CBC Fail

Am I the only one a little pissed off with all the William and Kate crap going on? I understand that following the Royal family is similar to following professional sports. The people involved provide very little service to the world while taking very large amounts of money in return.  It's like selling your old beat up shoes for 5 million bucks, it's not considered stealing, but maybe it should be.

I'm not annoyed that people are interested in the marriage, people can decide to be entertained by whatever they want. What I'm annoyed about is that it's considered huge international news. The National opened with a 15 minute segment on the pair, and then went back to it later in the show. What piece of news took second billing to this farce of a marriage? The deaths of five Canadians in an explosion in Mexico.

People watch The National to be informed, but what they learn is that princesses who have no real political power are the most important people in the world. No wonder most people have this desire to horde as much money as possible while people across the world are starving and dying in wars, they grow up watching rich people get married, or play polo instead of learning about what's actually happening on this planet.

I don't care about the Royal family, I want to know what the hell North Korea is doing, or what shenanigans the conservative party is up to, not who may be invited to a wedding that will cost enough to feed half of Africa.

Is it just me that thinks we have our priorities totally back asswards?

The National went on last night to explain how a family is looking for a lost son in Vancouver. They had concerns that the police weren't investigating all the leads. Mansbridge says the police claim to be investigating every lead as they cut to a quote of a cop making a statement. The statement, I kid you not, was this:

"Six [count them, six] physics AND the police have been in contact with the family." End of statement. WTF

I had to watch if five times before I believed it. Now one of two things is going on here. One: the police actually use physics to investigate disappearances, and possibly rely heavily on them, or Two: it's a mistake on the CBC's part, the wrong clip or it's taken out of context. After the statement the CBC said nothing to clarify what the police meant, they went on to something completely different.

I have a very tough time believing that the police believe physics are useful tools, well they are tools, I think it's more likely that the CBC screwed up somehow. But what does that mean? It means they put way more effort into talking about a useless wedding than they did about the ineptitude of the police and/or a hunt for a missing person. Sorry Mr. and Mrs. [Johnson] we don't have time to properly expose a police force with their head up their ass that may be at fault for the death of your son, we have to cover a bunch of insanely rich people get married.

I love the CBC, but last night's National was National Enquirer worthy, and it was crap.

Michael Vick

I was assigned NFL football at work a couple weeks ago and so far I've noticed the same guy coming up favorably in the news section of NFL.com. Michael Vick has slowly worked his way back into the limelight of the NFL. I write quite a few articles everyday, but I find myself returning to Vick over and over. Today was no exception after one of the best quarterback performances of the past 10 years.

I didn't see much of the game as I was in my photoshop class learning how to recreate the X-men cover. Photoshop people love the sci-fi stuff. I went to NFL.com on the break and saw it was 7-0 only a few seconds into the game, so I watch the highlight and saw Vick launch an 88-yard pass for a touchdown. I checked again later in the class and it was 35-0. Wow.

Normally I wouldn't write about sports on my blog, unless it's the Maple Leafs, or the CFL maybe, but I have to note how impressed I am with Vick's comeback, and it's my job these days so how can I not write about it, oh wait...

Now I'm sure these guys have people telling them exactly how to behave if they want people to like them, but it seems many ignore that advice. Not Vick, either that or he's actually a good guy. If you've forgotten, he went to jail for running a dog fighting ring.

I don't disagree with the league and the state punishing him for his actions, but I do question why Vick was vilified while other NFLers that play with guns or drugs get a slap on the wrist.

He came back last year and patiently sat on the bench while McNabb played all the Eagles games. This year he was second string behind Kevin Kolb. Kolb got hurt and Vick became the starter and hasn't looked back. Vick is going to win MVP, mark my words.

Speaking of the CFL, Montreal plays Toronto on Sunday at Olympic Stadium in the Eastern Conference Finals. Can't wait.

Also congrats to Russia for winning the FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship. Volleyball is a very boring sport to cover, but tournaments are long and drawn out so at least there's some math involved to determine pool winners in the complicated system they've developed. I'm series, the math is the best part.

I've got only two classes left in my Concordia classes for this semester, tonight we go take pictures for Wedding and Portrait in a church, and next week I have a final Photoshop class. I expect to take Camera II and Product photography in January, and then Photojournalism and Sports Photography in the spring. 

Also Brewski will be ten this spring.

Sports writing continues and a www.joedeclara.com update

Same old at the office, although now that the baseball season has ended there is much less to write about. The FIVB Women's World Volleyball Championships did start last on October 29th Japan though. Canada has already been eliminated so don't get excited.

The good news on the writing front is that the article I wrote for Pucklife magazine was accepted, and it should be published in the November issue. I will give another update on that when it's actually published. I will also facebook it for facers.

I've not exactly quit on my coverage of the Alouettes, although I haven't written on them since the ninth game of the season, and now they're nearing the end of the regular season. I do intend to try and get to the Eastern Conference Semi-final, and I should have plenty of time to cover the final regular season game, as well as add a playoff opinion article before their first playoff game. I will also update that on http://www.joedeclara.com/.

You'll see new photography posts on joedeclara.com as well. I finished my fashion photography class so I've added some of the pictures I used in my assignments. For the instudio shoot, a classmate brought a friend, and I used Kate in my final assignment. My photoshop skills are coming along, although they can certainly use some practice. I removed a few trees from behind Kate's head in one of the pictures, thankfully it was a blurry part of the picture.

That's about all I've got, the animals are well, the house is abnormally clean, and I'm all alone this weekend with Kate hading down to visit her friend in Washington DC. That means there will be a poker game on Saturday night.

Update complete.

October update

I've started two new photography classes, Photoshop II and Wedding and Portrait. Both classes are interesting so far, and once I'm done them I'll only have five more classes till I get my photography diploma.

I was also assigned baseball at work, which is a much better sport than greyhound racing, although the greyhound articles are pretty easy to write. With the playoffs on, and the Jays in the news lately it's been a lot of fun writing at work. I don't know what will happen when the World Series is over, hopefully I get hockey or football, but I'll probably get squash, or rowing.

After my post last time about Sudbury and my car being booted, I got an email from the CEO of Sudbury's Green Party, which was a nice surprise.

A couple weeks later we were in Ottawa for the  Spoken Word festival and the poetry slam finals. Kate and I were both disappointed with the poetry, although the Montreal team was good. It seemed every poem was about God, or how bad wars or, or other horrific things. It was the end of the competition so much of the artist's best work had already been used, but still. I'm not a huge fan of the poetry that centres around violence, or the evil of man, I'd rather read an essay about those things than hear a three minute piece of art on it.

I am writing for an online magazine called Pucklife (at pucklife.ca), so far I haven't actually written anything, but I did interview Ben Maxwell, a second round draft pick from the Montreal Canadiens who is playing for the Hamilton Bulldogs (their AHL affiliate). The issue with my article is scheduled to come out sometime in November, and I still need to polish it and get it approved, although I don't really think it would be rejected.
I've only read one issue of the magazine so far, but I thought the writing was pretty good, the ideas and voice of the magazine specifically. It was relaxed, but not ridiculous like some sports magazines.

I'm rather shocked that Rob Ford got elected in Toronto.  Here's a guy that was caught being physically aggressive with a high school football player when he was a coach, he got into a drunken argument with a couple at a Leaf game, and he was charged with refusing to give a breathalyzer test while driving. People usually do that when they're drunk. He's also insulted, the Chinese, the gay community, and he thinks bikes shouldn't be allowed in Toronto? What's next? No pedestrians? Anyway I'm sure Ford would fall over dead if he ever set foot in Montreal because of all the bike lanes and acceptance of other people, so I'm glad I'm here and he's there.

Our cat supply is down to four after the kitten was sent to another foster home. I would have rather returned an adult cat than the cute little kitten, but what can you do. One thing we can do is never sleep again as the mother of the kitten roams the house at night with incessant meowing and the other foster cat climbs on our bare skin with her claws out. Occasionally two cats will meet on the bed and a fight will ensue, or something will crash somewhere in the house. Generally it's pretty fun times at Cat Paradise.

Compounding the sleep issue is the coffee issue at work. I donated four bucks to the coffee fund, then I bought an 11 dollar tin, went to the bank to take that four out and whatever anyone else had put in only to find the money gone, except for a couple bucks in quarters and a boatload of nickles and pennies. It took two weeks for everyone to drink my coffee and not one looney has been put into the jar. Today I brought in my jar of instant coffee, that's my new coffee system, so far it's working pretty well.

So that's the crap I've done lately, most of it anyway. I had Thanksmas with my family, but since you are all 80% of this blog's readers I didn't think it pertinent to write about it since you were all there. I am enjoying my Montreal Canadiens set, it included a bucket, four glasses, a bottle opened, and some coasters. The bottle opener had a poor design that only Kate could use so we got rid of that. The bucket has become a tool used to clean up cat pee from the front hall, and one of the glasses helps me get the kitty litter from the bag to the litter. The other three glasses are among our best pint glasses now so it's a nice even split of how the pieces were used. The coasters will probably be broken out at the next poker game. Kate also loves her cooking pot.

That's all for now. Go Leafs Go.

Sudbury: yeah

We got back from Sudbury late Sunday night. We drove up Thursday night to prepare for a conference that Kate's dad was giving. Kate and I did the food prep and the prep for the hall that the dinner was in. We supplied lunch on Saturday and Sunday as well, bagged lunches.

It was quite busy for us. It's remarkable how much work goes into cooking for 35 people. I barely even dealt with food and I was busy all weekend. My tasks included picking up items, carving pumpkins, delivering goods, setting up tables and chairs, cutting vegetables, putting together bagged lunches, and of course a lot of barbecuing.

Unfortunately one of our two barbeque's refused to raise it's temperature above 200 degrees, which made the cooking of 80 pieces of chicken and four ceder plank salmons quite difficult. But we managed to get get through it and over all the food was considered a success, although there was much stress involved.

One achievement that I think is particularly notable was that despite the hard work, long days, short sleeps, and a great deal of pain on my part from cuts and burns to my hands, we were quite chipper for the entire weekend. Except for one atrocity, and I am not exaggerating with my use of the word atrocity. We arrived in Sudbury at 2:30 am, Friday morning we headed out to get coffee and pick up a couple items. We parked in a TD bank parking lot, didn't use the TD bank, spent 20 min doing out thing and came back to a boot on our rental car.

Now I know Sudbury isn't having the best of times, Brazilians own their mine and they live in perpetual snow and many of it's inhabitants have a very limited education, but there is no doubt in my mind that they targeted our Quebec plates with the hopes of taking advantage of us. It cost 100 dollars to have the boot removed. Yes we parked on private property, but I don't put anyone who comes onto my property in handcuffs and force them to pay me 100 dollars to release them. We had no choice but to pay the stupid money.

There is something to be said about common decency, and the attitude of both the people who put the boot on the car and the people who answered the number posted if you wish to dispute the charge did little to help me accept the extravagant charge. They act as though we're committing some heinous crime. First of all, charge us something reasonable like 20 dollars and I would have slapped my own wrist for them, but 100 dollars and a Fuck You attitude really annoyed me. The people who booted the car were extremely unhelpful in explaining what had happened, and they insisted that it had nothing to do with the bank itself. The police, yes we involved them after the fact, told us that had we complained to the bank we may have gotten off without paying. So the booters, lied to us about the bank, probably knowing that there was a chance we could not have to pay.

I see it everyday at work. I work beside telemarketers who become angry that the people they're cold calling don't want to buy the product. They call them stupid, or ignorant, not to their face, but after they get off the phone with them. They are so gung-ho to be on board with the company that they completely disregard what the company is doing. They're part of the team so who cares if they're selling crap, they have to pretend it's not crap otherwise what do they do for a living? That's right: they sell crap. These booters are doing the same thing, they act as though they're the ones getting rich off people like me, even though they probably make minimum wage.

I've worked in environments like that before. The employees are so desperate to not be working for a immoral company that they just refuse to accept that the company they work for can do anything wrong.

Kate called the number on the 'ticket' to see if we could get our money back. The guy who answered claimed to be the General Manager. Kate asked why they charge 100 dollars, his response was they charged less than any other company in Canada (like that's easy for us to confirm). She asked again where the number comes from, he said the supreme court of Canada said they could do what they do. Not exactly an appropriate answer to the question but fine. Kate asked which case it was, he said it wasn't the supreme court, it was the court of appeals. She asked again which case, he said we should so our own homework, by now he's very agitated even though it's been about a 2 min phone call. Of course we have no intention of looking through thousands of case files for a file that may or may not exist, and the cops had already said that despite numerous complaints the company was legitimate.

Go Capatalism, if I can take money from you without stealing, it's not only my right, but my duty to do so.

So that's my rant about Sudbury, oh yeah later that day someone did a classic parking spot steal, I waited as a car pulled out and another car pushed it's way in front at the last minute. Great town that Sudbury, can't wait to visit again!

At least Kate made the General Manager of whatever the hell that 'company' was called, yell at her for essentially no reason. That almost made up for the 100 dollars. And we did not let it damper our spirits. Oh yeah, the conference was on Globalization and the Work Force or something like that. We were there to cater a conference that supports the workers of Sudbury, they very same people that screwed us six hours after arriving, and again in the Costco parking lot.

So that's the crap we had to deal with this weekend, the parking thing was crap, not the conference, that was a pretty decent experience, although next time we'll need more staff. I'm still exhausted from the work and the long drives that bookended the trip.

Cats, cats, cats.

We have way too many cats. I still like playing with them, most of them, but we have too many. The spare room has become a cat condo, and I can't go anywhere in the house without one of them at my feet, or climbing up my leg, or rubbing thier head on my face. They're lucky they're cute.

The bathroom is no safe haven. Everytime I try to close the door to lock myself in, one of the cats is quck enough to slip in behind me. Even leaving the house is difficult with two of the cats literally putting thier bodies at risk to get out into the hallway. They try to squeeze out when the door is open two inches, I thought they had whiskers to know what they can and can't fit though. So we have to delicately open the door, let the cats out, then try to round them up in an organized fashion.

At least they're funny and provide significant amusement. Unlike Concordia who simply won't accept that I lived in Montreal from August '09 to October '09. A letter from my landlord saying I lived there wasn't enough because, aside from the fact that he's probably lying, he doesn't own the house anymore. Why does that even matter?

Of course it's my fault for not insisting upon a lease for that time I suppose. We were doing him a favour. He wanted to sell, the new owner would probably want to live in the place himself, so we stayed without a lease until a new owner was found. Serves us right says Concordia.

I shouldn't complain, I've proving I've lived in Montreal for the past two years so that I can get half off the cost of my classes, which is a cool concept, but man is it frustrating to deal with the buraucracy. It was easier to get my health card, which is enough proof for Concordia, but it won't come in the mail for another three weeks. Hopefully Concordia can wait till then.

Work is going well. With Delhi screwing up the Commonweath Games so badly I have much to write about. The Als are still going strong too. Maybe I can create a sport for the cats and kill to birds with one stone. I'll call it UFC (Ultimate Fighting Cats). Just like the real UFC it would be boring, boring, boring, then bam three seconds of excitment as the cats wake up and walk to the food bowl, then boring, boring, boring. At least that's the way it was the last time I watched an Ultimate Fighting Challenge fight, granted it was in 1993, and I do not intend to watch another one if I can help it.

Oh yeah and one of the new cats insists on using the bathtub as a kitty litter if we forget to close the door. So that's the crap I've been dealing with for the last couple weeks. Litterally.

Foster Cats and Sports Coverage

The writing gig is going well. As I learn about greyhound racing and track and field meets and athletes it gets easier to write about them. The greyhound race recaps come quick, the track and field articles less so because of the fact checking and name spelling, but I know I am improving my writing. Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be moving on to hockey too. The track and field season is over this weekend, other than the Commonwealth Games, and hockey season is just beginning.

I've also kept up my Alouettes coverage for digitaljournal.com although as the season progresses I find myself fighting for a spot on the sidelines. There are more and more photographers every game it seems, and they're reviewing my access. If I do get pulled from the sidelines I am still hoping to attend games as just a writer.

It's been fantastic practice getting shots from the sidelines. I can't wait for my sports photography class, but that won't be till next year. This year I'm taking fashion photography, wedding and portrait photography, and photoshop 2. Fashion starts next week and the other two in October. Then I'll be looking to take Camera 2 and Sports photography.

Our foster cat situation has become interesting. We briefly had a cat named Tom that somehow broke it's leg. Not only did he break his leg, but he broke it in two spots and needed serious surgery to fix it. I spent a week going from vet to vet trying to figure out the best solution, money being an issue as well. I was actually ready to adopt the cat since he's so incredibly friendly, but the woman who rescued the cat in the first place decide to adopt him instead.

While Tom was still with us we took in a kitten that had some issues from the various pounds she was in. Her fur was gone from half her back, she had mites in her ears and very smelly diarrhea. The mites are almost got, her poos are normal, but still smelly, and her fur is growing back after two weeks with us. She's also in heat and very loud, all night, every night.

We also took in a mother and her six week old kitten, the first was a few months old. This little kitten is tiny, and scared of humans. Hopefully in the next couple weeks she'll adjust and we can find her a home. I don't really want five cats in the house, but when the other option is to 'gas them' as the people we meet put it, well I guess I just have a soft spot for the creatures. Even though I've sustained multiple holes in my skin from them.

I'll try to put up some pictures of these kittens and cats on my website, www.joedeclara.com, but in the meantime you can enjoy my recent football snaps. All of my Alouettes articles are linked to there too and you can always find them on www.digitaljournal.com, but my greyhound articles are sold to other websites, and don't contain my name so it's harder to find them.

The fall will be busy but I'll try to post all the crap I get around to doing.