leverage his high-end equipment. He/she follows the rules of the road and can co-exist with other bikers and motor vehicle drivers. They may sometimes get trampled by a car but this is usually because of the motorist who does not know how to pass a biker on the country road who is moving at such a high velocity. The hard-core biker is representative of the successful middle-class working person who is successful at their job and also within other social circles. A few examples are: entrepreneurs, athletic hi-techies (considered a rare breed), CEOs, well adjusted university students, at-home moms with goal oriented approaches, leaders of groups and organizations (perhaps even leaders of clergy).

• The ‘hard-core wannabe’ biker. This is the biker who is not necessarily into biking but wants to give the impression that this is the case in order to fulfill some shallow emotional void. He/she will buy the expensive bike and the apparel (but typically in extremely gaudy colours and poorly fitting) but will not know how to properly use the equipment. They are a menace to other bikers and motorists due to their unpredictability and carelessness. These types of people represent the loafers and coattailers of the world. The ones who get to coast through life because they were born or married into money. Examples: Paris Hilton, movie stars, at home wives/hubbies of wealthy S.O.’s.

• The motorized biker. This is the biker who is not a biker. They drive big SUVs and other over the top luxury cars. They motorized biker is too rich to be seen on the road biking as it detracts from their image of wealth. They are so self-centred and have many other ways to fill emotional voids that they have no desire to become a hard-core wannabe. Think politicians here.

• The recreational biker. This biker can be seen on an economical yet dependable bike wearing comfortable fitting clothing. May also be seen on tandem bikes. They are not fully familiar with the rules of the road and can be seen with and without helmet and perhaps a few ‘bike-lings’ following behind. They may or may not even be overly athletic. More often than not they bike on paths or sidewalks and are looking to get outdoors, get some exercise and bond with family and friends. The biking aspect is really secondary. This group also consists of hard-cores who are having a break from their need for speed and are fulfilling other interests at the time. So the recreational biker encompasses the same type of person as hard-core but also those who ‘work to live’ as opposed to ‘live to work’, or a healthy combination of both. The recreational biker represents the most common member of society. Your everyday Joe America. (BTW, for those of you who don’t know an ‘American’ is someone from the Western Hemisphere. Those yankees stole it from us and we should take it back).

• The nerd/outcast biker. This biker is seen on an unusual adaptation of the standard bicycle. We’re talking recumbants, grown-up tricycles and unicycles. Think university profs, scientists, eccentric millionaires, clowns, buskers and role-playing (i.e. D&D) junkies. And hey, the world needs a clown or a level 3 elf with maximum hit points and +20 constitution so please leave them alone.

• The end-of-lifing (EOL) hardcore biker. The EOL hardcores can be seen in their high-end gear, but they are no longer aware of their surroundings or they don’t care about their surroundings, or are making a statement about their relation to their surroundings. They are still athletic and were once or still are major contributors to the cogs of business and society. But they have taken on a ‘I am better than you’ attitude. This is exhibited by their biking etiquette. They no longer want to share the road with motor vehicles and can be seen in groups 3-4 wide ‘pelatons’ on country roads clogging up the traffic and assuming they have priority of the road. They no longer feel as much of a need for co-operation since they’ve put in their time so to speak. The EOL hardcore biker is representative of a CEO who got really fat off the hog or a retired control-freak soccer mom to name a couple. Take the high road when you see these bikers on the road and give them wide berth. I am in no way suggesting that you nudge them with the front bumper of your car as you pass them by.

• The old-time biker. These are the grandmas and grandpas of the world. They are still using the same bike they had 50 years ago: requires a LOT of fuel to work it, is not very ergonic but is dependable. Like a Caprice Classic. If it’s rusty and squeaky so what. They call that character. Some bikes can be seen with sofa covers on them or looking like your grandparents living room. They move slowly but are content and have a wizened look about them. You get this sense that they have figured something out that you haven’t.

• The university biker. Mainly seen in university towns particularly near campus. This biker is normally seen biking on the wrong side of the road oblivious to the world. They are a danger to themselves and pay no attention at intersections. If the motorist is not careful the university biker will most certainly end up pinned under the car. Pedestrians also need to be careful as this biker tends to feel safer riding on the sidewalk. Caution for both motorist and walker must be used 12 months of the year since, as the only mode of transportation other than foot, the university biker will be out there even in the depth of winter with 14 feet of snow on the ground. If you look closely at the biker, you may catch a glimpse of a 1970-80’s “ram’s horn” ten speeder! Rare indeed. Also note the big line of mud and water that has sprayed up the backside of the biker himself. Although humiliating to most, the university biker cares not for this and is not even aware that he has massive soil marks up and down his back. The university biker is representative of the student population: they are not aware of their surrounds (as can also be seen by university pedestrians who NEVER look both ways before crossing the road at some random location) and have no grasp of reality.

• The Bike-ling. Kids. No need to say more.

• The ‘blight on society’ biker. This biker is best understood by describing his/her appearance (most commonly his). This is the biker you see dressed in old worn jeans or cut-off jeans exposing sickly legs with dirty socks and worn out old ‘Sonic’ sneakers. They may or may not be wearing a shirt. If they are wearing a shirt it’s most definitely soiled with the sleeves cut off or perhaps just a ‘muscle’ shirt (muscles themselves not present). Upon their head can often be seen a old cap displaying the NASCAR logo or an NFL football team logo. A mullet usually flowing out the back. A moustache and sunglasses adorn their face. They are riding a ram’s horn ten-speed but the handle-bars have been adjusted so that they are more-or-less upside down so that they can ride more upright instead of crouched over. This allows them to carry the empty case of beer that they are taking back to store for replacement. For yes, this is the welfare dependant.  The suspended driver’s license guy.

This is just a small set of examples that demonstrate how closely the biker nation reflects society.  Behaviour of humanity comes through in all forms of life.

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On Mother’s Day this year, the three of us were heading down to the Jays game to celebrate the motherhood of Sonia.  We left at 11:00.  At 10:45 that morning, a truck exploded on the 401 just shy of the Milton/Hwy25 cutoff.  Total and complete shutdown.  

Without the radio on we had no idea something was wrong until just after the 6 South cutoff.  Rounding a corner we saw a lot of cars flashing a lot of brakelights.  Instantly we knew we were fried.  Those familiar with the area know there are not many exits there and at this point we knew not were the accident was.  Which by the way was still about 20kms up the road.

On a beautiful sunny Mother’s Day, high of around 20 Celsius with 4 Jays tickets in hand, a toddler slept in the back seat (thank God), 2 adults listened to that same Jays game for which the tickets provided admission.  On a scratchy AM frequency (570am).  Which is just a few clicks away from 680am where there are 10 minute updates on traffic throughout the day.  A day we should have been listening to this station as soon as we left the driveway.  A station we will always listen to when leaving the driveway and frequently on any road trip through TO on the 401.

For this would have been a way to prevent the 5 hr jam that ensued.  I’ve been in traffic jams before but this beats them all.  It can drive a person to extremes.  I admit I was not able to manage the situation very well and slipped into a serious state of depression and edginess.  Sonia and OG were able to keep it together quite easily which was a very humbling experience to say the least.

The icing on the preverbial cake of crap was that the traffic reports at one point indicated that 2 (two) lanes had opened up.  Just at that moment what seemed at the time a result of this but was later explained by something far idiotic and controllable by MTO and OPP:  the traffic sped up.  Able to get to 80kms an hr for about 5 clicks which meant we coasted past the next available exit.  But no need to get off right?  The lanes are opening and the traffic is moving…..for about 2 more kms and then deadlock again.  For another 2 hrs.

Eventually we made it through.  When we got to the scene there were NO lanes open.  Just the shoulder where 3 lanes of traffic were squeezing in, including transport trucks that WERE ONCE NOT ALLOWED ON THE 401 ON SUNDAYS.

Wha happened to the 2 lanes?  This is were the idiots come out of the woodworks.  Obviously there was a !#$% up.  MTO/OPP were not properly communicating and I believe this is what happened and I KNOW I can’t be proven wrong:  The poor channels of communication sent misinformation down the road to the closest exit we were reaching way back in the beginning of this mess.  When they were told that there were lanes opening up, they re-opened the 401 at our closest exit.  This is why there was this unfortunately timed speed up when we heard the ‘good’ news on the radio.

OK, so we were victims of circumstance.  The kicker to this whole thing is that after having some dinner and then driving home a couple of hrs later, they still hadn’t opened any lanes.  For the next 25kms there was bumper to bumper.  Basically back towards KW before the 6N cutoff to Guelph.  Why in God’s name had MTO/OPP not re-closed the ramps onto the 401?  What sort of sadistic madman runs this show?  I was truly sorry for these people.  Especially those who were still about 2kms from knowing their fate.  Except for one guy I saw backing up and working his way back to the exit he just passed.  A VERY dangerous move but highly profitable if he pulled it off.  I wasn’t sorry for that guy.

So, I plea:  what can be done to prevent this?  It seems like a simple enough solution to resolve.  I have some ideas: 

1)  Use more of those ‘info’ signs you see plenty of in the TO area.  You know, the ones that say:  ‘Expressway slow.  Collectors moving well’.  Compare the time/money loss of that traffic jam with the one time cost of setting up some more of these in logical areas along the 401.  People could then be forewarned to get off on an earlier exit.

2)  Have well placed service road exit-only locations.  Exits that don’t really get you anywhere useful except in emergency cases.  You see these all the time in the US on major highways.

These are just 2.  Couple that with much better situational training of how to deal with these situations and make sure everyone’s on the same page will go a long way.  Just by shutting down exits when they should be shut down is a big step in the right direction.  Don’t waste our time when it’s simple to resolve!

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We all know that hearing a familiar song can bring back very vivid memories.  It can happen at weird times and out of the blue.  Which blows my mind as to how our mind stores information (that’s mind-blowing-ly profound).

I’m sitting here reading email when ‘Goodnight Saigon’ by Billy Joel randomly pops up on my iTunes.  Instantly and vividly I’m brought back to a cram-session I had studying Grade 13 Calculus in my parent’s living room just a couple of hrs before the exam.  I even remember what in particular I was studying:  A proof for Pythagoras theorem.

That is how the mind works.  I can’t remember to call my mechanic (thanks for reminding me Billy!) on a given day or whether I’m supposed to pick up my daughter later today but I can remember this polaroid instance 18 yrs ago.

Which throws me off on a tangent:  A couple days ago driving home from Detroit after a trip to Vegas (more to come on that) I was on a certain section of I-94 when I remembered what I was thinking about on this same stretch of road 3 yrs ago when I last there (coming home from an earlier trip to Vegas).  It also has to do with music.  I was listening to Meat Loaf’s “Back Into Hell” sequel album to “Bat Out of Hell” when I started spewing out ideas out loud to poor Sonia about how I could string all these Meat Loaf songs into a musical.  We had just seen a show in Vegas called “We Will Rock You” that had a pretty dodgey plot strung together by dental floss in order to lay down all the Queen mega-hits and make some cool cash along the way.  Had also seen Mamma Mia a few weeks earlier so I was drenched in camp.
So I thought aloud:  this has got to be easy money.  Everyone loves Meat Loaf (both singer and food) and his tunes are made for this sort of thing.  I don’t want to give out too much but here’s the gist of the plot I had spun:  It has to do with a teenage boy and girl struggling through a heated yet difficult teenage romance.  They move apart as they finish school only to meet up years later (in their 30’s) after living their separate divergent lives:  one has made it big, one has fallen on hard times.  They may or may not rekindle that fire.  Lots of dancing, lights, screaming power chords, etc. and BAM!  insta-hit!
If anybody has Meat Loaf’s email please pass it along or have him get in touch with me.  We’ll do lunch and plan out our mega-smash broadway show.  I guarantee it would blow Mamma Mia out of the water.

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If you want to get depressed in a hurry (doesn’t everybody?) you should go out and rent the documentary “The End Of Suburbia”. This happy little film discusses the inevitable downfall of our society due to the decreasing availability of oil.

We all know about this and are aware of the many obvious costs of our oil gluttony: war, global warming, environment depletion. The doc discussese these issues in detail but the key element discussed which is described by the title is how this is will affect our day-to-day lives. With our exploitation of oil we have created the suburbia that is seen today and when the oil runs out will dramatically change the landscape of these environments.

The dwellers of suburbia by definition are required to drive their vehicle many miles for virtually all their needs. When the oil runs out, these suburbs will become the new ’slums’ or become extinct as people move closer together as before the big boom in the 60’s. Alternatively, the slums will adapt and re-adjust to small communities that have the needs within walking distance. But there will be a cost to this: Many of these ‘McMansions’ as they are called by the documentary will become quasi-apartment buildings, very similar to what is seen in inner-city suburbs today.

Not to bore you or put myself into a deeper state of depression, I’ll skip the finer points and wrap up with some points that are important to me:

- how will the oil depletion affect the value of my home in the future? We live in an older suburb on the outskirts of the city. But it is located within a fairly self-supporting village with other small towns and villages within a 5 kilometer radius. Will the future see an increase or decrease in value? What services need to exist in the community to become even more self-sufficient and thus worthwhile to live in the community? Given that driving may become overly-expensive, how attractive is our community?
- To answer the above, we need to also think about what type of work people will be doing in 10, 20, 30 or 40 years from now? Our local metropolis is fairly diverse (several colleges, universities, factories, etc.) but has become prevalently a technology centre. What value will these jobs have down the road? How expensive will it be to drive into these jobs from outside of the city? What will I be doing?

- These questions will certainly drive the path we take whenever we evaluate our place of living, whether we should think about moving and to where we should be moving. And this evaluation should be ongoing along with a healthy (but not paranoid) awareness of housing trends and other indicators that provide insight into the future (cost of oil, US invasions into other oil rich countries, that sort of thing).

- Wherever we live, it’ll someday need to be a walkable, smart growth community.  Already, subdivisions are being built to accommodate this and they are selling at a monster premium.

The doc was a little over the top and most likely produced by conspiracy theorists, but when reviewed rationally there was good discussion within the film and some value to take away from it.

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