The plan thus far

Well here's the plan so far. I talked to the Dean of Education and I'm going to take a week off to try to get better. I'll be doing some hard planning if I'm up to it this week as well. If I"m not feeling better in a week then I'll be deffering my internship until a later date. Maybe May-June or next fall who knows for sure. This is too important to let slip or try to muddle through.

It has also occurred to me that I havn't actually had "time off" in almost 5 years. I've never had a week where I did nothing. Vacations are always a whirlwind of travel, and partying. As soon as school is over it's off to the next job. As soon as school starts, I'm back in class.
So I guess maybe this is my body's way of telling me it's time to chill...that or I have West /Nile which seems to be on everyones mind.

Oh Happy Birthday to me!!!

Interning a no go...

Well that's all folks...my health has been crappy since the last week of August, and it hasn't improved. My advisor suggested yesterday that it's time to pull the plug and do the internship at a later date.

For those of you I talked to yesterday about this, the situation seemed worse. I found out some options today.

Option 1: deffer my internship until May-June and work on it then.
Option 2: get re-imbursed and re-start it next fall.
Option 3: Take a week off and hope my health improves while doing some serious planning and return to finish the rest of it this fall (I'm guessing it'll be a prep for the 3-week block).
Option 4: Muddle my way through what I'm doing now.
Option 5: Quit Education and start a new career as a championship weinerdog-sled racer.

I'm leaning towards the first 2. I guess I find that out today which way I go but until them I'm in Employment limbo...halfway between work or school but really somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Meh, it could be worse...I coud have migraines, or no fingers.

It looks like I'll be going back to the Doctor to be poked and prodded, as well as, my Witch Doctor (who incedentally diagnosed me with Mono about 2 weeks before a Physician did).
Homeopathic Doctors might not be for everyone but they worked for me.

In other news I'll be heading to Regina Friday to square some things away with the university and possibly to bowling with the greatest gal in the world (R you rock!!!).

I'm also thinking about going back to the INN for work. Bartending....sigh...if ONLY I could make a career out of that. It's not just a job, but I thoroughly enjoy it.
Speaking of which I ended up being the one on the other side of the bar bearing my soul to the bartender yesterday. You'd be surprized how often people actually do that. I think it should be law that bartenders must posess a Social Work degree or something, although I find waving a gun around could accoplish the same job LOL.

Fuel efficientcy

For those of you that know me I've always been a promoter of fuel efficient vehicles (with the exception of my 7 7 Newyorker, which I hold onto for sentimental reasons). The fact of the matter is most car companies (especially American ones) really arn't answering the call for cheaper running cars. I mean do they think that gas prices are going to go down? Not bloody likely! Have gas prices ever dropped? In 1998 a litre of gas cost around 58.9 cents/litre. and it is now 2005 and gas costs 107.9 cents. That means gas has risen 7 cents per year on average. The Asian market (particularaly China) has openned up which means 1.3 BILLION people are now allowed to own cars. Demand is NOT going to go down.

So here's what you can do to help reduce demand.
-walk more often (I understand that Canada it is bloody cold, and living in a big city doesn't
always make it easy to to this, but if you can walk it makes
an impact. Think of all the time it takes to warm up a car, drive somewhere, and find a parking spot. Sometimes it is cheaper to just walk to a slightly more expensive store than to drive all the way to Wal-Mart for cheaper prices.

-Public transportation: I'm not a big fan of it, because the buses are big stinky diesel burning engines. The only good point is, they will save you money, that you might otherwise pay into insurance, maintenence, payments, and fuel.

-Hyrid Cars: It seems like every company is thinking about Hybrids, but isn't really doing anything about them; with the exception of Toyota, Honda, and Ford (yes Ford believe it or not).

But hybrid cars are expensive. Almost $5000-10 000 more than a regular car.
Their fuel economy is also greatly exaggerated I would venture to guess. The technology is new and there's no telling how long it'll last.

-Used Cars: for those of us who fall into the "Poor" category a good cheap used car is what the doctor ordered. Geo Metros, and Suzuki Swifts are among the best for reliability and fuel economy. My Swift burns about 7.5L/100Km. My dad's Firefly is about 5.25L/100Km. Which is fairly amazing! These cars can be purchased for very reasonable prices.

Those are just some of the options an average Joe can do on the transportation side of things.
Later I'll talk about home improvement ideas.

Plastic from hemp! Is there anything that plant can't do?

I recently stubbled across this website www.hemplastic.com

This company has created a plastic product that is not Petroleum based!! It does not pollute the environment, and it is bio-degradable. This company is dedicated to providing a sustainable alternative to petroleum based plastics.

The company has some serious R&D on their hands but the headway they've made is impressive!

Back in the Saddle!

Ok I havn't been keeping good track of this blog and it's about time I started. There are certain things that need to be said.

So a little about me...well I'm almost 25 years of age. I'm currently interning to become a teacher. I'm working in a grade 5 class and they are some of the best children I have ever worked with!

I believe in Social Justice, and protecting what we all depend on for life...the environment.
Everyone should have the right to be free of crippling debt, soaring gas prices and unreasonable search ans seizure.

I imagine this makes me sound like a commie or socialist. Fair enough but I also beleive that capitalism can work but there needs to be more ETHICAL buisness practice. Resonsible buisness should be practiced and there should be strict government standards which should be followed. We need to get away from the money grabbing and spending spree that the "American Dream" pushes. "Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash" this lyric from "Money" by Pink Floyd speaks to me about the attitude that has been shaping the North American culture. Make as much money as you can and screw everyone else...a culture of selfishness...well maybe you donate a few hundred to a charity once in awhile.

Well my first blog back and I've already done a rant. It's all relevant though....who has been shaping our culture...people who want you to spend money! Who's at the top George Dubya Bush and his Dick, Cheney.

We're up against a lot but I'm not giving up. My next post will have some other things you can do to fix this mess.

I also believe that religion and politics have no place together.