Making It Up As I Go Along #304

MONDAY...
— Work is normal... not much to talk of. Changes in the office are afoot.
— A few e-mails and some TV after work... all pretty boring on a freezing cold day.

TUESDAY...
— Snowy day means 45 minutes driving to work and an hour coming home from it. Blah!
— Lunch at HQ with Kiyomi and Jonathan is good and work is okay but slow going stats wise.

WEDNESDAY...
— Work is work. Fine but a bit slow going.
— A few e-mails and stuff in the evening.
— I see that St. John’s is about to lose it’s junior hockey team. No more Fog Devils. Hockey has been poorly marketed in St. John’s for many years now. A city that used to prize itself on being fans of “old time hockey” yet the die-hard fans were taken for granted and marketing all went towards 12 year old fans of Britney Spears. In the end, the die-hard fans actually did ‘die’ as fans. And you were left with a stupid name on a team marketed to non hockey fans. And too many people wanted the AHL out and the QMJHL in with the delusion that regular season junior hockey was the same as the World Junior Christmas tournament. When they saw high school hockey, they walked away. I feel bad that my home town no longer has a hockey team... but I’m not surprised in the slightest. The ‘hockey’ people of St. John’s have been doing their best to ditch hockey for a long time now.

THURSDAY...
— All sorts of things going on today. I have a meeting... start feeling like a cold is coming on... and get info on how AFIS will be over the next little while. Cutting down to 3 teams in a few weeks and I’ll take on a new task for a little while. The more variety the better.
— After work I go do some shopping. I had a gift card from a CD/DVD store and decided to add to it with my own cash so I got three CDs and a DVD. Not half bad.

FRIDAY...
— Work is broken up by breakfast for Leslie’s birthday and a new task for me, putting together the latent ident board. Still not feeling great but the cold isn’t beating me yet.
— Hockey pool stuff after work. I get a couple of pretty good players in the mid-season redraft and hopefully it’s enough to pull me away again, as others are starting to catch up lately.
— Home for some TV, naps, and pizza.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day around the house. Up early... out of bed around 7:00. A couple of e-mails, several naps, and some movies and all-star hockey stuff on TV.


All Your Beliefs Stuck to the Bumper of Your Car
Hillary Clinton regained momentum in the race to represent the democrats in America’s presidential race by shedding a tear. “It made her appear human” was the basic media sentiment of the event. Discussions ensued as intelligent people tried to verify whether or not the tear was real or a staged piece of acting.

A southern citizen told the interviewer that he won’t be able to vote for Obama because the name is too close to Osama and you just can’t be too careful.

George Bush creamed John Kerry because Kerry spent too much time wanting to think through and discuss all angles of issues while Bush pushed for the decisive thirty second sound bite answer.

Iraq had weapons of mass destruction... until it was proven they didn’t... at which time their people needed to be liberated.

The internet is the greatest information tool yet created... and the most popular use of it is to watch minute long amateur comedy clips on YouTube... where we can watch cats tackling each other or babies laughing uncontrollably.

Global warming is the greatest threat our planet has ever seen. Or it’s a cooked up scare tactic used for making money by left wing scientists. Which side you believe depends largely on which type of conspiracy theory you’re most willing to accept as reality.

Democracy works. It does. You vote for the individual or party that you are most comfortable with and, if enough of you are in agreement, that individual or party will represent you and your point of view.

The problem with democracy, is too many people are too willing to shut off their brains and allow easy access to free information to guide us. It just all depends on which information supplier gets to you first... or which one makes it easiest to understand the message.

Fox News is “fair and balanced”... because they say so.

CNN has “the best political team on television” and are working at “keeping them honest”. Again, we know this because that’s what they tell us.

And people are guilted into the process. The media keeps harping that “it is your duty to vote.” It’s just too daunting an idea to suggest the important part... “it’s your duty to understand what you’re voting for.” Those swayed by attack adds and phantom tears only hurt the process.

Our attention span has gotten too short as a society. If a political message goes beyond a sound bite, it’s fighting an uphill battle to even be heard. Feelings of support for causes (be it cancer or fighting troops) are expressed via magnet on the back of your car in the shape of a ribbon. Most who buy these magnets have no idea if the money they spend is going towards the cause. And they feel as though the fact that they have that magnet sticking on the back of their car proves that they are actually supporting something. Perhaps some are. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone who’s doing real things to hope for the welling being of a family member who’s in harms way in a foreign land. But I suspect too many put these things on their cars cause they think it’s how they can do their part.

It’s superficiality, through and through. Too many of us wish to not go beyond it. It’s too easy and comfortable. And too many exploit this for the purpose of making a buck.

It goes from the most important aspects of life, like politics and personal freedoms, to the least important parts of life.

I’ve always been struck by TV commercials for hair dye. They speak about how a man should make sure his true self is seen, that people aren’t caught up by the grey they see. So how would a man show his true self? How do you present yourself to the world in honesty and the most genuine of terms? You cover up your grey hair.

That’s how we do things too often. Be it a political movement, a cause, a military conflict, or personal appearance. We cover up our imperfections and present an image... a superficial mask... and we sell it as what’s genuine and real. It’s happened so much, in so many aspects of life, that even the smartest of people is accepting it as the normal. We nod our acceptance and click the computer over to YouTube again so we can bask in the glory of wrestling kittens.

Making It Up As I Go Along #303

MONDAY...
— Quiet time around the house in the morning. Work in the evening with Martin and Kiyomi. A fun night with the time flying by and not too bad of stats too.
— Some groceries and e-mails when I get home.

TUESDAY...
— A movie in the morning. Work with Kiyomi and Martin in the evening. Frankie is there for a few hours as well. Not a bad night over all. I work an extra hour to build some vacation time... and Kiyomi and I are by ourselves from about 8:45 to 10:45.

WEDNESDAY...
— Decide to stay home today and use that vacation time. Just a day off work rather than going from evening shift to day. Movie watching and e-mails with laundry mixed in there. I head to the garage with the car in the afternoon, just for a service, and take it easy in the evening.

THURSDAY...
— Long day due to a lack of sleep. I last looked at the clock at sometime around 2:00 AM last night and went to work with less than four hours of sleep.
— Lunch at HQ with Melissa, Megan and Trevor.
— I file today. If you’re going to be tired, that’s the job to do.

FRIDAY...
— Claire’s birthday today. Little imp.
— Work is okay. Lunch at HQ again, with Melissa and Shannon.
— Nap for a bit in the afternoon and go to the movies with Karl. We grab supper and then watch American Gangster. Pretty good.

SATURDAY...
— Quiet day. Some laundry, e-mails, and movies. And then an evening of hockey.


No Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Die
Bond villains usually play their roles by a formula. Each James Bond movie has two main villains. There’s the cool, calculating one. The one who thinks through the options before making the decision of how to proceed.

This villain will converse with Bond much like two friends sitting in front of the fire. The difference being the villain will then get up and walk away, remembering to flick the switch on the laser, or other such doomsday device on his way out. It’s done as casually as flicking off a light as you exit a room... only this time, James Bond... and millions of others... are going to die.

The other villain is less one for thought and dialogue and more a character of action. He or she is out there. They’re unpredictable and come up with outlandish, yet funny, punch lines. They’ll throw all conventional wisdom out the window. They can’t be bothered with such trivialities... they’ve gone destruction on the mind and it’s time to get the ball rolling.

Children are Bond villains.

I have two nieces. Fraser is very much the cool and calculating one. She’ll sit quietly, listening to what you have to say. All the while, she’s planning her next move.

Claire, is Fraser’s henchwoman. Younger and more willing to take the risks. To borrow a phrase from a Simpson’s episode... Claire will kill you five times before you hit the ground.

Rebelliousness is in Claire’s nature. She can’t help herself. Much like that villain who throws all caution to the wind, Claire will go for it.

I remember some five years ago, when Claire was visiting my parents house. A little water fountain sat in the sunroom, right next to some potted plants. Claire, being only five years old or so at the time, had great fascination with the fountain. She’d often go to it with a little cup and scoop out a quick drink. And she also found ways to incorporate the nearby plants into the equation as well.

Not that she’d aim to destroy a plant. She hasn’t reached super villain ruthlessness... not yet. But potted plants do contain dirt. And the combination of dirt and water proved too much of a temptation.

Claire would scoop handfuls of dirt from the plants and deposit it into the fountain of water. It was a plan doomed from the start and guaranteeing her being caught, but she did it non-the-less.

This would happen on more than one occasion. My sister, Edena, would walk into the room, look over at the fountain, and then bellow to Claire. A stern warning would follow... “don’t ever do that again!” And Claire would agree... sheepishly... to cease and desist.

Later that day, the fountain would hold a fresh batch of dirt and Edena would come one step closer to an aneurism.

I remember the conversation as if it was yesterday...

Edena scolds, “didn’t I tell you not to do that?”

Claire, head down, responds, “yes.”

“Then why do you keep doing it?”

“Mom!” Claire’s frustration builds as she answers, “I can’t help myself!”

All it will take is Fraser’s desire to harness Claire’s natural tendencies and there will be no stopping my lovely nieces. The only possible challenge for them will be if they run into my unofficial nephews.

Jim and Kristann’s boys are as fiendish a duo as my nieces. What may give them the edge is that there is a third of them. I’m still not sure which way Jake (the youngest) will go. But Sam (the oldest) and Will have picked up the Bond villain formula as well.

Sam is a lad of action, but he also takes time to sit and develop a plan. And he takes great delight in the misery of strangers.

I remember Jim and Sam once coming to pick me up for lunch. I hop in the passenger seat next to Jim and Sam sits in his booster seat in the back. It seemed more like the office set up of a Bond villain. Allowing Sam to sit back and survey all the goings on around him as the lackeys turn knobs on machines and give the countdown to destruction. All Sam was missing was the white cat that he’d calmly be stroking while his master plan comes to fruition.

In this case, a drunk man is walking down the street as we’re about to leave. He stops and leans against a telephone pole, and begins to heave there on the sidewalk. Jim and I look on with a degree of disgust and sympathy for the guy who’s obviously not having one of his better days. Sam glances over at the action on the street and begins a maniacal laughter that grows and grows with each laboured breath. It’s the laughter of a mad man whose plan is coming together.

Will, on the other hand, is quick to take drastic action. He’ll leap into a situation without thinking of the consequences. If it feels right, he’ll do it.

On one occasion, I went to watch him play soccer. When the games are over, Jim, Kristann, Sam, Will and I all walk out towards the parking lot. We stop at the cars to discuss our plans to meet up again later that day.

Will, with glee in his voice and happiness radiating from his soul, suddenly proclaims “Uncle Chris, I’m going to punch you in the bird!”

And with that he forms a fist and makes a leap for my.... mid-section.

Fortunately for me, I do enough of a dodge and Kristann is quick enough to cut off a second attempt. But Will felt this was the most fun activity since... well... in his case... probably since the soccer game some five minutes earlier. But, for Will, it was all about the challenge and consequences be damned.

So these are the children I know best. Bond villains... all of them. And why is it that today’s society is so geared towards the children? It’s not due to love or a feeling of fulfillment. It’s fear.

Every parent wants to stay on their child’s good side... it’s their only hope of survival, in case James Bond fails to come out on top.