On the Roids

First of all let me clarify that I do not condone cheating in sports. Whether it's performance enhancing drugs, illegal equipment or bribery, I think it is wrong and should be banished from all sports. However what is currently happening to former Major League Baseball stars such as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens is ridiculous.

These two men are currently in trouble for perjuring themselves in court about lying about their use of steroids. It was stupid of them to lie under oath, but they never should have been put into a situation where they would have to lie. For one, the government has no business getting involved with Major League Baseball (MLB) and its players and making it a government issue, because it simply isn't one. Secondly, MLB and Bud Selig especially should be ashamed for letting it happen.

There was no doubt that steroids in the late 90's/early 00's was a problem in baseball. People were bulking up to sizes not before seen and were hitting more homeruns than ever before. People who work in baseball HAD to know this was happening but they didn't do anything about it. Why? Because they were making too much damn money on these juice heads who were hitting 60+ home runs per year.

Baseball suffered major attendance drops after the 1994 work stoppage and it took the home run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to get the fans to come back and to spawn a whole new generation of fans. So while it was obvious when these two were hitting a ridiculous amount of home runs per year that something fishy was going on, absolutely nothing was done about it. Same scenario for Barry Bonds. He was on the 'roids and that helped him to break the all time home run record from Hank Aaron, but the chase got a lot of press and popularity so baseball didn't care...until after it was broken. Now all of a sudden they show a deep concern for the integrity of the game and the safety of the players because they already got what they needed from the steroid era.

To rub salt in the wounds, MLB isn't even standing behind its players. They are distancing themselves as much as they can and even chastising the players of the steroid era. There is talk that Barry Bonds, the all time home run leader will not get into the hall of fame and I cannot understand why. People let it happen so they could make money off it, but now they want nothing to do with it. Major League Baseball and Bud Selig should be ashamed - I stress that point again.

So while I do not condone cheating, it is not fair that these players were put into this situation when the league they worked for did nothing to prevent them from doing it, all for the sake of revenue. It's ridiculous. Put McGwire, Sosa, Bonds and Clemens in the Hall of Fame because they deserve to be there (well maybe not Sosa). Their morale fibre might be questionable but their numbers are not. They played in the steroid era and we have to accept that. It's not entirely their fault.

P.S. Put Pete Rose in there too!

Federal Election

With the toppling of the government this week it means we are going to be facing another election in May. I'm not here to tell you who to vote for, but politics in itself is kind of ridiculous when you think about it.

The decisions made by are politicians have a tremendous impact on all of our lives from what kind of education we get, the quality of health care we receive and even what we're legally allowed to do, yet when election time comes around, these things get toyed with.

For example, if you look at the Conservative's proposed budget for this year, it was very political. Offering a little something for everyone, but not enough to make the other parties happy. Why was this done? Because the Conservatives are currently ranking 43% in the polls which means they have a good shot at a majority. Any undecided voters can easily be swayed now by reference to the proposed budget. For example they put something in for seniors, corporate tax cuts and something for home renovations just to name a few. They cover off a lot of areas and can draw on these things from the budget during the campaign and say they are trying to help various groups and the budget is the proof.

The problem I see in that is that something as important as a budget should not be used as a political tool. They were pretty confident it was not going to pass so they were able to manipulate it so that it looked at least a little bit good to everyone, however if the budget had actually passed, then what? It just really irks me to see people playing politics with something so important, but unfortunately it happens all the time. And it's not just Stephen Harper, every politician in his position would have done it as well.

But since there is going to be election what do I think is gonna happen? Based on very little research, mostly what I remember from voting trends I learned way back, I think the seats will break down like this:

Conservative: 153
Liberal: 74
Bloc: 51
NDP: 28
Independent: 2

That would mean just shy of a majority government for the Conservatives, but would mean if they could sway the 2 independents I'm predicting to be in there then they could form a majority. And an offer for a nice cabinet position can be a good sway tactic!

Get Yourself Spayed or Neutered

All the natural disasters in the last couple of years really got me thinking about the impact we are having on the environment, and that perhaps we are becoming the cause of them. The earth operates in equilibirum, so when you start removing things from it naturally things are going to start going awry. Think about all the barrels of oil we are pumping out of the earth each day, or the amount of trees that are being cut down, or the change in climate due to a depletion of the ozone layer. These things take the Earth out of equilibrium and the result is probably what we are seeing lately with all these disasters (earthquakes, flash fires, hurricanes, tornoados, etc) happening.

So how do we stop it? We don't necessarily take these things from the Earth out of greed, we take them because they have become essential to the way that we live life - and I don't picture us regressing in terms of our technology of the things we depend on. So the only answer may be to attempt to control the population so things don't get further out of hand. There are now over 7 billion people on earth and with people living longer than ever, perhaps it is time to do something as radical as restricting the amount of offspring people can have, to say 2 per family. Maybe you could use it like a carbon tax and people could sell off their unused offspring tickets to other people who want more kids, but it may be something that needs to be looked into not too far into the future because the Earth is not going to be able to keep up with what we're doing to it. This planet has never had a species advanced as homo sapiens in its history, and we are certainly using it unlike any other species ever has. This of course may all be futile though is the things we're taking such as oil which is a non-renewable resource are what's causing the planet to rebel.

Then again the opposite side of the argument could be that maybe we're in the process of an extinction period where the Earth gets wiped clean and things get rebuilt like has happened several times, in which case people should start producing more so that the human race can survive it and keep going. But chances are I'm wrong on both accounts.

These are the things that keep me up at night and busy at work.

Download:
Do You Feel The Same - silverchair

PG Ratings Suck

Let me start by coming out and saying, yes, I am a wrestling fan. I'll admit it. Not as much of a fan as I used to be as a teenager when myself and two un-named people delved deep into the world of fantasy wrestling, but I still watch the occasional program and I realized a "PG" rating does not work for professional wrestling anymore.

The reason it worked back in the 80's was due to all the outlandish and colorful characters such as Hulk Hogan, "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Jake "the Snake" Roberts. You also had clear lines between the good guys and the bad guys. You knew that the Ultimate Warrior was good and would ultimately triumph over the evil "Ravishing" Rick Rude and his dirty tactics. It was these things that attracted a young audience, however they no longer exist. The supposed bad guys became well liked by fans and things totally changed. 

The Internet has made everyone aware of how scripted wrestling is and as a result the characters were transformed to more believable and "real-life like" so people could relate to them. 10 year olds however cannot relate to grown men so trying to tailor the product to that age group doesn't work, so why keep trying? Let's not forget that the peak of wrestling popularity came with an influx of beer drinking, boob showing and blood fests, so why not go back to that and make the product better suited to an older audience? Cause let's face it, the world loves cleavage and curse words!

Download:
Changes - 3 Doors Down

Crazy People

I heard about a story while listening to Open Line yesterday about a 15 year old boy who got his ass whooped by a cab driver after he hit the cabbie's car with a snowball. A very dangerous activity that could easily cause an accident or damage to the car, but the Cab Driver's reaction was a little over the top. I'm sure we would all LOVE to beat the crap out of anyone who hits our car with a snowball, but to actually do it is a little on the crazy side.

Obviously you pull over, try to get a look at the kid and give a description to the cops, or if you approach him do so in a non-violent manner rather than doing what the cabbie allegedly did, pinning him against the car and repeatedly punching him in the head until he was out cold. Now that's some vigilante justice.

This type of behaviour isn't acceptable anywhere, but to do it to a 15 year old kid takes it to a whole new level. So yes while I'm sure we all can relate to the frustration the cab driver was experiencing, that guy really needs to relax, and some slammer time might help him do that. I just wonder what runs through your head after that initial adrenaline rush goes away and you realized you just beat the crap out of a 15 year old? I bet your first thought is "oh shit".

Download:
Angry - Matchbox Twenty

Bucket List

After giving it some consideration, I decided to make a Bucket list. I know I'm only 25 so hopefully I got a lot of years ahead of me but its good to have planned out goals and a reasonable amount of time to accomplish them! (This list includes things I've already done that I wanted to do and is in no particular order)

Bucket List:
1) See a baseball game in every Major League City
2) See a live game in the MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL
3) Get a Bubblebath in a Jacuzzi tub
4) See the Goo Goo Dolls, Bon Jovi, Foo Fighters and Matchbox Twenty (or Rob Thomas) live.
5) Own a dog
6) Buy a house.
7) Get married.
8) Have children.
9) Win annual horseshoe tournament.
10) Go on an all-inclusive vacation (somewhere tropical).
11) Go on a cruise.
12) Run for public office at some level.
13) Get a University Degree
14) Get a Master’s Degree
15) Witness a live taping of Saturday Night Live
16) Build a sand castle
17) Swim with dolphins
18) Travel to Las Vegas
10) Go to DisneyLand
20) Play a game of ice hockey.
21) See a live Pro Tennis match
22) Visit Gross Morne National Park
23) Own a cabin.
24) Go to the Super Bowl
25) Visit the Hockey Hall of Fame
26) Watch the sunrise and set on the same day
27) Write a script and film a short crappy homemade movie
28) Be best man at a wedding.
29) Ride in a limousine
30) Eat at Hooters
31) Ride a Mechanical Bull
32) Ride a roller coaster

Download:
The Good Life - Three Days Grace

Importance of Team Work

I'm staying in Marystown this evening because I'm doing a presentation in Grand Bank, and I stumbled upon the softball fields where I played in the All Newfoundland Slow Pitch Tournament back when I was 14, which brought back the memories of how we only won a single game, the last one we played.

The reason we did so crappy wasn't because of a lack of individual talent, because we had a lot of good players, but a blatant lack of team chemistry, mostly brought on by the actions and words of one person caused us to fail as a unit. Even in an individually focused sport like softball, a lack of team unity can cause complete failure You no longer care about the team result, rather you are only worried about your own results. And not only is winning important, but having fun is as well, especially at the age of 14, and I don't recall a whole lot of fun happening on that trip, possibly because the team was divided into so many sub-groups that we just didn't gel with each other well. The only game we managed to win was when people were having fun because we knew the result didn't matter and instead of pointing the finger of blame at other people, it was just a fun game like it was meant to be. Although i gotta admit despite all the negativity surrounding those games it was awesome to hear someone over a speaker announce "now coming to the plate, #6 Keith Barrett". Made me feel like a pro!

As I get ready to interview for a supervisory position tomorrow I thought it was interesting to be able to look back on a lesson I learned almost 12 years ago and think about how it can certainly apply today. I have a feeling I may end up using this story in my interview tomorrow if asked to demonstrate the importance of team work and cohesiveness.

Also, Hotel Marystown hasn't changed in the 12 years I've been away - well except it smells like a hangover. Of course it probably did back then too, just I wasn't aware of what a night after drinking smelled like then!

Download:
Need You Now - Lady Antebellum