Saturday night (blogging) fever I was asked by another person today why I choose to befriend them. Don't get me wrong, I don't resent that; it's a reasonable quetion, and I would be a little suspicious if this was not inquired of me. It just reflects on the sad state of humanity as a whole that a question like this is the norm. Of course, this may not be a flaw in the human race; I am learning of strictly enforced lineage hierarchies in primates as well. And we all know evolution is a relative concept. After all, if the handgun could be invented 70 years before the toilet flush, one wonders in which direction we truly are travelling. Where exactly is it that we are running? And are we getting anywhere good? It would be nice to imagine that the whole world, all 6 billion plus of it, would just stop, take a deep breath, and take a look around them, adjust and fix anything askew (like the direction) and then continue.
This is something I shoud've comented on earlier; On Thursday, when I went to drop my friend off at the anthro 100 class, there were two people outside collecting donations for the victims of Pakistani earthquake. I knew one of them as well, in fact have known her since Grade 7, though I lost touch with her over the years. I still don't trust, however, these grassroots donation movements. I saw too many scams after the Bhuj earthquake (if you want to know about this, follow the BBC news link to the right, then type in Bhuj in the upper right hand corner search box; they covered it pretty well) money that was donated but never reached the survivors. And it happens all the time; people benefit from disasters in this way. You can bet anything there were 5 scams for every honest donation agency in the aftermath of Katrina in USA. Why not? It's lucrative, easy tax-free money that you will never be held accountable for. People who genuinely want to help make the trip down to the actual location and physically help, in intangible ways you don't need a tax receipt for. Very rarely do they stand in a doorway and collect donations. Even if location help is not quite possible, they are somewhere in the line of helpers. Real charities never ask for money; they ask for supplies. That's one way to wed out the scams; scammers can do nothing with quilts and sweaters. Or they cannot do as much as they could with cold, hard cash.
Speaking of Katrina, whatever happened to the relief efforts of Hurrican Juan? If there's anythign Canadian media sucks at, it's reporting on Canadian news. Except for politics and hockey. Then they're all over it, over-analyzing and nitpicking. Which would be great, if
a) not 80% of hockey teams would be American
b) not all canadian politicians were the same
But I guess I may ask for world peace while I'm at it, because that would be an easier deliverable than requesting a change of those two up there.
Speaking of hockey...I got nothing. Isn't there a Leafs game on now? Meh; I used to be a hockey fan, but I find it difficult to watch a sport which encourages blind violence. Soccer (Football for everyone who speaks proper english) Cricket and Basketball for the win. Especially the concept of superstar protection in soccer. In hockey, you blindside Mario Lemieux (yes, I'm looking at you, Scott Stevens) you don't suffer any penalty. In soccer, you tackle Zinedine Zidane, you pay. Moving on, I want to expand on the topic of the music of 2005 that I briefly touched upon in my last blog (Okay, that was definitely the influence of too many lectures) We did see albums and/or tours from almost every big name. U2 toured, Rolling Stones released an Album, Madonna released an album, Maroon 5 toured, Sheryl Crow released an album, 50 cent released an album, Eminem will soon release an album, Kanye West released an album, Green Day toured, Coldplay released an album, Faith Hil released an album, Sarah McLachlan toured, Oasis released an album, John Mayer released an album, Bruce Springsteen released an album, K-Os toured, Alicia Keys released an album...heck, even Will Smith and Shakira released albums. What am I saying, the Backstreet Boys released an album. Norah Jones is, I think, the only big name we didn't hear from in 2005. Her and Evanescence, but they seem to have disappeared into thin air. So what does that leave for us in 2006? I guess only time will tell.
Martina Hingis is returning to tennis. This is very good news, as her playing style is a throwback to an era of finesse in women's tennis, an era that the Williams brothers effectively demolished. It would be fun to see, though, how she adapts against the next generation of players, players who can hit hard and gracefully, Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne being the two biggest examples. They take out Venus and Serena quite easily, and Hingis always struggled against them, but you never know. I mean, if Navratilova can win championships at 50+, Hingis is only 25, less than half that age. (For people who want to know more about women's tennis, try www.wtatour.com )
I do believe that's all I have to say. I commend you if you've stuck with me thus far, and do feel free to leave comments. I don't bite, that job is retained exclusively for my umbrella.  ¶ 5:28 PM