Nem's Blog

Thought I would start a blog up here, it might cause me to post here more often and maybe just maybe get a bit more involved again. I thought I would start by posting my normal routine, today is far from normal though.

5:45 Wake up get myself and my son ready for the day. Kiss my wife good-bye.
7:30 Drop Damian off at his baby-sitters
7:45 Arrive at work, have the first cigaretteof the day and a coffee
8:00 Actualy start working - I'm a member of a co-management team that works with First Nations Communities and Businesses. The pay isn't high but the job satisfaction know I'm helping people makes up for it.
10:00 Have another cigarette
10:15 Work
12:30 Lunch
1:00 Work
3:00 Cigarette
3:15 Work
4:30 Go pick up Damian
5:00 Pick up wife
5:30 Start making supper while wife feeds Damian
6:00 Eat
7:00 Family Time
8:30 Put Damian to bed
9:00 Time with Wife and rehersal time
12:00 Bed

Weekends are just as hectic between shopping, the weekly full jam, and the inevitable visitors.

In a way this is my way of bragging and feeling good about myself and what I have accomplished in the last four years. I wouldn't change much here, the sole exeption being my work schedule and the fact I travel a fair bit with my job now. I spend a lot of time in First Nation communities and I see first hand how the average person there (Not Chief & Council and their families) gets by day to day. If anything there is a need for a change in how these communities are dealt with and how society percieves them.

Well that is all for the first post. Back to work now

I would like to get paid more for what I do, who wouldn't? If I need to increase my cashfloow I'll find legitimate means of doing so. I just started working on a report with our Social Services Co-ordinator and what I saw was amazing. I'm tempted to send the RCMP a copy of the Journal Entries because there is no way to account for over $20,000/month in questionable expenditures made out to the person in the community who administrates the program and her friends.

I read an editorial this morning that the Canadian government has changed its focus from increasing funding to first nations communities to making them more accountable with the money they recieve. I like the idea, I see a fair bit of graft every week and there is very little I can do except for putting a hold on some cheques and advising the people involved that there are more expenses coming later in the month. There is a yearly audit but all that is really looked at in the final report is was the money spent! It seems that in the past they haven't cared what it was spent on, maybe that will change.

I'm traveling next week to one of the better communities we work with and I am really looking forward to working in the community as a liason betwee the auditors and the communities financial staff. Not to mention there is the fringe benefit that I'm staying in a wonderful fishing lodge and that I can see myself catching my dinner every night! Given the state of their affairs, this is sounding more like a working vacation than the drudgery I do when I'm at my desk.

I'll post some pics when I get back, it si beautiful country.

Let's chat a bit about pop culture, time for me to come out of the closet and admit that once they were down to 12 I never missed an episode of American Idol this year. I can maybe blame it on my wife who loves these sort of shows or maybe it's just that I used to do this same thing not so long ago, only they were called "Battle of the Bands"! I would have been happy with any of the top four winning so I never really choose a favorite.

It is interesting to see how many people did choose a favorite and how personal that choice was at times. Take a gander at the Idol forums sometime and you will see that it was open season on anyone. Absolutely deplorable behavior in some cases. What gets me is that some people can't be open minded enough to live with more than one musical taste or style. To be a well grounded person you need to inject some variety into your life and IMO music is the best way to start that.

On a side note, Damian has started to sing along with daddy. The only song he knows right now is the chorus to Ghost Riders in The Sky and the Yippie yi ay comes out happy happy ho but it is so cute. He is almost two now and such an amazing boy with a definite personality that is a stark contrast from his mommy and daddy. He is bubbly while dad is contemplative and brooding and mommy is intense. Not to mention he is an absolute ham around a camera. Pics to come once I have the new cam software loaded onto this beast.