I'd run, but....

This weekend, I ran in this event called "Run for the Cure," which is designed to raise money for breast cancer research and ultimately to find a cure for this disease. Those of you who've been reading my blog know my opinion on whether or not a cure 'can' ever be found (Untruths in Fundraising), given the devastation to the cancer industry a cure would cause.

But.

It was a blast. It was great fun to run down city streets with a ton - 15,000- other people. It was great. I ran with a colleague and beat my 5K time by about 5 minutes, which was great.

It's a huge event in terms of organisation and it went off without a hitch. Loads of media, tons of participants, no chaos. A good day in general.

The only thing I have to complain about is how people cannot grasp the principle of "walk to the right" and why they don't have any concept of how difficult they make it when they stand in the doorways during a very congested, busy event.

I'm sure there were a lot of people who didn't understand my look of daggers as I was trying to get from the inside meeting places to the outside....

I only have two rules for busy places but they apply to all of amusement parks, busy malls, churches, big outdoor events - anywhere there are lots of people

Walk to the right - and this includes on escalator and for entering elevators. Simply walk to the right! How bloody hard is that? In England - London - there are signs in the Tubes directing people (tourists) to walk to the right so that those who want to walk up the escalator can do so. If you happen to stop on the left, Londoners will push you out of the way. And so they should!

Second rule is do NOT block doorways. Imagine if YOU had to quickly get your child out of a busy place and all these people were blocking the doorways!

Doorways are entries and exits. They are NOT where a person should stand and talk. Neither are narrow hallways.

Remove yourself to somewhere that will not prevent others easy entrance/exit.

The bottom line is to always remember that you are not alone. Manners make YOU easier to be around.

Here's a great book by a GREAT writer, Lynn Truss, for anyone who doesn't know the rules.

Also see "Miss Manners" or anything by Emily Post.

YAY FOR TRUTH!

go HERE! THERE IS TRUTH IN THE MEDIA.

Here's to you Keith Olbermann! It is aobut time someone spoke up.

George W. Bush;
Liar
Worst Administration in History
Blamer
Coward.

Go here for the excellent, outspoken commentary by video

Go here for the complete text of Olbermann's speech.

Here's More on the 9/11 attacks

Musings on Sins, Sinners and Sinning.

Is it worse to screw up and, by extension, not by design, piss someone off, or to be the pissed off person and not accept an apolgy?

Having been in this position - that of the inadvertently wronged person - a few times in my life, and also having been in the position of being hurt and not wanting to accept an apology, I want to know which is the greater sin.

Anyone know a Rabbi?

People, being the falable humans they are, are prone to making bad decisions, being idiots, saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, being insecure and reverting to pretty animalistic behaviour sometimes.

However, in most cases, people don't sit about plotting to piss other people off. I'm sure there are people who have some psychological syndrome that predisposes them to finding ways to piss off their friends and family, but I think those people are reasonably rare.

The rest of us simply make asses of ourselves without any planning or pretense. So, if a person screws up, is surprised by a reaction, feels bad about it and offers an apology but the apology is refused, I'd say the refusal is the greater sin.

I've been reading a synopsis of The Anger Diet by Brenda Shoshanna and how anger is often the outlet of choice, "...when people are depressed, feel anxious or suffer mood disorders, they really are angry, she says. Anger also appears as apathy, hopelessness, promiscuity and passive-aggressive behavior, she adds.

Speaking for myself, that was certainly the case in the past. I lived many years feeling powerless, ugly and incapable; I didn't believe that I had any viable skills or anything to offer anyone. This serious lack of self-esteem allowed me to marry the absolute wrong person (I temper this with gratitude for my children, who I would not have had were it not for that bad marriage).

I suffered intense anger for years - everthing set me off including others' unintentional slights, looks from strangers, frustrations - you name it, it pissed me off.

My saving grace was (is) a wonderful friend who has been instrumental in forcing me to look at my life, my self and my accomplishments from a rational, not emotional, point of view and to allow myself some self-congratulations. This is a whole 'nother post so I'll leave it for now.

I still have moments of anger and self-doubt but also have a much greater, useful ability to sift through the situation and consider it from a non-emotional point of view. It's rare day that I lose my temper now. It's a question of not proceeding from an emotional basis on every point , but from a point of view of analysis - my dad would jump out of his skin if he were to read this... "respond, don't react" was his mantra.

Having said all that, it does make me a bit angry to have an apology tossed back in my face - ignored in this case, but, as I beleive most people don't actually go out to piss off their friends, I'm in a position of forgiving the tosser. Weird and circular!

Dawson College

Just a quick note about this terrible event.

• Not all young men who wear trenchcoats are dangerous.
• The shooter was in possession of a legally obtained, registered gun
• The shooter had problems that were not related to his dress, age, place of residence or his choice of website.
• His mother, quoted in the paper saying she was in shock and hadn't raised her son to kill people (WHO DOES??) is asking for privacy. Good luck.
• Unnoticed or ignored depression in adolescents can result in suicide, whether by the adolesent's own hand or via the adolescent causing a situation where they risk dying or being killed.

The reality is that this guy was very certainly exhibiting lots and lots of warning signs and probaby for a long time. In a 'civilized country' where women learn to yell "FIRE" rather than "help" if they're being attacked (because people are not included to help but very inclined to avoid), it comes as no surprise that this individual, who was obviously very disturbed and distressed, took action, albeit the worst action possible. The attack was his "FIRE" call because his repeated calls for help - to his family and friends - had gone entirely unheeded.

The fact that his mother was in such outright denial - and that no other members of his family have chosen to speak publicly - indicates the roots of the shooter's problems were very firmly in the the family. If they didn't acknowledge that their child was in serious distress, who else was going to?

As for the young woman who was killed, she will now become the symbol for the tragedy, when she has little to do with the actual tragedy - a young man in such distress that he attempts to kill pile of people just so someone notices him! There are many who call his behaviour a suicide.

I don't mean to be callous towards the young woman who was killed or the others who were injured. Her death is devastating in every sense. I cannot imagine losing a child - I have a daughter at university at present. In my deepest heart, I'm terrified for her every single day; who knows who the people around her are and to what lengths they might go?

What I wish is that the media would finally place responsibilty where it belongs; with the family because it is always within the family that problems start.

I also wish that parents would reach out much sooner when they're having problems with their children. There is no shame in asking for help, or if there is, it cannot match the shame that this family will now live with.

The media will never actualy expose the truth of this story or the Columbine story or the Taber story. Family matters and problems, crappy parents and crap parenting are not news. Those are just the hallmarks of our 'civilized' country.

Politics of a Different Stripe

So, I heard the funniest thing the other day, via the office grapevine...

I have taken this post down, not because I didn't like it or because I have any remorse about anything I write here but because I had great concerns that I was about to be revealed to the subjects of the blog.

As all bloggers and their readers know, the blogosphere is a freewheeling kind of place where the writers say whatever they will, without fear of reprisals from their friends, co-workers, readers or bosses.

A caveat: I do not believe that there is any room in the blogosphere for violence and racism, but I also hold dearly to free speech, so yeah, sometimes that stuff gets into the space because people have the right to express themselves even if some of us would rather they just shut up.

Those of us who keep anonymous blogs do so no only to protect ourselves, but to protect those about whom we write.

Most of us are ethical enough to not slander our subjects and I specifically do everything I can to not identify my subjects, including, whenever possible, not identifying even their gender.

Having said that, we who have noms de plume or who remain anonymous do so for a host of usually very good reasons - one being keeping our day jobs.

Those readers who are invited into the inner circle must always hold that privilege in high regard as entry implies respect and trust. Broken trust is very difficult to repair.

Bombs and when they bomb

So it looks like the last ditch effort to make Mr. Blair popular again with his countrymen has bombed....

The so-called planned terrorist attacks on 10 commercial airliners was just that: planned. But planned to highten the prime-minister's very sagging popularity there, as he is living in GWBush's other back pocket - along with Stephen Harper. What a bloody weird party that all is.

So out he will go, leaving the airline industry very affected, the adjunct services losing massive amounts of revenue and with his head hung low and his tail between his legs.

Now people, if you actually believe that there was any threat at all, you are being played. There was no real threat. The only threat that exists is to people who's skin is brown and who's ethnicity is Pakistani (even if they're third generation Brits). Those people are being used as pawns in the war to create the 'coalition of the willing' in Britain, as it has been created in the US via the 'attacks' on the towers. Fortunately, Mr. Blair is quite clued in and he knows that such a large scale attack as that on the towers would never have the same effect with the British public. That's why such a thing never happened there. He may be unpopular but he knows his people. It's a damned shame that he's been so poorly played by the US government.

911 Cover Up

Loose Change 2nd Edition - Korey Rowe / Dylan Avery / Jason Bermas

If you can watch this and come out at the other end believing that 9/11 happened the way the US government wants you to think it did, you are a SHEEP.

In the Bible, SHEEP are regularly sacrificed.

Congratulations.

They got you.

Fake News; Fake Terrorists

What do you get when you blend a puppet president with a whey-mouthed prime minister and an illegal war and to countries full of people opposed to said war?

You get fake news and fake terrorists.

23 people arrested. No names released

11 remaining, still no names released

"some type of liquid" unnamed

Total Chaos designed to entice the British public; result? Devastation to services adjunct to the airline and travel industries... note the relatively quick correction to what's now allowed on board.

It's fake people. Mr. Bush and his gang of terrorists are skilled (man I hate to say that) at coercing you, Joe Public, into believing there is rampant terrorism going on or being planned.

Mr. Bush is hell-bent on keeping the war alive - although it is weird how it has shifted to people and places that have nothing to do with the original story line -how did Pakistan get wound up in this?

And now Mr. Blair has finally got a full-fledged set of marrionnett strings as a gift from Mr. Bush.

People, you're being lied to in order to create more buy-in for the illegal war for oil in the middle east.

ARE YOU SEEING WHAT THE MEDIA WANTS YOU TO SEE OR WHAT IS REAL????

Just 'cause the photo's too cool for words.

Emillie

July 2006

Quebec 

Courtney's grad from an arduous 3 years (a four year degree completed in three years, I mean) at Mount Royal College in Calgary AB Canada.

She completed her Degree in Interior Design at one of only a few 4-year degree-granting facilities in Canada and the few that are FIDER certified.

Huge accomplishment Courtney! Congrats on making the Dean's Honour Role and on your distinction for the essay you wrote and for simply an amazing three year effort.

You GO girl! Stantec is very fortunate to have you with them.