Well, I guess it's time to share this with you all, just to make a few of you realize how easy your life is, and why you can't really justify petty complaints about High School stuff... or other common "Life Sucks" related events.

See, as many of you know, I work at a construction site, 100 km's north from a small town called Baie-Comeau, in Quebec. I work nightshift, so that's already a bit tougher than usual on a person, especially on the biological clock. (ever spend two weeks without seeing the sun in your "active" time of day?) But, another life changing experience I've had there, is working with Natives. I look at this people, and I see they have a serious problem. You probably all know a large majority of Natives are serious alcoholics, but you only see the tip of the iceberg, until you work side by side with them. It's really frustrating sometimes, when you see a really great person, jeopardize most of their money, and time, with booze. Let me show you how serious it is.

I have a workmate, 26 years old Native American, with the same salary as I (around 800 per two weeks). Last weekend, he said he drank half of his pay. In two days, he managed to spend around 400$ in booze. And that's not an isolated case, most natives living on the Reserve have this problem.

So, that's the second thing I had to get used to in these past months. but I'm not done yet.

Usually, I'm a janitor, cleaning up offices and such at the different areas of the Site, and on weekends, I'm Off Duty. But you know, at a place like this, there's always someone, Native or white, that doesn't go to work, because they're either too drunk, or forgot they had to work since they spent their evening at the bar (yes, there's a bar at this site.)

So, because of this, I ended up working at the bar last saturday (the week before the 20th). I lost a good deal of respect for many people there. I had to play bouncer for most of the evening, a "workmate" (I have a hard time calling a 60 year old alcoholic a workmate,, but anyway...) of mine, who was "supposed" to be at work, was at the bar, and started brewing trouble, he fought, and when the barmaid tried to kick him out, he pushed her away. So.. The little 17 year old Seb had to push out a drunkard away from this bar. It's not easy. Not in the pure strenght factor, but on the mental side... There's something unnatural about this, Y'know? One shouldn't have to resort to strenght to calm people.

And then, the final side, the dangerous people. On last thursday, I had to get the same barmaid out of trouble, but this time, from a madman. This guy's a devil, that's the best way I can describe it. He just got out of jail 6 months ago, charged with 5 murder conspiracies. He's the kind of guy that can pull out a .45 on your back anytime... It's not fun to deal with that kind of people, especially when you have more than yourself to worry about.

Just to say, Don't think you have it hard in school, or in a general normal life with part time job after hours, because you'll pretty much be out of it when it comes to genuine trouble.

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* Seb goes around singing "I'm too sexy for my body"
* Wolfy goes around singing "I'm too sexy for Seb's body"
* Cave_Demon steals Seb's underwear (underwear stolen: 39)

Living in quebec myself, I can back that up. I've spent some time with natives (spent a week in a village once), and it really is a big problem. It's pretty sad to watch at times.

And yes, I do know how it is to not see the sun for a week.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

Been there, guys. I used to work on nightshift, and it sucks royally. And I can vouch for Natives drinking a lot as well. I can also say a lot of other things they do as well, but I don't go around and bash people for their lifestyle. I just mind my own business, and if I get help along the way, all the better.

No matter, it's still a wonderful life. Enjoy!

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I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore, I am perfect.

Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive days I've stayed alive.

[url="mailto:Bruintone@netscape.net"]mailto:Bruintone@netscape.net[/url]Bruintone@netscape.net</A>
Yahoo! Name : jedibruintone77

Thats pretty hardcore man. Puts alot of stuff into perspective.

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Rock n' Roll

oh yeah, to clear things, I'm not complaining, and I'm not judging natives for that either. They're great people when sober, and I really enjoy this kind of life, despite some of the dangers, I just wanted, as Penny just said, to put things in perspective for some of you. =D

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* Seb goes around singing "I'm too sexy for my body"
* Wolfy goes around singing "I'm too sexy for Seb's body"
* Cave_Demon steals Seb's underwear (underwear stolen: 39)

So.. made any new songs?

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Map-Review | Digital Core | The Matrix: Unplugged

Farewell, MaDaVentor. In our hearts, you'll always live on.

I'll never ***** about grammar again.

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"When all else fails, eat pie."
-¬thoughts from beyond observance

thanks for posting this, it really did put things into perspective, and got me thinkin

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One ring to rule them all. One to find them. One ring ti bring them all and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

[This message has been edited by Arkon11 (edited December 22, 2003).]

good luck with those people, we have that problem here too, its just sady some days


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" You killed me. That wasn't very nice."
Noble Gases

All of your problems are petty selfish concerns you ought to completely disregard, because my problems...

lol that comment sums up this thread so well.

Can't say I know what it's like Seb, but I feel for you.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

To some degree I think that's true, and it's big of you to point out that other people have bigger problems than you, but you can take that too far. There will always be people worse off than you ... like...unless you're one of the people starving in Ethiopia or whose parents died of AIDS in South Africa...but that obviously doesn't preclude someone who just broke up with his girlfriend from grieving.

No. I was not bragging about my problems, since it's my problem, I just think it's sad for those people, and I guess it's to tell you all that a lot of horrid things don't always happen faraway.

There was no "hidden" intentions about this post, so don't search for conspiracies where there are none.

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* Seb goes around singing "I'm too sexy for my body"
* Wolfy goes around singing "I'm too sexy for Seb's body"
* Cave_Demon steals Seb's underwear (underwear stolen: 39)

It sucks.
I lived in North Bay, Ontario to go to college. It's the 'gateway to the north' in Ontario.
Anyway, a friend of mine from Hamilton got kicked out of his house (he's a serious trouble maker and pure entertainment to hang around) and he had to go live with his granparents. Turns out they lived on a little reserve called Jocko Point about 25km west of North Bay.
I would go to his grandparents every weekend for dinner and fishing and stuff.

I have always been a sympathizer for native troubles because it's a fact that most of thier social problems have been forced upon them by both the governments of our countries and the church.
To see how these peolple lived made me want to cry.
It was the law that, a native male that turns 18, still living on the reserve, has a house built for him. All, 100% of these houses, were destroyed within a couple of years.
Very few of them had jobs because no one will hire them. Drunk or sober. They have a stereotype.
I dated a native for about 8 months when I was younger. Almost all her uncles spoke frequently of thier mistreatment as a people by the government and the church. More than African-americans do about slavery. Yet for some reason they have no soap box to stand on. No one wants to hear it. The general attitude is, 'Shut up and accept it already.'
I dare anyone to say that to the Jews or to and Afircan-american. You know what would happen if you did.

The facts are as follows,

• until 1967 in this country, native children were taken by the church, stripped of thier clothing and punished (beaten) if they spoke thier native language or practiced thier native religions. A large percentage by comparison were also sexually abused by thier pastors. It was our most recent Prime Minister, Jean, that stopped that (he truely is an incredible man when you really look at what he has done during his political career).
• It has been a struggle and a fight up until this day for native people to get thier land back from the government.
  I urge anyone who wants to debate this point to go to thier local public office and request a copy of the contracts for land between the governments of our countries and the native people.
  It would be the exact same as if you went to the car dealership and bought a car. Signed on the dotted line and paid full in cash. The next day the dealership takes the car back and theres not a thing you can do about it. When you go there to try and argue and get it back, they kill half of your family while you watch. NO EXAGERATION!!
• Almost all claims by natives go unheard. Laugh like most people if you want, but what would the jewish community do if someone named a football team after them call the Penny Pinchers and then thier 'fans' came up with a derogatory chant and made motions of bending over and picking up pennys from the ground? You know it would be impossible to do that. How about a team called the Brooklyn Bro's with helmets painted to look like afro's. You'd get lynched.
  Then why do people tell native rights activists to 'Go home!' when they attend a Braves game and ask for the name of the team to be changed?

How does anyone expect these people to feel or react?

I can't go on or this post will be way too long and no one will read it.

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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

Well they weren't completely unheard. The oka crisis brought alot of attention to it.

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When bread becomes toast, it can never go back to being bread again.

That's because they blocked the road and pulled out automatic weapons.

The govenment made Oka a reserve deacdes ago. During the war they 'borrowed' it to train with the condition that it would be returned to the native community when the war ended. It was not returned. They were asking for it back for 40 YEARS.
Only when the owners of that land blocked the raod and pulled out automatic weapons did anyone say, 'Hey, what's seems to be going on over there.'


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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.