you can put the rock in the boy but you can't get the rock outta their heads

I was talking with a friend over the weekend and the subject of games consoles came up. I happened to mention casually how much I hated RockBand/GuitarHero and their clones to be greeted with astonishment. "But aren't they introducing a generation of kids to classic songs?"

Well, yes they are. But they're also close to destroying any chance of those kids ever playing any of that music.

Warning: 'get-off-my-lawn' moment coming up here folks: I heard some great music when I was growing up, some of it by chance and some of it I actively sought out. It inspired me to pick up a guitar and figure out how to play it. Now good music is inspiring your kids to do what? Push some buttons quickly. What they are learning has no connection to playing music whatsoever and could be said to be making it impossible to learn. After all if you can figure out four buttons, post your video on YouTube and become an overnight hero what incentive is there to sit down with six real strings and learn how to play an actual guitar. Hard work, takes years, includes many, many moments of frustration. Four buttons is much easier.

For those who deplore the descent of the creative force of music into formularised industry and Justin Bieber - look no further then your own front room for one of the reasons.

it's been a while

No matter how much I try things never get to the point where blogging actually matters which I'm well aware is probably terribly blasphemous and stuff. And, as I don't know if anyone really reads this drivel, I guess that makes it easy to ignore the occasional faint desire to make more regular entries. Still there will no doubt be times when one wants to pull out the dusty soapbox from it's home under the desk and pontificate in the general direction of the internet. With that in mind I'll continue to pollute the ether with my random thoughts. So until the next eruption - good night and have a nice life.

for ever in your debt

For ever in your debt. As a style of manners it has value. As a lifestyle choice I'm not so sure. I spent a moment or two over Christmas considering my own values. Of course I gave presents to my family. I like to think I even thought about them in terms of what the recipient would appreciate and enjoy. However, unlike previous years I refused to go beyond my means this time around. I'm almost done climbing out from under a pile of debt accumulated over several years and I have no plan to go back there. Now, even a simple thing like running up the credit card a bit to buy "better" presents makes me nervous. I read of people living from paycheck to paycheck, which I have done for a long time. Then I remember living from next month's paychecks to the month afters's. I don't want to go back there again. Maybe things will get better but I intend to make sure I don't make my own life any worse then it has to be.

even I have an opinion about health care

After an interesting conversation or two with a acquaintance from Washington state I'm starting to really realise how entrenched the whole health care debate has become "down there". Yeah, I know I'm kinda slow here but it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff with all the blowing and sucking that's going on in the media.

So, here's my sop to the right wing: actually the much vaunted/derided "socialist" health care system in Canada isn't free at all. Yes folks, we do pay for our care here. I mean I have to pay an insurance premium for my Medical Services Plan. Last I looked it was $36 a month but it's the principal dammit. Maybe that will put a smile on a republican face or two.

And wait times? It's all relative. When I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer seven years ago I got to see a specialist immediately. Surgery was the choice and it was done within a week. Fortunately for me it was found early and I'm still around to annoy people.

On the other hand, I now have a condition called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome as the result of a car accident two years ago and the diagnosis and treatment are proceeding at a far more leisurely pace. The condition is annoying and occasional debilitating but it's not disabling and I'm OK with the speed things are going at. I also know that if it gets a lot worse a lot quicker we will pick up the pace and change the priorities.

It's nice to know that if my WA colleague has an ingrowing toenail he gets to see a podiatrist the next day. However the notion that he'll spend the next few years paying for it creates a pain in a far more fundamental location.

So that's my two cents, looking at the hash Congress is making - particularly those therein who fancy themselves kingmakers, I don't see it getting any better for my neighbours with any great speed but I sure do hope an outbreak of common sense happens soon.

OK, so maybe I'll keep using wtf? for a bit yet

What can one say? My heart goes out to Taylor Swift. I've already read people claiming that it was "staged" but it looked pretty much like random stupid to me.

guess summer happened after all

I sometimes envy those with the energy (and imagination) to maintain a blog on an almost daily basis. Myself, I have tended to want to "say something" with my entries. I guess the six week blank since my last effort says a lot about that idea. Ah well, perhaps my eloquence will assert itself in other ways. We'll see...

On the Death of Democracy

So, have you voted for anything that was good for you lately? I remember being told once that, even if there was nothing you wanted to vote for there would always be something you wanted to vote against. These days it seems that the thing most voted against is intelligence and the elusive and misleadingly named thing called common sense.

I’m not going to rail against the quality of education systems, either within North America or worldwide. There are those far better qualified then me to deconstruct the myths of education and academic achievement that we have been spoon-fed for so long. What I do hold dear is the quaint notion that people really are entitled to good government, assuming that is that they can recognise and endorse it. That last has been sorely lacking and not just in recent times. It really does seem that the idea of an educated electorate debating the issues and voting for real solutions has vanished into the mist.

I recall a piece of graffiti sprayed on a railway bridge in London that said “it doesn’t matter who you vote for, you still end up with a government”. That cynicism encompasses the world we live in doesn’t it. But, should it? Are we so far divorced from the possibility of good government that we despair of ever seeing it again?

Politicians rank right down there with used-car salesmen and insurance adjustors when it comes to trust and perceived honesty. It’s not that fact that rankles; it’s the appearance that nobody, least of all the politicians themselves, seems to care about changing that fact. What’s wrong with this picture?