Thursday 27 October 2011

Decade of the douche bag

What will you remember about the last 10 years?  Will it be the battle between iphone and blackberry, the recession, the boom of  Coach and Michael Kor (lol), or many other small events that may stick out for you?  For me, it was obvious...the rise of the douche bag, or douche for short.
Now what brought this condition on?  Well, it was a multitude of things, image, status, media.
Social media ran rampant, and as a result, people started to watch others more intently; but for some odd reason, certain styles started to evolve.  These styles were not found in beauty magazines, nor were they pushed on people in any way.  These styles just randomly evolved to what they are today.

First, the definition of douche bag (for men):  Someone reeking of effort, following trends they may have seen and believed was socially accepted.  Attitude and loud arrogance play a significant role.  You can only be a douche if you are truly not aware of it.  Some common characteristics are deep tans, greasy spiked hair almost formed into a mohawk, diamond ear studs, shirts that are to small, popped collars, UFC shirts while walking with a tough strut.  

Let me indulge in this a little further with key symbols that helped grow this culture...

A) AFFLICTION - This trend boomed about 3-4 years ago.  UFC grew so fast, Saturdays were fight night, GSP was loved by all Canadians.  It was a true form of fighting; but some how people (especially in Calgary) took this to another level.  They started wearing affliction shirts.  If your not familiar with these, they are very loud shirts, trendy, but aggressive looking.  Its a company that sponsors many high end fighters.  Douche bags started wearing these....but what set them apart was, they started to believe they were tougher and cooler.  They wore them a size to small just so everyone could see their muscles.  They picked fights or instigated them because they felt they "knew" fighting.  Ahh, the affliction douche.

B) Ambercrombie & Finch - This trend has several angles.  A&F is/was a popular american clothing company that over-charged on average looking cloths (cotton polo for $90).  It was the top of their pyramid...American eagle at the bottom, and Hollister in the middle.  This alone didn't put you in douche territory.  It was when people started to pop the collar...this was the start of much more.  From here, the gold chain was accessorized, and finally, the crew cut was introduced...a safe mohawk that was still trendy, but daring at the same time.  Put this all together with a cocky attitude and a fake baked tan...you got yourself a douche;)  This can be confirmed from the show "Jersey Shore"...the definition of douche bags.  Its been stated on T.V that these 20-30 some year olds are douche bags...so I cant be that off.

C)  Rig Pig Douche - Now don't get me wrong, working on the rigs is not douchy.  Heck, I've tried to get on them for a quick buck, and some do very well doing this.  The problem lies (for me lol) when their ego needs to be exhibited in a particular manner.  The one obvious one is the big diesel truck with a 6+ inch lift kit on it.  Not only that, they feel the need to fill their entire back window with some type of generic sticker...like Red Bull, or Hurley.  They also add on the 22 inch rims, the mud grappler grip tires, and shinny silver rims.  They always feel the need to gun it on the accelerator at every light.  They generally have some sort of trimmed beard, and of course tattoos.  Its screaming...hey look at me, Im bad ass.  Seen many of these in Ft Mac and Grande Prairie.

D) Obvious Trend Follower -  Now don't get me wrong, any of these following products I mention does not make you a douche, but if you put a few of them together, and about 1 year after they had come out on mainstream...your well on your way.  Brands such as Ed Hardy, Yankees hat, shirts that have Diesel written large on the front, and so forth.  Its basically someone spending a lot of money on purr hype alone.  I never did understand the $60 t-shirt.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Occupy Calgary, government, and Canada in general

I've been posting on Lonely Planet for about a year, giving travel advise on Canada, Thailand, and the US in general.  Recently the topic of "Occupy" came up.  One guy in particular (busman7), spewed so much crap on how Canada's capitalism was the worst in the world, our heathcare sucked, and so on and so forth.

Against Jens interest, here are a few phrases from his website...


  • When times were good, before capitalism ran amok, we in the middleclass were too busy living the dream to pay attention to the increase in the simple serpent sector, where more & more, of these nonproductive citizens, waddled up to the trough to slurp the life blood from the economy. The top tier also formed little fiefdoms where trod over the rights of the taxpayers who paid their bloated salaries. The rich were making too much money (and still are) to care, those too lazy to work were well looked after on welfare to worry & of course the politicians were busy lining their pockets to care what was happening.
  • Some/most lived their lives as wage slaves doing the bidding of others but receive some form of pension to augment the pittance the simple serpents deem adequate for productive members of society. They may even also have savings that bring next to nil interest in a bank account or they can gamble on the, elite controlled, stock/bond markets.
  • Yep it’s a great society we, in the west, have let the government simple serpents fashion for us.

As you can see, guys like this are not a positive contribution to society....hmmm, this kinda reminds me of... OCCUPY.  What you have is a bunch of bums in their 20s-40s loitering in public spaces because the feel they were wronged.  They feel the rich are greedy, the poor are forgotten.  What you have is people who feel they are in a unique situation...when really, this has been going on for centuries.  Dont hate the rich.  First, look into the mirror, then judge.

It takes elbow grease, long nights studying, 2 jobs, trial and error, and so forth, to have any chance of getting ahead.  It is waaaay too easy blaming the government.  Think about it; these leaches are squatting on weekdays...they are not working....which as a result, wont be able to afford rent.  ALL my friends are doing fine, why, because they are all normal citizens contributing to society.  Some work for themselves, some for unions, some for oil companies, but all do what it takes to get by, and even prosper.  They don't fight for clean heroin injection sites, they don't fight for better welfare, or better credit card rates.  

2 groups come under fire for our "apparent" sad times...Banks and the PC government.

A)  Banks (I will agree) have several bloated salaries in every organization, BUT, crazy enough, our powerful evil banks here in Canada (some of the best in the world) helped our country and others get out of our last recession.  Unlike the US and Europe, we came out of it very rosy (compared to the rest of the world).  We all should be happy our money is as stable as it is.  When you see something work for DECADES....why not join them, I did.  I bought their stocks and enjoy a healthy dividend every quarter.  Why fight it like the occupy morons.

B)  PC's.  Il make this quick.  One of the better governments I've seen in a long time.  Gun registry...gone, Senators...soon to be gone, murder rates, falling.  No one else had the balls to do this, but its the right choice, just not clear to some of these urban folk.  They put our economy first...and from that, everything else follows.  We then will have the funds for the environment (where current progress is quite impressive), the infrastructure, the arts (yawn), and so forth.

People, we are in good times, not oppressive times.  There is potential to make money out there, if you look.  So get off your lawn chair, step away from your $20 organic granola, and dream big, because its not all doom and gloom as made out by these oppressive douches...hmmm, that reminds me....

Test Test, first ever blog haha


Just trying this out.  Just trying to find a place to vent, to express myself without pissing off people who don't want to hear it.  I'm sure IL only get a handful reading my future posts, but at least my muzzle will be monitored;)

WARNING!WARNING!  There is a 95% chance you will disagree with many of my opinions, post if you may, but if you know me, I'm very passionate on my ideals;)