There is something seriously amiss with the state of manufacturing in this world. I'm mainly talking about tool manufacturing as this is my immediate experience, but if this is representative of what is going on out there generally we are is some kinda trouble. Things will just keep breaking down and falling apart!

We started working on our house in August 2007. We bought a lot of tools to work on the house with. We didn’t buy the top brands, in most cases we bought the mid-range tools.

It all started with a heat gun. A very basic and simple tool used for stripping paint. It’s like a very hot hair blow dryer. My parents had an old heat gun that they have had for over 25 years and at first we used theirs. We used it for about a week and a half but then they needed it back so we thought to buy our own. We could have started with a cheap one for around $18 but we bought a name brand one for $40. It died in about a week, we brought it back and they replaced it with the same brand and model. When I brought the fourth one back I was given my money back and asked to buy my heat guns somewhere else. Was it the way we used it, was it just a bad model? So we went to another store and went through 4 of their heat guns until the stopped stocking those heat guns and only had the “professional” version for $90. We went to another store and now we are on our 11^th heat gun never knowing if this one will die too.

Next was the shop vacs: Same as with the heat guns we started with my parents old, beat up, used for decades shop vac. They needed it back and we bought the same brand vac. We have returned it 4 times and had it repaired once.

The next tool to die was the planner, repaired twice, replaced once.

The beltsander: replaced 3 times repaired once.

The paint sprayer: parts replaced twice and complete sprayer replaced once.

The cordless drill: replaced twice.

The air compressor/nailer: replaced both nail guns that came with the compressor.

The rotary power saw: now the first one of these just fell apart in my hands, the guard around the blade broke in two exposing the bland, very dangerous.

I would like to state that I am very gentle with my tools, I keep them clean and don’t use them for things they are not designed to handle. They have not been used by anyone else and have not been transported to other sites. I just use them working on our house and I am not using them all all the time, they are not being over used that is for sure. It seems that there has been a serious decline in the quality of tool manufacturing, either that or I am the most unlucky guy and it only happens to me.

Now some people blame this all on manufacturing in ....China...., but we can’t blame it all on the Chinese. I once had a talk with a friend of mine who runs a company that has things manufactured in ....China..... His word on the subject was that the Chinese are very good at making things, they can make it anyway you want them too. You can take something to them and they will copy it. He said the key is in the alloys and plastics that are being used. He said that when his company arranges for something to be manufactured in ....China.... that they specify the quality of the alloys and plastics used, they are specific with the mix of alloys and they get what they ask for. So his view is that if a tool company now is producing inferior products it’s not the fault of Chinese manufacturing but that the company has specified cheaper materials be used in the manufacturing to cuts costs and boost profits.

So the big question has to arise. How can they be cutting costs and boosting profits if they have to keep replacing or repairing the products? With the heat guns the first company went through 4 of them with us and in the end gave us all our money back, not much profit in that. Same with the shop vac, they have lost money with us for sure. And the same to a lesser degree with most of our tools. The paint sprayer people gave us all our money back so we could buy a newer model, they sent us a check???

It only seems logical that in time the manufacturers will have to wise up and start making strong, long lasting things again, or at least I would hope. I guess it comes down to how many people bring back those things that just stop working or after a few months just don’t quite work right anymore. If we all bring everything that we are not satisfied with back and get a refund or a replacement then in time they have to come to some realization that cutting costs in the manufacturing does not boost profits.

Let Them Stay! Keep US war resisters here in Canada! Stop the deportations! Tell the government to respect democracy and implement Parliament's motion.

Why Support War Resisters?

I am referring to the reprinting of Lorrie Goldstein’s article in the Simcoe Tmes Reformer on Tuesday the 18th of March that was originally in the Toronto Sun.

I don’t see how we can afford to be so short sited with environmental issues in this day and age. Mrs Goldstein’s article tries to make a case that nuclear energy is the only way forward through this environmental nightmare we are on the brink of. As supposedly intelligent humans one would think we would learn from the past. How can anyone see a source of energy that creates a waste that is highly volatile, deadly for humans to come in contact with and one that no studies have found a clear and safe way of dealing with except burying it in the ground. To me this sounds like a ticking time bomb considering the uncertainty of what this planet is facing in the future with regards to earth quakes and major storms. Also considering the extensive costs of building a nuclear power plant (none of which have ever been built on budget holding the taxpayer hostage to overblown building budgets and mounting maintenance costs) it seems that nuclear power should be the last consideration. Sure there is a lot of money to be made if you are the ones building and maintaining the power plant and sure these companies have a lot of money to pay lobbyists to sway our elected officials but this really isn’t a green way forward.

As a country we should be looking at the long term, at how safe and healthy is the world we create for coming generations. I lived in a few European countries including Austria and Canada could learn some lessons from our European friends. In Austria there are no nuclear power plants, in fact they have worked very hard at keeping them out of neighbouring countries. In Austria most of the electrical power is from water systems. They have many wind farms and solar generating systems also contributing to the country’s electrical needs. In Norway they have systems that generate power from the city’s sewage. These are not small generating systems but ones that contribute substantially to the country’s energy needs.

It seems insane to me to consider building nuclear plants in a province that has an abundance of water systems and thousands of locations for wind generators. Considering the costs compared to nuclear a pro nuclear stance doesn’t make any sense except to a handful that would personally profit from such stations.

Mrs Goldstein states that experimental wind farms and solar plants won’t be enough to meet future energy needs. Well, yes, of course. A few scattered "experimental" projects won’t meet our future needs but if these resources and other renewable energy systems were commissioned on a larger scale we have the potential to generate more than enough energy for our future needs.

It seems to me that the underlying content of the Toronto Sun article is set to bully our elected leaders into giving into the nuclear power industry’s lobbyists. The article makes sweeping statements about the potential for renewable energies to meet our needs saying they are just not up to the job. Once again I say we should look to our European friends and see how they are being able to meet all their energy needs without nuclear power, without the problem of its waste and without the danger of human error in the plant causing a major catastrophe. Austria has about a third of the population of Canada and it is less than a five percent the size. So how can they do it? Why do they see that clean, safe, renewable energy is the only way forward and we don’t? In fact they have had this stance of environmental health first for many generations and this is because the voting public has demanded it.

Honestly I find it sickening that as a country we are looking at building more nuclear power plants, that Alberta is looking at building it’s first and that lobbyists are trying to use scare tactics to sway the public into building more in Ontario. We should feel shame for even considering it.

I have travelled many parts of the world and when asked about how clean Canada is many are shocked to hear of the state of things here. When I tell them that the tap water tastes like chlorine they ask "but don’t you have the largest supply of fresh water in the world?". I have to say yes but industry has polluted a lot of it and we still dump our waste into the lakes and rivers. In Vienna the tap water comes directly from springs in the mountains, feeds the whole city with wonderful, fresh, clean spring water. When I tell people that my brother lives in the country side but can’t drink the water from his well because of chemicals used by farmers that seep into the water base they are amazed and say how they hold such a different view of Canada.  When I point out that this is Ontario I am speaking of, the most populated part of Canada and not all of Canada is like this, they wonder how long it will take till all of Canada is so polluted. When faced with such conversations I always found myself feeling shame for my country. That we took the easiest, fastest and most profitable way without a lot of consideration as to it’s impact on our quality of life.  

I don’t think we need to know where our politicians stand on our energy future needs but that they need to know where we stand, where the voting public stands when it comes to nuclear power verses renewable energy sources. I am sceptical of this voice being heard without nuclear power and other lobbyists using scare tactics to sway the people’s view on this extremely serious and delicate situation. As we have seen in other sectors our politicians have lied to us in the past so they and their corporate friends could profit. We must try not to let this happen any more especially when it comes to environmental issues.

Well, here I am in snowy Canada, in Port Dover Ontario and I'm looking to put together a rock band to play around with but I'm needing a drummer. I've been asking around but... If there are any around this area who feel they can swing and sway with my musical moods I'd be very interested in hearing from you. Or if anyone knows of a drummer please let me know. Not easy to find, a good drummer.

I wake up in the morning, get something for the pot, wonder why the sun makes the rocks feel hot, draw on the walls, eat, get laid, back in the good old days. Then some dam fool invents the wheel, listen to the whitewalls...

a great bit of poetry that went amiss to most, do you know who wrote this, he's very famous.

When all the topics anyone wishes to write have been covered so wonderfully in the past, why do we continue?

Comment.

I'm writing all night, letting it pour out, in the morning I read it and I get tripped by what I wrote, really crazy, lunatic stuff that should never be read, even by me.

I feel like I've slipped into a dark, deep hole that I invited to be my lover. If I don't find a way out I think the sky will burn down on me melt what is left of my brain.

I was in an elevator yesterday, a skinny man was standing next to me, shaking. He was looking down at the floor, all kinda nervous. The elevator stopped and the door opened. It wasn't my floor, he didn't move. The door stayed open for a few moments. I felt him shifting and shaking even more. He abruptly looked over at me and hissed, "get off or forever hold you brain". I didn't know what to do, it wasn't my floor. I didn't think he was anything more than a crazy guy, harmless at best. The door started to close and he started to grin at me, my heart was pounding heavy in my chest, I could feel beads of sweat gathering on my forehead. He started gigling. The doors were still closing. I, at the last moment went for the doors just as they were about to close. He reached up and grabbed the back of my coat. "Too late" he sneared as he threw me against the back wall of the elevator. The doors closed.

I've just come back from recording with my brother in Canada. He has a set up in a small barn on his property in Southwestern Ontario. He calls it the shed. My brother Brodie plays electric guitar and sings, his son, Durrie, plays the drums and I sat in on the bass. He records with one stereo microphone direct to DAT, all three of us at the same time. It took him a while to get the right balance in the sound but now he has tight yet massive rock sound. When he gets it mastered I'll post some tracks on my profile.

I have pictures of the set up if anyone is interested.

Anyone else going back to basics like my brother? In this day and age of computerised recording systems, how rare is it for people to record their CDs like this?