Went to see the doctor again this week. Thanks to O.D.S.P. I'm trying to do it once a month for as long as they'll foot the bill for the cab ride there, or until the car gets up and running again. Don't see that happening in the foreseeable future, so until December this year I'm taking advantage of the transportation they are granting me. Dr. Lin is one of the few things my ex-wife gave me that actually was worth the shit I went through with her, so at least there's that. I personally think he gets a private enjoyment out of the fact that I talk to him plainly, without censoring myself, and once I even got him to share back with me in the same way. Cheeky monkey! This past visit he complained that they want him to do another spot on television. Complaining about being televised. I wanted to tell him it's no big deal, I mean it's only the CBC after all! Didn't get around to saying it, but I bet he would have laughed. He's great, and with any luck he'll be reading this blog and some of my others. If so, welcome to the party; if not, well, chances are I'll be gone long before him, so he can read me posthumously when he gets the chance.
We're trying to get me to a psychiatrist in regards to all the shit I'm still dealing with from my mother. My weight is up over 350 now, but we haven't pegged exactly what it's at yet; that'll be for April's visit. He said that he wants to take blood from me for my 40th, I said fuck off, he said okay then we'll talk about turning 40, to which I then agreed. Told you he was cool. He looked again at the open wound in my gut, and I don't think he's too thrilled with how it looks. Walking around with this thing for a year hasn't been any fun for me either, but at least now he's on it. Oh, and it appears that beef is no longer a part of my diet, at least for a while. I won't get deep into what it has been doing to me, but let's just say that I'm losing out on some of my favourite foods, and that fish and chicken are now the norms.
Now then, on to the topics of the day.
First of all, I wanted to wait until I wrote about Japan, mainly because I want hits on this blog to actually be for me and my writing, not just because I have the title 'Japan' up top. It's been a while, and though the crisis certainly isn't over yet, at least it isn't immediate as it was the day or two after the actual quake. People are saying Japan deserved it, that they are sinners and are being punished, and that this heralds the truth about 2012. I can't believe the pile of bullshit coming from these sources. First of all, yes, this is a serious quake. 9.0 on a scale that goes up to 10 is ridiculously high, no argument. This signifying that 2012 is real? No. See, people are saying that the number and severity of earthquakes has been rising steadily over the past decade, and this simply isn't true. The number hasn't risen, the population has. When there are more people, they need more space to live. In order to get more space, you need to occupy areas you didn't occupy previously. When you occupy areas you haven't been in until now, you discover things about that area you didn't know.
Think of it this way: You live on one side of a hill, and there are birch trees on your side of that hill. You've never seen the other side of the hill (I don't know why, you're probably a fucking shut-in, now stop asking stupid questions you damned recluse and let me get on with this). Then, one day, you decide to venture to the other side of the hill and, lo and behold, there are birch trees there too. To then say there are more birch tress on your hill than there used to be would be a false statement. The other tress were there, you just didn't know about them. Same with these quakes. Just because you didn't know they were occurring in places nobody lived does not mean they weren't occurring when they were vacant, it is just that now that there are people living there they notice them, and therefore they are aware of their occurrence. The question has always been whether a tree makes a noise when it falls if nobody is there to hear it, not whether the tree fell or not. In this case, the earth has been shaking, but nobody has been living there so nobody recorded it happening. People are there now, they notice the event, suddenly everyone says more quakes are happening. Not true. Oh, and they aren't causing more destruction either.
Take a town with buildings that go no higher than the second floor, do not build them to withstand quakes, and then give that town a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Lots of minor damage, nothing ridiculous, and minimal loss of life. Now, on the exact same footprint of those buildings, put up some skyscrapers, again built not to specifically withstand earthquakes, and give that spot the exact same earthquake. Buildings collapse, huge loss of life. The more built up an area is, the more can fall down when the ground starts to move. Simple. So it isn't a matter of more destruction because the quakes are higher in magnitude, it is more about what is built near the epicenter of the event. Also, of course, the quality of the construction has a huge effect as well. Lesser standards and building materials will collapse faster and more thoroughly than better built, more solid constructions. That's common sense. End of story. Oh, and those saying that Japan deserved this, or that this is some form of punishment, those people can go back to believing that the Catholic Church is wonderful, and all those choir boys really asked to be sodomized repeatedly and God wanted them victimized, it's all for the best.
As for the nuclear situation in Japan, calm heads must prevail here too. The reactors were built with earthquakes in mind, and would probably also have survived the tsunami as well, if it weren't for the loss of power to the plant. Ironic that a power plant has no electricity of it's own, isn't it? Anyway, that would be the only fault of the construction and design of these plants - not being prepared for a catastrophic loss of power. On the whole, I personally believe the whole thing to be a terrible accident, with nobody specifically culpable, at least as far as the initial problems. As to the multiple reactor problems that they are now facing, and the evacuation zone being too small versus the radiation levels within them, that's all Japan's government's fault. To me, it seems like they are for some reason trying to downplay the severity of what is going on, as if they fucked up somehow and are trying to cover their tracks. Doesn't make sense to me, but that seems to be the case. All the nuclear watchdog groups are giving a much truer (in my opinion) picture of what is going on, and Japan had better stop spouting their misinformation and get on board with what is truly going on here, or it will indeed become a bigger disaster than Chernobyl ever was. Lying about it will only make it worse when nature takes the next steps on the path everything is moving down.
Of course, here in Ajax, nestled right beside Pickering, it doesn't help that the Pickering Nuclear Plant had an accident of their own that they were slow in announcing to the public this week. It is being touted as a minor incident, releasing de-mineralized water into Lake Ontario to the tune of 73,000 litres. No biggie, right? Well, the water still had some radioactive material in it, and if there was a more serious failure (the spill is being blamed on a malfunctioning valve) we'd be fucking evacuated to Peterborough (for those not familiar with Southern Ontario, Peterborough is about an hour northeast of here, kinda hard to get to without a damned car) for who knows how long. I've never been behind nuclear power here in Canada, and given the fact that we live on the edge of a big goddamned lake, I can't see ANY reason why we're not concentrating on disturbing a few fish and putting up a wind farm out in the water. Naysayers can't bitch if the thing isn't very visible from shore (I personally like the look of the windmills myself), and it wouldn't be disturbing anyone in any way, except maybe for ships that might have to steer around it - oh, big nasty pain in the ass to keep the lights on in Ontario. Wish it would happen, probably never will.
I have nought else much to say about Japan, so I'm turning to the other big news story to wrap up my post here, and that would be Libya. Finally, the UN got off it's collective asses last night and voted to institute a no-fly zone over the country. Congratu-fucking-lations folks, you wait until the slaughter of protesters gets to the point that the rebellion against tyranny and murder is almost completely wiped out by a superior military force before attempting to ride in and save the day. And at the end of it, you'll expect some kind of credit for doing the right thing almost too late for there to be a rebellion to support. I don't want to hear that a decision like this is not to be taken lightly - when an oppressive dictator turns to killing his own people, you should be stepping up IMMEDIATELY to bring an end to it, not waiting around for weeks to see how they fare. I almost consider that a war crime, letting people die like that before taking action. And such piddly action too. Get in there and bring the bastard to his knees. Oh, wait, does Libya have oil? Yeah, it does, so what are you waiting for? The excuse is there, go get it...I mean him! What do you need, an invitation?
