Stop This Train, I Wanna Get Off

I have to clean my place.

This is pretty much my mission statement, and it is rarely not true. I'm not a slob because of disregard for order. I'm just a slob because i am lazy and can usually find things to do that are more fun than cleaning. However, i just reach a point where the mess disgusts me and i don't clean it because i don't know where to start.

I had decided i would solve this by doing one big SPRING CLEAN. I would get everything mega-organized, throw out a lot of trash, and launch the summer from the classy & streamlined Velvet Underground.

I'd say i got about a quarter of the work done, and then something necessitated a band-aid clean (part of the spring-clean rules was "no band-aid cleans!"). But i broke my own rule. Still, the place is not sooooooo bad, a couple of hours of dedication would spiff it up quite nicely. I'm going to get right on that tomorrow.

The other day, while out walking with mo, i got sort of hit by a car. Not really hit, but more like ... pushed. Driver of said car was looking left, but driving right, where i happened to be crossing the street with mi hermana. Rather than jumping out of the way, i pushed back. (note to readers: not the best way to avoid death when being run over by a car). Pushing didn't seem to do much to slow down the mini van, so while keeping my hands on his hood and running backwards (in order to avoid being run over), i yelled "WOAH! WOAH!" finally the guy realized i was there and he stopped. We crossed the street. I actually thought it was kind of funny, but mo seemed a little shaken up and we both realized how random these things can be.

It was even stranger the next day when we were walking down barrington from the cogswell overpass and heard a lonnnnnnnnnnnng squeal of rubber that usually signifies a crash, but no ensuing shattering of glass. We both stopped and turned around. There was a dude lying on north barrington in front of a car. Lots of other cars stopped immediately. I was trying to absorb the fact that the dude had just been hit by the car - that the screech of tires had likely ended with a THUD instead of a smash. The guy was moving, but he wasn't getting up. It was ghoulish to stand there and watch the traffic zoom by while people were possibly having their lives changed drastically because this guy had tried to run across the street. Bet he didn't plan on that when he got out of bed that day. In any case, we stood there feeling helpless for a few minutes, talking to some other random bystanders and decided the situation was under control - heard the sirens approaching (it seemed like it took them so long to get there), and we carried on. Quite surreal.

I have an old atlas. It was published in 1982. This is kind of funny, because there are countries in it that don't exist anymore. (east germany, USSR, czchekoslovakia (sp) etc.)

I decided to google some climate graphs to see if temperatures had increased much in the last 23 years in Canada (they haven't). I was curious about global warming. This led me to compare some population rates from 1982 to population rates of today. Halifax/NS have remained relatively constant, with a small increase since 1982. Canada has increased by some 6 or 7 million people.

But the most staggering statistic i discovered was the Population of Planet Earth. You can check the population back as far as 1970, and forward as far as 2037. Barring any unfortunate car accidents, i expect to be here in 2037. Here's what i discovered while playing with the population clock: in the next 32 years of my life, the population of the planet will increase twice as much as it has since i was born.

I sat here staring at the computer trying to comprehend this. I already think the world is overpopulated. We might get away with it if we didn't insist on plastic and cars and mcdonald's etc. But we do insist on those things, and this exponential rise in the number of people sharing this finite space is a little freaky. Can the earth put out forever? (no)

I hate to sound nihilistic, and i don't spend my spare time dwelling on this thought, but i do believe the human race is on the fast track to extinction. I used to say that my grandchildren were going to be in dire straits if we continue consumption & pollution at our current pace. After reading the population clock, that prediction seems eerily accurate.

Of course, there are things that can cull the population or slow it down -- AIDS, war, some unknown disease we haven't heard of yet. Do we let them happen? Do we wipe out Africa just because there are too many people? I daresay the AIDS orphans in Kenya likely play a very small role in the overall deterioration of our air, water, trees...life. Why should they suffer the consequence?

Ah, this is a deep, philosophical issue that i cannot answer in a few paragraphs over coffee. I do know that maybe the most important thing i learned in school this year is that I hate free market economics. (i am, however, currently contemplating a stock purchase hahhahaha).

All hope is not lost; there was a grenade discovered a mere 100 ft away from George Bush recently in Georgia.

Moving right along.

I have a serious problem with the Catholic church. I don't believe in god, and i am not a huge fan of organized religion at all. i guess i'm an atheist, but i don't like to define myself in terms like that. i'm human. i'm spiritual. i'm kind & loving.

I read this article this morning, and i almost gagged on my coffee. It offers hope for mankind, in that it quotes several religious figures (clergy & other) who denounce the catholic hard-line against condoms. But WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!??!?!!?

"In El Salvador, the church helped push through a law requiring condom packages to carry a warning label that they do not protect against AIDS. Since fewer than 4 percent of Salvadoran couples use condoms the first time they have sex, the result will be more funerals" (quote from above linked article).

As you may or may not know, my return to Dal this year was inspired by a desire to go to less "developed" parts of the world (namely africa) and work with HIV stricken peeps. I don't know what i can do (i should have gone to med school), but i want to do SOMETHING. The obvious way to curb the AIDS pandemic in Africa is to make condoms widely available. This is not rocket science. I know 6 year olds that could tell you that. Fuck, the catholic church pisses me off.

I think i am done ranting for the moment. Maybe I'll go do the dishes..... start off on the road to living clean.