Daffodil Named NYC's Flower

3 Million daffodil bulbs were planted in New York following 9/11, so it's only fitting that the daffodil be named the city's flower. They're also the floral emblem of Wales and my personal favourite as well.



I've published this photo before, but it's one of my favourites, so I thought I'd publish it again.
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And Now For Something Completely Different

Okay, so I'll be the first to admit I've been a little squirrelly the last couple of days. Call it a combination of spring fever and righteous indignation. Despite this, I managed to make a little friend yesterday. At the very north end of Fraser Street there's a sort-of park, with stair access to Great Northern Way below, and who should I meet there but this curious little fellow.

He was a very obliging model, being very still and holding this pose as I inched forward several times to take it. Then a very raucous seagull came by and ruined it all. North Fraser is cat country, so squirrel sightings are rare. That's what made this one so serendipitous.
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Tories Are Stupid: Report

A new report released today by the Pop Culture Institute proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Canada's Conservative government led by Stephen Harper are a bunch of idiots.

The report was prompted by a Tory report that said adopting the Kyoto protocol would destroy the economy. Despite the massive savings in energy costs and corresponding increase in profits which corporations would realise in doing so, those same corporations seem unwilling to spend a dollar, even when its investment could earn them a hundred in the short-term. Not to mention, you know, saving the planet.

The PCI report goes on to say that the best way to reduce the amount of methane and hot air in the environment would be for corporations to take the money they are currently using to buy themselves a Tory government and spend it on recycling, alternative energy sources, and public transportation.

Sending the Tories packing after the next election would also be a boon to composting, as what the Tories use for brains is considered especially good for this.

The PCI report was written in crayon, and contained several naughty doodles of current Environment Minister John Baird doing something to the former holder of that portfolio, Rona Ambrose. However, those responsible for drafting the report can't draw very well, so it's difficult to to tell exactly what.
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Genug with the Meshuggeneh

What a blood-soaked few days it's been here at the Pop Culture Institute, what with all the killing and shooting. I mean, it's all been on the news, but still...

Here's the problem in a nutshell (in a nut's hell?), and it's not anti-depressants, or guns, or bullying; it has nothing to do with immigration, either. It has to do with the fact that some people seem to have the opinion that it's okay to kill people. If you banned all guns, you'd still have people bashing each other's brains in with baseball bats. It seems that some people will go to extremes to justify what is wrong wrong wrong, namely killing.

I may be going out on a limb here, but the Pop Culture Institute is ready to take a stand. We do not advocate the killing of anyone for any reason other than in self-defense, and in that case it had better be cut-and-dried, er, open-and-shut. Yeah, that's okay. Not pre-emptively, as in war, either (which we also oppose).

Just to be perfectly clear, self-defense does not mean someone gave you a snotty look at the mall so you're allowed to push them down the escalator, nor does it mean your girlfriend cheated on you so that somehow gives you the permission to garrote her for it. Self-defense means kill or be killed, and they started it. I mean, they're standing there with a knife in their hand saying "I'm a kill ya!" And even then you'd better have witnesses, video from half a dozen cell phones, and a signed confession.

Otherwise, don't fucking kill people! How hard is that to understand?

Okay, I'm done now, and I feel much better.

Thank you.
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It's 4/20 Y'All!

This is the first year in five I haven't celebrated accordingly, in keeping with my new standard of sobriety. Not to worry, I'm not all preachy about it, like some people who quit and act like they're all that because they did. I just decided that it was getting in the way of my writing, since it tends to de-motivate me. I've wanted to be a writer forever, so the solution was obvious.

Plus, there's no way my life right now is at a place where I want it in a holding pattern, so it's no smoke for me until it is. Not to mention what it does to my syntax, which is already somewhat tortured, or, if you prefer, complex. Just so you don't think I'm all virtuous, there isn't a moment when I don't think about smoking it, I just don't.

Willpower, after all, is a verb; it's something you do, not something you have.
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