My little slice of the pie....

From our Prime Minister:

 

 

So even though we run out of fossil fuels... we will still be living in the "carbon age?"  I would like to know when the "Green age" will begin.  In my opinion, the government should take a hard stance on industry even if it affects the economy and add support where needed by helping workers find jobs, creating opportunities in the "green energy" sector and environmentally friendly industries.  No matter what, industry will have to take a hit for the planet, it's inevitable.

 

Came across this website on Facebook.  Yes, Facebook, which is where I spend all my time online these days and why I haven't posted on here for such a long time.  A good satirical website criticizing the Conservative governments stance on the environment.  It's still in its infantcy but give it some time.  http://www.ecofraud.ca/

This beautiful afteroon I was downtown so I decided to stop and have lunch at a ubiquitous donut and sandwhich restaurant.  Before I sat down to eat, I decided to go to the bathroom and wash my hands since I had been practicing all morning and most likely I picked up all the germs of everyone else who had touched that piano before me.  After scrubbing my hands clean I started drying my hands under the drier when I heard a toilet flush and the door to the bathroom stall open.  Out walked a man in his late forties or early fifties.  Being the courteous and polite person I am, I made sure I was out of the way so that the man could reach the sink (it was a rather small bathoom) but instead, the man walked briskly past me and turned the corner.  Gross.  Someone of his age should know better to watch his hands after doing whatever he did in that stall (I'm assuming the worst because he didn't use a urinal).  Still worse: when I left the bathroom I noticed that the man left in the direction of the employees area.  Could this man in fact be an employee of ubiquitous donut shop?  Is he a baker?  Will some unfortunate person eat the donut, pastry or whatever product this man will touch with his fouled hands?

 

I tried to push the thought out of my mind.  I sat down and ate my lunch.  Afterwards, I returned to the washroom to make a pit stop before I left.  I did my business, washed my hands and started to dry them, when again, someone flushed the toilet, left the bathroom stall and walked straight out of the bathroom without stopping to consider washing his hands.  This man was even older, probably in his sixties.  So I'm thinking either a) these people are not aware of the existence of bacteria or b) these people have devised a method to do their business without having to clean up afterwards.  After I left the bathroom I noticed this indiviudal sitting down eating his lunch.  Gross.  If this is the clientele or general peer group of ubiquitous donut shop count me out; next time I'm going to Subway.  At least there they wear gloves when they make your sandwich.

This is just a random rant while I sit here at home, having just completed my online component of "ethics training."  Yes, the University of Alberta decided to complicate my degree further by adding an ethics training component which supposedly aids grad students should they ever find themselves in a variety of situations that could compromise their academic reputation and credibility.  Fortunately, making it an online webct component allows you to skim the readings and try the tests multiple times until you get 100% on each one.  Unfortunately, none of the questions were pertinent to my degree so it was essentially just another unnecessary hurdle to jump over while the powers that be dangle my university degree in front of me.  I'll admit that the training would be helpful to those in a research-based degree but "Piano Performance" doesn't not exactly fit into that category.  Just another example of why the fine arts does not belong in a post secondary environment: or at least at the University of Alberta.

I forgot to mention that I went to the Emily Haines concert at the Citadel last month.  Some of you may know her as the lead singer from Metric but this concert was dedicated to her solo record she recorded recently.  It was quite the opposite from her Metric flavour; it has a lyrical, ballad feel to it and she even played clips from independent films that she thought contributed to the idea of each song on a screen behind her.  It all sort of reminded me of the direction Matt Good took after he left his band - much more mellow where the lyrics seem to supersede the music.  The whole experience was a little surreal just because Emily was nothing I expected, but then everything I should have.  You might think of indie rockers from what you see on tv: they're the type that would imagine what the sky would be like green and write a song about it and then tie in some metaphorical lyrics that have to do with suicide.  It was kind of like that except she was the real deal and a little more down to earth (as much as I could gather) but the poetic element was definitely there.  I've uploaded some pictures of the event as well as a very poor quality video I took of one of her songs.  The quality is so bad I don't even know why I bother - I don't even know what song it is.  Enjoy!