Tarsand VS. BP Oil Spill, take a moment & think

A town in Washington state has recently passed a bylaw to reduced their fossil fuel consumption in their municipal vehicles. Normally I think that this is a wonderful idea, and I still think it is. It is great when a municipality, city, or what have you takes a environmental stand to help the Earth.

But the reason for this one is somewhat interesting to me and a little shall we say… ironic.

Keep in middle that on the east coast of the United State there is a British Petroleum platform spewing thousands and thousands of barrels of oil into the ocean a day for the past fifty plus days. This whole circumstance started with an explosion that killed 11 people on the platform. Devastation in the Ocean ecology destroy habitats of sea life, polluting miles and miles of beaches. Much worse then the Exxon Valdes (spelling?) spill. I could go on but just know that the BP platform accident is a huge disaster, both environmentally, economically, and a sad loose of human life.

Back to Washington state town now. The reason for the vote in reduction is because in the last couple of years the town has been getting a great deal of their oil supply from the tarsands in Northern Alberta. They believe that the current process of extracting the oil from the tarsands is not “environmentally sound”. They feel the tarsands project does not have enough checks and balances to ensure that it is do safely and ethically for both workers and the environment.

Let us review – whose nation has a massive oil leak polluting the environment around it? Whose nation’s lack of strict safety standards and ethical practices had an explosion while they were capturing the oil, killing 11 people?

Just a little strange to me, Washington please do not forget what is happening on your other coast.

What's in a Name? I AM!

It is driving me nuts! I know that things like that should not be a big deal but it is because the name they are using is not I. My name is spelled incorrectly on all my outgoing e-mail. Now the income mail are being address to someone else (that how I feel anyway). It is not like have had a hard name to spell either, just so you know. COLIN just one L.

About a week ago a co-worker notice that my name was spelt wrong in the e-mail signature. We do not set up our on signatures and when we send e-mail it is added as soon as we hit send, so I could not even see it spelt wrong myself. She noticed it and e-mailed our IT guy so that I could be change. We specified that my name only has one L in it not two and that it was only wrong in the signature that was added after the fact.

The next day at work I thought I would check to see if it had change. Well something did change, but not for the right. Now in the internal global mailing list my name was spelled with two L’s, so no everything was more wrong (terrible grammar I know). I e mailed the IT guy and let him know again that my name was spelt incorrectly on the signature and now the global mailing list.

He called me the next day to check in (his name is Perry). He said it would be really hard to change. He said it like he wanted me to be, “oh really then don’t worry about it.” Instead I was like, “OK then when are you going to have this done. He asked if it was a really big deal. I said, “Well Percy it is not my name with two L’s.” not sure if he did not hear or just ignored the comment but he said he would check into it over the week end.

Now we are back at Monday morning with 19 new e-mail in my inbox. I checked every signal e-mail was address to the wrong name, the double L name (who I am not). I checked in the mailing list and in the signature and nothing was do at all. Back to the SLOW computer stuff I guess all over again. How many days before I am who I am? I will just e mail Percy (or do I mean Perry who know if I call him the wrong name maybe he will understand) and REMIND him again.

My Civic is TOO BIG! What?!?

Being from a small town where most people including my family have at least one large vehicle (like a truck or massive SUV) were it was used on the farm for a work vehicle. I am used to driving big vehicles. I learn how to drive in a Suburban. Great way to learn how to parallel park let me tell you. I currently dive a small ish (not tiny) two door Pontiac.
In the city it seems that many (not all) people have only driven cars, tiny cars, like the Civics, Focus, Mini’s and such. Compacts and sub compacts cars. They tend to have a false sense of the size and proportions of their cars.
I went to a movie last night and circle the parking lot for some time trying to find a close parking spot. I was being lazy and blamed it on the fact that I worked out SO HARD that day that my legs needed the time to rest and regenerate.
I notice that there was a car loading and getting ready to leave the stall. I pulled to the side and waited. A blue Civic came round the corner and stopped. She noticed that I was waiting for the stall and contained driving on. The she stopped! She gave me a dirty look and shook her head. I was like what is going on?
She rolled down her window and said she did not have enough room to pass me in the lane.
SERIOUSLY!
There was 2 meters on either side of her car, and you cannot get past me. Then you should not be driving! I could have driven a Hummer or really a war tank in the space that she could not drive her Civic. Come on! You have among the smallest cars in the industry and you do not know how to big it is. Just to me sure you understand how much room the car had on either side of us. An Airbus A380 landed and taxied between my car and her car while she waited for me to move. So I did not move. I did not want to lose my prime parking space.
Lesson for any vehicle you dive know the dimensions. Civics are not that big. Sure in traffic they can move, but you cannot expect a tree or rock to move out of you way if the need arises.