Here and there

[dzuunmod]

Ok, Heather Mallick is really ridiculous"Canada has a Conservative minority government right now that does have a core belief. It's that Canadians deserve a good stomping, all of them. Conservatives can't stand people, particularly if they're female, or second-generation Canadian, or educated, or principled, or not from Alberta, which is the home

Comments

[dzuunmod]

It's pretty good for such a small town. There are two bike shops, then your Wal-Marts and Canadian Tires on top of that. The one we went to is a few blocks from us, and every year they run something called the 'purple bike campaign', where people donate their old beaters at the end of the fall, and then over the winter the bike shop guys fix them up a bit.

Then, in the spring, you can go and put $100 down on one, and they give it to you, and they fix - for free - anything that goes wrong with it for you all summer long (except flat tires and if you get into a crash). And when fall rolls around, you have the option of taking it back to them and getting 50 bucks back, or just hanging onto it. Pretty sweet deal.

The only thing about biking here is that, like, look at this map. Everything downtown (that's the area with "2 ave") and in Riverdale on that map is really flat, but to go anywhere else is a real grind, because those areas are really, really hilly.

[dzuunmod]

The Gold Rush is quite accessible. ;)

And yeah, if we wanted to go to, say, the pool/arena complex, it would involve going uphill there, and downhill on the way back, but I really feel like this hill is bigger by a good bit than anything I've tackled before. Atwater (which I spent one summer biking up from Verdun to Concordia) is nothing compared to Two-Mile Hill here.

[wendykh]

I think I know what you mean about pretend life. I felt that way in Japan and in Florida.

[dzuunmod]

I would've figured you to feel that way more about Nebraska, somehow.

[wendykh]

I can see where you might think that, but those places felt so foreign to me, and Whitehorse does too!

BTW for Malick that's pretty good. And I kinda agree with her honestly. It was once said about CSIC, my professional body (Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants) that it's run by a board full of amazing, talented, honest, ethical consultants who think every other consultant is a crook. I kind of feel the tories feel that way about the rest of Canada. Everyone wants a fucking handout and needs to just STFU and get out of their way before they stomp them, is their attitude, it feels like.

[dzuunmod]

It's not about feeling foreign, I think. More about... isolation. Like, who the fuck lives up here?! I felt like a foreigner in New York, or in Mexico, but I didn't feel like those were pretend lives because there were so many people living them there...

[sabatoa]

I wonder if I'd be a Torie up there. I have a feeling I wouldnt somehow.

Although I do like stomping on Canadians. In Hockey :p

I wanna live in a pretend life, it sounds fun.

[dzuunmod]

I don't quite know what your politics are, but I get the feeling you'd be at home with the Tories. The only thing is that right now, they're vaguely (very vaguely) like the Republicans under Bush: the purport to be Conservatives, but somehow, government spending keeps expanding under them.

[sabatoa]

Then I'd not be a fan. The Republicans KILLED me during his administration and I don't pardon him from blame. The veto exists for a reason.

I am a strict constructionist when it comes to the constitution but I also roll Libertarian on a lot of social issues. I think you know about my fiscal conservatism.

TLDR: I am a conservative but not your daddy's conservative.

[wendykh]

You seem more Real McCain conservative. I love the Real McCains See, Cindy for example. And Meghan... holy fuck, her blog, christ, she might as well be an Obama cronie! Had he not been abducted by the 'thuglican army this time I might seriously really have voted for him.

[vawawwee]

what do you mean they are making believe? what do they do to make you think that?

[dzuunmod]

It's not really anything they do so much as... just the fact that they live up here, with so few other people around. It's like a little secret pretend thing. I can't really explain it!

[fifthbusiness]

I think the same thing about New Yorkers a lot- "pretend life"- but probably not in the same way you are thinking.

(I mean it in the sense that- especially with people in their 20s here- they come here after college, live the good life for a couple years- work hard, party harder, go out all the time and do crazy things. And then after a few years they grow up a little and live normal lives. But some people don't seem to do that, they keep living like they've just gotten out of college and life is one big party. People who go clubbing til 3am on a Tuesday and show up the next day on hipster fashion blogs and the like. Is that real life??)

[dzuunmod]

I can understand that. There was some of that sort of thing in Montreal too, but you're right, it is a different feeling from what I'm getting at.

[fifthbusiness]

But now you are one of those people! :D REAL LIFE, JOSH!