You never touch the bartender!

Wow everyone (for those who actually read my blog) must be getting sick of my negativity. To you I appologize. Tonight was an other LOVELY night at the INN, another fight broke out this time between a fe-male patron and a male. This chick was absolutly crazy...nothing would calm her down. She was flinging pool cues, climbing over table to attack a guy. I'll say this now. I'll fight a man ANY DAY over a woman. They are vicious. This chick couldn't be controlled. Hell even after Weyburn's finest showed up, she was still on the war path. You'd think hearing the words: "The police are on the way, if you don't leave you will be arrested" would maybe make people think..."gee I should leave" but no...it never ceases to amaze me...anyways long story short the cops pull these chicks out of the bar. I guess one of them charged a cop outside as well. Anyways...just getting awfully sick of this bloody job. $7.05 an hour isn't enough to be dealing with this crap. Oh well it's off to school soon enough and I can leave the glitz and glamour of the bar behind.

In other news, I'm starting to be able to relate to Marvin from The Hitch Hiker's guide to the Galaxy...

I'm hard pressed to find something good that's happenned lately besides seeing my gf a fair amount in the past few days.

Manamana

For all you Muppet show fans....

go here:

http://www.zippyvideos.com/162356247488965.html

That's all today folks.

Gush session.

Ok so now most people are aware that I am dating the coolest girl in the world. Her name is R (for all intents and purposes). A little background on her. She's a gorgeous blond with dread-locks, who has beautiful blue eyes that you can lose yourself in. She has a smile that makes me melt. She's just finished her nursing degree and is taking a job in Carlyle. She has a lovely daughter named T, who is 5 years old and in Kindergarten. I miss R so much, especially now that I'm back to work and don't have the time to run the the RGC to see her as often. I feel like I lost a limb. I don't think I talk about her enough so I decided to dedicate this entire posting to her.

What can I say I coulnd't have found a better person. Kind caring, adventurous, beautiful, good with children, artistic, musical, has a great singing voice...I could go on but I'm sure people get the drift. She's a hippie through and through, someone who cares about the planet and the people on it. Someone who sees a positive future.

Anyways, this blog is for you!
always in my thoughts....

Now we're cooking with.....Wheat???

An interesting twist of events today I was hauling my 77 NewYorker to my friend's farm today to store it for the spring. A beautiful car I only wish I could drive more often but with gas prices as high as they are, it's just not possible. I estimate that the car would use almost 22L to drive 100KM.

But anyways, I digress... my friend who's being kind enough to store it for me informed me of a Stove that burns wheat. It's more like a fireplace just like the kind that burn those wooden pellets but instead it's grain. What is the price of wheat at? Maybe like $2 a bushel (5 gallon pail) if it's even that expensive. These stoves burn about a bushel of wheat/day to keep the building heated. $2/day X 7 days a week = $14 X 4 weeks/month = about $60/month. Heat is only needed for about 8 months of the year tops (in my part of the world). $60 X 8 = $480/year total heating costs. Some people on Equalization payments might pay $125 a month for Gas to Saskenergy. Or like $350 a month if they arn't. The Savings you would have in 2 years would pay for the stove. Which cost in the area of $3000. Even if you had 2 of them in your house, your fuel costs would would still be 1/3 less than a forced air Natural Gas or Liquid Propane funace.

I can see it now...instead of a guy driving up and down streets filling tanks with heating oil...they fill hoppers with grain. Natural Gas lines are capped. Think about how much safer grain burners would be. No more pipeline explosions.

It makes Conservative sense too...because there would be no need for SaskEnergy anymore so there's one less Crown Corporation for the NDP to throw money into. Taxes would be reduced as well.

Living off-grid would be much easier as well.
For more info, go to: www.noutilitybills.com

Back to the bar...

So tonight I started back at the bar.

What a shitty night, I belive this was a test of character or something because possibly everything that could go wrong, happenned, including running out of cash for the VLT, and having to empty machines to pay out customers. A shitty thing to have to do at 11pm and all your staff rushed to be done so they could sit and drink for 3.5 hours. A bar full of assholes, and I had to forcibly remove one at about 3 this morning. The guy left me little choice, he started to wreck the bar so...he left unwillingly. I will give credit to D the front desk guy who opened the door for me so I could toss the jerk outside (and he landed pretty hard too).

So why does George Bush Suck in this case. The war on drugs of course. Let's face it everything else is illegal except for booze...which makes people stupid, and agries up the blood. I'll bet you wouldn't have that many problems with someone jacked up on heroin or weed. Could you imagine a pot bar...do you think the cops would ever be called to a 'Cannabar' (if it was legal) .
Maybe if someone didn't pay a tab...or someone was robbing you. So the only legal drug in the U.S. has the potential to make you violent, towards yourself or others, toss in the fact that anyone can own and AK-47, and you have one retarded country. Booze in the states isn't like here. You can buy alcohol ANYWHERE in the states, 7-11 for instance can get you bombed anytime of the day 365 days a year. You can buy all the live ammo you want from a 24 hour Wal-Mart. SO yeah that's a pretty fucked-up volitile situation. Especially when you also throw in extreme poverty, fast-paced living, and crowded cities. Fuck they should be handing out sedatives and pushing for people to smoke weed...but I guess, the earlier statements are sort of an unemployment solution. Keep the people at war with themselves.

Anyways, enough anger fueled rants for this morning I have shit to do tomorrow like go to the doctor.

Peace.

Fuel Efficinetcy follow-up+ CHALLANGE!!

I just returned from the RGC today, about a 100km journey, or 66 Miles roughly. I decided to measure how much fuel my Swift uses. I found the number to be around 7.57L for 105km it works out to around 34 MPG. The Swift is a 1990 and has a 1.3L 4-cylinder engine and 5-speed manual transmission. Using the same maths, I found that my dad's car, a 1989 Pontiac Firefly with a 1.0L 3-cylinder engine with an automatic transmission, uses 5.25L/105km. I think it works out to something like 45 MPG. Not too shabby. These engines have some miles on them, but my dad's car has been consistant even in 89 it was getting 45-47 tops. I remember the dealer was trying to say that the 3-cylinder Firefly,Sprint,Metros could get 66MPG but I think that is a little far fetched. I had a 1995 Firefly once upon a time and it had a 3-cylinder with a 5 speed and it got about 48-52MPG.

I'm curious to know what the actual fuel economy of a Honda Insight would be. They claim it is around 76MPG which means it would use less than a gallon (or 3.8L) of fuel to drive 100KM.
They are built for economy with the hybrid technology, streamlined drag resistant designs (right down to the skirting over the rear wheels). They are also a 2 seater car (weight reduction). Note: for every 10 lbs. you can take out of your car you increase Horse Power by 1 therefore increasing your economy. Time to take out all that garbage that's been collecting in the hatch...LOL

Here's the challange for you (though it's not overly challanging. It's more about Data collection.
For those of us in the SE corner of this province who make the odd or even frequent trip to the RGC, I propose to you this challange. All you need to do is this:

1. Next time you take a trip around 100KM FILL UP YOUR CAR full of fuel (almost overflowing to keep the data accurate).

2. Drive your car the distance stated 100ish KM. (try to keep your speed between 95-105 if possible).

3. Find the closest gas station you can find and fill up again to almost overflowing.

4. Get a reciept for the fuel for your records

5. Post your Litres used (which will be the amount you filled after the trip) on this website, along with the Make, Model, Year, Engine/tranmission type.

This is for highway driving only.

For the city I plan another experiment. I will fill the car every 100km of city driving for a total of 5 times and average the litres used out. That should give me an approximate ACTUAL fuel usage in the city.

I estimate my car uses gets about 23 MPG in the city (based on my highway performance).

Drive safely and happy motoring:)

This week in Jeff...

It's been awhile since my last post so here's the update.

I have applied for medical leave from the university. Which means I have some time on my hands.
To fill that time I have taken up my favourite job of Bartending. I only wish it paid more because damn I just love doing it. I guess I'll be setting up for banquets too.

The doctors still arn't 100% sure what's wrong with me all they know is I'm not digesting food properly and getting the full benefit of the nutrients.

I've been playing alot of Sid Meiers Pirates...GREAT FUCKING GAME!! Of course I played the it in '87 which kicked as too on my Tandy 1000 HX.

Speaking of pirates....G.W.B. seems to be sweating a little now that his approval rating has dropped through the floor. I guess now more people are thinking he sucks than just me.

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.

What to do!

Since the war is for Oil let's take oil out of the equation and make George Dubya poor!

There would be no war if we didn't depend on oil and gasoline for transportation.

Thank-whatever god you beleive in that WE DON'T NEED TO DEPEND ON OIL ANYMORE!!!

Water is the future! H2O Hydrogen and Oxygen it is a stable fuel source that does not pollute, and is relatively FREE

If everyone visits this site: www.fortunecity.com/greefield/bp/16/hboost.htm

It is possible to run a car off of hydrogen with little modification. Or run it as a Gasoline-Hydrogen Hybrid. It will reduce emmissions and increase your fuel economy.

It will also take money out of the hands of oil companies...and into YOUR pockets

So George Bush Won...now what do I do?

For those of you who are like me, a little pissed off and suspicious about the 2004 election, you are probably feeling powerless and unheard. I'm from Canada so I feel even more powerless but my hearts go out to Americans who are forced to live under the tyranical GWB.

Lining all your friends and families pockets with oil money at the expense of the American tax payers and lives of soldiers is just plain unethical!