Welcome to the Carnivale

So I am currently watching Carnivale on DVD.  It is part of my catching up on those series that I missed the first time round.  As you know I watch as I ride the GO train to work each day.

As an aside, I always wanted to take a course where I read all the books I am supposed to have read in my life.  I have never read the so-called classics such as "To Kill a Mockingbird".  I am a lawyer and was at a conference where a lawyer talked for 1 hour about how all lawyers should base themselves on the lawyer in the book.  She started with the words... "I do not have to tell you the plot because I am sure everyone in here has read it and if you haven't you should leave now."  I wanted to just get up and leave... but thought that probably was a bad idea for my professional career.  The thing is, I could probably carry on a conversation about the book (as I know the details and the meaning in the Jeopardic  sense).

Double aside... "In a Jeopardic sense" is a term I have just now invented to describe the fact that I can answer questions about a subject without knowing anything real about it.  The list of things that this covers ranges from books to spirituality.  I know enough about a lot of things that I can seemingly converse about them without actually knowing anything about them in any meaningful way.  Interestingly, is a learned skill.  A lot of people would say that is bad.  I think that it is a sign of the times.  Our current lives elevate the trivial over the wise.  I embrace this fully. 

I'll take "They said it on TMZ" for two hundred, Alex.

It seems to me that in many ways television series are what books used to be.  We all converse about them.  Did you see the new Game of Thrones? What do you think about the season finale for Walking Dead?  I can't believe Snooki is pregnant! Very few people want to converse about the Art of Fielding.  Unless it is being turned into a movie.  Or it involves a vampire/love triangle/Steve Jobs.  Any of those things and all bets are off. 

I am trying to become a Rhodes Scholar of the cablebox. 

Which leads me back to Carnivle.  It is a very interesting little series.  It is slow as molasses in one sense, but playing with very large themes with huge implications.  It is all about a carnival during the depression, where two individuals have been chosen to be the avatars of evil and good.  I do not know where it is going but it has been interesting so far.  It reminds me of a weird mix of Lost, Heroes and Twin Peaks. 

I am just at the beginning and the show is making me think there is some larger story to tell.

But that larger story is not going to be told.  I know the show gets cancelled after the second season on a cliff hanger.  So I am watching a series I know will ultimately have no pay-off.  That said I am watching a series that I know will not end with disappointment.  I kind of wish that had happened with Heroes. If there were no second season it would have just ceased to exist and I could remember it fondly for what it was going to be rather than the utter mess it turned into.

As they say - "it is better to be silent and let people assume you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".  If the show never ends - then there can be no argument that there was no ending to the show.  That seems pretty profound to me.  Maybe I am wise after all.  
I am on a Go train trip to nowhere and I am enjoying the ride. 

For my loyal (non-familial) reader...

So yeah I realise its been a while...

It has been a crazy couple of weeks of work-filled wonder.   Actually strike that.  I am not a Disney Imagineer and as such my job does not involve much wonder.  It involves work.  Lots of it lately.  Because of this my posting has suffered.  I apologise.

I was brought out of my non-posting ways by a reader of this blog who is not my direct family.  He reads loyally and even seems to be watching the TV shows I have recommended (American Horror Story for the win - which by the way is back with a twist.  Jessica Lange will be the main character this time with Zachery Q as her nemesis but they are not playing the same characters they played in the first season.  Is this the first time there has been a season two with the same actors now playing different characters.  Is that going to mess people up? Debate amongst yourselves.  I think the answer is clear - they will both be evil twins of their first season characters to add to the soap operay goodness that is American Horror Story).

Anyways...in honour of this reader I want to say I am back and will be posting more regularly.  

Today's topic:  Kids = plague rats. 

Now I love my son.  He is just starting to walk and talk.  He is awfully cute.  But he is without a doubt patient zero for the plague.  Before he was born I would never get sick.  I was a super-human.  I looked down at those who got sick and prided myself on my amazing tolerance to what felled the 'weaker' ones.  Little did I know that these 'weaker' people were simply parents. 

You see since my son has been born I have been taken down twice with what I can only describe as the plague.  This may be aided by the fact that he thinks everything is a popsicle to be licked. 

This weekend I was minding my own business and shopping with my wife at Winners when suddenly I felt that I shouldn't be at Winners anymore.  I was shaking and nauseous.  We left soon after that.  The rest of the day was not very good.  All of this I am sure is from my little son who the day before had had a little bit of a stomach virus. 

I think the better weapon of mass destruction is a squadron of two year olds holding out their jammy hands and advancing on an unsuspecting population to hug and kiss them while silently dispatching opposition with their adorable viruses.

All this got me to thinking that Dalton McGuinty is really an ass.  Recently, he has been calling on teachers to take a pay freeze and give up other entitlements in order to do their part to achieve fiscal responsibility and keep full-day kindergarten.  I think this is a bad idea for all sorts of reasons.  However, it occurred to me that it is also not recognizing the full danger we put our teachers in.

You see, one of the things that he is saying should be taken away is the amount of sick days that teachers get.  After experiencing what my singular son gave me I can't imagine what it is that teachers get from an army of 24 kids (or I guess now 26 kids since we are also raising class sizes). 

It is a wonder that they do not get hazard pay. 

Honestly, teachers may be important in that they teach the next generation (and all that good stuff), but we can't forget what kindergarten really is.  It is the front line in an ongoing battle of biological warfare.  Taking away sick days is equivalent to taking away a bullet proof vest from a soldier and sending him off into war.  

After having experienced it for myself, I for one am not begrudging teachers their sick days.  

For those that do, I think my son wants to give you a big kiss!