What Sucks

Well, they're back to school - all of them.  And we finally get to stop seeing the Staples ad with its tiresome overuse of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year".  And that darn Glee girl in the Canadian ads.

I'm assuming this is the real ad, since I couldn't

bring myself to watch it all the way through again.

One of my kids asked me if she could watch the Glee premiere tonight (hint: not the 4-yr old boy), and I stuck to our parental party line of "no way".  Too many sexualized references and dancing, high school puppy love romanticized like a soap opera, not to mention the trivializing of sex in general.  And I lost interest in the first season when they started using instrumental tracks instead of the catchy "a cappella" arrangements.  Just lazy producing, if you ask me.

So while the U.S. has started gearing up for next year's presidential election, pundits poking holes in other parties' candidates (ah, I remember it well from our 10 years in Massachusetts), Canada's on the precipice of its regular provincial elections. 

Here in Ontario the pendulum swung from right to left in the last decade, after late-90's premier Mike Harris cut many programs to balance the budget. Now that Dalton McGuinty has spent us back into a deficit, the government teat has swollen, and taxes are at an all-time high, will the pendulum swing back? Only Oct. 6 knows for sure.

Meanwhile, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is getting constant heat for any suggestion of cutbacks or privatizing services to save money.  Not that I'm a fan or anything, but it goes to show how tough it can be to wean people off that teat. 

http://news.ca.msn.com/local/toronto/toronto-service-cuts-talks-end-after-20-hours-12

We all want less taxes and more spending money, but we want the government to keep growing services to meet growing needs.  Using what, the barter system?



OK that's two cartoons in quick succession - I apologize.  Just trying to keep the mood light when getting political, which I haven't done yet in this blog.

Speaking of my turning-40 goals, I now have definite word from all three local universities that I'd have to quit work to get my PhD, since none of them offer part-time programs.  Which sucks.  Or not; maybe it's not meant to be -- maybe my next life project is bigger than that, or on a totally different track.

In the meantime, I've explored the PhD possibility like I said I would, I'm halfway through transferring the Ireland home videos, we defeated Bethany's LCH yet again, and I built a kick-ass shed in the backyard this summer.  Not bad for nine months.