I believe it was this fashionably dressed man that said, “we are living in political times…”. That man is Hunter S. Thompson, and I could be wrong about the quote. He seems like someone that would say something like that, but it’s regardless. My discussion of the newfound policital fervour of the world actually begins in a barber shop. More particularly, the barber shop where I get my hair cut.

Yesterday I drove to my hometown of Whiterock, B.C. (I live in Vancouver) to go to my old time barber who is of Lebanese descent. While I was in the chair getting my precious locks carefully trimmed, ‘BBC Newsworld’ was on in the background showing coverage of the Aushwitz memorial. Then he turned to me and said:

“They only see with one eye

To which I calmly replied:

“What?”

This began a dialogue that I had never heard in that particular barbershop, or any barbershop that I had ever been to in my entire life. This man went off about Israel and what they’re doing to Palestinians/the Arab world, along with such topics like the U.S./Iraq war, Rwanda, India Vs Pakistan, and a whole slew of other topics.

The discussion was refreshing for me as I’d always wondered what he thought of these events, but never really had the courage to ask, along with the fact that being a sociology major, I’ve actually studied stuff like Rwanda and some of the U.S./Iraq stuff and therefore could shoot him down if he went off on an extremely wrong point of view. Of course he wasn’t necessarily wrong about anything he said. Every point that he brought up was extremely valid, yet his passion about the topics seemed to overflow, almost bordering on prejudice and all those other neat things.

At this point I was in a tight spot because I’m pretty vain about my hair (I drive back to my hometown to get my hair cut, I mean come on!), and this guy is talking politics while I’m the chair with a pair of scissors extremely close to my head. I was glad that his points were valid because it is very hard to stand up to someone who can control whether you look like a complete idiot or suave man of leisure. So all I really had to do was make some comments or bring up some evidence for his comments and I was as good as gold.

Yet, what really got me thinking was that these really are political times. Sides are being staked out and prisoners are being taken. More than ever are people standing up and taking an opinion, which is a very good thing.

But I must say, I’m glad the haircut turned out Ok.

Have you ever seen one of these before?



Very cute. Unless of course, it’s rampaging around your house with all it’s little buddies. Then he’s not cute, but rather a very cute thing that must be utterly destroyed and decimated.

When we first found out we had mice it was rather a shock. Being someone who grew up in a suburban beach town, I was unfamiliar with not only their cunning wit, but also the particular ways of destroying them. Firstly, we devised a trap out of a texas mickey (aka giant liqor bottle) that had some peanut-butter covered granola in the bottle. The hope was that if we tilted the bottle up slightly and provided a walkway for the mice, they could scamper into the bottle unable to escape because glass is extremely slippery. Mice apparently, are smarter than this and wanted no part of our makeshift trap.

For a short while afterwards, we decided to be lazy about the mouse situation. We soon found out that this was a poor strategy as mice replicate themselves at a surprisingly fast rate and I soon found mice coming into my room, and more importantly into my soccer bag, where they scared the living shit out of me. Also, my roommate found some in a bag in his room which he promptly line-danced on top of (see: stepped on many times).

We needed heavy artillery. I went to the local hardware store and brought back four old school traps (the kind you see on cartoons) and one “live” trap that holds up to four mice. The live trap works by way of a trap door – the mice get in, but can’t get out, meaning you have to then “escort” them somewhere far away from your house (aka, your friend’s houses). At this stage of the game, I was ready to unleash a fury of genocidal rage upon the entire kingdom of mousitania. But, also being extremely terrified of mice (they can run and jump at you very fast), I really just wanted them out of my house and into someone else’s house.

This next little diagram needs some explanation to understand the markings, but first off you can see the general layout of the house. The cupboard area is open which means it has no doors to close it, so the mice originally just chilled out there eating through our food(actually mine, since it was on the bottom shelf, hence my urgency). The blue X’s indicate the first places of the traps, and the red X’s indicate traps that were moved from other areas (the original places marked by a beige square). The live trap is denoted by a green square, and areas that the mice have frequented are outline in green. To understand my fascination with the destruction of mice, it is important to note that I live in room 3, and not room 1, of which no mice have been seen anywhere even close.

There you have it. Stay tuned to find out if the kingdom of Nimh continues to live in our baseboards and walls.

I have just recently seen Wes Anderson’s new film, “The Aquatic Life: With Steve Zissou”. Like all of his other films, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Yet what I enjoyed most about the film – as I assume most people did – was the character of Steve Zissou. I think that the appeal of the scrappy underdog character clawing his way back from a past fame is that everyone can appreciate the sort of person they are. Everyone wants to be Steve Zissou. I don’t mean this in the literal sense that everyone wants to become an “Oceanic Adventurer” (even though that would still be quite cool), but rather that everyone wants to become the Steve Zissou of their own field.

People like Steve Zissou absolutely love what they do. As it becomes apparent in the film, all the hassles of making a documentary and living a regular life are secondary to what Zissou finds truly inspirational: the ocean, and it’s majesty.

I think everyone wants to be that in love with whatever they like doing and if perhaps they could assemble a whole crew of like-minded individuals to do it, they would. I guess what I’m trying to say is that while the character of Steve Zissou is seen in many other films and novels, et cetera, Bill Murray does a great job of embodying the type of person I think many others would like to be. Perhaps the world would be a better place if we were all a little more Zissou.