http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1096452771800&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037&tacodalogin=no

401 back to normal after day of bottlenecks
Driver of truck carrying garbage reportedly facing charge of careless driving


CURTIS RUSH
STAFF REPORTER THESTAR.COM

The westbound express lanes of Highway 401 at Yonge Street were reopened about 5:30 this afternoon after a day of bottlenecks and confusion caused by a crash involving two transport trucks early this morning. Meantime, Ontario Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky says she is concerned that truck drivers hauling garbage to Michigan may be working longer hours than they should and she wants to discuss the situation with Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar.
Driver fatigue is being blamed for the fiery collision on Highway 401 at 3:30 a.m. today that caused commuter chaos all day long.

The truck driver carrying the garbage westbound has been charged with careless driving and failing to wear a seat belt following the collision with a paint truck that shut down the highway at Yonge St. for most of the day.

The charges - were little comfort for the thousands of commuters who showed up late for work this morning.

Dombrowski said today that "we want to make sure that those regulations are being adhered to and there is monitoring to ensure that the risk of this kind of event is minimized" with respect to drivers not working while fatigued, radio station CFRB reported.

It was the paint, mixed with diesel fuel, that set off the fiery explosion in which flames were sent 30 metres into the sky. The fire burned for about two hours.

The salvage operation was made more difficult by the fact that the area was already a construction zone in the westbound lanes and the accident happened on a bridge, about 70 metres above the Don River Valley.

let’s start a solution
to this global pollution
self-absolution mate/
realistic evolution
egotistic revolution
artistic devolution
kinetic convolution
transnational collusion
of the governors behind
accepting cash and in-kind
contributions to silence
the insurgence of the mind

fight the power, fight fight
the power’s

trading gates for barbed wire
windows barred by the desire
to keep flying higher
hooked on oil the whole empire
shoots up to the quagmire
endless rounds, they never tire
of trying to acquire
good returns on the ire
of those they don’t admire
they’re not shy to inspire
you
can
call me a liar

for speaking the truth
you may think me uncouth
but these rhymes are pure sooth
if tainted by my youth
bequeathed tones of Ruth
the ever-so-slightest hint of vermouth
I stand behind word
even the most absurd
because just like a flipped bird
it means when it’s been heard

if pen’s to be might
it’s got to be held right
with the biggest intention
local-galactic intervention
the goal’s not to barge
but synthesize the charge
towards the retention
of polity writ large

a-litera-tion optation
for every generation
fed play by play-station
on a billion flat panels
nine hundred exact same channels
home-spun indoctrination
designed to curb sensation
diffusing aggravation
sending rage waves through a nation
hell-bent on obliteration
now set free on probation
and the unchecked pervasion
of in-group masturbation
oops
was that a meta-euphoric aberration?

i refer to consummation
as a collaborative creation
would you tune in to rev/
elation
give up closed-eyed vacation
regard the implication
of your stake in the desecration
peer into burning bushes
with your arms and your tush/es
on the line?

if so, it’s time, to
see
that you can
be
it you can
be it
you can be
it you can be it
you can
bow to it, be it
you can bow
to the power of
We

Ah, in so many ways.

It's already September 10th. Wow.

Wow because that means that the fall is almost here.

Meaning my self-imposed deadline of finding meaningful work, preferably in a warmer climate, is about to come up, and I haven't seen too much progress on that front.

And the winter's-coming-bite is starting to enter the newly gusting wind, even though I'm still waiting for "real summer" to arrive (naive optimism??).

And Wow that it's been almost exactly one year since I was originally booked to fly to Mexico to start my contract at UNEP-ROLAC (September 11, 2003). And that it's been just under three years since I had the interview that landed me my first post-university full-time job at Credential Group (owner of "Ethical Funds" TM) in the “Strategy & Business Development” department doing crazy corporate communications and coordinating projects with people dressed in suits and other fancy stuff I never pictured myself doing (job started September 24, 2001). And just over seven years since, never having been west of Ontario, I took my precious savings and all my highest expectations and "ran away" to start a new life living on a mountain by the sea (and attending Simon Fraser University)...

So, late summer/early fall times, in retrospect, seem to have been pretty significant for me. And, in some way, I feel, hope, that this one could take some turn and surprise me. Or maybe, the path I've been meandering will lead to something unexpected, undirected, and yet right.

Since I went on "update strike," in addition to sending out hoards of "formal" job applications, I've also been pursuing less traditional possibilities - like that of working with some friends/acquaintances "in the biz" in trying to put together a documentary on natural resource issues. (No details yet, cuz it's too soon, and I'm not sure, and initial research was promising, to the point of my almost having a full documentary scripted, and then I found an almost identical one's just been screened.) I've already been out to help Mez shoot his unrelated documentary on the garbage can ads, and it's been really neat - it would just be a matter of collaborating on this new project, getting the research and contacts taken care of, and applying for grants (not necessarily so easy or in that order - after all, what do I know about making movies, aside from my running my OAC media class project back in 1997?).

Of course, the fact that there is no guaranteed funding, and that I'm a bit nervous about entering a totally new realm (as much as I've always had a thing for media), makes it all a bit sketchy - and exciting, too. And yet, the nervous, more conservative part of me hopes that my knight in shining armour (aka a job offer) will gallop in and scoop me up from the tower of my parents' castle (ok, house) in a far-off isolated land (North York) and take me somewhere new and exotic, where negative temperatures don't exist and there is a dental plan.

I've also been thinking of getting into Spoken Word. Like actually performing. In fact, I may venture out tomorrow night - Lisa "Luscious" Tai will be performing at the Rustic Cosmo, 1278 Queen Street West, and invited me since apparently there's an open mic component. Rob, whom I saw tonight for the first time since he took off after Om, is coincidentally also thinking of "reading" – he timidly showed me some of his stuff, for the first time, and I think he’s got amazing potential.

Anyways, we'll see what happens. For now, seems I'm back to old habits (one of the reasons for the strike).

Already 5:20am. Wow.

Time for bed!

I have taken these last weeks to not update. Perhaps this will change now.