| Politics

Economics, monetary policy, and business in general is not everyone's cup of tea. I'm fairly certain that it's rare for most people to ever think about these things, let alone try to understand it. Because of the lack of understanding and absense of a drive to learn, these realities of our existance are barely critiqued by anyone. You can understand my surprise after seeing a 12 year old Victoria Grant completely hammer the corrupt system that we live within in Canada.

Lovely and brilliant little miss Victoria sparked this post of mine today, because this is something that I personally do think about, and something which I have been fairly critical of for a long time. What Victoria is saying is nothing really new to me, but what impresses me is how far her reach has been. These ideas, this critical thought, coming from a 12 year old is hard to argue with. And better still, it gives me some hope for the future - Hope that perhaps the never ending propaganda machine that we exist within will not fully reach everyone. Perhaps the children of the internet age are vastly more intelligent and aware than the X or Y generations and beyond. Maybe through evolution with a database of never-ending information at their fingertips, this young generation have already realized better ways for humanity to coexist. Perhaps if they weren't so distracted with menial entertainment items, they'd already be leaders in proposing these ideas.

None the less, this is something we all should be talking about, every generation of every country. It's very evident now that the financial crisis we see ourselves in, is solely due to how the monetary policy of the world operates, not how we operate within that operation. It is this fractional reserve, create money out of nothing, mentality that has created the possibility and reality that vast wealth be accumulated by few people. It is now time that Governments on all levels stop debating about what to spend money on, or what not to, and to fully debate the system we live within. It's my belief that most of these people don't even realize that there are other ways, instead fully accepting that the current world economic decorum is absolute. It is not. There are other, and far superior, ways. Many people have attempted to propagate and even instate these other ideals. Many of them have been destroyed or killed due to these attempts (See "Libya Truth"), but there are indeed other ways. We must open up this debate and should our leaders not do this, we the people must. Essentially, this is what the Occupy Movement is doing, but we must go a step beyond this and envelope the world with the possibility of a new reality. The spreading of this idea is a viral one, because it's a very simple idea: The current system of borrowing from private interests with massive debt attached, who create money out of nothing, is ludicris.

A 12 year old girl could see that.

| L.A. Kings

Way back in 1993 when I was only 14 years old, I remember sitting on the edge of my bed watching intensly as the Los Angeles Kings faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Conference finals that year. My room was decked with black and white propaganda; jerseys, towels, clocks and whatever else Kings related I could display proudly. LA made it past the Leafs that year, only to lose in the finals vs the Montreal Canadians. Since then, LA has never made it past the 2nd round of the post season and have in fact spent many a year not even making it to 'the dance'. Well, fortunes seemed to have shifted for my beloved Kings, and for the first time since that year they have now made it to the 2nd last round of the yearly championship.

If you had of asked me at the end of last season, you would have heard me talking about how the Kings were going to win it all next year. Now to be fair, I've said that same thing every year in and endless blind faith, but last year was different. I knew they had a solid team and I felt strongly that they were on the cusp of something special. If you had of asked me that same question in the middle of this season however, I don't think I would have been so gung ho on the idea. They had a miserable start to the season barley winning any games and many questions were being posed around the league about what was going wrong. I don't think I ever fully lost faith in the team though. Being that positive person I try to be, I always remained hopeful and the fact of the matter is, if you actually watched the team play you would have noticed that they were doing everything right... well, everything besides scoring that is. Half way through the season you would have heard me saying "If they could only find the scoring, they'd be a very dangerous team". Well, it seems that I was right and they found that scoring at the perfect time.

Los Angeles has been in playoff mode for months now in fact. After replacing Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter as the head coach mid way through the season, and picking up a tremendous player in Jeff Carter around that same time, LA surged to have the second best record in the NHL in the last 20 games. They fought very hard and through that determination, they squeaked into the Playoffs by landing in the 8th and final spot of the Western Conference. Time tells us that last place was perfect for this team as it appears that just making it was enough.

In the first round, LA faced the Vancouver Canucks who happen to be the team that eliminated LA two years ago in the first round of that years championship. LA had a chance for redemption this year and they certainly did do some redeeming. After suffering only one loss in that series, LA eliminated Vancouver in just five games, sending the President Trophy winners home packing. No doubt it was a tough loss for the Canucks who were early favorites to take home the prize in 2012. That one loss in the first round ended up being LA's only loss so far in the Playoffs as they found ways to win 4 games back to back against their next foe; the St. Louis Blues. St. Louis finished the season 2nd overall in the West, and like the Canucks were favorites to go very deep. LA again proved to be the better team and swept them off to the golf course, or whichever other venue the Blues team spends their summer. The Kings were so commanding in their victory over the Canucks and the Blues that they are now considered the number one team to beat in this years Playoff run. This is a feat that no analysis expected when this post season began, but it is certainly a feat I'm welcoming with open arms.

The team will now face the Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference finals, a series which will begin this week sometime. This is LA's 2nd ever time in the conference finals in franchise history, but it also the first time in franchise history that the 'Yotes' will be there. Both teams will no doubt be hungry to move on and both teams are packed with incredible goaltending at the moment (not to mention some fierce battling from the entirety of both teams to get the job done). There is no doubt in my mind that this series will be a hard fought battle, but being that positive person I am, I can't see LA losing. In my heart of hearts, I do see them playing in the finals. I don't know who with, but I foresee it happening and to go a step beyond, I see them winning that match up as well. Yes, for the first time ever, I truly believe that my yearly prediction of LA winning the cup will finally come true. I truly do.

No matter what though, I kind of feel like I'm 14 again riding along with the teams success, hoping a dreaming that their hopes and dreams come true. It's been an extremely long time since my favorite team has lasted anywhere near this long into the spring and I'm certainly eating up every single moment of it.  I may even have to break out all that Kings paraphernalia as I continue down this ride with them. With or without all that gear posted proudly throughout my dwelling though, I certainly will be cheering loudly as they continue down their destined path.

Go Kings Go!

| Ghost Rider, Movies and Film

It's perhaps odd that I'm discussing a different superhero (well, antihero) movie on a weekend when the massivly popular Avengers movie has been released (which I did see and did very much love). None the less, odd or not, Ghost Rider: Spirt of Vengeance is on my mind even though the movie was released months ago.

I had written most of this review shortly after seeing the newest incarnation of my favorite character, but decided to let everything settle before truly freshing out my feelings on the subject. It's rather difficult for me to unbiasly look at the movie afterall. My obsession with this badass flaming skeleton for a large chunk of my life kind of blinds me. Combine that with me being one of those nearly always positive people who sees the good over the bad in most everything, and you got a guy who's going to like this movie no matter what. The fact is, I just love seeing this character on the big screen in whatever fashion.

What I personally enjoyed most about this second incarnation was the character himself. Not Johnny Blaze per se, but Ghost Rider, Zarathos. His look, his actions, his abilities, his voice, his bike, everything was fantastic. I honestly only wanted to see what Ghost Rider would be like after all, and this movie did not fail me. The fact that he was badass in his dark and eerie way was an awesome sight, and I couldn't wait for him to get back on screen...

... which brings me to a negative of the film, and yes I can acknowlege negatives. I just don't like to. In this case however, it's perhaps not a good thing when I don't care about the plotline of a film and am just waiting for the title character to break free again. I'm not sure if this was because of a poorly developed script or just my pure enjoyment of the title character himself, but that's how I felt and perhaps is a negative which I should not ignore when discussing a film. I did like the style of the movie and what the directors brought to the franchise, but the story itself was lacking something unique. Sure, it was a fun ride with some neat elements, but it's as if the whole story was recycled from something we all saw before.

With regards to the other characters in the film, I can't really say I loved any of them as much as I did Zarathos, but again, I didn't have to. I was there to see Ghost Rider. I would say that Blackout was pretty great though, and he did have some of the most memorable moments in the film. Fans of the character were probably a little miffed that he wasn't exactly like the comic version, but I actually thought he was an upgrade and that Whitworth did a great job in his performance of him.

Speaking for actors, let's discuss Nic Cage and his performance. With all due respect to Nic and his abilities, the film probably could have had some new blood injected into the character. While the character of Johnny was a massive upgrade to the first film (IE, no jelly beans) I would have been interested to see what another actor would have brought to the table. I mean, I deeply respect that Nic is a fan of the character, but I can't help to wonder what things would have been like it it weren't him in the role. I did enjoy some of the choices don't get me wrong, but the problem I have with Nic is that I can't see beyond Nic. It's hard to truly see him as Johnny, ya know?

All in all, what I like about the movie definitely trumps what I didn't like about it. The character I loved for so long was very well executed and truly all that matters is that I got to see this character on the big screen again. There is definitely nothing wrong with that!

| Ghost Rider, Movies and Film

The Spirit of Vengeance is NOW in theaters!! Check out the trailer below and be sure to visit a cinema near you whenever you can to check it out. I saw it yesterday and will have a full write up on what I thought sometime soon...

| Politics

As most of Newfoundland and Labrador knows, the Provincial election is coming up in October. All candidates have already hit their respective campaign trails looking for support, and the local media is on fire with coverage... but I'm personally not feeling it.

I'm very much a local person and lover of my home. I do pay close attention to the issues in our Province. My deep desire to forever keep our unique identity keeps me engaged in all things nearby. I'm just having a hard time right now focusing on the smaller picture.

With an economic crises unfolding and a true possibility of the collapse of monetary systems around the world lurking, I can't really think about Muskrat Falls, ya know? With the cover-up of huge events such as 9/11 continuing to this day, I can't really focus on what Danny did or did not do as Premier. With protests, riots, uprisings and revolutions happening all around the world, I'm not really interested in two political leaders happening to run into each other on the campaign trail. Maybe it's just me, but I'm just not into it. Not at all. It's not like me, but it's reality. My interest is not sustained by the local debates, as it's the same push button politics we always hear. It goes beyond that though, I think. Push button politics exist on the grandest of scales too. It's just that right now, the grandest of scales are very unstable, and that's where my focus is... for now anyway.

And for the record, I'm not saying that I'm not going to vote. That's just crazy talk. I'm just saying that these folks I'm voting on are going to have to do quite a bit to get my attention right now, that's all. I'm just not feeling it.

| Blogging

I would think that a high percentage of my posts on this blog are ones referencing my 'return to blogging'. It's been no secret since I started doing this whole web log thing back in 2005 that lengthy absences are frequent. To be fair however, I do have a pretty big network of blogs that I update. Strike that, try to update. I can't even pass the full blame on the lack of updates here on me having many blogs, because they all suffer at times. The summer is generally the time I tend to be removed from blogging most. I guess the winter makes it easy to stay inside and get it done, while when the sun is shinning I want to be out and about enjoying it. Now that fall in the air, it seems I'm comfortably transitioning into my blogger world once again.

One of the blogs which I run is currently in the middle of an awards session actually. This constantly evolving entity is called the NL Blogger's Choice Awards and this year is the 2nd annual. The contest features 3 selections per 10 categories, all featuring blogs from Newfoundland and Labrador, the place and live and love. The vote opened on September 15th and will be open until the end of the month. It's open to anyone anywhere, with the ability to vote once per day.   Check it out if you haven't already.

Hockey season is fast approaching as well, and with that comes the 7th annual Wasting Time Fantasy Hockey League. Nothing really special to the outside world on this blog, but it is a place I try to update for the 16 folks involved in this highly developed and pretty intense league. It's probably common to all those who partake in fantasy hockey leagues, but the 'GM's in this league take things seriously. All in good fun of course. But serious fun... and none more than myself, the Commish of the league :)

Outside of those two worlds, my political fancy has been tickled as of late too. It was sparked mostly by the 10th anniversary of the attacks on 9/11 which came and went last Sunday. Leading up to that day I felt an extreme urge to once again partake in the 9/11 Truth infowar which grasped me so firmly in years past. It wasn't as if I felt guilty for being away or anything, but more that I felt updating the Canadians For 9/11 Truth blog during this time would be benificial in that infowar. It's a high  ranked site within most search engines after all, and new updates only serve to help that. Now that I'm back in that blogging world, I'm hoping that I can find the time to stay in there, at least semi frequently.

So yeah, I guess I do spread myself thin when it comes to blogging and sometimes I do take breaks, by choice and not sometimes, but in saying that, it's pretty evident that I'm a blogger and forever will be.

| Ghost Rider, Movies and Film

Just on the heels of my last post of images from the upcoming Ghost Rider film comes a few more goodies to share. This time it's far more images, and they're moving rapidly in succession to tell pieces of a story. This is otherwise known as a teaser trailer!

I've watched this about 6 thousand times so far and I'll probably watch it a few thousand more before February. There goes my 'trying to stay out of the loop this time' idea eh? Here I was thinking I would actually be able to not watch one trailer, not look at one poster. Sheesh, who was I kidding really? Oh, and speaking of poster...

You can click the image for a larger version (posted on the ever awesome SuperHeroHype.com) if you want a better look.

I'll going to have leave you with that for now. When I get more time, I'm sure to blabber on with my thoughts about all this, but in one word at this very moment here's how I feel - Excited.