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.
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.
The problem with finding support in the War Against ISIS is simple. It's a sham. It's a headless monster created by a foreign state to justify the buying of bullets in the name of capitalism.
wooooo.... we're ISIS....
I find it sad/funny that the major news sources still call ISIS a 'group of militants', as if they are nothing more than a bunch of weekend warriors or the equivalency of a group of South American guerrillas, only with less forest. I know I'm not alone but when you hear of the glorious reports of victory by our Allied forces it reminds me slightly of Nazi propaganda, partly of Big Brother in 1984.
ISIS is a direct result of the glorious Mission Accomplished US invasion of Iraq. Most people of modest intelligence remember the frustration as the case against invading Iraq was established in the court of popular opinion. We, the people, learned that court means little to the higher powers. We all knew there was no evidence in support of Iraq having anything to do with 9/11. Yet, the US government, in collaboration with a disbelieving yet obedient national press, the lies were continually published. They still are.
This diatribe/rant is because I heard today on national radio that ISIS's #2 man was apparently killed through the 'coalition strike force'. Of course, because nobody has heard of this man before this memo, a brief summary of who he was followed.
I really liked 'Solomon Gursky was Here' although Richler writing does tend to isolate readers of the non-jewish persuasion (such as myself). I picked up Barney's Version and had a few problems with it; it could definitely have used a preface explaining the context. I think it would have been much stronger in my opinion if the afterword (written by his son) was actually the foreword.
Possible spoilers;
I really hated the corrective footnotes. Although it is eventually explained it was Barney's son adding them after a supposed legal discussion as to editing Barney's autobiography, it read like lazy copy editing, as if Richler's publisher wasn't allowed to do any editing. It's not until later is it established that Barney's mind is slipping and these are part of the character development as to the crux of the 'did he or didn't he' regarding Boogie's disappearance.
Then to have the last paragraphs basically create another possibility without any other hints throughout the story was a weak cop-out.
Barney isn't likable, and pretty much Richler writes every Jewish stereotype in existence into his character and the secondary ones as well. His snide observations of Quebec and Toronto cultures come off as just that. It's an okay book but nowhere as excellent as Solomon Gursky.
There's simply no way to avoid this but chronologically I am evidently another year older.
So what can you do to celebrate? Why not grab one of my free books online? I'm offering up all 3 of the books I've self-published this year for free on Smashwords. Catch is they only come in ebook format so if you are a fan of this futuristic medium, head over here and grab yourself one or all three. You can give them out as gifts or just keep them to yourself on your futuristic reading device. If you like them, tell your friends and or send them the link. The offer is good all weekend, then next week they'll probably rise in price to nearly two whole dollars. So best to just tell them now without actually having read them yet.
And...
If you are still an old-school reader who loves having a bookshelf and having books on them so that when people come over they can diagnose what troubles you, then get hard copy versions over at Amazon. There is Midland Mutiny, Stoner, Unincorporated and Enter A Fistful of Marijuana. All you have to do is that thing you do when you purchase items off the Internet. My bank account thanks you for the 35% royalty I receive. You receive the book in a few weeks, straight to your door in plain brown wrapping. Nothing suspicious there at all, Mr. Postman.
And...
If you are curious as to what I'm currently working on, head over to here. There's the edited first chapter of a work in progress - more ...grounded... in reality than my previous ones. It's more of a John Irving World According to Garp story of a boy and girl growing up, falling in love, finding out they like the same author who coincidentally is writing their life story... something like that anyways.
Online reviews, comments always semi-helpful if you are on Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle etc.
Okay, I'm going to have a good birthday by sleeping through most of it, waking up and spending time with my wonderful family on a hot summer's day. There may be ice cream involved and listening to some old cassette tapes.
