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.

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:

I agree that the loud and proud atheists have done a great job at getting atheism on the front lines. Dawkins at al have been very effective in making atheism more “main stream” and well known. However, this is where mine and Ian’s opinions differ - greatly.

In my eyes, if anyone is a hypocrite it are those who are like Dawkins et al. So many flaming atheists claim that religion is closed minded and detrimental to the well being of individuals. However - a lot of these atheists are just as closed minded as the christians/jews/muslims/whatever that they’re attempting to stand up against. It’s hypocritcal to stand so firmly against something because you think it’s haulting people’s lives and ability to live their lives in the way you think they should be living it.

Ian says this

If you call yourself an atheist and believe that many religious beliefs are down right wacky

I do think religion is pretty wacky. I think it’s pretty silly to believe in most religious things. However - I also see that not everyone thinks like that. I see that my mom finds comfort and love in her religion, and I’m curious about it. What makes her believe? What does she cling onto? What would make her stop believing? Is she upset that I don’t believe?

How else am I supposed to fill my curiosity about something like religion without talking to those who are religious. The difference between this and a child molestor is that a child molester is breaking the law and doing something that I know is fundamentally unethical and disgusting. Being religious isn’t fundamentally unethical and disgusting. If a particular religion did advocate child molesting, or killing people, or something cultish - then yeah, I absolutely 100% wouldn’t give them my time of day - that’s why you’ll pretty much never see anything about scientology on my blog.

I think Ian is looking at it from a very narrow view. Not all atheists think that religious people are a waste of space or “wacky”. Some of us are genuinely curious about the sociology behind religion. I want to know everything about what they’re thinking. I don’t think it’s fair to mock their religious ideologies or to tell them that they’re “wrong” or “stupid” for believing what they do.

So yes, I do love what Hemant is doing over Dawkins et al. I would rather listent to Hemant speak about looking for more - than Dawkins talkabout already knowing everything.

So apparently I’m a huge douche bag and bought tickets for the WEMF when it’s the same weekend as the CFI - Transnational Student Leadership Conference. *sobs* …So I have to pick one.

Originally it was a no brainer! I mean, this is the LAST WEMF… How could I miss it? I love electronic music, I have plans to go with AMAZING people and the festival always delivers 800xs more fun than promised. So my first inclination was to say “ta ta!” so the atheists and jump onto the music snob train.

However, after further consideration about what would actually be more beneficial to my life in general… and the fact that I’ve volunteered myself for more responsibility than I should have at the conference… and that I forced Kate to go so that I wouldn’t be alone… and that I wouldn’t mind spending the weekend with the intern… I decided I should probably go to the conference. *huge sob*

Sooo if you wanted to go to the WEMF, but didn’t get tickets in time, I have 2 totally up for grabs. Best offer gets them, really. Although I’d prefer to sell them at the original price… not any higher, … I know they’re going for like $300 some places, and I’m not ready to do that to people who just want to enjoy some music and connect with their inner… … …whatever, you know.. drop acid.

Lemme know if you’re interested! AND if you do go - you must give me a 100% fully loaded run down about how amazing it was. Because seriously, I’m really sad I’ll miss this.

Reading that post even someone how has never taken a logic course can see the problems, there are assumptions, jumps and irrational conclusions (mostly due to the fact that he had a predetermined statement in mind). It the atheist’s turn to play! yay!:

1. An extensional analytic sentence is one that, through substitution of synonyms for synonyms, results in a narrowly logical truth, e.g., a truth in “standard” propositional logic.

2. The sentence-scheme “c causes e” analytically entails (but is not synonymous with) “c and e exist; e’s existence stands to c in the relation of being the result of c’s existence, such that this relation is not that of e being narrowly, logically necessitated by c.” The reason there is no synonymy is that there are other features of the causal relation, features not mentioned in the entailed sentence.

3. The sentence-schema “x is omnipotent” analytically implies “for any possible existent y, necessarily, if x wills that y exist, y exists.”

4. The relation expressed by “x wills that y exist and y exists as a consequence of this willing” is a species of the relation expressed by “x causes y to exist.”

5. If God exists, God is omnipotent and the cause of the universe that exists.

6. If the universe is willed to exist by God and the universe does not exist, then it is the case that [by (3), (4) and (5)]

• (a) God wills the universe to exist and the universe exists and
• (b) God wills the universe to exist and the universe does not exist.

7. The proposition expressed by the sentence, “God wills the universe to exist and the universe exists, and God wills the universe to exist and the universe does not exist,” is a negation of a theorem of standard propositional logic, namely, that it is not the case that both p and not-p.

8. Therefore, God narrowly logically necessitates whatever possibility he causes to exist.

9. Therefore, it is not the case that the universe is caused to exist by God [from (2)].

10. Therefore, God does not exist [from (5) and (9)].

=D LoLz

I’m all about technological advancements… b ut ones that are beneficial to our lives… like solar energy and cool cars that take like nothing to run them but children’s laughter (wouldn’t THAT be a breakthrough!). Hopefully people are at least recycling the old ones or trading it locally. …The iPhone is bad enough as it is, being a bit of an energy sucker. (Who am I kidding? I have a blackberry…)

I hate captialism. If we weren’t all slaves to the dollar we wouldn’t have to use up our minds and our physical resources just to make more money and keep the technophiles of the world occupied with new and cool things. I’ll be the first to admit that I fall victim to all the clever inventions… but that doesn’t make it alright. It just makes me stupid.

“Support Our Troop“: My company is doing a new initiative… They’re doing a “support the troops” dealy where we are supposed to send post cards to troops in the navy or where ever to show that we heart them.

The only issue? I don’t support our troops and I think displaying such biased and icky positions in the workplace is horrible. Not to mention people are rewarded if they send a post card - so those of us who don’t support the troops? We don’t get anything, because we refuse to support something that takes money away from real social services and allows us to get up in things that are none of our fucking business.

I’m not sending a post card. I don’t care if I don’t get a stupid word ribbon or pizza. >_<

“Pussycat Dolls“: that new one, Asia, yeah. the stupid bitch has the same face piercing as me. she’s so annoying!

• date their boss, especially if he’s weird… the quarkiness might be adorable at first, but seriously - it will totally become annoying and then you’re left dating… you’re weird boss.
• plan to elope - it totally defeats the purpose
• hang out with work people who like drama: all they do is gossip and hate you for no apparent reason and then spread horrible things about you around the office. i hate women. i could never be a lesbian.
• let the boy you’re seeing meet your extended family in the first month of dating: the more i think about doing this, the worse of an idea it becomes.
• dismiss other people’s pain and belittle it by saying you’ve had a “harder” life. i hate that.
• kill a spider by jabbing a pencil into the middle of it. it seems like a good idea at first, but then you see it twitch, have a mess on your desk and are out a pencil
• live in a basement, and don’t do your laundry -  so many centipedes!
• tell the lesbian in the office that has a crush on you that she looks “really great today” … super duper trooper bad idea
• get a surface piercing right below your eye. …it hurts, it bleeds, it makes it hard to smile and you can always see it out of the corner of your eye. no matter how awesome it looks, it’s almost not worth the pain and annoyance.

i need something real to write about. my brain is going to sleep.

1. Joe, Justin, me and Zak (maybe the intern was there too, I don’t remember) and I are sitting around CFI talking about Myer’s Briggs. The last time I took the test just over a year ago I was “ISTJ” …now I’m “INTJ“, which I didn’t really expect… ISTJs are highly organized and super focused on planning. If you know me, you know that disgustingly true. INTJs main “thing” is being super analytical. Which… I guess I am most of the time. Joe was very shocked that I’m an I, and not an E (introverted, not extroverted). That’s scenerio one.

2. John was talking about coming here to Guelph and he said something like “you’re you no matter where you are” in response to me saying that Guelph isn’t really… where I’m me, because it’s not my home… really.

So… these two situations combined into one thought really made me realize that people in Guelph likely see me as a 100% different person than my friends in Toronto see me. In Toronto I’m with people all the time. I go specifically to socialize. The part my Toronto friend’s don’t see? When I get home to Guelph and totally crash into being a hermit for 4 days straight, until I head back to Toronto.

For example… this weekend I was literally, never alone…unless I was peeing. Then I was usually alone. I went to see Wall-E with John, went home to Allen.. Friday went to CFI and hung out with people there, hung out with Mark and Shannon later…when home to Allen again…All day Saturday I was with John, Roy, Yunyun…Joe and Zak at some points…Justin at the ROM… just ALWAYS with people.

Now I’m back in Guelph. I’m at work … and there is literally *nothing* to do. So everyone else on the shift is sitting in one pod (pod = one big cubical with like 4 desks in it) playing cards, talking, laughing, sharing foods, playing games… etc. While I am sitting in a pod …totally alone… surfing the net and listening to my music really loud so I can’t even hear them talk. Tomorrow when there is actual work to do… I’ll sit in a pod alone, even though the rest of the centre will be full…and I’ll just work tickets all night, trying not to talk to people. And forget trying to talk to me during the day. I don’t put pants on or leave my basement. (Not like I’m dressed any better now… Sweat pants and a tank top and flip flops. Yep. That’s my work wear. Because I’m a bum and I don’t care. I’m surprised they haven’t fired me.)

So… people in Guelph think I’m an apathetic and interverted bitch where as my Toronto lovelies see me as much more social and interested in other people and things going on. I’m hoping that the move to Toronto will resault in a balance… (Also the intern will be more readily available at my fingertips which is good for me - and good for my friends/family who keep getting ditched so I can go see him in Toronto… :S eek, haha. It’s his fault!)

On an entirely different point - I’m really sick. I eat, and then 10 minutes later it comes right back up. Weird, right? I know. I hate being sick.

Last weekend i saw the ever famous Expelled. i’m sure everyone’s read 1.4 million reviews of it online already. so i’ll just say this. …it was the worst thing i’ve ever seen in my entire life. i’m sorry, but sitting there watching hours of stein compare evolutionary biology to hitler and the holocaust?? yeah, definitely not something i’d ever want to do again or recommend to anyone else to do. it was so horrible. i thought that there would at least be a few good points in it or something… but no, it was just bad. i hadn’t read any online reviews of it, so i didn’t know what i was in for… sigh.

On the other hand…Wall-E??? cutest movie EVER… i totally loved it. it was great to see something environmentally AND sciencey being done for kids. not only that but there were 2 other previews for science-ish kid films. one about monkey’s in space and another about a science fair that an igor tries to win. science is awesome, and there should be more science films for kids made. so this is good. yes, wall-e was great, and the perfect date movie, btw… if you haven’t heard about the plot line - the robots fall in love. and its the cutest thing since kittens.

a lot of other stuff happens too, but that was the part i was focused on. yeah, i couldn’t get enough of it. wall-e good. expelled bad.

im back in toronto this weekend, sans hemant. we’re having a whole crew of people go to the rom tomorrow, so that should be a lot of fun. science science and dinosaurs. awesome. im sorry about my lack of content, but… i’ve been busy trying to figure out plans for september. as it looks now i’ll be moving to toronto at the end of august to go to york university. … where i plan to live… i dont know yet. where i plan to work… i dont know what either. what classes i plan to take at school…. haven’t quite got that under control. but hey, it’s only the first week of july, i still have some time here. and yes. im aware that this is like my 80th university. shut up.

• there weren’t enough people there to hear what he had to say…Justin counted around 60 people in attendance, I don’t think this was nearly enough - although I should add that 1) its the summer, so no one is on campus, 2) its the long weekend so many people are at their cottage and 3) its pride weekend… no one can compete with pride. Suffice to say the next time we get him here it will be during the school year.
• he didn’t give me credit for stealing at least 89% of my view points out of my brain on atheism and theism
• he didn’t do the talk topless
• the “what about the physical lord our god, Jesus Christ?” lady
• there weren’t more questions
• … that’s about it

If you haven’t gotten it yet - I really liked his talk. I had absolutely no disagreement with him, I loved his delivery, there was a great crowd, it was super funny and he’s an awesome guy. The director of the multi-faith centre wants to bring him back in the school year, and the York group wants to steal him at the same time to do a talk in the North end too. Its already been deemed by many as one of the best talks we’ve have… because he was just really interesting, and his delivery was super entertaining.

Anyway, more on this weekend later/when I get home! It was a fabulous weekend.