ttyl.ca

So, I finally saw Michael Moore’s SiCKO tonight, and it blew me away.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away. Something about Fahrenheit 9/11
didn’t sit well with me. I don’t think I ever really knew what it was that I didn’t like; whatever it was, I was more than a little suspicious of Moore’s latest offering. But I went, cuz, well, love him or hate him, he’s “my people.”

Anyway, by the end of the movie, I had a mini-revelation about what it was I didn’t like about Fahrenheit, and it was directly related to what it was that I couldn’t resist about SiCKO. Even though I laughed at all the right places in Fahrenheit, and was appropriately outraged all throughout, I remember feeling a little perplexed at the end of it, and probably more than a little hopeless.

SiCKO, on the other hand, ends with a message of hope. A strong message in fact. This movie is much more about what is possible than what is wrong. Moore spends more time in the four countries in which universal health care works than he does showing grievous examples of America’s system.

It might just be that the issue raised in Fahrenheit necessitated the vituperative approach (since there really wasn’t a bloody thing anyone could do anyway), and that just getting pissed about something pretty much sucks no matter how right you may be.

Anyway, Moore has no doubt already been criticized for all of this and more . For that matter, SiCKO’s change in tone may well have been a conscious choice on his part in response to that criticism (but that didn’t stop it from being a revelation to me!).

I’m Canadian, and I just had a few surgeries the last couple years. So, you could hardly be blamed for guessing that my strongest reaction I had to SiCKO was to feel extremely relieved about living in a country with universal health care. But actually it wasn’t. Instead, I felt an overwhelming sense of hope: a strange and unknown feeling the last few years.

I think it’s the same feeling I get when I marvel at how early all the US presidential candidates are lining up. It’s the same feeling I get when I see people like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens speaking their minds and gaining an audience.

Ah yes, the passions are piling up now fast and furious.

Eclipse is one of my bigger professional interests, and one of its projects was just (re) named after one of the most famousest of parks of my youth!!

So good…

Just toying with the idea of what to write about… …what makes me me. (I’m still new, cut me some slack. I, along with you, can’t wait either to come back here after a long and illustrious blogging career and go, “Oh, isn’t that cute?! I used to write about what to write about!!”)

Well, I’m starting a low carb diet very soon with every intention of having the same success that I had a couple years ago. It’s time to put this pudgy, although newly smoke-free (!), frame back into the shape it was intended to be. Not to mention to put a stop to the sedentary lifestyle that I have created as a response to four surgeries in the last three years.

Apparently my warranty was up and, predictably, I had to get a bunch of work done. But that’s over now and presumably I’m good for another couple of decades (or 60,000 km, whichever comes first) at least.

But, of course, that warranty is only any good if you do the scheduled maintenance. I really enjoyed Atkins when I did it a few years back. It definitely works for me, and I feel strongly about it. It was (and will be again) a major life changing event for me, and I’ve never understood why it drew so much criticism. I mean, who the hell attacks a diet?!! Do the words, “get a life” mean anything to you?!!

It has helped me, as it has many, MANY others, and it will continue to do that. I found a great site today, and I pledge to help this dude any way I can to continue sticking it to the naysayers. And to those very same naysayers, let me just say, BUZZ OFF!!!

Alright, here goes…

I always come at things late. There’s not a trend-setting bone in my body. Sometimes I latch onto the very best (gmail), sometimes the worst, and sometimes I’m so late, it’s hard to tell. (I still can’t decide between Nearly Neil and the real thing!) What I’m trying to say is, blogging’s been around for a while now, and here’s me giving it a go.

I’ve had all the typical reasons preventing me from beginning a blog: what do I say? who would care? what’s my stich? how do you spell “stich”? etc… But, I’ve decided enough is enough. Time to start. I’ll figure out the answers along the way, and with help….

For now, who I am:

If you say my first and last names really fast, they sound like the possessive noun phrase “Ed’s wart” (yes, I have childhood scars).

Best crank call ever: “Hi, is this Ed Zwart? I’m Frank Spimple.” Too bad it was left on my answering machine. Hopefully, the caller will read this and know I laughed hard at that one!

So, why did I call this blog Skriv Zone Words? (This explanation, now that I think about it, should leave you with no doubt about my inability to set a trend!). “Skriv” comes from my first ever internet handle in 1995; it was for a NY Times account. I had no idea what a login was, so I made one up from the first collection of syllables that came into my head: skrivnut. Don’t ask. I have no idea! Anyway, I’ve since dropped the “nut”, but for this blog, am keeping the play on wordz. Huh? (I’m a big fan of the letter “Z”, which you really shouldn’t need telling rhymes with my first name!) Ah yes, “Zone”. Ed’s wart… Skriv’s Own… eh?? pretty clever, no? . . . No? Okay, how about Zone Words … Zwart… Still nothing? Ah fine. I’ll probably change it next week anyway…