God grant me the serenityto accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.
public uriNATION
NOTE: Title of this post to be read public uriNATION as my formatting makes the titles all CAPS it takes away from my tremendously witty sense of humour and I must keep that intact at all times. Thank you.As I was walking downtown with my mom a while back, checking out the heart of Victoria and Chinatown we came across this....eccentric...apartment building. It was so interesting I had to take a picture. At first I thought it was rather comical the sign reading "Please stop peeing here people live here." But then I later realized such a note was rather ironic, and I believe the irony is what makes this image so beautiful. People merely trying to protect what is rightfully theirs with another form of not as smelly vandalization, graffitti. Is writing on the wall of your home with permanent marker really the solution to this situation? To be honest, if I were to ever see this wall while intoxicated, which most of my friends would vouch for rarely ever happens these days, I would most definatley see this message not as a warning, but as an outrageously vibrant neon green light for public urination. And if I was as intoxicated as most of these people are who are even considering peeing on another humans not-so-welcome mat I probably wouldn't even be able to read the message, let alone see it in the first place.
It Is unfourtunate that Victoria has taken the Sex Appeal approach with their new tourism recruiting ad campagin of advertising the city of Victoria as "the perfect orgasm." (this is totally another story we will have to address some other time.) Maybe if we advertised things like this ideal apartment location (not to mention whos rental suites are upwards of 700/ month) along with the amount of people we have living on the street in any given summer it would open doors to a whole new realm of tourism. aka, the forigners have vanished. I admit that the city of Victoria has become intolerably out of hand (although you would never be able to guess with the beautifully kept hanging flower baskets), I believe there are more practical ways of solving problems like human excretion in unappropriate places as in this particular example, on the door step of someones no longer humble abode. The City of Victoria HAS purposed earlier in the year a solution to public urination, consisting of space age porta-potties popping up from the ground in the middle of Centennial Square. Do we really want to spend thousands and thousands of tax payers dollars on such a total waste of time? Am I the only person who forsees the total demise of such an invention? Silver metal tubes arising from the ground to inebriated human beings is just something else to vandalize, and in this case. to piss on, not in. But maybe since they have taken our bowling alley away, it will be something for us to enjoy. I can't wait for my night out of "raise the mysterious tubular time machine."
I think a far more practical and appropriate solution is to of course not only raise the amount of police people in the downtown core, which is something most Victorian's would tell you is a long drawn out debate, but also to rid Victoria of useless COPS who rather then doing their job of enforcing the law, spend their time harassing and abusing the homeless, handing out warnings to innocent people with their fog lamps on, or pulling over 16 year old boys without a license just to tell them how they used to "smoke blunts and drink at their age". No wonder our city smells like piss.
Just remember next time you are walking downtown and you smell a rather irritating odour, think twice when the "gardner" tending to the flowers tells you its just "potent soil". You could very well be stumbling across something of a more........human nature.
Intermittent Life Update
So a lot has happened (yeah i know everyone ALWAYS uses that as an excuse for not writing) but seriously though, it has. Not that it has caused me to have a lack of time to do important things like write on my almost now non exsistance space in the gargantuan blogosphere, my mind has just been focusing on other parts of my life and when it comes time to write about my expereinces i am kind of run dry. But in a good way. Here is a quick review of where I am at these days.
I have moved back in with my parents, but I know this time around it is different. After living in Victoria for a year and paying over 500 dollars a month in rent and bills, coming home was a blessing. Who would have known that a fridge can be stocked all month long, not just proceeding the bi-weekly pay cheque.
I have a new job and no longer have to drive over an hour to get to work every day of the week, which is also a major bonus. What is even better, is my position is in the field I have been wanting to enter for a while. I am support staff at the addictions recovery center here and is a mere 8 minute drive to work. It pays really well and I work 4 shifts @ 9 hours each a week which leaves me to have 3 days off but still get full time hours. The only downside to all of this is that I work the graveyard shift (23:45-08:45). I have started to adjust and am starting to learn I can still function rather well (apart from my motor skills) with hardly any sleep. This lack of sleep is also another big factor as to why I hadn't written in so long. I sound kind of lame when I try to talk after I have been up for 27 some odd hours.
I just bought a new laptop and bike. They are both gorgeous and work well which is always a bonus. hahahaha. function over form but its nice if they are cute to right?
Laptop ---> Customized Dell Inspirion 6400 pretty much maxed out at all the newest technology , I don't wanna sound like a total nerd and get into all the specs, but its pretty damn swanky. Some of my friends who are die hard mac fans will probably try to ban me from their life which is fine, but understand I saved myself over two thousand dollars (of money which i do not have to begin with) and if i were to pick up a mac for the same price that I payed for such a high performance laptop, I would get the Fisher Price version aka the MacBook. So, not worth it.
Bike ---> 2007 GT Agressor. Have only ridden it a bit so far, but its a smooooooooth ride. And it is also you guessed it. Pretty damn swanky.
I have moved back in with my parents, but I know this time around it is different. After living in Victoria for a year and paying over 500 dollars a month in rent and bills, coming home was a blessing. Who would have known that a fridge can be stocked all month long, not just proceeding the bi-weekly pay cheque.
I have a new job and no longer have to drive over an hour to get to work every day of the week, which is also a major bonus. What is even better, is my position is in the field I have been wanting to enter for a while. I am support staff at the addictions recovery center here and is a mere 8 minute drive to work. It pays really well and I work 4 shifts @ 9 hours each a week which leaves me to have 3 days off but still get full time hours. The only downside to all of this is that I work the graveyard shift (23:45-08:45). I have started to adjust and am starting to learn I can still function rather well (apart from my motor skills) with hardly any sleep. This lack of sleep is also another big factor as to why I hadn't written in so long. I sound kind of lame when I try to talk after I have been up for 27 some odd hours.
I just bought a new laptop and bike. They are both gorgeous and work well which is always a bonus. hahahaha. function over form but its nice if they are cute to right?
Laptop ---> Customized Dell Inspirion 6400 pretty much maxed out at all the newest technology , I don't wanna sound like a total nerd and get into all the specs, but its pretty damn swanky. Some of my friends who are die hard mac fans will probably try to ban me from their life which is fine, but understand I saved myself over two thousand dollars (of money which i do not have to begin with) and if i were to pick up a mac for the same price that I payed for such a high performance laptop, I would get the Fisher Price version aka the MacBook. So, not worth it.
Bike ---> 2007 GT Agressor. Have only ridden it a bit so far, but its a smooooooooth ride. And it is also you guessed it. Pretty damn swanky.