Pretty Little Ditty of a Quiz

Alright,

I've recently visited a number of sites that contain links to the Quizfarm. My girlfriend thinks these types of tests are completely bogus, and thus, I am an idiot for subscribing to them. However, despite her ridicule, I find them to be good fun, and also I think these ones to be relatively accurate, so far as internet hokum goes.

The first one is about determining your world view. Apparently I am a "Cultural Creative" to the bone, as I scored %88 the first time I tried, and %100 the second time I took the test.

The next one is more specific, and eventually it picks an appropriate religion to suit your belief structure. I'm told that I'm somewhere between Buddhism and Agnosticism (although I think my newfound religion is fast becoming Quizfarmism!)

Hats Off to the PBA!

Yesterday, I received an electronic memorandum document from General Scott Tribe, leader of the Progressive Bloggers Allied Resistance Fighters. It was, as some of you will know, in regards to the completion of phase one of the Progressive Bloggers Association webpage/clubhouse. In it, General Tribe also highlighted some of the most important items pertaining to the explosive growth of the Progressive Bloggers (referred to hereinafter as the PBA,) and I must admit that I was instantaneously overcome with emotion upon reading this most wonderful warrant of success. As I scrolled on, I learned that the PBA’s membership has swelled to over sixty-three, and it is now poised to eclipse the “Blogging Tories” as the largest (and strongest) existing political blogroll in Canada! Although I’m sure many individuals are equally excited about these positive reports, I feel as though few have as much to gain, or as much optimism to exude, as does yours truly.

For unlike most of the blogs associated with the PBA, which almost all predate the creation of the official organisation, this blog represents a new generation of progressive blogs, in that it was birthed after the genesis of the Progressive Bloggers site. In fact, methinks that ‘twas in only the second day of operation that I became a full craft member of the PBA, and subsequently, like an unnatural by-product of a chemical reaction, took to the blogosphere with the implicit intent to fight for and with my heroes of the Progressive Bloggers. Henceforth, the Catalytic Corral would cooperatively perform with other greats like Capitalist Pig and The Calgary Grit. I really felt like I had been drafted, right-out of high school, to play with the Yankees of Bloggerhood!

Of course, none of this is to compare myself to such giants, rather, only to express my solace in being buried half-way down the list; as I am, a humble member of the practice roster of the PBA (if you will allow me to continue the analogy.) And thus I shall remain, ceaselessly ready, willing, and able to do whatever destiny asks of me to defend the moderate argument, and uphold justice, in the sacred spirit of the Progressive Bloggers and all the other good buds who do what they do for the good of Canada and for the benefit of humanity! And that is why I wear, and will continue to wear my Progressive Bloggers logo proudly at the top of my links section, for all to see, everlastingly and evermore.

Once again, to General Tribe, Colonel Ramson, and all the other Officers to whom I owe my enormous debt of gratitude, thanks for giving me an opportunity to play on your team!

Yours sincerely,


Senator J. M. Catalyst ESQ.

Gettin' Back To It

Well,

I’m gay to see that I’m not the only blogpoet to have been slacking-off as of late. Ha Ha. For I’ve been clicking about, and it seems as though most have been relenting on their frenzied electronic diatribes. And I suppose that is healthy. . . I suppose.

I spent the weekend in the beautiful climes of the East-Kootenays, where I was fortunate enough to have experienced her full impressiveness, half corked as a miner at shift’s end. On the way home, however, my transmission slipped, and now I have to haul my ‘94 Plymouth Voyager and warranty papers over to the crooks who told me they’d fixed it before. A pox on their households forsooth!

Then, yesterday, I attended the official ceremony of welcoming for Her Majesty The Queen to Cowtown. Interestingly enough, Paul Martin received a standing ovation from the near sell-out crowd at the Saddledome. Perhaps it’s official protocol, but nevertheless, it was interesting to see a stadium full of gray-haired Calgarians rise to applaud a man that seems to represent the virtual antithesis to their demographic aspirations. I guess one could dismiss it all for confusion. I mean, between the flagrant royalistic tendencies buzzing in the air, and the glare in the jumbotron...

Actions - Reactions

Ok, so I might have galloped out of the shoots a little early with my Belinda apologies. It’s just that my bleeding heart is naturally sympathetic to any girl who gets called a whore 7000 times in one day.

That being said, I’m actually starting to think that it would have been better for Belinda if the government had fallen! If it had, then at least she would have been able to play the righteous card in a distant, distant leadership race. She probably would have been able to, long after the fact, paint a rather believable picture of herself walking away from a comfortable set-up in Stephen Harper’s claxis, to perform her patriotic duty to the idea of Federalism. No, scratch that. TO SAVE CANADA! She would have survived the next couple of elections for sure. All it would have taken was a little love, a little TLC.

But now she has to sit in Martin’s cabinet and face the hollering hooligans who once saw her as their little Belini.

Final Prediction: CBC will make a docu-drama, within the next three years, on the life and times of possibly the most interesting character in Canadian politics in the last five years… Chuck Cadman.

Catching Up

Heck Jeez!

I must have slept damn near forty hours straight. Hopefully my friends will forgive me for missing a post, for seeing as how I’m getting on in decades, it takes me a lot longer to recover from long car-rides. Indeed, getting old is a biotch!

But let’s see what’s in the news today… oh, check it out, looks like we’re going to have a sunny long-weekend. And look at this, there’s some kind of genocide taking place in Sudan; that doesn’t sound good. It also appears as though the Alberta Energy Utilities Board is about to make some inconsequential decisions regarding royalty rate adjustments… Interesting stuff!

Nope, don’t see anything here worth commenting on. Oh wait!

What’s this here, on the first 11 pages of my newspaper?

BELINDA STRONARCH CROSSES THE FLOOR; BLOGGERS OF ALL COLOURS ARE TORN BETWEEN WATCHING CONTINUING COVERAGE OR CAMPING OUT IN FRONT OF THE CINIPLEX!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s pretty freekin’ unbelievable I have to say. But, pursuant to my earlier remarks, I still feel that this move will eventually prove a good fit for her.

If you’re really interested in my expanded pathetic analysis, then by all means follow the comments on the aforementioned link. I think I’m like second from the last post. Although I make some pretty rediculous predictions, it is still a landmark event for my blogging career, as it marks the first time I actually interact with some real blog culture icons. They made fun of me, but now I’m one of them.

Hey, just like Belinda!

It Makes You Think

After an excessively long campaign of Axis & Allies on Sunday evening, I thought it would be nice to spend the day not thinking too much.

Thus, I got in my car and drove up to Edmonton, at which place I could attentively sit in the Chamber of the Provincial government, a peaceful locale, where thinking is usually left an afterthought. So there I sat, dutifully listening to the mindless drivel of the Daily Routine until the topic finally shifted to some promotional program of the Community Development variety. Feeling little compulsion to stay and hear out the details, I decided to take leave and spend the rest of the afternoon on a stroll through the beautiful streets of Edmonton’s majestic core (and I’m not being facetious, I actually love that city!) Perhaps it’s the Europeanesk layout, or perhaps it’s the people, but I have always found Edmonton to be both calming and vibrant, simultaneously.

Anyway…

While walking the promenade, I had the opportunity to sit down on a nice sunny patio just in time to meet one of Edmonton’s most interesting people. I was immediately drawn to this man, as he looked (in his motorised scooter and innocent manner,) much like my father did before his passing. Moreover, upon hearing him speak in his muddled Eastern European accent, I was instantly compelled to introduce myself and see if I could not retrieve a story from him. Luckily, I did.

He was an 80 year old Polish-Edmontonian named K, who had spent the better part of the last half-a-century as a watch-maker and goldsmith operating under the old Bay building on Jasper Avenue. K was a person worth meeting, and he had such a story to tell! Although I often pride myself upon my story telling capabilities, I think it would prudent if I left this one to the professional who wrote about him just a month ago in the Edmonton Journal. I couldn’t find it anywhere on-line so that I could link it, but here it is nonetheless:

POPE AND SOLIDARITY INSPIRE LOCAL GOLDSMITH By Mike Sadava

Somewhere in the Vatican lies a small, but unique, gold cross, studded with tiny diamonds and rubies with the white eagle – the emblem of Poland – affixed to it. An almost identical cross sits in a safety deposit box in Edmonton, made by the same goldsmith, Kasimierz Forysinski, an unassuming native of Poland who lives in a downtown seniors’ complex and prefers to be known simply as K.

While much of the world still mourns the death of Pope John Paul II, perhaps nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the hearts of Polish people everywhere. The Pope’s effort in the struggle against communism in Eastern Europe is well documented and it started with his support of the Solidarity movement in Poland. During an era of extremely frosty relations between the Vatican and communists, John Paul visited Poland and demanded and received a visit with Lech Walesa, the leader of the Solidarity movement.

K, who is now 79, says he wasn’t a terribly observant Catholic, but he was proud that the pontiff was a fellow Pole and of his efforts to liberate Poland.

"The Pope was such a help to Solidarity at the time," he says. "This was a present to the Pope, not to the church."

K trained as a watchmaker in Poland and continued his trade for the rest of his life, but he also started making gold jewellery in his spare time. It was the same kind of fussy, meticulous work as repairing watches, and he was a natural. About 18 months prior to the Pope’s visit to Edmonton in 1984, K decided to use his skills to make a special gift for the pontiff. Using high quality, 18-carat gold, he spent countless hours designing, re-designing and making various versions of the gift. The version he came up with had the two pieces of the vertical part of the cross form a narrow "V," an idea he got while watching footage of some of the street demonstrations by Solidarity.

Demonstrations were officially forbidden, but religious processions were still allowed in the devoutly Catholic country. Members of Solidarity used willow sprigs fashioned into a V with a horizontal branch to complete the cross to form these processions. But they were really a symbol of V for victory.

K also wanted the cross to be uniquely Polish. So, he fashioned a white eagle to be attached to the cross and imbedded tiny rubies and diamonds to the two gold vertical struts. The cross is only about eight centimetres high.

At the time, K was running the watch repair shop in the basement of the old Bay store on Jasper Avenue. In the weeks leading up to the papal visit, The Bay set up a small display commemorating the event in a third floor corridor. It also included a chalice which had been fashioned by a local artisan and which was used during the visit here.

K’s cross was stolen – luckily for just a short time. A man reached behind the display case and pulled out the cross, but an alert security guard happened to see him and caught the thief before he could leave the building.

K decided right away to make a replica, which he completed in just 48 hours. He was told by the Edmonton archdiocese that the original safely got to the papal entourage.

Although he has been a Canadian since the 1960s, K still feels much allegiance towards Poland. He was born in a village near Lodz in the central part of the country, but fled to England when the Nazis occupied it during the Second World War. He spent much of the war in Italy, a member of the Polish tank brigade tied to the British Army. After the war, K was back in England rather than returning to Poland, which had been turned over to the Soviets. He married an English girl and, ironically, had to formally join the British Army to get demobilised. He went back to matchmaking and then spent a few years in Bermuda before immigrating to Canada.

Although K is still articulate, humorous and takes an interest in European politics and fixing electric scooters, he fears that dementia could soon set in. Sometimes he has trouble finding English words and says his English was as good as his Polish. His ambition is to get the replica cross to an honoured place in Poland, although he doesn’t know how this will happen.

"I want to give the cross to someone who will continue the Pope’s message and what he has done for Poland and our church."

Needless-to-say, my encounter with K quickly removed the possibility of spending a day without thinking. Indeed, the rest of the trip was spent trying to put into context the amazing saga of this man’s life, and the overwhelming coincidence that I should meet him at this climactic point in his biography. It was an afternoon I will not soon forget.

Since the running of that article back on April 9, 2005, K has been in contact with a number of individuals who were equally touched by his story. With the help of some of these kindred spirits, he has made arrangements to fly to Poland (perhaps one last time) to take part in the official dedication of the replica cross to the National Museum and Archives in Warsaw.

Pairing Thoughts

Spring is most definitely shouting in full bloom, and summer doth hearken.

In the quiet corner of Canada called Alberta, the pacific assembly sits ready to retire for the season in subdued anticipation of a centennial celebration, and a regal appointment to boot! Meanwhile, in the sullied corridors of Parliament Hill, Paul Martin and his henchmen clamber, in cannibalistic rage, to scavenge what last shreds of dignity might remain.

On the one hand, I (sort of) hope that the "pairing" gesture of oldster New Democrat Ed Broadbent will be enough to inflict a euthanizing blow to the crippled Martin gang. But then again, these are the people who are poised to take the reigns once old Paul decides to call it a day.

Oh mercy!

What a Shite Show!

My Goodness!

It seems everywhere I look, people are interpreting some kind of poll data. Nevertheless, I'm not going to spend a whole heck of a lot of time analyzing numbers that point to the inevitable doom, already predicted by every other blog in the Canuckidy World!

But, I do feel inclined to share this and this with my loyal readership. They actually have nothing to do with the declining fortunes of Paul Martin, and everything to do with feelings of sullenness and teenaged anxiety...

That's all for now... I mean, give me a break; this is only my second post, and if those hyperlikns worked then I'm already ahead of the game. I'm exhausted!

The Senator

Let the Catalysis Begin!

Hot Damn!

I can't believe I've just become a Blogger: Nerd Factor 10, Nerd Factor 10, indeed!

But seriously folks, I've been perusing the blogosphere for so long now that I reckoned it's high time I set up a ranting platform of mine own. If all goes as planned, and my 103 year old fingers manage to clumsily click and jab their way through this weblog creationatory process, then what ye' be reading now shall stand as the inaugural post of The Catalytic Corral, cyberbox stationary for the Honourable Senator J. M. Catalyst ESQ. What a wonderful episode forsooth!

I can't tell you how gay I truly am to see the Ol' Senator finally commit to the XXIst Century. This monumental step will enable me to join the armada of voices currently dominating the Canadian political blog scene. Henceforth, I shall take it as my solemn duty to show all those whippersnappers out there that you don't have to be a gyroplasmic technician to get your point across in this pompous age of digital knowitallism. Instead, I plan to cautiously lend my voice to that heroic call of progressive political blogenda; to fight in the noble tradition of those who have come before me, and are still standing, albeit battled and bruised, but ultimately unwavering in their conviction. However, unlike most of them whose credibilities are rooted upon years of legal haranguing and political backrooming, this blog will aim to provide a more "down home" approach to political hackdom, which I hope you will find to be both refreshing, and cybernutritious.

Finally, I must, in accordance with standing custom, acknowledge all those people who have inspired me to commit to this mounting endeavour. And for the sake of thrift, I will single out just the few immediate people without whose guidance and friendship. . . First and foremost, I thank my "diamond in the sky" Lady Charlotte, whose beauty and elegance cannot be described in one sentence. Then, I would like to give an e-shout-out to my bro Dave, who showed me the way of the blogs. And also, I have to give some props to my good dogs Ryan, Steve, and Dan, who each in their own way encouraged me to do this thing, even though (as previously mentioned) I'm 103 years old. I thank you all, and I hope that at least the four of you will enjoy my scrablings throughout the lifetime of this weblog, and longafter when they're published along with my collected diatribes and correspondences to be sold for just six easy installments of $89.95 plus applicable shipping and handling.

And with that, I declare this blog so established on the ninth day in the month of May, 2005.


Million Shouts of Gratuity!


Senator Catalyst