In coming back from my little Thanksgiving excursion over to Canada the bridge was pretty busy for a Thursday night. Then I realized, they are coming over for the Black Friday Event over at the Fashion Outlets in Niagara Falls. Yes in a half hour they are going to open the doors to the madness.

The ironic part is from the info that a friend of mine's sister who is a manger @ Pac Sun in that mall they did this at the request of the CANADIANS!!! Since they always complained that once they got over the bridge all the good bargains were gone. Yes I'm Canadian but I find it wrong they they come over request an earlier start time and make the poor people in retail take a quick nap after dinner and go into work right NOW.

The reason why my small family went over there today for dinner was just for the fact that I didn't want to feel guilty in exploiting someone's labor to serve me a meal on a Holiday. To them it's just another day, for us it's a pretty sacred holiday & the Midnight madness just reinforces to me why X-mas is just nothing but an economic indicator on the economy. "What was Wal-Mart's Same Store Sales Projection?" "A cold holiday season will result in a bigger bottom line as people snap up winter coats & accessories"

I'm just glad I'm pretty much Christmas to my family is very much a quiet event. To be out there in a few hours smacking people around to save a few bucks to show how generous, aka how much you love someone is just not me.

On to the post that I have had bottled up for a while. On Friday night I went out with my friend D* and early on it was a blast as I ran into an (e:strip)per @ SoHo and seeing them is always a pleasurable time.

Then after a while we moved to Diablo and that's when things got really bad. Out there I ran into another (e:strip)per and then things just blew up. Apparently I can't speak to this person. Yea there is some really F'd up shit between the two going back many years ago but all I was doing was attempting to get a bottled water @ the bar. The place happened to be crowded beyond belief and I was already waiting 15 minutes for a drink. What was I to do move to the other end and wait 30 minutes? All I can say is I am glad that we never got married as my life would be totally miserable. One day she will learn that only she can make herself happy. I can only go so far as a friend and that seems to be in short supply to her as it is triggering so many negative emotions in her life.

Saturday I hit up (e:carolinian) @ Grandma Mora's to celebrate his b-day. It became a nice "couple's" evening as I brought my Ex with me and it turned out wonderfully. One one level it made me feel mature to be hanging with a couple of couples, although my Ex and I are not together. It made me sad that the relationship just was not compatible on a few levels but in the end I do realize that honestly it is in out best interests that we are not together. There is the old saying of someone, "being in love with love." I just see the upside of being in a relationship with someone socially and professionally, even though the other working parts are not compatable. What is that called? A marriage of Convenience? Yes I do wish I had a wife that was the total package. For the last 2 serious relationships I had there was only 1/2 of the picture and I went from one end of the spectrum to the other. My was was "hot" but had a shitty personality and sucked in bed. My Ex GF is not as physically attractive as her but had a great personality and rocked in bed. Of course there were other intangibles that I won't get into but, yea...

Today I ended up stopping by a co-worker of a long time friend and his wife. She's pretty interesting in the sense that she's in related to very high level politicians in this country but only through marriage. Really we don't talk about much intellectually as she is in some ways a "Falls Chick" but at the same time she is pretty hot in other ways. Also in hanging with her is it kind of a favor to my friend as his wife as they are trying to get to that ideal "couples hanging out" situation as described above. They just don't have that as an option given where they live/work. So in their wisdom they set us up attempting to get us to that point. To be honest I'm just having fun and deep down all parties involved know that but I do see myself just having to push her away eventually. She's fun, but really there isn't the mental stimulation or at least I don't see it yet.

So with my Dad off today I decided to attempt to do something. First off I originally went to Casino Niagara to mess around a bit. Well that attempt just fell flat on its face. The place was DEAD, the only people in the joint were really old and obviously on some bus tour. When I saw that the poker room only had 3 tables going i basically said F-This.

My next stop was the Bratford OLG Casino outside of Hamilton. It was the first time ever being there and I must say it was pretty descent. Really it was just nice but not elegant and the staff & other players were a bit laid back as opposed to Niagara Falls Ontario casino's where they are extremely anal with everything they do. I ended up losing some cash waitiing for a seat to open on on Poker and then played a pretty solid game of 2-5 Limit. A game that is pretty much extinct in Niagara Falls as most young bucks want to wear expensive designer sunglasses and warm up suits & play No Limit. I just don't feel like betting 300 a hand, I can last all day and lose it slowly thank you very much.

So I ended stopping back in Hamilton to grab a slice of peppeoni & munch on other stuff inside a Pizza Pizza on Upper James. It was a slice, drink, chips & aero bar combo for $5. Then it dawned on my, Aero bars are not for sale in the USA.


Next I decided to be a bit nostalgic and drive by my late Grandparents house. It's in the neighborhood of the original Tim Hortons. So as a public serivce to all that are addicts of their coffee I bring you thing. The Canadian version of Springfield Illinois, if you are looking at it from an iconic food & beverage standpoint a la McDonald's

I was surfing around last night being a bit bored and came upon this page

Oh, Sunday night @ midnight I used to just wait with anticipation until the 1:06 minute mark of that introduction. If you remember the show "Forever Knight" it was an scary similarity to the show that the character Lacroix had.

I'm pretty convinced that listening to that music at a young age really took my mind places that it should not have been.

Communist, Eh?

Unregulated markets + Unscrupulous Businesses = Fleecing of the Common People. It was the Republicans that overturned most the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 sometime in the 90's to get us to the brink of Financial Oblivion. Citing such catch phrases as , "Uncompetitive" "Burdensom Regulation" and "Free Markets" they unwound all of the safety nets, safeguards and other legislation that prevented such an event for almost 80 years.

Great, just what we need more deregulation. Big Business has everyone's best interest at heart. I'm not saying that going the other way is in our best idea. To balance things where people can take their shot and succed in the free market and yet have a social safety net underneath them is the ideal, i.e. Canada.

It's just that now that we are on the brink of a major recession/Depression the ugly truth of Capitalism is coming to the limelight. THE LOSERS PAY OFF THE WINNERS! It's a Zero sum game. For everyone that is going to be on the street due to their house getting foreclosed on there is some bank somewhere that took the other side of the trade that is going to make a mint.

As far as I am concerned the game is over. Economically speaking unless you have a lot of money in a foreign currency or precious metals your wealth is depreciating by the day literally. There will be some great changes in store for us in the future. Real change is going to occur now that the formerly middle class and upper middle class people are going to lose their "STUFF" en mass.

Get ready for economic bloodbath as this month moves closer to the end. We're fucked.

• My apologies if I sound like a raving lunatic...