Double trouble.

I know it's hard to imagine, but yes, there IS something even more reprehensible than a puka-shell necklace.
Two of them.
Where this dude gets off, who knows. But the moment these jagged little memoirs of Puerto Vallarta snap from round his neck, a better place the world will be.

Where are the atheists?

Are there really NONE here?

Just a mid-Ramadan reflection. Stoking the fires of my atheist mind.

On subservience, really. Because it seems as though that's what all of this pious rankling and restraint is all about, n'est pas?
Are we done, yet, with world religions that demand human beings to grovel, to, in my eyes, belittle themselves for the sake of some mysterious, mythical man? It kinda feels like people here are often living in fear, fear of effing up in some utterly reprehensible way that will make them seem somehow less grateful to the one and only God the good.

But it's not only God so many seem to fear. He has his minions, usually concentrated most potently in one's own family, who seem quick to judge and even quicker to condemn any blasphemous act that might stray from some ancient, and by definition, outdated, interpretation of a holy book.

Think, people, for yourselves! And then come back to the notion of religion once you've taken stock of what it really offers. Tradition? At the expense of progressive human rights, equality and an ever-curious mind? People the world over can't seem to get this straight.

Talk about peer pressure. From every conceivable angle. How can one decide for oneself? Isn't there great value in choosing one's faith?

Montreal at its best. LOVE!

Abu Dhabi could really do with this videographer's magic. Actually, so could anywhere.
The city effing SPARKLES!

Barcelona blowout.

The city swept me off my friggin' feet.
And the parties, the friends, and the frivolity of it all won't soon be forgotten.
Love all you girls who made my week what it was, and love all those who don't even know how fierce you are.
T'was a fabulous week in the Cataluñan sun I'll never forget!

Whoa. Try breathing in this:

Just a little slice of life over here.
Driving back from shopping in Dubai this evening was like driving in pea-soup fog. But that's dirt in the air, not vapour. Stirred up and blasted over here by a storm hundreds of km away over the deserts of IRAQ.

Visibility: 600metres.
Shiny black car = dull beige car
Sitting anywhere outdoors will give you a beige ass

Check out The National story here:
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090802/NATIONAL/908019982/1010

Official warning: "The National Centre for Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS) has issued a warning of low visibility in the country, particularly in Western parts, due to dust and sand. It has also warned asthma patients to avoid exposure to dust."

Bonus? The humidity's gone. Completely! No sweat!

www.vancouverisawesome.com = RAD

Yeah I know I haven't lived in Lotusland (do people still call it that?) in what, almost three years. But I've gotta give credit where credit is due, and this site rocks. I mean, new Skytrain video! From Waterfront to YVR! Maybe I've just been outta town too long and am the last to peek underground.

But really, the blog kills in both content and, especially, design. And kills my blog attmept (obvi). Check it out - it's got stellar stuff like this:

Uncanny? Unnerving!

Gotta hand it to The Daily Mail for their oh-so-enlightened comparison. While she's not quite at the skinned cadaver stage yet, those arms could do with a serious break! We still love her though, right?

This US health crap is MENTAL. Watch:

When did the mudslinging officially begin? I know I've been sequestered in the Middle East for nearly a year now, but even under a watchful Obameye, has the United States really come to think that universal health care is some threatening bile-spewing demon in urgent and immediate need of exorcism!? Since when did looking after citzens become a polarizing political minefield? No other country in the West looks after the health of its citizens as poorly as the richest country on Earth. How, please anyone explain, could it possibly be advisable, nevermind popular, to continue to leave tens of millions at risk?
It's not going to bankrupt the country.
Only unwinnable wars can do that.

Still so good. Watch.

I posted this tear-jerker of a video ages ago to an awkward-to-use "video bar" that I've since ditched from this little blog. So here it is again, up top for all to see, until I bury it with in a heap of far less worthwhile posts.

Time's up?

Who would YOU pick?

I mean, come on.

Home is where the.... WHAT is?

Canada Day. Watched the fireworks on Vancouver's Burrard Inlet, sunset, twinkling Lion's Gate Bridge and stunning mountain slopes in the background. This place is mental, and maybe actually in a good way.

Sure it's small, but there are a lot of good people here and maybe even a few decent opportunities.
But after being gone from my west coast childhood home for nearly three years, I've for the first time been confronted with the fact that it's starting to feel like a foreign place. Sure the streets are the same, the mountains lofty and familiar and the ocean gleaming– but my social life here has taken a serious hit.

But like, what was I expecting? I haven't been around in what the Gays would call eons... just two months shy of three years. And each time I come back, I call one or two fewer people. And that kinda freaks me out. I mean, it's not just that I've fallen out of touch with some old standbys... a lot of people have picked up and left, leaving some voids in what would have been ample couches to sleep on and partners in crime to drag to the bar.
But the bigger part of the picture is that the same thing could happen to my life in Toronto, the one I carved out in just two little years. It's tough starting from scratch and I've now done it four times if my year in Australia counts. Meeting a whole crop of people on which you come to rely and trust isn't a snap, but I've been lucky enough to have managed in each new place I've flung myslef, including my latest desert home, Abu Dhabi.
But I mean, c'mon. There's a limit to how many times one can set up shop, especially if one wants to have a group of close and loyal friends. And right now I feel like I'm maxed out.

Think I'm spreading myself too thin.

I've got amazing friends in three different cities, but I think it's time to cool it and focus on the people I have, and fuck trying to take anyone else in.
Just my thoughts. But I miss Vancouver. It's a fucking incredible place. And I've got incredible memories of it.

Launchpad ready

Well it's down till one day – the months of anticipation will culminate in two weeks of insane fun through the UAE, Egypt, London and Ireland with some of the best guys in the world. One more sleep till holidays! I'm sure I'll post a crapload of crazy, and perhaps gory bits, so I'll spare the details now. But check out the new video bar I posted on the right side of the blog, especially the video at the bottom of it. It's fantastic, and had me beaming as I watched in twice in a row. What a brilliant message.

I bet you think this song is about you...

I'm kinda embarrassed. This stream of consciousness has but a measly three followers.
Ugh, the vanity of this format of expression is truly, reprehensibly wretched.

GazAHH!

I'm sand(hah!)wiched between a dune and a hard place when considering the Gaza situation from my Arabian perch.
But what I've realised is really most shocking is the INCREDIBLE, everpresent and all-important reach of American policy and the economic and political pull that the nation has on the prosperous countries of the Gulf. At every turn, Gulf leaders condemn the atrocities commited by Israel against their Arab Palestinian 'brothers', but at the same time officially do absolutely nothing militarily and turn a blind eye politically to the current 'war' for fear of upstetting their all important-but-ideoligical-enemy-when convenient western 'allies'. It's bizzare. Why aren't the Saudi Royals striking back at Israel in Palestine's defence? Politics! And money! That's why.
Living here really puts in to perspective what the West considers the 'right' of Israel to defend its contrived homeland. Countries shouldn't be based on faith, and on land supposedly given by God, of whichever religious stripe! That's an archaic recipe for strife and war.
The reality is, if Israel and people of Jewish faith didn't have so much pull, and weren't seen as closer to Christian western ideals compared to downtrodden, demonised Muslims, the Jewish state would already be blown to pulvarised bits by combined forces of the Christian west.
These are just my ramblings. But this Gaza conflict crystalises the inseperable ties of allegiances, politics and faith in war policy.
Disgusting.
Sort your shit out, Jeruselem! Of all faiths!

The silencing power of unabashed, lucky wealth

It's writer's block... blogstyle. Weird. I tried to open this website with the intention of writing something thought-provoking and, perhaps, indulgent, but the reality, unfortunately, might be a forced, premeditated entry.
It spat today a few drips. First since mid December in Abu Dhabi, and perhaps the last until next November. What an inhospitable, barren, desolate place.
Emphatically marked by the harsh unfair and incongruous reality that is
OIL.
It's a place that no modern civilisation should ever wish their folk to desperately hunker down upon what with the withering heat and complete lack of water and natural greenery... but for a few lucky Bedouin families.... the black gold struck rich, and the rest, is history.
Royals? Well, that opens up a whole (censored!! and unuttered!!!!!!) kettle of Hamour...
But the second reality on this note is... that all it seems to have taken, 60 years ago or more, to become a Royal in this scorching Bedouin land cum British protectorate cum flourishing country was business sense. And now, the entire sheikhdom is ruled by, essentially, the descendants of what was the most business-wise Bedouin family of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
An incredible (and I mean that in the true, IN-credible [ie not credible] sense of the word) feat.
But with an emphatic 'however', they now act as God-given rulers over this sandy land of opportunity. It would seem quite a slap in the face to democracy. And quite a challenge for a Westerner, sculpted from birth to cherish my vote and my voice as a type of God-given right of my own, to accept. Nevermind appreciate.
But then, why would any Emirati, the only ethnic brand in this land who have any true relevance (not voice... you need democracy for that, methinks), and the only type of folk who, enshrined in law, will ever be regarded as citizens of this crane-covered Moonscape, ever, EVER, complain of or to an absolute ruling and archaic Government when their every qualm has, thus far, been silenced by the slick, viscous, choking and gob-stopping effect of the all-for-naught wealth gushing forth in the nation-building form of Gulf desert crude?

It kinda makes me sick. And, quite literally, rich.
And actually, I do love it here.

Personhood

Slowly becoming a real person here.
I've got my residence visa.
A car – rental, but at least I can go when and where I want.
My very own business cards!
And am in the process of getting my UAE driving and liquor licences.
The place is starting to grow on me, methinks.