Horsepower Blues

Aww yes, once again it is time for our youth to be reminded that they are not above the law. Just yesterday I was discussing with some friends when we had that same ugly reminder at the ripe ol' age of 12. I clearly remember being infuriated at the thought of losing my ski-doo to some power happy cop who had 'nothing better to do'.

Maybe it's the report of an envious parent who can't buy the best for their child...maybe it's a citizen with legitimate safety concerns to ones self or ones property. BUT maybe this should serve as a reminder to parents that it just doesn't look right when your child under the age of 16 shows up to school on a 12,000 dollar skidoo. With standard features such as enough ponies under the hood to shred snow into a ploom of dust at the nip of the throttle.

The thing to keep in mind is that this will all blow over. Nobody wants to keep our children off snowmobiles - not parents, police, or peers. Because, in the end, we all have better things to do.

To The Politicians

They say we in Labrador got no numbers to count in the (voting) come election time, to make a difference, I say it is the way the Govt has put it. Of course there are no numbers, our resources are here but the amount of pay isn`t,, for one thing everybody (in Labrador) gotta move either to the island or across Canada for better wages just to try and provide some type of security and stability for their loved ones. Come on, this is the way it is, This should be a wake up call for all our Elected Politicians across Labrador, my goodness, once we get our own infrastructure (ie for Hydro and the Highways) then i believe things will start to go our way(as for numbers) here in Labrador. I`m sure there are ways to start our own industry to attract even more indivduals from anywhere in the world(if we get our infrastructure), ie.. roads and hydro, and i`m sure this will lead to our younger generation to have the utmost confidence and support from all Labrador as One to go our own way as a Labrador Province. C`mon Liberal delagates, PC delagates , NDP delegates and of course the Labrador Party delagates, Get Together, Bury the Hatchet and for goodness sakes wake-up and see that our resources stay here in Labrador for the good of all Labradorians to build on for once and for all. Put your personal parties aside for once and go with the Labrador People, Your People and i`m sure Your forefathers People that worked like dogs to make it possible for You and Me to be here at this time. Don`t you all (polticians) realise the sacrifices and for sure the Hardships my forefathers and your own forefathers had to endure just to try and survive, but by god they did just that (survive) and just look at how the Gov`ts of the day treated them, shameful if you ask me. Well sir, we certainly knows the difference now, so get away from your personal parties and jump in with all of Labrador, we`ll be so much stronger as one, and our ancestors that endured hardships we will never experience will be just Smiling. What we all got to lose , you can`t take the money with you when you goes(or the saying says) but just look at the power and enthusiasm and of course the self righteous right we so all deserve as a unique and self serving people that can and will prosper,,, God Willing. Thats my 2 cents worth and i`m sure there are many, many more with these same views here in Labrador. (C`mon Politicians From your Homeland, Join as One) and we here in Labrador will be your biggest supporters.

No Dial Tone

I just saw in the news this morning that the Taliban are threatening to disrupt cell phone service in Afghanistan in an effort to hinder communications.



So lets see now.....one of the poorest, war torn, backward countries in the world has cell phone service while most of Labrador does not!

Whats In A Name

After all the guess where pictures from last week I've been thinking about place names in Labrador. While I realize they had names long before Europeans stepped foot in Labrador its still interesting how names sometimes change or evolve over the years. Sometimes its just down to pronounciation of words or some regional dialect differences. Bobbin Joyce, Bob & Joyce, Bob & Joys, Bob Joys (Brook) comes to mind....all the same place! Then are places that seem to have been deliberately renamed at some point, for example whats now known as North River was originally called Cartwright River by George Cartwright in the late 1700's.

Maybe its time to have some kind of official record of the place names while some of the older generation is still around?

The interactive map I had on the website for place names a few years ago was discontinued because it started to get quite inaccuarate because I don't think a lot of people were zooming in on the map enough before placing their markers.

Snow & Chocolate

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, another day where the chocolate flows wilder than the Churchill River. What is it with winter holidays and chocolate? At Christmas we see endless boxes of chocolates, chocolate santas, chocolate Rudolph, chocolate trees and so on.
Easter theres the chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, chocolate roosters and I bet somewhere theres a chocolate Jesus!
Tomorrow the chocolate hearts will be everywhere. The chocolate companies take in millions at these three times of year! Makes you want to start a chocolate factory......ohhhh wait.....Joey Smallwood already tried that in just one of his hair brained schemes that went bust.
I wonder would it work any better today?...................nahhhhh thats just the chocolate messing with my brain!

Facebook

I must say I do like most things about the social network site Facebook and have to confess spending too much time on it from time to time. BUT SERIOUSLY the endless funwall requests and having to invite 20 friends to get to see anything all the time is really starting to get annoying. That being said theres still that strange fascination of seeing bits of other people's lives.

Anyway thats my only complaint for the day, aside from the weather that is!

Happy Trails

Why is it Labrador cant capitalize on such a thriving snowmobile market? According to ISMA snowmobilers spent more than $20 billion last year on equipment, accessories and vacations thus creating jobs for tens of thousands of people.

A study in Quebec in 1997 revealed $1.5 billion is generated annually by the snowmobile industry in the province. That same year Quebec saw more than 7600 snowmobile related tourists from other provinces and the USA.

Quebec winter conditions are very similar to Labrador when it comes to terrain and snow conditions. If anything Labrador should be more attractive due to its more pristine environment.

Where Quebec differs is in its government promotion of the industry. Dont see much promotion of Labrador trails by the Colonial Lords in Newfoundland do we?
But where Quebec is one of the premeir snowmobiling destination in the world is in its trail system. The province has more than 33,000 kms of groomed and maintained trails. There are more kms of groomed trails in Quebec than there are paved roads.

Footnote.......Trail Pass Prices In Quebec 2007-08

225 $ for a annual trail permit purchased on or before Dec. 9, 2007
250 $ for a annual trail permit purchased after Dec. 9, 2007
300 $ for a annual trail permit sold on trail*
150 $ for a 7 day trail permit
50 $ per day for a daily trail permit
380 $ for a annual trail permit for snowmobiles used by rental companies

Photo challenge

[John] Hickey in turn challenged [Darrell] Brenton to drive across the test strip of double chipseal that runs in front of his residence in Goose Bay, saying, "You will not find a bump or crack in that double chipseal, and I challenge anyone to try."

— Premier comes to town to make TLH announcement,
Heather George, 53 North, July 1st, 2007, p. 3

So, how about it, shutterbugs?

Fling Out The Flag

I received this in an email last night, the composer prefers to remain anonymous.

Based on that infernal "Fling out the flag..." song, theShanneygannock Nfld. separatist version that CBC plays all the time:

The Flag of Labrador

The blue, the sea and rivers free; The white, the boundless ice and snows;While in between the spruce’s green That o’er our own true homeland grows.

Then hail the blue, the green, the white; Long may it fly, for ever moreUnder the skies and the northern lights, To form the flag of Labrador !

From Height of Land to the Wonderstrand, Where we in our hearts or our footsteps roam,Grand River’s side to the Belle Isle’s tide, Our own true flag shall mark our home.

Come what the hand of fate demand, What may be ordained in heav’n above,Come yet the day where we make our way, In this, the land we shall always love.

So fling out the flag o’er Torngat’s crag;Blue, white and green: let it rise and soar!Long may it sway o’er bight and bay, Upon the land of Labrador !

Crime Wave

Break ins, thefts, vandalism....none of which are new to Cartwright or any other town for that matter, but the increase in frequency of of these crimes lately is troubling. Is this the work of different perpetrator(s) each time or are these crimes the work of same individual or group?

As it is with most crimes it is more than likely that more people other than the person(s) who commit the act know of the activity. More often than not these situations tend to end up in a conspiracy of silence where friends and peers refuse to "snitch".

But comfort can be taken in the fact that the truth always has a way of coming out in the end.




One of the old cannon displays vandalised on Flagstaff hill - Feb.04/2008

Back Up Back Up Back Up!

I cant emphasize enough how important it is to perform regular backups on your computer. Trust me, sooner or later your personal computer will run into problems to the point where your data will be at risk. If its a catastrophic crash you may even lose your stuff forever.

You dont need to backup up everything, just things that are irreplaceable. For example your pictures, if all you backed up were your pictures you would be saving yourself a lot of grief down the road.

There are several ways of backing up your files. Probably the most common is storing your stuff on blank cd-r. Depending on the resolution of your pictures you could store hundreds of pictures on one cd and now with dvd burners being common you can store thousands of pictures on a blank dvd.
An external hard drive is another option, some of these drives have the option where all you do is push one button and it backs up your stuff automatically.
USB thumb drives are getting so big in storage capacity these days that they could be an option.
I see more and more people with multiple computers in the home these days, you could share your important data between computers across a home network as a form of backup.

Remember no matter how well you think your computer is running today, it all could crash tomorrow.

SO BACK UP

Exploding gas tanks

from suv1
I saw this morning the report by CBC on the exploding V800,s in Rigolet. First of all I like to wish Mr. Williams a speedy recovery, someone must have been watching over his shoulder, he is "lucky" to get away with his life. Secondly I'm not going to sit on my &#@ and wait for BRP to do an investigation on the matter, we all know how "quick on the trigger" they try to put a "band-aid" on the problem. I don't know if the incident was caused by a default in the V800 models or some other "act of god". I want some answers and quick, I well be on the phone with BRP again today and this time I won't be so "mellow".CBC also reported there was a recall on gas tanks that may explode on this model in the US 3 months ago.Once again I encourage anyone who has 800 4-stroke to call BRP today or as soon as possible, you or your family may be at risk.You don't need to be a V800 4-Stroke owner to do this, anyone can make a complaint. BRP Customer Service 1-800-882-2900Recall: 2007328 BOMBARDIER Date: Oct 10, 2007 Vehicles: 1,155On certain snowmobiles, the fuel tank may crack, allowing fuel and or fuel vapour to leak. A fuel leak, in the presence of an ignition source, could result in a vehicle fire causing property damage and/or personal injury
Where does this leave us, has there been warnings or notifications?

Some interesting discussion on this subject on DooTalk Forums

A town on death row

Grand Riverkeeper Labrador

Off to the woods

Today I am pissed off because someone is felling trees on a small pond on the route to my woodpath. The least people can do is go off the trails and ponds far enough so the fish are safe from sawdust in their gills when the snow melts. I WILL report this abuse if I am asked. There is a responsibility that we have to nature when we pick up a chainsaw, no matter what our background. It may be time for educating our children to the benefits of a healthy environment. Wildlife and Forestry, go into the schools. (note:reminder)