Harpfucker
I have two comments on the Canadian election:
- At least it's not a majority.
- Why do people think this is a success for Harper? As much as I am
glad he didn't get a majority, with the "left-ish" vote split 4 ways
and a Liberal leader everybody hates, it should have been dead easy.
As such, Harper actually sucked pretty hard, no matter how he spins it.
Europe
Ok, if there's one thing I don't understand about Europe, it's why they
can't seem to make a real double bed. Do they just not manufacture them
here? Every bloody hotel I've stayed at here has two twin beds smushed
together instead of a real double bed. Or do Europeans just like to be
more territorial about their slumber space?
Hint to Europeans: sleeping together is fun! You should try it.
Russia
As you may or may not know, I'm currently living in Russia. St. Petersburg
to be precise. I'm in the middle of a 2-month stay. It's been ok, although
the food here is not friendly to vegetarians. A lot of Pizza Hut
and cheese blinis for me.
Other fun facts:
- Russian people think MGD is really cool and drink it all the time.
- Coffee + muffin costs slightly less than $10USD (240 roubles)
- At some bars, an imported beer can cost as much as $20USD
- Every few days, a random dude shows up at my apartment and puts
groceries in the fridge. Seems to be a different guy every time.
- I am one of the better foosball players at the office. That's certainly
a first. Usually I'm the worst.
- To get a multi-entry visa, you need to be tested for HIV. Welcome to
Russia!
It's been interesting being here while the US election is going on. I've
watched the debates here and of course they always get to talking about
Russia in the sense of "gee what do we do about big bad Russia?" It's a
funny feeling when you're actually sitting here.
Vacation
I recently took a much-needed week off and went on vacation, to Prague,
Vienna, Venice and Bristol with slatepelican. A brief recap
follows.
Prague
I think this was my favourite stop. It was beautiful, the weather was
perfect, and we had such a good time. The first day we walked around a
lot, and rented a paddle-boat to go on the river. The second day we went
to see the castle and again did a lot of walking. Our hotel was nice, and
right on the river, and it was pretty affordable (though a far cry from
the heyday of 50 cent pints).
Some people I guess don't like Prague any more because they feel like
it's lost its feel and is now just like any other western European city.
I don't know, this was my first time there, so I can't compare its feel
to any previous time. It is a modern, clean, beautiful city, so sure in
that sense I guess you can say it's like other western European cities,
but it still has a lot of unique local history and culture to offer.
Vienna
To be frank, Vienna sucked. We were only there one night, so we didn't
have time to do it justice, but what we did see wasn't great.
Our hotel was pretty crummy, despite being quite expensive. The
"non-smoking" room reeked of smoke, there were no Internets, and it was
pretty run-down. It was supposedly a 4-star hotel. It seemed more like
a 2-star place, where for half the price I would have been fine with it.
Next stop, after our long train ride from Prague, was dinner. We
decided to break our veggie ways and try famous Wiener Schnitzel. I now
thoroughly believe that anyone who likes schnitzel is completely insane.
It was tasteless and tough. I'll take veggie duck over that any day,
thank you very much. A barely mediocre dinner for 2: 70 euro.
After dinner we walked around the city centre a bit, and it did look
pretty, but I have to say I liked Prague a lot more and Vienna had a
crazy sticker shock. I was happy enough to only be there one night.
Venice
Venice was very nice, and our hotel was pretty good except for the
last night when some kind of bed critters bit me something fierce.
We spent most of our time walking around and exploring and sampling
such popular Italian confections as gelato, cappuccino and espresso.
Ironically, I was unable to find coffee better than Gimme Coffee in NY. It was
a bit of a letdown. I definitely the like the Italian concept of
coffee bars though. You go in, order a coffee, and drink it immediately
at the counter. This saves the waste of take-out cups, and is possible
because coffees are smaller and stronger in Italy. Whereas your typical
Starfuckers cappuccino is a shot or two of espresso with half a litre
of milk, Italians do it right with a double-shot of espresso and maybe
250mL of milk. Also the milk isn't scorching hot so you can drink it
right away.
We also found a cool "beers of the world" bar with tons of good
Belgian beer. Sadly, they did not have anything from the fine province
of Québec.
Food in Venice was good overall, and much cheaper than Vienna. Christine
and I both like Italian food and are familiar with all the popular dishes.
My favourite meal was a pumpkin gnocchi served on a cheese shell. It was
delicious. Unfortunately at the same restaurant Christine tried a scallop
pasta (since Venice is on the sea, we thought they might have good seafood
worth breaking veggie for). They left the "boot" on the scallops, which
gave the whole dish a really strong fishy smell and flavour. I don't know
if that's common in Italy to serve scallops like that, but if it's been
a long time since you ate seafood, such a strong smell and flavour is
unwelcome.
Bristol
We've been to Bristol before as my sister, brother-in-law and neice
live there. It's a fine place, subject to all standard British
bullshit.
What bullshit, you ask? Just the inordinately high prices, things
that don't work and overly complicated everything. A fantastic quote
from one of my sister's friends:
I can't believe these people ever built a boat that didn't sink immediately,
let alone took over the world.
Indeed. Example of overly expensive anything: getting to Heathrow from
downtown London on public transit for 2 is as expensive as taking a
cab, at 50 pounds. Yes, 50 quid for taking public transit, with all
the different things you have to take to get to the airport. In NY
I think it clocks in at $12USD each or $24 total for the equivalent
($7 LIRR plus $5 AirTrain).
Example of overly complicated everything: try going anywhere within
Britain on a train. You will probably have to switch 3 times and
multiple companies with different kinds of tickets will be involved. Or
buy a tube ticket that's not an Oyster card and pay 3 times as much, you
know, because they couldn't just tell you to buy an Oyster card.
Example of things that don't work: try booking a train ticket
online. That turns out to be a bit too advanced for the UK. The
website happily tells you that it worked when in fact it did not
and the support people blithely say "oh yeah that happens sometimes;
anything else I can help you with?"
Every time I'm in England I can't help thinking of the movie Brazil.
Overly beaurocratic, things that barely work, and crushing indifference.
Of course I'm exaggerating. A bit :P No wonder they spend all their time
in the pub; it's the only thing that reliably works!
On Canadian Politics
Not sure if apenwarr's
post was directed at me or not, but I'll respond anyway.
Did Harper win? Yes, of course. I'm not disputing that. Did he do
well considering the circumstances? That, in my opinion, is where
there is some room for debate.
The Liberal leader was widely despised, meaning support for NDP
and Green and Conservative swelled at their expense. What that
should have meant, in my opinion, is that not only were more
people voting for Conservatives, but the people who weren't voting
for them were split among other parties even more so than usual. That
should have lowered the bar for Conservative candidates in terms of
the portion of the popular vote they needed in most ridings to win
the seat. All of that, in my opinion, really should have been enough
to be a "perfect storm" for a Conservative majority. The fact that
they didn't win a majority, given all of the advantages they had,
does reflect poorly on Harper. I believe a better, more charismatic
leader would have delivered a majority for the Conservatives.
apenwarr also says that it's unlikely Harper's legislation will get
blocked now, because it requires all 3 other parties to agree to
block it:
That means that realistically, this time they're going to be able to
pass whatever laws they want, except fantastically stupid ones. In
order to strike them down, you'd have to get the Liberals, the
Bloc Quebecois, and the NDP to all actually agree on something. Uh,
right. Good luck with that.
Actually, I think there are certain areas where this will happen,
and these are the areas where I'm most thankful that the Conservatives
don't have a majority: social issues. Where you will see Liberals, NDP
and Bloc agreeing generally are on things like banning abortion or
gay marriage or other religion-inspired legislation. Perhaps because
apenwarr wasn't in Alberta to witness the Reform and then Alliance
phenomenon, he may not be as worried about these issues as I am. But
believe me, the current Conservative party in many ways bears little
resemblance to the Progressive Conservative party of the past. Many
members of the Conservative party are really hard-core fundamentalists
who would love to pass such socially conservative legislation.
Finally, apenwarr says that we're better off now than we were previously
because there's no stalemate:
The reason is that we no longer have a stalemate. Because it's hard
but not impossible to outvote them, they'll be able to get actual
laws passed, which is (believe it or not) actually a useful thing
for government to do.
This is true, but I like to think of an election like a job interview,
where I am the interviewer and the parties are my candidates. I want
a government that is both smart and gets things done, the
gold standard for any job applicant. While we now have the latter, I
am far from convinced that we have the former.
