Criminal Rehabilitation

I have a question for everyone. Do you believe in the rehabilitation of criminals?

From what I understand, the goal when someone is let out of prison is that they are rehabilitated and allowed to re-enter society. So, that's why we let prisoners vote, get university degrees, and more. But do you really believe in this? Do you really think it's possible for a criminal to be rehabilitated and turned into a "citizen of good standing."

And if this is what the government is shooting for, then they're contradicting themselves. Recently, the Saskatchewan Government announced that details about violent criminals and sex offenders will be made public. Well, if you let these people out of prison, then they should be fully rehabilitated, and so should be allowed to live as the rest of us do and not have their personal information available to the general public. If they are a threat, so much that the general public needs to know, then these people should be in prison. The government's argument is going to be that they let them out because they didn't feel that they were a threat...well then, they should be allowed to live a private life.

So, what is everyone's opinion on this topic, and on the topic of a violent criminal/sex offender registry?

I got this topic from this article.

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For more political debate, check out Untitled. There's a great article from Pilot up there right now.

Already Off Topic

So, I said I wanted to try to shift to having more political posts in the future, but I'm already straying from that. I just wanted to make a post about a TV show. Now, I know I watch a lot of reality TV and other "popular" shows, but this is a show that I think everyone will agree with me is GREAT.

Mr. Bean

I was watching it tonight. It's been a while since I've watched good old fashioned Mr. Bean, and it was sooo hilarious. Tonight's episode was him visiting a hotel. Hilarity from the start. Only Mr. Bean would bring a drill with him to a hotel so that he could hang his own pictures on the wall. And only Mr. Bean would then use that drill to drill a hole in the wall so he could have access to the next room's bathroom since his didn't have one.

A lot of comedy shows today are funny. But not many are "laugh out loud" funny. Mr. Bean is. And not many are just innocent comedy like this. Maybe TV needs to go back to the days of Mr. Bean and emulate it.

1 year, 200 posts

Well, this is my 200th post on my 1st year anniversary. A lot has happened in that year. I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Commerce and accepted a job at the University of Saskatchewan with University Advancement.

History

This blog started after the death of an old blog, This Is Now. I was a bit down because I felt I was writing some very good articles, but was getting little to no feedback. I'm a controversial person and I want some debate. It's no fun to just write something and have nobody comment on it one way or another. So, after some rallying started by Pilot, I decided to start anew, this time on the Blogger site. My life was very hectic between school, volunteer, and work, so I began Hecticity.

I definitely was very stressed at the beginning of this blog. I was beginning what was arguably the hardest semester of my entire university career. My goal was to come out of that semester with a 75% average. Well, my average at the end was 75.00%. In addition to that, I was beginning what I would say was the most stressful 8 months of my time at Subway. By the end of those 8 months, I was working 40 hours a week and being totally unappreciated. I was very dissatisfied with my job. I had to give myself a pep talk every time I had to go to work, because I simply could not find the will to go back to that store day after day. I finally made the decision to quit at Subway and use my savings to support me over the summer until I found a job.

At the beginning, I definitely focused a lot on my personal life. Lots of articles where I just complained and whined. I have now focused most of those articles to another of my blogs that is not public. Other interests appeared, such as my obsession with Tai Shan, the new panda at the National Zoo, who is now 14 months old. And I introduced a new edition of Dirty Commies, the comic my friend Kurt draws.

I introduced a few recurring features, none of which are still around. One was Quotable Quotes and the other was Who's the Most Jedi? Not so much success on the former, but good interest and controversy on the second.

I hosted a very successful Election MSN Party in January during the Federal Election. We had up to 10 people at any one time with lots of different opinions. It seems that a lot of people who read my blog and participated are very liberal with a little l. I'm very conservative, with a little c. So, this made things very interesting.

In the latest few months, I've started to write a few more articles that actually raise issues and ask people for opinions. I have very controversial views and never back down from an issue if I have an opinion.

In January, I became part of the SaskBlogs aggregator, started by Lance. This has opened me up to a lot of other blogs. I went to a blog meet in Regina, but unfortunately something came up and I wasn't able to make the Saskatoon one. Through the aggregator, I've learned of great blogs like Catprints, Abandoned Stuff, John Murney, and others.

So, all in all, it's been a good year.

Future

I have a few plans for the blog in the coming year. I want to move more and more away from personal posts and direct those to my other blogs, of which I have a fair amount. I really enjoy the political posts and the discussion that comes from those. So, this blog will hopefully be a bit more directed towards that, although there will still be some fun posts.

Contest

I have a new contest for the blogging circle!! I bought an answering machine in January, and had a really serious greeting on it, as most of the people phoning and leaving messages were potential employers, as I was on a full-out job search this summer. So, now they don't phone me anymore, so I don't need a serious greeting. So, the contest is to write an answering machine greeting for me!!

I would prefer having no swears in the message, as my grandparents do occasionally phone me when I'm not home. And the message must incorporate my phone number and my name. Other than that, there are no other rules.

Entries are due on Friday, October 13, 2006 by midnight.

The winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to a store of their choice.

That's all. It's been a great year, and I'm starting off the new year with this new contest!! So, I hope to get a lot of entries.

Oh, and Nathan, you still owe me a prize!!!!!!!!!!!

It All Makes So Much Sense Now

I know you've been wondering and I figured it out.

You know how Disney characters, especially young ones, never seem to do what they're told. I know why! It's because the person telling them what to do does it in SONG. Obviously, this doesn't work for Disney characters. I know it's proven that it works for Simpsons characters, but Disney shouldn't assume that it'll work for their characters. Here are some examples of lectures in song (and there are others, TRUST me):

• I Can't Wait to be King - Lion King - Zazu telling Simba what to do
• Under the Sea - The Little Mermaid - Sebastian telling Ariel to stay underwater
• Out There - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Frollo telling Quaimodo not to go outside
• Give a Little Whistle - Pinocchio - Jiminy Cricket telling Pinocchio to take the "straight and narrow path"

It's just so OBVIOUS now. Maybe they should just try telling them instead of singing it to them. Obviously it's not getting the point across.

P.S. My next post will be the 200th and my 1st anniversary as a blog. And this weekend is the Saskatoon SaskBloggers get together, so go to SaskBlogs.ca if you want to go!!

Miscellaneous Update

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I'm trying to coincide my 200th post with my first anniversary of this blog. So, that means I'm trying to really space out my blogs.

Started my new job this week. It's going really well and is a really relaxed work environment. I have to hire 22 students in the next two weeks, so once they're all hired and I start supervising them, things should pick up and get a bit crazier. Thanxs to everyone who helped out during the long job search and gave me good wishes along the way and once I got a job!

I got my hair cut. I told myself it would be the first thing I would do once I got a job and so I got it done the day before I started. It's quite short, but not crazy short. I like it. I should save money on shampoo, as I have probably a third of the hair I used to.

It's quite obvious that school has started. Not only has the amount of people online on MSN almost doubled, Dave commented on my blog!! I don't know why, but when students get busy with school, they spend more time on MSN. And when they're home for the summer and away from their friends, they're never on MSN. It's messed up. Good luck to all the students this year. Especially John Murney who's taking an insane FOUR economics classes. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes!!!

It seems the Who's the Most Jedi?? competition is lagging in interest. So, I am officially closing down the contest. Here are the official results:

Nitro - Queen of all things Jedi!!!!
Binns - Prince
Pilot - Bishop who guides the royalty but is sometimes wrong
Mike - 3rd Cousin twice removed to the queen and prince - knows what he's talking about, but gets into things late because he's just some distant relative
Pilon - Royal Shoeshiner - he knows his stuff about Jedi from shining the shoes of the Queen and Prince, but doesn't know the exact intricacies because of his lesser station (it's LESS THAN 12)
Ian - Royal Jester - always ready to participate and give it a shot, but doesn't actually know the details of Jedi
Shock - Treasonous subject - Knew his stuff about Jedi but used it against the Royalty and was hung for treason, which is why he stopped answering the questions
Fudge - Local Merchant of the Queendom - tried answering a few questions, but realized that as a lowly merchant, he just couldn't compete with the royalty
Danny - Travelling Bard - was in town telling a story and knew the answer, so participated in one question. But then he had to continue travelling and telling his stories, so couldn't continue to compete
Sperran - Slave - escaped from his master. His master found him but told him that if he could answer one question in the Jedi contest, then he could go free. Let's just say he's back in slavery and got whipped.

So, congratulations to Nitro!! Binns would have been crowned king, but he missed answering the last question. Oh well. Too bad for him!

Anyway, my posts are going to be a bit spread out in the next little while. Very spread out actually because I am very close to 200, but still a few weeks away from 1 year. In the meantime, I'll be doing a bit of maintenance on my blog. I need to update my sidebar very much. I'll be updating my list of blogs I read to reflect what I actually read and I also want to add a links section for my favourite webpages on the world wide web. So, look for that in the next few weeks. And I suppose I'll plan some huge blog entry for my 200th post. Probably won't be as great as I want, but I'll give it a shot.

That's about it!

RIP Steve Irwin

We all knew he was insane. And we all figured he'd die doing a TV show, but I think we all expected something a bit more spectacular to kill him...like a crocodile biting off his head. But a stingray did him in and I'm sure this is a huge loss to the conservation community, not to mention his family.

RIP Crocodile Hunter

The Choice

Well, I picked the U of S job. It just pays more and I wouldn't have to move. I really didn't want to have to move in a hurry. It is a term position, but it was explained to me that this is just how the University budget system works, on a lot of term positions. I guess there's a bunch of people who've worked there for 6 years or longer on just multiple terms. So, that relieved my mind. And because my term is one year in length, I do get full benefits, including health, dental, and pension.

So, I'm just really glad the decision is made. I'm glad that I won't have any large upheaval where I have to move and adjust to a new job. I start on Wednesday and will quickly get into the swing of things.

And I am SO glad I don't have to write any more cover letters. I'd gotten pretty fucking good at them, but I was sick of doing it. And I was sick of travelling all over the province for interviews.