Hmmmm

Maybe it's old news, but it's still interesting to see what government looks like when people become a little bit more health conscious. I found the following while perusing several MP's websites, this is from Svend Robinson's:

PETITION TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ELIMINATION OF TRANSFATS

To the House of Commons in Parliament Assembled

WE, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House to the
following:

THAT trans fats (also known as trans fatty acids or hydrogenated vegetable oils)
are deadly, manufactured fats which cause obesity, heart disease and diabetes, all
of which are on the rise in Canada;
THAT trans fats raise levels of ‘bad cholesterol’ in the body, and prevent ‘good cholesterol’ from clearing the circulatory system;
THAT just one gram of trans fats per day can increase the risk of heart disease by 20%;
THAT the recommended daily intake of trans fats is zero;
THAT fast foods and prepared foods are high in trans fats;
THAT many baby foods contain trans fats;
THAT Canadians eat an average of 10 grams of trans fats per day.
THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to eliminate trans fats from Canada’s food supply.


It's not a bad idea in theory, though I'm not sure how it would be put into practice. It's just one of those things that makes you go hmmmm (and I wondered if my tax dollars were being put to good use, silly me).

About Noam

Went to see Chomsky at the Orpheum two weeks ago. (As an aside, I love that theatre. I'm such a sucker for ornate artifice, not that I'm shallow, I just like to bask in the opulence of things.)

First, I can't believe that I had to sit through an hour of NDP propaganda before I got to hear Noam speak.

Second, some of the people outside protesting all the many things they were protesting may have been better off if they had actually taken some time to research the things they were protesting. There were a bunch of non-sensical flyers about anti-semitism, in addition to one directed at Chomsky for his supposed involvement with neo-nazi movements. (I'm still think it's funny in a sad way that anyone Jewish could actually be an anti-semite.) I may not know everything there is to know about that, but I do know that one of their major claims was totally false. It's kind of sad when even I know that you're making a very glaringly obvious blunder.

Third, Chomsky is really funny. However, I think that too many of the people there really were there to see Svend, because not very many people laughed at the jokes he told. Of course, I don't think that very many of the people there understood that he was talking about anyway. Not to bore you with details, he talked about the oxymoron that is "fighting terrorism", and about "Star Wars", and about the fact that it is likely that Bush will get re-elected, and then he talked about the likely consequences of his re-election. I am always surprised by how soft-spoken Chomsky is, he definitely breaks the "loud obnoxious" stereotype given to most anarchists.

My only complaint is that it is likely that the speech won't be widely available in transcript format because the stupid NDP are selling tapes of the speech for $30 (as if we didn't already pay to be there?!, dumb wankers).

Lessons Learned

My Sense of Humour...

obviously doesn't translate into the world of Blog. I think I'm one of those things that's funnier if you're there. Miyuki and I had a good laugh about the post while I was writing it, but now people think I'm a crazy stalker. Oh the unforeseen consequences of trying to be witty.

True Happiness

I have long been under the impression that friends are the only people who actually give something vaguely resembling a shit about your happiness. Of all the people on the planet, your friends are supposed to be rooting for you. Your family might be crap, your life may suck, and a multitude of other agonies may be visited upon you daily, but your friends are there to lighten the burden and help you achieve what small successes you may be capable of.

At least that's what I thought before I became friends with Miyuki.

Now I know the truth.

Friends are only friends when there's no self-interest involved.

If your life is crap, great, I'll help make it better, I'll provide whatever little rays of sunshine I can, unless it's the sunshine I was planning to use for something, 'cause if it is, then you can just wallow in that shit a little longer.

That's right, my "friend" Miyuki is a terrible little whoring man thief.

Everyone knows I've wanted Christian forever. Well, at least since I first visited his blog. Even if we've never seen each other, I feel like I know him so well. How many countless times have I dreamt about his sweet, sweet ass? How often do I hope for the chance to meet him? Is my ardent admiration of him not ever present in the comments I have posted? I am sure that if I ever got the chance to be near him, that he could provide that little ray of sunshine I've been hoping for.

The fact that he might just be the salvation I've been looking for doesn't count apparently. Nooooo, Miyuki just has to keep us apart. Who would suspect that beneath such a cute facade there lurks a man-eating viper?

Christian knows I want him, he would have to be daft not to (which he is not). However, Miyuki has him so ensnared with her little cutenesses (like her cartoon squirrel sneezes) that he can not see his way clear of her. She has trapped him, and now she lords her happiness over me, well aware that every mention of them together is torture because it means that my own chance for happiness is so gleefully thwarted by her desire to manipulate and control men.

I fear, dear readers, the new depths of despair I will fall to as he becomes further and further out of reach. Every night, as I hug my home-made Christian doll, I wonder, when will I have my chance for joy? Will I ever get Christian?

I am so very (deliberately?) naive

This is not news to anyone who knows me well. As much as my other more manic personality thinks I'm jaded and tough, my cute, fuzzy bunny, oblivious side knows I'm not. It knows that, at heart, I still think that the good guy wins, and that for as many bad things as happen to people, good things happen too. I still believed that the problems we face as a species can be overcome, or at least that we will be able to change.
Poor dumb Kim.
For all my love of Noam, I forgot that reading him often reminds me what shitheads humans are. It's not just the politics, it's the million other things we do that doom us to eventual demise. Once I start looking for the nasty scummy underbelly in my happy bunny existence, I find it; and it is not pretty, or fluffy, or cute. It's a telling picture of bad environmental practices and lies and dirty politics and a large stupid behemoth called public opinion.
It's not just Noam though, the most disturbing thing I've read recently was the chapter in Lying Liars about Bush's environmental policies. I dread the gunk that will drift in to Canada carried by American air.
Somehow, I am not comforted by the fact that eventually (hopefully in a distant future) the problems we are creating will grow so severe that we will be forced to change, or die. What kind of a world is being created for little John-Stamos? Evidently it's the kind that the beaten dead horse has been ranting about for years and years (you know the one: polluted oceans, a marked lack of breathable air, complete depletion of natural resources, yadda yadda yadda).
Sometimes I like to amuse myself by trying to figure out why I bother to care (all naivete aside). Then I get tired of the circular logic and cliches, at which point I usually indulge in some random consumerism to satiate my need to feel important, pretty, and loved. The fuzzy happy bunny demands satisfaction.

Good God, She's posting more than once, in the same day!

Maybe I'm cheating. I am making rather short posts, but they're not really related, so if I posted them in the same place I would almost sound more manic than I really am. Almost

On Politics

I'm getting all excited about hearing Chomsky speak at the Orpheum next Saturday. I may be alone on my little bandwagon of yea Noam, but I couldn't help but draw parallels between Franken and him as I read the former's book. Looking back, I think I've had a little love affair with the left ever since grade 10 when I read "Manufacturing Consent" and decided that the left really was evil, and that American politics really were all about the money, and not so much about the good of the American people, let alone the world. (I haven't really made up my mind about Canadian politics, mostly it involves the same kind of poo, just a different pile.)

Generally, my disgust with politics prevents me from being very politically active, I love learning about international relations and foreign policy, but I hate the nasty dirty sick feeling I get just hearing about things that go on in the political arena on a daily basis. There isn't enough soap in the world, and I am not OC enough to be capable of dealing firsthand with the scum that tend to govern the political system. I still live in a happy little bubble where some of Plato's ideas really could be made to work in modern society. Poor delusional Kim.

Enough about the boring crap, we'll leave that to Paul (whom we all love dearly) (most of the time). Besides, it's fun to listen to his political rants, sometimes they make me giggle.

On Movies

I saw chasing Amy for the first time last night. I still can't decide if it was a clever look at male/female relationships or a Jay and Silent Bob take themselves too seriously and try to do a serious movie kind of movie. Either it was a little bit witty, or a lot lame. Having no grasp whatsoever on whether the movie was actually good, I'd just like to say that I really, really don't like Ben Affleck. There he was, pouring his little (very little) heart out, and all I could think of was "he's so lame, if that were me, I'd become a lesbian, just because that soliloquy was so bad". Is there something here that I'm missing? Was the movie really better than I think it was?

Friday morning plans

Miyuki and I are planning to burn down our office.

There isn't much else here worth doing, and no one will know all the work we haven't been able to get to yet if it's just a pile of ash.

All we really wanted, at first, was to get warm. When you're all sleep deprived from getting to work at 6:30 you get all cold and shivery. Now the office smells like burning. We're veeeeeeery hopeful.

Fucked Up Family, and other shit

Well, as usual, "the family" is a mess of stupid crap. I know, I need to find something else to whine about. Why is it that everyone tends to hate their own blood relations? Is it like when I call native americans "dumb indians"? We hate the ones we're related to because we can and it seems less wrong than hating people we don't really know? Maybe I should join the bandwagon and pick a scapegoat for all of my anger and frustration. Visible minorities seem to work...

Anyway, while I might not like my own, I'm certainly more than happy to join other people's families. I've been adopted into the cousin-hood that is Jim's family. I have a couple of "adopted" sisters. More exciting though, is the idea that I may soon become an "aunt". Just wait until little John-Stamos is born! Christian and Miyuki are graciously providing the lot of us with a crazy little bundle of humanity for us to love from afar. I'm so grateful every time someone else has a child, it means that I have so much longer before I have to worry about the potential disaster that is my own biological clock. Maybe we should plan a baby shower to help them out with things they'll need. Apparently kitchen utensils, products, and appliances are very much in demand... (This is the part where Corinne gets an idea and plans a fun little clubhouse shindig)

Everything I love is Killing Me

Well, not really, I'm just feeling a little bit country today.

Anyway, as we can all see, the title of my blog is back to mistress kim, but there's something missing, I'm just not feeling that little frisson of sarcasm and evil that I usually do. I think it needs some other sort of epithet but I'm fresh out of witty things to call myself.

So, in a decision I may soon come to regret, I've chosen to request input into a catchy title thingy for my blog. If I like it enough, who knows, it may just stay permanently.

Please feel free to being verbally belittling me now.

Dream a little dream...

of Jim?

I have no one but Jim to thank for the fact that I was at work early today.

I set my alarm for 5. I fully intended to get up when it buzzed, but somehow I managed to fall asleep again.

Normally this would mean I might be at work by 8:30, if I was lucky, however, this morning I was still at work by 6:30.

This is why thanks are due to Jim. I don't remember the dream, only the clammy cold sweat fear drenched feeling I woke up with at 5:30. I don't want to know what happened, or how, I just know that if I hadn't been having terrible dreams about Jim, I would have been late for work.