RA's blog

So that's it. My 31 days of self-deprivation have passed. After my early withdrawals and later bouts of craving for caffeine and alcohol, the giving-up didn't seem so hard. I managed to reason away the never-distant cravings, but what really helped was that I realised that I actually quite like the sense of equilibrium that my period of drying out has brought me.

I'm not one for New Year's resolution, but for some time I've been thinking about what it would be like to cut off my daily dose of stimulants and intoxicants i.e. caffeine, booze, and sugar.

I've been consuming these, in various shapes and forms, on a daily basis for most of my adult life (and - booze excepted - in smaller quantities for most of my life).

Six youths had their accreditation to the Durban Climate Conference (COP17) revoked after turning their backs on Environment Minister (slight misnomer here) Peter Kent.

The action, however, reportedly earned greater applause from the other delegates than Peter Kent did in his speech. Not surprising, since the Conservative government has reportedly said it plans on pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol.

Naomi Klein talks about the issues behind the Occupy movement.

Sounds like the fight against the Northern Gateway Pipeline in BC and expansion of Vancouver as "the fossil fuel gateway" of North America (12:40) is the fight of a generation.

While I generally try to maintain a professional equanimity in any of my blogging and vlogging, it's been quite difficult during this last Vancouver municipal election campaign given the low level of tactics that the NPA, incumbent party Vision's main opposition, has resorted to in its bid to win votes. This is the party that has given us exemplary local councillors Peter Ladner and Gordon Price in the past, but the NPA campaign this time around didn't shed much light on the talents of their latest crop of candidates.