Blog or white ... because it never is.

The news in Winnipeg hasn't been good lately.  I think we all have been wondering what is going on and what we can all do to make things better.  The opiod crisis seems to be in every neighbourhood.  We just went through two elections that surprised many of us in how toxic some of the rhetoric was.  We are struggling.  The police are struggling.  Some of the stories on the news I hope are fake.  Even on facebook, there are several groups devoted to People of Winnipeg.  I am sad to say that in the last 72 hours, I have not seen one positive post.  I want us to do something positive.  Something to show that we love Winnipeg and our Winnipeg is worth it.  I am asking everyone to tweet something, anything, over the next 24 hours using the hashtag  #WinnipegCanDoBetter    Because we can do better.  We can work together better.  We can make our Winnipeg safer, stronger, kinder.  A world class city with ...

I was very saddened to read a story today about a gentleman in Surrey, BC who had a bad experience with Skip The Dishes.  It was on the Global website under National News.  The man ordered a meal from a restaurant using Skip.  His order included a piece of cheesecake.  When he arrived, it looked like someone had taken a bite out of the cheesecake.  He took a picture and sent it to the restaurant and Skip.  The restaurant responded that it looked like it had been damaged in deliver but doubt the driver took a bite out of it.  They gave the man a $20 gift certificate and they dropped a piece of cheese cake in a package to demonstrate that it looked remarkably similar.  Skip then gave the man a $20 credit.  The media got involved as the man thought he was harmed by this.  This is not a news story.  To review, a news story is where something actually happened.  This is a petty consumer disappointment to which the man was over...

Last night, I had an epiphany.  It was a long time in coming.  Last week, while playing in a local tournament, short stack shoved and I called with my pocket ladies.  We flipped them over and it was my QQ against pocket 10s.  The flop came down QQ5.  Nice feeling. Flopping quads.  As I quietly exhaled, some Captain Obvious sitting next to me said, "do you realize that even if the turn and river are both 10s, you will still win."   I just smiled and nodded, however, my inside voice was saying, "what kind of idiot do you think I am? Of course, I know that."  I mentally added this jerk to my list of sexist players who think women are stupid.  Last night, I played in the same tournament.  (Good news for the casino.  Over 100 entries and well run.  It appears people have gotten over the increase in entry fee.)  Anyway, one of the best players in the room found himself very short stack and shoved pre-flop.  Two c...

One of the worst parts of watching the election coverage was watching the partisan commentators telling us what was obvious.  Most of those "commentators" were recycled old politicians.  I want to appeal directly to our local media to never consider Steven Fletcher.  I certainly hope he has lost any credibility he once may have had.  I also hope he has finally gotten the message that his type of politics is not what people will vote for.  I hope he understands that, for whatever reason, he just can't get along with people.  But, it is more than that.  For some reason, he engages in politics that incites fear into the vulnerable and he looks to benefit personally from that fear.  I don't think he should ever be forgiven for his opposition to the BORC.  And, it wasn't just that he was opposed to it.  It was how he kept changing his reasons why he didn't support the project and he kept planting ridiculous notions in people's heads....

Well, first of all, he joined the Young Conservatives.  I don't know this for sure, but I know the Young Conservatives and how they operate.  There is nothing about Andrew Scheer that doesn't reek Young Conservative.  The YCs attract book smart young men who have been bullied most of their lives.  They join and suddenly they are connected to other young men who understand them  They now feel like the cool kids.  They feel accepted in a way they haven't in any other peer group.  They feel powerful and that feeling is pretty wonderful.  They suddenly feel that they want this feeling to last forever.  They volunteer, they help with campaigns, and they decide they are good at it, and they want to become politicians.  Most successful politicians are successful because there is usually a cause or some action of government that ignites their passion and pushes them to run for public office.  When the going gets rough, and it always wi...

There was a little girl growing up in Dauphin, Manitoba at a time when there was only two channels on tv.  That little girl was me.  As a preschooler, I remember watching Mr. Dress-Up (although I didn't like it) and then my mom watched The Price is Right.  She spent the whole hour watching it while on the phone with our neighbour across the street, my Auntie Eileen.  My Auntie Eileen had a huge recipe card filing system where she recorded the price of everything on the show.  I was three years old when Sesame Street premiered.  The next year, my mom and some of her curling buddies did a skit for the Rockette Curling wind-up parodying Sesame Street.  I consider that skit my writing debut.  My mom and her buddies would rehearse in our basement and I was the expert they relied on so I was their writer, producer, director.  For some reason, the skit didn't go over well.  My mom didn't understand this as she and her friends thought it was ...

I know.  I get it.  I'm always ranting about sexism in poker.  I know it is tiring.  Guys just want to go have fun, have some laughs, let off some steam, and here is this ultra-feminist giving them a sociology lesson.  Even the women are tired of me.  They want me to stop calling people out on their prejudice behaviors.  They think the more sexist the player, the better it is for women because we will be underestimated.  Believe me, I do want to stop. But, there are guys out there who are just bad people.  I know there is also women players who are also bad people.  I know we have cracked the glass ceiling on that one.  I really don't feel I am ranting as letting our allies know what we have to deal with and to hopefully inspire them to lend a hand when they are able. Take, for example, "the asshole".  Seriously, take him.  I don't know his name and I don't care to. I first met him last New Year's Eve.  He bought...