Big Al!  Save my life.  I thought I’d never get out of Peachland with the sunset and all.  Or at least to the hostel in time for check in.  Big Al had a smooth, relaxing voice that raised in pitch mid sentence making a calming tone.  The door handles inside where missing and the wind whistled past the door crack the whole ride which I didn’t bother fixing.  He knew the guy working at the hostel that night and actually had travelled to Victoria with him.  I think I’ll live in Victoria instead of Vancouver.  I got the member discount for coming with Big Al.  Cool Shit!

1)This town is burning down

now exit as directed

Made a sound when it hit the ground

though the damage was deceptive

The people flee in anarchy

there seems to be no sanity

Lets get these stubborn souls some safety quickly

2) Surprised to find

the fine line

between the hippies

and the hustlers

By Trevor Bacque

Athlete of the decade, Tiger Woods

There is no doubt as to which individual took charge, outperformed and utterly dominated the 2000s athletically.

Eldrick “Tiger” Woods was the cream of the athletic crop for the last decade.

Many other athletes deserve honourable mention and it took a while but I have pared the list to two. Honourable mention goes to tennis superstar Roger Federer and Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

Federer broke Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles by winning 15 this past year. He also did so in half the time Sampras took to accomplish the feat. En route to his 15 major titles and career slam he managed be ranked No. 1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks during the 2000s. Spaniard Rafael Nadal snatched the ranking away for fourty weeks but Federer has since reclaimed top spot.

From 2004 to 2006 Federer compiled a 247-15 record and collected 34 titles during that stretch. Strong play allowed him to hold spots one and two on the list of most consecutive victories against top 10 opponents with 26 and 17. The Swiss maestro also holds the record for most finals won in succession, 24. He is the only tennis player ever to win five straight major titles at two different events – Wimbledon 2003-2007 and the U.S. Open 2004-2008. His 61 ATP tour titles place him 6^th on the all-time list, currently one behind Guillermo Vilas.

Peyton Manning has been the definition of both consistent and impressive in the 2000s. Since 2000 he has thrown 314 touchdowns. Nine of his 10 years have been 4,000+ yards. The quarterback has started every game so far since the decade began. Manning is one of two NFL players to have won three MVP awards, Bret Favre being the other. The Colts were led to their first Super Bowl by Manning.

The 33-year-old also holds over 25 NFL records including highest quarterback rating for a single season at 121.1 in 2004 and most consecutive seasons with 25+ touchdown passes at 12 and counting. As of week 14 in the 2010 NFL season, Manning has the record for most wins in a decade, the 2000s, 115. With no signs of slowing down, Manning is on pace to break all records possible, most of which are held by Favre.

And then there was Tiger Woods.

Although his dominance began in the late 1990s, nobody will question it was the 2000s that were the kindest to Woods.

Bursting onto the golf scene in 1997, Woods instantly captured audience’s attention with his fairly enthusiastic, comparatively, celebrations and ability to “flip the switch” that so many athletes have trained themselves to do when it counts most.

The 2000s began with what I consider to be the No. 1 or No. 1.a. performance in Woods’ illustrious career.

Pebble Beach, the site of the 2000 U.S. Open Golf Championship, was a special June weekend for many reasons. In those four days Woods vaulted himself to a new stratosphere come Sunday afternoon. Horrible weather dogged the competition and sports writers and broadcasters figured the victor would be crowned on who performed least badly.

After Thursday he was leading Miguel Ángel Jiménez by one stroke, -6 to -5. The next day Woods made one of his hallowed shots. It was an approach on 6 where he made people wish they had PVR. The 24-year-old drilled his second shot out of the rough, over the ocean and stuck it within about 14 feet of the hole. It was utter magic. From there, it was a bit of a formality for Woods. He won the tournament by 15 strokes, breaking the previous record by two strokes set by Tom Morris in 1862 for largest margin of victory. Those 15 strokes still stand as a record for any major tournament.

This was the third major championship for Woods and it pushed him into top spot in PGA history as the tour’s all-time money leader. “The greatest performance in golf history,” was the statement Sports Illustrated posited on their issue following the heroics.

Woods’ No. 1.a. performance came at the U.S. Open yet again, this time in 2008. Torrey Pines was the site of another masterful display of golf’s greatest. What nobody realized is that Woods played with a double stress fracture in his left tibia during the tournament, essentially a broken leg. Everyone else played on two working legs.

Journeyman Rocco Mediate churned out solid golf for four days, causing a playoff between he and Woods. In the U.S. Open, a sudden death playoff is not a single hole but another 18 holes. The two both finished their fifth round with a 71, still tied. Woods’ sterling 10-1 sudden death record shone brightest when needed. During the 18-hole playoff both men played hole 7 where Woods managed a par but Mediate bogeyed. The 19^th play off hole, also 7, was no different. Woods shot a four, Mediate a five. The win gave Woods three U.S. Open Championship victories. Two days after the win he announced he would undergo surgery on his ACL and missed the remainder of the season. Ratings also went down 46.8 per cent according to Nielsen during Woods’ time off. Coincidence?

The first year of the decade may have been Woods’ best. He won three of four majors and finished fifth at The Masters, a title he won for the first time in 1997 and three subsequent times.

With 13 major titles won in the 2000s and had six runner-ups, nobody, with the exceptions of Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh, can remotely touch Woods.

Only Jack Nicklaus has something to brag about. His 18 major titles still reigns above Woods who currently has 14.

Other impressive evidence for Woods’ being the top dog includes his rank as No. 1. Over 580 of weeks have been spent as numero uno. Still, indefinite hiatus aside, Woods is still No. 1 and has been so for the last four and a half years.

Since his domination of the golf world began, Woods has managed to bag over $90 million in tournament winnings and after eclipsing the 1-billion dollar mark this year, he is now the second athlete to reach the 10-digit bank account after now retired Formula 1 superstar Michael Schumacher.

For those that might feel this is all just posturing by the PGA to promote their bread-and-butter, think again. Woods won the PGA Player of the Year award 8 times in the 2000s and 10 overall, an award that is given out after combining money earned, victories and scoring average.

It is the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, where the winner is decided amongst other golfers. Eight is the number of times Woods has been awarded this honour by his peers. Woods also won the money leader award seven times, the Vardon Trophy – scoring average – seven times, and the Byron Nelson award seven times for lowest adjusted scoring average.

Not one other athlete, male of female, can boast a superior sports claim in their respective sport like Woods did over the last decade.  It is exciting to see what Woods, now 33, will do from 2010 onwards as he enters what many consider to be the prime years for a golfer.

I type this in a café in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I don’t live in Thunder Bay, or any part of Ontario, but I am here now. It’s one of the stops on my trip across Canada. This trip has been a dream of mine for some time and I’m having fun. On a deeper level though, I am fulfilling a lifelong dream to travel and see the vast country that I’ve spent my entire life on only one side of.

Travel is a very strange beast. Most people talk about wanting to voyage off, whether for a week long family vacation to Disneyland or a year long backpacking trek across Europe. For the Disneyland type vacationers, travel is usually a treat for someone else (their children, I would imagine) and is made to be as predictable and planned out as possible. It is hoped that this preparation will create an experience that contains the least amount of stress and surprise as possible. Backpacking is quite the contrast to this, and is where my story takes us.

For the backpackers, travel can best be described as a pilgrimage. Usually they are trying to “find themselves”, or create memories and stories they can look back on wistfully in their dotage. A backpacking excursion is a wild, unruly thing; full of unexpected twists and desperate, dangerous situations. This is how the backpacker likes it. No one wants to find themselves, grey haired and retired, telling their grandchildren about “that one time everything went right and we had a good time”. Adventure! Excitement! Near death experiences! These are the things great stories are made from.
So, we backpackers let most events fall as they may. Itineraries are vague, timetables loose and changeable. If a backpacker feels like staying an extra week in Bruges, that’s not only acceptable, it’s encouraged.
Don’t think that these brave men and women have put no planning into their travel though. Oh no, there is much preparation that has to be done to maintain this much freedom.  Money, of course, must be addressed.

To take a year, or even a couple of months, off of work is hard enough. Add on top that you need to somehow come up with the money to both feed and entertain yourself, for the entire journey, and you really start to feel the pinch. Combine these with the expenses of getting to and from where you’re going, whether that be by plane, train, automobile, or (as in my case) intercity bussing, and things are looking pretty ugly.

So, the backpacker has to spend what often equates to years of their lives saving up the money, sometimes during their travels. Usually they work more than one job, both of which paying only slightly above minimum wage. They may be fortunate enough to live by the graces of Mum and Dad, and not going to school. More often than not though, they are students living with a group of their peers, cramming into any dorm, home or apartment they can afford together. This means they probably already have debt. In short, money is tight.
Money isn’t the only issue. As you might imagine,

it takes a huge degree of will power to go as long as is necessary
to gather together everything that’s needed on top of a couple of jobs and school. Sacrifices must be made,

and that means no social life for our poor valiant backpacker. It also means being constantly vigilant about things like food and cell phones. Little by little is the only way for someone like the backpacker to make their trip possible. And then, just when the money is coming together, just when their willpower has gone unbroken for two or three years, and they don’t think they can go another week living off of no-name macaroni, they have to figure out some way to get OUT of their multiple jobs. They must find some way to take the necessary time off of school without falling forever behind in their quest for a degree. They must find some way to leave an apartment or dorm, leaving the already desperate people like themselves behind to pick up the slack in the rent.
All this lie in the wake of a backpackers departure.
Family must be left behind. Boyfriends and girlfriends may need to be let down gently, and the idea that you will be broke, again, for years after your return, must become a reality you no longer fear to face. In short, it is a devastatingly stressful position to be in, far from the Disneyland travel cruise.

Why then, would anyone in their right mind decide to do this to themselves? While the possibility that they are not in their right minds mustn’t be overlooked, I have another theory. This is based on personal experience, and is twofold.
First, travel is important to the backpacker on a very personal level. It’s not just about a vacation, or even about the stories they can tell afterwards. It’s about learning for yourself about the world around you, putting yourself in situations that are unfamiliar. This way you can be prepared for those situations when they matter, avoiding that sad, all to familiar sensation of “what if”. The sensation that many people who have lived the same way in the same place all of their lives have experienced.

My second theory on why people take on this daunting task is that it’s easy. Now I must clarify that easy does not mean effortless. The effort is herculean. Once your mind is made up and you take the first step towards going on your trek, (a step where you simply decide) all of the effort becomes secondary. The most difficult boundary to cross is the mental one that has you looking at the effort involved and discourages you not to do it. I’ve seen this manifest in many ways. Some people run into trouble, and convince themselves that some entity or God, Nature or Fate, has decided that it “wasn’t meant to be”. Some decide they will explore at a later date, that there’s always more opportunities to come. — And some just give up without excuse. These are all cop-outs. The truth of the matter is, if it is important to you you will do it, and you will do it as soon as possible.
I had it relatively easy. I lived at home, and only worked one job. I’m not halfway through a degree, and thus not worried about loosing momentum in school. I didn’t even have a girlfriend to dump before I left. However, I still had to raise the money, and sacrifice the time, and most of all overcome that mental hurdle of can I or shant I.
I disclose this because even to me this lends a nasty edge of hypocrisy to my theory.

I’m in a position of relative privilege, how dare I say that those of less means than myself are “copping out”? And yet, I have no qualms expressing my opinion on the matter. This is because I recognize that most people are, in essence, equal. Not all, but most. Even poverty, in Canada, can be escaped from if the will is there. Not like in some nations where there is no wealth to aspire to have, and school is not mandatory, it is non-existent. And you need not be a perfect physical specimen to travel, Terry Fox proved this impressively by going distances that seem, to me, impossible; with one leg less than I have, and cancer. In short, the average person is just that, average; and capable and without excuse.

Travel is not important to everyone. In fact, many people see it as a ridiculous waste of time. To them, all of that effort for something intangible, something that doesn’t last past the arrival home, makes no sense. This doesn’t make my theory any less important. Travel is only my example here, but that first hurdle, those illogical excuses; they exist within all that is important to each of us. It seems that in order to make any effort, to reach for what is important, we must first overcome ourselves.

The decision came abruptly and almost epiphanously as I grit my teeth to put up with Brian’s mouth running with his brain parked at the question mark that ended all his sentences.  I was going to West Bank, where I had stashed my gear with a buddy of Brian’s, to bring back to the hostel which we could afford after picking apples at an orchard all day.  I did some lucrative busking out front of the liquor store too.  What a great way to make money.   As I was leaving I joked, “Maybe I’ll just grab my stuff and take off.”  The idea was so appealing I barely considered any other course of action after the words left my mouth.  Carrying everything you own on your back is a lot like living on a house boat.  If you don’t like your neighbours you just pick up and leave.  It’s real freedom, not the kind of freedom you hear people up in arms about all the time.  Real freedom is not having a closet full of junk you hold onto because it might be useful someday.

But anyway, I walked to the last set of lights leaving West Bank, Kelowna and got a ride to the first turnoff in Peachland.  10 minute ride tops.  This guy wants to learn how to play the guitar.  Good for him (sorry I’m so cynical).

These damned “no hitchiking. Pickup is illegal” signs!  So after a good long walk down the highway (away from the sign only to end up in front of another and have to continue)  we’re picked up in an unexpected spot where the shoulder is shy but apparently sufficient.

I’m getting tired of Brian telling everyone he’s been hitching with me since Kenora ON.  It screws up my stories and degrades my accomplishments but I guess it’s better for him than saying he just got out of jail.  We’re starting to get our stories straight but I don’t think we need to pitch it to anyone unless it comes up.

This guy that drove us to the skirts of Kelowna was real friendly and clean cut.  Still a long ways from town but it sure beats the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere, beside a sign that says NO HITCHHIKING

I need to sleep for a week to really loathe being lazy

From the Porterville Recorder:

Suicide: Rates are high.
December 04, 2009 5:41 PM
BY JENNA CHANDLER
THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER

A well known national organization geared towards preventing suicide attempts among gay youth has begun an educational and awareness push in Tulare County.

It will be the first time representatives from The Trevor Project have worked in a rural, conservative area in California.

It is a partnership that the county’s suicide prevention task force and the nonprofit organization say will likely reduce the number of suicide attempts in Tulare County. It will simultaneously launch the Trevor Project’s efforts in reaching such a vulnerable community in other rural municipalities statewide.

“Getting to the point where you want to end your life is not OK,” Dave Reynolds, a manager at the Trevor Project, said. “It is a social justice problem, it’s a serious public health problem.”

Established in 1988, with headquarters in Los Angeles, the Trevor Project operates with a $2.1 million budget, and relies on social networking sites and school workshops to reduce high rates of suicide attempts among the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth nationwide.

The nonprofit organization touts statistics to further its mission of promoting acceptance of gay people. Those who come from non-accepting families are up to nine times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers.

The contract signed with the Tulare County Suicide Prevention Task force is for two years at the rate of $50,000 total, and paid for with funding from the Mental Health Services Act.

Representatives will be here about three days per month for the next two years.

Since January, 36 people have committed suicide county-wide, with six of them having occurred in the Porterville area. Nearly half were among people aged 35 to 50, with the youngest person being 11-years-old.

In total, 12 are listed as being motivated by relationship problems, or emotional issues or depression, according to data maintained by the Tulare County Coroner’s Department.

Recent studies show that 1 in 3 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender youth will attempt suicide. Attempts are often reaction to how they are being treated in their homes, schools and religious communities.

“This is a community susceptible to suicide and suicide attempts,” Noah Whitaker, a task force member said.

Such statistics are not tracked locally, but as a part of their commitment to Tulare County, Trevor Project’s staff and volunteers will begin to do so, according to Whitaker.

When the task force received its funding from the Mental Health Services Act, its members determined it would be “the best group to go about handling,” he said.

While the Trevor Project’s suicide prevention hotline (866-4-U-TREVOR) has yet to gain popularity in Tulare County, Reynolds expects that will change. A disproportionate number of calls to the 24/7 free and confidential service come from rural areas.

He aims to work with students in potentially every school, to teach them empathy for people who are different, and the negative impacts of using words like “gay,” “faggot” and “dyke.”

“Young people tend to go to their friends with their issues … before they go to adults and parents,” he said. “We will equip all young people to know how to handle these tough issues when they come up.”

Educators, physicians, social workers, and the like, will receive training on what triggers suicide and its warning signs.

Contact information for The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

When I was in the United States recently with Jo-ann and Trevor I had a random thought one day while we were in downtown Seattle. How do Americans pay parking meters?

I mean, a few hours at a parking meter can cost upwards of a few bucks, and without the use of large coins (ie. loonies and toonies) do our friends south of the border just have to travel around with huge amounts of change and then spend minutes plugging the damn meter with a roll of quarters? This seems ludicrous but I can think of no other option unless they have incredibly high tech meters that use credit cards or something? Or maybe parking meters are really cheap there? SERIOUSLY, WHAT DO THEY DO?!

I have no idea.

Interesting sidenote, in order to go incognito during our recent trip to the US of A, Jo-Ann, Trevor and I referred to one dollar bills as “singles”. James Bond, WATCH OUT!

Actually, I was re-watching Casino Royale with Fallon the other night and have decided that I could totally be M. Like the real head of MI6.

Imagine.

I’d be amazing like Judi Dench.

AMAZING!