mike the mountain

OK, I can understand Hummers getting picked on.  They’re big, showy, and have a reputation for a certain kind of driver that would make a very tempting target for any law enforcement.

But why the Scion hate?

The Scion tC is an inexpensive, sporty little coupe targetted at young drivers, modders, and gear-heads.  It’s definitely racer-friendly, but I didn’t think that they were quite that wildly skewed.  But the XB?

My Box?

Toaster-on-wheels?

Yeah, I admit, it looks different.  But does it really scream out “BUST ME!! DANGEROUS DRIVER!!”?  Does anyone think they’re going to see Vin Diesel flying past the screen in one of these any time soon (F&F 7: Screw Aerodynamics!)?

I love my XB, but when I look at them I don’t think “street racer”.  I think most people driving XBs are a bigger risk of something like this.

Maybe that’s it… Often stereotypes are there for a reason, and just as Hummers tend to attract a certain type of aggressive personality, the job of police officer also attracts a certain type of person.  That type that was, perhaps, somewhat physically-oriented in their youth, a “jock”?  Maybe authoritarian roles also bring out those that enjoyed holding power over others, aka: a “bully”?  And if, as I proudly claim, the XB represents the “nerd” car… Maybe the temptation is just too much for some to resist renewing old rivalries?

"What do you mean the ticket fine is 'my lunch money'?"

(As a caveat, and to make sure that every cop in the city doesn’t decide to get that ticket ratio to number 1, I will say that no, I don’t think that EVERY police officer is a frustrated bully working out his power-trip fantasies on the public.  My best friend, who has saved my life almost as many times as he’s put it at risk, is exactly the kind of person you would want protecting society, your home, and your family.  I’ve known many wonderful and honourable men and women in the service.  Of course, I’ve also been attacked and beaten by two different cops, so it’s hard to say.  Gee maybe stereotypes aren’t right 100% of the time…)

I just had to re-post this incredible shot of Vancouver in it’s current state of pea-soupiness:

Courtesy of the one and only Accordian Guy

I can not express how much I am looking forward to this movie…

In which I speak highly of the future potential of the markets and the opportunities therein:

So what does it all mean to you and me?  If you had money invested in the markets at the beginning of the year, you likely had less at the end.  The global economic meltdown is now considered the worst since the Great Depression, and had such broad impact that there was literally no “safe haven”, no country or industry not affected. The silver lining around this dark cloud is that all of these assets are now trading at much lower prices than they were a year ago; for anyone putting money into the markets, this may end up being the greatest buying opportunity of our lives.

Check out the rest of it here.

And as always, I’d appreciate any feedback you have for me!  This attempt at serious/professional communication is somewhat intimidating…

From Laughing Squid by way of Boing Boing (I wish our street addresses could be as cool as our web ones), a German commercial for Saturn (an electronics store, not the car company).

Top Artists (according to Last.fm):

1. Flogging Molly
2. Gogol Bordello
3. Great Big Sea
4. Dean Gray (Green Day mashup DJ)
5. Corb Lund
6. Captain Tractor
7. The Free Design
8. Blink-182
9. Death Cab for Cutie
10. Jack Johnson
11. The Flaming Lips
12. Dropkick Murphys
13. Rancid
14. Feist
15. Dungeons & Dragons podcasts

My Top Tracks (according to Last.fm):

1. Big Audio Dynamite – Rush
2. Great Big Sea – The Night Pat Murphy Died
3. Webb Wilder & The Nashvegaans – One Taste Of The Bait
4. The Flaming Lips – Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
5. Scissor Sisters – I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’
6. Gogol Bordello – Sally
7. Trace Adkins – Honky Tonk Badonkadonk
8. Flogging Molly – What’s Left of the Flag
9. Ian Tyson – This is My Sky
10. Tenacious D – The Metal
11. Dean Gray – Boulevard of Broken Songs
12. Montgomery Gentry – Gone
13. Flogging Molly – Sentimental Johnny
14. Dean Gray – Dr. Who on Holiday
15. John Michael Montgomery – Sold (The Grundy County Auction Incident)

Movies I saw that were released in 2008 (not necessarily the best, just some of the more memorable; in no order):

• WALL-E
• The Dark Knight
• Kung-Fu Panda
• Iron Man
• Cloverfield
• Quantum of Solace
• Mamma Mia
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• Horton Hears A Who
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
• The Incredible Hulk
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall
• The Forbidden Kingdom
• Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
• Semi-Pro
• The Ruins
• Be Kind, Rewind
• Futurama – The Beast With A Billion Backs
• Tropic Thunder

(If I tried to remember ALL the movies I watched last year, it would take me until the end of ’09!  The most watched movie of the year was a tie between WALL-E and Shoot ‘Em Up, 3 times each.)

Some of the best stuff I read in 2008:

• The Happiest Days of Our Lives, by Wil Wheaton
• World War Z, by Max Brooks
• Crooked Little Vein, by Warren Ellis
• The Gunslinger Born (The Dark Tower Graphic Novel)
• G33k Mafia, by Rick Dakan
• Godel, Escher, and Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter
• Y, The Last Man, series
• Transmetropolitan, series
• The Boys, series
• Planet Hulk/World War Hulk, series
• Punisher MAX, series (Garth Ennis’ run)
• Wanted, series
• Wizard’s First Rule, by Terry Goodkind
• Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card
• Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, core books and supplements

Teh awesomist tubes on teh internets:

• Wil Wheaton dot Net: In Exile
• The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century
• Lifehacker
• xkcd
• Garfield minus Garfield
• Least I Could Do
• Questionable Content
• Penny Arcade
• Tcritic – Daily T-Shirt Blog
• io9
• Boing Boing
• Ain’t It Cool News
• Horror Movie A Day
• PostSecret

Favourite Online Video of 2008:

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Favourite Video Game of 2008:

Tie: Guitar Hero III and Portal

What an awesome year.  Even though by some measures it wasn’t quite the year I had hoped for, there’s never a bad time in the world of Mike.

One unfortunate thing that I allowed to affect almost everything in ’08 was my shoulder injury.  In February I had what seemed like a very minor fall while snowboarding that ended up dislocating my shoulder and tearing my rotator cuff.  I have NEVER had any kind of injury take so long to fully heal!  I’m still not at 100%.  The toll this took on my usual fun and games was catastrophic: couldn’t go snowboarding for the rest of the winter, couldn’t golf at all during the summer, had to drop out of a marathon training program (still managed to run a 1/2 marathon), couldn’t wear a backpack with any weight so no overnight hiking, couldn’t do any of the normal physical activities that I usually enjoy (weightlifting, rollerblading, squash, swimming, etc.) and, as important, that keep me in any kind of healthy condition.  End result is me being in the absolute worst shape of my life: fat, weak, and pretty dang pathetic.

Enough!  That’s the other thing I let that injury do for me all year: gave me an excuse to be a whiny lazy bitch, eat badly, not do the exercise I could do, etc.  Starting TODAY, I’m back to eating well and working my a$$ off.

One goal I thoroughly enjoyed surpassing was writing at least one blog post a week.  I managed to put up 62 posts in 2008, some of which actually involved original thought!

The big highlight vacation was a roadtrip through BC.  Chrystal had never seen BC outside of Vancouver and our West Coast Trail hiking trip, so I resolved to show her as much of the rest of this incredible slice of paradise as I could.  We did a whirlwind tour of the southern interior, wine country, up the Sunshine Coast, across the island, a week (SUR-fing) in Tofino, then up through the central-BC backroads to Jasper. Tenting the whole way, enjoying some incredible local produce, grilling fresh fish over a campfire, drinking amazing wine every night… awesome.  A trip every Canadian needs to do at least once in their life.

I got all fired up about the proposed copyright legislation some twisted, ignorant, bought-and-paid-for, miserable excuse for a public servant tried to force down our throats and wallets.  Not that I have an opinion about it or anything…

In May I moved this humble little blog from Blogger to my own WordPress site.  Also started Twittering, because I really don’t have enough ways to waste time online.

Dreamgirl (who I think should start her own blog) had a huge year as well: running her first marathon in Edmonton at the end of the summer, on one of the hottest days of the year!  Also, to the joy of us both, she took a part time job at Mountain Equipment Co-Op.  Just for the extra money, of course.  Nothing to do with the staff discount, amazing trips, cool people, or any of that stuff.  Really.

A big personal achievement in the work world was finally building and launching our new website and blog.  I’m pretty dang proud of this, and I hope you will swing by every once in a while and let me know how I’m doing!