If you ...

If you need to sign an on line pledge to say you will drive safe and sober ... you are in trouble.

What the ... scam access?!?!?!?

You hear a lot of stories about how Facebook allows outside people to access you information. People you may not actually want to know who you are or hear from. I got to see just that type of ad on the right hand side of my Facebook screen today.

It is a link to a page people who frequent torrent sites have probably seen a lot. The page looks like an ad for jobs WITH Google. They have a fake claims to media coverage saying how good they are. Fake comments from happy customers. To protect them from being sued they have small print WAAAAAAAAAAAAY at the bottom telling you they aren't affiliated with Google and that the media coverage shown is made up. And when you try to leave the page you get a pop-up trying to get you to stay. A pop-up that won't let the page close unless you close it as well.

Basically, it is a bullshit scam site. THAT is the kind of company/people Facebook is putting up as legitimate advertisers and sponsors with access to YOUR Facebook page and information. Scammers and dating sites.

What the ... occupation?!?!?

My main problem with the whole "Occupy" movement in Canada has been their reason for existing. What exactly is it? Is it against Wall Street and what happened in the US financial system? Well, that didn't happen in Canada thanks to our banking regulations.

Listening to their spokesmen in the media just creates more confusion. One mouthpiece droned on in a CBC interview about how it was about Health Care. 35 Million people don't have it! Wait, the population of Canada is about 32-33 Million and we have universal coverage. Oh yeah, he was talking about US HEALTH CARE. So, these fucktards are "occupying" places in Canada to protest things that have happened, or are happening, in the US. Yeah, that will work. The Yanks are sure to listen to them. Not.

Now you have the "Occupy Vancouver" OccuTards planning on shutting down the port of Vancouver. Why? To show support for striking longshoremen in Washington state. Even the B.C. Federation of labour which runs the union at the port DOES NOT want them to block the port. And the OccuTards wonder why it is hard to take them seriously most of the time?

If they really want to protest the stuff that happened IN THE US they should hop on a bus and join the actual Occupy Wall Street movement.

Is Gainey still making decisions?!?!?

Work has been keeping me pretty busy and doesn't look to slow down until after the holidays. I still follow hockey though and was pretty much left shaking my head wondering what the hell is going on with the Habs after reading a story on another blog.

Montreal traded Spacek to Carolina for Kaberle. Kaberle? Really?!?!? Kaberle, who was so invisible in Boston that they DIDN'T want him back. Kaberle who is paid $3.5 Million a year to under perform.

Does Pierre Gauthier really want Montreal to improve? I know people jokingly called him Bob Gainey Light but it looks like he really is.

While I wasn't a big fan of Spacek this is ridiculous.

Changing views.

My father would talk about growing up and how, in the 20's and 30's when he was growing up, lobster was a poor man's food. Fast forward to today when it is viewed as a more prosperous person's food. It is hard now to see lobster as a poor man's food. A food that you wouldn't talk about. The times really change.

Mook of the Week

I had to go to Sobey's today to pick up a few things. The parking lot was half full but that never bothers me. I always park at the back and walk up. Less mooks around there. Usually. That was when I first noticed this mook.Yes, all the empty parking spots around and this asshole has to take up 2 spots. What a fucking mook.

My Father

This post is something I wrote a several months ago. I often write things and never post them or share them. It is cathartic to me just to put what I am feeling into words. Often it just lets me put things into perspective or get them off my chest. I can't recall the number of emails, posts, etc that I wrote and never shared.

You will see it mentioned below but it bears repeating, or would that be pre-repeating? I don't like airing some aspects of my life. Yet I saved this. And revised it. And saved it again. And forgot about it. And remembered it. And re-revised it. And ignored it. And forgot it. And remembered it. Ok, enough, you get the idea. It goes against the grain but I am going to post this.

*******

As I mentioned in another post, I don't like airing some aspects of my life publicly. Even if it something that happened many years ago. Sometimes I do find myself willing to talk about it. As I write this I don't even know if I will post it. Sometimes I like to write things out because it lets me work through them.

I was channel surfing tonight and came upon an episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels. He had gone back to Israeli to meet family (brother and sisters) he didn't know he had and visited his father's grave. He hadn't seen his father since he was about 7 and had a lot of hard feelings because of it.

It made me think of myself and my father. Dad wasn't perfect and god knows I'm not. He had a lot of issues going back to his childhood. It wasn't always easy to get along with him especially the last few years of his life, until the last year. Actually, before that last year, actually 10 months, we almost came to blows a few times.

Dad had cancer. The doctors figured that he must have had it for quite a few years before it was detected. When they found it they thought they had detected colon cancer early and could nip it in the bud. When they went to operate they opened him up and closed him. He was riddled with cancer. They gave him a month or so to live and he lasted 10 months.

A few years before the cancer was detected he went through a big personality change, for the worse. This caused a lot of problems in our relationship. If it wasn't that he was my father I probably would have taken a swing at him a few times. Odds are he would have kicked my ass but he pushed me to that limit. A lot of words were said between us that usually can't be taken back.

The doctors asked about a personality change in the past. When we mentioned it they seemed to expect it. The cancer was up into his head and he was in pain. Dad was the type of person that believed you never showed your pain. He had a high tolerance, as do I. His must have been phenomenal. The day before he went in for the surgery he used an auger and we put fence posts in. The doctors, based on how much pain he should be in, were astounded that he could do that let alone function. They said the big personality pain was probably due to the pain and the cancer getting into his brain.

I was torn. On the one hand I hated Dad at that point in life. If you think I am angry because of posts I make know I probably would have scared the shit out of you back then. I was fueled by my anger at my father and forgiveness was not something you would find with me. Then I found out that the last years were not all his fault or mine. (I blamed myself at times for the rift that developed with my father even if I couldn't pinpoint what it was I said or did that caused it. I felt guilty for being angry with him and hating him. It hurts to say it but at that point in time I pretty much hated him.)

Then Dad went on the pain meds. In retrospect I would like to think it was BOOM everything is sweetness and light and we all kumbayad and things were normal. Unfortunately, that is not reality. It wasn't as quick and I was still dealing with, and in some ways suppressing, my old feelings. He did change a lot as his pain receded, the old dad that I knew and loved started returning. Maybe facing his mortality had something to do with it too.

In the first couple of weeks, of what we thought would only be 4-6 weeks, Dad and I talked. We started working things out and I did something I didn't think I was capable of. I forgave him for what happened and he did something I didn't think he was capable of, he apologized and forgave me. It wasn't an easy 10 months but we salvaged our relationship.

Seeing Gene Simmons crying at his Father's grave and beating himself up because his anger and pride wouldn't let him reach out to his father hit me hard. Knowing my temper and temparmant at the time that could easily have been me with my father. If we hadn't made up I could quite easily have finished University and cut him out of my life. We made up in time for me to lose him.