My Thoughts

So, I've been doing websites for awhile now but I havnt really had the time to learn as much as I want about file downloads. I was wondering if someone who knew the in's and out's could tell me exactly how hard it would be to create a replay download area, that would display a img for the races infront of the players names and the map.

So, I've been a Terran player for a long time now and long before that I use to play Zerg. I'd like to get back into Zerg and I'm just wondering what people think about switching from Terran to Zerg. I just don't think I can be as good as I can be with other races while using Terran.

So, I'm working on becoming a Police Officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I'm half way through the recruiting process so it's a bit stressful. I was really looking forward to spending time with my family on Christmas, since I may have to miss next Christmas. I also graduated last year with my Bachelor's degree in Arts, so I owe Student Loan a bit of money.

So, while trying to make some extra cash and buy some nice presents for people this year and enjoy the holidays with my family, I'm working two full-time jobs. My day usually consists of wakeing at 8:45am and I get home around Midnight. I don't get paid great, $11.00/hr at once and $9.00/hr at the other. Our schedules were posted last week and the only days off I had in the next month were Dec. 20th and 21st, then January 04th and 05th. Besides those four days, I'll be doing the regular 8am - Midnight routine. However, yesterday I was told that I didn't have to work Christmas, because my job is going to close down for Christmas. I was excited to say the least, I called family and let them know I'd be around.

It's 1:14pm and I just got a call saying that although my unit is going to be closed, they're moving me to another one and I have to work Christmas day. I'm really not sure what happened to the staff at that unit, I'm assuming they get it off. Now I have to call family and friends again, and tell them I actually won't be around. I had also got engaged last month and this was going to be a really nice Christmas with my fiance..

I think this is one of the first years, where I actually hate Christmas. I know work is work, and life is life. There's not a whole lot I can do about either, but this really really sucks...

I studied Federal and Provincial Canadian Politics for four years in University to achieve my major. It was interesting and fascinating to learn about our constitution, past political achievements, blunders, progression and regression. The more I learned, the more I realized that we as a nation have not really changed all that much since Confederation, no matter how many times we claim that we have. We adopted the Australian Secret Ballot to secure Political Privacy and the First Past the Post Voting System which many would argue that it suits our nation and in this regard, I agree.

For some people who are not Politically aware of these two concepts, I will briefly explain what they mean. Before we adopted the Australian Secret Ballot electoral system the party who you voted for wasn't all that secret. Each party would have their own ballots. You would wait in line and when your turn came, you would walk over, select a ballot from the party that you were voting for and place it in the ballot box. Some of you may ask "Who cares?" - Well, if you lived in this era, then you very well might care. In these times small municipalities and such were usually lead by one person and that one person was usually a mill owner, or someone who ran a general store (in smaller towns). So, this one person was in charge of the town, more or less, politically and economically. If they were supporting party A and you decided to vote for party B, it wasn't uncommon for you to no longer be able to purchase groceries on credit at the General Store, or possibly have a hard time at work/obtaining a job because of voting against this person. Now that our ballots secure political privacy, this is not an issue. However, long ago in our history, when you picked up that ballot, it could mean a lot more than just a simple vote.

Incase someone brings it up, Gerrymandering (drawing electoral district boundaries to suit your voters to ensure you win an election) was also a problem, as well as violence at the polls. There was a case in Newcastle/Chatham, New Brunswick in which someone voted "the wrong way" according to the mob and was stoned to death. Progression in our electoral rules and system have made for a much easier time at the polls than our ancestors had.

The First Past the Post system (FPTP) got its name in reference to horse racing, some also may know it as Plurality Voting or Single Member District Plurality (SMDP). The advantages of this system are:

Fewer Parties

1. Quicker decision making by government and less need for back and forth negotiation.

2. Parties need to appeal to a wider spectrum of voters, which decreases the chance of extremist parties.

Simplicity

The first past the post system is probably the most simple and easy to administer which leads to advantages such as:

1. Elections are quicker and cost less to run (Canadian election 30 day duration vs. American election 18 month duration?).

2. Stable governments: FPTP usually results in a majority government, a stable government.

The disadvantages for this system are:

Fewer Parties

1. Fewer choices are offered to the voter in this system and that the dominant parties may not incorporate a wide variety of values and ideals that encompass the needs/wants/values of the people in the country.

Regionalism

1. FPTP encourages regionalism, where one party might be dominant in one part of the country (Tories and the West / Quebec and the Bloc) and this changes from region to region.

Clean Sweep Results

1. The opposition can be left with very few seats, which lends to a "Winner takes all" approach.

With that aside, we have most of the framework to how our system works. There is more that can be discussed, such as "Safe Seats" and "Tactical Voting" but then again it's Politics, I can talk about it all day and this entry will never be finished. Let’s look at how people vote today. I believe that only within the last five years is Canada changing in how they vote, more people are expressing their opinions and the old party over candidate favoring is slowly coming to an end.

When I was doing research as an undergraduate and asked many people in my city (small, one resource dependent town) how they would vote, the results were not all that surprising. The older generation and what I would say skew the votes tend to vote for a specific party, despite the candidate that is running. The reason for this is because “my family has always been <insert party name here> so I guess I will vote for them. This can be attributed to many things, a lack of information on candidates, a lack of thought that elections and voters need to make or plain stubbornness.

It is of my opinion, and most likely the reason why voting trends are changing is because the youth are now more politically aware. Younger people are voting more and becoming more involved in our system. Politics is no longer just an “Old boys club”, it’s a club that every member of our nation should take part in to voice their opinions and concerns. In my opinion, the biggest tragedy is not voting at all. It’s something that too many people feel that they have no control over and shouldn’t bother to vote and that couldn’t be more of a lie. We control this country; our voices are the ones that matter. Not voting in protest isn’t really protesting at all, it’s more like rolling over and giving your power up. The least you can do is spoil your ballot.

Little over two months after our last federal election, there is talk again that the opposition parties want to overthrow the federal government and form a coalition government (hopefully this works better than it does/did for Italy). This announcement was made me cringe, just the way it was presented – it came off as being parties that were bitter about losing and wanted to undermine the system to get power in their hands. Poor Tommy Douglas, who is credited much for founding the NDP party would likely be rolling over in his grave if he knew that his party was trying to achieve the status of government when the whole idea behind the NDP was to be an opposition and pressure party to keep a balance between the Liberal Party and Conservative Party.

****on’t flame, discuss. I will finish this later, have to go to work now*****

Well, I seen another blog like this and I thought it would be interesting to share what I've experienced. I don't really want to come off as a lunatic who definatly believes in ghosts but I do think it's possible. So just read and enjoy or don't read it, it's late. ^^

I was never one to think of ghosts, alot of people said it's because I wasn't receptive to them. The last few years though have been exciting. It all started when I met my girlfriend, whom I just bought an engagement ring for (shh). The house that her parents live in was owned by a member of the Russian mafia or something retarded like that, he was a money launderer. The house itself is designed weird... it's not something normal for small town Miramichi (city I'm from) in Canada.

In one room, which would be a library, there is a two small glass doors and a rack to hang keys on. You can lift the piece on the bottom out and the door hinges backwards into a secret little room which isnt very big at all. In the basement, there's a shelf thing in the corner but it has hinges in the framework which opens it up into a dark storage room. Now onto the ghostly things..

At first I thought she was just being paranoid of noises in the house until one night I came to pick her up due to her parents being out of town and she was going to stay at my house for the week. We were watching television when you could hear heavy workboots walking around the hallway outside her door. We thought maybe her parents were home or her neighbour was just in to grab something before we locked the house up. I searched the entire house and every door was locked and nobody was inside..

The next weird thing is that in that library room with the hidden back door, everyone who has slept in there has had a strange dream about a tiny girl in a white dress which some people have spotted in the corner while spending the night. There is also a german man in the house who was a previous owner or something and he paces the staircase. The priest came in, because the family is catholic, and blessed the house. He also said that he felt there was alot of sadness and hate in the basement maybe because terrible things could have happened there.. who knows. Anyway, the house blessing didn't do any good.

The house is still haunted I guess but what's weird is I believe the place where I am staying now to be haunted as well. Perhaps I'm just being paranoid but when I'm home alone the heaters *tick* alot and I hear cubboard doors opening and closing. I'm not insanely religious but I do pray so I'm not sure whats up. The next time I am in Miramichi I will try to get pictures of the secret rooms.

I'ed also rather have a ghost in my house than have a bird fly down through my ceiling while on the shitter again.