The Ladies From Hell

What is it?

2007-01-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

The past is history, the present is fleeting and the future is unknown.... so why is it that we find ourselves held by the grip of things we can no longer change, our pasts hold a powerful sway over all of the actions that we take. We uphold past wrongs and judgements up as a way to understand the world and the people in it.

The mind is a tricky thing, in some instances (ie. companies, organizations, governments, etc) we remember the small injustices, the hurt of many years ago as if it was a fresh wound. Holding onto it as if to say, “see this is what you are capable of”. Other times (ie. people, family, friends, etc) we forget all that went before, all of the hurt, heart ache, and pain just for another opportunity to spend time with those we love/care about. Why is it that we focus so intently on or the other? Why are we so quick to judge the larger bodies, but when it comes down to the individual we are so quick to forget?

I was reminded of this, the other day, after speaking with a friend, lets call her A. A has recently been thrust back together with a person who did not treat her particularly well when they were together. The reason for A’s sudden need to talk to this person again is the fact that she has found out that she is pregnant, and needed to inform him of this development. Now that she has finally told him, and he is back in her life, she has been reminded of feelings that are still there for this man. All that happened this past summer, the way he treated her and dumped her to go back to his ex appears to have been forgotten.

In the realm of organizations, the grudges and anger can last for decades. Working at Rogers, I have been keenly aware of how long people can hold onto anger for. Just to illustrate this, I once received a letter from a customer requesting a refund for money that we had been holding as a credit on his account. As I read the customers letter I could understand his feelings of anger at there being no response to his request and wanted to get it looked after... that is until I looked at the copy of his original invoice that he had sent with the letter. The invoice was dated in 1992, we had been through 3 different company names and two billing systems from that time. Try as I might there was no way to find this customers account or credit.

I know that I have been responsible for both of those situations, there are some companies that I will just not deal with and some people who I will always make the effort to keep in touch with no matter how much they have hurt me.

What part of being human is it that makes us this way?

Note: This was originally written sometime last month and has been waiting as a back up for when I had not posted in a while, and almost a month qualifies as a while. :-)

2006-12-24T13:19:00.000-05:00

Have you ever looked at a blank page and wondered "What possibilites lie within"? Or a book?

Michaelangelo once said that he pulled the marble away from the TRUE image within the stone. He didn't create the work, the image was always there trapped inside and waiting to be let out. I sometimes wonder the same thing about writing. What is that something that lies withing the pages, what story is yet untold, or masterpiece of art waiting to be released...

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the blank page and what story it might tell me... perhaps that is why it has always taken me forever to put pen to paper, to blemish that unmarked surface with unworthy thoughts. There is something so transcendent about taking that first step and realizing you never know what you might write till you take that plunge.

Perhaps a glorious work or art, or just another letter to Grandma...

Prevent-it Follow-up

2006-12-13T21:56:00.000-05:00

Tonight while watching Bones, just before the end the first Prevent-it commercial that I have ever seen rolled across my television. I was completely horrified, I had thought the radio adds were bad. Boy was I wrong. The commercial was repulsive, I was so shocked that I almost changed the channel to avoid watching it happen. it was done using the same process as the radio commercial, down to the letter, only this time with a complete view of the ravaged body of the person who had been hurt.

I just don't know how they think that this is going to make people more aware of their surrounding at work.

Prevent-it Commercial

Anger Management

2006-12-11T15:11:00.000-05:00

Anger is something that we all have to deal with on a daily basis, from our morning coffee burning our tongue, to the guy on the 401 who cut you off for the 2nd time...

So why does it become acceptable for some people to go the extra mile to get out of there car with a baseball bat and start beating someone up for a slight.

The whole concept of how far is too far when you are angry is all jumbled up in my brain right now as a friend of mine, lets call him H, was assaulted this afternoon right before our exam. His partner from our Drawing assignment walked into the examination room and put him in a headlock, he literally had to be pulled off of him by the other people in the room and the teacher. All of this because H held onto his partners USB drive and had forgotten to bring it to the class on Friday.

This guy literally walked into the class, put H into a headlock. Didn't he think he was going to be caught? That maybe it wasn't a good idea to walk into a classroom full of witnesses and a teacher and start beating on someone? All over a USB drive, I mean how does your mind go from. "My partner has it, he will get it back to me eventually." to, "He still F#$cking has it, after 3 days. I am going to murderize him!!!" Where does that connection get made in the brain?

It has floored all of us in the class, we are all talking about it and I know that it caught our teacher off guard. He had to kick this guy out of the classroom and talk to H to make sure that he didn't want anyone with him when he went to talk to him.

Non of us want to work with this guy ever again if this is the way he reacts to his partner and someone who helped him limp through the major project in our Drawing class. It is really just unbelievable.

Prevent-it Campaign

2006-12-10T11:06:00.000-05:00

Over the past month my favorite radio station has been playing a series of commercials by the WSIB (Workplace Safety & Information Board). These commercials depict an accident, where someone is horribly injured and then they talk about how these type of accidents could be prevented. Usually by the injured person saying that it "is no accident" and that "it could have been prevented"

I applaud the WSIB for making workplace safety concerns available to the general public as it is something everyone should be concerned about, and not just people in high risk professions. I do wonder about the way they have chosen to make that message heard. Is this type of commercial really making people more aware or just causing them to shut off when they hear it?

In the first commercial i heard metal rending flesh, and i was sickened. In the second I was blessed to hear heavy machinery crushing bone, while the actor grunted in agony. . .

When did informing the average person at any cost become an acceptable way to get your message heard? Whatever happened to that imaginary line that was supposed to stop this kind of scare tactic?

Now don't get me wrong, I admit that there is a need for employees to be better aware of their rights on the job and what they can do if they feel that their rights and safety are being sacrificed. I just don't find that this kind of campaign is going to help make me work harder at finding out what my rights are.

Distortion of Beauty

2006-12-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

This blog is nothing more then a reaction to something that Desiree told me about, I am going to open it up to everyones opinions so please comment away.

1st off, watch the following and take a moment to gauge your reactions to it.
Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty

Then read the comments that are posted by people on YouTube.

Secondly watch one or two of the following and see if your opinion of the above video has changed.
Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty 2
Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty 3
Dove - Campaign for Real Beauty 4

I know that when I saw the first commercial, I was horrified. I just couldn't believe that PhotoShop was capable of that much editing of the human figure. I was appalled... it was made even worse when I read some of the comments made by people on YouTube... and i got really pissed off. I mean some of the posts by, what i assume were men, were unbelievably shallow.

Then I came across some of the other commercials and I was surprised, genuinely surprised by what Dove was trying to accomplish. They are trying to boost the self-esteem of young women by letting them know that they can look anyway they want to and still be pretty. I know that this type of consumer awareness has been attempted before and failed or fallen been dropped very quickly, but maybe this will be the one to make a difference.

Below is a news program on the campaign, take a look. It was also very interesting.
News Program on the Campaign

I would really like to hear reactions to the campagin and if you think it is a comendable effort or just another example of a company trying to make a buck by exploitation.

Climate Change and the mess we've made.

2006-11-29T23:41:00.000-05:00

In a little under a week I am going to be attending my first public lecture at the Perimeter Institute and I am pretty excited.

Now these lectures are designed so that the average person can walk in off the street and they will be able to understand the material, but I like to be informed and once I was able to secure the tickets I started to scour the internet and journals for information.

Oh boy, did I find information! Unfortunatly none of it was all that helpfull... Between the people who believe it to be the end of the world and the ones who are spouting propagandist rhetoric like, "Go back to your homes people and just turn up your air conditioning for the next century or two". It was pretty sad.

Trying to sift through all of the articles has been akin to finding the lost city of Atlantis with a toothpick and no underwater gear. The one thing that I have managed to learn is that we are in a bad way if anything that they are predicting comes true. From increased natural disasters to flooding of all sea level cities and coastal areas.
So if this is even remotley a possibility then why does there seem to be so much inaction? If hurricane Katrina is any indication of global warming and the destructive power of a greenhouse gas Earth. Why do we seem to still be allowing our governyment to get away with a drop in the bucket. 2050 is when they are thinking about having our emissions reduced.

If the nay sayers are right and the warming is just due to increased sun spot activity and part of the natural cycle of the Earth, is there really any harm in taking actions to reduce the amount of pollutants we are putting into our air? Or working to conserve the few natural resources that we have left? We could all be doing our part with just a little extra effort and maybe a few small sacrifices.

I know that I have been thinking about what I could do differently to make a difference.

(possibly more to follow after the lecture)

Some links to check out:

David Suzuki Foundation

Climate Change Info

Global Warming Controversy

Climate Change Recource

EU's Official Site on Climate Change

The Twists that leave you Speechless!!

2006-11-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

Life is full of its ups and downs and many of these we can expect to some degree, but the ones the cripple is and being is to our knees are the events that are truly unexpected and unforeseen.
Earlier tonight I was confronted with my sister coming to my door in tears, and between the sobs I made out that my aunt had passed away. I was completly stunned, unable to comprehend what I had just been told. It took me a few moments to move and follow her downstairs where my mother was on the phone with my uncle trying to understand what had happened.

She just slipped away.

No illness, no long battle with a crippling disease. . . One moment she was there and the next she was gone.

I can't even function the pain is too fresh, and my uncle is too far away to comfort with anything more than a phone call.

So I say to all of you, take a moment to tell those you love that you care because the next time you turn around they may be gone. . .

May God welcome you with open arms Aunt Norma. I love you and you will be missed. Amen.

The Problem With Red Shirts . . .

2006-11-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

Anyone who is familiar with the Sci-fi genre will know about "red shirts". . . those poor hapless fellows who would beam down with the likes of Captain Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and before the first 5 minutes of the away mission has passed they have died in some horrible and life sucking manner.

Whether it be from an alien cloud that sucks life, a robot that can erase Uhura's memory but it kills every one else, to a silicon based monster that is only trying to protect its young. . . these guys are like lambs being led to the slaughter.

This idea of expendable characters has followed us into today’s Sci-fi, a prime example of this is in the beloved "Stargate SG-1" series, where all of the multiple different SG teams from 2-22 are as dead as dead can get, they get wiped out on a regular basis covering the ass of SG-1 as well as traveling to dangerous planets that are about to be eaten by a black hole.

Now I know I have painted a pretty glum picture and this is not completely typical of the average Sci-fi show today but it has been a long and arduous road from the induction of "Star Trek" to shows like "The 44000" where cast members change from show to show. One of the first shows to start a new trend away from the "disposable" character was another incarnation of "Star Trek", this time one of the main title characters was axed after the first few seasons of the show. Not because of a dispute with the studio over her salary, but because they had planned to kill off a main character for sometime, and when it happened it caused a huge stir in the fan base as everyone couldn't believe it and expected her to be brought back and as more and more time passed it became more obvious that there wasn't going to be some miraculous cloning or resurrection.

It was a master stroke and one of the last great ideas Gene Rodenberry would ever be able to implement, it opened the door to a whole realm of new possibilities and really re-wrote the book on what you can and can't do to main characters. In my opinion Sci-fi and television in general has only gotten better because of the new ability to kill off anyone in the show. My question is why with all of the progress that we have seen in Sci-fi, with characters changing as much we change our coffee filters, do shows like Farscape and SG-1 get away with keeping the same cast for the duration of the show. (Yes, I know that Daniel was gone for a year Mel...we all cried when that happened.) What is it about these characters that we just can't seem to do without? So many of the images that they portray today are fallible normal people who have faults like the rest of us, but the one fault they are not allowed to have is to be mortal.

I don't know about anyone else but I prefer to have all of the faults there including the ability for them to die, in whatever manner the writer's of the series decide.

We have come along way from the day of the "red shirts" and for that I am thankful, but I long for the day when Sci-fi emulates real life in all of its facets, from glories to heart ache.

The Day We Remember . . .

2006-11-13T14:48:00.000-05:00

Every year, without fail, the poppy starts to appear on the lapels of suits and coats all across the country. In mid-October the first of the poppies appear on politicians and news anchors, then slowly as we move closer and closer to the 11th of November they appear as if a sea of crimson has overtaken the passerby on the street.

The change is slow to come and it happens every year, but for all of the people you see on the street wearing the poppy upon their breast. So very few of them show up to the ceremonies on the 11th . . .

Why do we seem to support the lives that were given for our country and our way of life when we are about our daily lives, but when it comes down to giving up some of our precious time we forget all about them?

I am guilty of this sin myself, for the longest time on Remembrance Day I avoided going to the cenotaph. It wasn't until my grandfather passed away, several years ago, that I realize the importance of a time that is passing away without so much as a second thought. I find now that he is gone, I feel closer to him when I am standing in the rain and sharing with the grief of others who have lost ones they loved to conflicts past and present.

I find it so discouraging to go out to Remembrance Day events and see that the crowd who attends is slowly aging, the amount of kids and young people who attend is slowly dwindling to the point that no one is under the age of 20. I am one of the fortunate few who has experienced the reverence for the day from a close relative who fought on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, but so few of their stories have been passed down and slowly as more time passes it starts to fad from the minds of the every day person.

We may live in a time where conflicts happen all around the world, but none of them are to the scale of the 1st or 2nd World Wars. We are so removed from the rest of the world that fighting in another continent remains largely in the background of our every day lives, we watch the news and out eyes glaze over as another image of a war torn country far away flits across the screen. I worry that if we do not remember the horrible possibilities of what a world wide war can produce that we will repeat them and the atrocities of the past will find a new outlet in a world where social responsibility is on sale to the highest bidder and the national media is capable of showing what ever is needed to help foster the trust of the average person

Remembrance Day is supposed to help us remember what can be and all of those who paid the ultimate price for what we have today. Most importantly it is supposed to remind us of the cost of war and why we should never go there again... for the sake of humanity and all the generations to come...

2006-09-06T08:59:00.001-05:00

The year is 1917 and out amidst the rolling hills of France, the German armies are waiting in the early hours of sunrise for their orders. The orders that will take them out among the body strewn field between the trenches.

Off in the distance, the concussive sound of mortar fire can be heard. Faintly a new sound can be heard, fighting for dominance against the tumult of noise that has become commonplace amongst the daily life of trench warfare. It swells and grows as it slowly, ever so slowly, approaches the German lines.

Realization dawns upon the soldiers where they are huddled together in the trench. The sound is that of the bagpipes and that can mean only one thing . . . . and with the understanding of what is coming, fear starts to set upon their hearts and their courage. For you see the Ladies from Hell are on their way. . . and Death has come to collect his due.

(During the First World War, the Black Watch regiment of Highlanders had becomes so feared by German forces that they had become known as "The Ladies from Hell" because of they way in which they would storm over the top of their trenches, in full Highland Dress, and for the ferocity in which they fought all of their battles.)

2006-08-31T16:31:00.000-05:00

Explinations . . .

Here is my second attempt at having a blog. My first attempt started many moons ago when i posted some of my poetry, let's just say that it fizzled as fast as it started and I only posted on it twice before i gave up completly.

A few weeks ago I deceided it was high time that I try again and perhaps this time I would be a little more diligant in posting on my blog. With all of this time that i am going to have between classes, I see no reason why i won't be able to.

Later today, possibly during my next break between classes, I will post a brief explination of why my title is the way that it is. I assure you ladies and gentlemen of the Jury the explination is well worth the wait. :-)