Not Hockey reLated

I love hockey and I love the Boston Bruins (17-2-0 at the time of writing) but I can't say the same about the current direction of the NHL.

Now, if I was in charge of the NHL, I would only tweet about hockey.  Pretty simple.  There's lots to tweet about: the previous night's scores, player milestones, etc.  But now you get garbage like this:

 

If I want to be lied to, I'll start dating again.  Spoiler Alert: people that say they're Non-binary are basically saying they're so unattractive that no one will sleep with them, but what does that have to do with hockey?  Right, nothing.  It was cringey when the NHL did the Kumbaya hand-holding a couple of years ago and this isn't any better.  Hockey is a competitive team sport, not group therapy for sissies.  Then I thought, why am I paying to watch a hockey league that's not even focused on hockey anymore? 

The NHL site even has a Diversity & Inclusion Report section, where the NHL "... is intentionally seeking a greater diversity of experiences throughout hockey, whether you are in it to play, work, or watch."

Why?  We may never know.  I'd focus on keeping the existing audience and maybe growing it but this is how you repel potential and existing customers.  There's only a handful of diverse experiences you can go through watching any sport, the two main ones being: happy when your team wins; letdown when your team doesn’t win.

"Since January 2020, the League Office and all 32 NHL Clubs have pursued with new urgency a variety of initiatives to make our game more welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and socially conscious. The information in "Accelerating Diversity & Inclusion: NHL Report on Strategies, Initiatives, and Progress" benchmarks the League's approach to D&I over the past few years with qualitative and quantitative data, following a "7 Dimensions" framework that shows the work underway across leadership, education, employment, marketing, partnerships, participation, and community engagement."

Makes sense.  2020 is when everyone stopped watching since no games were played because of the Lab Leak.  Watching sports used to be an escape.  It's not the NHL's job to be socially conscious because they don't do it well and they're already on their way to being another sports league that nobody wants to watch.  That's not a very good strategy.  One thing the NHL might figure out is that the people that they're trying to pander to don't spend money.

I'm pretty much an average person, so what does the NHL's Diversity and Inclusion direction mean for regular hockey fans like myself?  If the NHL really wants to make the league more accessible, then show more games over the air.  Not even NBC is showing NHL games anymore.  Having to pay either ESPN or Sportsnet to watch hockey isn't what I would call accessible.  Also, if the only place I can watch hockey is through 2 corporations, I wouldn't call that very inclusive.  Being excluded doesn't make things any more welcoming.  So far, I'd say this isn't a very good plan.  It doesn't attract eyeballs or dollars.

People stopped watching the other National leagues once they started going woke so I don't know why this would be any different for the NHL.  Remember when Gary Bettmen came in and his goal was to spread the NHL to more US markets?  Canada has a built-in market already but the NHL in the US had to compete with the NFL and NBA.  And he did a great job as far as that's concerned and it worked well, up until I guess January 2020.  Imagine doing all that work, then to have it all pissed away because of something un-hockey related?  Maybe when the league shrinks down to 28 teams in the next couple of years it'll sink in to the higher-ups that maybe all this diversity and inclusion isn't bringing in the viewers or the dollars after all. 

I currently have a good bit of disposable income but I'll be spending it somewhere else.  I'll still root for the Bruins but I won't be giving a dime to the NHL.

How Many People Does It Take To Write A Song?

 For me, one is enough but apparently it takes 24 for a crappy piece of Pop.

https://nypost.com/2022/08/02/diane-warren-responds-after-criticizing-beyonce-songwriting-credits/

"Diane Warren faced backlash on Twitter after questioning Beyoncé’s songwriting credits on one of her new songs.

“How can there be 24 writers on one song?,” she tweeted, adding an eye-roll emoji.

The songwriter followed up her original tweet saying, “This isn’t meant as shade, I’m just curious.”

“Ok, it’s prob samples that add up the amount of writers,” Warren, who has written songs for artists from Cher to Celine Dion, continued.

While Warren, 65, didn’t specify Beyoncé, 40, or her album by name, the Beyhive was quick to respond."

24 "song-writers".  If you threw 24 random food ingredients in the same pot and cooked it up to make one dish, chances are it would taste like shit.

The eye roll emoji was perfect too.  I tweeted "I wouldn't apologize to these Ding Dongs", as a sign of support.  I’m good like that.

But somehow, the lack of talent, where 24 people do the same "work" as 1 semi-talented person, turns into oppression:

“You mean how’s does our (Black) culture have so many writers, well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out, so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America. Had that era not happen who knows. U good?,” The-Dream tweeted.

I was going to look up The Dream but why?  He/she won't be around in another year and he/she couldn't even answer the question of why this song has 24 writers.  He/she turned it into imaginary oppression.  You know who couldn't afford certain things when starting out?  Everyone.  I had to get a day job to afford my gear.  Hell, sometimes I would even use gig money.

Something must have happened last night because I don't ever remember sampling ever being considered an artform.  Isn't Sampling like appropriating someone else's hard work?  Where's the art in being so lazy you can even deliver your own goods and then take pride in that?  I'll answer that question: Sampling is not an artform.  The Dream, if you don't want to work to pay for things, then shut that portable glory hole on your face.  U good?

Another fan wrote: “This is kind of a boring ass narrative at this point and it’s sad to see artists attempt to devalue one another."

What was the "boring ass narrative"?  That it takes 24 people to come up with a so-so song?  Here's a lesson on devaluing: 1 song, 1 song writer, one stream = $0.02 cents.  Take that .02 cents and divide it by (at least) 24, and not only will you see what each "songwriter" will receive, you'll get the actual value of that song.  Said song will be here and gone by the time school starts so don't spend it all in one place.

Ms Warren has wrote, or co-wrote, more real songs than an arena full of Hip Hop "writers" ever will so most of the criticisms are just out of jealousy.  Substituting the jealousy with the Oppression Card just shows how unaware some people are of themselves and the situation.  It's another reason why they'll never be a great.  But why try and be better when you already sabotaged yourself into thinking you can't?

Unfortunately, Ms Warren eventually apologised without having anything to apologise for.  I wouldn't apologise to those losers.  If they attained a level one could call an achievement, then what they say might be considered constructive criticism.  But it wasn't, it was just shallow insults. 

Everyone that threw in their misguided two cents owes Ms Warren an apology.

Raising Flag Awareness

Lots of causes are going around these days.  I see all of these unkempt protestors complaining about things that don't affect them directly and I see the lovely scowls on their faces and I think, "I want to be like that even though I'm happy to be on the planet, so I'll have to manufacture some kind of negativity".  I mean, who doesn't like to be associated with a noble cause when they're not noble themselves?  Benevolent by Proxy is what I want to be, just like a real activist.  You can see these types at Runs for Cancer; they want you to think they care about the cause but deep down, they only care about how they look to others.  It's empty but it still happens.

I want to be a part of a cause, any cause, but most importantly, one that gets its own flag.  Something eye-catching, yet can be overlaid over a social media profile pic.  And maybe a ribbon when those come back in style again.

There's already lots of different flags out there.  It's as if flags have been around for a while.  I had some good ideas but a lot have been used already and I'm not really into stealing someone else's design if I don't have to.  I like Science but was disheartened when my first idea for a flag, the light spectrum, was already taken.  I like the band Rainbow so I'm guessing that's a band flag originally created in the 70s when the band started.  I saw another light spectrum flag with an extra brown and black stripe added to it.  They say it's a "Trans flag" which oddly doesn't have any actual car colours in it.  That's stupid.  I wouldn't think the makers of the band Rainbow's flag would be happy to see their idea basically stolen and then have 2 neutral colours lazily added to it.  It's like when Katy Perry or Taylor Swift say they wrote a song but really only contributed a word or phrase to someone else's song and take the credit.

I see there's a flag with pale blue and pale pink stripes.  I had no idea they made a flag for expecting mothers for their baby rooms.  One was grey, white and green and I thought it's about time that licorice candies got their own flags.  I think the pink and black flag must be about licorice too.  Some people really like black licorice.  To each their own.

Some colours I won't use for my new flag, like brown.  It's the colour on Canadian cigarette packs and I'm always reminded of the person behind the counter painfully trying to find a particular brand of cigarettes since all of the packages look alike.  The Canadian Government sure hates convenience store clerks.  Also, brown reminds me of pooh, and I'm happy to say that part of my life is over.

When designing a flag, I'm finding objects don't work well on flags. Ideally, you'd want a Grade 2er to be able to draw the flag on the back of their school notebooks, so no objects except maybe a Jollyrancher skull.  Kids love drawing skulls, especially with a fire spitting cobra coming out of its mouth.  That would be a kick ass flag but would really be more appropriate on a t-shirt so it can go anywhere and reach more eyeballs.  Flags with tools on them should be avoided.  Really, what kind of dumbasses put tools on their flag?

I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret if you're looking to make a flag for your cause.  Go to https://99designs.ca/blog/tips/website-color-schemes/ It's where I went and I was totally inspired.  Try not to pay attention to the webpage examples because they're all pretty cringe, like the Fertility Tribe example.  Just pay attention to the right of the example for the colours scheme.

And I think I found it.  My new flag:

 

 

And everyone can make an exact replica since it includes the RGB colour codes.  If anyone from that website says I can't use their colour schemes, I will proceed to call them racists, misogynists and bigots, and that my lived experience trumps theirs.  Works every time.

 

It's the superficial things that matter the most these days and this new flag does it in spades.  I know earlier I mentioned that I'd figure out a cause after because I'm more interested in making a flag now but as I was drafting up this post, I was leaning towards this being a Check Your Social Justice Privilege flag.

Seriously, after all of this flag talk, I started to feel bad for all of the flags that have been misused and oppressed for some oppressive, phony cause they probably don't even agree with.  This has been going on for centuries.  These flags were never given a choice to pick their own colours, and flap proudly in the wind on a flag pole or their choice.  It's just all "shut up and fly".  But these aren't kites, or friends of kites, they're flags and flags deserve to be respected.  They're not towels to be used for some dumpy activist to wipe their sweat on.  They're flags.

This flag goes out to all of the oppressed flags in the world, the flags who are taken for granted on a daily basis.  This is a flag for all flags: small flags, big flags, checkered flags, red flags, golf green flags, air signal flags... All flags and I proudly stand with all flags.

 

As a side note, I am proud of Canada use of flags.  The Canadian flag was flown at half mast for most of 2021.  I believe that was in honour of Charlie Watts.  We'll miss you, Charlie.