live within your means (national daycare)

Just a thought....but if you cannot afford to raise a child then maybe you should refrain from having one. I realize that some people are forced into single parenthood by someone leaving or dying. However I know many single parents who chose to be in that situation. I also certainly don't like the idea of subsiding dual income families so they can buy their kids the latest gaming system while dumping fuel into their gas-guzzling SUVs. Maybe in those cases someone has to stay home and raise the child. Maybe they don't have to give their kids EVERYTHING they want.

yard by-laws

You can pay your mortgage and taxes and yet your neighbour can still tell you what to do with your property. I like my grass long. Maybe the car on blocks is a piece of art. Laws should not be in place to enforce personal tastes.

I have a message for our troops overseas fighting for our "freedom": Come on home folks, we never had it to begin with.

The Birds

Last summer I noticed that everytime I left my house a crow sitting on the telephone wire directly in front of my house would aggressively dive at me. He would then perch on my neighbour's shed...watching me leave in my car. It was going on for a couple of days when I noticed a distressed women standing in fornt of my house. I popped my head out the door to see what her problem was. She said "That bird attacked me!!", pointing to my aggressive new friend. I told her the tends to do that and it would be best to keep walking.

A day or two later I was looking into my yard from my 2nd floor. I noticed a crow walking around my lawn. I watched for several minutes and noticed that another crow was bringing him food. I then realized that this bird was injured and that other crow was protecting it. The injured bird would mainly hide in my raspberry bushes to keep hidden.

I figured I would try an experiment. I stepped out onto my deck. The guard bird immediatley started crowing. As I approached the injured crow other appeared. They were landing on my roof, garage and fence....surrounding me. I figured I better get back inside before they move in to kill.

I decided to not cut my lawn or barbeque intil the bird got better or another predator got to it. Within a week it was gone.

I've been planning on posting this story since Robin told his bird story on May 1st. Then, coincidentally, it started happening again 3 days ago. I get dived when I leave my house. Once again, a crow sitting on the telephone wire in front of my house. I have yet to determine what he is protecting. He gets very agitated when I go in my back yard. I see no injured bird. I am wondering if there is a nest in one of my trees or something. I wanted to just stay out of my back yard until it was over but I really had to cut my grass...it was getting very long. So I did do that....just before posting this. The bird was upset but did not attack once the lawnmower was running. I am guessing the sound kept him away. I actually felt guilty. I don't want to upset the bird while he diligently does his job. I will do my best to stay out of his way until whatever it is he is protecting is no longer an issue.

new tattoo

I got a new tattoo on may 4th. As well I updated one I already had.

http://my.tbaytel.net/tgallo/tattoo.htm

death and age

Many people find the death of a child more tragic than that of an adult? Why is that? Does life lose value with age. Is it a linear relationship? Maybe it stays steady from birth to 10 years then drops a bit and stays steady until 18 followed by a steady decline in value. Sure quality of life CAN dimish with age but is the life healthy 40 year old worth less than that of a healthy 5 year old?

Most deaths are tragic to different extents but I don't believe that the death of a child is any more tragic than that of an adult. What I do believe is that dying before your parents is more tragic than dying after them. In my eyes a 70 year old woman dealing with the death of her 55 year old daughter is equally as tragic as the 30 year old man dealing with the death of his 5 year old son.

So after your parents are gone....you're good to go.

I usually do a search before posting one of my blogs to see what others have said on the topic. I found the following link quite interesting:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6939/1/1

duh

There has been a debate in our local paper about the existence of a set of traffic lights at a particular intersection. In the February 11th edition a reader wrote:

"Hopefully the light will remain to deter drivers who speed up the hill to get through it."

Mull that one over for a bit.

I'm ashamed to be of the same species with this individual.

sports team loyalty

What is the deal with some people and "their" team? Bob loves team A and Dave loves team B. If team A wins Bob will gloat to Dave and if team B loses he will ridicule Dave. I recently worked with some guys like this. Every Monday you'd hear "my team did well...how about yours" First guys, neither team is YOURS. Secondly, win or lose, you sitting on the sofa, drinking beer, watching the team play had no affect on the outcome of the game. You have nothing to gloat, ridicule or even lament about.

When someone is loyal to a team, what are they loyal to. It should be the players, seeing as they are the ones actually playing the game. But over time players come and go. The team they were loyal to 15 years ago no longer exists. They could love team A and hate team B. Over time with the right trades, theoretically, the lineups of each team could switch. Now this person loves this same group of guys he once hated. Coaches and owners change all the time as well. The only thing that is close to being constant (but still is not) is the city, name of the team and the logo. I suppose I can almost understand being loyal to your own city's team. But if your local hockey team is made up of mostly Europeans than it really doesn't make any sense.

In the early 80s I was a football fan for a couple of years. My fave team was the Atlanta Falcons. Why? Becuase the helmets were red, the logo looked cool and "Falcons" sounded cool. That's not much to hold on to. That coupled with the realization that basking in the glory of the work of others is empty made me lose interest shortly after.

I am now a big fan of the sport of paintball. (If golf and Nascar is a sport than so is paintball.) There are a couple of leagues in the US but I don't really follow them. I do, however, have a favourite team. The team is called DEMENTIA. I even have a favourite player...Tony Gallo. He's a good player and he's pretty sexy too. The best part of all is whether DEMENTIA wins or loses, I have a direct effect on the outcome.

shop and save

This phrase has bugged me for years. You CANNOT shop and save. I can save by NOT shopping. They should be saying what they mean: "shop and SPEND LESS than you would shopping elsewhere".

Next time you see a "shop and save" commercial, go to that place of business, grab some merchandise and ask for a fiver. That way you do indeed shop AND save. In fact there should be a law that forces them to do this....something about false advertising.

hernia surgery

I am currently recovering from hernia surgery. The procedure was done yesterday (Jan 5th).

Good thing: I'll be off work for at least 4 weeks

Bad thing: Thunder Bay liquor stores will be left unprotected


UPDATE: I got 7.5 weeks off. I will be returning to work February 28th.

it's a bird..it's a plane....it's sasquatch.....no, it's just Tony

This past Thursday (Dec. 29th) I went to the liquor store with my friend Fiona. While she was paying for her bottle of wine one of the other staff at the store said to the manager that some guy had just snuck out with a bottle and was running across the parking lot. I followed the manager out of the store. He yelled to the guy that he was "on camera" and returned to the store. I was irritated and thought I might be able to catch up with the guy....so I started running. He was heading towards County Park. I was gaining ground but I was also getting tired. Apparently he was too. The chase slowed to a fast walk. Eventually once he got inside County Park he realized I wasn't giving up and I was gaining ground. He just stopped. I walked up to him and told him that I would follow him home anyways so he might as well just give me the bottle. He took it out of his bag and gave it to me. I looked in the bag to see if he had any other booze...nope. I walked back to the liquor store wheezing and out of breath. The run in the cool air aggravated my athma. Fiona was waiting outside....she had no idea where I had gone. I went back inside the store and handed the bottle to the manager. He thanked me and asked if I was undercover.

Because I Got High

There is a song out called "Because I Got High" by someone who goes by the name Afroman. I first heard this song last week in HMV. As I was looking at CDs I was listening to the lyrics. I was surprised that a song about drug use would be played in public like that. Most stores would avoid the controversy. Sure a majority of their customers would not care but there could be some people that would object. Anyways...one verse (2 minutes into the song) is quite sexually explicit (do a search for the lyrics your self). When this verse started playing I thought to myself that this could really offend someone. The song got cut off during this verse and another song started playing. I looked around and the employees were looking at each other nervously.

Today I found out a couple of my favourite movie characters (Jay and Silent Bob) appear in the video for this song. I googled for it and watched it. The verse with the sexual content is censored.

I find it strange that in both cases the drug use is OK but sexuality must be censored. Of course this is the same society that buys their children video games where you must stab, decaptitate and shoot your opponents but if these same kids were watching porn, mom would freak.

Dr. Pepper

"Diet Dr. Pepper tastes more like regular Dr Pepper."

than?

Spam

I don't blame spammers for spamming. If it didn't work for them, they wouldn't bother. Even if the tiniest fraction of their list responds it makes it worth their while. It's that "tiniest fraction" I blame. I'd like to send out spam promising something if they sent me their name and address. Then I could have hitmen dispatched to their homes to kill them. Once the "spam responders" are gone then so will the spam.

cross

The symbol for Christianity is the cross. Most (if not all) Christian churches have at least one large on outside and many inside. Pretty simple design really, regardless of the materials. It's just 2 straight lines. To manufacture one should not be too difficult. What if, back in Christ's day hanging was the prefered method of execuction? Would then a noose be the symbol for Christianity? Just think how much more complicated to produce these would be. A cross is simple to do in a neon sign. A noose just wouldn't turn out as well. You have the knot and maybe even the rope texture.

In no way am I being sacriligeous. I am just looking at this from a manufacturing point of view.

profanity

The idea of profanity or "swears" has bothered me for years. Let me break it down into two categories.

1. using the names of something sacred profanely or to express anger
The most common example is using Christ's name in vain. The problem is anything can be sacred to somebody. Someone may say "fiddlesticks!!!" when he stubs his toe but maybe fiddlesticks are something I hold as holy. People will say the easiest thing is to avoid using certain phrases or words that people consider sacred but than I say I hold EVERYTHING sacred. Therefore NOBODY can use any word or phrase to express anger as it will offend me. It's only fair.

2. the other swears: shit, fuck, etc......word that are just "bad"
Unlike the types of swears above these lack any logic or reason. What makes a word bad? A word should have no moral value. A word can represent something good or bad. "Murder" is bad but the word is not. What makes "shit" a swear but not "excrement"? They both mean the same thing. Some people claim it is their intent that makes these words bad. But if it is their intent than it is not the words themselves. Yelling "fiddlesticks" after stubbing your toe has the same intent as yelling "fuck". On the other side of the coin if I say I have to take a shit then "shit" in that case is not a swear. The intent is just to inform you of what I feel I have to do. The fact is these word have been deemed bad and people just accept it without thinking about it.

Another thing that bothers me is when newspapers or magazines print "f*#k" so as not to offend anyone. The writer knows what he means. The reader knows what he means. As long as it isn't actually spelled out it's OK. That makes alot of sense.

Conclusion: The concept of swearing is fucking bullshit!!

stupid commericials

1. The Diet Pepi "is there anything else youthful you'd like to experience" campaign
Since when is diet pop youthful? As a kid nothing followed a bowl of Cap'n Crunch like a diet cola.

2. Locally (Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada) there is a car dealership (Halfway Motors) that runs radio ads with the tag line in their jingle being "the one who sells cars in this town". I suppose the other car dealerships are selling garden gnomes. Besides, if they actually believed they were "the one" then why would they advertise? We would have no choice but to go there anyways (outside of shopping out of town). Just think..someone got paid to come with "the one who sells cars in this town".

black house

I had my house painted black and red over the weekend. Check it out here.

higher gas prices and bigger vehicles

I hear alot of people complaining about the rising gas prices but at the same time I see more and more trucks, mini-vans and SUVs on the road. There are plenty of one child families crusing around in these mini-vans or SUVSs. I also know several people with trucks who claim they need it to move stuff. In most cases they may actually only move stuff 2 or 3 times a year. The money they would have saved on gas had they bought a car would have been more than enough to rent a truck on the few occasions they needed one.

While I'm sure in some cases some people do need these larger vehicles but in in many cases the reality is that these are just expensive toys. Now don't get me wrong. I love expensive toys. My paintball equipment speaks for itself. However I will never complain about the extra cost incurred by owning these expensive toys (in my case more air and paint) . So you folks out there with the unnecessary large vehicles.....just shut up about the gas prices.

we are all greedy

Do you donate to charities? Is this one of the things that makes you a "good person"?

The reality is every cent we spend beyond our survival (food and shelter) is mainly for comfort or entertainment. If you own a TV than you decided that your televisions shows are more important than cancer research. It's like you have $10 to help 10 people but you agree to help 5 and spend the rest on wine gums. Sure it's better than helping nobody but the 5 people who aren't receiving your help are hoping those wine gums are real good.

dead neighbour

A women died on my street just down from my place. She was dead for a week. She was found today. I took a picture of the removal.

http://my.tbaytel.net/tgallo/removal.jpg

For those of you who may think this is morbid, please note the Thunder Bay News guy filming the event in the picture.

Thunder Bay Television....my moral barometer!!!