And here's the weekend report

     Hail to the weekend! Why the rain is giving my neck of the woods the slip I have no idea. It's pouring buckets and flooding either coast but leaving the middle alone. The wildfires are going to catch up with us soon, I fear. But enough fear-mongering. Time for the sports report.

     I am not a hockey fan. I prefer the pigskin over the puck and the Bombers over the Jets. This is the first time that I have ever been interested in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Pride in the 'Peg, I guess. By now, thanks to Toronto's loss, many Canadians are looking to Winnipeg to keep the Cup in Canada. The Jets have a ways yet but they may get there and hoist the Cup with pride.

    Meanwhile, in Winnipeg, this is our song. Sing it proudly.

      Yeah, it's Ace Burpee. Please don't judge. 😁

      Tomorrow the Jets wage war with Las Vegas and its Golden Knights while Washington does battle with Tampa Bay. Predators, we hardly knew ye. Enjoy the golf, guys!

      Now for news from the UK. Mares were musing over John Cooper Clark of late. Why he's still alive while others have fallen thanks to nasal activities. Well, my theory is that JCC found religion and that kept him going. In particular, he found the Honey Monster.

     Have 'Common sense' and bow down before the original 'Honey' Puff Daddy, ye fools!

    And now for some canine interest stuff.

That is all for now.

BYE.

In Praise of Stuff

      One of the biggest reasons I've been absent from this blog is that I spent way too much time this summer and even last summer watching a Brit named Applemask. He's a lovely cynic from Cornwall with his eye on public information films and advertising. He has a channel on Vimeo with an excellent program called the Hard Sell. I think I've learned more about the United Kingdom thanks to Applemask than I ever expected to learn. I've also struggled my way through a bottle of Irn-Bru, learned that Monster Munch pickled onion flavour is nasty, and fallen in love with the country of Wales because of this dude.
      He also has a Patreon, which he has linked in many of his videos. If you want to see what the world was like in the 80s and 90s (assuming you were too young to see these adverts the first time around), be sure to check him out.

      I guess I should post some Sims stuff here too.

Some dudes

Same dudes?






That is all for now.

Proper mentality?

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a pretty cold fish. I was driving home the other day when a song came on and the guy was singing about how he would die if the she in his life were to leave him. Warning! This post might get a little edgy, but please keep reading even if it doesn't! Several impulses go through my head whenever I hear a song like this, and I worked through these mental impulses as I was driving home the other day. First off, the singer who says 'I'll die if you leave me/don't love me... etc...' is problematic. Either he/she is emotionally troubled or is completely insincere. Either way, the one who puts death into a sentence like that is better off left alone until they change their perspective.
Now, I know that these songs are figurative for the most part. Just the length a person is willing to go to prove how important someone is for them, and to be without this other person would be a very rough time. However, if someone were to tell me, be it in song or otherwise that they would die if I left them or did not love them, I would probably tell them off. First off, if they earnestly promise to go through with this and don't, I have the right to call them insincere and dangerously in need of help. A person like this I am better without anyway. I would hope that such a person means it only in jest, or else I foresee trouble ahead. On the other hand, going through with such a decision indicates something far worse than insincerity.
I wonder if I was looking at this concept with my semi-Buddhist eyes, for I've been applying karmic balances and debts to various thoughts/words/deeds lately. I refuse to accept blame for someone's suicide. If someone came to me and sang 'I'll die if you don't love me etc...' I would (hopefully) say. "Do not lay your death on my doorstep!" I am not responsible for someone else's death unless I either orchestrate said death or do it myself, and I do NOT accept responsibility for someone taking their own life. Their grim deed gathers karma for them, not for me or for anyone else, and I refuse to take any responsibility for it.
Romantics would probably say that since I am not in love with anyone, I am not able to look past such lines and understand the real meaning. If I were in love, they might say, I would say something like 'How touching! Why can't my he/she say something like that?' Agreed, I am not in love with anyone, so my mindset is possibly totally out of whack. However, I would rather have this mindset and wonder why the singer would go to such lengths to prove him/herself to someone else.
Hmmm. This looks like an interesting vein. Maybe I'll ponder it further and get back to you. BYE.

Men

There are thousands of articles and books out there where women are looking at men with all manner of lenses and thinking about men from every angle. I'm rereading Sam Keen's 'Fire in the belly' these days, and I asked my dad if he was interested in reading it. He politely declined. For those not in the know, 'Fire in the belly' documents 'the path' men must take if they are ever to feel comfortable with their gender; especially in relation to the female of the species. Contrary to popular belief, men are not in charge and they never really have been. Although men still receive higher salaries (for the most part) than women do, women have always had power over men on a psychic level. Anyone remember Oedipus and his problems? Keen's remedy for men lost and fumbling is to first get as far away from Woman as possible, and then rediscover their maleness while surrounded by other men.
I don't know if Keen is right, but looking at my pater, I'm tempted to disagree with Keen. My dad was an only child; he's married with two daughters (which is plenty of Woman for any guy), and is doing rather well. My dad never (as far as I know) went through the supposed mid-life crisis when he hit his forties (mid-fifties right now, and no crisis in sight). It makes me wonder if this mid-life stuff is really as intense as popular culture insists it to be. But, getting back to Men in general.... There seems to be an intense reliance on Woman if one looks through the history of music and literature. One song that's been echoing through my head (and my radio) lately brings this reliance to life. Prince's 'Raspberry beret' from the 1980's.
First off, I'm not that fond of the song, and the video could be better (even considering the decade it was done). I've had the time lately to listen to the lyrics and it seems to me that, for the 'hero' in the song (too-leisurely him that works in the local five-and-dime), nothing really changes until 'the girl' walks through the 'out' door with her second-hand story raspberry beret and very little else (listen to the lyrics for more info). She knows how to kiss, according to Prince, but it seems that before she walks through the door, nothing matters. Just a really silly and illogical example of Man's intense reliance on Woman one sees in pop culture.
Anyway, I'm going to continue reading 'Fire in the belly'. Do I agree with the message Keen's presenting? There is no doubt that men these days are stuck in a kind of paradox, and without one you cannot have the other, so I guess Woman has him trapped again. Perhaps I do agree with the message, but for some men, this paradox is not a real big deal. Anyone out there thinking differently? Drop me a line. Thanks and have a great weekend.