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Picking up the garbage
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Calgary
- Hits: 740
Since I've pretty much given up looking for work I've taken to prowling the neighborhood and filling up a large bag full of garbage a day.
It hardly makes a dent. The Garbage? Needles, syringes, little meth/coke dime bags, condom and condom wrappers, lots of candy-bar wrappers, McDonald's, Tim Hortons, Straws, branded 7/11 and Circle K shit, a surprising number of doggy-doo-doo bags that seem to just end up tossed in the snow, (why bother bagging it if you're not going to trash it?), lots of dogshit unbagged, and cigarette butts. Lots of nasty smokers out there. I smoke, but all my butts end up in the garbage. ALL of them.
So, while picking up the unending garbage in the neighborhood I think about possible solutions to the problem. It's one that's bothered me since coming back (the city is noticeably dirtier every year), and especially since spring last year when driving through Banff I saw volunteers gathering rubbish by the side of the road - large autumn-leaf bags, one every 50 or 100 yards, and I thought "Who fucking litters in a National Park?" - but, the point really is, who fucking litters period?
How to solve it:
2 Ways. One - charge a surcharge to the consumer, based on the amount of litter collected. X amount of McDonald's/Tim Horton's/Water Bottles/ etc trash per square meter equals this tax charged to the companies vending and manufacturing the rubbish. Hopefully this helps to encourage people to trash their rubbish and not throw it out the window. Want shit food/coffee at cheap prices? Throw your garbage in the trash, folks.
The Second: Real consequences for litterers and an initiative to enforce anti-dumping and littering laws. Banff could easily afford cameras that caught people littering along the highway. The consequences? Easy. First offence - an orange jumpsuit and a 40 hour work week beside the highway or in the neighborhood you live / litter in spent picking up rubbish. Like the good-ole days, forced labor road crews. Plead guilty and it's a week - prove your innocence and you go free. Argue your innocence and be proved guilty and you now have 2 weeks. No pleading extenuating circumstances (there are none for littering) - no time to arrange your affairs, say goodbye to loved ones, you're on the crew tomorrow, if you get fired from your job - too bad, you should have considered it before you littered.
Anyways, with both the Provincial and Civic governments we have in place there will be no remedies for this.
Maybe I should start saving the trash I collect and do a series of "Alberta Murals", "Mountain Views" and the "Big Sky Looking West...".
Never was there a social issue so visible, so easy to solve, and so little will to solve it.
Alberta's New Logo
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 602
Saw this making the rounds on the internet, today's tempest in a Teacup. The energy company named is denying that it's them, which is perfect, because if it isn't the Conservatives can grab it and make it the new Alberta Logo.
I'm not sure what all the outrage is about, really. It is that offensive, to be sure, but it's only that offensive because it's true. Maybe if Alberta could get away from the memory of easy money it could find it's way forward, but not under this government...
Hospitality done right
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Restaurants & Cafes
- Hits: 666
The Keg, Downtown Calgary
Now - having a couple of posts ago recounted a friend's ordeal I'll compare it with my own application to the Keg Downtown. Typically I avoid chains, preferring the quality and uniqueness of owner/operated restaurants, but beggars can't be choosers and if I had to move up in a restaurant my research indicated that The Keg treats it's management pretty well.
So I pop in and drop off a resume. The hostess takes it and invites me to complete an application. This, I find generally, a bit repetitive, but I understand they need it for their paperwork, and so I sit on a bench and fill it in, then return to the front desk to submit it.
The hostess is on the phone, a well groomed/dressed young waiter takes over and receives my resume, asks me to wait a moment while he finds a manager. The manager introduces himself, walks me into a quiet corner, sits down, reviews my resume. Well dressed as well, perhaps half my age. It's short, there's nothing to ask, my experience and qualifications are apparent, he'll pass it on, thanks me for my interest.
Now - simple things, small things, the smallest of attentions paid by the people you're "prospectively" going to work with/for. Done right, and it's remarkable - because - in all the places I've applied - so seldom has it been done right, and I appreciate it. Maybe 5 minutes of their time, yet not the complete devaluation of your interest that most other employers dismiss you with.
Compare this to Joey Tomatoes.
The Keg. Hospitality done right.
Which recounts one other good story in Calgary - I applied once to a job in Bridgeland, locally famous (now defunct I believe) Italian Trattoria. The hostess took the resume to the owner, who returned and walked me upstairs to his office. Now, I didn't know the owner, only his reputation, which was formidable (think of the last Italian place I worked at), yet he was hospitable, offered me coffee, then apologized - he wasn't hiring at the moment, but then took the time to get on the phone and call a few other Italian restaurants he knew of in the neighborhood to see if they were looking.
Again, Hospitality done right. You notice it because in Calgary - and the world at large, in general, - it isn't.
El Topo
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 677
Been meaning to re-watch this forever, Alejandro Jodorowsky's famous "Acid Western", so started it last night and got about a quarter into it. A few early second impressions.
First of all, his innate and intuitive understanding of symbolism. What works for the scene. If you've not seen the film I'll warn you - it's written almost entirely in the language of symbolism, and has to be interpreted as such. And - if you take it on those terms, it's a masterpiece. If you don't - well, maybe don't see it.
So I arrive at the scene where our hero is dealing with "The General" - no spoilers - but - the obvious and apparent solution to many of today's political struggles is foreshadowed here, and by that I'm thinking of a certain President Trump as the General.
Anyways, it just struck me, The resemblance between the General and the President, and I'll come back to this when I've finished the film, there's a fair bit of it left to watch, but - like "The Wailing" - so many of our problems are so simple - and expedient - to solve, only we're afraid of dealing to others the same treatment they're only too comfortable dealing to us.
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