Equality

We are full in the equality era, more and more women are being accepted into jobs that used to be predominantly male oriented. I don't think this is a bad thing, but I don't think we should go full out on both sexes being equal.  There should be some leeway in the form of how women are treated.

I don't ever want to get to the point where I meet up with a woman who is my friend, I then proceed to say "Hey buddy" and slap her hard on the back in a greeting.  On the same token, men and women are not equal when it comes to physical prowess, that is just the natural way both sexes are made. Sure there are exceptions to every rule and some women are stronger than men, but for the most part the majority of men are physically stronger than women.

If a man really gets into another mans face, and pushes his buttons, gets him all riled up, there is going to be some fists flying from both sides, is doesn't matter how big one man is compared to the other man, once they have crossed that line it's going to get into a boxing match.

I don't want this to be the way with women, as men, we have been taught throughout our whole adolescent lives that we do not hit women, no matter what, we walk away.  Yes this rule gets broken as well as there are some less than honorable men out there but for the most part this rule holds true with most men.

Let's go the other direction, Men are starting to act like women, and instead of listening to criticism and brushing it off their shoulders, they instead break down and cry.  Can you imagine if men broke down and cried every time they got stressed out? I'm not saying every woman does this either but it does happen.

It's my opinion that men and women are equal already, but they are equal differently, with both sides being better in different areas than their opposites.  Women usually have a thing for the little details, the fine tuning and the look of things, they are more empathetic, have more patience, and they bring a new perspective to men when dealing with them.   Men are the trees, they protect, shelter. Women are the flowers giving generously so that every other life form can survive because of them.  With their pollen the world wouldn't survive.

Equality should be enforced when a type of work is involved, if two people of the opposite sex are working the same job they should both be paid the same.  Opinions of the opposite sexes should also be taken equally.

As far as I am concerned, both sexes are already equal.

Scott Goerz

Coffee

I have been drinking coffee since I was about 14, and I have to say when I first tried it I didn't like it very much, it had to have a lot of cream and sugar to hide the "Taste" of it.  I drank it like that afterwards for another 20 years.

When Tim Hortons first came into mainstream and a new one was being built just about every other day I have to wonder if I didn't help make that happen, I had a coffee there sometimes five times a day, and usually something to eat as well.

Everyone says that coffee is addictive, but I'm not so sure, It's kind of like saying candy is addictive, it isn't, of course, and neither is coffee. I know the difference between addicted to something and wanting or craving something.  I smoke, and if I go a few hours without one I start to get cranky, if it goes on longer than that, it is the only thing I can think about until I get one.  I crave a coffee sometimes, but that feeling comes and goes throughout the day and I'm only disappointed if I don't get one, I can wait until the next day to have one. 

There is something about starting your day with a fresh cup of java, it sets you in a good mood right off the bat, I know there have been days when I didn't have time for a coffee and my days has felt "Off" and not quite normal. If you have a routine that you follow everyday, even if it doesn't involve coffee, and one day that routine gets broken, you will feel off as well.

At some point about a year ago it dawned on me the fact of how much sugar I actually put into my coffee, and doing that a few times a day it really added up.  So I made a life altering decision to drink my coffee black, after drinking a double double for 35 years.

 At first, it was not good, it was bitter, and tasted terrible but I did it anyway, day after day I forced myself to drink this black yuck, eventually there came a time when I didn't even notice it anymore and I found myself enjoying it, I was surprised when then day came where I found it to be delicious again.

Before I switched to black I was a regular, 190-195 lbs man, after cutting out the cream and sugar from my coffee I maintain a steady 180-185 lbs, pretty good trade off in my opinion.
 
I love coffee and I will probably continue to drink it until I die, sometimes I treat myself to a double double, but for the most part and at home its always better black.

Scott Goerz

Movies Need Continuity

Who doesn't love a good movie? But what makes a good movie? Is it the action, the special effects, the great explosions, the heart wrenching story, the scares, the laughter, the awe inspiring locations, the great characters, or all of the above?  Of course all those things matter but there is one key factor that I have to have for it to be a great movie.

Continuity,  A great movie has to flow perfectly from one scene to the next in way that makes perfect sense in the world that it portrays, It has to be of logical design and in a way the watcher can understand and relate to.

If you have a serious movie, or a movie that takes itself seriously, The Terminator, for example, that movie is set in a fictional possible future and has to continue in that way throughout the movie, the terminator would suddenly be a terrible movie if the assassin robot suddenly decided to have sex with a motorbike, that would be stupid and would not make any sense, it would lose its continuity and lose it's serious nature, it would disconnect from the watcher.

It would be the same way for a comedy like Meet the Fockers,  that movie is set in a humorous environment and continues that way through out the show. If the main character got upset, and decided to shoot everyone in a department store with blood and gore, that would also disconnect the watcher from the movie, and it would lose its continuity.

It doesn't matter what movie it is, it has to make sense as well, you can't have a couple who are fighting and break up and then in the next scene have them kissing without knowing how they got back together. You can't have people hiding out in a city and in the next scene have them eating breakfast in the desert. There has to be a reason or way as to how they transitioned from one scene to the next, it has to make sense and have a logical reason behind it, even in a science fiction world where the technology is unknown.

Too many movies these days focus on the special effects to wow their views, they rely on the explosions, the huge monster, the blood and guts, or the scary demon that lives in the basement, half of these movies are terrible and make no sense, and I find myself wondering how did this scene happen?  In Aquaman the hero can swim like a bullet underwater, as fast as Superman can fly in the sky, yet later on in the movie, he is riding a shark with a saddle, my only guess is that the director thought it looked cool, because other than that it makes no sense whatsoever.

It amazes me that these movies cost millions of dollars to make but lack the fundamentals to make them fantastic. A pretty look is only on the surface, what lies beneath it is what will determine if it's ugly or beautiful. 

Scott Goerz

Our Life Decisions

I keep hearing the phrase "Plan for your future" and this phrase is usually coupled with stock options, retirement funds, TFSA accounts, social securities, and so on, and before all of these examples there was what to be when you grew up, what schooling were you going to take, were you saving money for post secondary education, could you be accepted for a school loan?

I myself have a hard enough time simply trying to survive instead of worrying about what to be and how to go about it. What does an average 15 year old teenager worry about?  Boys are interested in girls and girls are interested in boys and transgendered are worried about all of the above. They are worried about the clothes they wear and their social status in their little community of peers.

Very few teens give two figs about their long term future, as most of them are being taken care of by their parents and do not need to support themselves, they are much more interested in their immediate future and cannot think that far ahead.

But that's not to say that we shouldn't still give them options and ideas,  and showing them something that they have never seen before might inspire them to strive towards it. If they are never shown anything new then how would they ever know anything about it?

The same goes for us adults, with the exception that we have heard rumblings of certain accounts and ways to save money, there are advertisements on tv and castings on the radio, but after a while it becomes a droning noise that we block out because we hear it so often and the reality of it being an option seems a long way off.

If someone you know is excited that they have some sort of plan for their future that they have put into place, its only then that you start to listen again and really hear what they are saying, it no longer is like listening to an ad, and becomes a fact of life and a possible reality. 

Sometimes we need that real life snap into reality, a close friend or acquaintance is on a good path and it inspires us to join them. Some times we need a little nudge in the right direction with Our Life Decisions.

Scott Goerz

Something About Music

I love those days when you are feeling great, everything just clicks into place and you are stress free. You hop in your car to head out somewhere, maybe to meet a friend, or see your parents, or shopping, as you drive you turn on the radio and a really good song comes on and you sing along with it tapping your fingers on the steering wheel to the beat as you go.

There is something about music that relates directly to your soul, you feel it deep in your bones, the lyrics are hauntingly deep and can be interpreted differently by each person. It coaxes you to start moving your body, either by tapping your foot or straight up dancing in reckless abandon.

It really is fascinating if you think about it, even a song in a different language can make you move your body or sing along. I remember when Du Hast came out, it was in a German language and completely foreign to me, but I still sang along with it even though I had no idea what the artist was saying.

There is something primal about the beats of song, a steady boom, boom, boom, boom, rhythm throughout the song goes all the way back when natives stretched an animal hide over a bowl and danced around a fire to the steady beat of the drum. To this day that beat is universal and every human being feels it in their bones when they hear it.

When you are sad, some songs hit you very hard as well, and we tend to relate certain music to our situation. Our depression is slightly lifted when we realized that, through music, someone else has experienced our sorrow, and that we are not alone. I have cried as I sang through some deeply moving songs when I was feeling particularly sad.

Sometimes music has the effect of making you stronger, and after listening to it you feel more determined and confident. Music is so powerful that it can actually change who we are without forcing itself upon us, it simply flows through us like magic.  It can make you feel differently about someone just from listening to them play, listening to a recording and watching someone live is an eye opening experience.

There is Something amazing About Music.

Scott Goerz

Internet Cookies

I am really beginning to hate these internet cookies,  more and more often, as I browse internet web pages, pop-ups of website cookies asking permission to be installed on my computer, phone, tablet and it is becoming extremely annoying.

So what are cookies, and why would I want them in the first place?   There is more than one kind of cookie, and just like a real life cookie, some you want to have, and there are some you don't.

First, the good types of cookie that is present on most devices:

Session Cookies: only exist in temporary memory and are deleted when you close the browser. Any cookie created without an expiration date is automatically a session cookie. A common uses for session cookies include remembering what’s in your shopping cart on an e-commerce site

 Persistent cookies: are written onto your device’s memory and come with an expiration date. They are only used by the website that created them, and can last however long the website dictates. They remain on your device even after you close your web browser. Your web browser uses first-party persistent cookies for many personal sites, like remembering that you’re signed in so you don’t need to log in every time you visit the same site.

Now the bad types of cookies (Who likes raisins anyway?):
 

Third-party persistent cookies: also known as tracking cookies, like the first-party session cookies, they are stored in your device’s memory and have a set expiration date. Unlike the session variety, however, third-party persistent cookies are accessed on websites that didn’t create them.
This allows the cookie’s creator to collect and receive data any time the user visits a page with a resource belonging to them.

 Some of the most common resources that use tracking cookies include:

• Advertisements
•  Social media widgets, (share buttons, comments section)
• Web Analyzers 

 And the some of the biggest name companies that use these are:

• Facebook
• Google
• Twitter

So there is some basic information for all of us out there, I even learned new stuff in my research. But the real problem about all these E'ffing cookies is that you don't know which one's are going to be installed on your computer, it is not stated clearly, and if you were to find out you would probably have to read the "Terms and agreements" for each cookie downloaded on your computer.(That is if you could understand the terms in the first place.)

I don't have the patience for all that. What I do instead is close the page, find a different one without the cookies demanding to be allowed to be installed on my device. Or I simply hit the X button and don't agree to anything,  there are literally billions of pages out there, and I'm sure I can find my information elsewhere.

Scott Goerz

Seminar Scandal

Sometimes we need to learn new skills, but don't have the time, energy, or money to go back to school. We could try to learn from online courses, or from watching videos but that only goes so far as well. We could also try to learn from someone else, another person that we know for instance, but then you only know what they tell you and you are not sure if they really know whats going on or they can't explain it properly.

Then we have seminars, this seems like a great idea right?  You can sign up for a day or a weekend seminar, pay a low fee and then you can start learning or get an idea of how to start something. 

There are seminars for everything, real estate, house flipping, poker tips, gambling strategies, stock market utilization, public speaking, start your own business, tax tips, time share utilization, and thousands more. Most of the time, all of these seminars revolve upon making your self more money by using loop holes in the system that nobody knows about, and if you follow their ten easy steps to the letter, you will be a millionaire within a year.

The real scandal here is how they convince you that their technique works, "Jodi Smith from Vancouver used my technique and is a millionaire living in the Bahamas!" As they show you a picture of a blond woman with a big smile on her face, holding a Margarita.  Maybe they show you a video of her too.  The lure is cast and you are hooked, and when you leave the seminar you are excited and happy to be able to go out and make your millions. Sadly this is never the case.

Why do I say it's a scandal?  How would I know that it is?

The Proof is sitting right in front of you, The seminar itself.  If this seminar is so fool proof and you can be rich beyond your wildest dreams, then why isn't the person selling you the idea doing it themselves?  They might say they are, but why charge you money for their seminar when they are rich beyond belief?  If they have flipped over a thousand houses and made millions, why are they travelling around the country doing seminars?  Seems counter productive to me, when instead they could still be flipping houses.

Any seminar that deals with making more money easily and cheaply is a scandal and a complete lie.  But if you want to spend your money foolishly, then who am I to stop you?

Scott Goerz

Dating Scene Disaster

Imagine you met your high school sweetheart when you were 16 years old, and from there the two of you were inseparable, you did everything together and your love for each other blossomed well into adulthood. You got married soon after you both graduated, got careers together, and decided to have children.

20 years later the love has diminished and you argue with each other all the time, the only reason you can think of why you should be together is because it has been such a long time already, and the concept of being single terrifies you. Yet, soon enough, it happens, the fight that ends all fights splits your relationship apart forever. And suddenly, just like that, you are single.

This is a completely new experience to you, you have never really had to try and date anyone before, you were only sixteen when you first had a real partner, and you both kind of fell into  each other without hardly trying, you have no experience dealing with the opposite sex and have no idea how to play the dating game. It is a game, and a damn painful one if you are not careful.

There are predators out there of the opposite sex, and they have been playing the dating game their whole lives, they have never been in a serious relationship and jump from person to person, never having to commit and leaving when ever someone better comes along. These people are expert daters, and they mainly look for sex.  They know exactly how to flirt, act, respond, show or feint interest.

Being newly single you might think that heading to a local singles bar or event would be a good way to dip your toes into the proverbial water that is the singles bar. You might be much older now, but you have the dating mentality of less than a fifteen year old. Being in that bar would be like being a baby deer in den full of lions, you haven't got a chance and you will be torn apart like toilet paper at a chili convention.

It doesn't matter how much good intention you have, or your thoughts on the goodness of people, you don't have the mental capacity to spar with masters of a craft. The mind games that others will play on you without you even knowing that its happening are crippling when you learn the truth of things, Dating sites on the internet will play the same mental breakdown of your soul but at least there you don't have to worry about someone physically taking advantage of you.

You need to avoid the dating scene disaster.  The way to do that is not to rush into something because you are lonely, you need to have patience. If someone likes you enough they will wait along with you, and not chase after someone else when they find out they don't have your immediate attention.  Serial daters do not wait around, there are conquests to be had, and they can always come back to you.

Focus on what you want, and not a person who is only acceptable. Do not divulge important information about yourself, your life story, your pity for yourself, Nobody new wants to hear that at first, even if they ask for it.  Be vague, change the subject, make sure look and act positive and happy.

  You do have control over your situation, make sure that the other person knows that you are in full control, and cannot be manipulated or tricked, and for that you need to stand your ground and hold onto your ideals and morals.  A very attractive person of the opposite sex can make you throw all caution to the wind and jump in head first.

It's your dating scene, so its up to you to decide if it becomes a disaster or not.

Scott Goerz

Sleeping Stutter

When I was in the prime of my youth, I could sleep anywhere and at anytime. When I was in my childhood years I used to go out with my father into the fields riding in an open cab bulldozer, it had a hard bench seat and was loud as hell. Hours of pushing dirt and making brush piles I found that I could fall asleep to the noise.

Enter into my 20's, I worked at a gas station on night shift, and on particularly slow nights I could fall asleep but wake up to the slightest sound if a customer drove up. I didn't care for that job and I got a new job removing trees, it was long hours and no time for a quick nap on most days, every once and a while we would have to travel long distances to get to our site and it was then that I could pass out for a few minutes.

Later in my late 20's to early 30's I worked pipeline, here was a job that when you worked, you worked hard but you also had a lot of time waiting for clearances so that you could work, it was then that we all could close our eyes for a while, in a dirty stinky truck with four other guys who all snored like fattened pigs. Somehow we all managed to pass out despite this fact.

It was around this time that I started up my own tree removal business, and I bought an old tree truck with no room and a bench seat, on my breaks I would nod off for ten to fifteen minutes at a time and then get back to work, most of the time I wouldn't nap at all but instead just relax.

Mid thirties to early forties, I have a wife and three dogs, and there is absolutely no way for me to fall asleep at night with the dogs snoring, panting, and licking. They lay on the bed with us, my wife loves having them sleep there, so I deal with it, I like them up there as well but the noises these three little animals make is astounding.

I have been able to sleep with four other grown men in a truck all snoring like mad but I cannot sleep with three little dogs that lick excessively and snore like crazy?  I have resorted to using a fan that goes on every single night and it drowns out some of the noises, so I can at least get a nights rest. Naps are infrequent and barely happen nowadays, So I rely on my evenings for my recharge until morning, and I'm worried that if my little fan breaks down, I'm going to be in trouble.

It's interesting how life works, and the little nuances that happen, I never thought this type thing would ever be an issue, but, life goes on and you figure out a way to keep up with it.

Scott Goerz

Engl-ish?

The phrase lost in translation is clearly abundant in these odd ads designed to appeal to English speaking people from non English speaking ones.

This happens?

 MMMM..... Balls

A ton of Crap

 Where can I dumb? 

 Gonna need a stronger toilet

 Ok, where and how much?

 Umm Suuuure.

 If you pull it, it will surface

 Spit is always better fried

 This one is self explanatory

I'm supposed to use a wet one?

Enjoy your day!

Scott Goerz

The Joy Of Complaining

Why the hell do I hit every red light when I'm driving around?  They should be timed so you at least hit a few greens in a row. Why are there so many empty handicapped stalls when I go shopping? Why does my cell have service over here but three feet away it has none? Why does the shower nozzle get clogged?   Why, why, why and how come.  Everyone complains about something.

We view complaining as a type of negativity, and if you happen to be around someone that does it constantly, you might find that person seems very negative and not fun to be around.  Complaining does not always have to be about negativity, some of us see problems in this world that other people don't even notice.

Some people don't care, and in the case of ignorance is bliss, these people are very care free and generally in a good mood, they also don't tend to argue much or stand up for themselves, because they just don't see the point to it.

On the other side of the spectrum, the people who complain, in the case of Misery loves company, these types of people love to debate issues that are plaguing them with others of the same mind, they will stand their ground and argue excessively to get their point across, but will listen to strong grounded reasoning if its presented.

I myself am a complainer, I don't know why or how I became one but it is a fact I am very aware of, on rare occasions I do know how to keep my mouth shut when its appropriate.

You might think that complaining has no use and lives within miserable and grumpy humans, but I assure you this is not the case.  When we complain about something it means there is something wrong with the situation or the object being discussed, which becomes an opportunity to remedy the situation or repair the object.

If nobody complained about anything, we would all still be living in the stone ages because nothing would be made better or upgraded, it hurt us to walk on the ground barefoot, so we made things to protect our feet for example. Complaining also relieves stress, and can be useful in a relationship provided it's not done constantly, it allows your partner to be aware of your discomfort in certain situations. We adapt to the situation and move on or move out depending on the severity of the issue.

I look for problems when working on something, and I will be constantly complaining the whole time, but I will be enjoying myself as well because it allows me to see a problem, think about it, and possibly come up with a solution or a workaround to finish the task.  Sometimes I also complain about something because it happens to be a funny reality no one else has noticed, and everyone involved gets to have a good laugh.

There is a certain joy, when it comes to complaining.

Scott Goerz

And The Blame Goes To...

After many years of driving there have been times when you'll notice another driver swerving in front of you, and I used to say something like: "They must be drunk" and if the swerving were to get too bad I would call the police and report them before somebody got killed.

Other causes for someone to swerve could be that they are eating, or I would blame it on a woman doing her makeup in the car, or a smoker who dropped his cigarette and was scrambling to find it.  I have also been prone to blame an ethnic race, or the elderly,  or the two combined, claiming that the bad driver must be an old Chinese lady who has her husband telling her how to hold the steering wheel.

The blame that I used to put out on other people was cleverly abusive but was only used while I was in my vehicle, I think that you are totally allowed to be as mean as you want to be, or racist or whatever you want, as long as you keep it to yourself, and no one hears those terrible thoughts come out of your mouth ever.

Swearing my head off and yelling at another driver is totally ok as long as it stays in the confines of my vehicle. I don't roll the window down so others can hear my lunatic ravings, that privilege is solely for my seats and upholstery, only they will ever know how crazy I am.

The blame has now been shifted from drunk and bad drivers, and it's like it has been forever since I have ranted about any elderly or ethnic group. The blame is now 100 percent on cell phone users. 

That guy must be texting, oh look a car in the ditch, they must have been playing on their phone, there are no bad roads or icy conditions, there is no more fog or snow storms, because in my mind, every accident, every slow driver, every bad driver, is related somehow to cell phone use while driving.

Scott Goerz

Kicking Ourselves Out

I grew up in a generation of having to phone a company to talk to a person in order to get what I want, or if I needed information on something. If I wanted a phone line installed or a gas hookup, I had to call these companies and talk to a real life person.  Here we are in 2019 and for the majority of these types of services we have to deal with them with an online presence.

I hated and still despise using the internet to apply for a service that I need for my business or for personal use.  I still call companies because for the most part, I don't want to have to sift through pages and pages of text to find the information I am looking for, I want answers sooner than later, and I used to be able to get those answers by talking to a person in the know.

Here is the problem in this day and age: If you wanted to get information on your cell phone service by calling the company directly, be prepared to wait up to at least an hour before you even get to talk to someone. Problem 2:  When you finally do get to talk to an actual person, their accent is so terrible that you can barely understand them, and they also have a very hard time understanding you as well.

Problem 3: The person you are talking to might be able to speak the language fluently, but does not know his or her job very well, and after 20 minutes of trying to explain to them what you are looking for they decide to transfer you to another person, then you have to confirm your identity and explain your problem all over again.  This endless loop could go on forever until you get fed up and quit.

I keep hearing about robots taking our jobs, and people are scared that this could be a reality sooner than later. Here is what I say to that, If you have a job but are too lazy to learn what you are supposed to do or only do the bare minimum then you deserve to lose your job, you are not good at it and you cannot help people, why should you get paid for that?  If an artificial intelligent robot can do the job that you can barely do, and do it to a customers satisfaction then I am all for it.

This isn't only when talking to someone on the phone, this is in person, face to face in a department store. Home depot is terrible for this, people there have no idea what is going on or where things are. They walk around aimlessly and are nowhere to be seen when you need help. If by chance you do happen upon someone, they go about doing exactly what you would have done if they hadn't helped you, they walk up and down the aisles looking through shelves, which is what you have been doing before you asked for help.

Most of the large chain stores have this issue, there are a few that have good service, Costco gets a shout out here.

I find that most of the millennial generation have this problem, they don't know how to work, and couldn't care less. They have no pride in their jobs they do the bare minimum and wonder why they don't get raises.  I'm sure companies are starting to see this trend, and if you could put multiple robotic kiosks that also do the bare minimum throughout the store, they could remove the staff and not have to pay wages and benefits, the only thing they would have to pay for is electricity to ruin the devices.

In effect, humanity is kicking themselves out of their own jobs by sheer laziness and carefree attitudes,  we are entering a world where talking to another human for anything business related is becoming less frequent. 

I'm done ranting for today.

Scott Goerz

Sterilization

There are some people who should have children, and then there others that should not have them. It's sad that the only way we are to determine who is and isn't a good parent is by catching the bad parents in the act of their atrocities.

Take for example a mother who decided to break both of her two year old child's ankles so that it couldn't walk, and the grandparents of said child had to take the baby to the hospital to find out that the child's ankles were most likely broken on purpose. It's in my opinion that this parent should have her child taken from her, and she be "Sterilized" to no longer be able to have children again.

Another older story that had hit the news a few months back were the two mothers that were room mates, decided that they needed at night out at the bar and hired a babysitter for the evening. They told the babysitter not to go downstairs while she was watching the kids she had been paid to sit.  The babysitter heard a noise downstairs and decided to investigate, she found a door barricaded and after managing to get into the room she found two kids chained up and malnourished trapped inside.  She called the police and the two mothers were charged. This is another case of parents needing sterilization.

Being an adult who cannot have children of my own and having to hear stories of this nature, makes me incredibly upset. All stories of a parents neglect impact me hard, and they don't even have to be as extreme as the ones listed above.

Some people don't seem to respect the gift of life, and see it as a burden, but there are thousands if not millions of people out there that would love to raise a child and give them good homes. If your child is that much of a burden to you that you would try to harm it's life rather than give it up to a family that would love it and raise it as if it were their own then, this type of person needs to sterilized, and not ever be able to have children again.

In my opinion.

Scott Goerz

Some Controversy "Death Sentence"

A couple days ago I wrote a blog on prisons and punishment for the criminal element in our country. In my blog "death sentence" I contemplated the act of capital punishment and other forms of punishment in other countries.  The feedback I got back was insightful with a few groups agreeing that harsher punishments do not deter criminals.

What these people agree on is that programs that focus on prevention and education to those at most risk, people in poverty, social inequality, and family structure,(A nod to my buddy Jason and my sister Kim) will curb communities in these areas so they do not enter into a life of crime.

This may well be the case, but if it is, then why isn't it happening?  Why do we still have a strong criminal element that evolves with every new generation?  This also doesn't solve the issue we have with our current career criminals. The ones that are already grown up to adult status and don't give one whit for our laws.

There are people out there that use the criminal justice system to their advantage, they enjoy their summer months, but when it gets cold they perform a small crime that will net them a few months in jail for the winter. They will get hot meals and warm beds, and then get let out for the summer.  I thought this claim was utter "horsesh*t" when someone mentioned it to me but after reading multiple articles on the subject I am slowly starting to become a believer.

What does this tell me? That are prisons are too lenient, and at the very least prisoners should be put to work to hard labor that nobody else wants to do. I have also read that when a "Bad" person goes into a maximum security prison they usually come out worse than when they entered. I know there are programs and help groups in some prisons but you can't teach someone something if they don't want to learn.

Programs for the impoverished may well help if they get to people at a young age and stops them before they start. The reality of the situation is that not all communities partake in the program, and after a message becomes repetitive to the point of annoying, nobody will pay it any attention when they hear it.

I think we need a deterrent for all age groups,  I have no idea what that might be, but I do know that the programs we have in place right now need to be updated.

Scott Goerz

More Scams

My blog the other day "Is It Mine" got me to thinking about this topic for today's blog. The hidden way we are charged the same amount for a product that should be cheaper due to manufacturing costs, shipping and exporting fees that the big businesses no longer have to factor into their costs.

I'm a gamer, I have been my whole life.  The way it used to be was, if you wanted a video game, you had to go to the store and buy it. Now, thanks to huge storage capacities in the form of portable hard drives and USB sticks, you can simply download the game without the need to leave the comfort of your home.

When you did purchase a game from a store, it came with a plastic shrink wrap over a hard cover that protected what was inside, the cover had colorful artwork on the front and a description of the type of game on the back.  Inside the case you used to get a manual with the controls and how to play the game and sometimes a map or some sort of ad showing you other games by the same developer.  There was a cost to manufacture all these items, along with distribution fees, handling, export and so on.

Now when you download a game onto a hard drive, all those costs have been bypassed but we pay the same premium price for the product, plus we also miss out on the manual that was included in the purchase, there is usually a way to download the manual, but you have to find it, and print it yourself if you want to have something on hand. 

These companies are saving millions of dollars by having a digital download of their product, but they still charge us the same price as if we have purchased a physical copy, the price should be a lot cheaper when you buy digital.

Gaming isn't the only area where this is happening, think about all the music you download, the videos, the laptop and computer programs, online books, even the bills you pay. These companies are saving billions by eliminating the paper copy of anything while still charging you the same price as if you were.

Sneaky underhanded way to stick it to the consumer.  It's sad to say but there will always be...More Scams.

Scott Goerz

Death Sentence

Capital punishment used be the way we dealt with our criminals, Canada became fully abolished in 1976, which is when politicians finally took it off our laws.  Maybe it was for the better, but it seems to me that the facility in which we basically "Ground" adults for years at a time on tax payer dollars need a more severe punishment.

Bringing back the death penalty would be one way to do it, it could be an incentive to deter criminal activity. The only problem I have with the death penalty is if someone is charged, put to death, and later they find out that the person they murdered was innocent. Which has happened in some other countries.  Let me ask this: If you murder someone, even if it is a complete mistake is it still murder?  Yes.  So how come nobody is charged after they kill a person and find out later that they were innocent?

With DNA testing and new forensic evidence that is used now, it's harder to make mistakes and there is more conclusive confirmation that they have the right person, but mistakes still happen.  The whole reason we have laws in the first place is so the general public doesn't make false claims and accuse someone of murder based on speculation instead of fact.

At any rate we need a harsher punishment system put into place,  If you are caught stealing in Saudi Arabia they cut your hand off at the wrist, if you commit and even larger crime of theft they cut your hand and left foot off which they call cross amputation.  In Malaysia, they cane people who over-stay on their 90 day tourist visa.  Officials use a thick rattan cane, four feet long and half an inch in diameter, soaked in water. Whipping is still used in some countries, as well as stoning.

As nasty as these punishments are, I wonder what the crime is like in these countries?  What would they do to someone who cut off another persons head on a bus in front of other passengers?  Say he is disturbed and needs medication and psychological help?  What would they do to someone who walked into a factory and shot all the workers? Put them in a cell, feed them three times a day, give medical care, and take care of them for 40 years?  What would they do to a rapist or a pedophile? The same thing as the shooter but for less time?

I don't think we need to go to the same extremes as those other countries, but we do need some sort of harsher punishment.  Criminals here have almost nothing to worry about, not even a Death Sentence.

Scott Goerz

Is It Mine?

When I go out and do some shopping, I take make my time and evaluate if I really need a product or not, when I do finally make up my mind, I spend my money and take my newly purchased product home. It is physically mine and I can use it whenever I like. This changes when you buy online products.

Lets say you buy some virus protection for your laptop, because every computer techie will tell you that you need it to protect your computer, so you pick a program, buy it, and download it onto your computer. You just spent real earth dollars on something you can't physically touch. You know it's there because you can see it on your screen, but you can't go into the program and remove the code to stop the advertising to upgrade your product, most normal people can't if someone wants to argue the point.

How about a video game? You buy that online, download it to your console using real money, but have no physical product, you can play the game at your leisure. What happens when a game is online only?  I bought Destiny when it first came out, it is an online only game, meaning that if I had lost internet connection I would not be able to play it at all. Online only games now have moderators that can actually ban you from playing if you are abusing the system or even from swearing online.

My real question is: Do we actually own anything when we purchase it and only have a digital copy? 

From virus protection to video games, accounting programs to computer repair, anything we buy online is not actually ours, we have no say to what happens with the program when it expires. We can't sell it to anyone else or give it away, we can't lend it out either and we only have it for a limited time until it need to be updated to continue working properly, which of course is when the company or owner of the program wants more money. They can force you to upgrade by designing new content not to work with the old one, forcing you to upgrade even if you didn't want to.

I may have researched a product and decided to finally purchase it, but in no way Is It Mine.

Scott Goerz

Manliness, One Liners

You're a single guy, you are out in a public space that has a large crowd, like a concert or a bar, and you are not a bad looking man, maybe a little rough around the edges, but decent looking nonetheless. You notice an attractive woman that also appears to be by herself and are contemplating what you could possibly say to get her attention and keep it.

You decide that "Google" will help you in this situation, and type in "one liners to pick up chicks", and find one that you think is clever.  It doesn't matter which one you pick because they are all cheesy, some are pretty funny but in the end they all have fatal flaws that you don't know about and nobody has mentioned before.

A: First of all, a very attractive girl is used to being hit on all the time, and has got a good rebuttal for almost any one liner and is sick and tired of hearing them. 

B: After you have let loose your very impressive one liner that you didn't think up yourself, you leave yourself wide open if by chance it works on her. Now you have her attention but have no follow up or any idea what to talk about.

If you really want to strike up a conversation with a pretty lady, or anyone for that matter what really helps is to find some common ground, and this works for guys and gals.  Common ground means something you both have in common.

How do you know if a stranger has something in common with you?  First of all, look around, where are you? A concert? A bar? A shopping mall? Facebook? Online, what site?  If you are at a location then you are there for a reason, and so is the person you are attracted to.  A mall means shopping,hanging with friends, a bar or concert means music,dancing,drinking, Online means anonymity. You instantly have these things in common with a total stranger and therefore can use it to strike up a conversation that you both can relate to.

Leave the one liners for the second conversation you have, and then they will probably work every time.

Scott Goerz

Our Evolution

I'm getting really tired of hearing the speculation of where humankind came from, for years now, I'm sure that we have all heard that we are descendants of monkeys.  The flaw with this statement is that are currently monkeys living among right now, If we are an evolution of monkeys then why did they not evolve as we did? 

No, we are not descendants of monkeys, monkeys are their own species and type of animal that flourishes on this planet, just like we do.  So if we are not descendants of monkeys where did we actually come and evolve from? I think the answer is so obvious that it's painful to think that scientists from around the world agreed that monkeys was the most realistic conclusion.

It's obvious to me that we came from cavemen, the neanderthal man and evolved henceforth. Where did the cavemen come from then? From an obvious biological source that the rest of the animals on this planet came from as well!  The human race has always evolved from the human race, we started out like an animal but learned to become what we are today.

We are also a diverse species, just like a monkey. There are many different kinds of monkeys no?  All of them a bit different than the others but somewhat the same. People are the same, we have multiple different races, we are different sizes, we have midgets and pygmies, Giants and geniuses. We are all different but share the similarities of all human beings on earth.

Saying that we evolved from monkeys is like saying sharks evolved from dolphins. Just because they have similar qualities does not make them part of the same tree.  Sharks eat meat, so do dolphins, sharks have a dorsal fin, side fins, and a tail, so do dolphins,  both species live in the ocean. They must be descendants of each other.  No, I think not. 

This seems like the lazy way to appeal to the masses and put an answer to any questions about evolution on our planet.  Life has flourished on this planet, and each species is diverse in its own way, if you really wanted to get lazy you could say that we all came from the same source, which would be true but very vague as well.

This is my opinion on Our Evolution.

Scott Goerz

Gossip News

The News: an excellent way for us to hear what is going on in our city and around the world for a few minutes a day.  This is what I like, the facts, let me know what is going on , in a matter of fact way: "A man shot three people on this street and that ave, and then the suspect fled on foot, and the police are currently searching for him."

What I absolutely hate: "A man who could be part of a gang shot three other men in a possible hate crime assault, the attack happened on this street and that ave and the suspect fled on foot, and the police are currently searching for him."

When the media speculates for us we don't get to form our own opinion, and worse than that, we now have an incorrect idea of what has precisely happened, and people don't hear the words"Could Be" or "Possible" .

Now you have people retelling the story of a gang member shooting three other people because of their ethnicity. Which is not what has happened at all. The comments made by the news casters was pure speculation on their behalf, and what is known without a doubt is that a man shot three people, ran away and hasn't been caught.

This happens in our news because the reporters want to make the story interesting so that the listener pays more attention, and their ratings go up.  If you have ever listened to a news report from the USA they really embellish make up completely false statements all the time, in order to draw the viewers, attention.

Do you know what speculative news is? There is a word for it, Gossip. There is enough gossip in this world that I have absolutely no need for, I only want the facts and not some speculative opinion that turns into useless Gossip News.

Scott Goerz

Gender Teachings

I enjoy surfing the net and finding interesting articles that tickle the mind.  This one in particular I found interesting.  Children were being tested using a VR headset to teach them how to do things and certain tasks. While the test was being performed the scientists started to notice an odd trend.

 If they used a Male character, like a robot or a lion avatar to teach the boys in the class, they found that the boys learned better and paid more attention to the lesson. If they had a female avatar like a pink unicorn or a talking purse their attention and focus was a lot less. The female children had the exact same experience, obviously completely opposite from the boys and learned better from a female avatar.

Then of course the scientists came to the conclusion that girls learn better from women, and boy learn better from men.  This was basically the end of the article but not from my train of thought.

While it may be true that boys and girls learn better from the same gender, I do think that it's still very important to learn from both genders.  Women and men both have completely different thinking patterns and different ways to interpret the same situation.

  While looking at a car accident photograph, a male might notice that the cars involved were muscle cars of a certain year and is saddened by the destruction of them, a woman on the other hand might be concerned about the people involved in the collision, and she is worried about their safety and hopes that no one is hurt.

Neither one of these opinions is wrong, both of them are valid observations, the male can appreciate the craftsmanship and rarity of a historic automobile and knows of the work that goes into building one. The female feels for other people and can sense the pain from the people involved in it.

Learning from both genders is invaluable to all children and if they are raised by only one gender then those children are not getting the full development other children have when being raised by both genders of parents.

Scott Goerz

Desensitization

With just about everyone online these days the amount of access we have to media sources is next to infinite, from watching war documentaries to pornographic movies the media we are watching is starting to make a huge impact on how we view the world.  I'm not sure if going to benefit us or be a detriment on our future.

One example of how it could benefit us is help videos, if you have a problem with your vehicle, you can simply research up the problem and watch a video on how to fix it if you had to.  If you were struggling on what to make for supper there are multiple recipes and how to forums to give you ideas on anything you could dream of and more. Even health and medicine could possibly help you understand if you have a common cold or a much larger problem that involves you visiting the hospital. 

On the detrimental side of things, where it is not a benefit to us, is something where you would watch a particularly horrific event, like someone getting shot or having their head blown off, stabbings, mutilations, or even just common accidents that happen to everyone that is caught on camera.  I have seen a tremendous amount of fail videos, where people are falling off bikes and skateboards, they do stupid things that harm themselves and it's caught on camera. 

After a few hundred of these videos over the years I am bored while watching them now, I have seen too much of it and it no longer affects me like it once did, I have desensitized myself from feeling empathy for anyone that hurts themselves. I imagine the same thing could be said about anyone that watches too much blood and gore type videos, after a while it would no longer shock and awe you and it would be as common as watching a bird fly overhead.

I am concerned where this is leading humanity, we have full access to any type of media if we know where to look, there are no filters, age limits, or control measures to inhibit our view of the world.  This could lead to someone shooting someone else and not feeling any remorse because they have been desensitized, but it could also lead to some of the most incredible breakthroughs in science and technology, simply by giving someone an idea to expand upon.

We fear that which we do not know or understand, but by having access to infinite amounts of information shared by people all over the world, gives us insights we might not have had otherwise. By watching blood and guts in your youth might make you a much better surgeon in the future, or a better murderer.  The fine line is there, and we don't know when we have had too much Desensitization.

Scott Goerz

Steroid Olympics

I was reading today that an Olympic athlete had a medal stripped from them because they found steroids in their system.  This seems like an ongoing problem that never ceases to end. In every Olympic event the contestants all have to go through testing to make sure that they don't have an advantage over anyone else.  Why not have a steroid Olympics for those that want to use it?

Obviously this type of event would not be part of the regular "drug free" Olympics, but instead a new sporting event for the abusers of steroids.  Putting the pro drug user issues aside, I think it would be quite an interesting showing.

I don't watch the olympics currently, I have seen what it is all about and I don't really care much for that sort of entertainment. I might, however, watch the steroid olympics because you would really see the depths of how far a human body could be pushed.

I envision the 500 meter dash with people on steroids with tiny upper bodies and huge legs all lining up at the starting line, sweating profusely because their adrenaline is already pumping like crazy through their body. Then as the gun fired, it would seem as though they all magically appeared at the finish line, with only a blur from start to finish.

The weight lifting event could be equally spectacular as you see deformed monsters that used to be people, lifting the equivalent of small cars welded to a steel rod and hoisting them above their head for three seconds.  The gymnastics events would seem like something out of a fantasy movie that employed high end CG technology.

The injuries would be quite spectacular as well, a broken ankle couldn't even hold a candle to someone who simply exploded halfway through the thousand meter run.   I imagine some good brawls would be started due to the emotional degeneration and unstable frame of mind the participants would be in.

The entertainment value would be spectacular, if not a little horrifying at the same time. I am pretty sure that it would definitely hold a person's attention if they were to watch, The Steroid Olympics.

Scott Goerz

If You Were So Rich...

Let's say that one day you found out that a relative that you had no idea existed, died and left you a 300 billion dollar inheritance. But before this happened you were a regular person, worked nine to five, Monday to Friday, and have always struggled to make ends meet. You were broke at the end of every month even though you tried to save what little you could.

Now you are suddenly one of the richest people on earth, it has made headlines in the news, and now you are famous as well. Your phone never stops ringing, reporters, friends, strangers, family, everyone you know wants to talk to you, and everyone is your new best friend, all wanting a handout.

After you come to grips on your situation, and realize that it's not a dream, you contact those friends and family you have known your whole life and tell them the news whether they already know or not. You arrange a place where you can get together and celebrate and also donate some cash to them.

Then you decide to go on trips, see the world, explore places you have only dreamed about, and you do it in style, private jet, posh hotel rooms, only the best of the best. You buy up real estate, and properties in places that you have fallen in love with. Purchase vehicles you have only seen in magazines or on the internet. Spoil the hell out of any children you have and do whatever the hell you want when you wanted to, with having to answer to anyone.

Fast forward ten years:  You have been everywhere, done everything, bought anything you have ever wanted on a whim, own thousands of properties all over the world, and now, you are bored. Everyone you know has betrayed you in some way, anyone one you used to know won't talk to you because they don't live in your world with you, the ones that do try to talk to you all have a hidden agenda, they want something, they always want more. You can't trust anybody new that you meet, once they find out who you are and what you have they change into someone else and you can't trust them or anything they say.

You have been everywhere and done everything multiple times, there is literally nothing you want to do anymore, you have become lazy, you have no purpose, nothing to strive towards because you could just buy it if you wanted. Sometimes you miss the cold beer after a hard days work, and the relaxation afterwards that you used to really appreciate. You could never go back to those times but it is nice to reminisce.

Now you can hardly believe that you used to dream about winning the lottery, to be able to do things with no strings attached, you have achieved that dream and more, but at a cost to something that was worth more than you ever realized. You are happy but at the same time miserable, and are stuck in this limbo, in which you cannot escape.

If you were so rich.

Scott Goerz

Bad Seed To A Strong Tree

I wasn't a very good kid growing up, I liked trouble, not the kind that would put you into jail kind of trouble, but the kind that would make you feel as though you have gotten away with something you shouldn't have.

Whenever I did something and got away with it, I would get what some people might call a rush, or an adrenaline boost, It felt good, and I wanted more of it.  I did things that most people frowned upon, I went into places I was not allowed, stole a dirty magazine, snuck out at night with some friends, drinking booze and roamed the streets, and I'm sure my parents thought I was going to be a jailbird for my adult career.

When I was "bad", I was usually having the most fun, I laughed a lot and didn't have a care for the consequences of my actions because I was still a kid and I did what I wanted.  Of course, I wasn't all bad, I had a good side too.  I helped a child who was lost in a mall to find her parents, she was on my shoulders as I walked around asking if she saw them yet.  I ran out onto a busy highway to save a puppy from being run over.

Being bad did help me in a way that nobody could ever teach another person, it showed me who and what a real friend means, it showed me how to spot lies and suspicious behavior, and yes, I also know what certain drugs do to a person when they take them, by being a guinea pig myself.  It also taught me what might be going through a child's mind in this day and age, as I can relate to lashing out against those who love us and are trying to help.

I had to change the way I did things in order to survive in this world, I had to start following the regime of the rest of society and fall into line. It wasn't as bad as I often thought it would be, on the contrary, it actually turned out pretty good as I started to learn the system, and how to make money to get what I wanted, I'm not a millionaire by any means but I am comfortable in life.

As an adult, do your due diligence as a parent, and worry about your child as you should, but keep in mind that the bad things they are doing is a phase of life they are on, and eventually it will pass. The morals and beliefs that you set down will be building blocks for them to stand upon in the future. I had good parents that did this for me, I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for them.  I'm sure there are a lot of bad seeds out there that turned into strong trees.

Scott Goerz

Convince Yourself

Anyone who has ever wanted something accomplished, first has to convince themselves that what they are doing has to be done. If you decide you want to go on a diet, it's because you have already convinced yourself that you have gained too much weight, and then you will have to convince yourself that eating that piece of pie is bad for you.

We mentally chastise ourselves, and try to deceive our brain into changing a certain behavior that we have become accustomed to.  I find it humorous that this is even possible, because it seems ludicrous that you can fool yourself even though you know the truth of things.  You can't lie to yourself, can you?

When I have to out and shovel snow, I know that it has to be done, but I am nice and cozy in my house and it is cold and miserable outside, the effort it takes to get dressed up and layered with winter boots, gloves, multiple hoodies, and layers of clothes, is quite a task, so I try to convince myself that maybe I should wait until the next day to do it.

When I know I have to get up early in the morning to go to work, I have to mentally convince myself that I have to wake up and give myself enough time to get get ready before I leave, I am going to have to get up earlier than usual which means going to bed earlier as well, if I don't mentally prepare I am usually rushing to get out of the door.

Then we have things that we know we shouldn't do but convince ourselves to do it anyway, I have gone to social events and had a few drinks, I know my limit at which I should not be driving and I know my limit when I have had too much, but sometimes I am having a good time and I want to continue with it, so I convince myself that maybe one more drink won't hurt, that I can always get a cab, that I can handle one more drink, but the problem here is that it is almost never only one more, it's usually 3 or 4 and then I'm sick.

Do it or not to do it? That is the question we all ask ourselves on a daily basis and only you will be able to convince yourself and make up reasons for your actions.

Scott Goerz

And The Snow Falls Again

I live on an acreage, I have a large deck, a three bay garage, and a teardrop style driveway. I have a small quad with a blade on it, and some shovels that are hand operated. When it snows a little, it may take up to 15 minutes to shovel off my deck before it's cleaned off.  When it snows a lot I usually wait for it to stop before I start pushing it to the side.

This process can take up to 4 to 6 hours depending on how deep and packed the snow is.  This is by using the ATV with a moose plow that I have modified and welded so that it works properly.

Over the last 6 days it has snowed just about every second or third day, with one of those days being extremely windy. Wind makes drifts that are hard and compact, they do not move that easily and take much longer to get rid of.

When you plow snow on a driveway, you have to have some foresight for the next time it snows, you have to push the snow further out than just to the edges of the driveway, you have to push it 5 or 6 meters past the edge. You do this in preparation of the next snow fall.

Once you move snow after it has fallen, it changes somehow and gets harder and denser, the next time you go to push it, it is almost impossible to move, so this is the reason you push it further out on the first snow fall. The second snow fall will not be able to be pushed as far as the first snow fall and will make your path less wide as the first one.

Subsequent snowfalls compound this fact with each snowfall. It is snowing right now, and for some reason I had forgotten my snow fall rules that I had come up with, and as a consequence, my driveway is becoming narrower than I would prefer.

We have had heavy snow 3 days out of a week, and the forecast holds a bleak future for my narrowing driveway, too many more of these and I will be out there with my pick axe, chipping away at my driveway to clean it off, then I'd have to blade it with the quad.  A task no normal human being would look forward to.

But it would get clean, and pushed back as far as I could get it, and this time I would be ready for when the snow falls again.


Scott Goerz

Entertainment

I hate politics, I have never followed it, and I don't care about what happens because of politicians, I am a firm believer that there is nothing we can do to stop the stupidity of politics anyway. With that being said, I love watching Trump continuously make a fool out of himself.

From walking from the white house to his plane with toilet paper stuck to his foot, to openly insulting people and then claiming he never said such things even though there is a video of him saying it in multiple occasions, to lying, and basically acting like a large spoiled child, I simply cannot get enough, and I almost always laugh at what the idiot does. I have never enjoyed politics so much.

Other entertainment I thoroughly enjoy, are shows that don't follow the same plot lines that have been used over and over throughout the years, if I have no idea what is going to come next or what might happen, I consider that to be a very clever form of entertainment.  I read a lot of novels, and I have watched a ton of shows and particularly like one with a mystery involved, or a Sherlock Holmes feel to it. 

Watching this type of media over the years has made me very aware of predictable story lines, and possible endings. 

So believe it or not, I watch certain types of anime. Yes, these are cartoon characters, but some of these story lines have a very adult themes to them, and I would not let any child I know watch them ever. Some have so much blood and gore that they put any real life horror movie to shame. The story arc is so unpredictable that it keeps me mesmerized until end,  yet somehow it all makes sense.

Of course not all shows are good, and you have to find the type you like, the same with regular television. Maybe this is why I like watching Trump, he is completely unpredictable, and I have no idea how his stories are going to end.

Scott Goerz

Odd Trade Off

I have been reading some odd articles that are linked to the types of prosthetic augmentation that is starting to go mainstream. These prosthetic are mainly for amputees, ranging in arms, legs, hands, and spinal amplification.

The articles in question are claiming that people are voluntarily having their limbs removed on purpose so that they can have the prosthetic instead.  People claiming that they can't stand the constant pain in their fingers, or knee and joint pain, they would rather have a mechanical implant that does not produce any pain. 




I guess I understand the motives behind the amputation, but the whole removal of a limb exchanged with a mechanical prosthetic seems a bit on the "Over and above" side.
I would have to be in the same position, and be in constant mind numbing pain on a daily basis to even consider this option.

Who knows? This could end up being the new standard for humanity in our future, and apparently this technology isn't slowing down. They have made hands like this one with the ability to feel things as well, hot, cold, smooth, rough, and one day, I imagine that it will be indistinguishable from an actual human hand and you won't be able to tell the difference.

But even then, I don't think I would trade in my current hand for a prosthetic, To me I think it will always be an...Odd Trade Off.

Scott Goerz

Yearly Ritual?

Why is it that at the end of every year, we take it upon ourselves to get up in the morning with the intention of killing other people and or ourselves?  If you don't believe me then consider this, would you walk beside someone holding a live grenade with the pin out of it? This person could claim that it's perfectly safe and there is nothing wrong with what they are doing and they don't feel affected by any of the drinks they have been consuming.

Why is this still an issue?

It's actually gotten worse, not better, because it's not only DUI's  happening, now you can be charged with an impaired,  and this includes, being high and cellphone use.  In Toronto if you are stopped by a officer of the law, and you are holding your cell in your hand while sitting behind the wheel, even if it is off, you will be charged with a 615.00 dollar fine.

In 2017 the police responded to 8,711 road accidents that were linked to driver inattention. There were 83 related deaths compared to 75 death related to speeding, 49 to a lack of seat belt use and 46 related to alcohol.

Cell phone use while driving is more dangerous than any other impairment, it forces you to take your eyes off the road and to not pay attention to what is happening around you.  The number of deaths from distracted driving are on track to double the number of fatalities related to impaired driving.

Also, as we enter into the new year, I always see how long it takes for one of us to intentionally kill one another. The first homicide of the year is almost always a shock as to how quick it happens.  I'm always hoping that we will make it past the one month mark, but that rarely ever happens.

Just once, it would be nice to enter into a new year will no fatalities, no impaired charges, a smooth transition into a new year would be a great start, and maybe we could make that our Yearly Ritual.

Scott Goerz