Second Christmas Facing Challenges.

I love sports and so it goes without saying that tha Olympics are usually a fun time for me...like a second Christmas.  But this year in what I consider a bizarro world I am not getting my full Olympic fix.  I am left craving the twists and turns of the luge, bobsled, and skeleton.  Starving for the cut of steel on ice and hoping that Norway could at least mount something of a challenge...yes I know, I giggled too when I wrote that they should mount something, I decided to try and watch some of the Canada-Norway game on the computer...a F*****g laptop of all things.  Well may I say that my anger just seemed to escalate from that point on and I was left cursing innumurable masses of people over the injustice. 

My first beef was with the Canadian government...the easiest of targets...for investing billions...yes with a B, into the Olympics but failing to realize that because CTV had won the broadcast rights...a company that is mounting a challenge to broadcasting laws in this country because they are not seeing big enough profits, not everyone can get to see these Olympics.  I have CBC and am paying indirectly for it I am sure, and as a result of not having a cable package I am unable to see the games without going through the absolute terror I know as online anything.

My next round of cussing was directed at CTV and it's bastard sister TSN.  They have always been infantile in their coverage of anything, but the steps one has to follow to watch a game on a lesser piece of electronic alzheimer's enabler are paramount to needles in ones testicles...trust me on this one.  It's not bad enough that the screen is covered with just enough shit to keep an ADHA child sitting still, but the need to download programs are many as well.  The real kicker is that the piece of crap alzheimers enabler didn't seem to want that program or at least didn't wish to make it accessible, and therefore rendering it useless.  On top of that when I tried to get highlights this morning I could find anything but still shots of hockey players in what appeared to be a moving game that I could have sworn we had the technology to exhibit.

Well I resigned myself to the bunk with my copies of Darwin's "Origins", and Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" in a underfunded attempt to see where the f**k mankind went wrong in his evolution both physically and culturally.  I may be in over my head but what the f**k...I'll Take a crack at it. 

I almost went away this morning.

It's true, I almost went away this morning.  By that I mean I have been doing some serious thinking as to why I have a blog...it's really just a diary that reminds others, and me about just how insignificant my life is.  And I hate the pressure of feeling compelled to put something on here every blue moon or so.  See the truth is I believe that the internet is such a driving force in antisocial behaviour that I don't want to contribute to the decline of civilization that has taken millions of years to construct.  The tool..if it is such, has simply made it easier for others to pressure us into joining this group or that group that means more time exposing ones self to advertising and info that we really don't need.  A wise older dude informed me a few years back that we can't mourn the world, and if we allow ourselves to open up and be bombarded with unnecessary grief we open ourselves up to even more damage, or really, perceived damage.  And, it is at it's very heart just another way to sell to those that probably don't need or would never purchase what you are pushing except we have been part of a societal construct that feels it must spend.  Many therapist now recommend that depressed people go on a shopping spree to make themselves feel better.  Given this, does it mean that those that don't spend are in a healthier state of mind to begin with?  It is also believed that internet use and depression are linked with both rising sharply along parallel paths.  The question then becomes which is the symptom and which is the cause?  If you shut yourself in and assume antisocial behaviour by joining groups and following "friends" on the internet is it a sign of depression or will it cause depression?  I don't know the answer to this but if it is true I don't want to contribute to others feeling that way, or inadvertantly assist them in pushing their credit cards to the max.

This blog is not something I take pride in and it's such a small thing with few readers, but I refuse to campaign others to join because if I don't feel comfortable doing it why would I invite others to put up with it during their daily routines when there are numerous more interesting and important things to do?  But, apparently I am in the minority among my friends and family.  Just recently I was informed of my sister's engagement by someone that had read about it on Facebook.  Really?  You couldn't pick up the phone and call before making that post?  In chosing this option it implied that those excluded from that particular site were outside the realm and either felt pressure to join or were in effect left to their own devices in finding out...in this case from a relative stranger at the grocery store.  I guess I could take some comfort in the fact that all of the other "friends" knew in a timely fashion...and they got their daily dose of commercial bombardment with the news.  The real question is if it left them conflicted because they were not so depressed for a short time with the arrival of joyous news and the scrolling ad to the right for whatever you didn't really need was a waste of some commercial enterprises not-so-hard-earned-money?