North Battleford

So one of the advantages of my job is that I can work wherever I want that has internet access and a phone. So for the past 2 weeks I have found myself in North Battleford. A change of scenery is always nice and it allows you to take your mind off things that might be going on in your life if you are able to get away for a while. There are definitely less things to do here than in a bigger city but sometimes that is kinda nice. I am much more relaxed, I am mostly by myself here but I can visit with my mom a little bit when I am not working so that is nice too. I definitely miss my friends in Saskatoon and hanging out with them so I will going back there tomorrow and will be looking forward to playing some street hockey this weekend. I might come back here from time to time or go travelling to some other places to do some work.

Faith

Alright, so religion is one of those topics that a lot of people don't like to discuss. Sometimes I get nervous when discussing religion because I'm sure my views on the subject offend some people. So you have been warned, some of my views may offend you. I like to discuss religion with people who think like I do because then there are no awkward discussions.

Alright, so what do I believe? I personally hate organized religion of all kinds. Why? Personally, I think it is foolish to devote your life to someone or something that you have never seen before and you have no idea whether it is right or wrong other than people interpreting a book saying that it is the truth. I don't want to wait until I am dead before I find out whether I am right or wrong, but so far I like to think that I am on the right path.

I actually think that religion is quite dangerous because it is made up of a bunch of followers. What is more dangerous than a bunch of sheep following what one person says or does. I will give you examples within society. Throughout the years people used to believe the World was flat, the sun orbited around the Earth, etc. It took people to question these beliefs and do some research to disprove these claims. The same can be said about Nazi Germany, we basically had an ideal that was brainwashed into people saying that blacks and jews were inferior to the white race. We also have Tiananmen square, revolutions against oppresive governments. If people didn't stand up to these ideas and people throughout time where would we be now? My biggest objection to religion is people who allow themselves to act a certain way without thinking for themselves even if it goes against their natural instincts. To me it is a form of stupidity, people aren't smart enough to figure things out on their own so they latch onto some one else's thoughts.

I also think that a lot of devout religious people are hyprocrits. Just look at all the priests that have molested young boys. Is this what we want in the World? I would like to think that the answer to that is no.

I have lots of friends and know lots of people who are very religious. In fact my aunt is a reverand. I have no problem with people being religious (although that may contradict what I have written above) as long as they are not fanatics and they use it for good. I have my own set of believes as to what makes a good person and I truly believe that I am a good person regardless of whether not I believe in a god or certain set of commandments. I also have no problem with people using religion to be a good person. In fact, if everyone used religion to have faith in one another and to see the good in others then this World would be a better place. Everyone needs to believe in something to make them a better person. I have seen people hit rock bottom where everything in their life seemed meaningless. The way they got through this was that they "found God" and you know what? I'm really glad that these people can do this and turn their lives around for the better. Something Theo Fleury probably hit me the hardest with that point when he said that he always believed in god but until he went to rehab he didn't know what god meant. When he went to rehab he was told that god could be anything you wanted it to be and this really opened up his eyes to make him a "better person". To me, this is how it should be approached because everyone is going to have low points in their life and if you follow a certain religion word for word, commandment for commandment then you just might lose faith because after everything you believed in failed you, what do you have left? This for me is really hard to take, seeing people who are good people have tragedy strike them and then they are left with no one helping them? Where is god in these cases? Where was he in Haiti? Where was he during the holocaust? These are the questions that I struggle with when people ask me how I can't believe in god or in an afterlife. These are the questions that I send back to them, how can I not believe in god when such tragedies occur? It also bothers me that when these things happen people will turn to prayer before doing something more constructive like finding housing for people who lost their homes.

People can be religious, I have no problem with that. The only things I have problems with are people who force their beliefs on others, because I believe that is just a way to obtain power and manipulate people. People who use religion as a scapegoat to do horrible things such as the holocaust or wage war. How many times have we seen a President/Prime Minister/Supreme Leader say "God Bless..." "Praise Allah", etc.? Are you serious? Isn't that the worst thing to do is to kill other people?

Think for yourselves. Don't live your life based on someone else's principles or ideals. You are just going to end up being disappointed. Don't be scared to question things if they are wrong, stand up for others if they are not being treated fairly. Create your own set of morals and values, if you follow those then you will be treated right by others and you will have friends in times of need, even if that means that you are alone and need to talk to god, then that's fine too.

Olympics

Well, one of my most anticipated cyclical events in my life is now over and I still struggle with that. I probably spent around 14 hours every day during the Olympics watching or following the events in some way. That is pretty sad/incredible when you think about the fact that I sleep and have a full time job. In Canada we were fortunate enough to have the Olympics on up to 5 different channels along with the Internet. I didn't really get into the events until the torch relay and then I started to get excited.

The first day was brutal to say the least. The torch relay was on for about 8 hours and was really boring to listen to the same announcers non-stop telling stories about the torch-bearers or about the Olympics. It was occassionally interesting to see who was carrying the torch but if you want to watch people jogging, I wouldn't suggest doing it through television. About 4 pm I heard about a luger who was in critical condition after crashing on the track. At the time I didn't think too much of it because people crash all the time on these tracks. About ten minutes later there was an update to be made on the luger's condition and my heart sank a little bit anticipating what this update would be. As we now know, the Georgian luger ended up dying because of his crash. Nothing could be worse than starting the Olympics with a death. Things didn't seem as if they would get much better, there were thousands of protestors in Vancouver who didn't want the games to be held there and whenever there are protests things sometimes get out of hand and people get hurt. Luckily, for the most part these people just wanted to voice their opinions and I think that is the great thing about living in this country is that you can do that without fear of something bad happening to you. I was hoping that the opening ceremonies would help overshadow the day's earlier events. They certainly managed to do that but unfortunately in the wrong way. The crowning moment of the opening ceremonies is the lighting of the torch. It was awesome to see Rick Hansen, Catriona Lemay Doan, Nancy Greene, Steve Nash and Wayne Gretzky light the torch... only one problem, the torch wasn't lifting from the floor! Wow, what a national embarassment, we are having hydraulic problems. As if that wasn't bad enough we then had Wayne Gretzky in the back of a pickup truck in a random drive in Vancouver with a bunch of drunk people running beside the truck for what seemed an eternity. Finally, Wayne lights the torch and ends a forgettable opening day for the Olympics.

Now let's move on to the actual games, I was so excited for these games that I did a bunch of research on who our medal hopefuls were so that I would be able to watch and record at the appropriate times. We all heard about the "Own the podium" strategy and the COC's attempt to win the overall medal count as the host nation. I firmly believed that we could do this and we would be in the neighborhood of 30 medals. The first couple of days didn't go so well, snow in Cypress pushed back a lot of the alpine events so we had to wait on our first ever gold medal on home soil until at least day 2. Our first medal was kind of a bitter-sweet moment becaus Jenn Heil was the favorite for gold but got beaten (deservedly) by the American skier. That event really got me pumped for the rest of the games because it was about putting down a great performance but having another person pushing it to that level of greatness when it's all on the line. Our first gold was won by Bilodeau in moguls and that really got things going, we finally had our first home gold medal and it was a great story as well.

The first week didn't quite go as planned. We were way back of the Americans in the medal count but that was to be expected, however, we had missed out on a few medals and the Americans picked up some unexpected ones as well. Throughout some of the events, we had some big mis-steps. We didn't qualify for some events that we expected big things out of (notably speed skating) and people really started to question the "Own the Podium" strategy and even some athletes mentioned that as well. Even though there were a couple disappointments, especially on the first weekend of the games finishing with a team Canada loss to the US in hockey things were at a low point during the Olympics. The one thing that remained positive were the athletes that did find success is that they were good personalities. Then came the turning point and definitely my favorite moment aside from the gold medal hockey game. Jon Montgomery, a skeleton athlete from Russell, Man. overcame a huge deficit to win the gold medal and made the best entrance into a post-gold medal interview ever. I am so glad that I have moments like this on my DVR so that I can watch them again in the future.

After all the earlier failures in terms of medals, the Olympics were still great because you every time a Canadian athlete was announced to the crowd you could feel the energy in the venues where the athletes competing. There is also nothing that compares to a feat like winning a gold medal and then hearing spontaneous outbreaks of "O Canada" . Then things just went crazy, we started to win everything. We went from 6 gold medals to 14 in the matter of about 48 hours and they just came fast and furious. The great thing about the Olympics is the unexpected, everyone was so dead set on winning the medal count that they lost sight of what the Olympic spirit is all about. Then all of a sudden we started to dominate the top spot on the medal podium. After all was said and done, no other country can say that they won more than we did. Not only did we win the most gold medals, but we won the most ever.

Then came the hockey game, it was one of those moments where you'll remember where you were 30 years in the future because it is that important to our country and our culture. I remember going to bed making sure that I set my alarm so that I could go to the bar early with some friends so that we could get a good table to watch the game. About 12pm (2 hours before the game) there were 25 people sitting with us to watch the hockey. Slowly but surely people came into the bar to sit down and watch history. The bar was handing out hockey pucks, noisemakers and even had an organ player for the game. It was loud and the atmosphere was amazing. I didn't even think the game would be close to be honest and after jumping out to an early lead, I was confident that we would win. After going up 2-0 I thought it was a done deal. Then Kesler scores to make it 2-1 off a kind of fluky goal before the end of the second period and then you start thinking a little bit. About half way through the game you could see the Canadian team playing not to lose rather than playing to win and eventually it just was a matter of time before Parise tied it up. There is nothing more nerve-wracking than going into OT in a championship game. During the 15 minute intermission, the place went from a rock concert to an uneasy quiet. 4 on 4 hockey, we should be better than anyone else right? Well things started off well, we got tons of pressure, then all of a sudden the US gets a chance... Luongo comes up with a big save, puck goes to Crosby (It's about time he does something right?), he tries to slice through the D unsuccessfully, puck goes around the boards, hits the ref in the skate, Crosby taps it to Iginla, all of a sudden Crosby is open and gets a great pass from Iginla and before you know it everyone is jumping up and down because we had just won the gold. I will never forget that moment and it is only fitting that Sidney Crosby would score that goal.

I was so depressed the next day with no Olympics to look forward to but at least I have hours and hours of footage recorded and I will probably order the DVD set too because for those two weeks, it was amazing to see how proud 30+ Million people were to be called Canadian.

Valentine's Day

So Valentine's Day has come and passed. I have seen 25 days and not 1 time have I ever been in a relationship on this day. Sometimes I find that is quite an amazing streak because I have had several girlfriends but obviously none of these relationships have lasted more than a year so I have never been able to experience the true essence of the day. I am somewhat intrigued with what the day would actually feel like depending on how significant the relationship was.

The only involvement I had at Valentine's Day was when I was in high school and there was a girl that I had a crush on. I went to a flower store and bought an arrangement of flowers and decided that I would give them to the girl and ask her to a Valentine's Day dance that our school was having. The problem was that I was a really shy kid and was really bad with facing rejection. A couple days after I had bought the flowers the dance got cancelled and I never had the guts to give the girl the flowers or ask her out. The flowers ended up wilting away in room and my mom eventually found them at the start of March and asked me what they were for. I think I came up with the worst lie in the World and told her that they were for myself but she obviously didn't believe that but I think she knew I was embarassed so she didn't press the issue.

So with my one remotely related Valentine's Day experience I am really torn on what to think of the day. I think that I really hate Valentine's Day because I hate the fact that people need to be told that they love someone. If you are truly in love then you shouldn't need a day telling you that. Also, on certain occassions it reminds me that I am single and there have been points in my life where I don't like that fact because it usually means that I haven't had any sexual activity for a prolonged period of time and being reminded of that sucks. Having said that, I really love being single most of the time. I love the freedom of doing whatever I want whenenver I want. I'm not saying that couples can't do this but I believe that there are intrinsic obligations that couples have to each other to do lots of things. Such as family events or special events for their "significant other". I also want to experience Valentine's Day for what it is. I do not know if I have really ever loved someone but if I am one day able to devote an entire 24 hours to showing my love for that person (and vice-versa) then I will think that it will be my favorite day but only if it is genuine and not forced.

Money

It is what makes the World go round. Some people say it is the root of all evil, I tend to disagree with that. Here is time concept of money:

When I was a baby, I had no idea what the hell money was along with many other things. I have no memories of that time in my life but if I wanted something I would cry and I would get it, I didn't need money to purchase food or go to sleep, my mother was kind enough to provide me with that.

As I grew up and learned a few life lessons, I soon realized that I couldn't get everything that I wanted for free. I would still cry and ask for things and often times I would get things. Food, clothing, shelter were all provided to me. I didn't always get what I wanted and didn't like having to follow rules, but I guess when you are a child, your parents basically own you and you have to live by their rules because the alternative isn't so great.

As I grew older and went to school, I started to appreciate money more. I would see other kids with toys, clothing, games, etc. that I would want and I would ask my mom for it and I usually wouldn't get it. It was at this point in my life that I learned about how money affected your social status. My mom would often use hand-me-down clothing or thrift store clothing for my brother and I. Quite frankly we didn't really care as long as we weren't naked. In fact it got to the point that I would wear whatever without caring and I will never forget what my mom once said to me. "Make sure you don't have holes in your clothes so people don't think we're poor." This never really made sense to me at the time because I didn't feel poor at all. I played competitive hockey and soccer, went to school, etc.

By the time I entered high school I soon realized the difference between the upper class, middle class and the lower class. I learned about allowances and hearing some kids getting 5 - 10 dollars a week and that was the first I learned about the term "allowance" and everyone seemed to laugh at me when I didn't know what an allowance was. So I asked my mom why we didn't get an allowance and she agreed to give us $2 a week as long as we helped around the house with chores. The allowance lasted for about 2 months and then slowly disappeared. Through high school a lot of my friends were getting video games or computers, cable, etc. We lived in the 2 channel Universe and I always wanted these types of things. They would usually come a little bit later than my friends did but we usually got nice thins for Christmas.

Then came getting a job and having to decide what to do with my life after graduating high school. I decided that I had wanted to go to University and then my concept of money took a dramatic turn. Wait a second, I have to pay to go to University and my living expenses by myself! University costs $10,000/year!?

Ok time to get a new appreciation of money and what it is used for once you get introduced to the real. I now have nothing for free other than my rent. Everything else I need to pay for myself. I learned a lot of things early in life about money and luckily one of them was how to budget. I lived off a very slim budget during my first 3 years of University and got through it fairly easily without ever being in any kind of financial stress.

Once I graduated University life was good, I no longer had to live off 4 months worth of income, I could now work a full job and I was still shortly removed from my spending habits that kept most of my disposable income in savings. The first year after I graduated University was amazing. About 85% of my paycheck was disposable income. I had a very small rent payment and that was pretty much it for bills. I was able to do pretty much anything I wanted. I ended up going to Las Vegas 3 times that year along with some trips to Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg. I miss those days because they were care-free and I had the money and freedom to do those things.

Now I have somehow managed to find myself in the most difficult financial position of my life. After buying a Mercedes that had 3 transmissions go on it, money seemed to get backed up. I had to start taking out loans etc. and soon I had some debts to take care of. I eventually quit my one job because I was not happy and returned to my current job where my income was cut in half. After developing certain lifestyle habits it is sometimes hard to change things. I recently made the decision to start working from home to increase my income and reduce my expenses so that I can get back to the lifestyle that I am used to.

Work

What is their to say about work. It sucks, but unfortunately it is needed to live. I don't mind my job but the one thing that really bothers me about it is the pay that I receive. I am a University graduate and whenever I get together with my best friends from University the majority of them are making way more money than I am. That really bothers me since I know that I am a smart person.

I am trying to work from home as an independent contractor so that I can make more money than I am making now. The only thing holding me back is I need to make some investments into some equipment (Phone, computer, etc.) Hopefully I am able to do that soon as I can because I have done the math and the earning potential is much higher.

Ten minutes ago a friend messaged me and asked me if I wanted to get a business going for him that he has started up. We are going to formulate a business plan and hopefully that will go well because that is ultimately my dream job is to work for myself.

Cougar Love

So people who know me know that I love Jax night club. People often ask me why I love that place so much. Well most of it has to do with the fact that my buddy is the manager and I only started to go there because of him. After a few years had passed I got to know pretty much all the staff because of him and some of the after parties. So I am pretty much to the point where I can go there any night and have a good time because I will know most of the people working there.

Jax is the type of crowd that is more "mature" than most of the bars or nightclubs in the city so I like it for the fact that there aren't 18 year old girls who are more concerned with their image than having fun. If anyone is familiar with the word "cougar" and what it means, well there are a lot of cougars at Jax. My love for speaker dancing and cougars has led to some interesting nights. The best way for me to sum up how I feel when I am at Jax are the following lyrics:

She was a bottle blonde
She had her 7's on
When I think about it now
Just a cougar on the prowl
She was hotter then hell
Had me under her spell
Got that ass doin yoga
Didn't care that shes older

Got off the stage
Ended up at her place
We were burning up the bed
Fire needed to be fed
Mornin sun hit her face
Maggie May showed her age
And I remember what my Mama said

Don't talk to strangers
Don't do all your thinking with your little head
Like mama said, just like mama said
My mama said
Don't talk to strangers
Just wrap it up so you don't wind up dead
Like mama said, just like Mama said
My mama said

She likes em nice and young
She likes em fresh and hungry
With fire in her eyes
Lets you try her on for size
Show you a trick or two
To teach you somethin new
Full of bacardi and botox
Shes forty and so hot
The light of the day
Had somethin different to say
My head started to spin
When I saw her son walkin in
I'll bet he felt like a fool
Cuz I knew him from school
And I remembered what my Mama said

Don't talk to strangers
Don't do all your thinking with your little head
Like mama said, just like mama said
My mama said
Don't talk to strangers
Just wrap it up so you don't wind up dead
Like mama said, just like Mama said
My mama said

Hey pretty lady it's crazy
You're almost twice my age
I wanna dance on your body
The way I shake it on stage
Hey pretty lady it's crazy
You're almost twice my age
I wanna dance on your body
The way I shake it on stage
Hey pretty lady it's crazy
You're almost twice my age
I wanna dance on your body
The way I shake it on stage
Hey pretty lady it's crazy
You're almost twice my age
I wanna dance on your body
The way I shake it on stage

Don't talk to strangers
Don't do all the thinkin with your little head

Don't talk to strangers
Don't do all your thinking with your little head
Like mama said, just like mama said
My mama said
Don't talk to strangers
Just wrap it up so you don't wind up dead
Like mama said, just like Mama said
My mama said

When I first heard this song by Hedley I wondered if it was somehow written about me about witnessing a night of me at Jax, seems very familiar to a few nights that I've been at Jax.