Shit, that explains a lot

So among many other things I'm working on a seminar presentation on opiate toxicity. In your travels when you do these things you often have to start by wading balls deep through the the sticky, stinky swamp that is the sespool of pop culture. If you have your hip waders on (and a pair of goggles and a snorkel in case you go in too deep) you can look around and enjoy yourself as you squelch your way through. If you keep your eyes open you might see something like this, which makes the whole thing worth it.

It was on a website called NAIDA for teens. NAIDA is an authority on drug addiction and relapse, my area of research. I had to laugh at this though. It was in the middle of a page on opiate mechanisms of action. There was no preface, warning, waiver, disclaimer, explanation or justification. Just this priceless poster. Imagine you got paid to think that up and make it? How much do you want to bet the artist drafted it all with Sharpies? I'd like to think he did, cause it would certainly prove his point.



This is the first posted picture not taken by me or someone I know in a long time. I guess it really affected me.

In other news, I think I really flustered some dude last night, which is making me giggle right now just thinking about it. Project serve is going on over this reading week, and there are some Calgarians in Guelph, two of which (Zahid and Mohammad) are staying over at our place. There's about 30 Project Servers in town, and the other night they were all over at our place making pizzas and so forth (we had a little buffet assembly line type thing going for dinner). They're a cool crowd, and the Guelphite portion of them will likely keep partying with us after this point. So last night they all went to the Cornerstone, and Franks and I decided to crash the party after having some drinks at her place. . . well I had some drinks, Franks decided G&T's were cramping her style at the moment, which is cool. So I got there and no one was drinking, and seeing as how I was four in I thought I'd buy Pieper a drink. Cashless I booted it up the street to BMO, and as I was jogging back I saw this guy having a smoke outside one of the bars look over at this other dude and say "Hey, you're looking handsome tonight!" The guy was like "Thanks!" And I could see in the other guys eyes that he wasn't really talking to that guy. At this point I was lateral with him and the guy looks at me and goes "Oh sorry, I thought you were my friend Steve." Without skipping a beat I was like "No man, but I could be your friend Marcus if that's cool." He laughed nervously and said alright, though he was probably glad I didn't stop jogging. Maybe it was the green mardis gras beads, who knows, but a compliment is a compliment! I hope that guy was comfortable with his sexuality, cause if not that could eat away at him for weeks. . .

Anyway back at the cornerstone my friend Richard Laviolette was playing. He wrote some amazing solo stuff. I appreciate how hard it is to write stuff that is slower and make it interesting, which he does. Part of it is his really unique voice. The I bought his CD last night, the second I've bought since I discovered Napster back in OAC. He thought that was kind of a big deal, and I think he is right. This is Richard and Jenn (a project server and friend of Frankie, Derek and Lindsay). Jenn and I got our CD's signed. Richard made the covers himself, which are pretty bad ass, he sewed them. He signed it "Love me tenderly"

You got it Richard.

So the Cornerstone was

kind of an interesting joint. I may hang out there again. The crowd was earthy crunchy, but not with too much granola. You know, tree huggers that don't just hug trees, they live in the woods. My kinds crowd. On Friday we plan to play Drink Like a Marine. I will maybe post the rules for this game some time if I'm bored. It's easy. You watch the movie "The Marine" (worst piece of shit ever made) you laugh, and you drink when stuff happens. Like suplexes, choke slams, explosions, smashing glass, gunshots, plot twists that don't make sense, and general violations of physics. Frankie you better develop a taste for those G&T's real quick.

Until next time, keep your stick on the ice and don't sniff markers. Not even the smelly ones, those deceptive works of the devil, they'll kill you.