A Conversation That Sums Up The Past Few Days

Here’s how an imaginary conversation about this week could go:

“Hey – how’s it going?”
“Fairly good, thanks. How about yourself?”
“Good, thanks. What have you been up to lately?”
“Ruining lives & crushing dreams.”
“Oh. How’s that been going?”
“Great, other than the whole ‘destroying the hopes of others’ part.”



On a semi-related note, I wonder what kind of Google ads will result from the terms ‘ruining lives’, ‘crushing dreams’, and/or 'destroying hope'.

Hard Core Biker Luggage

Some photos of people carrying large & unusual loads while driving motorcycles or scooters.

Phallic Logo Awards

Exactly as the title says, the Phallic Logo Awards.

A New Approach To Safety – Let’s Distract Drivers At High Speeds!

Apparently October is Zero Crash Month in Whistler. I discovered this as I was driving along the highway at high speed, while trying to read a small sign on the side of the road encouraging drivers to be safer. Promoting driver safety is unquestionably a good idea. Promoting driver safety by distracting drivers isn’t nearly as good of an idea.

The worst part is that this isn’t the only recent local example. Throughout a massive road construction site to the south of town are a few other signs promoting something or other safety-related. They’ve placed 3 or 4 signs at various locations throughout the lengthy construction zone, which is a good thing because it’s hard to read what exactly the banners say as you drive past them at highway speed. Despite all the signs they’ve put beside the road for me to read, I’m still not sure whether they’re trying to encourage drivers or construction workers to be safe.

I’m waiting for the sign on the side of the road reminding drivers to focus on the road in front of them and to not get distracted. That will be the icing on the cake.

Cigarette Warning Labels

Are you a smoker? If so, the government is probably laughing at you right now. Although the government probably hates everybody, they seem to especially enjoy tormenting smokers.

Here’s a quick recap of the Canadian government’s actions towards smokers:
- Have cigarette manufacturers put mandatory warning labels on all packs
- Increase the price with extra taxes, surcharges, shipping & handling fees, etc.
- Increase the size of the warning labels
- Increase the price proportionate to the size of the new warning labels
- Add some disgusting pictures (lung cancer, ugly smoke-caused mouths, etc) to the front of cigarette packaging
- Increase the price of cigarettes

During all this time, what have smokers done? They’ve continued to smoke. After all if they weren’t smoking, they wouldn’t be smokers. Smokers are hooked on cigarettes. Smokers know it, non-smokers know it, & the government knows. Maybe the government is concerned about the health of smokers, but probably not. They aren’t really concerned with much, other than getting re-elected.

In addition to adding the disturbing images to the warning labels, the warnings themselves have evolved. They’ve progressed from warnings along the lines of ‘smoking causes cancer’ & ‘cigarettes are addictive’ to ‘tobacco may make you impotent’ & ‘each year, the equivalent of a small city dies from tobacco use’.

Here are some proposed designs I’ve come up with if the government is looking for new warning labels: