Canada's most evil Canadian gets the Order of Canada
07.09.08 (3:42 pm) [edit]Even if you are an abortion doctor, chances are, you are too squeamish to perform abortions on fetuses as late-term as Dr Henry Morgentaler. Nevertheless, the number of abortions he has performed were too few, and the lateness of these abortions were too early for whomever it is that decides who gets awarded the Order of Canada.
Hmm... well, a little research tells me that it is an advisory panel. It comes as little surprise that it is not our democratically elected prime minister or cabinet. But don't advisory panels just advise? Who's the final decision up to? Perhaps the governor-general gives approval, but like all her decisions, they are usually purely ceremonial, and always approvals. So it seems what we have here is a very small group of appointees who have decided on behalf of the whole country and Her Magesty the Queen, to relegate us to the abject level of Morgentaler's grisly practise.
You know what these means, don't you? It means everyone qualifies for the Order--even Clifford Olson. I'm usually reluctant to mention Olson in public, since we gets off on his notoriety. The more people hate him, the happier he is. In the 80s he killed a handful of children and youths, and then wrote his victims' families from jail taunting them--truly an evil Canadian. But I will mention him to say that as serial killers go, his numbers against Morgentaler's make him look like Mr. Dressup (someone who does deserve membership in the Order, even before Morgentaler was let in).
The CBC's message to kids
05.03.08 (11:41 pm) [edit]This morning I was listening to Go on CBC radio, which seems to be a program targeting teens. This show's theme was couples and relationships, and hosted in Edmonton, Alberta and so they had 3 couples, whom were made to run the gaultlet of game show-like challenges based on that theme.
One of the couples was two guys! Mr Kidd and Mr Wint. Wow, I didn't know Edmontonians were so *shudder*... progressive!
Seal hunt
04.05.08 (12:08 am) [edit]Well, we're in another seal-hunting season again, and once again the livelihood of a group of agrarian maritimers is being threatened by a smug gang of bleeding hearts. Fortunately, Paul McCartney stayed home this year. Unfortunately, the European parliament has gotten an economic boycott of Canadian products underway, to apply pressure to the seal hunt. It's gotten so bad that members of the industry have gone to Europe to try to educate those bleeding hearts on the fence to come down on their side.
It's not enough that the head of the... Sea Shepherds(?) called the seal hunt a greater tragedy than the death of those 2 sealers, or used fanatical, over-the-top rhetoric to describe the hunt—we've all come to expect that from animal rights activists. What I find really disturbing is a letter to a local newspaper prophesying that those sealers' deaths was God's judgement. Why did they publish that letter? That is just pathetic.
Ok, I've flamed the bleeding hearts enough. After having said all that, I should point out that I think it's a good thing that the activists are at least there. From what I've gathered, it appears that at one time or another, the seal hunt has not been as humane as it should be. That could be very old news, but the danger that sealers might get complacent and expedient in their hunting will always make the existence of activists worthwhile. Because of all the bleeding-hearted attention, the sealers are no doubt being kept very honest and on their best behavior. So I think we have good balance between activists who are enjoying partial success in embarassing the sealers straight, and a seal hunt that is not banned, and presumably well regulated by the government. Where I don't see balance is in the European parliament and in the newspaper I read this morning. Sheesh!
Now if the abortion industry experienced half the scrutiny that the sealing industry does... well, we'd be on our way to a perfect world (and we all know that there's no such thing as a perfect world).
Freedom of expression and government handouts
03.12.08 (10:25 pm) [edit]Boy the Canadian film industry is sure up in arms about this bill (C-10) that would exclude films from government tax credits if their material is, shall we say, "offensive"&mda sh;at least, that's what all the pundits are saying. Usually they are saying this at the same time they are calling it unqualified censorship. I don't know if I'm for or against this legislation, but the more I hear hotheads like Atom Egoyan bring the long battle against censorship into this, the more I like it. This whole debate reminds me of the hypocrisy behind the freedom of expression concept, that it only be to the benefit of liberals. If censorship is the government not subsidizing movies sometimes, then I guess censorship is not such a bad thing.
I'm all for censorship then! Bring it on!
The Teddy Bears' Picnic
01.08.08 (6:55 pm) [edit]If you go out in the woods today you're sure of a big surprise
You're darn tootin'!
If you go out in the woods today you'd better go in disguise
I stumbled upon a teddy bears' picnic today, and, boy, it was not pretty. I was without a weapon, body armour, or any other protective clothing. It was like dreaming I was naked in church or something.
If you go out in the woods today you'd better not go alone
It's lovely out in the woods today, but safer to stay at home
Boxing Day and sports in real life
12.26.07 (5:45 pm) [edit]I like sports. I used to play a whole lot of them, but none of my friends are into it anymore, so I don't get to participate much. But I've also come to realize that sport instinct can be applied to other elements of everyday life--now that I can't play the real thing anymore.
I used to be into amateur radio, but then the Internet came along, and the need to work a complicated radio in an unreliable medium to communicate w/someone half way around the world evaporated. Communication just became too easy, and the sport in building a power supply, antenna tuner, antenna tower, and getting the right radio was lost. (And the sport of building the radio was lost before I got into it)
I remember around 15 years ago I yearned for a sound card for my computer. Now that I've graduated and have a job that gives me a comfortable income, I can afford all the computer hardware I want. There was sport in lusting after computer hardware that I couldn't have (like I do after a flat-screen TV) and looking for the next best deal, but no more. Not only that, but I don't even like upgrading my hardware, because the next generation CPU takes more power, which creates more heat, and you have to have noisier and more numerable fans in your box. Getting new hardware is no fun anymore.
And today is Boxing Day. Over the past week I've been telling people that I intend to buy some x-country skiing equipment on Boxing Day, and their wide-eyed stares betrayed their incredulity. Most of them would deprecate the madness that this day is. Well, when I walked into the mall today, 15 minutes before the sporting goods store I targetted opened, I looked around, pounded my chest and said "I was born for this!" I haven't been shopping on Boxing Day in over 15 years, so I didn't really know what it's like. Unfortunately, I knew what I was going for, and so I went straight to the department that had the ski equipment and picked out my kit. So I didn't get to enjoy the rough and tumble of going from place to place, fighting through crowds, stepping on countless toes, witnessing fist-fights, and the like. I did get stuck in a mini-jam in the parking lot trying to leave, but I never like traffic anyway. And I only got to hear one irately long horn as I was walking to my car.
So I guess I'm just going to have to do this again next year, and the year after that! Maybe I'll go for something a little hotter, and more leading edge, like a flat screen TV! Until then, there's always eBay.
The Golden Compass and the endurance of the church
12.08.07 (12:11 am) [edit]From what I hear, the Golden Compass is due to be released soon. I've also heard that there is a lot of controversy surrounding the anti-religious message it is based on. So how come I've not heard of this movie outside of the secular media? So, far I've heard of the movie (along with the "controversy") in the newspaper, on the radio, and the Air Farce did a sketch where a religious zealot pickets a movie cinema and slams Ian McKellen for being gay. I don't think Christians are paying as much attention to, and giving this movie nearly as much negative publicity as it would like.
This calls to attention the bragging rights of the church: that it has been able to withstand 2000 years despite some very determined efforts to snuff it out, and a lot of liberal ideologies that could not completely penetrate it. And the church withstood these attacks because of its intrinsic value, and not by any ideologically artificial means. Islam, on the other hand, owes its success to conquest and coercion; it does not easily tollerate dissent.
So Chistians aren't making a fuss about this movie, because it is not a threat. The church has squared-off against far more serious adversity. No, the church owes its legitimacy to things like the Golden Compass.
Spin-doctoring and entertainment
09.23.07 (10:01 pm) [edit]On 60 Minutes today they had Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Boy did he ever look like a fish out of water. Sometimes the interviewer would ask him some very direction questions like "do you plan on making a nuclear bomb" or "are you sending weapons into Iraq" and he as the interviewer put it, he'd "dance" around the question, w/out answering it. If you ask me, he danced with 2 left feet. This is not without its predictability. Clearly he thought he'd make better connections with the west by doing this interview, but even more clearly he belongs to a political universe that has never known democracy or the free press. He needs to learn about spin-doctoring, smooth-taking, and good old brown-nosing. Here's what I think he did wrong:
- Firstly, he should have dictated better terms for the interview. No matter what your political power is, you always have the power of veto over an interview if the interviewer insists on asking questions you don't like. So he should have told the 60 Minutes guys to make their questions less direct, and not give them the luxury of returning with complaints about his answers.
- None of this was the first thing that came to my mind watching the interview. My first thought was boy is this frustrating! He needs to know how to make his answers more entertaining. In this dumbed-down age you need to use your charm (or whatever charm your advisors instill in you) to make your audience like you. If you have opened yourself up to taking a direct question requiring a yes or no answer, you have to appear to give a yes or a no, but then also give your answer a bouquet of baloney.
Advance fee scams
09.17.07 (11:00 pm) [edit]Just the other day my 11-year-old niece was stung by an advance fee fraud. Fortunately, the sting wasn't very deep, in that the scammers didn't get any money, but my niece must have been very disappointed. This has woken me up to rather a lot of advance fee scams I've come across over the years. It seems to be a very popular formula, and I was given the impression that this one was legal (although I'm not sure I believe that) which makes me wonder why these things aren't even more popular. Here are some of the ones I've come across:
Nigerian 419
Everyone knows about this one... well, almost everyone, or it wouldn't work. Someone needs to ship millions from an African country into an off-shore bank account (your account) and just needs a few measly 1000 to get it started.
Loan fees
I saw this on a news magazine. You apply for a loan, and pay a fee. You're turned down for the loan, but they fee is not refundable. At this point they stonewall you. According to the report, a fee on a loan application is never appropriate.
Modelling fee scam
There's what happened with my niece. They told her she was perfect, and that she's exactly what they are looking for, and exactly what The Bay or whatever is looking for, she'd be a star, make a really big wad of cash and just needed 300$ to get started. My brother-in-law had the unenviable task of waking her up and refusing the fund the scam. Of course, she was all stary-eyed and wasn't ready to hear this. In the end, he managed to get out of it without looking like a bad guy, and the crooks didn't get anything out of her.
Other occupational service scams
I could have got stung by this one. It was the summer of 2003. I had my B.Eng for half a year now, and was having a hard time getting someone to hire me in this post-dot COM bust. It was very frustrating. So here I was throwing around resumes, cold calling, checking job postings, and combing Monster.ca when I get a call. Some guy from an employment agency is giving me tips on my resume and showing a great deal of interest. I could tell he felt that he could make some money off of me, so why didn't these other employers think so? Then he says "gimme 1500$". Ah-ha! A guarantee of a job is worth 1500$; even a fair chance at a job is worth 1500$, but this didn't seem right at all. I never did find out if this was a scam, but it might have been something in between a scam and a very worthwhile service. I don't regret my decision.
Lottery scams
I heard on the radio the other day that there are several hundred telemarking scams running out of Montreal. The only example I was given of a scam here was one where the scammer cold calls Americans, tells them they won the lottery, and need to send a small fee to receive it. Apparently a lot of seniors fall for this one.
For me, the bottom-line is a pretty small one: if someone tells you that you are worth a great deal of money, and asks for a very small percentage to unlock your potential, then don't expect that start-up money to come from my bank account. If I represent a lot of capital that isn't money, then the capital that is money should come from elsewhere.
Cape Horn, here I come!
08.28.07 (12:43 am) [edit]And I hope I will speak those words someday. I have this impluse to sail around Cape Horn... the wrong way... in winter. I may never. This isn't something you just get up and do. It requires a lot of follow-through, and before I could finish any follow-through, I might forget why I wanted to do this in the first place.
It seems so lonely and peaceful down there, doesn't it, down in that belt where there's hardly any land? Actually, for that very reason, that belt is known as the "furious 50s" (being in the 50s°S). Without any land to get in their way, storms race around that part of the world, and then some when the Andes force storm power down to 56°S. This is why sailing around the Horn is such a rush, and half the reason the Panama Canal was dug.
So why would I want to sail through such a treacherous and stormy part of the world? I guess because in some ways it is peaceful down there. It's a part of the world that nobody has much use for, so no one goes there. So, as long as I'm sailing somewhere remote, with no one to bother me, I might as well sail the Mount Everest of boating. Another key reason is that Gordon Lightfoot has a song about it. Now how does it go...
See them all in sad repair
Demons dance everywhere
Southern gales, tattered sails
And none to tell the tales
Randy Bachman, what a flake
08.23.07 (11:40 pm) [edit]I heard Randy Bachman on CBC radio a while ago. He was being interviewed, but I don't know what for. It was probably just for his favourite issues. At one point he was asked about his Mormon past. He went on to talk about his departure from the Mormon church, and claimed that there's this worldwide movement in many churches to leave organized religion and "get into the spiritual thing" and "the earth thing". I suppose it could be true, that a large number of people could be leaving certain denominations for a do-it-yourself kind of philosophy that is vague and groundless--as surely as it could be true that Bachman is full of it! I wish I had some kind of talent that comes off very well on stage, that could make me a household name, then I could say that there's this worldwide movement to... I dunno... play the Ultima games. 'Ever heard of it? Of course not! Because no one with mass media access has ever wanted to over-represent it by dressing up its popularity as an astute obvservation!
This reminds me of the time when I saw Burton Cummings on some daytime TV talk show. As part of a greater point he mentioned that he believed in reincarnation. My thoughts at that point were boy, what a flake! Not that it is necessarily flakey to believe in reincarnation, but the way he said it and the context and everything made me feel like he's bit off more than he can chew in deciding how the world works. Then he played Stand Tall, and I realized just how hollow a song it was, with its vacuous lyrics and overly emotional overtones.
No, the Guess Who should stick to what they're good at, which is making great music. Who cares how they've extrapolated their soft, superstar lives to the supernatural?
Now all the world will know what the Toronto police are like!
07.21.07 (1:00 am) [edit]Well it seems that the Metropolitan Toronto Police have brutalized some Chilean soccer players. It's hard to know exactly who was at fault, but the Chilean government is so certain that the police were, they are making an official complaint to our government, and the Toronto police aren't in any position to expect support from me. But now that they've stomped on some foreign semi-dignitaries, well they might as well have been in front of a movie camera. I don't know how big this is in international news--it seems to be on the front page of all the Chilean newspapers--but if this gets media attention in other countries, now the whole world will know that the Toronto police are just a bunch of corrupt goons impersonating police officers!
The police are just one of the many reasons I hate Toronto. The last time I was there, those 5-0 yo-yos picked the wrong punk tax payer's head to stomp. I'll bet they were sure surprised to realize how intelligent, articulate and pissed off I was, when I filed my complaint.
Correction: stupid Muhammad Ali mask
05.28.07 (11:19 pm) [edit]It turns out that Ray Emery's mask does not have the image of Mike Tyson on it after all. I didn't think it looked like him. He took that one off after pressure, and put on the more acceptable Muhammad Ali mask. Somehow I find that more irritating. Probably because Muhammad Ali was a more irritating guy. Tyson may be a few things, but he's not that irritating.
So, the Ducks have won game one in the Stanley Cup finals, so now I'm hoping the Duck sweep the Senators to get that stupid Muhammad Ali mask off my screen ASAP. Then hopefully next season Emery will lose the mask, or Ottawa will lose the regular season.
Why I think the Sens should lose
05.11.07 (11:12 pm) [edit]Well, we're into the conference finals, and game 1 between Ottawa and Buffalo was last night. I find myself hoping that Buffalo will win as soon as possible so I don't have to look at that irritating Mike Tyson mask that Ray Emery wears. Unfortunately, last game the Sabres didn't give any indication that they are the team to get rid of that stupid mask. *sigh*
When Harry Met Sally Finale
03.28.07 (12:07 am) [edit]Well, she finally did it, just like in the movie. Actually, the title is a little confusing. I chose "Sally" as a nickname for my friend, because we are just friends, have no intention of being more than that, but people don't seem to understand that When Harry Met Sally was just a movie, and that men and women can be friends w/out the sex part getting in the way. Well, in the end Sally did get married, but that doesn't really have a parallel in the real world, because Harry represents everyone who thinks there's more to our friendship.
But, just like the movie, Sally got married in the end, and that's what my Sally did. And just like the weatherman predicted, it rained and snowed. Fortunately, it's good luck to have rain on your wedding day.
I found out a few days before that my chariot was going to be getting her to the church on time, so I went out and got some discreet fairy decorations for my car that nobody really noticed anyway in the end. I also made the effort to put on my summer tires, which have these lovely mags on them, rather than the ugly capless rims my winters have. I arrived sometime after noon and was disappointed to discover she was sick. Her boss made her sick, and on the day before he made her work. She wasn't quite right as rain by Saturday. Fortunately, it's good luck to be sick on your wedding day.
So, the photographer took some pics of us getting ready, of me eating day-old pizza. And while he took some bogus pics of her getting into the backseat of my car with her dress on (but got pics of her arriving at the reception hall in my front seat) I tried to get every speck of dust and grime off my car and my lovely mag wheels. Of course, with all the Canadian winter crap washed off my car, I was able to see the first scratch on the body. Fortunately, it's good luck to have the resale value of an expensive possession drop sharply on your wedding day.
So, we got to the reception hall, and were quickly wisked away into a back room where we waited for people to show up, and Sally had me hunting for stuff to blow her nose into. Eventually, I led her to the front, she kissed me on the cheek, and I sat down beside her mother. Her dad's dead, btw, which is why I got to perform that duty.
I thought the ceremony was a little weird. Everyone seemed to think it was appropriate to make wisecracks from the peanut gallery, and the guy who was doing the wedding (I don't know what to call him. He's not a religious minister, nor is he a justice of the peace. He's more like an RCMP officer, but in religious-looking garb) wasn't short of wisecracks. My family was also there, and my toddler-niece was rather unruly. She hadn't had a nap that day, so she was not easy to deal w/. Fortunately, it's good luck to have a cranky baby on your wedding day.
There ceremony didn't last all that long, then it was pictures, and the reception. I scored big when I went up to the best man and asked him if he knew who the blonde chick was in flip-flops. He asked if I liked her, and then told me it was his daughter. I know what you are thinking, but his reaction was the opposite of that. He tried to introduce me to her, and immediately started talking about his other daughter's bfs, and how much of bozos they are, and how I'd be a great catch! What bothered me the most about this is not the idea of being fixed up by a girl's dad after just putting my foot in my mouth, or that she's half my age. No, what creeps me out the most is having too few degrees of separation between me and this guy. His first impressions were pretty bad. First of all, when I initially laid eyes on him, I thought he looked like he'd been through a combine harvester. Less superficially, however, Harry joked that my title was "maid of honour", for lack of something more appropriate, so this guy starts making spoofs about me being gay. Being that familiar before having my acquaintance for the 30th second makes a bad impression.
So the reception got underway, after the happy couple went around all the tables and spoke to everyone. I wish I hadn't had so much bread at that time, because the chicken was wonderful! The cake wasn't bad either. The icing was so finely crafted that a lot of people wondered if some of it was plastic. It had a strange gooey texture. My nephew wanted to sit at the empty space at the head table for the cake. When I told him he'd have to wait until everyone got their cake before he could start on his, he decided he'd rather be at one of the regular tables. The strangest part of the evening was when a mouse actually showed up. I alerted one of the staff to it, but they never caught it. Fortuntely, it's good luck to have a vermin infestation on your wedding day.
So, nothing profound after that. My family went home when my niece ran out of patience, and Sally's co-workers went home w/out saying goodbye right after cake. Sally thinks it might be because one of the lesbian guests was hitting on one of them. I guess I'll find out on the weekend.
So let's all wish Harry and Sally the best. As some of you know, I've lost a bit of confidence in Sally to choose the right one, since she's been engaged twice which could only have lead to a distaster of a marriage. Ever since, I've been able to say she's been engaged 2x to the wrong guys, but she never married the wrong guy. I know that Sally would want to be in a failed marriage just as much as I would. But I guess she meant it this time.
Govn't's mudslinging apology to Arar
01.29.07 (11:32 pm) [edit]I heard Steven Harper apologizing to Maher Arar on the radio the other day. In the typical mudslinging style, popular with the Tories these days, they took the advantage to point out that the Liberals are to blame for Arar's ordeal, since this happened on their watch. To his credit, of what I heard, that was the only mention of something negative and uncontrite.
This reminds me of a comment made by Rex Murphy about Bill Clinton's apology from way back when Y2K was the 2nd biggest thing in the news. He compared it against Martin Luther King Jr's "dream" speech, or JRK's "do for your country" speech, wherein both had the nation's attention, and had the opportunity to rail against their opponents. This was a moment for either great healing or great hurting for the nation. MLK and JRK went for healing, but Rex felt Clinton wasted the moment on a relatively petty matter. I may have forgotten the finer points of his commentary, but at the time I didn't really agree that Clinton was all that opportunistic or scathing. I'd say that about Harper. For those of you who don't know, Maher Arar is a Syrian-born Canadian who was the victim of overzealous anti-terrorist intelligence gathering by the Americans and Canadians. CSIS informed the Americans that Arar was suspected of being an Al-Qaeda operative, so he was out-sourced to Syria where he was tortured. This decent, hard-working, family man's link to Al-Qaeda turned out to be completely vacuous, but none of that mattered to the Syrians, and in the end, Arar was awarded 10M$ in a settlement for his troubles. So, after all the work that appointed civil servants did (such as the Arar inquiry) our top elected official was placed in a situation where all eyes were on him for the moment, and I've already explained what he did about it.
One of my favourite mudslinging apologies was by Alexa McDonough, way back when Clinton was nothing more to us than a liberal disaster waiting to happen (i.e. the beginning of his presidency). She was called upon to apologize for the snide remarks someone in her party made in applying Nazi images to the Reform Party. She started off with an explicit appology, but then immediately went into the possible causes for the remarks, and just how Reform could have provoked it. The news piece was cut short before she finished. It was the depths of the recession, we needed any excuse to make outrageous accusations, like that of Nazism.
Montreal's marathon debt
12.19.06 (8:31 pm) [edit]Well, it only took 30 years, but Montreal has now paid off her debt for the 1976 Olympics. I guess now men can stop having babies as well.
For those of you who don't get it, Google 'drapeau olympics baby' and see what you find.
Sally's insecurity and the other woman
12.18.06 (12:50 am) [edit]Sally's always afraid that some woman is going to come into my life and bar her from it. Telling her that was rubbish, and that such a situation would be a sign that I was w/the wrong person wasn't enough. Looks like I have some partial evidence against now. Someone told me she didn't think it was a good idea to go further w/me, in part because she thinks I haven't gotten over my feelings for Sally. Well, of course I haven't gotten over my feelings for Sally, because you can't get over feelings you never fricken had! *Sigh* I can't wait to tell her the good news. At least for now I won't have to choose between a woman who's allergic to cats and cats.
Not that great, but not that bad
11.29.06 (10:48 pm) [edit]I guess there could be more insulting results:
Which OS are You?
Weddings and friendships pt 2
11.02.06 (11:03 pm) [edit]BTW, for those of you who are interested, and it seems a few are, I told Sally that I want to back her wedding the Saturday before last. She said she didn't want my money, so I said "that's ok, you don't get it, it's those money-grubbing wedding professionals that'll be getting it." She got teary, so I ended it w/telling her to think about it, and we'd talk about it later. I saw her last weekend and nothing was said. I think I'm going to bring it up again this weekend.
Don't tell her this, but I'm hoping one of the spin-offs of this would be to realize how serious a commitment she's getting herself into. I would consider it an enormous personal failure to be in a marriage that washedout--I'd prefer to be alone. I'm pretty sure she feels the same way. And like I said, I have no idea if this guy's right or wrong for her, I'm just concerned about her ability to make good decisions in this area.
I'll let ya know what she said on Sunday
Gambling
10.30.06 (10:45 pm) [edit]I don't understand the governments in this country. I do understand that government-owned gambling is a very politically safe way of raising revenue, but to think that it's so seductive a revenue source that our governments have turned to pushers.... well, it's unthinkable.
I'm impressed by the Americans. At least, as far as I can remember, lottery commercials on American TV and radio have solicited their wares by showing players having fun playing the lottery, and even sometimes going as far as saying "but you won't get rich". At their most amoral, they'll hype the size of the jackpot. Up here, the lotteries vividly portray people living the millionaire lifestyle.
I remember 10 short years ago thinking it was media hype that gambling is seen as "addictive". I knew that a psychological addiction to gambling was a real phenomenon, but not being a chemical addiction, it was in a different class, and therefore a different league--it was voluntary tax for people who're bad at math, but nothing more. Then one day I was sitting in a sports bar or something, which had VLTs in them, and there were people sitting in front of them, quite vigorously pumping coins into them. I didn't get the feeling that this activity was a subsidiary of the whole club experience, I got the feeling they were there principally for the VLTs. I became more open to the idea that the human psyche is more susceptible to addiction to gambling.
But the reason I'm posting this now, is because of a 5th Estate documentary recently, and other news reports I've heard since then. The documentary was mostly about the Ontario Lottery Corporation (a crown corporation) that was embarassed that a convenience store clerk had ripped off an old man, and were trying to sweep the whole affair under the rug, and stonewall the old man at the same time. The beginning of the documentary gave a brief report about how guys who do the lottery in California had discovered a similar fraud in their system, and then put a great deal of effort into finding the victim so he could be awarded his prize (another incident of Americans putting our governments to shame). Yesterday I heard a statistic on the radio, and I don't remember it clearly enough to quote, but it gave an alarming picture of how many suicides are precipitated by gambling addiction. And, of course, for every suicide there's certain rate of marriages that end, or criminal acts, or anything else that substance abuse could cause. And our own governments are doing this to us!
Weddings and friendship
10.09.06 (10:59 pm) [edit]Weddings can be a great way to bring out the worst in people. I remember a guy I know telling me how his best friend really lost it, and was yelling at people, and evening getting a bit physical.
For the most part, I imagine, the event is a very positive one, even for those who suffer the most amount of stress. However, for those who don't handle stress very well, they might be better off eloping. And no one handles stress with more weakness and despondency than Sally. I don't remember if I mentioned, but she's getting married in March (maybe) and I'm to give her away--her dad died before I met her. What I didn't mention is that she is also broke. She's maxed out her line of credit (5000CADs, instead of the regular 10000) and she even owes money to Visa. What's especially tragic about that, is that she doesn't deserve to be in debt. She's not one to blow a wad of dough on frivolous junk and then not have money to pay the rent; she's very good with money. The reason she's in this situation is that she has these unusual medical expenses that aren't very well covered, so her bank accounts (and RRSPs) are hamstrung by these various millionaire specialists whom she sees. So she's asked me to have the ceremony in my house.
According to my insurance company, my house is worth 220kCAD. For those of you who aren't familiar with real estate in this immediate area, my house is a little bit bigger than you might expect a 200lbs bachelor (and his 8lbs pussycat) to be living in, but it's awfully depressing to think someone wants to get married in it. She's also religious (Catholic) and attends mass every week, but she's not even being married by a priest (although, there could be other reasons for this, that she's not prepared to disclose).
So I think I'm going to tell her that I don't want her to get married in my house, or in any other house, and that I'm willing to do what it takes to get her a proper wedding. So now I've got to imagine the alternatives. Maybe I could break into a church, hold up a priest, and give a new meaning to "shotgun wedding". Or I could break in, subdue a priest, and have him perform the ceremony in a scopolamine-induced semi-coma. Ah forget it, I'll just use money to make it work.
I'm not without my concerns. I don't know how this might change our friendship. I don't know if she's the kind of person who'd feel like I'd have something to hold over her. Or it might just be more subtle and more irrational. It might be like when you do it with your co-worker as a one-off thing by mistake, and it gets all weird working with them after that. I dunno, I've never paid for a wedding before... or done it with a co-worker. Then there's what if she breaks another engagement? What if the engagement should be broken off, but she feels even more bound to follow through because of my involvement? I don't quite know how secure this engagement is. That doesn't mean I think he's wrong for her, just that a non-marriage outcome wouldn't surprise me in the least. And, if you read my last blog, you know that that's the sort of thing that I can't even begin to talk to her about.
Fortunately, emerging financial circumstances make bearing wedding expenses a little less ludicrous. But that's for another blog entry.
The best catch there is
10.01.06 (10:17 pm) [edit]I have this friend, who's my bestest friend in the whole world. I'll call her... I'll call her.... sheesh, I've got nicknames for everyone else in my life, but her. Fine, I'll call her Sally from When Harry Met Sally fame. You know it's just a movie, right, and men and women can be friends w/out the sex part getting in the way? Well, we've managed for several years now.
So the kind of friendship we've had is one wherein we'd always be seen together, so most people assumed we were boinking. It's much easier now that we aren't both single. But the friendship we have is one where we just... know each other. I felt so comfortable around her, and it just felt natural that she always was around. She also understand me more than anyone else.
She's also been engaged a few times. Each time but one has been proven to be to the wrong guy. The current time has yet to be proven either way. The last time she got very hurt by my attitude, whatever it was. When she announced her last engagement, I was bewildered because only a few months before she had told me she couldn't go back to feeling the way she used to about this guy. Even though I didn't raise any objection, but just reacted in the most natural way to the last thing I expected, she burst into tears and blah blah blah. Well, even after that engagement fell through, she found comments I was making very hurtful. Because she kept throwing me these sliders I had some prediction that a month before the wedding, I'd come back from vacation and find they'd broken it off. (She now has yesterday marked as "they day I almost made the biggest mistake of my life") She found this hurtful, which is probably why she's seemed more distant from me these last few months.
I don't understand this. I'm TheRockSays and that in itself has always implied that we could talk about anything. So how come all of a sudden I can't express some of the most basic and obvious thoughts on something extremely important w/out being grossly politically incorrect? And being TheRockSays, in its own right, has made me the 2nd most responsible party for making sure she doesn't end up w/the wrong guy. If I were interfering, that would be one thing, but I'm not putting her under any pressure at all. I'm caught in a catch-22 because I can't understand this problem w/out talking to her, but talking to her is key to whole the problem.
Least hated Canadian province
09.28.06 (11:38 pm) [edit]I'm sorry to say that Canada is probably the most regional, fractious federation in the world not on the brink of civil war. But the Canadian networks do their best to put on a brave face, and rip off Canadian Idol from the Americans, and The Greatest Canadian from the British. What I think is more cost-effective would be to figure out what's the least bad about something Canadian.
Like I just said, Canada is the most "regional" so let's sit down and talk about what the regions hate about each other. IMO all the beefs come down to three things:
- Economics
- Politics
- Hockey, one way or another
British Columbia
It's a nice place, actually, in terms of climate. However, it does rain quite a bit on the west coast. The only time I hear about them on the news, it's about drug addiction, and the spread of HIV, and prevention methods and controversies. I don't know much about their hockey team, the Vancover Cannots except for Todd Bertuzzi, who has a thing or two in common with Colin Thatcher (see Saskatchewan below). That can't be good. And just being a western province automatically loses them demerit points in the east.
Alberta
This one doesn't even qualify. Before we had the Reform Party, we had the Oilers so named for the vast amounts of a certain natural resources that raised the labour class's standard to living to that of Czar faster than you could say Kyoto protocol. And I'll bet the term "enforcer" made it into hockey-speak sometime after they got Gretzky. So if the ostentatious oil and Oilers weren't enough, then you get the Western/Alberta-based Reform Party. When this "protest party" broke 50 seats in the House of Commons in '92, they caught enough attention that their opponents figured it was about time they were branded as white supremacists. This didn't do much to hurt their effectiveness in the legislature (or it didn't reduce their numbers, at least) but at the height of the recession (or depth, depending on your POV) Alberta-shaped doormats sure got fashionable fast. As the economy picked up, and Reform merged with some of the Progressive Conservatives to form the Canadian Alliance, and then watered themselves down further by merging with the rest of the PCs to form the New Conservative Party, they lost some of their steam--or maybe I should say, the rest of Canada steamed less over Alberta. However, the fear-mongering retured for a whole new season as the Conservatives threatened to form a government. And now that they have, if Stephen Harper can manage to stay prime minister for another 6 months, he'll be the first non-Québecois prime minister I've ever had for as long as a year. So what do you think that's going to do to ease tensions?
I'll talk about Albertan exothermic hatred when I get to "equalization payments" later.
Beyond meta-fiction
09.12.06 (11:51 pm) [edit]Oddest thing happened to me yesterday. I was sitting around in Helmut Kohl Plaza--completely unaware that I was smoking a cigarette--and regarding the finest detail on the marble that lined the floors and much of the walls. Come to think of it, I really don't know how I knew that it was called Helmut Kohl Plaza, especially since it isn't. Anyway, there passed shoppers, and people exiting the subway, and probably their places of business, with their various BMIs, races, and cell phone usages. So I was basically experiencing a bunch of things in this very city that are not worth writing home about, or even blogging about under normal circumstances. So, you can imagine my surprised with the company I then met. A character known as Puddleglum approached me. This really blew ma mind.
Now, I know I'm in a plaza somewhere. And I haven't read a Narnia tale in quite sometime, but from what I remember, he is someone who is not supposed to be skulking about a 21st century shopping centre. This really bothered my world view. Here I was living a life in a world where capitalism is the best thing we got, broken marriages, shows like Bumfights, car accidents, dirty windows, pedophiles, home security systems, Eminem, and toothpaste with extra whitening, and here I am, forced to reconcile the presence of Puddleglum when I'm not even reading any book.
The only time I'd been to Narnia, I had seriously intended to put on a ring. (I know, you're supposed to actually put on a ring, but I was able to get there by intention) And that was supposed to be the only connection between this world an that. And in that world, all of that world was to stay--I was to be the only thing went from there to here.
So this was pretty embarassing, actually; talking to a fantasy-fiction character in a public place like this. Fortunately, I was able to behave very natural about the whole thing, and think I smoothed it all over very well. But I was till left with the problem of dealing with my old, awkward friend. I don't think he knew what to say, but he did make it clear that I wasn't going to get rid of him anytime soon. I'm dying to know what was going through his head, and shortly after he continued on his way. However, I will always have had that encounter for the rest of my days. Even though he took just about everything he was out of the building, at the very least, some of his dead skin cells were exfoliated, and I probably injested some of them. My imune system won't be in a big hurry to exorcise them, so they will linger in time. Then, of course, I can't rule out Narian magic, of which I know nothing about.
I wish they would leave me alone. If I can't go back to that stupid place, at least let me live consistently in this one. Bloody make-believe characters thinking they own the place.