Once into the Breach

Once more into the breach, sober and smoke free for a full ten days.

Ouch..........

Two weeks ago my Darling Danish Princess brought home the flu. She picked up her copy of the NEW FLU from Shoppers Drugmart in Sooke. Apparently they were handing it out for free with every purchase of toilet paper. Fortunate for us that it coincided with the purchase of said toilet paper.

The night it hit the Princess, I had prepared a wonderful meal of prawns, rice and veggies. There was some concern that I had tried to poison her with one faulty prawn. (I would have used at least two if this were true.) Food poisoning or was it the flu? We had to wait and see. Gestation period, 2 to 3 days is what I figured.

I actually found the whole thing quite amusing at first. While she suffered on the couch, I sat in our big window listening to music, smoking cigarettes and having a glass or three of wine. I was pondering nature and my life style. A life style that actually was pretty good in many respects except for the bad habit portion. I don't mean the sitting on my butt looking out the window and listening to music portion. "If only I could get a sign or a gentle nudge in the right direction," I thought, "Changing my bad habits isn't as easy it used to be."

I received my (not so) gentle nudge Friday night, and then it kept up nudging for another 3 days. I am glad to say I managed to loose a few pounds and haven't had a smoke or a drink since then.

I am of two minds on this current adventure into smoke free sobriety.

The angel on my shoulder is telling me I am doing the right thing and this is good for my body. I will have a bright and shiny future filled with hikes, walks, gardening, prolonged life and happiness.

The other half of the equation says, you hate fucking hikes and walks unless you have a destination in mind. You do like gardening when you are not painting but even that can get tedious. Quitting smoking and drinking isn't going to make it any sunnier or brighter. You've done damage to yourself for all these years and this isn't going to fix it. This will probably kill you, your body could go into revolt and devour itself. Are you nuts?

Whose fucking idea was this anyway! Am I being forced by society to clean up my miserable act so I don't offend the norm. If I do this will I be able to criticise everyone's life style? No, I think not, nobody likes criticism anyway that's why 'they' need people like me around! Whose fucking idea was this anyway?

It was mine. Don't any of you out there claim that you convinced me to change my life style. I'll track you down and ...............

Sorry! It was my idea and I just had a moment. Don't know what came over me, OOPS.

Tom & Direction

Found this little YouTube clip of one of my favourites, Mr. Tom Waits.

He never fails to entertain me, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

BTTS - Money for Nothing

Censorship has been around for years. Back To The late fifties and Sixties when I was a kid, Music, TV, Radio and some Books were censored.

Yes kids, here in North America. Try to remember!






Don't you young adults remember when the US Government put warning labels on Rap CD's and all of a sudden all CD's came out with WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS plastered on the covers.

One of my musical heros, Frank Zappa went to the meetings and fought hard to stop this kind of censorship. Frank really didn't have anything to loose because a lot of what wrote and played never made it to radio and he still sold records and CD's. It's probably not true but I'm sure he was on the NO PLAY LIST somewhere in Washington DC.

Here's the thing, if Rock/Rap/Blues or Pop music wasn't a little edgey or open to interpretation we would all be listening to elevator music. Wouldn't that be fun. This reminds me of George Carlin's Seven Words you can't say routine. It also reminds me of Lenny Bruce, even though I didn't find him that funny but he did push the boundaries of censorship.

Now here we are in week two of 2011, 57 years after I was born and what are they doing? The CBSC is censoring Dire Straits song 'Money for Nothing', a song released 20 Years Ago. Have these morons been busy for the last twenty years? What's wrong with them? Yes the word "Faggot" is not socially acceptable but either is the "C" word and less than 4 days ago I watched the movie Kick Ass where an eleven year old girl says something like, "Okay you 'C's" whose next?" Why is this okay and the lyric is not?

Everynight on TV, we can see and hear most of George Carlin's Seven Words used. In 20 years are 'THEY' going to censor all the reruns? Boy that's going to keep them busy and cost us a bunch of money because in the end we are the ones paying their salaries. Why don't we save the money or use it for something that really matters instead of paying for some "Socially, Politically, Overly Sensitive BullShit!"

Zappa and the other boundary pushes are probably shaking their heads and wondering what's really going on. I want to know if this censorship is going stick.

If they substitute another word, what are we all going think? It's like saying, 'Whatever you do don't think about elephants!'

'They Should Never Forget the Sound'

Anyone who has followed my blog for some time may have noticed that I like to take shots at the media from time to time. If this is your first visit to my blog, Yes I like to take shots at the media.






Don't get me wrong, quite often I have no complaints about the News gathers of North America. Sometimes though they strike a nerve and I have to say something. You have to ask what are they thinking? If you don't you will fall into the dumb demographic that 'they' are looking for. Tumbling down their dumb rabbit hole will force us to suffer through mediocre dramas, comedies, home reno, gardening, cooking and current affair shows.

One second please,...... I have to get off that soap box and move to my irritant of the day soap box. I would like to say I'll try and keep this brief but that would be just a lie.

As my parents aged they were bombarded by charities, con artists, 'trades' people, and others I would just call crooks. I don't think Mom and Dad were alone in this situation, otherwise The Senior Marketing Industry would not have developed to the size it has.

This morning I saw a new commercial that really set me off. Most commercials have their sound equalized to a maximum so that they sound louder than the regular programming. The volume is not increased, everything is just punched up to make the ads sound brighter and bigger. Not this ad though, it was for a NEW Hearing Aide company. They purposely flattened the sound. The pitch man talked in a well modulated tone that had no emphasis on punctuation or wording. Now this product might be useful for many, (my family members included) but the sales method was deceptive in my opinion. It actually made the viewer think their hearing was in question.

If this commercial hadn't been followed up by the Bose Wave Sound System ad, I may have actually called! Bose Wave Sound System,"I'll never forget the sound", of course you won't you bought the fucking stereo. Ever notice that the Canadian Protection Plan has the same letters as the Government run CPP and the pitch person wears an old style civil servant business suit? The new life insurance plan 'Cover Me for Life' will cover you for life by taking your money until you die. A cost of a Funeral today can be as high as TEN Thousand Dollars, if you don't sign up with a Crematorium Society and only pay about $1,500 for cremation. Yes the Federal Government allows up to a $2,500 death benefit, GOSH that would cover my cremation and my family could save up to $8,500. Save some of that for weddings and grand children or even a trip to a warmer climate where the con men speak Spanish.

Now that I am on the brink of this aging demographic, The Senior Marketing Industry is really pissing me off. There's only one thing to say, "They'll never forget the sound" of us changing channels, hanging up the phone and making a noise about their bullshit marketing ploys.

STOP TRYING TO SELL US CRAP WE DON'T NEED, STOP TRYING TAKE THE MEAGRE INCOME WE HAVE LEFT and above all STOP LYING.

OOPS There Goes Another ONE

So yesterday I watched the Under 18 Final and then the Canada Russia Game.








During the under 18 game I saw a sixteen year old execute a penalty shot that was amazing. The kid was so calm and professional you had to be amazed. He came in at good speed and then almost in slow motion pulled the goal keeper over to one side of the net and then dragged the puck back to the opposite way and basically shuffled boarded the puck into the net. The goal keeper was left facing the other way. It was Just beautiful.

The Junior Final was unfortunate. Our kids forgot rule #46 of the unwritten laws. Unless your team is leading by 3 goals and there is only 1/2 minute left on the clock you can't count the Russians out. They're going to find a way to beat you. That is why they are one of the great hockey nations in the world. Soon as you forget that and start to believe that you've got the game in the bag You Are Toast.

It was unfortunate and even more unfortunate is the amount of crap these kids are going to have to swallow for the next few days if not weeks. The over analysis of this game and THE LOSS could effect them for the rest of their lives.

In the background I can hear CBC News Network's Suhana Marchand repeating the words "Shocking Loss", "I am reeling". She is just one of many using these kind of words. I haven't heard McRae or Squire join the choir yet but I am sure they will. I think I may just avoid the news for the rest of the day and especially the sports channels. The best thing would be to duck and cover until this all blows over or at least runs out of wind.

To the Canadian Young Men involved in the game last night refer to paragraph two and remember unwritten law #46 and the old expression 'It ain't over til' the FAT Lady sings'. It hurts today, you will get over it and your future is still bright. Just keep playing the game and enjoying the wins and work through the losses, learn from both cases.

The goal tender in the photo is Jimmy TWO DOGS.....!, one of the best goal tenders in the family.

Vampire Lesbians

A couple of months ago I heard about an MSNBC programme host named Rachel Maddow. So I investigated her programme. Not being that interested in American Politics or Politics in general unless they directly affect my life, I generally click through these programmes quickly.



Much to my surprise I stayed and watched Rachel Maddow. She was sarcastic, funny and took shots at both Major American Parties as well as the Tea Party. Her coverage of the midterm election was in my opinion brilliant.

Rachel Maddow is somewhat like Jon Stewart. She demands your attention by delving deeper into stories, asking good well informed questions and provides solid well thought out opinions. I watched with interest as she roasted the Democrats for not taking the midterms seriously and wondered why they appeared not be campaigning. I first saw the racist Tea Party ad from Nevada portraying gangs of Mexicans sneaking over the border attack the White Residents of the State at least a month and a half before Barbara Walters brought it to the View.

Last Night's programme continued a post election wrap up and her take on the Mis-Information campaign that still continues. John Hodgman talked about how this Mis-information is created. Here's an example, Barack Obama is secretly bringing small groups of Muslims into the USA. Some goof wrote this in a blog somewhere and another idiot read it. Then at a televised Republican rally he asked a Senator if it was true. The Senator did a classic political non answer, 'I haven't seen that report but will be looking into it.' Next thing you know he is repeating the same claim. If you preface Mis-information by saying 'I read somewhere' or 'I heard that', somewhere somebody will buy it as fact.

I am attaching a You Tube clip to illustrate another example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOtR1IyiLjw

This sort information really requires an application of common sense. Just pull your common sense back off the shelf in your closet. Dust it off, and apply it where ever required. If you can't find your common sense, just Google it, I'm sure that someone somewhere is selling it online. If you can buy Canned Unicorn Meat, you should be able to buy some new or used common sense.

This will come in especially handy when you run into any Mexamericanadian Vampire Lesbians trying to tell you about Obama using an old Jimmy Carter sweater as a prayer rug or trying to get you to exchange your old money into the New North American Currency at par.

At least that's what I was thinking about this morning.

2 Million Dollar Dog

Years ago we had Million Dollar Dog named Tasha. She was a lovely mid sized dog with fur made from polyester. This meant that if it smelled bad, Tasha would eventually smell just as bad. The smell had nothing to with her status as a Million Dollar Dog, it was her leg that made her worth this small fortune.

When she was a puppy, a neighour crushed her right leg. The vet said, "We can pin this leg back into place and it will only cost $300.00." We thought this was pretty amazing considering the leg was being held on by a 1/2 inch strip of skin and fur. We were young and naive, and both had jobs, so we had Tasha fixed up. When the bills had reached the TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR mark, we started to refer to Tasha as the Million Dollar Dog. The Two Thousand Dollar Mark made us feel like a couple of Marks.

Now we come to Molly, the sweetest Rottie Cross you've ever met, with bark that would make Death Think Twice about arriving on our door step. Molly strained her right knee. She was slowly healing up and then for our anniversary present she tore her left knee completely.

Three Hundred Dollars, boy those were the good old days, Molly's starting point will be Two Thousand Dollars. Needless to say we will be returning all our empties.

In the meantime though, I built her some leg braces based on a little web surfing. At least now she has a little support for knees while we figure out when to turn her in the 2 Million Dollar Dog