This is really happening!

Preventative Measures for the Effects of Global WarmingThis is really happening, and i dont care what U.S. "think tanks" have to say about it. Global Warming is a serious issue, and i want to be ready. Santiago Chile is 11, 810.24661070742 kilometers straight ahead of me from Surfers Paradise Australia. (Refer to photo posted above). Now when global warming is fully realized, it may be too late. We'll start to know its real when the earth's temperature gets too high and creates a giant cloud around the earth. This cloud will prevent any of the sun's heat to penetrate the earth's surface. It'll get cold, we'll get an ice age. The surface of the Pacific Ocean will freeze at 28.6 degrees farenheit, or -2 degrees celcius. (I hope i've done my math correctly). When this happens, due to a lack of oil supply and depleted energy sources, our only means of travel may be by the dogsled. The average speed of a dog sled for long distances ranges from 16-22km's per hour. At this rate I should make it to Santiago Chile in 536 hours. Hope you're ready for it too.
Wish me luck!

when it rains, it pours!

values

i was inspired by a friend to think of this, and i hope i can articulate it well, as the ideas are still fresh. the friend of mine and i got into a conversation, we were talking about roots and values. it was a very reflective conversation from a very fundamentalist type of person. these are the people from whom i learn best.

now when im talking about values, im not talking about "gimme fair price!". im inching more towards morals and principles. a persons values and a persons roots are significantly intertwined. values are learned through a persons upbringing, and could be impossible to teach as a teacher. but as a person, they might be able to be taught with a little more ease. I can remember certain people in my life and certain instances that have shaped my values. these people are significant offshoots in my roots. they are professors, family members, friends, teachers, and probably most importantly parents. they didnt teach me things like "dont steal, be a nice person" in a direct way. but i learned from them through my experiences with them. there are certain people who stand out in my life as fundamental people, and these fundamentalists have shaped who i am today, and where im going tomorow.

back to the friend of mine with whom i was having the conversation. he's doing some very interesting work with unfortunate children. kids who have had no dads, no moms, no professors, no teachers. they've been raised on the streets and have fell through the cracks of our great social system. these are the kids who have been raised on motor oil. the struggle for my friend is going to be trying to teach these kids values. these kids dont want to be anywhere, so why are they going to listen to him? i think the key to his success will be allowing for his own values to shine through to the kid. as i said, he is a fundamentalist. he has some rock solid values. he's got to show the kid why he's taking the time to help out an unfortunate kid. he has to let the kid know why he wants to change the world. he's got to let the kid know about caring. he's got to help the kid learn about wanting to be somewhere.

this is one of the reasons i also want to be a teacher. if i can change someones life, i've done my job. i've done justice to those professors, family members, friends, and parents. if i can help just one kid. and to my friend, you have all my praise, and you have all my support. let your soul shine through and you'll succeed.

i'll finish off with a couple relevant lines from the arcade fire:

the song is called kettles

" They say a watched pot won't ever boil,
you can't raise a baby on motor oil,
just like a seed down in the soil
you gotta give it time"

let me know what you guys think!

what would marshall mcluhan say?

keeping things afresh and afloat
well, i have a bit of a problem these days. There seems to be a bit of a gap between my descriptions/explanations of my australian life so far, and the way that it's being perceived. i feel like the more i tell everyone "what im up to" the more the "freshness" of the trip is wearing out. this worries me, because so far, everything is still very fresh and exciting. i think i have to find new ways to articulate the experience in order to keep it afresh. not quite sure just how to do that yet, but my ears are open if anyone has ideas. ultimately, this blog is my creation, and i knew this was going to be a problem that i would have upon creating the blog. (this is the reason that i havent updated for 10 days, because surely i've had the time...) so i think it's just a matter of catching a breeze, finding a direction, and staying with it until the steam runs out. i've got my thinking cap on, and it's time to be creative. this is where i shine.

some details of my week
i've moved into my new flat. living with diane - a girl from the philipines and kate- a girl from alaska. both very nice people. still waiting on one more person to move in. last monday (feb 13th), jeff and i went to a place in the valley called "ric's bar". this place was very interesting, and will be a night i remember for a long time. (i was home by midnight due to having school the next day and bus restrictions, so im saying a lot by calling it a night i'll remember). the venue and band we saw were awesome. the venue had seom very interesting artwork on the walls, it was very "kris weinmannesque". the band consisted of 2 guitarists and then for the last track they were joined by a girl who played bass cello. it sounded absolutely amazing. the pics are posted below. on top of this, the people at the bar made the night even better. they were all hippys.. dreads, flip flops, hemp gear, etc. it was awesome, i caught a buzz from just being at the place. it reminded me of a van morrison song, "and it stoned me". this song has been running around my head for two weeks, and it's about van's experience one day as he was walking home from a day of fishing. he came across a shack with a lonely and dirty old man inside. the man shared some water with the young van morrison and the song is about the natural high that van got from the man sharing his water. the most amazing feeling inspired by the simplest jesture. "ric's bar" gave me a similar feeling. gotta find out where those hippys are hanging out next time.

the mcluhan bit
i'm sure you've heard it a million times before, and i have too, but i've never really felt it until recently. we really do live in a global village. more so than when mcluhan first coined the term. here i am in my corner of australia with amazing powers of media at my disposal. here i am, texting my friend 10kms away on my cell phone about where to party; talking to my mom about recipes on a phone line into canada; chattin on msn with my friends about my recent experiences; reading newspapers about whats going on in iraq and indonesia; blogging to the world about whats on my mind; emailing my family pictures of spiders and birds to offices in toronto and tampa, and faxing important documents from continent to continent. we really have amazing abilities. i was prompted to think about this after putting a meter on my blog site. i saw that there were people from all over canada and even some random spotsin the USA that had checked out my blog site. well, i also wanted to talk about the drawbacks of having such amazing powers of communication. it really puts our planet at risk. the end of the world is never farther than one command away. all it takes is one "push the button" command to end our life as we know it. what happens if there is a miscommunication error. due to the quickness of communication, a miscommunication error could be the end of us. it could be too late to reverse a command. this all makes me very paranoid from time to time. too bad our earth doesnt come with an "undo" button. what would mcluhan say if he were to see the positive and negative aspects of our modern world- more specifically the global village? would he be ecstatic or would he shudder?

conversations:
i'd like to hear some comments. from those all over the world if possible. so if you happen to come across this blog and are reading this i want to know what you think? and to my friends.. ahh yes, what are you saying?? i want to hear about team canada and the snow and everything else that im missing. i hope you guys are reading all this crap i have to say, i know you guys would rather that i just shut up and posted pictures, but too bad!! you couldnt silence me when i was there, and you wont be able to silence me now, especially you stoggy, i know you're reading this (had to isolate someone, might as well be stoggy).. the only way to silence me is if you simply stop comin here.. ohh crap, dont do that!!! haha, talk to you guys soon! let me know what you think of the pics and maybe even some of the writing. talk to ya soon!

a little bit of eye candy

damn categorization of words

some professors beleive the best way to interpret words is to package them into neat little categories. manipulate the words so it fits nicely into a little box. im mad. as a soldier of the english language i plan to fight this injustice. im back to save the universe!
made me remember something i wrote once:

you jumbled up the words
you made a real big mess
now its time to come and clean it up
we'll allow him to do the rest

picking away at the foundations
deconstructing the borders
finding the world outside
behind your rules and your orders

hope you're enjoying your classes fellas. just something to stop and think about for 2.5 seconds. peace!

...soaring to new heights...

a quick opening:
hey everyone, im gonna start this post off by letting everyone know that im doing absolutely great. Since last friday i think i hit a real high point, probably not the highest that its gonna get, but i feel good. im meeting a hell of a lot of people. im going to categorize this post for organization purposes. dont want it to feel too jumbled.

meeting people:
i've met a lot of people (like i just said) . now i dont really like to beleive that there is bad people out there, but with some people you just know within the first 10 minutes if theyre someone who you can see yourself chilling with or not. a lot of the people here do seem to be here for partying, but there are also some people here for more than that. ive made some friends, but only one stands out as a true friend at this point. jeff has been in sydney for 2 years already and decided to do teaching. he's into a lot of the same stuff that im into. recording, audio equipment, guitars, art, music etc. he's had a lot of experiences that i can probably gain from as a friend. i was thinkin about friendship a bit and i think i may have mentioned something to patterson about it once. its about having friends and gaining things from them. well not gaining, but more of an exchange. you learn from your friends and and the exchange that takes place hopefully makes two "fuller" and more enlightened people. thats part of what friends are to me. so thank you friends for teaching me a few things.

the pretty stuff:
its frigin hot here. im sitting here right now without a shirt on with a layer of stickyness on me. you gotta take at LEAST two showers a day cuz its so hot. on friday our class got let out early and so i went downtown with jeff. we walked around for many hours. chinatown, indian stores, chinese stores, thrift shops, electronics. you name it and we went there. we were searching for "the valley". some of the brisbane friends may know of this place already. its supposedly the alternative culture place of brisbane. the kensington market of brisbane. now, when i got there, i noticed right away that it has NOTHING on kensington market. but im a bit bias, kensington is one of my favourite places on the planet. please keep goin there andrew and kris, and evoke that spirit of diversity which the place always evokes in me. im gonna miss not being able to go there for a year. but back to the valley, its not too bad. they have some bars that play some drumn bass, some house and all that funky stuff which i happen to love. theyve got some live bands there too, and you guys definately know im into that. i never shut up about seeing a live act do i? the city is beautiful, very progressive. its on a river and the sun is shining most of the time. theres a lot of hills too which makes it unique. they have a ferry for public transit. its a pretty cool boat too. i was walking home to my room a few nights ago and i was a little tipsy. i almost stepped on a bigg ass spider. it was a ground spider too so he probably woulda messed me up a bit.

the diving board:
i've hit a real high. i feel really good right now. the best ive felt since i got here. i feel very independant. i make my own choices and my own moves. if i mess up, i pay for it myself. there is a humbling feeling in that. i hope the winter blues isnt eating you guys to pieces right now. it would have been hitting me if i was there. eat your green veggies, i think thats one way to beat them. high in vitamin b. i've been talking to people with some frequency, and andrew even said its almost like im still there. which i think is kinda cool. in todays world it should be impossible to lose touch with someone. this is dragging on too far now. dont worry guys, it'll be summer there soon enough. oh oh, and someone send some pics if you get the chance. i wanna see what you guys have been up to on the weekends. ok, thats about it. its satisfying to know theres people on the other side of the planet thinking about me and supporting me, and i know this blog can be a bit impersonal, but to each friend reading this, i can honestly say i've thought about each and every single one of you. either something has reminded me of you or something has popped up in my mind to lead me to think of you. often times it has brought a smile to my face, and maybe even a little chuckle to myself. its quite nice. so yah, theres someone thinkink of/ supporting you too on the other side of the world (me). k, keep in touch. bye now. hope those words dont turn to drivel because they seem pretty honest right now.