I've written a few articles here and there recently, and they all seemed to come across a little bitter. I couldn't tell you why. So I'm going to try my best to figure this out once and for all, and my next article can be a happy one. After all I'm not pissed off or depressed. On the contrary, I've always been described as more “happy go lucky”.

I actually have a serious side that reads into things I see and hear, and I guess it does put a crimp on my positivity. Plus the way I see it, putting an article in a paper or magazine is a chance to speak your mind. I could write an article about a great new album I've been listening to, or about putting on concerts, or about how much I love my cat, but I think we read enough fluff all over the place. An article in a student paper should make people think or laugh or something.

But why so bitter Pat? Maybe it's because I've stopped watching CBC's optimistic Canadian view, or CNN's ethnocentric world view. Maybe the “alternative” media I've discovered is leaving my brain in a knot of unsolvable problems. Soaking in all the info I can about nuclear proliferation doesn't exactly leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. And despite all the optimism surrounding our “new sources of energy” or the oil sands out west, I have a gut feeling (backed up by about 30 years of geological forecasting and hopelessly frustrated Geologists), that life as we know it will change drastically in our lifetime and there's very little we can do about it.

Wow eh, that's pretty heavy. I'm not some kind of doomsayer or anything. I still go out with a smile on my face, and get through the day as if I will be able to get seedless watermelon in January for the rest of my life!

But if I believe that the world balance is beginning to tip, and that doesn't bother me, than what is it? Is it the fact that the goals we are forced to share to be understood by our peers centre around materialism and greed; this common idea that if you're not in it for the money, you just shouldn't be in it. Is it the fact that those with a kind spirit, or a meek personality have been lost in the shuffle, and no longer provide us with the balance we so desperately need, but rather have become a nuisance or a burden to our underlying self-righteousness? I don't know, I've never had a problem dealing with the people around me, or felt at odds with them or anything. So what is it?

It could be the advertising industry that relentlessly shoves useless products, and an unattainable way of life down our throats. Seriously though, why do I need four blades on my razor, and why do I know Pizza Pizza's phone number off by heart? Or maybe it's the pharmaceutical industry that have us hooked beyond return as they stuff us full of antibiotics, steroids, botox, birth control side effects, vitamin supplements found in common food, and the list goes on and on. And everyone is overweight, has allergies, or diabetes, or cancer.

Maybe I just have a general disdain for this careless, individualistic life we have built so fondly on genocide and spineless support for our mega-terrorist partner in North Americanism. Maybe one day, we will wake up out of our privileged white society wet dream, and realize there are other people in the world. Okay, so this article turned a little sour after all. At first I was going to write about my band. Maybe I should have stuck with that. Seriously though, my band The Hoolie Snatch kicks ass, and not all of our songs are about the end of the world. But I may as well get some stuff off my chest while I have the opportunity. Until then I'll dream of my little cottage on a deserted beach somewhere, where I will drink coconut milk, and eat bananas until I fall asleep under the sun with a guitar and a great tan. If you feel the same as I do, you're perfectly welcome to join me. I promise I won't be bitter.