Diarrhea of the Brain - on the politics of a community blog

not really censored, just would be a really disgusting image 

My most recent forays into public writing has been a mixed bag.  On one hand, I have found a website that seems to be pretty okay with basically publishing anything that i submit to them which is nice.  I don't get paid but it's a nice ego boost that allows me to write experimental things such as a comparison of Star Wars to the NHL that would not get published on any of the more mainstream sports sites.

On the other hand, I felt the heavy hand of censorship from the other blog I was managing/writing here. Two different worlds; one where I fulfilled my own wishes as to what i would read and the other where i tried to be a fine, upstanding individual active in the community upon which i wish to raise my children.

I took over the community blog from a fellow 'Jay' back in June and immediately began to revamp the format  of the blog and newsletter and trying to raise the readership stats by posting things about the community, from either just simple pictures or of things I had heard about through the dog park and with a healthy dose of my humor.
By taking over, i literally meant that. I met other jay at a coffee shop, he told me the passwords and gave me a short run-down of the blog and that was it.  It was going pretty good, although the gig was unpaid.  Any money that was collected in advertising went to the Community Association to offset costs of mailing/printing a monthly newsletter that i also formatted. The only contact i had was with the lady who handled the paypal account. Then the realities of communistic blog-publishing set in...

The season is either 1/4 over or 1/4 begun; your call

Some of my own observations of 1/4 season of NHL13

- i am loathe to admit it, but Vancouver is becoming my odds on favorite this year for the Cup.  The group is tight; they have two confident goalies competing against each other for #1, and with this shortened schedule, they could be in good team form for the playoffs.
Yeah, the Blackhawks also appear to be in the same situation, still undefeated so i think right there whoever wins that playoff matchup will take the Cup.

Of course the East is it's usual crap shoot.  I don't even know where St. Louis plays anymore.  It seems all the pro pickers are for either the Penguins or the Rangers but really why bother picking the 2nd place team?

-if only....if only the league allowed the players their own system of discipline in questionable hits, like they did in the eighties. Yes, Matt Cooke sliced Eric Kaarlson's achilles pretty bad. Yes, it took out the best player on the team. No, it was not intentional. Anybody who ever actually played hockey will tell you that nowhere in history has any coach or player ever said 'hey, you know what would be a good idea? Try to cut another player's achilles with your skate blade when you finish off a check'.
The sports humpers trying to play this into a 'was it or wasn't it' shtick are a waste of valuable cliche speaking  time.

- Ovechkin has a hot girlfriend. Ovechkin isn't scoring on the ice which means he's scoring somewhere else.  chickachickawow-wow.

- i need to pick up Ray Emery in my hockey pool before it's too late.

The toughest Montreal Canadien in the past 10 years

So an odd thing happened at a Montreal hockey game this week...a Canadiens player stood up for himself.

Ryan White pulled a Dan Carcillo in last night's game against Buffalo and in particular Steve Ott, for what really was a pretty light hip check. My grandma has bumped into me harder than that. Yet Ryan White didn't get the memo about 'playing smart' and jumped Ott, resulting in a double minor and nearly cost Montreal the game. This was White's second trip onto the coach's shitlist in the last week for stupid penalties so I think he's going to be watching a few from the press box for the next week.

However, after this I began thinking of all the tough Montreal Canadians that have pummeled the crap out of opponents in the last decade. This is all that i could come up with;

Dads Dealing With Distant Parenting

Or What The Hell Do I Do Now?

I have a five year old son who lives about 500 kms away from me so my visits, now that he is in school, are only on long weekends.  There is a lot of travel time involved, usually by car.  Recently I have come to dread the visits, as the boy consistently cries himself to sleep on the first night, saying that he is missing his mom, who he just left around 7 hours ago.  It is hard to try to maintain a father-son connection with him when he's crying that he wants to be back home with his Mom and just wishes that I could live closer to him so he didn't have to come here.  Ow, kick in the balls...

I don't get along with his Mom; we've barely spent 30 minutes in total in the last 4 years since the Court Order talking civilly to each other.  She lives with him in her parents' basement suite in a wealthy area of Vancouver, and has ever since he was born.  We use a communication book to jot down important notes that one feels relevant to either the upcoming visit or a review of what happened for his return and text the small stuff, like where and when to pick him up or drop him off.  This might sound familiar to some.

Ok.  I can deal with this, I usually think.  It's just a phase.  After all, he wasn't doing this crying this last year.  I mean, it's been awhile, but still he was pretty okay with the visits up until last Christmas.  

Now, I've talked to a lot of people about this;  my wife has helped immensely in trying to help him realize all the good things that he does here; it's not like he's confined to a closet or anything.  We try to do family things, his little sister adores him and gets so excited when he arrives that for me that is half the fun, seeing her face light up when she sees him.

We ask him about how he is liking school, what he is doing and generally present as a strong family unit for him.  Yet he has taken to crying for his Mom once it's lights out and he's tucked into the top bunk, little sister underneath asking why he is crying, then getting him a tissue so he can wipe away his tears.  She even suggested that we drive him back to see his mom.  She's amazing, caring, empathetic and so adorable.

To me, his emotions are frustrating, annoying, aggravating, demoralizing, and back to frustrating.  Mom says he has cried for days about coming.  I am trying to be empathetic but it's hard to try comfort him as he says Mom 'is his favorite parent and the do stuff together'.  

You've had a bad day?

On behalf of all referees everywhere; thank you.