oddmanout’s blog

(This was a posting of mine on a facebook group entitled "I'm from Fort McMurray and Fucking Proud of it).

I have been in this community for over two years now, and what I have seen has moved, shocked, outraged and put a smile on my face.

There is good and bad, and I don't want to sound like a McMurray hater, because I certainly don't however I get the feeling that we as a community are relying to heavily on the "Hey, it Fort McMurray (shrug)" or the age old "everywhere has problems".

First let me start with the good, I have been involved with the Miracle Marathon for Santa's Anonymous for the past two years and I am near tears every time.  To see the giving attitudes of McMurrayites and the hard work a group of teenages puts into Santa's Anonymous truly makes this hardened hockey announcer get a lump in his throat.

The community (or I should say, a segment of the community) puts countless volunteer hours and cash towards service groups and fundraising drives.  Unbelievable amounts of money are raised for things like the United Way and one of my favorite groups I have ever been involved with in "Kids Forever".

However I see that most of the people in this group are born and raised McMurrayites, and are proud of where they are from and I can see why.  But people like myself who would love to set down roots in a caring community such as this....can't.  Me and my girlfriend will never be able to own a house here on our meager salaries.  I know alot of you will say "well get a job somewhere else then!".  That is not an option because you also have to love what you do, and I do.

The people who were born and raised here are extremely lucky to be in the situation they are in, those of us who chose to come up here to do work not in the oil industry simply can't make a go of it.  That is certainly the biggest problem with this community but not one that anyone seems to eager to fix anytime soon, because the people that were born and raised here do not want to see their property values go down.

However I hear people constantly talking about the 80's and the bust and when things were bad and how we don't want to have an oversupply of housing.  Well what they fail to realize is for every 5 people coming to town to get a piece of the boom, there is probably one person in the service industry leaving or a teacher or a nurse or and RCMP officer or someone in a field such as mine.  The people are leaving town now, or they just move back to Edmonton and then put a strain on OUR infrastructure when they come back to work at site. (I was in the ER a couple of weeks back and at 2:00 in the afternoon the doctor told me I was the first person from Fort McMurray he'd seen, but yet they continue to put projects through).

Moneysense Magazine ranks Fort McMurray the #98th best place to live in Canada, we were beat out by such luminaries as Yorkton, SK (44), Fort St.John, BC (53) and even Portage La Prairie, MB (82).  Yet Fort McMurray has the highest family income in Canada.  Something is wrong with this picture, #1 in income, 98th best place to live.

There are significant problems here that have to be dealt with, housing is #1.  I hope you lifetime McMurrayites can see the point in my ramblings, this McMurrayite via Estevan, SK would like to set down roots here, but simply can't.

I have been listening to The Hold Steady a lot lately.

I am now convinced Craig Finn is one of the greatest poets in recent history.

Cattle and the Creeping Things by The Hold Steady (Finn)

they got to the part with the cattle and the creeping things. they said I'm pretty sure we've heard this one before. don't it all end up in some revelation? with 4 guys on horses, and violent red visions famine and death and pestilence and war. I'm pretty sure i heard this one before. you in the corner with a good looking drifter. two cups of coffee and ten packs of sugar. i heard Gideon saw you in Denver. he said you're contagious. silly rabbit. tripping is for teenagers. murder is for murderers. and hard drugs are for bartenders. i think i might have mentioned that before.

he's got the pages in his pockets that he ripped out of the bible from his bed stand in the motel. he likes the part where the traders get chased out from the temple. i guess i heard about original sin. i heard the dude blamed the chick. i heard the chick blamed the snake. i heard they were naked when they got busted. i heard things ain't been the same since. you on the streets with a tendency to preach to the choir. wired for sound and down with whatever. i heard Gideon did you in Denver.

she's got a cross around her neck that she ripped off from a schoolgirl in the subway on a visit to the city. she likes how it looks on her chest with three open buttons. she likes the part where one brother kills the other. she has to wonder if the the world ever will recover. because Cain and Abel seem to still be causing trouble.

she said: i was seeing double for 3 straight days after i got born again it felt strange but it was nice and peaceful. it really pleased me to be around so many people. of course half were just visions but half of them were friend from going thru the program with me. later on we did some sexy things. took a couple photographs and carved them into wood reliefs. but that's enough about me. tell me how you got down here into Ybor City.
he said: i got thru the part about the exodus. up to then i only knew it was a movement of the people. but if small town cops are like swarms of flies and if blackened foil is like boils and hail. then I'm pretty sure we've been thru this before. and it seemed like a simple place to score. then some old lady came to the door and said Mckenzie Phillips doesn't live here anymore.

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I didn't want this to become a sports blog, however the new advent of "Hockey for Pussies" is really starting to irritate me.

Lets let the video evidence speak for itself.

Here is the Colby Armstrong vs. Patrick Eaves hit all the talking head idiots in Toronto (TSN) are complaining about.

Armstrong Hits Eaves; McAmmond vs Talbot Apr 15, 2007

To me, this is a good clean hit.   To 95 percent of hockey fans this is a tremendous hit.  To 75 percent of hockey "insiders" this is a headhunting hit.  Let me put it this way, were they thinking the same way about this hit by Brian Campbell just last year during the playoffs.

Brian Campbell lays out RJ Umberger w/ Jeanneret

Now, you tell me what is the difference here, they were both shoulder to head hits, however last year Campbell's hit was one of the highlights of the playoffs.  This year Armstrong is public enemy #1.

Lets go back a few years.  Ladies and Gentlemen, the vicious beauty of Scott Stevens.

Scott Stevens' Top 10 Hits

Now at least 9 of those hits would be considered dirty in "today's NHL", but Scott Stevens is a surefire Hall of Famer, and not because of his offensive contributions.

My question is, how did hockey turn into figure skating so quickly. As the evidence shows, 5 years ago Scott Stevens was a hero.  Just last year Brian Campbell was revered for knocking Umberger out cold (he's never been the same by the way),

The talking heads need to look back and realize that the game hasn't changed, and that hitting is a very important part of the game.

And what may piss me off the most about this is nobody (with the exception of Tie Domi, believe me I hate him but he is right on this) is talking about the brutal check from behind (called a boarding by a lame duck official) by Patrick Schubert on Rob Scuderi, in the same game as the Armstrong hit.  That hit (which also injured Scuderi) should have been an automatic suspenstion, and that is the hit everyone should be focusing on.  Not a clean hit on a player who was asking for it by going to the front of the net with his head down.

    Hmmm....the first ever blog.  Here you will read about just about everything.  I am a very angry man who has a lot of issues with a lot of people.

    Now lets start with this today because it may be irrelevant soon, or  perhaps it is already because of our fascist regime in Alberta.

From the 630CHED Website....

    Now here is my question...If you have nothing to hide, then why not just answer the question?

    The Alberta Tories have reached that point of infallibility.  They believe they are invincible. 

    Now I am not accusing them of anything, however why would you not just say to Agnihotri , "Here, this is who donated to my leadership campaign, here is how much they donated".  That is unless you have something to hide.

    I have also always hated the Mr. Speaker system, he is a member of the ruling government and of course instead of being impartial and moderating things fairly for both sides, he pretty much can let his side get away with whatever they want and the minute the Opposition brings up anything that may embarrass the government there is a point of order.  "hurumph, hurumph, hurumph!"

    Case in point, in his last feeble, barely clinging on, mailing it in year as Premier, Ralph Klein threw a book at a teenage page.  He apologized, however he still threw something at a teenager.  We should give him a break, he may have been drunk.  However my point is, the government member and the Premier can THROW SOMETHING AT A TEENAGER and not get kicked out, but Bharat Agihotri asks a somewhat legitimate question and gets kicked out. 

    I think we can all now put two and two together.