Big Bottle O' Pee

The worst thing about collecting a 24 hour urine sample is that you can't leave the house for very long.

YOU: Whatcha got in the bag?

ME: Oh, nothing, just 2 litres or so of cold, frothy piss. Mind if I put in in your fridge for an hour or two until I have to go again?

YOU: No problem, as long as I can still get at my 8-pack. Maybe I'll call some ladies and we'll have a party.

Fucking nephropathy. In the next life, I want to come back as a powerful cyborg, or maybe a nematode.

(Image from Land Line Media Blog)

Clean Air for Kids Campaign

Today is International Pipe Smoking Day, and I'd like to take a moment to discuss the Clean Air for Kids campaign. This is an initiative by the Lung Association of Canada, the aim of which is to make it illegal for people to smoke in cars when there are children present. This Canada-wide campaign is advertised on television all the time here in New Brunswick, and, I assume, elsewhere in Canada as well. The basic idea is that smoking in a car when children are present would become an offense punishable by a ticket and a fine.

I think this is a terrible idea. This is not to say that parents should be "free to choose" whether they want to expose their children to such hazards. On the contrary, they should be prevented from doing so by the filial bond , which is the strongest, oldest, and most culturally universal of all constraints on human behaviour. As far as the state is concerned, however, people not in public employ should be allowed to chain smoke all day in a car full of kids, puppies and emphysema victims if they want to. Protecting children from lung diseases caused by tobacco smoke is primarily a job for parents or other adults into whose care they have entrusted their children, and secondarily for education and the moral pressure of public opinion--never, in any case, for armed police, who should have better things to do with their time.

I'm proud to be a Canadian, and I support my country's decision to provide universal basic health care for its citizens, but this does not make my children wards of the state. If civil society can't be left to its own devices in relatively minor matters of conscience (after all, it's not like smokers are butting their cigarettes out in kids' eyes), then how can it be trusted with the task of democratic self-government?

Smoking Pot Causes Early, Serious Lung Disease

According to an article at Science Daily, a paper published in the January 2008 issue of Respirology claims that marijuana smokers incur lung damage at a faster rate than do tobacco smokers. The study, titled "Bullous Lung Disease due to Marijuana," found that the mean age for marijuana smokers to develop billous lung disease (a condition whereby air becomes trapped in the lungs and causes breath blockage and destruction of lung tissue) was 41, compared to 65 years of age for cigarette smokers.

I'm not saying smoking weed is right or wrong--sitting on the couch, eating a bag of chips and going to bed early is probably healthier than sticking a needle in your arm or getting curb-stomped down at the local watering hole because you were dancing with Leroy's girl, and it seems fair to say that pot smokers rarely wake up in jail or the hospital. But still, who wants to be a 41 year old with a debilitating lung disease?

I Can't Even Beat Up a 17 Year Old Kid

Boxing is hard. I fought a high school student yesterday who I probably outweighed by a good 80-100 pounds, and I landed 2 (wussy) punches on him in 3 minutes. This was as long as I could go before being reduced to a ragged, gasping, sweaty mess. The other guy had been in the ring all night, but he's been boxing for a lot longer than I have.

It's good to get some exercise. I'm sure the 10 years of heavy boozing, smoking, and other toxic foolishness that I have only recently (and imperfectly) put behind me will catch up to me sooner or later. My intent is not to "save myself" by becoming a fitness nut, but rather to try to enjoy my residence in my body while I still can.

I used to think that I hated sports, but now I wonder if I just had a bad attitude. Misfit sports, like boxing at Bob Edgett's Boys' Club in Sackville, can be a lot of fun.

I wonder if jocks get together for misfit reading groups (my guess is they don't).

(Image from blog.simslearningconnections.com )

I'm a Liar

For the time being, I've given up flour, refined sugar, booze, coffee, tobacco, yeast, vinegar, tropical fruit and just about everything else fun (except sex--I gave that up when I got married ha ha). However, I just can't seem to stay away from the Internet. Ah well. I'm only a man, after all. Life gets cleaner and simpler one step at a time.

Happy New Year, Detox, etc.

The black hole in my blog over the holiday period represents me enjoying Meatworld as God intended and avoiding the Immateria (mostly because I was stuck with dial up half the time). I intend to continue this trend for a little while.

I will be doing a ritual cleanse for the next three weeks to a month or so. The herbal detoxification kit only takes 12 days to complete, but I intend to abstain from toxic treats and nonessential media until at least February 1st. During this time, I intend to stretch, exercise, and read J.T. Fraser's Time as Conflict and Fred Turner's Shakespeare's 20th Century Economics. I'm thinking about starting a new blog for reading responses, but if I do it will be in February.

Until that time, thanks for reading, every/anyone, and I hope the new year finds you well.