Saturday 26 September 2015

Long Time No Rant; Fostering Dead Kids


More tragic news in BC's Children's Ministry (MCFD for short) when a teen still 'technically' under the government's care either fell or jumped out of a 4 story hotel window to his death.

this is the truest picture of group home kids
I could find in a google search
The predominant question in the media is: how come this child was living unsupervised in a hotel room for the last few months? This follows up on the recent overdose of Paige (no last name given), a 19 year old girl who aged out of 'care' and died in a Vancouver East Side communal bathroom to little announcement, other than the usual condemnation by BC Children's Advocate saying the usual words that start nearly every statement released by her office regarding a child who makes a tragic blip in the radar of local media.

"This is a tragedy," said Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth.

Friday 11 September 2015

Things I Missed On Summer Vacation



Thanks to the joys of multi-jobs, banked time and home renovations, I've spent nearly 3 weeks off the Internet. It wasn't completely cold turkey, but my interactions with the soul-sucker was pretty limited with the occasional facebook post and or a shocking realization that I haven't checked my email in a few days.

Now, I'm back to work and having little to do for the next 6 hours... here I am again! This is probably a good thing as I was feeling a little down lately; I think it is because I haven't been doing any writing, my own personal venting system to ease the angst that builds up inside of me.

So where to begin....

Politics? The Canadian election is still a month away. I don't know anyone who has ever changed their views during an election campaign. There have been a couple political grandstands that have bothered me. The Liberals Justin Trudeau wanted a non-election sit-down with the NDP and PCs concerning Syrian refugees after a picture of a drowned 3 yr old went viral. So, points earned from the Syrian voters, votes deleted from the African voters who hear weekly of the thousands of deaths of their continental brothers trying to flee the shithouse that is running rampant there still. Nobody is talking about assisting them to get to Canada.

The NDP announced they would leave the fight against ISIS. While I agree with that - that's a political military football that should have waited until after the election was over. Why? As I quote from an American soldier I met in Seattle; 'the military is trained to vote for their commander in chief. To vote against them is a form of treason.'. It is why most military always vote for the Man in Power come election day. The military, barring a few outliers are pro-war/intervention/whateveryouwantocallit. So, don't threaten to pull the plug on a major economic generator for the Martitimes.

Just some recent thoughts of no real merit.

BradyGate. Or Cheaters Never Prosper (unless they win)

Yes, entirely too much time was spent on this. Call it cheating, call it 'having an advantage' but the fact is the Patriots have been cheating for the better part of a decade as a recent ESPN article has pointed out. The good thing is that despite the cheating, they have not been able to win a Superbowl in a decade. The bad thing is that they did win the Superbowl, thanks to the call that shall not be named. Yes, Brady is a good quarterback. Bellichuck is a good coach. They're not great as it appears they never played on a even footing with most other teams. Yes, they symbolize America in the 'win at all costs' mentality and when the ultimate test of American Justice is they have to swear to tell the truth to 'God', well God ain't the one who's signing his paychecks.


Baseball thoughts

What a strange game. The Toronto Blue Jays are in the top of their division. Their win average is less than .600. That means they have barely won over 1/2 of their games. Canadian baseball fans are ecstatic. For a team that out of every 10 games, they win at least 5. And we think that's pretty good, and it is pretty good by baseball standards. And we think if you get on base 3 out of 10x at bat, you are really good. So good, you will get paid millions to hit the ball less than 50% of the time somewhere else. How many other sports reward players that fail to to achieve something less than 50% of the time? Where are you if you catch a football 50% of the time? In the stands. What about a hockey goalie with a .500 save %? In the stands. Basketball shooting %? In the stands. So, yay, baseball!

In fact, only 2 teams are over .600 and they are in the same division in the National conference. But yay for Canada. Plus, let's not forget they all compete to win the World Series title, which is probably the only sport in the world that doesn't allow other countries to enter (barring Toronto).


The Good Broom.

My wife gets mad at me if i clean up drywall dust and such with the 'good broom'. I never realized there was such a thing as a good broom. It implies there is a bad broom. In which case, why would I use it? I want to sweep something up which is why i used the broom. What is the point of having a bad broom anyways? Women are strange.