The End of the Rainiest Summer of Life.

This summer was by no means a write-off, it did have its perks.

I had a job for start, unlike many other people my age this year, thanks to our ass-dragging economy.

I had fun too.

Camping at Point Farms Prov. Park with my girlfriend, going to a camp I worked at for years to hang with some of my best chums, a couple days at the beach that came complete with a sweet sunburn that included a sunscreen-induced tan line hand print on my shoulder, and of course, many more beers and glasses of Scotch than Health Canada would ever approve of were consumed.

However, since my childhood, summers were spent mostly in Muskoka when I was really young, and more recently, from the age of about 11 until last summer, mostly on the shores of Lake Huron.

This summer, I spent that precious, quickly-fleeting beach time in an office on the 20th floor in downtown Toronto.

Now, I'm not looking for sympathy, we can't laze on the beach all summer, every summer, and I consider myself lucky for spending more time by the lake in my life than the average person.

It does seem though, that with the first day of school being tomorrow that nobody in Ontario really had a full summer to enjoy this year.

It hardly felt like it ever topped 20 degrees until the end of June, and even when it finally did, the whole month of July, the best month to drink ice cold beer in the sun, it rained every day and made everybody think it was March again, and nobody wanted to get out of bed.

Finally, August brought some sunshine, a thing Canadians cherish more than the Sahara Desert cherishes rain, because summer is ALWAYS way to short around here, and everybody got their boats to the lake, too late in the season and took the family camping when the ground was finally dry for the first time in two months.

It may seem like I'm whining, especially to those working stiffs that have spent every summer for the past 35 years locked away in a cubicle five or six days a week, and living on a steady diet of Tim Hortons and Player's King Size, however, I choose not to be one of those, yet at least, and I feel ripped off this year.

Ripped off that I didn't see a lake on more than 3 occasions. (Except Lake Ontario which would be better described as a chemical dump.)

Ripped off that I didn't get much of a tan this year for the first time in 6 or 7 summers.

Ripped off that I did menial labour in a plain white room with no paintings or pictures on the walls and was the only male in the office which comes with self-explanatory problems and annoyances.

I am not feeling sorry for myself. All of what I say is fact here.

I just wish we could drown the weather people on TV for being right in what they say for once, and start back in May again so I could at least have a decent tan.

I've never had a problem with drugs, I HAVE had problems with Eden.

BARACK OBAMA RAMA! MAMA, DALI LAMA, etc.

The election of Barack Obama is pretty fuckin' sweet. Nobody's complaining about the new handsome, cigarette-smokin, Black man in the Oval Office. For those of us under 25, for our entire youth we have seen nothing but absolute bullshit south of the border.
For what seems like eternity, old White guys like Dick Cheney, rich as hell from black Texas gold, who galavant around rural Texas with shotguns shooting their friends in the face when they mistake them for birds on hunting trips, have made all the most important political decisions in the Western hemisphere. It's high time for change.
A Black man in the White House. Sounds so much better than a White man in the White House.
Let's take time to think of what this means for the world. Especially African-Americans. Barack Obama has grabbed history by the balls and made his face as commonplace as Che or Chairman Mao.
Let's not forget that every time he opens his mouth he says everything every half-intelligent American has wanted to hear for the last 8 years of not seeing the truth in anything in America for all the pubic hair, or Bush, if you will.
For Canadians, this means Steve Harper's teacher, inspiration, and possible friend with benefits won't be around to direct the choir of destruction and lies those two have composed in North America lately.
Obama is likable, he is damn likable, it's really hard not to like a guy running for the most powerful position on the globe, who is honest enough to flat out say he smoked weed often when he was young. Even Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale, that might be because he was still out of breath from doing Monica all night.
Congratulations America, you just might get your reputation laid again at UN Conventions, for one reason. Land of the free, you have trimmed your huge dirty, dumbass, Bush. Let your balls be free!!!!

Some Thoughts on 'Citizen Journalism.'

Journalism, in the most basic definition of the word, is one of various mediums of exposing truth to a larger audience. The relatively new phenomenon of "citizen journalism", is the so-called journalistic activities of people who have no formal or conventional journalistic training or experience, and are known as "citizens".
The truth really is that the ability to think critically, write concisely, focus a story, and know a thing or two about CP style and proper grammar qualifies a person to write compelling journalism. Not so long along ago, journalists had maybe a high school education with a knack for writing and a sense of curiosity. They branded themselves "journalists" then. Even though now, people with just a high school diploma and high marks in English could never be considered for employment as a reporter at a reputable, mainstream newspaper, magazine, website, or television studio.
Sometime within the last 25 years or so, our collective definition of "journalist" has been equated with a post-secondary education in media studies, and the subsequent employment of these "qualified" individuals at respected news outlets. This view is severely restricted and is not at all in sync with the history of journalism, nor its current state.
Journalists are also scientists, medical doctors, historians, sociologists, psychologists, nutritionists, urban planners and about a billion other professionals. There is no way to clearly and definitely make a distinction between a journalist who writes stories and has educational qualifications in media studies, or a person with a Master's degree in political science who writes a column every week for the National Post. The person with a background in politics has obviously impressed someone enough at the newspaper to be given a weekly column to express ideas and arguments in writing, has an editor overseeing what is published, and therefore becomes a journalist through their actions. The person who shoots a picture with their cell phone and writes a story without any training or knowledge of journalistic ethics is also a journalist through their actions. The distinction should be made between quality, well-researched journalism, and people solely clowning around with a cell phone and a computer. Journalism written by journalists proper, can also be absolute crap, just like the story written by Joe Schmo with his cell phone and written opinions and information.
The only important, crucial and paramount distinction that must be made between journalism proper and citizen journalism is whether or not it provides an original, trustworthy, newsworthy, coverage of a story. The person's qualifications, experience, and education are secondary considerations. Good journalism has been produced by persons without formal instruction. Bad journalism has been produced by those who have had training in university level media studies programs. It is left up to each individual what they to choose to believe, and respect as journalism. In the age of a lightning-fast exchange of information, it is impossible to define journalism within the confines of much more than the ability to expose truth. What people do with the information they consume is their own business. There needs to be greater faith placed in the public's crap filter regarding the information they consume. Not everyone bases their opinions about issues on blogs written by persons lacking formal journalistic training. Not everyone believes everything they see on CBC's website or in The Toronto Star. And neither group is wrong or better informed.
Information should be a free exchange in democratic countries like Canada. There is only a distinction between compelling journalism and crappy journalism. People can make that choice for themselves, and if they can't then that does not mean journalism written by non-journalists is not worth anything. Anybody willing to write deserves to be heard. Nobody is obligated to believe something they think is false. So keep up the flow of information and ideas, and stop wasting time arguing over what constitutes a journalist.