Time for my bi-annual blogging...

So uh... been a few, months...

As usual when I have things to say, popular or not I feel like I'm much better at putting it into print rather than trying to say it with words. As some of my close friends may know I'm not the best at talking, and as my mother will likely attest, I'm not great at expressing my feelings out loud. For those of you that don't like it, that's just how I roll... deal with it.

There's been a lot of crap going on around me in the last 24 hours or so.  Nothing that directly affects me, but it makes my heart sad and makes me wish I could build a time machine and change things.  First off via the Facebook I find out that my friend has lost her baby daddy, friend, and fiancee to cancer. Several years ago I experienced the same thing when I lost my grandmother to cancer. I won't say it's exactly the same but I remember when I first found out I was shocked, but I kept my cool.  I remember my mom getting ahold of me and asking if I wanted to go to the funeral, which I wholeheartedly said yes to.  Most of the family flew out to BC for it I remember being "okay" right up until the actual funeral at which point something in my brain switched from "you've got this, you'll be alright" to "balling like a baby" mode. It hit me all at once, Cancer was a bitch and I'll never see my grandmother again.  So I can only imagine what she is going through having lost someone so incredibly close to her heart.  It's been a least a year that he was fighting with cancer, there were times where he seemed to be doing alright, and then he was in the hospital up in Saskatoon, next thing I know, bad news. Of course as soon as I found out I sent her a text letting her know I was around if she needed anything at all. I got no response, but that's not the point, I know she got it, she probably got hundreds of texts last night and why would she respond to all of them, or any of them. There are people much closer to the situation that will be there for her. I'm second string and I'll be there to step up if she needs it.

Then as icing on the proverbial cake, I'm doing a gig out of town in the small town of Gravelbourg SK today.  When I get to town I notice the internets have come to life with stories of a shooting in Connecticut. Some asshat took an assault rifle into an elementary school down there and opened fire killing 27 people and wounding 20 more. Of course the bulk of what I've seen is outcry for gun laws/gun control in the states. I'd say with the way things have gone in the past with this sort of thing if you have an issue with this, and you want the government to make some changes, MAKE THEM! I don't mean revolt, that would be backwards, but write letters, vote in whomever you need, do what it takes to get those that can to affect change to the existing laws (or lack thereof) and constitution. It may be every american's "right to bear arms" but that's like saying it's every axe murder's right to bear an axe. You don't give people the means to act out their sick fantasies, it's that simple. Instead anyone can go to Wal-Mart (or in some states even the gas station) and buy a weapon.  I'm not against people owning guns, but I am against anyone who wants a firearm being able to purchase one. In Canada anyone that would like to own firearms, restricted or otherwise has to pass a course. If you want your restricted (for handguns and the like) you have to pass two tests. Then you need references from people saying that they're pretty sure you won't go on a murderous rampage. Then you need to wait for your license to be processed before you can even buy a firearm.  I'd say this goes a fair ways toward eliminating people who shouldn't be owning firearms from running down to Billy's Gun Shack and buying an AR-15 to shoot up the local mall with.  Because if you think about it, crazy people that want to go on a shooting rampage like they do in the video games don't want to take a course, then find character references, then wait for a license to buy a gun and lose their marbles.  Some would, but rampages like what happened in Connecticut are more so spur of the moment fits of rage, than pre-planned events by people that have had training in how to properly use a firearm.  Reality is, if someone thinks you shouldn't own guns any longer, they can call the RCMP who will then show up at your door and take them from you. I mean, I know my father loves me but if he even had the slightest hint that I was going to go on some form of shooting spree, he'd rat me out and have me committed to a mental institution.

So what am I saying about this? Life sucks, poop happens, but life goes on as well. I'm very thankful that I live in Canada, and that my entire family is safe and healthy.  My challenge though is this, if you're doing well, if you're safe and healthy, be there for those that aren't. If you just stand by while your friends or family, or strangers around you are suffering than lend them a hand. At this time of year is it even that much more appropriate.  Buying gifts for people and Christmas parties are all well and good, but there are people who won't be celebrating this festive season for one reason or another. I know there are a bunch of families in Connecticut that won't be having a very Merry Christmas (or Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or anything of the sort).  As much as it's fun to enjoy all that life has to give, it'll be more rewarding if you share it.

aaaand... Exhale!

Dazed and Confused.

It’s a new blog! I know what the heck is going on!!!

So I spent some time today contemplating stuff to write about. It wasn"t a lot of time since I've been dopey from a lot of Advil to quell a headache. So here you go, nothing fantastic but something that’s on my mind reasonably often. What is this fantastic topic you ask? Female fashion statements that boggle my mind.

Female fashion statement that boggles my mind #1: UGG Boots.
WHY!!!??? I can understand perhaps as winter boots, but for the most part they resemble what they sound like. Remember that the first syllable of ugly, is ugg. Or perhaps they’re called ugg boots because they sound like the women that wear them before they put them on as they say “Ugh, I’ll just wear these I give up.”  Nothing confuses me more than a girl/woman walking through the mall or anywhere else, dressed up nicely, skirt/dress, and so on, than you look at her feet and instead of cute shoes, she’s sporting big ole uggs... Any appeal she may of had, just flew out the window.

Female fashion statement that boggles my mind #2: Backcombed hair.
Again, why??? Is there a logical reason for doing this with your hair? From what I’ve heard it takes some time to do, but it really doesn’t look that good, it honestly makes me think you’re hiding your egg shaped head.  I realize that everyone’s doing it, but it doesn’t make it right. Like your parents may have said when you were young, if everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?  Really natural looking hair is far more appealing, even a simple ponytail, but why the back-comb, I don’t see why it would enhance anything. 

Female fashion statement that boggles my mind #3: Obscene heels/hooker heels.
I don’t get it, especially when you’re out drinking at a bar, but even during the day, why would you need to wear heels over a couple of inches? 6” heels can’t be comfortable and really they don’t do that much more for you than an average heel.  Maybe there’s something I don’t know but think about your shoes when you buy, I’d rather see a girl in sneakers, not so say that I don’t appreciate a girl in heels, but there’s reasonable footwear and than there’s “that can’t be comfortable.”

Female fashion statement that boggles my mind #4: Expensive designer jeans
I’ve heard the “they fit better” argument, but really, with some hunting I’m sure you could find jeans under $500, let alone under $50 that fit well and won’t need you to put down collateral and get a loan to afford them. Again, I have simple tastes, I firmly believe (i’ve said it for years) if a girl can pull off sweats, she’ll be smoking in a little black dress.

Anyways... that’s my crazy-old-man rambling rant for the night. We’ll see y’all next time, and please do feel free to comment I’d love to hear all of your thoughts on this.

WoW... Blog-fail!

So, it's been since April that I last posted...


As promised here's a blog, not a lot to say right now, I thought I would have tossed around a few ideas in my head throughout the day, and nothing has come up.

I will give you an update on me quickly since it has been a while.  Since April my divorce has finalized, something that went relatively smooth all things considered and I have to say there's definitely some relief now that it's over with.  I also started a new job in June, I've been working for Telus Mobility selling phones since. I've also been busy with the Distrikt with lots of shows going on and getting to mix some pretty awesome bands such as Bif Naked, Great Rooms, and Monster Truck!


Anyways, hope you're all doing well if there's anything you'd like me to blog about let me know and I'll do my best.

So "soon" turned into a week... whoops!

So, I’ve failed again in my attempts to blog more often. Perhaps I should not make a point of trying to make a point of blogging and just let it happen.  Though as it stands my life isn’t terribly exciting on a day to day basis so sometimes finding material to write about is tough.

For the last couple of days, (and from the look of it a good portion of the rest of my week ) I have been working on some lighting, and eventually the audio at a local night club. Not the one I usually work at, but it’s owned by the same conglomerate.  It’s been an adventure so far. Yesterday instead of unpacking and going about putting up a bunch of lighting fixtures, I ended up taking them all apart and putting the guts back together.  Some were worse than others, either way it was a task.  Today was spent picking up more supplies, taking a few lights down, and for the most part figuring out how to get a...  well... something fairly top secret to work.  Happily I can say I’m fairly certain it’s figured and I should be able to hook everything up and test it tomorrow.  I’ll also be able to hang up all the new lights and get going on wiring them up... There’s a good 26 lights that need to be made happening, so I’m guesstimating it’ll take a day to put them all up, and another day to wire them up...

Other than that I’ve still been job hunting.  I’m not looking for anything specifically, though it’s a bit depressing when the majority of what’s available is either in the trades, at a call centre, or requires __ years of experience.  While most of you would probably assume I’m looking for another job in production I’m not sold on that, if the right opportunity with the right company came up I’d take it, but really I just want something I can count on. Something stable where the boss won’t be “joking” about laying me off for the next three months until things pick up again.  When that last happened I quit, and while I wish him well, I don’t expect him to be going anywhere “big time” in the near future.

In the personal development arena I’ve decided that I should procure a bicycle, I may buy new, may buy used, we shall see.  The idea is to start working on my fitness, which is something I’ve neglected for some time.  A bike isn’t an all in one solution so I may find myself having to experiment with other things too, to see what fits with me.  So if any of you think you’re up to the challenge of whipping me into shape you’re welcome to try.

I didn't get this pretty face from punching people.

It’s been a few days, I know, but better quality than quantity... perhaps I need to fire my quality assurance and find someone better at their job ;)

Anyways this has recently come to the surface (as in today) and it’s something I feel needs saying on a grander scale.  In my Facebook travels today I noticed a debate raging on a friends page about violence towards women.  My friend who is a nice girl has a past which involved a particularly unintelligent boy who rather than showing her love and affection, chose to beat her.  It took a very unpleasant experience on her part to end that relationship.  I will not get into details, or commentary on the cycle of abuse that is sometimes mentioned as I don’t feel overly qualified to discuss it.  I do feel it is most undesirable that it exists. 

Back to my story, she had posted a comment stating that real men don’t hit women.  A couple of what I will confidently say are ignorant young men took up the opposing side of that statement saying that when men hit women it’s because the women provoked it, all of this under the banner of ‘broadening her statement’ and bringing a ‘balanced opinion.‘ 

This at very least made me want to slap these young men who think that violence, especially against women, can be justified.  I am very much of the opinion that violence should be avoided by whatever means necessary.  In the end striking out in a violent fashion will only beget more violence.  People all too often use violent reactions as their only resort rather than being responsible to the well being of their fellow humans.  I admit I’ve had times where I have been blinded by rage and wanted to beat the ever living hell out of someone.  But as some of my friends would readily point out, I’m not a fighter, as Matty would say “Mitch is the bearded monk”.  I tend to cope with my anger in a far more rational fashion rather than acting it out in a physical, visceral fashion.  When people get me to that point there is often a reason for it, whether or not it’s a good one there is a reason.  It doesn’t mean that I have to hit them.  It also means I don’t have to communicate with them more than necessary.  Often the best reaction is time and space, if I have to deal with the person in any sort of official or regular capacity than it can be talked about. 

The act of hitting someone because “they were asking for it” is a terrible excuse at best.  Justifying acts of violence against anyone because of your inability to discuss your differences is wrong whether you’re John Smith or leader of one of the most powerful nations in the world.  If you’re not man enough to discuss your gripes with someone and instead bring them harm, are you really a man?  I mean you just did the easy thing and acted on your most base urges.

Now I’m not going and saying that you should be a complete pacifist as there will always be those that think might is right and use strength and violence to get what they want.  I would go so far as to say that I won’t be the first person to throw a punch, but at the same time I would defend myself as best I could against someone who decided ‘we’ needed to fight.  With no training in martial arts or anything of the like I don’t expect that I’d last long in a fight.  I would much rather avoid physical confrontation than get into fisticuffs because I do believe there are better ways of dealing with people rather than imposing your will on their body. 

So in the end, I’ll expand on my friends statement.  Real men don’t hit anyone. Ignorance is no reason for stupidity, or an excuse for being a thug.  If you don’t have the knowledge and mental fortitude to discuss your issues with someone educate yourself.  Physical violence is a lazy man’s approach to solving a problem.

I pine for pie.

I’m having one of those “I’m feeling useless” days.  Perhaps in small part due to the fact that it does look a little bit gloomy outside.  Reality is though, that it’s a terrible feeling.  It’s one of those days where self doubt creeps in and rears it’s head, making me think I’m not good for much.  The job hunt has thus far gone poorly, we’ll see if that trend continues but it seems like all the jobs I can find are for call centers, require some form of degree or training in the trades.  Call centers are right out, the rest I don’t have.  What few other jobs I have applied for I haven’t heard back from at all.  Of course there’s the option to move elsewhere, but the question then is “where?” Add to that I don’t have the funds to move and you find me stuck.

Anyways apologies for the shortness of the blog, I’ll try to write something a bit more meaty in the next day or two.

Know what gets my goat??

Okay, this get’s my goat.  Recently Japan suffered an 8.8 magnitude earthquake, (the scale is out of ten if I recollect) which is the biggest earthquake to ever hit the island.  Adding to that difficulty is that it was off shore and caused a Tsunami (aka a big fucking tidal wave) to rush inland and create even more devastation.  Currently as of the last time I saw an update on the News the Japanese government was working it’s ass off attempting to cool down three nuclear power plant to prevent melt down from occurring.   Think Chernobyl Ukraine as far as meltdown goes.  So not only were they ravaged by Earthquake and Tsunami, they have imminent nuclear meltdown x3 looming in the distance.

Here’s the first issue, somewhat minor in scope compared to the second, but still.  Many people some I know and lots that I don’t are ‘horrified’ and ‘taken aback’ by what occurred and they’re pouring out sympathies via twitter, facebook and whatever other means they have at their disposal.  The problem with this is two fold, firstly unless you have friends or family on your twitter or facebook accounts odds are no one in Japan is very likely to see your emotional outpouring.  The second thing is that your noble exhortations, condolences, and the like do nothing for those that are digging out of the shit as it were.  It’s like witnessing a horrific car crash and yelling at the people in the burning cars that you’re very sorry that they were in that crash just now, than standing back to see what happens.  If you really feel so sorry for the people of Japan, do something, I’m not saying book a flight and jump into the fray, but there are plenty of ways of assisting.  The most useful I’ve seen yet is to donate money to the Red Cross who will be doing everything they can to assist.  You can follow this link to go to the Red Cross site and donate there, of call them toll free to donate. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=38375&tid=001

Here’s my second issue with the disaster.  There are a group of people, not a majority I hope, but perhaps an uneducated few that believe Japan “had it coming because of Pearl Harbor.”  Now excuse me if I’m wrong but the abridged story of what occurred in the Pacific in WW2 is as follows. The Japanese launch a surprise attack on an unprepared (perhaps overconfident) Pearl Harbor bludgeoning the Americans. In the end there were 2,402 men killed and 1,282 wounded.  Approximately 3.5 years later the war in the Pacific came to a close after the American’s dropped two nuclear devices on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945). Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki with most of the dead in both cities being civilians.  Now maybe I’ve done my math incorrectly but I would say that the Japanese got many times their ‘just desserts’ for Pearl Harbor with those two attacks alone, and that’s without factoring deaths occurring after those first few months, as well as whatever other health problems came as a result of the effects of having two nuclear bombs dropped on your country.  To date Japan is the only country in the world that has had Nuclear devices used on it in a time of war.  So to the simple minded, ignorant people that think that this earthquake and the resulting damages from Tsunami and potential meltdown are Japan getting what they deserve for the 2,402 casualties and 1,282 wounded from Pearl Harbor... All I can say is I can think of the ghosts of 150,000+ dead Japanese from Hiroshima and Nagasaki that would love to beg to differ with you.  That’s not to exclude people like myself who think you’re being childish and ignorant, there are others out there that would agree with me.  I would argue that you people that think this is some sort of ‘payback’ would be those crying loudest if some form of natural disaster was to strike your homeland (I’m going to assume it’s the United States).  I would also venture to say, the Japanese wouldn’t be sitting at home thinking “HAH! That’s what they get for Hiroshima and Nagasaki!”

Anyways </rant>  That was my Sunday evening in a nutshell, I hope I find all of you doing well.  Gokouun o inorimasu (Good Luck)