The Briar Patch

 Every month I donate to a local animal charity, as I like animals much more than people. However I also choose 1 random charity to donate to as well. Something I feel is important, 12 charities randomly important to me, a year. NOW this isn't 100% altruistic. I do get to feel good doing something & there is a benefit at tax time. Fun fact I miss when rich people actually donated their money to decent causes instead of doing a rich guy space race. In true capitalism the wealthy were supposed to donate to keep society going and government was to back off and not have to tax as much because those who could help would. Seems like all "thinkers" they forgot to think about human greed. This little side rant is just saying IF more people who could gave a little more maybe the world would be a better place?? All the right wing nuts saying down with big government and taxes.... Did you ever think about this?? Truth and reconciliation, the pope coming all this I think is kind ...

Start this entry off with something fun and nice. We went down to Victoria for a week for holidays and it was awesome. Beautiful weather considering it is middle of September. Lined up a ton of activities. Whale watching, haunted tours, the sky walk and a bunch more. You can check out my yelp for a ton of reviews. Tavis P. There if you want. I am not going to go into detail but it was a great trip. What I will say is times have changed. Pre 2007 I went with some friends and we stayed in a "hotel" that a friend of a friend down there was the manager of. I say "Hotel" because the mattresses were on the floor, it was dirty and there was a skeezy bar in the basement. We stayed there cause that was all we could afford. Rumor was it had been a brothel that was just shut down before.... This time we stayed in a place that was $450 / night. In all honesty I could never afford that BUT points program helped. We had a valet lol & a king sized bed instead of mattresses on ...

 SO we get to the last 2. I will start with the Genovese family. The "Cadillac" of crime families. This was the Luciano family until he was deported and Vito Genovese took over. I won't get too much into the history but Lucky didn't really want Vito to run his family. He along with Carlo Gambino and others set up Vito on drugs charges and had his sent away. However the family kept the Genovese name. You may have heard of Joe Valachi. He was one of the first rats. He was televised blowing the Mafia wide open, admitting it existed when law enforcement denied that fact. However since then there have only been 10 rats. By far the smallest number of any crime family in the states. They are currently believed to be the most powerful mafia family left in NYC or the states in general. They are considered the Cadillac because of the fewest rats ever plus it is believed they are and pretty much always have been the wealthiest and most powerful family BUT a lack of rats makes it...

I was just going to do a couple blogs on the mob, a rando thoughts blog and then maybe try and work on my own writing. A comic book or a novel, something. Then the queen had to go and die. I wasn't gonna write about it but being on social media and reading the stupidity of people made me have to rant. So ladies and gents my short, unedited so please ignore speeling and grammar mistakes thoughts on the Queen. The queen passed and honestly I felt nothing. Not sad, not happy just another day for me. I don't get the upset when a celebrity or someone passes and people who have never met them get all upset. The fact is the person didn't know you, didn't care about you so why are you so upset they passed?? Saying that I get the queen is different. Not to be upset about but that the monarchy is a huge deal in Britain and honestly world wide. I mean technically she is still our queen even. The monarchy dates back how long in Britain? We can read about kings hundreds even over a ...

 Since 14 I have been obsessed with the American Mafia. I remember going into my junior high library and taking out a book and I honestly don't remember why but it was a history of the American mob. Now that would have been mid 90s so the book would have been published early 90s and a lot has changed but it dipped my toe in. From then on I couldn't get enough books, movies whatever mob related I wanted it. At first I just thought a secret "honor" society was so cool & of course I was originally only getting the Hollywood version where I thought I could be Michael Corleone. I even told my mom I wanted to be a mafia hitman. That set her off, I was in shit for a few days for not valuing life and she was ashamed of me. Her shame was worse than her anger, funny how that works with parents.... Either way there is no mafia in Grande Prairie and I sure ain't Italian. So that dream never came true BUT with the rise of podcasts and my time to listening to them I listene...

This was going to be a small paragraph in a bigger random blog but it grew really fast and the fact is I thought it was rather interesting so it will be post of its own. I decided to add some of these womens names. I once heard a pod about Jack the Rippers victims, that humanized them. I think thats what should be done, why glorify freak shows and forget about the people who suffered because of them. Also I added a bit more as I was just going to, just quickly mention Edmonton but I think it is bigger than that. Also still cannot find a legit decent looking charity to donate to for MMIWG.... Msg me if you know one! IS there a serial killer in Edmonton? Or was there one active? On another long drive home I came across podcasts on EPS, which led to pods on what they called the Edmonton - Leduc murders. Which if you have been around Edmonton for awhile I know you have heard of. I just was unaware of the amount and length of time this had been going on. First thing though not all these mur...

I am now in Managerial Skill Development. I finished HR with an 89.5% and it made me realize I have become a "keener" I was actually mad I got .5 less and was thinking why could I not have gotten one more test answer right to bump it to 90%. It is still an A but the roundness of that number sounds much better. If I am honest this newest course is not what I expected, it is very psychology driven. Or so far it has been. Looking internally at our strengths and weakness. Which I do understand is important for a manager just not what I expected. Also it is online BUT we are expected to do a group project. I am nervous about that for 2 reasons. 1) 20 years ago I legit was the guy you didn't want in your group and even though I am doing much better in school now I hope I am still not that guy. On top of that I hope that guy isn't in my group! 2) I don't like my work depending on others. It is the same in the real world at my job. Some things I am okay with BUT big thing...