Edmonton is becoming a more and more violent city. The employment boom has been enticing people from all over the country to move to the city over the past few years. This appears to have led to increased drug problems, the housing boom – making much of the rental housing unaffordable for lower/fixed income and the working poor – and homelessness. I’ve noticed an increase in crime since we moved to the city. That said, I still feel safer in Edmonton than I did when we lived in Winnipeg.

What is burning my biscuits this morning is a quote from the Edmonton Sun.

“It’s too close to my home. You hear something like this on the other side of town but not close to your place,” – Jo Hindal

Disclaimer: I don’t mean to pick on this woman in any way, shape or form. She’s just the most recent person credited with uttering the phrase in the local news. If someone else had said it I’d be crediting the statement to them… It’s the content of the statement I have an issue with, not the person who said it.

To me, this statement smacks of a NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude I’ve noticed a lot in Edmonton lately. First there were the people who don’t want Habitat for Humanity homes built in their neighbourhoods [here, here, and here] and prefer those type of people move into lower income neighbourhoods. Hicks goes so far as to write that “Nobody wants somebody (or something) “below” them moving in next door.” Living in a lower income neighbourhood that’s slowly starting the climb out, I can honestly say I’d welcome the Habitat homes and their owners. The owners really show a pride in their homes and work to integrate into the neighbourhood. Just because someone is poorer than you doesn’t mean that they’re somehow lesser than you. *grrrr*

But I digress. This rant was supposed to be about crime and murders and not housing.

Crime happens all over the city. Sure it’s a shock when something happens so close to you. But it’s time to face it, there’s no limit on where it’s going to occur. Fights and crime aren’t locked within preset boundaries within the inner city. Checking the locations of many murders in the city will quickly demonstrate how spread out these events are. It’s only a matter of time before they’ve occurred in everyone’s backyard. Unless something changes. That’s a terribly disturbing statement. I’m beginning to wonder what Edmonton’s tipping point will be? Would the broken window theory work here? Many people interviewed indicating hearing fighting but how many (if any) of them called police?

For the sake of balance, the broken window theory is criticised here and here. Robin Skyler Tell (2004) writes:

In Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy, Earls and his co-authors Robert Sampson and Stephen Raudenbush put forth the concept of collective efficacy, “defined as social cohesion among neighbors and their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good.” This collective efficacy, the study has shown, is the greatest predictor of neighborhood crime–not, it turns out, the windows, or any other symptom of “disorder.”

Whichever theory you subscribe to I think one thing is obvious. Everyone wants to see something done about the crime rate in Edmonton. There’s a significant amount of work that needs to be done on a community and social level. More affordable housing needs to exist. Community housing – with medical and psychiatric care facilities – needs to be increased for those with social or psychological issues. More importantly I think people need to stop turning their backs on disturbances and stop assuming that someone else will call the police or intervene. Chances are, that someone else is thinking the same thing.

The term live blogging is most often used to represent the action of blogging synchonously with an event – such as blogging about your impressions of a conference presentation as the presentation is taking place. Today I’ll be warping that definition a little. This isn’t a synchronous entry – I doubt security would have allowed me to bring my laptop into the concert – but it is all about LIVE.

The Venue at River Cree is an outdoor dome tent facility. Sounds like it would be a cold and boring place to attend a concert but actually it was quite cozy. I’m not certain how many people the facility will hold but it seemed there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. The sound was awesome. No grating or popping – even when the music seemed to be pounding straight through you (Lakini’s Juice anyone?). Granted, we were only 17 rows back and smack dab in the middle of the room with a great view of the stage.

It was hard not to feel sorry for the poor overworked memorabilia salesman. He manned the booth by himself for the duration of the night and was run off his feet. He was still setting up when we arrived but was juggling setup and selling at the same time. There was a wide variety of items for sale – including autographed lists of the song sets (we didn’t pick one up) and a great set of t-shirts. The prices were incredibly reasonable for a concert and a good 10-15$ cheaper than shirts we bought at other concerts in the past. Robin somehow managed to get the only copy of the Awake CD/DVD they were selling that contained only the song CD and not the DVD videos. The sales dude was awesome and quickly replaced her copy for the proper one.

The concert was filmed and notices abounded that your image could be captured on film and used without notice or compensation. Actually, according to the notices, entering the Venue was considered consent. If the images projected on the video screens during the concert are any indication, I won’t have to worry at all. My ugly mug doesn’t appear to have been caught on tape.

Those who chose to attend the concert were such a wide mix of ages and cultures. I think it’s a sign of how successful a band is when they cross not only generations (age) but also cultures.

Frontman and guitarist Ed Kowalczyk was bang on last night. His voice pure. He has one of the most expressive faces I’ve seen in a long time. Too often there was an impish gleam in his eyes that translated into a beautiful smile while he egged on the crowd. As always, lead guitarist Chad Taylor and bassist Patrick Dahlheimer were sublime. Drummer Chad Gracey was in a class of his own.

There was no opening act and the concert started on time. LIVE played a good mix of the popular tunes and their less known ones. Near panic struck the crowd when they ended the evening after an hour and fifteen minute set without playing Lightning Crashes and Lakini’s Juice. After the standard 2-5 minute screaming for more, they did return to the stage and play another 4 song mini-set that included both of the old standby’s. Despite a natural odd yet polite tendency for local concert attendees to sit (if seats are provided) during shows Heaven, The Dolphin’s Cry and I Alone all had the crowd up and dancing. Singing too. I think the butt in the seat thing is so we don’t block anyone’s view of the stage who happens to be behind us. Most likely re-inforced with shouts of “down in front” from the cranky group of guys behind us…

There’s really no way to improve upon the original man in black but LIVE’s version of I Walk The Line was superb. Just dark enough to capture the imagination and loud enough not to be drowned out by all the singing concert attendees. There was a sense of emotion and power in the concert rendition that isn’t captured in the recorded version on CD.

River Cree threw an after party at the Lounge but we decided to skip out on that after reviewing the line up. Well, that and I’m not really a clubbing type of girl these days. Since Live was apparently making an appearance at the club I may have missed out on a minute chance to meet the band but I think I can live with that. They’d have been swamped by the band bunnies beautiful people anyway.

When Live was in Edmonton opening for Nickleback a few months back they stole the show. It’s no surprise that they delivered an awesome concert experience last night and it was one of the best concerts I’ve attended in eons.

My exams have come and gone. All those hours days spent on completing online practice quizzes and reviewing flash cards appear to have paid off. I’m confident I passed the exam. What remains to be seen is the final grade. By my rough calculations it could be anywhere between 65-90%. I suck at judging how well I do on exams but I’m usually pretty accurate when it comes to pass/fail predictions.

To top off my day I spent the afternoon with my friendly neighbourhood (not really, he’s located 1/2 across town) dentist. On the 30 minute drive to see him I was nearly rear-ended 3 times by a cell phone toting drunk monkey. Granted, the first time she nearly hit me was BEFORE she picked up her cell phone. It wasn’t until she attempted to answer her phone that she had her second near miss and the third happened about 15 minutes into a 25 minute conversation. *sigh* I can’t believe how stupid some drivers can be. If you’re not paying enough attention to notice when the lights turn red and when the vehicles in front of you have activated brake lights on when you’re not on your cell phone what in the hell do you think you’re doing when you start juggling a cell phone between your hands and randomly stomping on your brakes.

The dentist appointment went as can be expected. Lots of care and concern. Jokes about biting and whether or not the members of the dental office read my blog (I have no clue if they do). It ended with another appointment being booked for 2 weeks from now. What can I say? I’m either a glutton for punishment or I want all the extra work done on my teeth before my awesome insurance turns into dull everyday type dental insurance.

On the drive home I was once again playing the “don’t rear-end me” game with the driver immediately behind me. This one was extra adventuresome as he chose to talk on his cell, smoke, and drink coffee while driving.

Earlier this week my boss felt obligated to remind me that I’m supposed to be celebrating finishing my courses and writing my exams and not piling on the torture. This, of course, was her response when I told her I had a dental visit scheduled for an hour after the exam. In honour of her sage advice I’m going to wave my LIVE tickets in the air for the next hour or so. *nyah* Yes, I have tickets to LIVE this evening. Assigned floor level seats in the second section. *thuuupppt*

End result: No karaoke planned for this evening but lots of great music on the horizon.

It’s O dark 30 and I’m just getting my butt in gear to toddle off to bed.  I’ve spent the last 6 hours taking online quizzes posted by the textbook publisher for my Psych text.  It’s supposed to help me self-check my knowledge and determine where my weaknesses lie so I can focus my studies.  With only one day left to cram for exams, I’m not sure how useful the process was.  I now know – and did before I began this journey – that I have a horrible memory for terms, names, and dates but no problems identifying elements of theories.  I guess I spend tomorrow playing with flashcards in the hopes that some of this sticks on Friday morning…

At least I have more fun to look forward to after my exam.  Return trip #1 to the dentist should cap off the day nicely.

My detailed fantasy life has the weather becoming very warm over the next few days and the 12+ inches of snow melting quickly. I’ve got my spring/summer theme ready to launch and as soon as I see grass again I’ll be hauling it out. You never know how long the nice weather will last around here.

In the meantime I need to hunker down and spend lots of time prepping for my exams.

I’ve reviewed my course notes enough times to know that I’ll likely forget it all the minute I step inside the exam room. Test anxiety is something I still haven’t managed to get a handle on. I’m one of those people who work extra hard on all assignments in order to have the best possible grade going into the exam. The day before the exam I can recite facts, figures, and theories off the top of my head but the minute I put a pencil into my hands and start writing I black out. Usually I can remember most of the theory. I just seem to have difficulty remembering the specific terminology. Of course, the minute I leave the exam room all the terms I’ve forgotten will return in a rush.

My final course pack for the summer semester arrived today. I also received a response from my adviser regarding future courses I need to complete the degree. After summer semester next year (yes, I’m looking at course details for 2009 already) I’ll have finished all of my core (required) courses and can concentrate all my energies on filling out my transcripts with interesting psych courses. I have 2 more history courses to complete – oh yay! – and am considering signing up for one that begins mid-way through the summer semester. It’ll start in July and end sometime in the fall. I think it’ll make for an interesting few months when it comes to course load but many courses are only offered once a year and delaying some of the core courses may result in my commencement being delayed.