Search This Blog

Thursday, August 27, 2015

It's Not Fair...

You know, for those of us who have full-time jobs (or even part-time jobs), we may have a lot of different thoughts passing through our heads.  Some of us probably are thinking that we probably need a half dozen cups of coffee to get us through the morning.  Some probably dread the idea of having to file paperwork the whole day.  Some are trying to think of what plans they will make on the weekend.  And, some are constantly tossing discarded coffee cups left behind by customers who apparently don't know what a garbage can looks like.

But I'm sure that none of us ever go into our respective workplaces thinking that this is the last day that we will ever see again.



I'm only guessing that it never crossed the minds of 24-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward that when they reported for work on the morning of August 26, 2015 that it would be the last time that they would be seen alive.

Tragically, both of them died on the same day.  Gruesomely, their deaths were in front of a live television audience in Roanoke, Virginia.

I'm sure you've heard all of the details.  Alison Parker was doing a live remote, interviewing Vicki Gardner, a member of the chamber of commerce in Franklin County, Virginia.  Adam Ward was the cameraman.  The interview was supposed to be a light hearted piece for WDBJ's local morning show.  But at 6:46 am, all hell broke loose as a man approached the trio and shot at them.  Parker and Ward were pronounced dead at the scene, Gardner was seriously injured.

Perhaps what was the most disturbing thing about the whole tragedy was the fact that the gunman (who had been fired from the station, and who singled out Parker and Ward as the people responsible) posted a video on his personal Twitter account.

Extremely inexcusable and disgusting.

The gunman later took his own life, meaning that nobody will ever really know the truth behind what his motivation was, or why he felt compelled to do such a thing.

The only thing that I know for sure is...this was senseless.  Absolutely senseless.  And you know, for this to be planned so meticulously by the person who pulled the trigger - timing the shooting so that it would actually be seen on live television.  What the heck was going through his mind?  Again, with him taking his own life, we'll never know.

Instead, this man used his own pain and turned it into hatred and rage, and as a result, he has not only taken two lives, but destroyed thousands of others.  Both Parker and Ward were reportedly well liked and very respected at their jobs and were considered consummate professionals.  Both were very happy in their personal lives and had fallen in love.  They had their whole lives ahead of them, and in an instant, all of those dreams and future goals were taken away from them.

It's just not fair.  It sucks.

My thoughts go out to the families of Alison Parker and Adam Ward during this difficult time.  Nobody should EVER lose anyone in such a horrific way.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Food Survey Time!

I'll tell you this much.  When you're short on time because you're busy trying to get moved in, I've found that answering questionnaires is a fun way to fill the void when you really don't have much time.

So, just for the heck of it, here's another one for you to look at.  This one involves food.

I promise, once things settle down, I will be doing more quality entries...even if it's not every day. 




1. How do you like your eggs? 
Chocolate and wrapped in foil (seriously, I don't like eggs) 

2. How do you take your coffee/tea? 
I like my tea iced with just a hint of lemon flavour...and I like my coffee in the form of a Nestle chocolate bar called Coffee Crisp. 

3. Favorite breakfast food: 
If it's available, I love waffles. 




4. Peanut butter: Smooth or crunchy? 
The smoother, the better. 

5. What kind of dressing on your salad? 
There's a mango poppyseed dressing that I LOVE...but it's only available in the USA.  Barring that, I like a standard Caesar. 



6. Coke or Pepsi? 
I can drink both. 

7. You’re feeling lazy, what do you make? 
Reservations.  Or, microwave popcorn.

8. You’re feeling really lazy. What kind of pizza do you order? 
My favourite pizza place recenly closed down...but if I had my choice, any pizza place that can make a decent Canadian pizza (pepperoni, mushrooms, bacon bits) would be my choice. 

9. You feel like cooking. What do you make? 
I'm afraid I'd burn down half the town if I ever attempted cooking. 

10. Do any foods bring back good memories? 
I used to have fond memories of going to Baskin-Robbins for a chocolate brownie ice cream cone...but ours closed down years ago. :( 

11. Do any foods bring back bad memories? 
No, not really.  Unless you count the time I got food poisoning from chicken wings.  Took me five years before I could eat them again. 

12. Do any foods remind you of someone? 
Although I don't eat them, whenever I see jam filled cookies, I always think of my grandmother, because she had a really ancient recipe for them, that my mom has duplicated. 

13. Is there a food you refuse to eat? 
Raw onions...they induce projectile vomiting if inhaled. 



14. What was your favorite food as a child? 
McDonald's Chicken McNugget Happy Meal.  And, yes.  I only ate them for the toys.

15. Is there a food that you hated as a child but now like? 
Yogurt.

16. Is there a food that you liked as a child but now hate? 
Peaches.

17. Favorite fruit and vegetable: 
FRUIT: Seedless grapes, watermelon, cherries, Granny Smith apples, seedless oranges, pineapple, bananas 
VEGETABLES: Cucumbers, lettuce, green peppers, celery
 

18. Favorite junk food: 
Anything with peanut butter and chocolate.  Or, if I have a salty craving, chips and dip. 

19. Favorite between meal snack: 
See #18.

20. Do you have any weird food habits? 
I'm kind of obsessed with mustard, and can eat it on foods most people wouldn't consider putting it on (i.e. mashed potatoes) 

21. You’re on a diet. What food(s) do you fill up on? 
Tons of fruit and vegetables, yogurt, low cal soups, rice cakes... 

22. You’re off your diet. Now what would you like? 
Pizza! Pizza! Pizza! With an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen for dessert! 

23. How spicy do you order Indian/Thai? 
Mild. I don't like an overabundance of spice. 

24. Can I get you a drink? 
Non-alcoholic?  Sure!

25. Red or White Wine? 
Not a fan of either, but I could stomach white wine for a toast.  I love champagne though - which is kind of like white wine with a kick. 

26. Favorite dessert? 
Anything chocolate!

27. The perfect nightcap? 
Alcohol would keep me AWAKE at night. 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

August 25, 2001

Are you ready for another edition of the Tuesday Timeline?  I hope you are!  It's the last one for August, and possibly the last one for at least a week or two.  The big move is happening this weekend, and I won't be around during that period.  So, however long it takes to unpack everything - well, I don't have any idea. 

But what I can say is that I do have an interesting topic to talk about in today's Tuesday Timeline entry.  It's a sad topic, mind you, but an interesting one.

I'll explain why that is the case in a moment.  For now, we have a little bit of housekeeping to take care of first.

Let's see what was going on in the world on all of the August 25th's of all time, shall we?

1609 - Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers

1768 - James Cook begins his first voyage

1835 - The Great Moon Hoax - a story about there being life on the moon - is published in the New York Sun

1875 - Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim across the English Channel, taking 22 hours to do so

1894 - Kitasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague

1916 - The United States National Park Service is created

1939 - EastEnders actor John Bardon (d. 2014) is born in Brentford, Middlesex, England

1944 - During World War II, Paris, France is liberated by the Allies

1945 - Armed supporters of the Chinese Communist Party kill American intelligence officer John Birch - who many consider to be the first victim of the Cold War

1946 - Football player and sportscaster Charlie Sanders (d. 2015) is born in Richlands, North Carolina

1981 - Voyager 2 makes its closest approach to Saturn; exactly 8 years later, in 1989, it would make its closest approach to Neptune

1985 - Thirteen-year-old child ambassador Samantha Smith is killed in a plane crash in Auburn, Maine

1988 - Lisbon, Portugal's Chiado area is severely damaged by fire

1991 - Belarus becomes an independent nation, officially breaking off from the Soviet Union

2009 - American Senator Ted Kennedy passes away at the age of 77

2012 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong dies at the age of 82

2013 - A train derailment in Huimanguillo, Tabasco, Mexico kills six and injures 22

And for celebrity birthdays, let us wish the following people a happy birthday; Monty Hall, Sean Connery, Regis Philbin, Tom Skerritt, Virginia Euwer Wolff, David Canary, John Badham, Conrad Black, Anthony Heald, Gene Simmons, Geoff Downes, Elvis Costello, Tim Burton, Christian LeBlanc, Ashley Crow, Billy Ray Cyrus, Ally Walker, David Packer, Christine McGlade, Blair Underwood, Joanne Whalley, Robert Maschio, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tom Hollander, Rachael Ray, Cameron Mathison, Rachel Shelley, Jo Dee Messina, Claudia Schiffer, Eric Millegan, Jensen Atwood, Jonathan Togo, Kel Mitchell, Rachel Bilson, Stacey Farber, Blake Lively, Alex Roots, and Josh Fitter.

Wow...that's a lot of people with August 25 birthdays!  I hope I didn't forget anybody!



So, for today's date, we're going to go back in time a mere fourteen years to August 25, 2001.

And, to begin this Tuesday Timeline entry, I thought I would post a music video for all of you to watch.  There's a story behind it...a rather tragic story.



ARTIST: Aaliyah
SONG:  Rock The Boat
ALBUM:  Aaliyah
DATE RELEASED:  January 15, 2002
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #14

Now, one thing you can say about this video is that it had a lot of beautiful imagery.  After all, the video was shot over a period of three days in August 2001 in Miami, Florida and the Bahamas.  The song was just one of the singles set for release from her 2001 album "Aaliyah", which had just been released in July 2001, and early buzz among music critics was that the album was expected to make Aaliyah Dawn Haughton a household name.

Though, you could say that she was well on her way to doing just that when she first hit the music scene in the spring of 1994.  Like her fellow singers Brandy and Monica who were teenagers when they released their debut albums, Aaliyah was just fifteen when her first album "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number" in May 1994.  A second album, "One In A Million" followed in August 1996.  But it wasn't until she contributed songs to the film soundtracks of "Dr. Doolittle" and "Romeo Must Die" (and made her feature film debut in the latter film) that people really started to take notice.



At the time that Aaliyah was working on the video for "Rock The Boat" (which started filming on August 22, 2001), she had a lot of things going for her.  In addition to her third album doing quite well on the R&B charts, she also had landed a role in the Michael Rymer film, "Queen Of The Damned", set for released in early 2002.  She had also been dating Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon Dash, and by all accounts, the couple had been getting quite serious with each other despite the eight year age difference between them (Dash was 30, Aaliyah just 22).

(Of course, it was nothing like when a 15-year-old Aaliyah secretly married a then 27-year-old R. Kelly in late 1994 - the marriage was annulled a month after Aaliyah's sixteenth birthday in February 1995.)

Anyway, the point is that Aaliyah was on top of the world, and had achieved everything that most 22-year-olds could only dream of.

Tragically, the video shoot for "Rock The Boat" would be the last time that anyone would ever see the singer alive.

After filming the underwater scenes for the video on August 22, Aaliyah and her crew flew down to the Bahamas to film the rest of the video.  The filming in the Bahamas was expected to take three days, and a flight back to the United States was booked for Sunday, August 26.

But when Aaliyah wrapped up her scenes a day early, she made the decision to take an earlier flight back to the United States, as she was anxious to get back home.  She would go ahead home while the rest of the video was filmed with the background extras.

The flight back to the United States was scheduled to arrive at the Bahamas the afternoon of August 25, 2001, and Aaliyah boarded the twin-engine Cessna 402B aircraft from Marsh Harbour Airport along with seven other people who were part of Aaliyah's styling crew, close friends, and employees of Blackground Records.

The flight was supposed to arrive at the airport at 4:30 that afternoon, but did not arrive until 6:15, and this reportedly caused a bit of a scuffle between the passengers of the flight and the pilot, Luis Morales III.  But according to another charter pilot, who happened to overhear the fight, he claimed that Morales was trying to convince the passengers that the plane had too much weight on it to fly safely.  Certainly the plane that was chartered was a lot smaller than the plane that brought them to the Bahamas, and each of the passengers on the plane had also brought the equipment that they needed to bring with them for the video shoot.

But despite Morales telling the passengers that it wasn't safe to fly, he eventually gave in and started up the plane, even though one of the engines wouldn't start up at first. 

The flight only lasted a minute at the most.  About a half a mile from the airport, the plane crashed and exploded.  None of the passengers aboard the plane survived the crash.



And just like that, the life of Aaliyah Dawn Houghton was over.  Dead in a plane crash on August 25, 2001 at just twenty-two years old.  The other passengers on board, as well as the pilot, were also dead.  Some were killed instantly, while others died slow, agonizing deaths later on.  Some of the bodies on the plane were burned beyond recognition.  That was how severe the plane crash was.

But what exactly caused the plane to crash in the Bahamas shortly after takeoff?

Well, as it turned out, the pilot was absolutely correct in his suspicion that the aircraft was overloaded.  Further examination of the wreckage confirmed that the aircraft had exceeded its weight limit by 700 pounds, causing the craft to lose its center of gravity.  The excess weight prevented the plane from being able to remain centered, and it practically nose dived into the ground.

But as the investigation continued, it was revealed that the pilot himself could have been a factor in the crash.  In an autopsy, it was revealed that Morales had traces of alcohol and cocaine in his system at the time of his death, which meant that he was flying under the influence.  And while he had received his pilot's license eighteen months before the crash, he also had a long rap sheet as well.  He had been arrested days before the crash for driving with a suspended license and for having cocaine in his possession.  He had been sentenced to probation on August 13, 2001, and just before he flew the plane that would eventually kill him, Aaliyah, and seven others, he had been fired from Florida's Golden Airlines for failing to turn up for work.

He had only been hired by the charter service that supplied the plane for Aaliyah and her crew - Blackhawk International Airways - two days before the crash, and that he had not even been approved to fly any aircraft for the operator!  So, although Morales was qualified to fly a Cessna aircraft, he was not given the authorization by the FAA to do so at Blackhawk. 

Needless to say, all of the variables were there for disaster.  And eerily enough, a month before she died, Aaliyah had suspected that something bad was going to happen to her because she kept on having dreams to the effect, although she couldn't explain why this was happening.

At any rate, a rising star had burnt out much too soon.  Her funeral was held on August 31, 2001, and shortly after her death, the sales of her third album skyrocketed.  There was talk about the "Rock The Boat" video not being released at all due to the fact that it was the last thing that Aaliyah ever filmed (the video was originally meant to have been released September 4, 2001).  But BET decided to air the video in October 2001 as a final tribute to the singer.  The song was later nominated for a Grammy Award.

Aaliyah's album meanwhile skyrocketed in sales, jumping from #19 to #1 on the Billboard 200 in just one week.  Three million copies were sold of the album.

And while "Queen Of The Damned" was not critically acclaimed by any means, it still was a hit at the box office, with many of Aaliyah's fans going to the film just to get one last look at the late singer.

Aaliyah was a rising star in the world of R&B, and it seems hard to believe that she would be 36 years old if she were still alive.  It's hard to say if she would have lasted in the world of music...but one thing we can say is that she died when she was at her prime.  It's just a shame that she never lived long enough to live out her dreams.

Monday, August 24, 2015

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-Hiatus?

Okay, so I thought I'd do a repost of a Facebook note that I wrote all the way back in 2009 with an updated 2015 perspective. 
         
(Can you tell I haven't a whole lot of time?  In fact, at the end of this note, I will have a bit of an announcement regarding my upcoming hiatus.  So stay tuned.)

Anyway, for today, I found a little bit of a game using Facebook notes entitled "A-B-C".  Twenty-six questions with each one starting with a different letter of the alphabet.  And, for today, I thought I'd answer them here for all of you to get to know me a little bit better.  And, if you want, you can answer these questions yourself!

Here we go!


A - Age: 
I just turned 34 a couple of months ago

B - Bed size: 
I've got a Queen size bed - My room is too small for a king

C - Chore you hate: 
Any and all of them...LOL

D - Dog's name: 
I don't own a dog

E - Essential start your day item: 
A shower

F - Favorite color: 
Royal Purple...or any purple that is dark



G - Gold or Silver: 
I like both 

H - Height: 
6'2" 

I - Instruments you play(ed): 
The Baritone 

J - Job title: 
Customer Service Specialist for Hardware and Sporting Goods - Neither of which I use much of 

K - Kid(s): 
None...And right now, I'm okay with that

L - Living arrangements: 
Changing for the better! 

M - Mom's name: 
I always called her Mom.  ;) 

N - Nicknames: 
Matt, Matty, Jughead, Cap'n, Gnome-Nuts...and, yes, there's a tale behind the last one...Maybe when I have more time, I'll explain it in greater detail

O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: 
I spent two weeks in the hospital in February 2011 recovering from surgery 

P - Pet Peeve: 
These days, it's people who don't contribute when they really should 




Q - Quote from a movie: 
bah-la-la-la-la! (Baymax - Big Hero 6) 

R - Right or left handed: 
I'm a righty! 

S - Siblings: 
I am the youngest of three kids - I'm the only boy 

T - Time you wake up: 
It can be anywhere from 6:00am to 12 Noon - depending on my work schedule 



U- Underwear: 
While I won't reveal whether I wear boxers or jockeys, I can tell you that the current pair I'm wearing is grey.

V - Vegetable you dislike: 
You give me an onion, I will give you back a mouthful of puke in return 

W - Ways you run late: 
If anything, I show up 20 minutes early - though I admit that I've taken a 61 minute lunch or two in my lifetime 

X - X-rays you've had: 
I've had tons...let's see...teeth, chest, ankle, left pinky finger, a couple of CAT Scans...

Y - Yummy food you make: 
Microwave popcorn...LOL! So NOT a chef

Z - Zoo favorite: 
I'm not typically a fan of zoos, but I do admit to liking the monkey habitats

And now for the hiatus news.  I'll be moving the last of my stuff out this coming weekend, so this means that my hiatus will likely begin either August 27 or 28.  As for when I will be back, I am aiming for sometime after Labour Day, or earlier if possible.  But it will definitely be in September sometime.

I hope to have at least one more Tuesday Timeline post done this week, as well as a New Archies Reviewed post, if time allows.

Take care, friends! 

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Album Spotlight - "Tattoo You" by The Rolling Stones

Today's album spotlight in the Sunday Jukebox is an interesting one of sorts.  It's interesting because this is an album that was not recorded in a studio.

Instead, it's an album that was comprised of leftover recordings that spanned an entire decade.  They were songs that were from recording sessions of the past, re-recorded and edited into a full length album.



And that album was released 34 years ago this week in 1981.

It was this band's eighteenth release overall, but in their native UK, it was only their sixteenth.  And the reason for the unique way that the album was put together was due to time constraints.  The band was about to embark on a tour that would last through the last half of 1981 and the first half of 1982.  Ideally, they wanted to record a new album to help promote the tour, but there simply wasn't enough time.



So, that's how The Rolling Stones ended up releasing their album "Tattoo You", released on August 24, 1981.

According to the album's associate producer, Chris Kimsey, there was another reason why "Tattoo You" was created that had nothing to do with the band's touring schedule.  He claims that the record was made during a time in which Mick Jagger and Keith Richards weren't exactly getting along with each other.  And that made the idea of recording in a studio seem like not the best idea in the world.

Kimsey took it upon himself to look through the band's vaults, and went through some of the recordings and live performances that the band had made over the previous decade, and realized that he had stumbled upon a real treasure trove of songs that had the potential to become huge hits.

And after the group did a little bit of remastering the songs, as well as adding vocals to instrumental tracks, they had an album of eleven songs that were a mixture of old and new.  Some of the oldest songs came from a 1972 recording session for the band's 1973 album "Goats Head Soup", while others were recorded during the "Some Girls" sessions - the band's 1978 album. 

The end result was an album that did phenomenally well on both the album charts and the singles charts.  In the United States alone, it sold four million copies, and reached the top of the Billboard 200.  Unfortunately, it would be the last time that the Rolling Stones would reach the top of the album charts in the United States, but certainly not the last time that the band would perform.  I mean, let's face it.  The Rolling Stones have been around for over fifty years now.  They'll continue as long as Mick and Keith are still alive!

So, today I'm only going to focus on the three singles that were released from the album that became huge hits.  And to begin, we will start with the biggest hit from the album.



1.  START ME UP
Released:  August 14, 1981
Peak Position on the Billboard Charts:  #2

Okay, where haven't we heard this song?  It's played at wedding receptions, birthday parties, music during halftime at hockey games, and Bill Gates even paid the band a nice chunk of change to use the song to promote Windows 95 back in the day!

It's also a song that hit #2 in the United States, #1 in Australia, and #7 in the UK!

Now, believe it or not, this song didn't start off as a rock and roll anthem.  It was intended to sound more like a reggae song, and it was originally entitled "Never Stop".  It was recorded during the same time as the 1978 "Some Girls" sessions, and it was one of those songs in which no matter what the band did, they weren't happy with it, so they shelved the song and forgot about for three whole years.  It wasn't until Kimsey unearthed the song and talked the band into putting it on an album that it took on new life.

And, yes, the music video rocked, as simplistic as it was.



2.  WAITING ON A FRIEND
Released:  November 30, 1981
Peak Position on the Billboard Charts:  #13

Now, this song took a lot longer than "Start Me Up" to be featured on a Rolling Stones album.  Would you believe that this song was first toyed around with back in 1972?  That's almost a ten year gap!

Now, what makes this song interesting is who plays the guitar in this single.  At the time, Mick Taylor was a member of the Rolling Stones, and he performed the guitar in this song.  By 1974, Taylor had left the band and was essentially replaced with Ronnie Wood, who had worked with the band before. 

The problem was when the decision to include this song on the "Tattoo You" album was made, the band never credited the original guitarist for the work he did on "Waiting On A Friend", a decision that didn't make Taylor all that pleased - at least until he was given a share of the royalties the album made.

Although, given that the song is all about friendship and goodwill, and that the song was something that boasted a different sound than previous Rolling Stones records released in the past, I suppose that giving Taylor the credit he deserved was only fair.



3.  HANG FIRE
Released:  April 1982
Peak Position on the Billboard Charts:  #20

I imagine a lot of you reading this note and hearing this song probably can't remember ever hearing it.  You aren't alone.  I had no idea that this song was a hit either, mainly because they rarely - if ever - play the song on any radio stations in this area.

Of course, I suppose this could have to do with the theme of the song, which was all about the bleakness of British society circa the late 1970s/early 1980s.  I guess that would make it hard for Canadians and Americans to identify with it.  Ironically, this song didn't even chart in the United Kingdom!

Oh, and some trivia about the title "Hang Fire"?  It's a phrase that basically means apathy.  Stand back and do nothing.  Delay.  Hesitate. 

Hmmm...I think I can relate to this song.

But what makes this song stand out is the fact that its B-side - "Neighbours" - was also promoted at the time, complete with a controversial music video that was heavily censored before being allowed to air on MTV.  As a treat to conclude this look back on "Tattoo You", I have the video for you to watch.



Enjoy!

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Down With Ashley Madison!

So this has probably been one of those weeks where millions of married people are shaking in their shoes right about now. 



The website "Ashley Madison" has been hacked, and the identities of several million people is now out there in the open for anybody to find!

For those of you who are not aware, Ashley Madison is a website that is based out of Toronto, Ontario that is like a dating site, but with one major catch.

It's a dating site for people who are already married.  Definitely not your "Plenty of Fish" or "eHarmony" or even "Christian Mingle". 

It is now estimated that almost 40 million people around the world will now have some serious explaining to do to their spouses.

And you know what?  I find it hard to elicit sympathy for the clientele of Ashley Madison.

To briefly play devil's advocate here before I begin my thoughts about the Ashley Madison scandal, I will admit that there are probably a lot of accounts that can be explained.  I would imagine that some journalists created dummy accounts in order to do stories on the website to inform people about what to expect.  I imagine some accounts are spam accounts that were created but never used.  And, you know, there are some people who probably have extremely open marriages and the couple may both have accounts to spice up their marriage.

But for most of the people who have an account on Ashley Madison, I would imagine that this is their worst nightmare come true.  Could you imagine having your account posted online for everyone to see?  How embarrassing! 

Even worse, could you imagine being the spouse that is kept in the dark about the fact that the one they vowed to love and cherish for the rest of their life is trying to cheat on them with other people who are also married?  That would be the ultimate in betrayal.



In a way, I'm torn about how I feel about Ashley Madison being hacked.  On one hand, I'm not sure if the way the hackers went about releasing the information was the right way to go.  But on the other hand, I'm glad that of all the sites that were hacked, Ashley Madison was the one that they targeted.

I'll just put it on the table here.  I don't understand how people can enter into a marriage and then turn around and have an extramarital affair on someone else behind their back.  I mean, what are the point of wedding vows if people are just going to break them? 

Now, sure, I get that there are lots of good reasons why people might want to start a life with someone else who isn't the person they married.  They might feel trapped in a loveless marriage, or they might be in an abusive relationship.  There's always an explanation that seems to make sense, provided that the person you married is a horrible human being who deserves to spend the rest of their lives miserable and alone.

The truth is that a lot of people are going to be blindsided, and it's not right.  It's another reason why I hate the way that this unfolded, because now their dirty laundry is out in the open - even though they had nothing to do with getting it dirty in the first place.  They've become the real victims of the Ashley Madison scandal.  Not only were their spouses lying to them for quite some time, but now everyone in the whole world knows it.

That's why I don't feel sorry for those who were exposed as being cheaters.  Do you have any idea how much hurt and how much pain you have caused the people you supposedly love, not to mention the ripple effect it will have on children, mutual friends, workplace colleagues, and extended family?  The powder keg has now blown, and not only did you take yourselves out, you took everyone else out around you.  I hope that all of you who are exposed as cheaters are choking down a nice huge slice of the bitterest humble pie that you can digest because your behaviour is disgusting.  Yes, the breach on your privacy was wrong, but so is cheating on your spouse! 

Oh well...I suppose that there is some positives to this story.  The Ashley Madison brand is forever tarnished as a result of this, and I wouldn't be surprised if the site shuts down within the year.  People now know the truth about who they married and are now taking the steps to figure out what to do next.  And, Josh Duggar is even more screwed up than we all thought - yes, he is an Ashley Madison member.  Does this shock you?  Not me.

But you know, I just wish that there wasn't any need for sites like Ashley Madison to exist.  It makes me very sad to know that people don't live up to their wedding vows any more.  How they are willing to take chances and have quickies with random people knowing full well that what they are doing is hurting the one person they swore they would never hurt.  And this applies to both straight and gay marriages.  I just don't understand it.

But then, maybe I come from a family that doesn't really see a lot of divorce.  In fact, that's one of the reasons why I made this blog gold.  This coming Friday, my parents will be celebrating their own Golden Jubilee.  That's FIFTY YEARS that they have been together.  Sure, they have both had their ups and downs, and they've fought, but somehow they've managed to stick it out, and neither one had the temptation to cheat on each other with someone else.


It just goes to show you that if both spouses work together, they can overcome anything.