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Monday, January 19, 2015

What If Life Were Like A Soap Opera?

I think that it is a fair assumption to say that television often suspends reality.  Whether you're watching an hour-long mystery, a family-oriented sitcom, a medical drama, or ironically enough a reality series, there are just some things that are shown on a television program that simply do not make sense whatsoever.

Even though most shows do employ a team of experts that are directly linked to occupations that are shown in the series (example, on CSI, they have a team of medical and forensic experts to supervise in script writing to make sure that the dialogue is as realistic as possible), these shows certainly aren't perfect, and sometimes a plot line or a possible outcome just seems impossible to believe.



Such is the case with the daytime soap opera.  How many times have you sat down and watched one of these shows and actually had a hard time keeping a straight face?  Soap operas are basically just showing all of us that even the rich, famous, and beautiful people of the world have problems and struggles that would make a guest on the Maury Povich show seem like Mother Teresa in comparison.

Wait.  I suppose that's the reason why people watch them in the first place, isn't it?

I don't doubt that soap operas can be entertaining and scandalous.  I also won't argue that soap operas aren't addictive.  They certainly can be.  I know.  I have an addiction to the BBC soap opera EastEnders that was fueled by watching PBS on a boring Sunday afternoon.

And no matter where you go in the world, it seems that each nation has their own version of what makes a good soap opera.  In the UK, they have what they call the "Big 4", which are made up on Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale, and Hollyoaks.  New Zealand has Shortland Street.  In Australia, you can watch Home and Away or Neighbours.  And in the United States - which at one time boasted eleven soaps or more - you have four to choose from; The Bold and the Beautiful, Days of Our Lives, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless.

Now, how many times have you watched one of these shows and thought to yourself - that can NEVER happen in real life?  Well, nine times out of ten, that's exactly what happens.  They say that daytime soap operas are escapist fare for that reason alone!  They allow you to believe almost anything in the world could happen. 

So, I decided to think about this for a bit.  What would real life be like if life were like a soap opera?  I've come up with a few ideas.  Would you like to see them?  Here they are!



1.  You can be 40 years old and already have at least nine marriages under your belt.



2.  You can literally go broke planning a memorial service for somebody...especially if they die more than twice, thrice, or four times.

3.  You wonder how restaurants, coffeehouses, and diners stay in business as nobody eats any of the food they order.

4.  You simply don't question the logic of having alcohol merely two feet away from a recovering alcoholic.



5.  You can marry a man, his two sons, his brother, his cousin twice removed, and his nephew and nobody will bat an eye - unless it threatens your business.



6.  You can expect to be shot at least once in your lifetime and live to tell the tale.

7.  Never do a paternity test inside of a hospital.  99% of the time, they get tampered with.

8.  You might want to look over your shoulder.  Never know when an evil twin or triplet will show up.



9.  You might have difficulty finding hair spray, hair gel, or mousse.  I can't understand why that might be.

10.  The busiest man in town is the divorce attorney.

11.  The only reason why people have a bathroom is so they can get frisky in the shower.

12.  The average shift at any office building in town is seven and a half minutes.



13.  If you have an affair, it will likely be exposed in a creative manner.  Wrapping a DVD up of the affair and putting it underneath a Christmas tree, for example.

14.  Police officers in town are terrible.  They usually need two or three years before they can solve a crime.

15.  If you have a family member, don't get too accustomed to their faces.  They could change up to four times within an eighteen month period.

16.  You send your 6-year-old son upstairs to play one day.  A week later, he comes downstairs aged 22 and married.

17.  You never need worry about natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes, or floods.  Only two people will die in them, and usually they are either the main antagonist or someone who nobody really interacted with.

18.  Don't let the medical experts fool you.  In soap opera world, paralysis is not permanent.

19.  Holidays on soap operas seem to last forever.  Christmas can last up to a week and a half in some places.



20.  Seeing two grown women get into a catfight is a typical Wednesday morning.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Disorganized Religion

I'm going to open this blog post up with a statement.  This opinion piece will likely open up a debate about a so-called taboo topic that we have always been instructed to avoid discussing for fear of offending someone else.  This piece may cost me a couple of friendships with people who hold different opinions than I have. 

But you know something?  I have to have my say in the matter.  Too much has gone on in the world for me to remain silent on this issue much longer.



I am not a supporter of organized religion.

The key word here, of course, is organized.  Religion in itself is not bad.  In this huge world are dozens of religions and belief systems.  And while the majority of these religions are designed very differently, there are definite similarities between each one.  In fact, I would say that in most religions, the ideal of being kind and showing compassion to your fellow man would be at the ideal of anybody who considers themselves spiritual by nature.

I don't consider myself to be religious by any means, but I do consider myself to be a spiritual person.  I'm not exactly a believer in God, but I don't really consider myself to be an atheist either.  I would probably best describe myself as an agnostic.  Someone who does not know if there really is a deity or angels watching over us, but hasn't ruled out the possibility of them existing.  I probably won't know until I die.

Even when I was enrolled in "Sunday School" as a child, I didn't really show much interest in the religious aspect of it all.  I was only there for the fun activities we did, such as making cookies, or doing arts and crafts.  Of course, I was eight years old during that time, and was admittedly the "Bart Simpson" of the group.  At least I openly admit it!  I do appreciate the time that I spent in Sunday School, but it just didn't seem like a right fit for me, so I didn't go back after my 10th birthday.  It was a choice that I made for myself, and although my parents did come from families that were very religious, I appreciate the fact that they allowed myself and my two siblings to make our own choices regarding religious affiliations.

And, well...one of my beliefs is that I don't need organized religion to be considered a good person.  But that is only my feelings. 

Every place of worship is very different.  Many of them are wonderfully warm places of worship where people are singing and dancing to gospel music, and where people hug each other in the pews, and they consider the church to be a place of healing, and kudos to those who attend one of these churches.  I would imagine that even though organized religion is not my cup of tea, I think that if I went to one of these places of worship, I would likely be welcomed with open arms and have a good time. 

Simultaneously, there are places of worship that do more harm than good, and I would imagine that if a God is out there, S/He would not be pleased seeing a group of people commit old-fashioned blasphemy by exhibiting prejudice against the poor, the minorities, the homosexual, and the non-believers.  Nor would S/He be pleased at people committing criminal acts in their deity's name. 

Of course, the most extreme examples of this in action would be the Westboro Baptist Church, or supporters and sympathizers of ISIS.  That much is a given.  But what happens when a situation occurs where a person is basically denied a human right by a person representing a place of worship right in your very own community?

As you may have guessed, this post was inspired by the events that took place in Lakewood, Colorado one week ago yesterday, and how the decision made by the pastor of a ministry sent shockwaves and anger throughout not just the state of Colorado, but the entire world as well.

The tale begins on December 30, 2014 with the sudden death of thirty-three year old Vanessa Collier.  Collier left behind two children, as well as her spouse, Christina.

Over the next few days, the family and friends that Vanessa left behind planned her funeral, choosing New Hope Ministries as the place where the service would be held.  It was founded in 1981 by Pastor Ray Chavez and his wife Lola, and it was located in the same area where Collier grew up.   One of the beliefs that the church held was that it was "a place where those bound by drugs, alcohol, gangs and violence can find an Ounce of Hope". 



Unfortunately for Collier's family, that ounce of hope was denied to them on the date of the funeral service.  January 10, 2015.

Initially the service was progressing the way that most memorial services would.  Family and friends sat down in the pews, mourning their loss, sharing stories about the deceased, and displaying photographs of happier times spent with the person who had passed.

Perhaps it might have been one of the photos that set Pastor Chavez off.  Nobody really knows.  All that we do know is that fifteen minutes into the service, Pastor Chavez could not continue with the service.

The reason?  Photos of Collier and her wife embracing each other and kissing each other were present at the funeral service.  And as long as the photos of two women kissing were present in the church, he could not continue with the service.

In other words, he cancelled the funeral because the deceased person happened to be a lesbian.

You can just imagine how well that went over.  The mourners were furious and left the church in anger, taking programs, pictures, and eventually Collier's casket out of the church entirely.  The entire service was moved across the street to a funeral home.

Still, this whole story just leaves me with a very bitter taste in my mouth.  To have a church deny a person of their final right on this planet because of who they happened to fall in love with is the very definition of disgusting.  There was absolutely no logic and no common sense in Pastor Chavez's decision to stop the funeral right in the middle of the service.  Nobody in the world could ever justify that decision being made at all in my eyes.

Not that some haven't tried to.  Some have taken the side of the New Hope Ministries, stating that they had the right to their opinions and that they had every right to stop the service if that was what they felt was right.  Mind you, I do NOT agree with that stance at all.

Honestly, I don't think that any church has the right to stop a memorial service for anybody regardless of who they are or were.  People in this world have died who have done some rather reprehensible things and even they get the right of a basic sendoff.  As far as I'm concerned, Collier's only crime was growing up near a church that clearly showed its bigotry against homosexual people. 

I didn't know Vanessa Collier.  But by all accounts she was a woman who wanted to do right by her wife and her children.  She deserved more dignity at her funeral than what she was given.

And it's incidents like these that have turned me off of organized religion in the first place.  Granted, this is an extreme example here - one that I hope is not repeated at other places of worship any time soon.  However, I have come across people who are very much churchgoing types who have exhibited less intense displays of cruelty.  These people attend church services every Sunday morning to pray away their sins and to praise God, only for them to treat their fellow man like garbage the rest of the week.  The amount of homophobic, racist, and thoughtless comments that I have seen coming out of the mouths of these people who claim to love everything about God and what God teaches are enough to make a sailor blush.

It is not okay for people to behave one way at a church and behave in a completely opposite manner when they take off their church attire and interact with people in their homes, jobs, or public places.  And honestly, I am afraid of people who are like this.

Now, does this mean that I will avoid going to a church again in my lifetime?  Absolutely not.  That would not be common sense.  But I can't say that those people who show their hypocrisies and their closed-mindedness after the wine has been spilled and the bread has been broken are absolute shining beacons of God's work.

So, let me have it.  I've said my piece.  And I stand by it too.  While my thoughts about whether God exists are ones that I actively question, they are mine, and nobody influenced me to have these thoughts but me.  And one day, I hope that there will be a place out there where people can go where they do not have to be judged by how they feel about religion, or how they don't have to feel left out because they believe in something that others do not.  It will be a place where people love and respect each other for who they are...the way that God intended them to be.  And until we get rid of the hypocrisy and the judgment that people take with them into organized religion, then I refuse to be a part of it.

I'm happy believing what I believe in.  And when the time comes in which I pass away from this world, do me a favour and bury me at sea.  Or shoot me into the sun.  Or transform my remains into enough gems to supply Kay Jewellers for a couple of years.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Retrospective 1995

I just came to a sobering conclusion about this year.  It's not anything that I consider to be life-changing, life threatening, or just plain having to do with life in general - except for maybe the fact that I just realized how old I am, and how fast time is passing by.

This year marks twenty years since I entered high school.

TWENTY YEARS!!! 

(insert Macaulay Culkin scream here)



Yes, this is true.  I entered my freshman year of high school in...shudder...1995.

I still have a hard time believing that it has been twenty years since I was a freshman in high school.  To me, it doesn't even seem like that much time has passed.  In 1995, I was thirteen going on fourteen.  My only responsibilities back then were math homework and science fair projects.  The rest of the time, I was fixated on my Super Nintendo!

Now, I'm 33 going on 34, and I have a full-time job, and want to do so much more with myself but am not sure how to make that happen just yet.  And now I play Super Nintendo games on my Nintendo 3DS.

But, it got me thinking about that simpler time known as 1995.  I know that 1995 was a big year for me as I transitioned from elementary school to high school that year.  But I got to thinking about all the other things that were huge that year, and I almost want to do a retrospective on all the things in pop culture history that are turning twenty this year.

In fact, I've chosen exactly twenty items that are turning twenty this year.  Like the "Wheel of Fortune" categories, these can be people, places, or things.

Ready?  Let's have a look!



1.  Windows '95 - August 24, 1995

Windows 8 might be all the rage these days (whether you're raving because you love it, or raging because you hate it), but back in the summer of 1995, Windows '95 changed the way that people saw their PC's.  Introducing the taskbar and start button (still in use today), Windows '95 was the perfect operating system to usher in the Internet age.



2.  Sony PlayStation - September 9, 1995

Although the Japanese were the first to experience the PlayStation in December 1994, Sony entered the video game market amidst some strong competition from Nintendo and Sega.  Twenty years have since passed, and Sony is still considered a huge force in the marketplace, with the fourth installment of the game console being released in November 2013.  Think about it like this.  We would not have Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo, or Skylanders (which in itself was sort of a spinoff of Spyro the Dragon) without the PlayStation!



3.  Kendall Jenner - November 3, 1995

I suppose I have to include one person who was born in 1995, and Kendall Jenner of the overexposed Kardashian-Jenner family is the only one whose name stood out in the list of celebrities born in 1995.  It does make me feel very old knowing that when I began high school, she was still a fetus...



4.  Jagged Little Pill - June 13, 1995

It wasn't exactly a debut by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette.  This was actually her third album release following a short lived pop career.  But when she dropped the Debbie Gibson act and dropped F-bombs in a song that was allegedly about an actor from "Full House", she got everyone's attention.  The album spawned six hit singles, and was easily considered to be one of the best selling albums of the 1990s.



5.  One Sweet Day - November 14, 1995

And if Alanis Morissette had the most recognized album of 1995, certainly this collaboration between Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey was 1995's biggest single.  It hit #1 at the end of the year and stayed at the top for sixteen consecutive weeks - the longest that any song has ever stayed at the top of the Billboard charts.



6.  The Finale of "Full House" - May 23, 1995

"Full House" ended in May 1995 after eight seasons, and the way the show went out wasn't with a bang, but with a whimper.  Michelle falls off a horse, loses her memory, and the whole second half of the show focuses on Michelle trying to remember who she is.  Really, couldn't the show have ended with an earthquake flattening the house or something memorable?



7.  "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" - September 17, 1995

Though the story began with "The Simpsons" sixth season finale on May 21, 1995, viewers had to wait four whole months to find out who pulled the trigger and shot the evil, calculating C. Montgomery Burns.  It was one of the most watched episodes of "The Simpsons", and many viewers watched in silence as Maggie Simpson was revealed to be the culprit. 



8.  Toy Story - November 22, 1995

Remember when the world was first introduced to Woody and Buzz Lightyear?  Remember when Andy was still just a kid?  Remember when Pixar was still experimenting with computer generated movies?  Can you believe that all took place 20 years ago?  I know.  I wept myself.



9.  Batman Forever - June 16, 1995

It was twenty years ago that Val Kilmer took over the role of Batman from Michael Keaton, and that Chris O'Donnell first assumed the role of Robin.  The film itself wasn't as greatly received as the Batman movies that featured Keaton, but it was far from being the worst one.  I quite liked it.



10.  GoldenEye - November 13, 1995

Not only did the Batman franchise see a new actor take on the lead role in 1995, but so did the James Bond franchise.  Exit stage right Timothy Dalton, and hello Pierce Brosnan.  And of the four films that Brosnan did during his seven year stint as James Bond, this was easily the best of the lot.  By the time "Die Another Day" was released, we were ready to welcome Daniel Craig in with open arms.



11.  Waterworld - July 28, 1995

Sadly, not all box office releases in 1995 were blockbusters.  Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" made headlines twenty years ago for all the wrong reasons.  While it was considered at the time to be the most expensive film ever made, reviews of the movie were mediocre at best.



12.  The O.J. Simpson Verdict - October 3, 1995

The trial of the decade ended in October 1995, and audiences cried out in anger after hearing the words "not guilty", clearing O.J. Simpson of all charges in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in the summer of 1994.  Of course, we all know that O.J. himself ended up behind bars for a completely different criminal offense years later...but still, some still consider O.J. Simpson as the man who got away with murder twenty years later.



13.  The Oklahoma City Bombing - April 19, 1995

Sadly, not all of the memories on this list are happy ones.  One hundred and sixty-eight people were killed when a bomb exploded outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in what was then the worst terrorist attack on American soil.  Well, that is until 2001 anyway...



14.  The Drew Carey Show - September 13, 1995

Years before becoming the host of "The Price is Right", Drew Carey kicked off his very successful sitcom, "The Drew Carey Show" twenty years ago this September.  The show would run for nine seasons, wrapping up production in 2004, and made stars of Diedrick Bader, Ryan Stiles, and Craig Ferguson in the process.



15.  Xena:  Warrior Princess - September 4, 1995

Now, this actually makes me completely gobsmacked.  How can it be twenty years since we were first introduced to New Zealand actress Lucy Lawless and her notorious battle cry as Xena: Warrior Princess?  The show itself did surprisingly well in cable and syndication, running for six years before signing off for good in 2001.



16.  Star Trek:  Voyager - January 16, 1995

Star Trek fans, take note.  The fourth television series based on the works of Gene Roddenberry debuted twenty years ago on the UPN channel.

Sigh...remember the days in which the UPN still existed?  That seems so long ago!



17.  The Jenny Jones Scandal - March 6, 1995

Jenny Jones was never considered to be up in Oprah Winfrey's class in hosting a talk show, but on March 6, 1995, her show was the subject of much controversy.  On a show she filmed on secret crushes, Jonathan Schmitz was informed that his friend Scott Amedure had a crush on him.  Schmitz killed Amedure a few days later, and Jenny Jones was thrown right into the middle of a wrongful death suit.  The case was later overturned, but it marked a turning point in talk television, as most talk shows turned down the controversy in the wake of the murder.



18.  The DVD - September 1995

Can you believe that the DVD is turning twenty this year?  After the colossal failure of the laserdisc player in the early 1990's, the announcement was made that a digital video disc had been in the works and would revolutionize the way we watch movies.  Certainly people were skeptical, especially when you consider that DVD players when first introduced were almost a thousand dollars.  But in the end that prophecy came true, and DVD's permanently replaced VHS tapes in the early 2000s.



19.  The "Million Man March" - October 16, 1995

The Million Man March was held twenty years ago this coming October in Washington D.C., and was solely designed to raise awareness for the African-American community and to raise awareness for voter registration in the United States.  Although not as powerful as the great Civil Rights Movement, it certainly did make its mark on the world.



20.  Chrono Trigger - March 11, 1995

Finally, I couldn't end this look back through time without adding a game that allowed players to...go back in time.  It's been twenty years since the RPG masterpiece "Chrono Trigger" was released for the Super Nintendo, and twenty years later, the game still has a lot of replay value - especially since the Nintendo company released an expanded version for the Nintendo DS just a few years ago.

Sigh...1995.  I remember you like it was yesterday.  Where did that time go?

Friday, January 16, 2015

Why Target Missed The Mark in the Great White North

I'm going to be starting off with some bad news.  Target is closing every single one of its stores for good.

Well...every single store in CANADA that is.



Nearly two years after Target bought out Zellers and transformed many Zellers locations into Target department stores in Canada, the company is now doing an about face and by May 2015, all Target stores in Canada will be closing up shop for good.

This news does not bring a lot of happiness to the now 17,600 people who at the end of the spring will find themselves unemployed, all because the company felt that the one hundred and thirty-three Canadian locations were costing too much money to operate.

But, is that REALLY the reason why Target would close up shop here in Canada?  No, I think there's more to it than that.

For one, people that I have talked to in regards to visiting Target as opposed to other similar retail chains such as Walmart, Canadian Tire, or Giant Tiger have complained that the prices of items in Target stores were priced much higher than those of its competitors.  I can't say that I disagree with that statement.  The closest Target store to me had prices that were almost double what other places sell.  Certainly if prices aren't low enough, people will not stick around to shop.

And I suppose that the 2014 credit card scandal that saw people's personal information being stolen by hackers certainly didn't ease consumers spending habits any, even though it was reported that the Canadian stores weren't as badly hit as the American ones.



But do you honestly want my opinion over why Target flopped in Canada?  Mind you, this is merely my own thoughts, but I honestly believe that the reason why Target missed the mark was because of a lack of understanding and a struggle to believe in the brand by the people who are - or I suppose I should say "were" - in charge.  It's no secret that Target had struggled during its first few months in business.  After all, the business went through two CEO's.  When you have that much uncertainty and instability, it makes it difficult for any business to function the way that it is supposed to.  Just picture a small business which has twelve employees, and all twelve of the employees can't come to a consensus on a decision that will benefit the business.  If all twelve fight with each other, it leads to an endless power struggle and it causes everything to come to a standstill. 

I think something similar happened with Target Canada.  Because of so much turmoil at the top of the chain, the negative effects trickled downward, and this began to impact individual stores in a variety of negative ways from failure to keep shelves stocked to not having enough manpower to open up new stores.  Initially there was a lot of buzz surrounding Target opening up in Canada, and at first glance, it really did seem to be a threat to other retail giants in the country.  The mistake that the company made was expanding too soon, too fast, and every single store suffered as a result of it.

But do I think that anyone tried to do anything about it?  Seeing how empty a standard Target store is on any given day here in Canada, I would probably hazard a guess that they didn't do a whole lot.  I don't even remember seeing that many commercials on television for Target - at least not nearly as many as some of the other retailers out there.  I think that in so many ways, the company missed the mark.  And I think it is frustrating because had they had people at the top who knew what they were doing from the very beginning, I think it could have turned out differently.

In the grand scheme of things, a business - be it a huge corporation, a mid-size operation, or a small Mom and Pop store - needs to do three things in order to make it in this world.

1.  You have to listen to your customer base.
2.  You have to support your team.
3.  You have to have the motivation to make split-second decisions.

Do I think that Target did all of those things?  Honestly, I would have to say no.

Again, one of the most common complaints that I heard about Target Canada from people who have shopped there was the fact that the stock that they did have was overpriced and lackluster compared to the stock that they had in American stores.  Now, granted, there's not a lot that Target could do as far as what items they could carry in the stores.  They're more or less tied to Canadian distribution centres, and have to stock a percentage of Canadian brands.  But I do think that everyone had a responsibility to make sure that shelves were filled.  From department managers to store managers to district managers, there could have been ways to get the product in.  And if the distribution centres were all tied up, then the people in upper management should have done more to try and get the product flowing in. 

I also think that a well-oiled team in retail is one that is consistently supported by their managers, and in turn supportive of each other.  Clearly, Target's decision to close up shop in such a sudden turn of events shows that they felt that trying to salvage the money that was piped into the Target Canada project was more important than keeping the stores open and their employees working.  But in any retail establishment, I firmly believe that people in leadership positions (and this includes district managers, store managers, and department managers) should show qualities that would inspire other people to want to become leaders themselves.  They should try to learn everything they can about the business they work for, they should offer encouragement to all the people on their team, and they should be able to make tough decisions on the fly if the situation calls for it.  They should NOT hide behind their responsibilities to avoid interacting with their team or the customer base.  They should NOT throw a member of their team under the bus to improve the satisfaction of a customer.  They should NOT be nice to team members on the sales floor, and bash them behind their backs in the back room.

Basically leaders should act like leaders.  Not cowards.  Target employees should not have found out about the status of their jobs on the CBC.  They should have been told by the people who employed them first and foremost. 

And, I guess I can ease into the third point right here.  Nothing is more frustrating to deal with in the world of retail than insecurity in decision making.  Believe me, there are times in which the ability to make a decision is tough, but they have to be done to try and keep the business going.  I think in Target's case, decisions were poorly thought out, made way too late, or just completely ignored.  None of which equated to success in the long haul, as far as I am concerned.

The sad thing about this isn't just the fact that thousands of people have now been made jobless.  It's the fact that this sort of thing could happen again.  With businesses like Sears, KMart, and JC Penney struggling to stay alive in this economy, this sort of thing can happen ANYWHERE. 

If the people who run a business stop caring about their employees, the employees will stop caring.  If the employees stop caring, the customers will get upset.  And if the customers are upset, they will go somewhere else.  I think Target Canada could have done more to try and keep the business afloat, and I still take the stance that had Target implemented a plan from the very beginning and worked more with their employees to better train them for the retail industry, then the Target Canada fairy tale might not have such a disappointing ending.

Just something that every business owner should take into consideration.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

If there is one word that I can use to describe the month of January 2015 thus far, it would be this one.



Now I know how the poor people in "Frozen" felt when Queen Elsa froze her entire kingdom with just a couple of touches.  If she were a real, living character, most of us in this part of the world would be screaming at her to LET IT GO!

(Sorry, I had to get one "Frozen" pun in there.)

Just to put things into perspective here in Ontario, last night our temperature went down to -26 degrees Celsius.  Converting that into Fahrenheit for my American readers, that equals to -15.

Yes, it is definitely the time of year in which Jack Frost has seemingly gotten shacked up with Mother Nature, and the end result has spawned a demon child determined to freeze every single thing he touches.

Hey, I wonder if that's how Batman's "Mr. Freeze" came to be.

How am I coping with this bitter coldness that has permeated the air lately?  Honestly, I'm handling it quite well. 

I suppose that part of the reason why this has been the case is because my internal body heat is quite high.  It sucks in the summer because I sweat enough to probably fill up a child's wading pool, but in the winter it is a definite benefit.  I guess a part of that could be attributed to the fact that I worked in frozen foods and dairy for quite a number of years.  Maybe that could have helped me out in building my "immunity" towards the cold.



I also take great precautions to stay warm both outdoors and indoors.  I wear the proper clothing items when going outdoors, I wear a hat and gloves if I am going to be out for an extended period of time, and I even have a set of flannel sheets on my bed at the moment to keep me warm during the frosty winter nights. 

And, of course, there's also all the wonderful warm foods that you can eat and drink during this time of year. 



To this day, I cannot resist a good old fashioned hot chocolate.  Whether it's peppermint flavoured, dark chocolate, topped up with marshmallows or whipped cream, hot chocolate is definitely the best kind of drink to enjoy on the coldest days of the year.

Or, if you don't like chocolate, I suppose a cup of coffee would suffice.  I'm not a huge coffee fan, but it is definitely the beverage of choice for most people I know.  The lines at Tim Horton's on any given day speaks volumes about people and their coffee addictions - at least in this community, anyway.



And I am sure that you all have seen this commercial playing during the holiday season.  I know that Christmas is all but a faded memory now, but this commercial for Campbell's soup seems very appropriate, given the subject of this blog is staying warm in extremely frigid temperatures.  And really, what better way to ward off arctic chill than with a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup?

Oh, and when it comes to your pets, keep in mind that even though their bodies are mostly covered in fur, they can get extremely cold very quickly.  Please bring your animals inside on really cold days.  Their fur can only ward off the cold for so long, and their paws can freeze on frozen surfaces. 

And, also it goes without saying that in really cold weather, you should really limit your time outdoors as well.  Stay inside, curl up in a nice warm room and read a book or watch a movie if you can.

You know, sometimes I think to myself that things aren't going the way that I want them to go, and I often wish that things could be different.  But I will say that I consider myself lucky that I do have a warm place to go to whenever the weather gets a bit nippy.  Not everybody in this world is that fortunate, and as I type this blog post out, there are thousands of people who do not have a place to call home, who wander the streets with just the clothes on their backs, trying desperately to stay warm in a cold world.

I wish that there were more shelters available for homeless people around this time of year so that people wouldn't have to suffer in the cold.  But until that happens, the best thing we can do is offer support and compassion.  After all, just because the weather outside is cold doesn't mean that we have to be the same way.


Just some food for thought this wintry day.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Sorry, I'd Rather Not Speak Dollar Sign!

One of my favourite classes to take in school was film studies class.  Imagine going to a class to watch a whole bunch of movies for free and having discussions about all of them...and getting class credit for it! 

Mind you, we also had to film our own video projects as well as put together presentations for the class as well.  But let's face it.  Watching "Jurassic Park" and "Star Wars" in class was definitely the highlight of any school day!

Of course, we didn't just watch summer blockbusters in class.  That would be too much, even for the most lenient of professors or teachers.  We watched a wide variety of films in class.  We watched foreign films such as "Run Lola Run" and "The Seventh Seal".  We watched Canadian made films such as "Exotica" and "The Sweet Hereafter".  In one case, I do believe that in one of my college film classes, we watched a film that could be best described as soft core pornography.  But, yeah, we won't be talking about that film in here.  I'm trying to keep this blog "PG" rated.

That said, one of the films that I remember watching was the 1972 film "Cabaret", which starred Joel Grey, Michael York, and Liza Minnelli.  It was a film that was based on the Broadway musical of the same name, and it won eight Academy Awards - none of which were for Best Picture, might I add!  It was a great film, though, and the musical performances by the whole cast were very well done.

But looking back at that film, while all of the songs definitely had their impact on the movie, I think that this duet between Minnelli and Grey probably had the most impact on me.



Sadly, this prophecy seemingly has come true.  Money makes the world go round.



And as a self confessed non-materialistic man, I can't say that I like it.  Unfortunately, there's no going back from it.  Well, unless we abandon money altogether and go right back to trading spices and fruits and vegetables for goods and services, which admittedly would not fly in 2015.

It isn't because I am anti-capitalism.  Far from it. 

I think the reason why I get so jaded when it comes to money is seeing how it has taken over so many people's lives, and more importantly, how wasteful some people are with it.

Granted, working at a retail chain in which the phrase "save money, live better" is drilled into your head at every waking moment is probably not helping change my stance anytime soon, but I sometimes get a little bit ticked off when you hear people having conversations and they can't go five seconds without mentioning a particular word or phrase that is linked to money.  Phrases like "count your pennies", or "I'm not paying that amount of money for that".  I would like to live in a world where I don't speak "dollar sign".  I would love to have a conversation with someone else in which money is not the main focus. 

I also think that when it comes to saving money, some people seem to grasp this concept very well, while others miss the mark completely.  Somehow, I don't really see buying 75 boxes of Kraft Dinner to save twenty-six dollars as being all that great of a deal unless you really love Kraft Dinner.  Personally, I couldn't stomach eating Kraft Dinner for even one meal, let alone seventy-five, but that's just my personal preference.  And don't even get me started on those extreme couponers.  I'm relieved that we don't really have that phenomenon in Canada as double and triple coupons are not honoured here because I have seen people go out of control with the coupons.

Granted, getting a thousand dollars worth of groceries for $1.89 is a fantastic achievement, but my heart absolutely goes out to the poor cashier who has to ring through every single item and then punch in every single coupon that corresponds with said item.  I thought we had it bad with ad matching, but those extreme coupon people really take it over the top!

In fact, while one can argue that the people who are extreme couponers save a truckload of money by purchasing items in bulk, one could also argue that they are being somewhat greedy.  You see, I know how retail works, having been in the business for a decade now.  It is not always easy to refill the store shelves quickly.  Many stores like mine rely on outside warehouses to ship the product to our stores, and if an item is out of stock in the warehouse, then we cannot replenish the item.  So, if you're buying fifty bars of soap to save money, what are the other people who legitimately only need to buy one or two bars supposed to do?  Go to another store?  Or wait until more comes in?  I mean, some people take the quest to save money so far that it almost makes it seem like they are out for themselves and don't really care about anybody else.

Mind you, I am not saying that ALL people are like this.  I imagine quite a few people donate some of the stuff they bought to local food banks or homeless shelters, and that is fantastic!

But it just maddens me that so many people seem to be showing such gluttony and levels of greed in this world.  It seems as though "Please" and "Thank You" have been replaced with cries of "I Want" and "Gimme Gimme Gimme".  I think that's why I'm jaded about money.



Though, given that people have lied, cheated, and stolen on shows like "Survivor", "Big Brother", and the deliciously named train wreck of a show called "I Love Money" for a million bucks, I suppose that it's not hard for anyone to feel that way.

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't feel the need to keep up with the Joneses, Smiths, Rockefellers, or Kardashians.  I don't need to live in a sixty-seven room mansion with golden staircases and a marble fountain in every hallway.  I long to live for the simple things in life.  I don't need much money to make me happy.  Just enough so that I can live a nice, quiet life.  Besides, look around at the people who are supposedly very rich in money.  Do any of them really look all that happy to you?  Just think about it for a second.



I guess if I had to look at myself and compare myself to a minor pop culture character, I would be like the guy who tries to romance Madonna in the "Material Girl" video.  Though Madonna sings about wanting to be with a man who showers her with riches, all she really wants is a man who doesn't try to impress her with expensive gifts.  So, he takes her out on a date in an old beat-up truck.  Unfortunately, he ends up paying for the truck with a fist full of cash making the whole video one big show of irony.  Proving that even the simplest dreams require a dollar sign or two to make happen.

But hey...at least he didn't buy a Rolls Royce.