The Arctic Blogger

I have been listening a little more closely recently to radio interviews with people from all walks of life, talking about all kinds of things. Some important, some essentially drivel.
Seems to me the majority have a few things in common –

• The use of the word “so” to start a statement;
• The use of the phrase “yeah, no” as the person being interviewed thinks about their answer;
• There are a lot of people who just like to hear the sound of their own voices;
• People will spout off about just about anything, even if they clearly have no idea what they are talking about;
• People don’t care what effect their suggestions will have on other people, so long as it is implemented to their own benefit;
• If there is a big, long, or obscure word that can be used instead of a nice short word, guess which one will be used.

I have also noticed that some people talk very very very fast.
Many people do not enunciate – leaving many letters unuttered – especially d’s, t’s, n’s and ng’s (as in “comin’ up next”).

This may be anecdotal, but it seems like the less someone knows about something, the more they tend to say about it, and the faster they tend to talk.

Sometimes, being deliberate about your speech is a good idea.
Of course, there will be people who will immediately comment that I should consider the same about my writing.
For those people, I would refer you back to the first post in this blog – the Welcome In post — if you don’t like what you are reading, don’t read it.

Here in the North, we have a set of liquor laws that are, plain and simply, draconian.
As an example, a person who is not a server at a bar is allowed to have a maximum of 2 beverages in their possession at any time.
This includes bringing a round of drinks back to their table. So if you have 4 people at your table and you want to buy a round of drinks, you have to take someone else up to the bar with you, because you are only allowed to carry two back to the table at a time.
How stupid is that.

Another one of the weird things is that a bar can only be open on 10 Sundays a year, unless they also serve food, unless there is a local by-law in place allowing more or less Sunday openings.
One of our local drinking establishments – The Mad Trapper – asked the town council about a year ago to be allowed to open on Sundays. This would serve the tourist market and increase patronage at his establishment, so he might actually be able to make some money and keep operating.
After vehement intervention by a couple of religious groups, the town council voted against the proposal, despite The Trapper being one of the few places in town that serves alcohol.

I thought the purpose of a municipal government was to encourage and promote their community and plan for its’ growth.

I think one of the best descriptions I have heard of Inuvik is that we are “a town living in the past, with no plan for the future”.
People in this town (and incidentally the Government of the Northwest Territories – but that’s another LONG post I haven’t written yet) seem to spend the bulk of their time wishing things were just like they used to be.

As far as “over regulation”, which is what this post started off being about … If I want to build a shed to store some of the stuff I have accumulated, if it is larger than 100 square feet (10m²), or more than about 10 feet (3 meters) high, I need a permit. The same goes for installing a deck more than 0.6 m (about 2 feet) above the ground.
I wouldn’t have a big problem with this if the town included an inspection of the construction in the fee you pay. But as far as I can tell, there isn’t even a “building inspector” employed by the town.

Okay, so the permit isn’t expensive  – $50 for up to $10,000 of work, and $5 per $1000 after that, but in reality, what do we get for that fee? A piece of paper we have to display saying we have given the town money so we can hang the piece of paper on the building site.

I saw an interesting post (probably on facebook) about regulation. It was a simple question – “When is the last time you did something that wasn’t controlled, regulated, taxed or otherwise overseen in some way by any level of government?”

Good question, that I think we need to ask ourselves more often.

The first thing I wanted to do was to promote another blog.

Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher in Star Trek, and starred in the movie Stand By Me (Gordie Lachance). He has most recently kept his hand in the game with guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory, playing himself.
He is also a voice actor and a writer.
In fact, I believe he is an excellent writer who should think about giving up his acting career (but that’s just me).
For an excellent example of his writing, just read his blog, and especially his recent post “The Glint of Light on Broken Glass” at http://wilwheaton.net/2017/01/the-glint-of-light-on-broken-glass/

Feel free, of course, to go back and read his other posts. Some are obviously better than others, but overall, I really like his style of writing and the content ain’t bad either.

Enjoy the read.

Welcome to the Arctic Blogger. I will attempt to post infrequently about whatever is on my mind at the time.

These “stream of consciousness” posts are likely to include rants and raves (primarily rants) about just about anything under the sun.
Some will be funny (I hope), some will show you just how apparently nuts I am, and some will just be out and out bitchiness – just because I can.

I have heard about bloggers getting threats, including death threats, following a post. But I know all you faithful readers (all 6 3 of you, probably) are above that.
If you want to comment, please feel free to do so, but know that I will report to the appropriate authorities any inappropriate comments or posts.

If you don’t like what you read – you have a couple of choices — a) Try to rebut the post with intelligent arguments; or b) Mutter to yourself about what an idiot I am and stop reading the blog.

Remember – you CHOSE to read this thing – You can CHOOSE NOT to read it and get on with your life.

With that all said and done, let’s get onto the first rant or rave.