Random Ramblings

Having a hard time focusing on KEY things that are bugging me these days. Things flit into my sleep deprived attention and drift back out again. I have to write everything down.

On our local news I have noticed quite a few reports about schools being closed down due to shrinking enrollment. This seems to be taking place in previously family dense and growing neighbourhoods. I wonder if this trend is connected to the Lower Mainland's INSANE real estate prices. The most recent area to be hit is Coquitlam/Tri Cities. This is a dense family oriented and growing area. We had even looked at living there. It was ( a few years ago) an affordable place for families to move. Especially if you wanted a nice traditional house with yard etc. But on the MLS listings now, the lowest priced single family 3-bedroom home I could find for Coquitlam was a $319,900, 33 year old house...not very attractive and needing updates. Not bad but then after that the price started to climb with the next listing being at $335K and then $385K....so not much choice if you are on a 'NORMAL' income.

Because while real estate prices in the Lower Mainland have gone nuts over the last few years, people's incomes are not. In fact (another ramble) BC and Quebec share the honour of having the highest percentage of seniors below the poverty line. The rest of us are not in great shape either.

On another rambling note....apparently Mr. Al global warming for dummies Gore was in the centre of a rabid Republican smear campaign over his apparently high energy bills at his own residence. HYPOCRITE was being screamed from frothy mouthed pundits. Nobody looked closely at WHO released the report, the background, the agenda...blah blah. So just business as usual for the media and punditry. Now I am not a HUGE Gore fan. I take him with a grain of salt as I do most political types. I was NOT that impressed with 'An Inconvenient Truth' apart from it's ability to explain 'dem hard science words' in friendly easy terms. I also am fed up with the whole environmental message that WE have to change our ways to save the planet with nary a mention of big business changing THEIR practices.

But the constant sniping and stretching of reality by the various factions out there is getting stupid. I found this interesting site called Lying in Ponds that looks at the mess caused by partisanship. Check it out.

And my final ramble for today. Ok, don't laugh but this thought sprung into my mind as I watched X-Play on G4 Tech TV. I don't even play video games, and I like this show. I like the ironic and self deprecating humour and am quite fascinated by all the video games being produced these days. What struck me was that shows like this, CHANNELS like this, was the prime example of the 'kidult' and 'grupster' lifestyle that so many seem to be raging either for or against.

One thing I pointed out to my crunchy husband was that the majority of games come out of Japan and Korea. Video games dominate life there. The market is huge. And there is no derision turned to adults who play video games. It just is. It is accepted. Mostly. Unlike our western world where an adult who plays video games is looked at as...what? Nerd, loser, immature, shut in......the list of labels and jokes is endless.

But why? We adults now are the generation that grew up on the burgeoning world of Atari and Nintendo's. Why would these kids who started out with the first gen of game play and arcade play stop playing as the technology gets better and they age? Did people who grew up watching the first grainy tv's stop watching when they hit adulthood. No. So why would the video game generation stop now either.

I think the concepts like 'kidults' and so on are just what this generation is all about. Maybe there isn't the obvious leap into adulthood nowadays like there was in previous generations. So then yes, the lines blur between child and adult. But it isn't being 'hip,' it is just being us. And fine some folks may be 'cooler' than others...but for the most part we aren't trying to be rebels or hip. We are just who we are and so that is how we parent too!

Ok...enough ramblings. That should hold you guys for a bit.