My experience with climbing

When I was around 8 years old, I had a climbing accident. I was playing around with my brother and some kids from the block and decided to climb a tree that was near the back lane of our place. I don't remember specific details about why I was climbing the tree (maybe I've blocked it out because of the trauma), but I do remember some very specific events that took place that day.

Most vividly, I remember falling out of the tree and landing on a board with a nail in it, butt first. I remember crying like a little pansy, and admit that, to this day, I would probably react in the same way. I remember that when I stood up and began whaling, the board was essentially an extension of my butt.

My brother freaked out and took me inside to see my mom. She did what anybody would do, she ripped the board out of my butt. After I cried some more (and likely tried explaining to mom how the board got in my butt), she took me to get a tetanus shot.

My butt eventually healed, but I'm not sure my ego has.

The reason I decided to rehash this memory on my blog is because I'm a sucker for long winded, silly introductions, and random segues.

Speaking of climbing, I was reading a little today about the publicity stunt that Greenpeace pulled off last month in Ottawa. Twenty protesters scaled the Parliament building in Ottawa in order to persuade the federal government to take greater action in combating climate change.

The whole thing was essentially a publicity stunt, and succeeded in getting a ton of press attention. It's tough to say whether or not the stunt was effective, in so far as getting the government of Canada to take greater action against climate change. My opinion is that it likely raised some awareness about Greepeace's agenda, and even more awareness about how easy it is to mess around with the most important building in Canadian politics.

At the end of the day, Canada still ranks as one of the worst developed countries when it comes to environmental policy. This protest is one of many that will likely occur in Canada, that is, until the government starts taking some real initiative into reforming environmental policy in Canada.