Friday, March 4

Here's 4 Culture-Jamming ideas I haven't heard before, the first one being the easiest and least likely to get you in trouble, the last one being the most likely to make an impact:
-Make fake out of order signs and put them on every soda/snack machine you can find.
-Use caution tape and orange cones to barricade off all the entrances to the local Wal-Mart parking lot.
-Use a universal remote to turn off every TV in any public place you go.
-Glue locks at Wal-Mart, McDonalds, etc overnight so they can't open on time in the morning

When I was living in Kamloops, Drew and I went to a locally-owned cafe for the monthly 'Philosopher's Cafe'. There would be a theme of the month (maybe it was bi-monthly, I can't remember) like "Responsible Science" or "National Identity" for example. There'd be about 15 people, mostly above the age of 40, but a few other youngins. It was VERY intellectually stimulating and was quite a paradigm shift for me. Instead of having to dumb things down for the average person, I found that I had to put considerable thought into something before I spoke up. Of course, there were a few attendees who didn't know what the fuck they were talking about, but for the most part, there was a wide range of ideas being exchanged, and even though I think it's safe to say we were all on the same side in the end, dissent was common and it made for an interesting few hours. Even though we only made it to about 3 nights of the 'Philosopher's Cafe', I really miss it and yearn for something to take its place, hence my post a week ago about how nobody talks philosophy these days. I try to keep my posts as intellectually stimulating as possible, but it's tough when I have to come up with all the material myself. Exchanging ideas is invaluable and is definitely one of my favorite social pastimes.

I don't think I'll ever eat at White Spot or even a chain restaurant again. We nuke food that's in plastic bags, add butter to the rice (so it's really impossible for a vegan to make informed decisions when eating out), and aside from cutting up veggies, almost nothing is actually made in the restaurant, it's all shipped in bags, pre-mixed. Veggies are cut days before they're used, thus losing much of their nutritional content. For the money usually spent on a meal at a restaurant, it's such a rip-off, it borders on being scandalous. $1.50 for a bag of tea that cost less than $0.05. What the fuck am I doing working here?

Dilemma: I need money to travel to India in the fall, but I also want to do things within BC as well. Yet that requires both time-off from work and money (double-whammy). Considering that India isn't a certainty, I'd hate to waste my summer working and then be stuck here for another winter, wishing I'd done something during the summer.

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