It has been weeks since I've actually stepped on a scale. Been weeks since I've been to the gym. My clothes still fit, and my pants are still relatively baggy.

I have lingering hope.

Busy Times

This week has been unreasonably busy.

I tried to watch the Snoozerbowl. It didn't hold my interest. The halftime show was flat, and not compelling. Not sure who watches anything for the "commercials." Do you also not skip the ads on YouTube? You're strange.

That is my judgement statement of the day. If you watch something just to see commercials, you're strange.

I'm not much for watching, or enjoying watching major advertisers spending millions to show a 30-second commercial that most often lacks all creativity. I think the small marketing outfits do better, but most of them would never get a crack at a mega-millions commercial production. In general though, ads do nothing for me. They surround us. They scream at us. They demand we give into consumerism, and spend our money on their product. The companies that can spend the most usually provide the most banal products, and solutions. Budweiser's mass produced beer lines can't compete with the product of local craft brewers, but craft brewers don't spend millions on marketing. Budweiser does. Every day. As do hundreds of other companies like Best Buy, WalMart, Target, Gillette - the brands, and stores you probably spend a considerable amount of your money with. Of course, what options do we have in many cases? 

Regardless, when you do have options, such as supporting a local, small business, do so. It means more to the economy than another $5 in the pockets of major retailers.

Anyway, I can't say I recall a single commercial from Sunday, and I'm not sure I recall much of the game. It just didn't hold my interest. I can't even call it a defensive battle, no matter how low the score was. It was just offensive ineptness. Even in a defensive battle, good offenses find ways to make some plays. When it's 3-3 in the 4th quarter, the offenses just haven't made any plays.

This week has also been busy. New opportunities are ahead. Many projects, potentially a new job, creative endeavors I need to catch up on, and of course, a lot of renovation work to do.

I said back in October the next six months would be tight on money, time, and energy. I wasn't wrong.

By the way, I told Cortney Sunday morning that I had a dream that the Superbowl was a snore, and the score was 3-0 from the first quarter on. I thought the Rams had the 3, but it might have been the Patriots. Regardless, I'm not sure how my subconscious mind knew it would be a low-scoring snooze fest, but I was far more upset that the same person won all the quarters in every Superbowl squares pool everywhere. In reality, the same person won the 3rd quarter, and final quarter. That's bad enough.

Highly unfair, and probably why a defensive battle in the Superbowl is the worst possible game you could have.

My Country

"I love this country. I love my idea of this country."

-- Gordon Downie

Of course, Gordon was referring to Canada, but I believe this is an appropriate statement for Canada, or the United States, and on what would have been his 55th birthday (February 6, 1964), and since he is one of my all time favorite artists, AND today is the day after the State of the *ahem* Union address, I think this statement stands for something.

It is a statement to say, our nations fail us when they don't hold up to the ideals, and the ideas that would make them great. Unless America becomes the world leader it has the potential to be, it is failing us, our ideas, and honestly, every living thing on this planet. 

The State of the Union address last night was a good reminder about how far away we are from that. While other developed nations have implemented policies, and services to help the people in their communities, the United States still struggles with meeting those ideals. Single-Payer healthcare is a long way away. College tuition still mires our youth with crushing debt, while driving the profits of large organizations. 

Remember, Trump attempted to take advantage of this with his fraudulent, fake Trump University.

Boasting about all the great things he's done over the past two years, all Trump did was embellish minor improvements, spin data, or outright lie about the state of things. That gets us no closer to being that ideal. It doesn't end the corruption. It doesn't force our representatives to work on our behalf, or stop playing partisan political games. It doesn't end the bribery for legislation system that allows large companies to call the shots, and maintain their financial based control over the power hierarchy of our nation.

Fluff of the Union would be a better heading for what we experienced last night.

My ideas for this country involve a lot more improvements for the people who make up this nation, not just the people who own, and control the majority of it.

I love this country. There's a lot of you that make it very difficult to love though...