The Madden Paradox

I'm not inside my own mind today... and I have a fucking video game to thank for it!

Ever since I got my first Nintendo 64, with Madden NFL 2000, I officially became a Madden addict. I had played the 2K sports "Gameday" football for Playstation 2 and thought that was okay but I never really got into it like I did with Madden... this was something else.

My madden obsession lasted most of that decade, I bought the game pretty consistently up to Madden 09, maybe buying it every other year. I bought Madden 10 and traded it in after a few weeks. I was sick and tired of the same bullshit. It FINALLY hit me that I had been buying the same game for years and with the Xbox 360 generation this repetition seemed just that much more blatant.

There are little things you notice as a sports games that begin to grate you. Madden 11's franchise mode, for the most part is exactly the same as Madden 07's for my Xbox and the 07 one is BETTER... how the fuck does that work? Anyway nitpicky things aside. I had to take a hiatus from buying Madden. For the benefit of my soul...

I tried other football games. I think I even blogged about how much I was looking forward to Backbreaker, hoping it would be of all things a Madden Breaker...

Well let's just say not even close.

With the addition of Cleveland Brown Peyton Hillis as the Madden 12 cover athlete thanks to rabid Browns fans voting. (I myself didn't vote until the final because I am still paranoid about the CURSE and Hillis is probably our best football player...)



I was still rather ho-hum about Madden this year until E3. That's when EA Sports brought out the big guns and gave me some hope, legitimate hope that they would be overhauling this game in the aspects that I treasure most, franchise mode.

Now I can't predict if or not these upgrades are monumental or just face value hooks for gamers like myself who have abandoned the game in recent years but from what I've seen of gameplay videos and reviews it seems pretty much like the real deal to me. I will spare you all the details of what they will be improving but for once they're actually focusing on GAMEPLAY rather than just glorifying the PRESENTATION and they have worked that up too by introducing team-specific introductions (to mirror the NCAA Game) and also tweaking the player tackling physics to create less pre-canned tackling animations. JUST to name a few...

The thing about Madden, this is the paradox, is that once I get excited for Madden. I NEED Madden... I don't feel like playing any other sports games. I know Madden is raising the bar, my inner-fan has seen this in action to a degree and now no other sports games are going to suffice until I can whet my appetite with the new MADDEN. I needs it. So... I've been playing Mass Effect 2 AGAIN... because I have to wait until the end of august to get my Madden fix (assuming I'll have the money to afford it) I will need to tie my attention to other games to fill the void. :)

Until next time ... PEACE

Scurrilous

I'm not inside my own mind today...  and I have Protest The Hero to thank.

When Protest burst onto the scene with their debut album Kezia I was surprised to be honest. I've always enjoyed metal and heavy rock music but I find there's always something that holds me back. The first Protest song I ever heard was Heritics and Killers and I loved the intro to that song. The way it starts out you just know that song is going to rock the shit out of some shit, and it does.

Protest's follow-up album Fortress was a force of musical nature. The band elevated their sound to a level that I don't think anyone expected and with that album there was some excellent, excellent music that began to help establish the lore for one of the up-and-coming bands of Metal.

With the newest Protest The Hero album, Scurrilous you have to wonder first, what does that even mean?

scur·ril·ous/ˈskərələs/Adjective

1. Making or spreading scandalous claims about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation: "a scurrilous attack".

2. Humorously insulting.

I think that name defines the album perfectly, Protest really hits a new level.

First and foremost, I am sick of reading that people think this album sounds like Fortress... could that for any reason be because it's by THE SAME FREAKING BAND?! Nobody harps on shitty bands like Nickelback or Seether for every one of their albums sounding the same. Protest The Hero has made their reputation from being a progressive metal band that pushes the fabric of what we know is Metal with each release, heaven forbid they keep their sound connected to the three that their sound has grown from, so to speak. It's lunacy to me. Anyone that has given the album an earnest listen should be able to conclude on their own.

This is Protest The Hero taking their music to the next level.

Right from the opening track C'est La Vie, PTH gives you an ample dosage of what you can expect from this album. Now, like Fortress' opening track BloodMeat, this song underwhelmed me. It's not a bad song by any means. It stands along any of the strongest tracks from this album and kicks ass but for some reason the open tracks of Protest's albums are rarely ever my favorite track.

Next on the album is the song Hair-Trigger, a song about tobbaco additction. As someone who's battled the addiction myself. I love this song because he sings the truth. Lyrics like "I wrote a love song to think of everything I hate" defines a smokers relationship pretty well, at least one I can relate to. The song has some killer guitar and an appearance from a familiar voice that people may remember from Protest's first album as well.

The third song, Tandem is one of my favorite on the album. A song about, who I presume, is one of Rody's friends with Cancer. The song takes a look at what it's like to know somebody with cancer and also a telling tale of just how intense Cancer treatment, and all that comes with it, can be. It's a little over five minutes which makes it one of, if not the, longest song Protest has ever made (a quick check confirms only 3 protest songs are longer, two are from their first album...) I think this song just kicks ass as a whole. It's great to listen to.

Next up is Moonlight. Personally, this is my least favorite song on the album.  It's a good song in its own right but near the end the repeat lyric section where he sings "Like moonlight in the darkest, darkest night..." just kills me, and not in a good way. It's a song I usually skip. An okay song about doing the band thing and 'living life on the road' so to speak.

Tapestry really starts to set the tone for the rest of the album. There's a section about a minute into the song where you get a bit of a sneak peak as to what you can expect on the next track and I really love how this song closes out with guitar riff and drum patterns. I'm not musically inclined so I won't pretend to be but the closing minute of this song, I love it. It's one of those points where you just want to pump your fist and thrash your head, or rip on the air guitar. Whatever your preference may be.

Continuing strong with the next track, and my personal favorite, Dunsel which is a telling tale of their experience with the music industry. I would post the entire lyrics of this song because it's got a lot of great picks but my favorite is probably near the end where they proclaim "Shitty music just ain't worth making! / Smiles and thank-you's just ain't worth faking / Some assholes hands just ain't worth shaking / And if it's not broken WE NEED TO BREAK IT" which kick starts the most bad ass portion of music you will hear ANYWHERE. I fucking love this song. This is Protest at its absolute BEST.

Next up is another great song, Their Reign Of Unending Terror which is a song about a band who has motivated them. There's a lyric where Rody sings about hoping their 20 year reign never comes to an end. I have yet to figure out who exactly the band their referencing is. This is another great track with uncompromising guitar and Rody sings the shit out of this song. I love it!

The song Termites continues the perennial badassery that's brought forth on this album. I really like this track because again, Rody sings the shit out of the lyrics! When he belts out "In the mountains, in the seas, in the air waits the disease!" I am right there singing the shit out of it with him. Seriously, his vocals are spectacular on this album. It just gets better on the next track too...

With Tongue-splitter we have the second hyphonated track title on the album... just something worth noting I guess. The guitars are howling right off of the start and as Rody beins singing the song you know this is going to be one of those relentless tracks and the Guitar is going 110% for the majority of the song. It's a great showcase when you remember that these are two guys who play in unison for the most part. They're just dropping bombs apologetically on this track!

Closing the album is the song Sex Tapes which really doesn't need much explanation. The song is about the medias fascination with celebrity sex tapes and how ridiculous it is. It's got another guest vocal appearance from Chris Hannah of the band Propagandhi who is a decent band in their own right. Protest keeps the tradition of ending their albums on a high note and I think they really closed the album strong from Tapestry on, closing with this track. The piano makes an appearance on this track with the lyrics "Be careful what you're looking at because it might be looking back!" for added effect.

Overall, Scurrilous offers a layered metal that will give you more and more with subsequent listens. I have ingested this album uninterrupted for pretty much the last month and there are no regrets. Rody's vocals are as good as they have ever been. He's grown so much as a singer from the first album. A good friend of mine commented there's less screaming/roaring on this album. I prefer it that way because he showcases just how good his voice is. The guitarist's Luke and Tim really up the ante on their end with this album. There's some really crazy guitar and I still believe they're two of the best, or  at least, two of the most underrated guitarists in metal. Moe Carlton's drums continue to improve and I think it's got to the point where he's really coming into his own as a drummer as well. The band will continue to grow and I think this album will be the launch pad for their albums to come. Three or four albums down the line, we will look back to Scurrilous as the album where Protest The Hero really launched themselves to the next level.

Recent Popular Culture Intake...

I'm not inside my own mind today... I've been playing some movies, listening to some music, all that jazz, and I've got some thoughts to share.

I'm not even sure where to start, let's start with MORTAL KOMBAT!

With WB's recent acquisition of the rights to Mortal Kombat, I was unsure of the future of my most beloved fighting game. What we first saw from their output was the game Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe which was... well, lets just say I wish they had made it AFTER Mortal Kombat but I am happy they made it before because it made them realize something...

They needed to get back to basics. So that's exactly what they did with the new MK game.

The best thing about the new MK game is the story mode, it's something that should hook new gamers and something that old-school fans of the franchise should be drawn to. Without being too spoilerific. The game starts with everybody dead... it looks like the aftermath of a desperate battle. There's one part in the opening cinematic where vultures are munching on Sonya Blade's dead corpse. The scene eventually leads to Raiden fighting Shao Kahn who has recently won Mortal Kombat, before Kahn can deliver the killing blow to Raiden, Raiden sends himself a message from the future to prevent this from happening. REDUX! 

Ah don't you love video games?

Well, I won't go any further into the story from there but I like how it hooks you. Anyone familiar with Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe will not be surprised by the chapter progression of the story mode. I'm currently on Chapter 6, Liu Kang's chaper. I am stuck on a fight where I must fight Scorpion and Quan Chi at the same fucking time! Liu Kang's move set isn't my favorite but he's got an awesome fatality so I'll take what I can get. I have gotten distracted by other games, but if you haven't I highly recommend you check out Mortal Kombat.

As I mentioned I've been distracted, by games like L.A. NOIRE...

This is a great game. Period. End of story. If you disagree, that's your opinion. I won't tell you fuck you but I will be disappointed in you... and maybe I'll tell you fuck you.

L.A. Noire is by far, the most progressive game that Rockstar has ever made and I am hoping this motivates other game developers to take some chances and think outside the box with a video game.

L.A. Noire puts you behind the point of view of Cole Phelps, world war two veteran and newb to the LAPD. Cole rises up the ranks and you're eventually promoted from a street cop to a detective. The game's still got the flavor that Rockstar games are known for but it's a more focused and deliberate venture than Red Dead Redemption was, for example.

You can still free-roam, and Rockstar has gone to great lengths, re-creating 1940's Los Angeles and even re-creating the downtown section of LA building for building. There isn't that essence of complete freedom like with the GTA games or with RDR. In this, you can go from mission to mission, each 'case' leads you from major clues to persons of interest. You can free roam between major objectives but the only thing you can really do is take peoples cars (there are 95 cars re-created from the 40's and you get an achievement after finding 40 of them. I have found ... 40-something).

The game is rather linear as a whole, you arrive at the crime scene, you scope it for clues. Question any scene witnesses, and move from there. Investigating the case up to the point where you interrogate the prime suspect and toss him in the slammer.

I really like this game because of the atmosphere it creates. I like searching for clues. I love interrogating people and I like the dynamic. The game is focused and the tone of the game is pretty much perfect, it's hard not to load it up and get sucked into the game for an hour or two and then realize, what the hell did I just spend my day doing?

If you're on the fence with L.A. Noire, and you are interested in playing it. Just do yourself a favor and buy it. You won't regret it. It's a game with replay value and once they get some DLC it'll be interesting to see what kind of bonus cases they throw into the game. Big props to Rockstar for making such a progressive and intriguing game. This is the kind of video game that we will look back at in a decade or more and realize how ahead of its time that it was.

I was also going to blog about the new Protest The Hero album, Scurrilous but I don't have time. I'll save that for another entry but what I WILL say is that it's a spectacular album that grows on you with subsequent listens. It kind of comes across like Fortress but overall, I think it's got its own distinction to it and the band continues to show growth with the new record. Anyone who enjoyed their first two albums should check this one out. Test drive tracks like Full-Throttle and Dunsel. The first track, C'est la Vie also is a superior opening track to Fortress' Bloodmeat, IMO.

Until next time...

PEACE!

That's what I call getting into a sticky situation guys...

I'm not inside my own mind today... Did the Canadians just elect a majority Conservative government after they BARELY managed a minorty government in the last 2 elections?

Yes... yes we did.

Why?

The system is broken. Simply put, 40% of the peoples vote, made a majority Torrie government. Does that sound right to you? 60% of Canadian voters DID NOT VOTE FOR STEPHEN HARPER OR THE CONSERVATIVES and yet, they now have a majority government. How does that work, how does that make sense. If you have 40 percent of something that's less than half right? Yet that 40% vote gave the conservatives 167 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons. A majority government. Does this seem right to you?

I really have one person to thank for this. That's Michael Ignatieff, the leader (...at least he was) of the Liberal party. From day ONE. Hell, even before day 1, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives made this man their prime target. Why? Because he was really, the biggest threat to them. Attack ads, attack ads, attack ads. They slammed Ignatief so hard that the Liberals have their lowest representation in government EVER (34 seats, the next lowest was when they had 40 in 1984, the year Lying Brian Mulroney was elected.). They can thank the Torrie's aggressive slam campaign for that and really the loss of liberal seats that were swooped up by the aggressive Torries and the aggressive NDP's is probably the one of the only reasons the Conservatives have a majority government today. It was the result of this aggressive smear based campaign that DIDN'T EVEN FOCUS ON THE CONSERVATIVES GOALS... virtually EVERY ad they put on TV slammed Ignatieff in one way or another, and had nothing to do with them. THAT was their agenda, DESTROY Michael Ignatieff... and it worked.

Jack Layton is the big surprise. Never in a million years would I have expected him to lead the NDP part to the point that they became official opposition. When I voted in 2008, Jack Layton was about the most boring, unassuming party leader of the bunch. You had Harper who... I learned my lesson when I voted conservative (WHY?!) in 2006. I switched my vote to Green Party after that, but back to the point. Jack Layton was like... this kind old dude you would've ran into church every sunday. He just didn't seem to have any of the fire I wanted in a world leader. Jack may have read my mind because he showed fire in this past election. In the televised debate, he kicked ass and I think that opened a lot of eyes to his cause. Being caught in the middle of a rub-and-tug sting operation maybe helped his chances too... Who am I to judge?

The frustrating thing about this is that, once again, there was a dangerously low voter turn out. Barely over half of Canadians bothered to get out to vote and that irritates the fuck out of me. A large portion of this, I think, is that American Politics dominate the televisions. Canadians probably don't even feel like our countries leader even matters. When we turn on the news it's all America this and Obama that (even when they AREN'T killing Osama Bin Laden) and as a Canadian it's hard not to see that and think "Where are the Canadian leaders and our imput? Why should I care about Canadian politics?"

I don't know. It's hard as a young person who has got out and voted EVERY opportunity that I have had to since I became legal voting age. The fact that there are people I know who I am friends with who are as passionate about Canadian politics excites me but for every one of us, there's two or three people who frankly don't give a shit. That's frustrating to me. I look at my country, a country that I love and I see a mass of apathetic people who don't care and that infuriates me. To everyone that did not go out and vote yesterday, fuck you. That's all I have to say. Period.

Now that I have 4-5 years I wonder what we are looking at here from a Majority Conservative Government. Health Care is at risk, Women's rights to pro-choice are at risk, Hell, the Canadian debt is at risk considering the Conservative government wracked up a defecit of over 50 billion dollars, I expect that to climb exponentially but oh wait we're in a recession right? You gotta spend money to make money? That old adage? Well we don't fucking need SHORT RANGE fucking fighter jets, I'll tell you that much. They will pretend to engage 'active economy' but he will give corporate tax cuts and make the tax impact on the people that much greater. The money's got to come from SOMEONE right? Yet the fact that a major anchor of his tax campaign was "The NDP will raise your taxes, the Liberals will raise your taxes" People... Harper will raise your taxes. Don't kid yourselves. Now Harper said he will balance the budget by 2014, so I will hold him to that.

Of the 58% of Canadians that voted, 40% of those wanted Conservative government so... Where's the math in that. Who's majority is this really? Well. Those figures aren't important to The Harper Government. With a majority government now they're really in a position where they can accomplish the Harper Agenda. This will lead to further 'Americanization' of Canada, mark my words. The air of hope that I had, that Canada may change, that Canada would move forward in the modern world. That hope is gone for at least a half a decade...

As I age into my mid and late twenties I will look back at this day as a a day Canada failed to rise up. The NDP rise in power is a key note that ideology in Canada IS changing and I can anticipate the day where there is an NDP government (or another party...) running Canada. It probably won't be Jack Layton running that party (he would be around the age of 64-65 in the next election so it's not out of the woods, depending on his own aspirations) but whoever it is will be in a position to change Canada, and maybe for the better, as long as the Torrie government, sorry The Harper Government, doesn't run us through the mud first.

TURBULENCE! ... Just some random musings

I'm not inside my own mind today... Why is the whole world captivated by a wedding?

That's all I'm going to say about that, really.

I woke up this morning, almost with a hangover though it feels more like sleep deprivation more than anything else. A cup of coffee into me and I can now at least put two thoughts together without feeling like I'm handicapped...

The NFL Draft started yesterday, and Cleveland traded down their 6th overall pick for some insurance, trading with Atlanta who had the 27th pick, we swapped first rounders and also got Atlanta's 2nd and 4th round picks for this years draft AND next year's 1st round and 4th round picks. I was on Barking Hard which is a Browns fan forum I admin on and I was surprised at the mixed reaction to the trade, a lot of people saw the reason behind it. We're a team that's rebuilding (for like... over a decade) and we are not one player away from the superbowl... we're about 5 or 6 at least. We than traded our 3rd round pick and swapped with the chiefs (who were at 21) and drafted a defensive tackle from Baylor named Phil Taylor.

Now I'm no pro scout but I watched some his tapes this morning and I liked what I saw. He's got a lot of power and good technique. Phil has this weird bone disease where his bones grow together in his feet. It cannot be corrected with surgery, it's mostly a pain tolerance issue. The guy's pushing like 340 pounds so you gotta wonder if it will be an issue in the future. The way I see it, he's played through High School and the college level to get to this point, if the injury hampered his dreams that much he would have quit already.

I have a three day weekend, thank fuck. My job can be very stressful but it's got so many variables. It's not like a typical job where you might have one or two major vectors that cause stress. My job is kind of like an automobile. All these working parts coming together and one little thing goes wrong it fucks it all up. I took a sanity day on Monday and I don't work today so... to pardon the awful pun, I really phoned it in this week at work.

I listened to the Vancouver Canucks game on the Team 1040 website yesterday. It was cool because I can't watch the Canucks games (I don't get CBC... I'll get to that ) so when I learned about that I took advantage of it. The Team 1040 radio station broadcasts its radio broadcast of the Canucks games over the internet. I felt like I was simultaneously divulging in some vintage act of defiance while also enabling the technological prowess of today's society. Almost like I was enacting some crazy paradigm shift by what I was chosing to do.

The game was a good game, the Canucks won 1-0, I think that there won't be any meltdowns like there were aganst Chicago because Nashville is not that kind of team. This series is going to be rough and gritty and if the Canucks win they're going to need to re-focus quickly to face a more explosive team like San Jose or Detroit, neither of those teams are teams I WANT to encounter in the playoffs but I did predict a Sharks/Canucks Western Conference Final this year... we'll see if that comes true.

Back to the whole radio thing. I thought it was really cool listening to the game on the radio. Natasha told me she found it hard to follow but It's got tot to be tough when you don't know the names of the players or anything like that. I thought it was exciting, and it still allowed me to follow the action very well. The guys they had calling the game for The Team were really good at what they do. It reminds me that I would love to be a sports broadcaster and announce sports games.

How fucking cool would that be? I think it would be awesome. I would love to call all manner of sports. At least the "big 4" Football, Hockey, Baseball and Basketball. Maybe some Lacrosse or some Curling even. Who knows I'm just a sports junkie.

I had a thought today... I shouldn't say I just had it today. I have it often. I am very... I don't know, really "hateful" without even really being hateful. I say "I hate -this-" like here's a verbatim quote from yesterday when I was ranting about the Royal Wedding (and I said I was done...)

"I am so sick and tired of hearing about the Royal Wedding. I'm done with it, I'm done! I don't want to hear about it anymore!" Now this digressed into a discussion about bombing the wedding with bees. That would have been hilarious. I need to re-calibrate my attitudes. I shouldn't be so aggressively negative toward things that I don't like to the point that it completely overshadows things that I do like. I don't even know how the fuck to go about that but I am sure it involves me actively changing how I look at the world. That won't happen today I will tell you that much.

Here's something I have liked... NETFLIX Ahh yes! I love it. There's a lot of really cool movies and TV shows on netflix and I love that I get a free month to test drive it. There's a few shows and movies and doccumentaries I really want to see but I gotta wait until I have some solo-time where I don't feel like playing Xbox. Show's like Mad Men I really want to check out.  It's 8 bucks a month and there's a lot of content. There's something for everyone and they have a great assortment of content for all the genres that they provide. Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Cartoons/Anime, Childrens Stuff, etc. They have a well rounded selection. It's worth checking out if you have an Xbox/PS3 or Wii or use your PC to watch TV shows to begin with.

There's also the new Mortal Kombat but that deserves it's own blog entry so I'll definitely give that to you guys soon.

I'm out of things to say, until next time...

PEACE!

How Hard Is It To Do Your Fucking Job?

(I originally wrote this on 03/31/11 during the Tumblr experiment, I will post about the Tumblr experiment and my thoughts, probably today or tomorrow.)

I'm not inside my own mind today... and I'm going to try and write this without using the "C" word (and no, the C word isn't cunt).

My job can be very stressful. I'm dealing with frustrated doctors and hospitals who just want their money. Claims worth tens of thousands of dollars, and usually people want shit taken care of right fucking now.

I work with lots of people from all over the world, I get to deal with Indians, Philippinos and even Texans. The most frustrating thing in the world is when somebody doesn't do something that they are SUPPOSED to...

ONE little thing can set the process back, literally months. Let's take appeals for example. The standard time-frame to process a claim appeal is 45 days. When the appeal isn't addressed, we have to send it down. There is a template we must fill out with the appeal that really isn't that difficult to fill out, it takes at most a couple of minutes. When you send a task down, it takes fifteen business days, reset the 45 day process. You can see where this might get a little frustrating if SOMEBODY DOESN'T DO THE JOB THEY ARE FUCKING PAID TO DO!

It is difficult to tell a provider, who is already pissed off at you because you're not telling them "Oh your claim is paid!", that you must take the time to fill out a template to send their appeal, because the previous representative they spoke with did not do this and that they must allow another 45 days, plus 15 business days, when they submitted their appeal to us back in December... three months ago.

How hard is it to just fucking do what you are TRAINED to do?

It's just bullshit because the call center I work at is under enough fucking pressure as it is. Every TINY aspect of my job is scrutinized. Call handle times are scrutinized, after call is scrutinized (after-call is the button you  can hit if you do not want another call to come in RIGHT after you've completed a call), call quality is scrutinized. You can literally fail a call because you document a telephone number wrong. A fucking slip of the finger can cost you. Because my job is outsourced, my standards aren't even dictated by the company that I represent, they are dictated by the company that I work for. It's ridiculous... that's a different rant for a time where I have, perhaps, different employment.

All this added up, and some fucking asshole doesn't take ONE FUCKING MINUTE to do his job properly two months ago when the ball was in his (or her) court to TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS then, and now I've got to talk down someone and do the job RIGHT and then ask them to allow a few more weeks for shit to get taken care of.

One of my favorite phrases at work is "I'm just a middle man" and it's the truth. I just handle claims and benefits. That's it. I don't even deal with the common folk, just health care providers and sometimes it's a blessing, other times not so much. It's tough to tell someone who want's shit dealt with right fucking now that they need to allow another three weeks for their claim to process that's from 2009...

My one wish is that people would just fucking do what they NEED to do. I can't say what's happening. I could blame management because the call center agents are not purely to blame. I could blame ineptitude, I could blame language barriers, I could blame this and that but really it's just so fucking infuriating that I see repetitive issues coming to fruition over and over again and these are things that are ENTIRELY preventable and yet, here I am, cleaning up the fucking mess while I've got managers in my ear about this bullshit and that fucking statistic.

It's like Office Space, without Lumberg... Fuck sakes. I can't continue this, it's lost steam but you get my point. My job is bullshit, blah blah blah, suck it up princess? right?

Right.

Just Blink, Another Goddamn Federal Election

(I originally wrote this during my tumblr experiment on 03/30/11)

I don't think I'm inside my own mind today... Another federal election? Really Canada?

Did you fuckheads in the house spend the last, what... TWO years bickering over the merits of a coalition government to finally push the non-confidence notion on the Conservatives... for what? The opportunity to push ANOTHER minority government into control of this country, AGAIN?

Let's face the facts here. There have been FOUR elections in the last SEVEN years... In a sane country, four elections would happen over the course of SIXTEEN years... over TWICE that amount of time!

There are basically two sides to this battle, with a third wheel attached crudely fighting for respect.

You've got the Conservatives on one hand, led by Stephen Harper, by far my FAVORITE politician maybe EVER.. *SARCASM ALERT* With his robotic nature and his unimaginable inability to emote like a normal human being, he has thrust himself as the face of the PC's and the "Harper Government" and arguably the face of Canada for the past 5 years which is a scary ass thought in of itself.

On the other hand, you have Michael Ignatieff. The leader of the Liberal party. The guy who had to clean up the scraps after Stephane Dion was removed from his post as leader of the Liberal party, a party that really has had absolutely no standing since Jean Cretien retired from politics. Ignatieff is painted as a false Canadian with far too many American sensibilities. I'm sure those who are goaded by the attack advertisements are already put off the idea of voting for him.

Then you have Jack Layton, NDP Leader. He looks like someone you'd run into at Church every Sunday. He, frankly, embarrasses me and he should embarrass anyone that even gives a damn about Canadian politics. Jack Layton has been the head of the NDP party since 2003... He's lead that party for the past 3 elections and social stigma for the NDP party aside, the party has gained ZERO ground under his influenced...

The often ignored fourth wheel in this political circus would be Elizabeth May, the leader of The Green Party. She has been shut out of the upcoming political debates to much controversy, I don't expect this to stand. The funny thing to me is that she's American born, she's such a small fish in a large pond, so to speak the Conservatives wouldn't waste their money or energy attacking her in their ad's. I like Elizabeth May, but the Green Party is too small to make a splash.

Now, really, I think this election will go to whoever is most aggressive, which is why favor is in the end of the Conservatives, they've been aggressive with their pricey (publicly funded) advertising campaigns. They have probably given themselves the early advantage.

The one thing Ignatieff is doing is reaching out a large variety of people, winning over as many demographics as he can is probably his best strategy right now. I think that may help him but will it win him the election? I think he will have to pull a rabbit out of his hat, so to speak, to take this.

Layton's NDP election is centered around Canadian Health Care. For a country with free health care, you would think, why is health care such a big deal? Truth is, it's not "free" we get taxed out the ass for it and a lot of times, you get what you pay for. I've seen the Health Care both sides of the country has to offer and it's bleak on both ends. If Layton can grasp the people and convince them that the NDP Health Care platform is something to believe in, he might snag some votes.

The Green Party's approach is a bit more down to earth, their initiative revolves around a 'common ground' campaign (their words) that wants to cut down on political trash talking and try to engage voters... their words again. To quote an exerpt I found on the Green Party website:

The Green Party of Canada launched its "common ground" campaign in Sidney, B.C., on Monday, urging federal parties to create a "better atmosphere" for Canadians by stopping the political mudslinging and focusing instead on issues all parties can agree on in the lead-up to the May 2 election.
"For the fourth time in seven years, Canada finds itself in a federal election. I know that Canadians feel this is an unnecessary use of taxpayers' money and they are sick of the mudslinging and the personal attacks," said leader Elizabeth May. "We are saying, let's try to engage the voters. Let's try to show them that, once in a while, we can agree on important policy issues."

To be honest I wish the other parties took note but I'm not convinced this will be a big enough impact overall to really make a difference in the election or in voters minds but who knows.

I will be voting Green Party because they represent what I want. They represent something different. I've seen what the Liberals, the NDP and The Conservatives have had to offer Canada and to be honest, I think a change of guard is necessary. With Voter interest at an "all time low" and voter turnout mirroring that sentiment, time will tell if yet another election will warrant any change. I'm not convinced that it will.

I am just so sick of the bullshit. I am so sick of Canadian politics. This revolving door of elections to lead to more Stephen Harper/Conservative political games at the expense of Canadian Tax Payer's dollars, it's got to stop. It won't stop unless someone like Ignatieff, Layton or May step up and kick Harper in the balls, so to speak and show that they have the passion and the vision to take Canada back.

Edit: In the weeks since I've written this, my bitterness toward the election has grown tenfold. My worries of another (possibly majority) Harper Government have me absolutely THRILLED to think about Canada's future and really, as he put it in the debates this past week, we're probably just going to have another election in a couple of years anyway so who gives a shit right? He didn't say the 'who gives a shit' part... I did.