Government...

I can honestly say I truly hate dealing with government people. Whenever I have to deal with them it makes me so frustrated.
Calling, then having to navagate their crappy telepromot system, then sitting on hold for 40 mins, listening to the crappy elevator music with breaks in it saying ' thanks for your patience, your call is important to us.. Blah Blah Blah', then finding out that you called the wrong dept/place/person. Then your put through to the right person only to find out they aren't there. All the while you ran up your phone bill and killed your phone battery. All for nothing.
Oh not quite nothing, you know have a headache from beating your head against the desk from frustration.
And I thought the government was suppose to help?

Learning to Square Dance

While I was walking around Downtown catching some of the sights around Stephan Avenue and on my way to the all important Flour Square Pancake Breakfast yesterday I got stopped by another Calgary Stampede volunteer who asked me if I wanted to learn how to square dance 

A Royal Parade

I had the pleasure of walking this year's Stampede Parade (9 years of doing so!) and one of the Calgary Stampede volunteers took some video and pictures along the Parade Route.
Here is the video:

Video By: Ashley Proceviat 

One Facebook Trend I won't follow..

Lately, I have been noticing a lot of my friends and other people doing this trend on Facebook. The message goes: "Change your profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on FB till Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse. CHILD ABUSE IS UNACCEPTABLE!! Copy and paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same."

Health Canada, in the Child Maltreatment Section states child abuse as: "Child maltreatment can be categorized into several broad types including: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect/failure to provide, and emotional maltreatment.

Some child abuse stats from around the world:

- Worldwide, approximately 40 million children are subjected to child abuse each year (WHO, 2000).

- A Canadian child abuse statistics survey done by Bibby in 2000 (2001)revealed that 56% of adolescents rated child abuse as their top societal concern.

- Adolescents experience maltreatment at rates equal to or exceeding those of younger children (Council on Scientific Affairs, 1993, p. 1850).

- Sexual abuse statistics vary between countries and reports, but are consistently alarming: One country's research indicates that up to 36% of girls and 29% of boys have suffered child sexual abuse; another study reveals up to 46% of girls and 20% of boys have experienced sexual coercion (The 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights).

- Each year, approximately one million more children around the world are introduced into commercial sexual exploitation (Casa Alianza, 2001).

- In a study of runaways presenting at an emergency ward who reported a history of maltreatment, 83% had disabilities as compared to 47% of the non-maltreatment runaways. Using information collected from schools, 34% of the maltreated had disabilities as opposed to 17% of the non-maltreated runaways (Sullivan, et al., 2000).

- Close to one-third of teens between ages 14 and 19 who participated in a Canadian study had experienced some kind of childhood abuse or neglect (Wolfe, 2001).

- Girl victims reported emotional distress, post-traumatic-stress related symptoms and acts of both violent and non-violent delinquency. Boy victims of child maltreatment reported far less emotional distress and delinquent behaviours; however, they were far more likely to assault their dating partners (Wolfe, 2001).

l won’t buy into this until someone explains to me how, exactly, changing ones facebook profile picture to a childhood memory will magically stop violence against children. Promoting awareness does nothing but make you feel good. Action is what creates change. Instead of using that money that you were going to spend on the DVD/Blu Ray box set of your favourite childhood that you rediscovered today by looking at all your friends pictures and looking on Ebay today? Give it to your local YWCA, shelter or this group called Little Warriors. Little Warriors is a sexual abuse education charitable organization that focuses on the education and prevention of child sexual abuse and also provides information to those people who need it. www.littlewarriors.ca

What is "Normal" really?

I was watching day time TV the other day which is really odd for me to do because I don't really have the time usually but this week I did for some reason. I was flipping channels and came across this one preview about on of Oprah's new show that she was doing What is Normal? She was going to discuss it with her audience, viewers and with her 2 favourite doctors that she helped along with their own TV careers: Dr Phil and Dr Oz. I can say that I am not a big fan of Oprah, Dr Phil or Dr Oz.Everyone has to be on the Oprah bandwagon (for example: I read an author way before Oprah discovered this person and once she 'discovered' him everyone had to read him. A few of my friends went oh this author is so good.. I am so glad Oprah found him. I went his been writing for years..good to know that you are on the bandwagon like everyone else.)

Oprah has a 'test' to on her website to see you are normal on her website: http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Are-You-Normal-Take-the-Test_1 (I'll leave you a min or two to check out the website)

I find it a little odd that you can find out if you are 'Normal' by taking a test on Oprah's website. What happens if you answer a question differently is it going to say that you aren't normal at all?

The dictionary defines Normal as: 1. Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. 2. serving to establish a standard 3. Psychology. a. approximately average in any psychological trait, as intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment. b.free from any mental disorder; sane.

Normal is often perceived by society and social norms. But even that is flawed because it is influenced by how we are raised in groups we associate with. And with our own personal belief structures that we grew up with.

My one Professor asked as once to define for ourselves what we thought was normal but we couldn't because it was all different. Our definitions was all different and was influenced on how we grew up in society and the group we associated with as a group.

My friend said this as to the question "What is Normal":

It is a question that can be casually dismissed, or treated with philosophical rigor. The answer can be assumed self-evident, or open to an exhaustive debate. In truth, there are as many responses as there are people. Culture, race, gender, religious belief, age, status, genetics, income, education, and experience all have a say in what we perceive as normal. Where we find consensus, we find community.

I can say that there is no such thing is normal at all. We are all different in our own ways and that is what makes as special and human. What is so bad about being different?

What REALLY makes the world go around?

Yes I know that conservation of angular momentum is what really makes the world go round but some people say that there are other things that make it go around.

I recently watched Cabaret where they sing that

"Money makes the world go around

The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round."

So is it that money makes the world go around? I hope it doesn't because I am the type that believes that money doesn't make people happy.

Then Merlin sings from the Sword and the Stone to Arthur:

"Left and right Like day and night That's what makes the world go round In and out Thin and stout That's what makes the world go round For every up there is a down For every square there is a round For every high there is a low For every to there is a fro To and fro Stop and go That's what makes the world go round Brains and brawn, weak and strong That's what makes the world go round..." I am not to really sure what this one means. I think what Merlin is saying that everything makes the world go around in the grand scheme of things. Kiss on the other hand says, "Once I was a fool dreamin' my life away, and then yesterday I found you Lookin' for me, draggin' your heart around at the lost and found I love you, you're the only one who could make me feel love was smart I feel you deep inside of me, beatin' up against my heart And I found out, I found out, what makes the world go 'round Oh I found out, really found out, what makes the world go 'round" Hmm so some girl is what makes the world go around. Interesting.. I looked on online and saw other worlds like maths, communication, music, education, greed, and software(computers). Its a good list I think but then I found this quote:

"Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place." ~Ice T.

So does passion and love really make the world go around? There was lots of songs that said that did:

Love makes the world go 'round.
Love makes the world go 'round.
Somebody soon will love you,
If no one loves you now.

High in some silent sky
Love sings a silver song
Making the earth whirl softly
Love makes the world go 'round.

- Bob Merrill, 1961, From "Carnival."

I just wanna talk to you
And my broken heart just has no use
And I, I guess promises are better
left unsaid, yeah
Everytime you try to tell me
You say the words that I'm the only
But I'm the one who's crawling on the ground
When you say love makes the world go 'round

- Ashlee Simpson "Love makes the world go round"

There's been a lot of talk about the game of love,
It's what everybody, everywhere, is thinking of!
The love bug's busy as he can be,
And I gotta a funny feeling that he just bit me!
'Cause love makes the world go 'round and around.
Love makes the world go 'round!
Your pulse will beat and your heart will pound,
'Cause love makes the world go 'round!

-Perry Como "Love Makes the world go Round"

Okay.. so I think we got the picture.. Same title different song. People think that love and passion makes the world go around. What are your thoughts? I am not to sure about what really makes world go around but I do wish that it is love and passion for one another that makes it go around because it is certainly better than hate, fear, pain and suffering. I am going to guess that we are just going to have to leave the actual question to science and say that it is

conservation of angular momentum that makes the world go round but that is always not as fun to say.

C'est la Vie..

I can say that I had wanted to give it a shot to write every day this month. But I can say that something happened to it. Life.

At Stampede, we are in the middle of our busy season, with Christmas Parties, Conferences, Concerts and many more events that its hard to keep up with everything that is on your plate. Most days I barely have enough energy to come home check my email and climb into bed for a few hours of sleep before getting up and starting the whole process again.

I know that I broke the rules of NaBloPoMo but I thought it would have been a good challenge for me to do. Hopefully I will get a second chance at doing it and then being able to write every day.