Politics with Elections Looming

So federal elections are coming up soon. If you haven;t noticed, the signs are already up on most street corners. "Vote for ME!"

I had said (before the elections had come up) that I did not plan to vote. I mean, let's face it; politics ARE stupid. But you know, I decided to check if any could make (what sounded like) valid promises to make my life easier.

Before I get started with parties and their platforms (or at least what I find good, and interesting about them) - oh yeah, I'm going there. I'm stepping into talking openly about politics - did you know there was a "Work Less Party"? Their slogan was "Alarm clocks kill dreams," and they were campaigning for a 32 hour work week. How awesome. lol
They became eligible in 2007, a registered party in 2008, and then voluntarily deregistered in 2010.

Parties and Platforms
Or All That's Useful of Them


Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada

Party Leader: Liz White

All about the animals and wildlife, which is good, but I mean; after that, they have nothing else.

I'm not interested. Yeah, "'Woo!' for the animals and the environment," but there's nothing there for me as a person.

Bloc Québécois

Party Leader: Gilles Duceppe

Yeah... no, not gonna happen. The entire website's in French, so I can't read it. On top of that, if they actually pulled off a win, I'd have to cross the border to visit Ashley. Let's face it; border crossings are no fun to begin with. Why would I ever condone making a border I'd have to cross so frequently?

The Canadian Action Party

Party Leader: Christopher Porter

Kinda trippy. I like their health care stuff, until they start going off about... well, making "natural holistic remedies available under Medicare." I mean cool, but I mean, that could throw off a bunch of current medically trained people.

"Foster a genuine Canadian drug industry vs. giant for profit U.S. drug industry." Sweet, but aren't most of the American drugs what people currently use?

And they talk about placing "emphasis on how poverty, stress and pollution affect health."

It all kind of makes me worry.

Then they go off about understanding "that any decent health-care system in this country requires three major changes." These changes being that we "must cancel the Canada/U.S. Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA because these 'trade' deals give U.S. corporations the right to challenge the very existence of Medicare by claiming it is a trade irritant which distorts the 'free' market. We can do so with six months notice"; then "stop the sell-out of Canada to large foreign corporations, and maintain control over our resources and industries. A country is no longer independent - and can't afford social programs - if its assets and decision-making are controlled beyond its borders." Ending this idea with, "The end of Canada means the end of Medicare"; and finally "we must reform our monetary system. Right now, our money creation is a virtual monopolyof the private banks. The Canadian Action Party will return to the economic and monetarysystem we had from 1939 to 1974 when the money-creation function was shared between the government of Canada, through the Bank of Canada, and private banks. This would provide the fiscal flexibility necessary to fund health care and other essential services without increasing taxes."

All this can be found on their site.

As currently I'm looking for ways to make my diabetes more manageable. By "manageable," I mean "affordable," and this party seems to be able to pull that off; or CLAIM to be able to pull that off.

I shall keep reading, and you will be my witness(es). :)

The Christian Heritage Party of Canada
Party Leader: James "Jim" Hnatiuk
Well, gosh... Aren't religion and politics two of the two things you DON'T mention at the dinner table? And my god, here's two of them.

Now my official stance on spirituality and religion is "agnosticism," which is (in laymen's terms) "on the fence," neither believing or disbelieving, and open to proof of a belief (or disbelief) if it chooses to present itself. (This is not an invitation to attempt to sway me either way. I'm just saying. If you have tangible proof, then by ALL MEANS, do share. Otherwise, I'm really not interested; to be clear.)
That being said; before taking a look at this party's site, I was very hesitant (especially after seeing that religion was part of their name). Once I opened up the website and their man thing was "Think adoption; not abortion," I was done.

The Communist Party of Canada
Party Leader: Miguel Figueroa
You know, after reading a bit... It doesn't sound SO bad...
Remove NAFTA (like The Canadian Action Party) to ease up on economy and health care stuff; the top priority of their campaign being making jobs, but shortening the work week without loss in pay; defend the environment; "Expand democratic political rights; promote equality for women and people of colour"; a "democratic constitutional reform, based on recognition of the full equality of Quebec with the rest of Canada, and guarantees of full aboriginal rights"; "cut military spending by 50%; convert military to civilian job," and; "safeguard the rights of people with disabilities Act against racism, sexism and homophobia."
http://bit.ly/i6Z1UH

The Conservative Party of Canada
Party Leader: Steven Harper
Well, I voted Conservative last election, and they won, and nothing really happened. So that shows me that whatever they SAY they have planned... well, to be blunt; it's a load of shit.
Pass for me.

The Green Party of Canada
Party Leader: Elizabeth May
Well they don't offer much at all. Damn hippies... How the hell d'you expect to get anywhere?
Not to mention you're a bunch of hypocrites. Your elections signs are MASSIVE. Way to be ecologically friendly. *shakes head*

The Liberal Party of Canada
Party Leader: Michael Ignatieff
Liberals LOOK good, but I mean they were in power a while too. Like, right up to before I voted for the first  time, and THEY couldn't get shit done either.
Pass again.

The Libertarian Party of Canada
Party Leader: Dennis Young
They push for more freedom. Shrink the government, and make it the people's servant. Essentially, keep George Orwell's 1984 from becoming reality. They actually SAY that. Isn't that sad?

The Marijuana Party
Party Leader: Blair Longley
Their little thing says "Bloc Pot" and all they say is that they ARE a registered party, but "Radical Marijuana is NOT 'mainstream.'"
NEXT!

Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada
Party Leader: Anna Di Carlo
Main message: Anti-War
Wow...

New Democratic Party
Party Leader: Jack Layton
Capping credit card rates; reducing cost of everyday essentials; make sure more of each paycheque makes it home; reWARD job creators (They smacked Harper in the face by saying HE put our tax dollars to work sending work overseas, whereas they'd do it on Canadian soil.); make prescription meds more affordable; strengthen pensions; make childcare and education more accessable, and; improve employment insurance.
Huh... We MAY have a winner; their only real competition (in my eyes) is The Communist Party, and the Canadian Action Party.
I mean, in reality they have to contend with the Liberals and Conservatives, but that's only because people vote Liberal to keep Conservatives out of power, and people vote Conservative to keep Liberal out of power. They really should LOOK at their other options. The two that have been contenders since, god knows when, are CLEARLY duds.

The People Political Power Party of Canada
Party Leader: Roger Poisson
Lame. No information online.

The Pirate Party of Canada
Party Leader: Mikkel Paulson
It's all about internet stuff. No REAL usable everyday stuff.

The Progressive Canadian Party
Party Leader: Sinclair Stevens
That's just a lot of "Blah blah blah..."

The United Party of Canada
Party Leader: Brian Jedan
Raising the threshold at which people start paying tax. Better pensions. Universal healthcare. Free post-secondary education?!
Hey-yo!

---

So after my time spent reading through and compiling information, I'm stuck between voting for a "contender," and two no names. NDP (being the "contender"), The Communist Party, and The United Party of Canada (being the no names).
Who will win? I'll keep y'all posted.

Cheers.

The Ongoing Search

Alas yes, I still press forward for that design that will be perfection in a tattoo for me.

As seen before I did have a design, but it fell through. Most things pertaining to it became... bad, and it had set so well in my brain that I couldn't change it without hurting me. Unfortunately, it needed to be changed, and so the whole thing was scrapped.
The irony being that most who had helped, or given input then came out of the wood work about not liking the idea.

NOTE: I'm not being spiteful, or angry. Just "talking" as that's what I do here. I'm not lashing out, and am not looking to offend, and I HAVE mentioned this subject to all persons involved. I'm not looking to blindside you; again, just "talking."


So every chance I get, I pop into the Google search engine... Go to images, type in "hockey." Scroll, scroll scroll... "Ice hockey." Scroll, scroll scroll... "Ref." Just looking for ideas to make my creative mind kick in. Scroll, scroll scroll... "Referee." Scroll, scroll scroll... "Hockey referee." Scroll, scroll scroll... Oh for goodness sake. There's nothing out there. "Ice hockey referee." Scroll, scroll scroll...

I decided to go down the referee route as that's part of my life that is important, and will continue to be a part of my life until I can't skate anymore. This idea was suggested by Ashley, and is a brilliant idea. (I love you honey.) Unfortunately for me, although it is a brilliant idea, it's also an idea that has very few areas to be creative in.

So... I mean suggestions would help. Anybody?
Um... I'm starting to think of going in another sort of direction, another design that has more freedom. But as there isn't really much to my life (fuck no I'm not doing something for diabetes, get that out of your head) I'm stumped.

Maybe it just wasn't meant to be...
*shrug*

The Wee Ones :)

What is it about kids that just makes you smile? I can't say for sure, but I know that that is true.

I write with two (recent) examples.

Number one; I was linesman in a Major Atom B game the other night. (Atom is 10 and 11 year olds, and "Major" indicates that it was a competitive game.) As a linesman I have to tell everyone on the ice when a team (depending on which end I have, and they play is in) is onside or offside*.

It's something as simple as yelling (or in my case "projecting my voice") "No!" or "Clear!" when they're onside, and washing out at the blue-line (which is like the "safe**" signal in baseball). And "Offside!" repeatedly until they are once again onside, when you then say "Good!" or "Clear!"

When you officiate hockey at the Novice level (ages 8 and 9), they sometimes need a little more encouragement. To get them to respond to being offside (which they haven't the faintest about) you need to yell numbers, names and colours, and tell them to "get out." To get them to go back in it's "ok, you're good," "go go go!" and "go get 'em!" :)

Anyway... After doing this a few times in front of the visiting team's bench, the back-up goalie leans over the boards and says, "You got some lungs on you!" It was the cutest thing EVER! I couldn't turn and face him, but I thanked him, and couldn't hide my gianormous grin.

Later his blocker was hanging over the boards, and I bumped it by accident, as I skated by, and he was like "Sorry!" I said, "No problem buddy, it's alright."

He was a cute little kid. Makes me smile just thinking about it. :)

Number two; doesn't really involve a kid, per say...

The guy who refereed the game I did today noticed afterwards, that I had a pump. He knew it was a pump right away, which was cool.

He started asking a whole bunch of questions; "Do you wear it when you ref? ... Is it difficult to use?" stuff like that. After a bit he told me his 9 year old daughter has type I diabetes too. Then he asked questions about other stuff. I let him know I'd had diabetes since I was 3, and that I can relate a little to how she feels.

He told me that she felt like "her life was over," and all that. 9 year olds eh?

But she knew that *shiver* a Jonas Brother has diabetes too. I told him yeah, and there've been hockey players with it too. So it only really limits you if you let it. "For instance," I used myself as an example, "I want to be an NHL referee, and" I kicked my ref bag "I'm not gonna let it stop me."

He smiled (because he could see his daughter'd be fine), and told me "Right on buddy, and you got no fat on yeh."

I told him a pump is just a small adjustment from syringes (because it pretty much is), and that it's all a comfort thing. That it's pretty simple. You just dial in your blood sugar, tell it your carbs you're eating, and it does the rest.

He was all curious about knowing carbs in food and stuff. He thought it'd be hard. I told him that stuff at the dinner table - like mashed potatoes, for example - is guess work, but you get the hang of it. I said that stuff you eat regularly becomes habit. "Like, I have the same thing for breakfast every day; toast and peanut butter," not true, I have that most days, but I was making a point. "The package says how much is in how ever many slices of bread. The first time you check, the second time you're checking to make sure, and soon you know exactly how many carbs are in two slices of toast, and peanut butter." 40g at my house, just by the by. :P (42g at Ashley's, depending on the bread.)

I saw the realization click in, and he was a little more relaxed about it. I finished out by just saying that if they want to learn more about it, or think it's a good idea, to just talk to their doctor.

He piped up, "I might just have her talk to you," in a 'she needs to see someone with it that is getting along fine,' sort of thing. It warmed my heart. :)

We talked a bit more, and he learned that I'd only been using my pump a month or two. I think he got a little more comfortable with the idea of his daughter maybe getting one from that. Just the fact that I talked about it, and found it pretty easy, and could explain stuff to him in ways he could understand, in that amount of time, helped.

Anyway, so there's my "Wee Ones" stories.

:)

*When the puck crosses into a team's offensive end and one or more players of the attacking team (with the exception of the player in control of the puck) already have both skates in the offensive end. (The "offensive end* is indicated by the blue-line.)

**When a player running the bases makes it to a base without being tagged my the player holding the ball.

I was just being a dick, 'cause it's fun...