Taking It All In

Have you ever stopped yourself, put your phone down, and actually had a good look at the world you live in? 

It's really quite amazing, the sights you'll see are pretty incredible, but only if you take the time out of your busy day to appreciate them.  The online world has some pretty amazing pictures and videos, but they don't hold a candle to a live experience in which no photograph or video can accurately capture.

If you are ever out of the city in the evening when the sky is clear, look up and you will see the most amazing sight that will take your breath away.  Thousands of bright dots litter the everlasting darkness, in a pattern that makes it hard to look away.  If you keep watching you will notice some of those dots are actually moving quite quickly.  Those are satellites that are reflecting the light from the planet, and they look amazing too.

I was outside in the sun the other day and I noticed a huge black cloud of birds all flying in what seemed like chaotic patterns, yet they were all in unison, and they were getting closer, flying closer to me in a weird undulating ball that never broke apart.  When they were finally right on top of me I could feel the air moving from their movement, the beat of their wings sounding like a silent song and within that song I would almost swear that I could hear a voice, unrecognizable and completely foreign in nature, but a sort of voice nonetheless.  I was completely mesmerized and amazed.

I am cloud watcher too, I don't look for animal shapes or anything, I usually look for the size and color of the clouds, and sometimes while I watch them I notice the wind on the ground is going a different direction than the clouds in the sky.  I understand air currents are just like water currents but to see it in action first hand is pretty cool too.

Take a second out of your day to see what this world has to offer, you might like what you see.

Scott Goerz 

Communication Is So Important

I read this story and I'll rewrite it for you here:

Woman's perspective:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird.  We had made plans at our favorite restaurant for dinner. I was out shopping with my friends all day, so I thought he was a little upset when I showed up a bit late, but he made no comment on it.  After dinner the conversation wasn't flowing, so I suggested we go for a nice walk which he agreed to, but he barely said a word the whole time.  I asked him what was wrong, and he simply replied "It's nothing."  Then I asked him if he was upset because I was a bit late for dinner.  He said he wasn't upset and nothing was wrong, it has nothing to do with me and not to worry.  On the way home I told him I loved him, he smiled, patted my hand and kept driving.  I can't explain his behavior and I don't know why he didn't say I love you too. 

When we got home, I felt as if I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to with me, he just sat there watching TV, he continued to seem absent and distant. With silence all around us I decided to go to bed. 15 minutes later he came to bed but I felt he was still distracted and his thoughts were somewhere else.  He finally fell asleep without saying a word. I cried, I don't know what to do and I'm sure his thoughts are about someone else, my life is a disaster.

Man's Thoughts for the entire evening:

Why won't my motorcycle start?  (continually thinking about all the possibilities and solutions)

Jumping to conclusions:

The woman in this story is clearly insecure, this couple is supposed to be married and you would think she would know her husband by now. Maybe they got married quick after dating, so she doesn't know how men's minds work.  In any case coming up with your own conclusions without actually knowing any of the facts first is completely unhealthy and could ruin the relationship over time.  This woman knows her husband is off and deep in thought she could have told her husband exactly how it was effecting her he might have told her what was going on.

The man in this story knows his wife knows nothing about fixing a broken motorcycle, so he doesn't want to bother her with the details because he knows she can't help him.  I think he should have told her what was on his mind because as her husband he should know that she unnecessarily worries when she isn't being paid attention to.  Even if she can't help him, letting her know what is on his mind alleviates any worries she might have. 

Talking about our problems and issues with our spouses is healthy, and even if the other person doesn't understand the complexities of your situation they might say something that might give you an idea on a possible solution. 

Neither sex can read minds, I know a lot of couples think that the other person should just know how they are feeling and how to act, but most of the time both sides are oblivious.  Get talking, start communicating, and life will be better for both of you.

Scott Goerz

Common Sense Classes

You would think that every one would have some common sense in this world today, but it seems that common sense isn't so common.

Putting your hand on a hot stove seems like it should be common sense but it still happens. Going outside in winter with shorts and a tee-shirt still happens.
If you are extremely sick you should see a doctor, this doesn't happen.
Walking up to a wild bear with the intention of petting it, happens all the time. 

Anything that you know could hurt you but you do it anyway.


When I see a kid running down an asphalt road in bare feet or riding a bike while texting on their phone or walking in the middle of the road with headphones in and their head down I cringe and wonder why these kids don't seem to have any common sense.

Adults are just as bad, driving while drinking coffee, eating food and doing their makeup, or parking so close to someone else's door in the parking lot, so they have more room to get out while preventing another driver from entering their vehicle.

I think there should be classes in schools that specifically teach some common sense.  Teach girls what a camel toe is when wearing tight pants. Teach boys that picking their nose wherever they choose is not ok either. 

I suppose it could be a manners and common sense class, as the two seem to go together.  If you have parents that never learned any common sense or manners, you are going to grow up in the same ignorant fashion.

There is a difference to being stupid as opposed to uneducated, there is an abundance of stupid people out there but I think the uneducated ones far outnumber the dumb ones.

In this day and age of information overload is seems that people, now more than ever, are uninformed.

Scott Goerz

Who Cares

Have you ever heard a newscast about some people in another country killed by a tornado or any other event from nature? Maybe you heard about a mass shooting or a bomb going off.

When any of these events happen I am sad to say that I really don't care, and I am not sad that this has happened. I do think that it's not a good thing and I know its bad when people die but my empathy is just not there and it never has been.

I wonder why I don't feel sad or get emotional.  I do think that a lot of it is from media coverage over the years and the fact that this sort of thing happens all the time and it is broadcast to the world as a horrific event. 

When you are exposed to horrors on a regular basis you tend to build a thick skin around your emotions, at least I do.  This sort of thing does happen on a regular basis, a tornado wipes out a town, a tsunami kills hundreds, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, wars, and people in general.

I am not shocked anymore when I hear that someone has been stabbed in my city, or there was a shooting downtown, these events seem to happen every few days and I couldn't care less.

Another very possible reason is because whatever happens out there is not directly relatable to me. Someone dies in a far off country, oh well, but someone I know and am close with dies, it is a completely different story.

I'm not sure if I am wholly indifferent and an abnormal person because of these thoughts, I wonder if there are more of you out there just like me.

Let me know

Scott Goerz

My favorite Food, And Metabloism

I used to be a pasta guy,  and I still am for the most part.  I used to be able to eat a whole 1 kg package of spaghetti with 2 pounds of hamburger and a jar of sauce. I only ate one meal a day and that was usually it.

Once in a while I was even hungry afterwards and had to eat something else.  The energy I had was super heroic in my opinion, and I could do hard physical labor all day and go rollerblading and bar hopping at night.  Rinse and repeat for every day for about 20 years. 

I have moved past my pasta days and I favorite a nice tenderloin steak, with my custom made cheesy garlic potatoes.  I still have pasta once in a while but not even close to the amount or regularity that I once did.

If I ate that much now I would definitely be sick and hopefully throw up. My energy levels have significantly dropped with my aging and I have no where near the metabolism of my youth.

I often wonder if our metabolic change is somehow linked to our taste in food, I used to hate vegetables but now I love them, I would have taken pasta over meat and potatoes any day but now it's the other way around. 

I also have way less energy, it doesn't matter how much I eat my body just doesn't burn it up like it used to. If I over eat I get sick or fall into food coma, and I am finding that now if I eat less I actually have more energy, which I find very odd. 

What foods do you love now that you used to hate?  What gives you more energy and keeps you going?

Scott Goerz

Time To Blame The Real Culprit

A dog attack in Grande Prairie has led the animal to be euthanized, dog attacks in general almost always end up with the dog being put to death.  Actually any animal attack on a human being ends up with the animal being tracked and found and put to death.  It could be a bear, cougar, shark or whatever.

But this is about domesticated dogs, the animals that we choose to go out and purchase because we think we need a companion or because they are so darn cute.

It's time we stop blaming the dog for its actions, and start blaming the person who is responsible for that animal.

  You went out and made a commitment when you decided you needed a pet, and it is your responsibility to make sure that dog is fed and cared for.  If you neglect your dog by ignoring it or locking it in a cage for 24 hours a day, by not feeding it, or beating it when you have locked it in your basement in the dark while you went to work and it chewed your couch because it was bored, then you should be responsible for it when it goes out and attacks another animal or person.

The excuse that the dog escaped is not acceptable.  My dog has escaped many times, and I found him taking care of a baby duck, or covered in muck from an old dugout. He has never attacked anything or hurt anyone.  I raised my dog to be kind, and to not hurt anything or anyone.

Blame the owner when their dog gets loose and attacks someone or another animal, because they are ultimately responsible for their pets actions.  If you go after the people responsible for animal attacks we might see less of them. 

If you buy a gun and shoot someone with it everyone blames the person and not the gun. If you train a dog to kill people everyone blames the dog and not the owner.  You could set up a gun in a room on a remote trigger, so you are not even there when someone enters the room and the gun shoots them, or you could train your dog to be silent and kill who ever enters the room as well.  In both cases the person is the main culprit, but yet the dog will be blamed in the last scenario.

It's time to blame the real culprit.

Scott Goerz

Nice Guys Finish Last, No More Doormats

I have heard some guys complain about how they are single, and they don't know why.  They are decent looking, have good jobs, responsible, but they are puzzled as to why they can't seem to keep a girl.

I asked a few questions, and the answers for all of them were basically the same. They all claimed that they did whatever the female wanted, and were very nice and polite all the time.
They never argued or got into fights, but for some reason the guys were always the ones who got dumped.

There is nothing wrong with being nice, but there is an extreme version of nice that you don't want to fall into, and that is being too nice.

You can't be a doormat, which means letting others take advantage of you, they can literally do anything they want to you and you just say it's ok.  They push your emotions to the limits and you never push back.  You take whatever they do to you with the excuse that you are just being nice.

You have to stand up for yourself, when someone has said or done something that offends you, you have to tell them that what they have done is not acceptable and if they continue to offend you there has to be a consequence for their actions.

Nobody likes a pushover, nobody wants to have a conversation with somebody who will concede or agree with every point of view.

Every relationship has to be a two-way street, you give something and receive something in return, if you are always the one giving and never getting, you will be taken for granted and the person you are with will always get their way, which is a boring relationship.

Everyone has their own beliefs and ideas, you have to stand up for your own and make them known, soon after any relationship has been initiated.  If you can't stand lying and cheating make sure the other person is aware of your feelings and be prepared to end the relationship if the other person doesn't respect that.

Some people are terrified of being alone, and they desperately want constant human companionship, they will be a doormat just to be around you.  They have to confront those fears and turn them into a strength that they can use to help themselves.

Needing someone in your life, is opposite to, Wanting someone in your life. Needing, is you can't live without it, wanting, is you enjoy having it around but you could get rid of it and be fine as well.

Scott Goerz
 

Underlying Problem?

Have you ever tried to make your partner happy by doing the things that they want done, but after you have finished they actually aren't all that happy and complain that it isn't what they had envisioned?

This scenario happens to us all, well, all of us in a relationship.  Your spouse or parent always says “just once I'd like you to clean the house instead of me.”  So one day while your significant other or parent is out you decide to clean the house from top to bottom, and when you finish you excitedly wait for them to come home and be shocked and surprised but most importantly happy with you.

Your spouse comes home and enters the house, they walk to the bathroom without saying a word and after they finish and come out they continue to examine the rest of the house and stop in the kitchen or living room. 

There are a few responses that could happen, the first is what you would expect:

"Oh My God! This place looks awesome you did such a good job honey!"

The other response is not what you would expect:

"Why didn't you do this? And you missed this, this, this, and this.  And this is still dirty."

If you are the recipient of comment number two, don't be discouraged too much it's not your fault, first of all the person critiquing your work has to realize that if have done something you don't normally do they have to know that it will get better with more practice.  Secondly, failing to notice that you deliberately went out of your way to make them happy is a sign of ignorance on their part, and they need to address what their problem is themselves.

There could be an underlying problem that they have with you, and it doesn't matter what you do because they are upset about something else you might have done.  

A different underlying problem could be that the other person has to be in control all the time, they need to be right, and nothing anyone does will ever be good enough, you will never hear a thank you or a sorry from the mouth of this type of person.  A narcissist feels that they are always right and never wrong, their way is the only way and you are an idiot for even thinking about doing it differently.

If you feel that you know or in a relationship with a person like this get out now. 

If this were to happen to me I doubt I would do anything for that person again, and if they asked me in the future to do something for them I would bring this scenario up and remind them of what happened last time I tried to do something nice.  

Scott Goerz

Greedy F*#*ing Politicians. Is the Answer ( A Marijuana Story)

I'm a smoker, I've been smoking cigarettes for a long time. I remember being able to smoke just about anywhere, restaurants, hospitals, planes, buses, buildings of all types.

Cigarettes were cheap, three dollars a pack and just about everyone I knew smoked as well.  Most of my group and the people we knew only smoked cigarettes and not a lot of them smoked pot.

I'm not sure exactly when it happened but it seemed very sudden that people were complaining about second hand smoke and all the health risks associated with it.  After that the government jumped on board and no one was allowed to smoke inside buildings anymore, and then we had to be so many feet from a doorway, and the list goes on.

After the laws were in place a new type of control was made into law where all cigarette companies had to depict the horrors of smoking by putting disgusting pictures of your lungs and or face showing the effects of long term smoking, these depictions had to be on all cigarette packages in an effort to try to curb people from starting to smoke and to get current smokers to quit.  

After that plan was implemented and in full force they then decided that all flavored cigarettes should be banned as well because children were tempted by the flavor.

The government and the people of this country have been trying and succeeding in curbing the use of cigarettes in Canada.

My question then is:  Why the hell is the government legalizing pot for human consumption in Canada?

There are going to be smoking bars for pot use built, edibles being made laced with pot which the media figures is going to generate a huge market and make billions.

All this effort put into getting people to quit smoking and then introduce and legalize pot for people to smoke seems like a ludicrous idea to me.   Sure you could argue the health benefits of pot but there are ads back in the day advertising smoking as healthy, depicting a doctor enjoying a smoke.  Cigarettes were healthy too once, as doctors claimed.

Is second hand smoke from pot not going to bother anyone?  Does it somehow not catch fire if thrown into a trash can or out the window?  Does it not blacken your lungs?  Is it not addictive?

Money money money money and greedy F%^$ing politicians. Is the answer.

Scott Goerz

Vegetarians?

I understand the desire to have a vegetable only diet, that you can't stand the thought of how some animal was tortured and it's meat sold in supermarkets for human consumption.

But what if plants went through the same process?  What would a vegetarian do if they found out that plants feel and know that they are living organisms and felt pain like every other living thing?


Plants don't feel pain, that is the consensus between scientists.  They do experience other human like traits and you can read the article here: https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-01-09/new-research-plant-intelligence-may-forever-change-how-you-think-about-plants

I think the only reason we have vegetarian people is because society is spoiled, we have too much, and don't value what we have been given.  Do you think poor countries that have very little food have vegetarians in them?  If you are starving you will eat almost anything, and no amount of claiming that it's morally wrong will change that fact.


We all need to eat to live, and in this day and age where humanity mass produces everything we need, it seems that the choice to eat only specific types of food is an option because of that very reason. 

I recently was talking to a woman who doesn't eat meat because of the cruelty to animals, but to her it's ok to eat fish?  Do they not grow fish specifically for the purpose of feeding people?  She went on further saying that hunting was acceptable and that humanity should only hunt and eat what they catch. I told her that if we all did that there wouldn't be an animal left on this planet, and we would all have died a long time ago.

I don't have anything against vegetarians and I think it's a nice way of thinking that you are somehow helping an animal out.  Even if I don't agree.  I much prefer the idea that it's a healthier choice of life.

Scott Goerz

It's Okay To Be Straight Too

It is really hard to go online or to view television and not see some sort of gender ad or sexual preference motivational blog.  When all you see or hear is LGTBQ or transgender issues, it seems everyone has forgotten that it's OK to be straight too.

The more I read the paper(Yes that still exists) or watch T.V., or go online, these issues are everywhere, it's constantly being shoved in your face and I'm almost at the point where the message I am getting is that you should be gay and or trans gendered to fit into society. These people get the most attention and being straight is boring.

I don't really care either way what your preference is, or if two same sex couples want to get married, if a guy wants to be a girl or a girl wants to be a guy I really don't care.  But if you decide that you need to wear something that is over the top outrageous to express yourself, don't be mad if somebody ridicules you because it doesn't matter what gender or sexual preference you are, anybody that wears some sort of crazy outfit is going to draw some negative attention to themselves.

If you want to wear a giant pink flamingo hat with five foot feathers coming out of the top and have your double d boobs in a size A bra while wearing ripped black fishnet nylons with a green mini skirt and stiletto heels and wonder why people are snickering and making fun of your expression of femininity, it's because no person dresses like that, unless you are in a play or drag queen contest.

Don't be mad if the attention you draw to yourself is negative. Don't be on social media sites complaining about how you were treated badly and that people don't accept your life choices.

There has to be some repercussions to all of our actions.  I don't think we can all go around and do whatever we like and expect everyone else around us to accept it. 

Whatever your choice is life is, is exactly that, your choice, and for the most part I think almost everything is widely accepted. There is no harm in choosing what feels right for you. But I want you to know that being straight is perfectly fine too.  Don't be something you are not just to fit in.

Scott Goerz

Being An Adult Part 2

So if you have finally made to legal adult status, there are a few things that you should learn that will help expedite your path to a respectable adult status.

First off, you should be fully self-sufficient, meaning you can take of yourself without the help of others. This means going to work and being on time every single day without fail, no excuses that you are sick, or you slept in, or your dog died, or you just don't want to go because you are feeling lazy.

A workplace or job does not care about you, and they will replace you if you are not doing your job to their specifications, too many missed days and excuses will definitely get you fired.  If you go to work and put in a little extra effort each day you might find yourself rewarded with a raise or promotion, businesses like workers that do more than they are paid for and are more likely to keep you around.

Find a place and live by yourself, figure out what bills need to be paid and pay them, even if you will be eating bread for the next two weeks.  It's better to be hungry than to not have a place to live.  It's not that hard to figure out what bills need to be paid and what you can afford with the money that you make, you can find deals and shop thrifty to help save money.  If you have some money left try to put some away for later, call it an emergency fund, not the party fund.

If you don't live by yourself and don't figure out how to make it on your own you will always be relying on somebody else to take care of you, if that person ever leaves you or gets into an accident and dies you will be next to helpless because you won't know the first thing about taking care of yourself.  Some people literally have nowhere to go because nobody wants a mooch to live with. When you live by yourself it teaches you the value of having your own stuff and how to take care of it, it gives you a sense of pride, it also teaches you to respect other peoples places because you can relate to them.

Be honest, with yourself and other people, I can spot a liar in a few seconds  of meeting one and have absolutely no need or desire for those types of people in my life.  They bring you down and nobody respects them.  If you are honest you will find that others will respect you more and you will have more friends that you can actually depend on.

When I said be honest with yourself, that means owning up to your mistakes that you have made and not blaming everybody else for your problems, you are supposed to be an adult now and blaming everyone else and saying it's their fault is what children do.  Own up to your mistakes, tell people that you made a mistake and apologize with full intent on rectifying the situation.

Be responsible, reliable, honest, and take care of yourself, the world is a harsh place, and the only you can decide your fate while you live in it.

Scott Goerz

Being An Adult Part 1

Remember when you were a child and being told you weren't allowed to do something because you weren't old enough?  It could have been a movie that was restricted or a ride at an amusement park you weren't tall enough to get on.  I used to wish I was older all the time.

I remember thinking about all the things I would do when I became an adult, there would be no rules for me and I could do anything I wanted.  Some of those things were, eating as much junk food as I wanted, going out when I wanted where I wanted, and riding on as many amusement park rides as I could.

Of course the reality of doing of whatever I wanted and being able to do it was a different story.  There was always the hurdle of having enough money to do what I wanted, I did splurge and made myself very sick with too much junk food which made that dream end very quickly, to this day I still don't care for junk food.  The same thing happened at an amusement park, I got very sick riding on the rides and to this day I cannot ride them anymore without having to vomit.

The dreams kids have are very limited and very little thought put into them, part of the problem is not knowing how the world works. 

When you finally hit the legal drinking age and are considered an adult what did you do?  I moved out and partied like a rock star, spent all my money and had to eventually move back in with my parents after failing as an adult.

Yes, you can fail as an adult. Turning 18 does not make you an adult, it only makes you a legal adult which is a huge difference.  I believe that you don't really become an adult until you reach your late twenties and early thirties.  It's between the age of 18 to 30 that you actually learn what it means to be an actual responsible reliable adult.  At this phase of your life you will gain the experience that no school or parent can teach you, and you will find that being an adult is sometimes the worst thing that has happened to you, especially if you were spoiled as a kid.

End of part 1

Scott Goerz

Medieval Medicine

I often find myself shocked by some medical procedures done by doctors and surgeons in this day and age. With the technological revolution in full stride it seems that doctors and medical institutions still use archaic methods to heal people. 

I think that having metal rods sticking out of your leg to hold the bone together for 6 months seems like a technique that was used in the dark ages.  Using a hollow metal pin that breaks the skin to inject medication or to draw blood also seems like a method that was invented before modern medicine was introduced to society. 

Using pins, metal rods, scalpels, nails, screws, pliers, and other metal implements you would find in a mechanics shop should not be used on the human body. We should be past that by now and be using more sophisticated methods. 

There are scientists out there that can reprogram viruses to seek out and find diseases and eradicate them.  I believe this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the evolution of this medical practice, eventually they will be able to send in a troop of nano bots that live harmlessly within your body awaiting orders. 

 You would swallow a pill that would be like the nano bots receiving a coded message that would give them instructions to seek out and repair specific problems, they could repair broken bones, remove tumors, kill cancer, and could cure any disease known to man.  Scientist would have to know what instructions to give the bots to make sure they work safely and efficiently. 

We have the technology to fully map the human body without invasive surgeries, there are CT scans MRI machines, and other types of non-invasive methods. 

The days of long scars and leaving medical tools inside of people should come to an end and a new era of medicine should begin.

Scott Goerz

So You Want To Buy A House

My wife and I have been looking for an acreage to buy that is closer to the city for about six years.  In that time we have seen a few that we have been really interested in but sold before we could even go look at them, while other acreages are still on the market from six years ago.

Everybody always wants a good deal, and we are no different, the house also has to be the right style and fit for us.

We are picky there is no denying this fact, and we know it, but I don't think we are being unreasonable. Here are some things we have learned along the way.

Just because the other houses in the area are priced high does not mean all the houses in the area should be priced the same.  Realtors call this comparables.

Some houses have been renovated and are clearly worth more than others.

If a house has been renovated but the owners did not know what they were doing and have used cheap supplies that house is worth less.

 I have seen houses where there was an obvious sale on ugly pink and green cork flooring that was installed in every single room in the house, and the owners decided they should varathane the entire thing afterwards to really bring out the colors.

When I go and view a house, I don't look for what I like about it, I look for what I am going to have to fix or repair, how much that would cost, an example would be water damage in the corners and on the ceiling, no pump located in the basement in case of a flood, or a garage that has huge cracks in the floor and is starting to slope in a direction it shouldn't.  How does the piping for the water look in the furnace room, is it copper or pex, is it neat and organized, how about the wiring in the electrical box, it should be neat and tidy too.

Don't be impressed by a fancy upgrade, such as an expensive chandelier or fireplace. Both of these things don't matter for your living conditions, and I have seen some fireplaces that take up so much room that you have no room for anything else, such as a T.V. or furniture. It is a huge job to remove a fireplace and it seems they are the "in" thing this year.

Where is the house situated on the land?  I prefer a more in the middle of the yard look, where I have a front and back yard. If it's too close to the road you get a lot of dust and road noise, and if its too far back your privacy is limited.  I also prefer trees to be planted around the perimeter to block wind, dust, and road noise and to give a little privacy.

What about your view from the house you are buying? Do you have a front row seat to your neighbors window?  Maybe there's some nice tower power lines for you to enjoy as you wonder why you are starting to go bald and a third arm grows out of your back.

Finally, the layout is the most important issue when you enter a house, is there a place for your shoes, jacket or anything in that immediate location?  Where are the stairs located, taking up space in the middle of the house is a waste, they should off to side and out of the way.

  A 14-foot ceiling is also a waste of space, you have to be able to heat that space or cool it down, I don't want to see a space where I could fit four more rooms to be completely open.  I also like an open concept, where you can see the living room from the kitchen.

 The basement in my opinion should never have a sealed ceiling and should be dropped tiled, a lot of water and electrical lines run on a basement ceiling if you ever had to fix something you would have to tear open a sealed basement as opposed to removing a few tiles and replacing them.  The same thing goes if you had a leak upstairs and into the basement.

These are a few of my opinions, feel free to use them.

Scott Goerz

Pain And Will Power

Do you think you have a strong will power?  Do you think that you are stubborn enough to push past any obstacle that gets in your way?  I used to think I could but that way of thinking is changing fast.

There used to be a time when I thought I could work through anything, and I worked through times when I was so sick I vomited every few minutes. I was stubborn and I had to finish what I was doing. 

Other instances I had torn my ACL tendon in my knee and had to wait a year before surgery but I had to work to stay alive and keep what I have, so I worked through the pain, with braces, ice, pills, and compresses. It was not fun and I don't think I did my body any favors by doing it.

I'm at an age now that my body says "Nope" and that's it, no amount of will power or stubbornness is going to get me to push past my ailments.

I got sick with a cold not to long ago, I thought I could work through it but my body had other plans, as soon as I stood up I instantly became so dizzy I had to hang onto something in order to stay upright, my vision blurred and my head spun, there was no way to push past that.  I was bedridden for a few days and very upset with myself for not being stronger.

This type of problem is becoming more and more of an issue, I wonder if it's because I didn't take the time to rest and let my body heal properly or is it age related. Probably a mixture of the two. 

Being stubborn and pushing past your limits to achieve something can be a good thing but I think being cautious and knowing when to not push yourself is also beneficial to your well-being.

Scott Goerz

An Eye For An Eye

I have heard a lot of people talking about what to do with someone that has killed somebody you loved. 

A lot of people seem to think that if you take a life then yours should be taken as well.  If someone killed your child, you should be able to kill them. This scenario doesn't work, and here is why. 

If you killed someone after they killed someone you love wouldn't you then be the next victim?  The person you killed may have had someone that loved them, so in turn they would get to kill you.  This cycle would continue until only one person remained on the planet. (The last killer)

Then there is the moral implications,  taking a life is no easy task, and after it's done it changes a person mentally.  When you get to kill a person who has killed someone you love, wouldn't you drop to their level and become what you wanted to kill and rid the world of in the first place?  You might become mentally unstable yourself, and either the guilt of the event or the enjoyment would haunt you for the rest of your life, forever changing who you were before.

Even if you weren't the one who killed someone, but instead you were the deciding factor in the death of another, if you told someone else to do it, or you chose the electric chair for someone instead of life in prison.  I believe that would change you as well, but probably not as much as if you did the actual deed yourself.

I think the need for revenge should be sated, and a punishment dealt to the perpetrator. Our prisons are not the answer as they are too slack in the punishment department.(in my opinion.)
We need the rock quarries and dull pickaxes and hard labor brought back for punishment, not what we have now.

What do you think? would we be better if the punishment was.....

An eye for an eye

Scott Goerz

Slow Drivers Part 2

If you are a driver like I am then I'm sure that sometimes you may exceed the posted speed limit, but you know that there are consequences to your actions and you might get a ticket. 

I'm fine with that part of driving but what I'm not fine with, is when I'm driving the speed limit and someone is driving way below it. How many of us have been doing a hundred on a single lane highway, only to catch up with someone driving eighty  (kilometers here in Canada).  This scenario is almost more dangerous than speeding in my opinion. 

Now you have a group of people trapped behind someone and pass unsafely most of the time.  I live on a single lane highway and I can tell you I have had my life flash before my eyes on numerous occasions from people passing unsafely because somebody ahead of them is driving too slowly.  

 Why don't people who drive slow get ticketed as well? (And lets take all driving conditions into account and say yes there is a time when you should slow down like fog, weather..ect)  A nice sunny day and someone is doing 15 kilometers under the speed limit. They should get a fine for going too slowly.

Whenever we have a long weekend the motor homes and trailer come out, and on the first day of a long weekend you almost never have to wait behind anyone because they are all in a hurry to get to the lake, but on the way home it is a a literal trailer and motor home slow nightmare with some people in a hurry and some people taking their sweet time. 

This is an accident waiting to happen with people that pass the slow driving trailers 2 at a time. 

Driving slow is not driving safe. It creates angry drivers and hazardous road conditions.  Do the speed limit.

Scott Goerz

Everything Is Free For A Price

The word free has no meaning anymore, it has become a scam ridden overused marketing ploy for far too long now and it needs to change.

We all have been on the internet and have seen the word free in just about any sort of marketing ploy out there, you can have this program for free, or you can join free.  It's never free though, and even if you try to jump through all their hoops to get your free product it is never worth it.

Joining a site for free doesn't cost you anything which is true and a play on words in my opinion.  You do have to enter a lot of your personal information for you to access the free site which is what these companies really want from you.  After you have done everything they have asked of you and you finally enter the site for "free" what do you get?  Usually nothing! Yay.

That company now has a bunch of information on you that they can use to make money themselves by selling it to the highest bidder.  They do this while you play your game for five minutes and reach a level where it wants you to pay money to continue.

I can see the next evolution of this scam that is going to come to fruition within the next few years.  Eventually you are going to see ads that claim they will pay you to join their site. Guess what that means?  Now you will have to put your bank account information into the website in order for them to pay you.  These sites will be asking for a lot more of your information and they will say it's to make sure you are of the appropriate age and to prove you are who you say you are.

Almost nothing is free anymore because there is always some sort of fine print or a type of catch that will prevent you from actually getting anything for free. This whole privacy statement that is twelve pages long and in lawyer lingo has got to come to an end.  Nobody wants to read through all that junk.  It should be in bullet form as:

• WE WILL
• WE WILL NOT

If it were like that anybody could read it and it would be clear and concise.  How this has been going for this long in lawyer texts and hieroglyphics completely baffles me.

I saw a free product once that said it was 100% free, after some scrutinizing I found out that it was indeed free but to ship it to you was one hundred and thirty dollars. What a scam, I'm so sick and tired of the moral code that is almost non existent in this world. 

Everything is free for a price
Scott Goerz

Disgusting Men Being Disgusting

Have you ever been to a party or social engagement and find yourself around a group of men that all get along really well?  The jokes and humor starts fueling the conversation they are having and to them it becomes almost a competition to see who can be more outrageous with their story telling.

Depending on the type of guys or the type of work they do the type of humor they use is paramount to the conversation.  Sometimes the conversation turns disgusting, but funny disgusting, to the men at least.  Trying to be more disgusting than the last guy takes a quick wit and a dirty mind. (which a lot of men have anyway)

I have been to a lot of these types social gatherings and every once and a while a woman will come over to see what all the laughter is about. (Laughter is infectious)  But when she hears what they are talking about she instantly takes offense to the topic and you can see the horror on her face.

What she or any woman has to understand is, that the disgusting conversation is not serious, and is meant to be taken as a joke, the over the top disgusting joke is meant as a way to shock the other men into laughter because of the absurdity of the subject, and level of disgusting the other men can reach. 

Men don't normally have conversations like this around people they don't know and women in general because they know what they are talking about is offensive, and they can only let loose when they get around other like minded people. 

I find it interesting that this is mainly a man thing.  I have never heard women go to the extremes that men do when they start ramping up a hilarious conversation.  Some women can take the extreme conversation, but they almost never join in, they just just laugh and listen. They know the conversation is meant to be funny.

It doesn't matter what gender you are, but if you happen to be offended by a certain type of conversation led by a group of adult men acting like children, back up slowly and walk away, you'll be better for it. 

Scott Goerz

The Right Way Is Your Way

Everyone always wants you to do the right thing, but the problem is, the right thing is different for each individual person.

A simple example of this is brushing your teeth, do you wet the toothbrush first, or do you just put the toothpaste on, do you brush in circles or up and down? Each person has their own way of doing things and they will claim it's the right way to do it.

I've always hated the phrase "If you're going to do something, do it right the first time."  My version of right might be a lot different than yours, and you may get upset with me for doing it my way.

Another phrase that does make sense is " If you want something done right, do it yourself."  I would change this phrase to " If you want something done your way, do it yourself."  This makes a lot more sense since your way might only be right to you and nobody else.

I remember getting into arguments about how the dishwasher was loaded, I never put pots into the dishwasher, but my girlfriend at the time did and we used to argue about the right and wrong way of loading it, what a stupid thing to argue about, as there is no right or wrong way to load a dishwasher and neither one of us was right or wrong we were just doing things differently based on how we were taught how to do it by our parents or learned how to do it ourselves.

If your "right way" works for you then do it that way and don't worry if anybody else has a problem with it, simply tell them they can do it their way when they are doing it and you are going to to it your way when you are doing it.  Do not let your obsessive compulsiveness force someone else to do things the way you do them.

As we grow we start to form certain patterns that we follow for day to day life, some of us don't even realize that we are doing it, and it becomes a daily routine.  If someone comes along and tries to break that routine you might become agitated with them, but as soon as you realize they have their own different routine that they are following you may be able to come to some sort of compromise when you want to do something together.  Instead of an individual routine you can make a couples routine.

The right way is your way

Scott Goerz

Brave Coward

Ever been driving and the person next to you wouldn't let you merge into their lane even though you had you signal light on for 5 minutes?  So you give yourself some gas and force yourself self in front of that person effectively cutting them off, you feel kinda bad because you are not normally an aggressive driver but what else were you to do?  The person behind you then decides they need to get into a different lane, pull up beside you, look over and give you the finger.

Aren't you brave, behind your glass windows and steel doors.  I wonder if this same scenario would have happened if I were walking through a crowded mall and I inadvertently made someone upset. Would they stop me and give me the finger?  Walk beside me keeping pace and give me dirty looks?  No, they wouldn't, and do you know why?  It's because they don't have something to hide behind, there is no barrier protecting themselves form me, there is no vehicle that will magically whisk them away so that I can't catch them.

These are brave cowards, and there are a lot of them out there, they hide behind their internet connections and computer screens, letting loose a flurry of insults and derogatory comments to anyone that looks like an easy target. They are such cowards that they will not even use their real names sometimes and use an online name such as "Rambo1234".  They feel as though they are invincible as they troll forums and posts looking for someone to react to them, and they look at it as a game they get to play for fun.  If you were ever to meet these people face to face they are probably the most timid and mild mannered people you have will ever meet, but online they are viscous and brutal in nature. 

Other brave cowards use their vehicles as their safety net, they think they are in an impregnable force field that will save them from any wrong doings.  They honk their horns continuously throughout their commute, roll the window down to swear at people, tailgate, give the finger and drive aggressively.  We all have heard of road rage and maybe some of us have experienced it but I think that is a different monster. Road rage ends and you calm down eventually.  Brave cowards are usually the ones that cause it in the first place.

I don't know if it's the feeling of power, or a sense that you are invincible and nobody can catch you, but online bullying happens all the time as well as bullying on the roadways. If you are one of those people who think they can't be caught think again.

You can be caught, and you will be caught eventually.  Everyday there are more and more cameras being set up in the cities and more and more cars are getting dash cameras like the police have, and right now we have license plates and cell phones we can use use if you're being particularly obnoxious and there are satellites in space that can see you picking your nose.

The government, police and other internet forces can track your online presence and know the real name behind "Rambo1234" and I would imagine there is a file on you somewhere with all your online activity and all it's going to take is you upsetting the wrong person for them to open it.

 You can go online and get a site to basically hack you, and they will give you a rundown of your personal online file that they have, in it you will find where you have been in the last 48 hours, all banking history, what sites you visit and for how long, what you typed, all your alias names, files and folder pictures which you thought were hidden and a lot more.  Nobody is hidden from the internet.  So go ahead and be a....

Brave Coward
Scott Goerz

The Robots Aren't Coming They're Here!

Gah! The robots are coming! The robots are coming! Actually the robots are here and have been for awhile now, and, they are getting better and better at doing our jobs.  But I think I have a great idea to solve the problem.

If you want some more information about what I mean when I say the robots are here I have a youtube link you can watch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSKi8HfcxEk

With more and more robots getting better at the jobs we normally do, where does that leave us in the future?  With a monetary system in place we all need to earn money in order to live and to survive, we may get a universal basic income implemented in the future but that is a long ways off and it will only cover a basic need.

My idea is that if we were to get a universal basic income it should start off with a robot for each household that we are responsible for.  The robot goes out and works for us and we are responsible for maintaining it and upgrading it with the money it earns.  Over time we may be able to purchase another type of robot that does a different type of job and earns us a little bit more money.

Lets say fully autonomous cars are out there driving around but not everyone can afford one, after a while of you saving up your other robots money you decide to purchase one, now it goes out and is used like a taxi cab, collecting fares and earning money for you, but in order to keep it working you are going to have to buy new tires, do regular maintenance on it, and upgrade its systems with the money it makes and if all things go well maybe you can buy a few more in the future and eventually have a fleet of them driving around.

There are more than just physical robots out there as well, there are digital robots that check algorithms online and robots that check those robot to make sure they are doing there jobs correctly.  There are drones that deliver packages, there are GPS robots that track those packages, there are medical A.I. robots that continuously monitor a patients health, there is literally a robot or type of A.I. robot that will do almost any job, and if we lose our jobs to them then it should be us that is responsible for them.

If we had this type of system in place we would all have a lot more free time to do whatever we wanted while making money at the same time.  There is a job for everybody out there in the form of taking care of your own personal robot.

The robots aren't coming they're here!
Scott Goerz

Schooling: Gaps From The Past

I believe most of us have an education, we went to elementary, junior and high school, some of us even branched off into universities.  The start of our schooling is what I want to focus on today.

It's funny to me that I can remember more of my elementary years and what I learned then, versus my junior high years.  In elementary I learned the alphabet, how to read spell and write, I also remember learning basic mathematics, how to craft and use colors, how to sharpen my pencil, I also remember playing in the park and being bullied on a daily basis. 

When it comes to the later years after elementary, it all becomes really quite hazy.  I cannot for the life of me remember anything that I learned in junior high school after grade 5.  I can remember getting a shot for some reason like the flu or tetanus, I can remember girlfriends and friends I hung out with, and a crush I had, so there are memories of that era, so why can't I remember anything that was taught from junior high school?

High school was much the same, I do have a few memories, from being on the wrestling team, learning how to weld in welding class, and learning basic programming on an apple 2e computer. What else was taught?  I do remember going to English class but have no idea what was taught in that class. I remember going to math but the same gap in my memory is there as well.

So I wonder if our minds somehow know what is relevant to us, and what is useless information that it doesn't retain.  I find it odd that I can remember some things but not others.

  I think certain situations have an impact on us which forms a more permanent impact on making a memory, like if you were in a car accident you are going to remember that for a long time, and the same for the first time you had sex.  How about the first time you ever ate an apple?  Probably not all that memorable and probably the same reason I barely learned anything from my later years in school.

Wouldn't it be great if everything you ever learned in school was retained?  If it was relevant to you and had a small impact on how you think, which in turn would form a more permanent memory and make you smarter?

I think I would feel better about school if I knew I spent 18 years of my life and learned so much more than I actually did.

Scott Goerz

Giving Out Your Info

My buddy is getting married and I'm the best man, so the other day we had to go for a tux fitting at Moore's.  When we got there they wanted our personal info so they could let us know when the tuxes were ready and we could pick them up.

They wanted my phone number, my email, and my address, which I gave them but then they asked if I wanted a membership card which I declined.  When I asked what they do with my personal info they said it's completely private and only used to contact me when my clothes are ready.

That same day I start getting emails about sales at Moore's and I've been getting emails from them ever since. 

This is why I specifically decline giving out my personal info to any store I shop at.  Every store seems to have this same technique, as soon as you buy something from them they want all your info, do you want an emailed receipt?  Can we have your phone number? What's your email address?

I don't believe it's all private due to the events that happen soon after your information is given out, email ads, spammers, weird phone calls from the states.

One of the oddest things I've had to deal with is google ads, I got a call from them years ago asking if I wanted to update my ad I had with them, but I never asked for a google ad and never contacted google myself personally, but they had all my information, my business name, my address and phone number.

I thought that maybe I forgot that I gave it to them but in reality I never did,  so I told them no thank you and take me off your list and after a short argument I finally got them to remove me from google ads, or so I thought. 

For ten years I have been arguing with google and now they have resorted to artificial intelligent phone calls where you can argue with a computer simulated person. I realize now that this all must have started because I gave out my business information to some other company that needed it and they gave it to google. 

Isn't google big enough?  Do they really need to have an aggressive marketing strategy that targets every person on the planet with a business and won't take no for an answer?

I have a small business that only serves its surrounding area I have no need for my information given out out to a worldwide audience that can use that information for nefarious deeds.

Keep your information to yourself and only give it out if it's absolutely necessary. That's what I think, but you can do whatever you want  to.

Scott Goerz

The Flat World

There has been quite the movement of people who are claiming that the world is flat, there are you tube videos, articles with some questionable scientific facts and mathematical equations and I have been rolling my eyes ever since I first heard about this theory.

I was at my favorite fast food place yesterday waiting for my food, and while I waited I usually pick up an Edmonton Sun newspaper and quickly browse through the articles.  I was flipping pages and on some of them and throughout the whole paper someone had wrote "The earth is flat" with a black felt marker.  Some other pages had different flat earth "Facts" that claimed there was no curvature when sailing on the ocean because the earth is obviously flat.

I laughed to myself thinking this was quite humorous, but then I thought "How naive do you have to be to believe in this claim?"

If you question whether the earth is flat and you think the world has fabricated up this diabolical plan to deceive us, have you ever stopped to ask why?  What possible reason would scientists and government officials around the world lie to everyone? There is absolutely nothing to gain from such a hoax. 

Lets go through some other facts:

There is a space station in space, at this very moment, shooting live footage of the planet earth, if you watch it you can see the earth turning and it is not flat.

If you look up at the sky, what do you see?  The moon, the sun, and you can see they are spherical, and if you had a telescope you could see the other planets in our solar system. What shape are those planets?  They are rotating balls spherical in shape.  I would hazard a guess that every single planet in the entire universe is a sphere, so what makes you think that out of every single planet and star in the entire universe that the earth is the only one that is flat.

Do people not have any common sense?  You can visually see for yourself if you simply look up at the night sky.  This is so absurd it's funny.  I really love how people believe a rapper (Bobby Ray Simmons jr)  over  NASA, or Neil Degrasse Tyson. 

Scott Goerz

Pride Parade

I don't have anything against gay, lesbian, bisexuals, black people, white people, Asian, or whatever race you may be or sexual orientation you are but what I don't understand is the celebration that you are what you are.

I understand certain parades, like Christmas for instance, lets celebrate the holiday season with a Canadian tradition, or Here in Edmonton Alberta, we have Klondike Days and a parade that proceeds it.

Why is there a gay parade? Are you only gay at that time of year or only gay once a year?  I'm confused by the reason of why gay people need a parade. My understanding is that only gay people can be in the parade, anyone can watch, but you have to be gay to be in the actual parade. African American people also have a parade to celebrate themselves which I don't understand either, is it for awareness of your ethnic back ground?  You don't see white/caucasian people having a parade just because they are white, we would be labeled as racists and how dare we have such an insulting event, which I agree with, it would be racist and insulting, so how come it's not for African Americans and LGTBQ people as an example.

We have parades to celebrate an event, a once a year holiday or attraction that people can start to look forward to. Not for saying hey look at me, look at me!

Once you start using something that you don't get to see very often for purposes other than that of it's intended nature, it becomes redundant.  In other words nobody is going to care about your special parade if we have one every other day.

Why is it that everybody needs have a label anyway? It doesn't matter if you are Heterosexual, African American, Asian, Indian,Caucasian, LGTBQ, or any race, or religion.  We are all living beings and nobody is better than anyone else. We are all Human Beings and the same.

Maybe we should have a Parade that celebrates life and every single person on the planet.

Scott Goerz

The Click

As we grow up we find friends that become best friends and then we find more friends that we usually hang out with in groups.  When we get even older and enter high school some of these friends might still be around but you may add a few more people to your group.  I call these (Clicks).

It's funny how your click becomes a sort of exclusive group and if you were to talk to someone in a different click they would be totally fine when talking one on one but when they get together with the rest of their click they become a completely different person.  Your click might ask you why you were talking to someone else and then chastise you because they think that person is a loser.

I found that this is where a lot of high school drama comes from, not from individual people but from inside different clicks.  Groups of guys or girls or both start vicious rumors, get in fights, vandalize things, and bully people that don't have their own click or of a weaker one.  Alone they are weak which is why they appear nicer, but together they are strong and and can become mean.

When I was in school we had basic clicks,  the headbanger click, the rich kid preppy click, the nerd click. Each style listened to their own types of music, wore a certain style of clothes, and drove a certain type of vehicle.  These clicks never got together and hung out with each other because they didn't "Click".  It made some of being in high school very difficult for others who weren't in a click.

You would think that this sort of thing would stop when you graduated, but it doesn't, it flows right into your workplace where you find a new click and carry on with all the drama from high school.  I think this is why you hear about some crazy person with a gun rampaging through their school or workplace.

 If you were one of these people who have been picked on your entire life, bullied, beat up, and made the brunt of every joke since you were a child, I think it might drive someone to eventually lose their mind and decide to kill every person they can.

Having a group of friends is totally fine and healthy but using that group to belittle someone else is not.  Bring a stranger in once and a while, if you are an influence in your group then use it for something positive.  Maybe the world would be a better place.

Scott Goerz

Whats Your Dream Superpower?

I have always dreamed of having a superpower, I always thought it would be very cool to be 20 times stronger than I am right now but look exactly the same.  This type of super power appealed to me for the longest time but lately I'm thinking there is a different super power I'd like more.(More on that later)

Ok, you get to pick only one superpower, what would it be?  How would you use it?  Why do you think that particular one is the best? 

When I was younger I thought it would be great to be invisible, that way I could sneak into women's change rooms (Don't judge me).  That soon changed when I was at a pool one day and accidentally walked into a female changing room and was forever scarred from the images that were burned into my brain, old wrinkly grannies, with boobs that hung to their knees after passing through the forest of grey hair that started at their navel.  Totally ruined my notion that the women's change room has only beautiful supermodels and cheerleaders in it.

 Imagine my dismay if I had been able to turn invisible and find that out only after I had received my superpower?  The only use that being able to turn invisible would be is that nobody would see me cry myself to sleep.

Being super strong doesn't really help either, sure it would be handy in a bar fight, or a car accident, but it wouldn't really help me out unless it was for a side show in the circus.  Being super strong isn't that great if someone can take you out with a bullet.

So then I thought how about being invulnerable? I could skydive without a parachute, survive an explosion, be a firefighter.  I could be a firefighter right now if I wanted, and I have no desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, what if I accidentally fell off a boat and into the ocean?  I could be stuck down there forever, not such a good super power.

So now my newest idea for the best super power is....(drumroll please).... Infinite knowledge.

If I knew how to do everything, I could make a cure for cancer, make us all immortal, make it possible for anyone to be super strong, invisible, invulnerable, telepathic, I could play some really good guitar and make all women supermodels and cheerleaders so nobody would have to go through the horrors and disappointment that I went through. (wink)  I guess I'd have to make all men handsome and athletes as well for you ladies. (Even though we all are already)

What's your dream superpower?
 Scott Goerz

My Artistic Process

I used to draw quite a bit when I was younger, as I got older my designs became more refined and my pictures started to look more professional.  I started to use computers and art specific programs to color and add lighting effects. The difference was profound.

 I had drawn some characters I was proud of and gave them back stories but I didn't want to have to redraw them on the art programs I was using so I decided to scan them.  The scanner got the pics but because the paper was old and faded it captured the color of the paper as well.

Here is a pic that I drew and scanned years later and started to clean.

 The amount of time this took was ridiculous, if I tried to flood fill it deleted the picture, so I had to painstakingly zoom in close and erase all the grey manually.

Here is that finally finished.

While still zoomed in I retraced all the lines so that they were solid black, there couldn't be any openings in the lined because once again if you flood fill and it found an opening the whole screen would be colored. It took many attempts to find every nook cranny with a hole but I finally got it colored.

I had never shaded anything before so played around with special effects and ambient lighting but I didn't like the results so I decided to keep it simple and played with just light and dark colors and I think I did quite well.

This was one of my first tries with the computer assisted art program, I think it was jasc paint shop pro 5?  I was never truly satisfied with the end product it always seemed like it was missing something, I tried numerous backgrounds but I never found something that worked, I finally gave up and settled on this:

Still not happy with this either so I started a different project.

This picture was so much worse than the last one because I had colored it first, removing the greys made me cross eyed after a while but I finally finished.

I got a little too excited and started to color it before I saved.

Here is the finished product.

I really dislike the the rendered background but I'm pretty happy with the overall look of this.

I did try to go out in the world and work for a comic company and I went to an animation school to learn how to animate, but in the end there was no one that appreciated my work as much as I did and I didn't get a job, it turns out that this will be a hobby, one that I think I may get back into.

Hope you guys enjoyed a little slice of my private collection.
Scott Goerz