The Briar Patch

 There are three institutions where children get indoctrinated—the home, Church, and school. Of course, now there is social media and more, and I will get to that, but let's start with two of these three institutions. First off, you can't change homes. Whether you agree with what a family teaches a child, it is their right to raise their child. As long as the child is cared for, it is none of anyone's business. Right there, we could solve many issues, people minding their own business. What I am getting at is I am not commenting on how families raise children. I have no children, and while I have a rough idea of what I may want to say or do for child-rearing, even if I had some, it isn't my place to comment on how others do it. If you keep your kids healthy, give them the best life you can, and put them ahead of yourself, then carry on. So when I say Church, I mean all organized religions. I am not about to put any religion above any other. Every single one of them has ...

This one won't be popular or well-received for my blogs. Writing on society's ills, I must address the hot topics of guns and climate change. In the long list of things to get right, these aren't the significant issues we need to be worried about in Canada, Edmonton, OR at least not the way we are. So here are the two most giant nothing burgers we have today! Climate change is 100% real; I will not deny that. My question is, do we matter in that? LA and NY have 20 million people. All of Canada has just cracked 40 mill. Our neighbors to the south are well over 330 mill. We are a drop in the bucket compared to them; in fact, we barely crack the top 40 for nations by population. India, China, Pakistan, Brazil, Russia & the States, if they don't change, we could change everything about ourselves, and it wouldn't matter. This does not mean we shouldn't try, but we should do helpful things. I have said I am for a sin tax on health issues and addiction. I am not fo...

 I had another blog lined up for this week, edited and all. Something came up though, something I found more important so I am writing about it this week. This one isn't really edited its just me, expressing shit. I guess I have been lucky over the years. Yes I have lost people, great grandparents I am lucky enough to remember. My grandma, which really hurt. Some cousins, aunties, uncles and a few people I would say were not "friends" but maybe acquaintances. I am 42 now and I lost my first real friend. He was 40. If you read my old blogs or if you want you can go back and read some stuff on "Chad" that isn't his real name. I changed everyones names in those blogs but Chad is something he went by, we will get there. I can't believe how much it hurt to find out he was gone. For the last few years he moved out East and I found out he passed from a Facebook post. Or I guess he had passed as he wasn't named so I texted the person who posted it and yes he...

So this blog is unpolished, unedited. I just wanted to write some fun stuff between blogs on serious issues. I have been listening to audio books that are draining as well, interesting but not fun... Art of War, The Prince, 48 Laws of power. So this is just a quick fun one... Anyways I will start it Dear Mr. Feige.... With 3 or 4 streaming services, I still find myself falling back and watching classics like Daredevil and Punisher and starting the millionth rewatch of the Infinity Saga. Just watching the first couple Iron Man and Cap America 1, a person becomes painfully aware how bad the MCU phase 4 and 5 have been. Don't get me wrong, there has been a few highlights. Spiderman had cameos we all loved. Dr Strange I personally liked even though the working title should have been "No Wanda, don't! Bad!"  PAUSE. STOP. I was going to start bitching about how the overall product of the MCU has gone downhill. Then I started to think how many stinkers the Infinity Saga had ...

So, I have stated first, we need the correct systems in place, and second, we need healthy citizens for a better society. One of the root problems in society, though, is addiction. A mental health problem that can lead to so much more. Family violence, crime, homelessness, job loss, and on and on. There is no cure for addiction. There is management, and there are many things we can do much better to help addicts and society. So, let's tackle this one next.  I like drinking! I like the taste of a good whiskey or red wine. Or the supposed "no taste" of good vodka. I like that little boost of confidence that tells me, hell ya, you can dance! Or the fact that, yes, after a long day, it does take an edge off. I have a ton of great memories of times when booze was around... The flip side of that is I'm not too fond of hangovers. I hate not knowing what happened the night before; I guess there is a term for this now: hangxiety. Some of my worst memories and things I hate abo...

Whatever you are doing right now, stop it. Grab a tall glass of water and chug it. 60% of human bodies are water. Most people don't get enough water in them in a day!! I'm seeing more people with big water bottles to remind them to drink. I have one, but I still need to get more into me. This is purely my opinion, but water, sleep, and HEALTHY food are the three best things for people. When someone is hungry, thirsty, or tired, they will not nearly perform as well as they usually would. That is a personal side note. I will get into it more, but we must take better care of ourselves. Those three things are a fundamental start. Get more sleep, healthy sleep. Don't drink to pass out; that sleep isn't restful. I mean the sleep you get after a long, hard day. Get more water, and I know it is hard, and you may end up peeing more BUT drink that damn water. Eat better! I am a person who eats out a lot, cooks at home a lot, and is used to eating fast food a lot. Greasy fast food...

So I think this is my last entry for the year of 2023 that won't be in the series I have started. All it will take is a quick read and some of this was started a month ago, or more. I am going to concentrate on those other blogs and maybe be done them by the end of the year, sorry if some of this is really not relevant anymore! 337 years... That's at least how long my family has been in North America. Or at least the the part of my family whose surname I still use. The other part of me, well we have been in Canada forever, Ojibway. Anyways what I got from doing family tree research was it would have been my great (X9) grandfather that came here way back in 1686, Jebus. I found out for a few generations we were in Philly and then moved to New Jersey... Thank god we moved outta there. Then into Ontario, again thank god we moved to Alberta some time between 1896 and 1910. A lot of Jacobs, Lewis' and Daniels in the tree. The hard thing to tell is are they Irish or British they ...