I guess it’s about time for me to weigh in on how the weekend went. All in all it was a good time… there were more interactive sessions this year, which I thought was a lot more effective than us sitting around and listening to lectures. We got there late on Thursday because we left CFI later than intended, and then got caught in traffic. Derek from Halifax was sooo anxious to get there, it was adorable. Anyway - eventually we did get there just in time to do an intro - I was so brain dead that my intro was basically “uh, hey. im katie kish… i run the guelph group and do a lot of radio stuff…thanks.” Slightly embarrassing but I as running on like 20 minutes sleep.

From Guelph me, Patrick and Will were there, so it was cool to have a good group repping Guelph. Especially at the Canadian section of the conference, i was glad we had a few of us there. I think the splitting of the Canadians and the Americans was the most productive time of the conference. I have absolutely nothing against the Americans, i love them all to death, but I think its really important to have that separation, and it was everyone’s favorite part of the conference. Well, everyone that i talked to anyway, it was just really productive and nice to talk to all the Canadians one on one. We did a lot that couldn’t have been done in the bigger groups and talked a lot of Canadian politic stuff, which was pretty important too. And did lists of people who can help out in different areas of stuff - so i think that will come in handy a lot in the future.

Post conference stuff was a lot like last year, lots of fun conversations and gatherings. Thats when i really got to know people on a personal level and got to see them interacting with other people out of a “professional” atmosphere. …if that’s the right word…

Max Maven was there, and he put on a performance, i thought he was more of an entertainer than a magician, but I wasn’t all…*that* entertained. Ive never really liked magicians in the first place… I thought he’d change my mind, but… he didn’t really. I think the best speaker was definitely Austin Dacey, he was moving and awesome, as usual. The guy totally has things…so elegantly right. It’s great to hear him speak.

Besides that, there isn’t much to report. The best part was meeting all the people. It was good to meet Ian and Eric from Alberta, and Derek from Halifax! It was also fantastic to see Derek from BC again, it had been years since I had seen him. Dan Riley is a super nice guy, and Im glad he got the position at CFI, he seems to be really good at it. Although I didn’t see much of them I was happy to see Lauren and Debbie again, and of course DJ. It was a whole new group of Americans this year, which was great to see! They all had their fantastic qualities to them like Lucia, Matt McClair, Dave Fletcher (!!!), Chris Olson and … and the list goes all … they didn’t dissapoint one bit.

Over all, the sessions this year were a lot better. There was a lot more productive conversations, and more time to share ideas about what works and what doesn’t work. At the Canadian session especially it was good to hear everyone talk about their specific areas of interest because they were all so passionate about it. I think it was really good to let everyone have their say in things instead of us listening to a lot of people talk… about non-student oriented stuff.

I think the only thing I am disappointed about this year… was that I personally didn’t talk to enough community members. I was really hoping Id have gotten to know them better this year, but it didn’t happen. But, thats my own fault, not CFI’s. Anyway, it was a good time! I plan on deconstructing a few things in further detail in the next couple days (because I’ll be back at a computer!! woo!)… such as:

- social gatherings after the conference
- communities helping with campus stuff and vice vers
- splitting by region
- the new podcast…
- bad words and why we can’t all think like capitalists…

I know this is a pretty positive post of me to write, but I honestly don’t have a lot of negative feedback… Last year I was very jumpy bumpy about it because it was my first year, and I wasn’t quite so cynical, this year I have a thing or two… but, that’s to be expected from me and i’ll get to it later. but really, it was a good time, and im glad I went.

Soooo, a bunch of people will have heard about my blog at the conference this weekend… and they’re going to want to be pointed in the direction of a couple posts:

- Why Atheists Annoy Me: The post that PZ linked to which resaulted in his little minions flocking over and attacking the place

- Full Frontal Reviewed: I can’t find the original post when Jessica Valenti first started spouting her pure disliking for me. This post, however, was one of the ones that she wasn’t too happy about. I also didn’t speak too highly of her here… Aaaaand pretty much every feminist on the blogosphere hated my “Making Feminism Inclusive” post…

- The Skatje thing. Why she wants to punch me… this one is going to have to happen in a few parts. Here is the original post that started everything, called Long Distance Relationships and Love. Skatje responded to the post by calling me a slut. It was never resolved and she’s hated me every since.

I’m in Amherst this weekend at the student leadership conference…I will have plenty to write about when I get home Sunday night. Hang tight! <3

The intern (who I think from this point on can be called “john”… as cute as the name “the intern” is, it’s a little inpersonal, or something) and I went to see WALL-E. I loved it to death, it was super cute (like the intern..err john. i think i might stick to the intern…for now) but I couldn’t stop trying to think about what the other movie I had recently seen was… that I loved because it also had an environmental tone to it.

The cool think about WALL-E is not only did it cater to the crazy environmental degradation that’s happening around us, but also had this huge anti-captialistic “look how disgusting consumption and laziness can get” idea behind it - which I totally dug. Woo! Lets turn all the kids into Marxist eco-lobbiests!

Anyway - I FINALLY thought of the movie but not after thinking of the wrong one many times. Other good kids environment movies:

1. Furn Gully… cutest thing ever “i’ve been brain fried electrified!” aaah hahaha. Cutest.
2. Free Willy … sort of, the whale is all captivated and stuff. You know.
3. The Lorax … by far my second favorite Dr. Seuss book - the first obviously being Oh The Places You’ll Go, generally when you have a book literally memorized from front to back it’s because you love it to pieces. The Lorax is pretty much just as good as Oh The Places, though. Mostly because of it’s meaning.
4. Ice Age 2 … the place melts and shit
5. Once Upon A Forest
6. HootAND finally …the one I was thinking of:
7. Happy Feet! … I can’t believe I couldn’t think of it for THAT long, and it only came to me JUST now… literally weeks later.

And you know what should really be brought back for kids enjoyment? Captian Planet. (he’s the hero! gotta take pollution down to zero!) Fo’ realz.

1/2 of America’s land…80% of it’s fresh water… 17% of fossil fules go to what? Producing food. The most energy intensive product? Meat, yo. The higher up you go from plant to beast, the worse it gets. Cows eat seven times more grain than Americans do - … seven times MORE people could eat, if the cows weren’t eating it…. and its all for those $50 steaks.

HOW MUCH ENERGY (IN CALORIES) IS REQUIRED TO MAKE A SINGLE CALORIE OF MEAT?
(from the September 2003 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition)
Lamb: 57 calories (~ 29 if pasture fed only)
Beef: 40 calories (~20 if pasture fed only)
Pigs: 14 calories
Turkeys: 10 calories
Broiler chickens: 4 calories

…So I don’t really eat a lot of meat.

I got telling someone about this today. …Then I started to rant a little bit, and my rant veered a little bit more than usual into the actual production of all processed foods. … Anything that’s been processed, sugar filled, packaged and shipped is just as bad for the environment as the aforementioned meat products. … So really, if I’m going to get all “environmental” not only do I need to not eat meat, but I need to eat local… unpackaged… organic food. … wtf.

I have issues with the organic food chains though. I think it’s all a disgusting scam to get hippies to spend too much money on something that helps so little that it doesn’t even matter. So we won’t be doing that. And local foods? Really the only time you can get “local” food in Guelph is Saturday morning. So if I don’t stock up, I’ve got issues. And if it’s a bad weekend at the farmer’s market, or if I …ya know, go to Toronto like I do every weekend, then I don’t get any. So there’s issues with that too.

So how do people eat, and ruin the environment less? …Americans and Canadians eat something like 3800 calories a day. What do people actually need? If I remember correctly something like 2000 - 2600 depending on your body type and gender. Which brings me to my real issue.

Beer.

I like it. A lot. but it’s processed, and full of calories. To brew a single liter of beer takes:

around 8 litres of water, huge amounts of mains power and gas, vast stores of barley and, mostly, the importation of packaging materials like glass bottles and labels from overseas

eek!

What’s my solution? I’ll continue to not eat meat, that’s fine. I can handle that. …I’ll try not to buy too much of the packaged and processed crap, but I can’t promise anything too drastic changing there. I’ll even cut back on like cheese or something. As for beer? I’ll stick with steam whistle! Local and delicious and environmentally aware. Although it will be hard to steer away from strongbow. so. stupidly. delicious. >< mmm.

But you know, this only furthers my argument that we should stop serving so much alcohol in bars. It would be better for the environment. And we could turn all the bars into the new one that is fuled by people dancing. …And just sell XTC. Then they’ll dance more! And won’t drink beer! And won’t eat meat because they won’t want to eat anything! Then, not only will everyone stop eating meat so that we can stop doing horribley embarassing things to cows (like collecting all their farts on their backs) but everyone in the world will be SO happy. And we’ll all love each other and listen to techno.

And then everyone would sparkle and shine various colors like this: