The universe according to Mike

Wow, did I really just sell my blog?

I was recently approached via email with an

offer to purchase my blog!

Here’s the story.

I got an email from a fellow named Logan, who lives in the US. He made an enquiry and followed with an offer to purchase my blog, my content, my social media accounts (Twitter etc) and Fan Page. We chatted and settled a couple details, then I agreed. No it’s not making me rich by any means but its fair and I could not in good conscience turn it down when I have a mother who deserves to spend 3 months in Mexico this winter (she survived raising me, she’s got this coming and more) and lots of bills to pay.

I was suspicious at first, who wouldn’t be. My blog gets very respectable traffic these days (300 to 1000 readers a day depending on what I’m posting about) thanks to a solid backlog of articles and current topics so it isn’t unreasonable to expect someone might be interested. I was open to the idea. The guy buying it is a young fellow who runs a business dealing in web real estate. He claims to want to continue blogging, though in all honesty once it’s paid for he is free to do as he wishes. With the sale comes the rights to all my awesome content and past postings. He’s quite the lucky dude! I mean, for all I know he’s secretly buying it on behalf of one of the big corporate evils I’ve done damage to, or he could just be an awesome online businessman interested in a pretty amazing blog/social media package. I tend to trust people, and am an optimist, so I’m going with the latter. If big oil wanted to shut me up they would have sent ninjas by now I figure.

The funds arrived in escrow (at www.escrow.com) yesterday and I will be relinquishing total ownership of my blog, ADHDCanuck name, and content as well as my social media pages as of November 28th 2012.

If anything goes sideways, I will continue as before and there will surely be a very interesting article written about it. You know what they say, until it’s in your hand it isn’t really real!

Please check for updates on www.michaelathomas.ca where I will for the time being share details on my life and take up other digital challenges. As part of the agreement I will not be permitted to write in direct competition with this current blog for a little while…but may start up one of my other creative online ideas… so please keep checking! I may need a kick in the butt to get moving, so email me at mikeinedmonton@gmail.com to tell me what’s up.

More to come, meanwhile please check the website above and follow my new twitter @TheNewMT.

I’ve been thinking for days, all the time about how amazing this has been and how I can continue in new directions. I just feel SO GREAT having helped so many people, exposed so many evils, shared some aspects of my life, done some great environmental stuff, and gotten involved in so much!

I don’t think “Thank you” does the trick.. but it’s what I’ve got. So thank you everyone. You’ve made my life awesome. Smile

Please keep in touch, follow, join, check me out on the new website at www.michaelathomas.ca and see where I go from here!

More to come…

Mike

November 21, 2012
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

ADHD Life: Inconsistency = mental equivalent of divide by zero.

I have real trouble behaving consistently when others don’t treat me consistently. Frustration levels at maximum…

It’s a hard one for me to explain because really everyone is all over the map it’s just hard to see what’s real. Some people can read social cues better than others, and those of us a little closer to the Asperger’s/autism spectrum have trouble with body language, verbal cues, and emotional language than “normals” who don’t even realize the skills they’re using every day. We’re HONEST, and it kills us. I’ll talk about behaviour and personal treatment here but consistency in everything is key. It really throws me when standards are made clear then not upheld for quality of work, or instructions are issued for how to do something and then it doesn’t matter if you follow them as long as the boss likes it in the end. The same goes for jobsite rules and such. Sudden inconsistencies can literally throw my consciousness out of wack. They’re so irrational and illogical…

I try very hard to fit in at work and in social groups but I don’t do as well as some might expect, given my level of confidence and capable nature. Sometimes confidence is a defense mechanism against always being attacked over some aspect of myself I’m not so ninja with. I don’t always read the person or situation very well. If a person is bullied long enough they either go into themselves or come out of themselves depending on their personality and strengths. I try to adapt and be appropriate and I mean well. Some things make it more difficult and crank up my anxiety/hyperactivity big time though.

Inconsistency = mentally dividing by zero. It’s like suddenly changing my intellectual environment and in the time it takes me to adjust I can be a bit…..ADHD.

If I’m not in some position of at least minor control or recognized as a leader/authority so people defer to me slightly by nature, it’s harder to get what’s supposed to happen. It’s ok to be exceptional if people recognize that, but if they choose not to (despite it being true) they treat you like an inferior and that leads to issues. If I recognize that I’m being a bit abrasive sometimes I can adjust it. If people are encouraging my boisterous, entertaining nature that’s ok too. What doesn’t work for me is acting like they enjoy my attitude, my energy, my mental power and ability to run through entire subjects at warp speed, then acting like its bad and holding it against me. Even complaining about me because of it. Not that they’d ever have the guts or the respect to just talk to me directly and maybe help me recognize something and adjust for it. Who knows they might learn something. It’s easier to act like a cackle of high school mean girls than mature men pursuing their livelihoods. Bullying in high school might make you cry, lose you friends… in the adult world it can mess with your income, your home… Do people really dislike differences so much they’d contribute to ruining someone’s life? As groups, we just don’t THINK. Would you take away someone’s paycheque because you think they talk too much or because you don’t like how smart they are? It must be terrible to be so insecure that someone who compulsively THINKS is a threat to you and needs to be eliminated.

Sometimes I can go into loner mode, it helps with people who maybe can’t handle a person as talkative and interactive as I can be. So if that is what’s appropriate let me do it, it’s a tactic to help me avoid problem situations. Don’t chase after me and try talking to me all the time. Why ask me why I’m so quiet, try to goad me into interacting more with you? Just let me be and I will adjust to this behaviour model. If I talk to much, why is it a good idea to pester me when I leave people alone? One minute I’m being told I should keep more to myself and the next minute I’m an asshole for leaving people alone? Really now… What the eff. The logical failure that happens here is not reconciled in my brain, and my impulsivity goes through the roof. I let myself out a little bit, I make comments, I say what I’m thinking and people don’t like it because it’s often about their recent behaviour or performance, or it may be that I simply take their bait and annihilate them. Few things alienate people quicker than giving them what they deserve and showing them how inferior they are in some way because they’ve made me feel that way. But if you don’t want it, don’t ask for it! In the end it’s me who’s always responsible, I’ve never met an authority who looked deeper at a situation than who said what in the last 30 seconds and who is more popular. In the end it costs companies money and productivity when they could be embracing and supporting people better.

I find it hard to compute when peoples actions and words don’t match. That kind of inconsistency really makes it hard to function socially. If you think social stuff doesn’t matter, you must be naturally good at it because literally everything you do is social. These issues are huge at work, not just at fun time. Switching back and forth between quiet and loud, interactive and aloof, it is very difficult because I have trouble telling when its appropriate to be either one. Sometimes I get it right, other times not so much. It constantly amazes me that people bring up conversations subjects that they’re really not interested in, and everyone seems to understand that they don’t really want to get into it, and just let’s it pass casually. If I get into the details or engage with the subject I’ve done something wrong? How does that work? How most people assign importance to pieces of information is so different from me.

It really is hard to understand why people act one way, because they don’t like what you’re doing and then when you do something different even if it’s exactly what they wanted they act like THAT’s wrong too.

Being too noisy = bad. Being too quiet = bad.

Being too quick = bad. Being too slow = bad.

Being too good at your job = bad.

Demanding better standards of yourself = bad.

Slacking off and just doing what everyone else does = bad.

Being yourself = bad. Even if it leads to more work being done, better work being done, people being entertained, and “yourself” being happier. It feels good to do well for a while, and it seems to me that people should accept a little bit of a slip that they don’t like when it comes up but these little things add up while the normal “good” days where I fit in just don’t matter. Nobody notices when someone exceptional manages to be normal but they sure notice you when you’re different.

Doing well, that’s ok as long as it lasts. But you’re only as good as your last bad moment. I really dislike injustice, I tend to resist it and fight back against it wherever I go and people often would rather just let the status quo continue even if it is oppressive. It’s easier to “fit in or fuck off” than it is to be fair and honest with people.

There’s really no winning it seems. Certain classes of people (workers/ & other types of cliquey social groups especially) and certain types of situations just don’t make much sense.

What to do? Well for the moment…

Things go in cycles. Sometimes it’s worse and other times it’s better. Day by day just doing my best and trying to improve. Trouble is all the lost jobs and social failures add up over time. It gets harder to try your best, when nobody gives a crap that you’re trying. Of course, it’s always just a matter of “keeping your mouth shut” or “watch how you say things” or “just fit in better”. Right, thanks tips… that’s totally news to me. I would NEVER have thought of those nuggets of wisdom. It’s just that easy hey wow why didn’t I ever realize?

WordPress Tags: ADHDCanuck,ADHD,Life,Inconsistency,Frustration,Some,Asperger,spectrum,language,HONEST,behaviour,treatment,consistency,rules,nature,person,situation,crank,leader,attitude,energy,guts,Easier,friends,world,income,THINK,paycheque,threat,needs,Sometimes,loner,mode,Just,failure,brain,roof,comments,performance,actions,words,times,Nobody,moment,injustice,status,Certain,classes,workers,Trouble,tips,news,wisdom,skills,subjects,differences,situations,cycles,failures,nuggets,doesn,harder,interactive

November 10, 2012
Categories: ADHD . Tags: actions, ADHD, ADHDCanuck, Asperger, attitude, behaviour, brain, Certain, classes, comments, consistency, crank, cycles, differences, doesn, easier, energy, failure, failures, friends, frustration, guts, harder, Honest, income, inconsistency, injustice, interactive, JUST, language, leader, life, loner, mode, moment, nature, needs, news, Nobody, nuggets, paycheque, Performance, person, roof, rules, situation, situations, skills, Some, Sometimes, spectrum, status, subjects, THINK, threat, times, tips, treatment, Trouble, Wisdom, words, workers, world . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

ADHD Life: Fatigue impacting impulse control in my daily life

Ok so, it’s probably no surprise that keeping some of my ADHD type traits under control requires a great deal of focus and sustained attention. That not being my strongest suit it’s a minor miracle that I manage as well as I do much of the time in complex social situations like work or a training class. I don’t know about others but I use more energy just maintaining my level of “normal” for the rest of the world than most people exert all day, and I still have to have energy to actually go through my day. Some things leave me with depleted reserves, lack of sleep being one such thing.

Last night I was up really late, til 3am or so and had to wake up about 6am to get to a training course. It’s in a classroom (not my favourite environment) and involves lots of listening/reading slides and following in a workbook (recipe for disaster).

At this point in my life I can usually handle that kind of situation for extended periods without falling into my classic “ADHD student” habits but today I found it very hard. I was constantly reminding myself to stay under control and to just be quiet or restraining myself from commentary. That I was only partly successful is both a victory and a failure for me and I have mixed feelings about it.

See, learning is a very dynamic experience for me. When I’m not exercising my full level of self control I tend to interact as though I’m the primary focus of the lesson. I get a lot out of it, but it can be trying for the instructor as well as other students. I retain and absorb less of the material as a result of this superhuman external control than when I am more free to explore my own way but it’s a trade-off I have to make in order to get along. I learn through challenging and exploring information fiercely, it excites me to devour new information and it’s very hard to simply absorb it passively. In fact I tend to fall asleep momentarily but repeatedly in any kind of lecture even if I am interested in it or am fully rested. It is entirely involuntary and near impossible to stop.

The more rest I get the easier I can manage. Particularly if I’m very tired, feeling sick, or overly stressed about other things my self control goes way down and my impulsivity goes way up. Just goes to show no matter how well you’ve conditioned yourself, harnessed your gifts and tried to manage your shortfalls it is SO important for ADHD people (and probably others) to get a good nights rest. Fatigue is the enemy, one bad nights sleep can lead to situations where it’s easy to poison the atmosphere at work for myself, or find myself unable to avoid taking bait from bullies, or end up being overly defensive, or locked into some unnecessary and fruitless compulsive behaviour or thought pattern.

Todays instructor (teaching a two day course called “Leadership for Safety Excellence” which I’m quite interested in) was an absolute prince. He managed me very well and I respect him for it.

I feel some shame for not being more “normal” in my classroom behaviour but I was able to cover it mostly as a result of the course being interactive and the instructor encouraging class participation. He also got into some great discussions and allowed leeway for me to run on some tangents that were not always 100% directly related to the material at hand.

I found myself interjecting related comments frequently that (while astute) were not necessary or productive. I was comedic, and had more than a few people in stitches on more than one occasion during the day. That’s encouraging in a not so good way, as my energy level feeds off the reinforcement. It gets to be disruptive if not carefully controlled, I did my best but was a little over the top.

I ask questions in order to focus myself on the subject but they can go sideways. If the answer doesn’t compute with my logic I follow the train of thought/questioning down its rabbit hole until either it does compute or we’re forced onto another subject (which happened several times, though he was tactful about it). Sometimes the question might not be relevant or important to anyone but me. I just never know what little thing will make the entire subject go “click” and allow me to gain mastery. The struggle until that magic moment drives me insane, knowing that it’s right there and I’m just missing some innocuous piece….gah!

My “right/wrong” meter was going strong. As well, my tendency to follow something to infinity (past any constructive point) as a result of being correct was working overtime. While working on an exercise requiring subjective interpretation of information in order to assign priority codes to a series of tasks or situations i found myself relying heavily on the definitions of words such as “immediate” very accurately, others were more able to apply flexible logic and use the terms in a more easygoing manner to assign different values than I did. They were operating under very wrong assumptions of the meanings of probability and risk categories that led them to inaccurately judge situations at a lower severity level than I assigned them by operating on correct information. I somehow got STUCK on that and was fairly inflexible, arguing my point and explaining my position past where it made sense given the lack of importance of the exercise. It just seemed very important to me that we all operate on equal understanding and a correct framework. It was TOTALLY alien to me that it was being accepted as “ok” for people to use the word “immediate” to mean “maybe sometime in the near future”. I realize not everyone is as smart as me, but I should have been able to just let it go more easily. It’s not important, it’s just a practice exercise. Sometimes, being right isn’t the way to be. (Though it hurts me to say that).

I found it impossible to sit still, I needed to move and so I chose the least disruptive methods to accommodate myself. I used the empty chair next to me and put my feet up (with shoes off) and I stretched frequently with as little fuss as possible.

Throughout the day I would have moments of clarity and focus where I could recognize these behaviours after the fact and remind myself to use restraint. It helped but it also made me anxious because some moments later my lack of control took more precedence and I would have trouble doing what I had just reminded myself to do. These failures make me feel like… well a failure really. The emotional difficulty and negative reinforcement adds to my defensiveness if a confrontational situation arises, and the increased anxiety worsens all the ADHD symptoms that other people tend to notice and find distasteful or bothersome.

A huge key for myself is to be relaxed. Lower anxiety, feel accepted, feel validated, respected, equal, like a valued contributor. Being teased, picked on, singled out all make it harder to be “acceptable” and a natural result of being chatty, funny, witty, commenty, making wisecracks and contributing to the atmosphere is that others tend to go after you and tease or make fun as though it were mutual. I paint a target on myself, to some extent or I pick up on other peoples targets and hit all the right buttons bang on. It’s harmless usually with no malicious intent at first but it seems to be a trigger to some kind of attention spiral. Many people I’ve asked seem to think those with ADHD are unable to relax but that’s untrue. It’s just a different process and might look/feel a little different than your average person.

It is very hard to maintain focus and control, especially relaxation and lowered anxiety if I am not rested. I put it at the very top of my priorities for coping mechanisms. Diet is another one, as being well fed with a high protein / low sugar diet is very helpful in maintaining an adequate defense against the world and myself.

This would be so much easier if there were medications that worked and didn’t cause a volume of harm equal to or well in excess of the benefits they deliver.

Perfect example, it’d 10pm and I’m finally physically tired. It takes a day that starts before 6am after a night that ended just shy of 3am, a situation that is probably the hardest in my life to master, cleaning up the yard and garage, pushing a 500 pound dune buggy out of the yard and into the garage after pulling two solid steel snow mobiles out of the way myself, and getting caught up on kitchen chores.

I also wrote this entire post in about 15 minutes.

I’m exhausted, but until the point of collapse it manifests in ways that many people confuse with being fully energized. Mentally is another story, tonight/today would be the wrong day to challenge/question/trouble me.

So now, to go to sleep watching the last presidential debate in its entirety. Without some form of “wind down” mental stimulation it’s just too hard to shut off the brain. Luckily tonight I think will be an exception, I’m WIPED.

Thank you for reading this one. Please let me know what you think. I’ve been having trouble focusing and sharing on my blog lately. Click the share buttons below, comment, like on Facebook, or whatever it is you prefer!

WordPress Tags: ADHDCanuck,ADHD,Life,Fatigue,Impulse,traits,attention,miracle,energy,world,Some,Last,environment,workbook,recipe,disaster,situation,student,commentary,victory,failure,feelings,self,lesson,instructor,result,trade-off,fact,Just,gifts,enemy,atmosphere,behaviour,Todays,Leadership,Excellence,participation,discussions,leeway,comments,reinforcement,subject,logic,times,Sometimes,moment,piece,meter,tendency,interpretation,series,tasks,words,manner,STUCK,importance,framework,practice,Though,Throughout,restraint,precedence,Lower,contributor,Many,person,relaxation,Diet,sugar,benefits,Perfect,example,yard,dune,buggy,stimulation,brain,exception,Thank,Click,situations,periods,students,shortfalls,codes,definitions,assumptions,categories,methods,feet,moments,failures,symptoms,wisecracks,mechanisms,medications,classroom,easier,garage

October 27, 2012
Categories: ADHD . Tags: ADHD, ADHDCanuck, assumptions, atmosphere, attention, behaviour, benefits, brain, buggy, categories, classroom, Click, codes, commentary, comments, contributor, definitions, Diet, disaster, discussions, dune, easier, ENEMY, energy, environment, example, excellence, exception, fact, failure, failures, fatigue, feelings, feet, framework, garage, gifts, importance, impulse, instructor, interpretation, JUST, Last, leadership, leeway, lesson, life, logic, Lower, manner, MANY, mechanisms, medications, meter, methods, Miracle, moment, moments, participation, Perfect, periods, person, piece, Practice, precedence, recipe, reinforcement, relaxation, restraint, result, self, series, shortfalls, situation, situations, Some, Sometimes, stimulation, STUCK, student, students, subject, sugar, symptoms, tasks, tendency, Thank, Though, Throughout, times, Todays, tradeoff, traits, victory, wisecracks, words, workbook, world, yard . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: 2 Comments

So I’m sad about my can opener… dealing with it a very “Mike” sort of way.

This letter (sent to the manufacturer) is my initial attempt to address what I feel is a disappointing consumer situation that has a clear and obvious remedy. I hope to follow this post with another happier one in the near future!

What do you think? Will the Swiss let me down? I have my fingers crossed.

My epic tale of can opener woe…

I have the white one.

Dear Kuhn Rikon,

Almost four years ago I went on a glorious mission to replace the old can opener I stole from my mother when I moved away from home for the first time. It was very old (one of the traditional “swing away” brand models) and had been a workhorse for many years prior to my acquiring it. Newly manufactured versions even from the same company are prone to failure and substandard performance. After a couple bad experiences I decided to avoid them as well as all the cheap knockoffs. I went to several fancy home stores here in Edmonton, Canada and asked around for a manual can opener that was modern but would stand the test of time. I was looking for a lifetime product regardless of cost. I specifically eliminated price as a consideration and was directed to one of your products, the “slim safety lid lifter”. Being engineered and made by the Swiss, and also costing nearly $60 CAD I figured I had something pretty awesome. The very nice, clean and SAFE operation was impressive. I love that it left no sharp edges on cans. I did check out some competing products, but yours seemed the best and had a nice modern “Euro” feel to it. I had no idea your MSRP is $14.00 on the item at the time and now feel a little sheepish. Quite the impressive mark-up for a retailer, and I think it placed your product in a category that it couldn’t live up to. Was your product quality misrepresented or have I just found a random dud?

I’ve recently encountered problems leading to total failure of the opener to work. It will no longer hold the edge of a can strong enough to cut the lid open and the cutting blade no longer touches the metal. Despite heroic efforts and modified holding methods I have been unsuccessful at opening any canned goods for some time. This has left me helplessly unable to access vital food supplies necessary for the preparation of several of my favourite meals, to say nothing of the inconvenience and shame. Many a time I have amused myself as a girlfriend hopelessly struggles to figure out how to use it and is amazed by the nifty sideways sliding mechanism when the mystery is solved! I really see no reason for it to die on me given the fairly light duty it sees in my employ. The look of disappointment on my face may well have brought sympathetic tears to your eyes. There was much sadness in my kitchen and the loss continues to be felt most acutely.

I thought surely, given my level of commitment and interest in your product as well as obvious admiration for your global reputation as a quality goods manufacturer, you would be interested in helping me remedy this situation to our mutual satisfaction and benefit. Your kind assistance would help me avoid having to roll the dice with some inferior “Made in China” product that is not likely to last me even nearly this long. There are few alternatives in the can opener market these days and so I am counting on you to renew my confidence in the proud tradition of world-renowned manufactured goods and excellent craftsmanship from Switzerland!

I frequent a Swiss cafe in my neighbourhood called “Swiss to go” and the lady who runs it gives regular lessons on Swiss culture, life, geography, business and interests that would warm your heart. She serves a range of foods and treats that would remind you of home, and is never shy about her pride for where she comes from. She is delightfully eccentric, charming and fierce. Most certainly not to be trifled with. Anyone who makes rum balls as potent, rich and delicious as hers (from the finest Swiss chocolate no doubt) should be taken seriously indeed! She is a lovely woman, but thus far I have avoided sharing this tale of woe with her, fearing that her wrath may be too much for you to bear. She is after all; natural born Swiss and you know what they say… No one messes with the Swiss! We could instead share a happy story with her, having come to a mutually beneficial arrangement following such a heartbreaking personal loss.

Luckily, she is too busy for internet and so does not regularly follow my Twitter (@ADHDCanuck) or my blog (www.ADHDCanuck.ca). So though I will share this openly with my roughly 500 daily readers here and around the world, she is not likely to discover it for some time. I hope my most earnest entreaty reaches sympathetic ears willing to help rejuvenate my desire to explore European culture through kitchen accessories in the meantime!

I await your imminent response and suggestions with great anticipation (and a cupboard full of canned goods held hostage to your generosity). As well as a number of friends who were very interested in your products as a result of my initial glowing endorsements.

All the best as we enter the winter season (or as we call it here in Northern Canada “Where’s my face? Is it still there?!?!” season)…

Yours in cookery;

Michael Thomas

Http://Www.ADHDCanuck.ca

Slim Safety Lid Lifter product link: http://kuhnrikon.com/products/tools/tools.php3?id=90

Swing Away Brand model: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?SKU=14332316

WordPress Tags: opener,Mike,letter,manufacturer,consumer,situation,Swiss,tale,Dear,Kuhn,Rikon,Almost,mission,stole,failure,performance,stores,Edmonton,Canada,lifetime,product,cost,products,lifter,SAFE,operation,edges,Euro,MSRP,item,Quite,retailer,category,problems,blade,Despite,efforts,goods,food,preparation,Many,mechanism,disappointment,tears,commitment,admiration,reputation,satisfaction,assistance,Made,China,tradition,world,Switzerland,cafe,lady,lessons,culture,life,geography,interests,heart,pride,Most,chocolate,woman,wrath,arrangement,Twitter,ADHDCanuck,European,accessories,meantime,response,anticipation,cupboard,hostage,friends,result,winter,Northern,Where,cookery,Michael,Thomas,Slim,tools,Away,Brand,versions,methods,meals,foods,balls,readers,suggestions,endorsements,longer,kitchen

October 25, 2012
Categories: Personal, Reviews . Tags: accessories, ADHDCanuck, admiration, Almost, anticipation, arrangement, assistance, Away, balls, blade, Brand, cafe, Canada, category, China, Chocolate, commitment, consumer, cookery, cost, culture, cupboard, Dear, Despite, disappointment, edges, Edmonton, efforts, endorsements, Euro, European, failure, food, foods, friends, geography, goods, heart, hostage, interests, item, kitchen, Kuhn, lady, lessons, letter, life, lifetime, lifter, longer, Made, manufacturer, MANY, meals, Meantime, mechanism, methods, Michael, Mike, mission, Most, MSRP, Northern, opener, operation, Performance, preparation, pride, problems, product, products, Quite, readers, reputation, response, result, retailer, Rikon, safe, Satisfaction, situation, Slim, stole, stores, suggestions, Swiss, Switzerland, tale, tears, Thomas, tools, Tradition, twitter, versions, Where, winter, woman, world, wrath . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: 1 Comment

A quick rant about bullying, Amanda Todd, and what I thought.

I blurted this out on my Facebook fan page real quick last night and some people liked it so I’m just going to post it here unaltered. It was off the cuff and probably not my finest wordsmithing but it’s an honest result from 5 minutes of ranting at the internet.

It might also have a little insight into my own youth… and my frustration with people that age (16 to 19) today both aggressors and victims.

First, look at her. She’s goddamned gorgeous. What the hell… All she’d have to do is hang out for coffee with me and bat those eyes and I’m pretty sure I’d have slaughtered the pigs that were messing with her even if she did contribute to the situation.

Did feminism kill chivalry, leading to or contributing to situations like this? Why was there not one man in her life (starting with her father) that didn’t immediately take action upon seeing her video, let alone knowing about her situation over the months and years prior?

Ok here you go…

A quick rant into the ether… One thing that bothers me about this #AmandaTodd business is the pointless, unnecessary nature of the entire situation. So she showed her tits, who cares, she’s gorgeous and people need to lighten up about that kind of thing she was a sexually viable young person exploring herself. It shouldn’t have been something they could hold over her in the first place. She wasn’t just bullied she was TORTURED, but even so she had been taking steps and was beginning to be supported by both her family and the system itself. I survived far worse in high school…I was armed, I was in the press, I was in every school in the city, I was victimized in ways most people never think youngsters are capable of doing to each other and I fought (HARD) every way I could come up with. I didn’t have a supportive system, only a magnificent mother to advocate for me. There was just NO NEED for her to die over it. I do understand mental health though and it is very tricky business what goes on in the mind of someone under such pressure with hormones and everything mixed in. It’s just not rational…I remember being inches from hard choices myself. At that age I realized something that most people in their teens don’t clue in to… the fact is in 5 years none of it will matter. You will be an adult with all the opportunities and freedoms and changes in judgement about your behaviour that go with being an adult. If you can just get there, you can go anywhere and leave it all behind or own it and fuck the haters those bitches are going to be nowhere until they grow up. Why couldn’t she get there? She did everything right, got supports set up, reached out via the internet very publicly, even moved! She could have brought harassment suit against her tormentors with the support of her parents, assault charges, gone anywhere with it. Not that she was a perfect innocent angel in this, no teenage girl is. The part people miss is that you can screw up, antagonize someone sometime, mess with someone boyfriend, say the wrong thing, or just be too pretty, and it does NOT justify the kind of treatment received here. You don’t have to love everyone, just coexist with them. Her tormentors don’t know that, clearly. She ALMOST made it. That makes me crazy.

The tragedy is the public attention this death will receive is going to make this an even hotter topic for a longtime to come and it was not necessary. She was so close….she almost made it out alive and just got caught at the wrong place in her spiral on the wrong day and gave up. Had she persevered, had she managed to have a friend who would see what was happening and go to war over it like I would have (and did, in my youth), had the schools been more militant in her defense, had ANYONE SPOKEN UP AT ANY TIME, had this, had that, if only this, but not for that…. Had this massive set of circumstances not coalesced into the perfect storm that pushed her to take her own life that day, had ANYTHING been different she would have made it.
What makes this go from tragic to terrifying for me is the knowledge that at any given moment there are thousands of boys and girls struggling in the same type of situation… and any of them have the potential to go this route. This isn’t one girl.
With all our power and legal nonsense and controls and rules and all that we’ve learned since I was in the same boat, we’re still allowing the same thing to go on…often worse.

That takes it from terrifying to stupid… which makes me mad. Very mad.
But I’m also mad at her a little. I feel bad about it, she went through a lot… but she didn’t have the tools to deal with it. She didn’t have the strength to persevere… She didn’t have the quick mind and strength of self to say “fuck you, share the pic, I’m gorgeous… but when you post it understand that the cops will be on your ass for distributing child pornography as well as stalking, my parents will sue you and your family for criminal harassment, and no matter what happens to my reputation you will always be the asshole.” Why was she weak when she needed to be strong? Why didn’t she learn power, authority, access to help, why did she not have even one or two friends who would stick by her and kick ass for her? What was different about what she knew, and what I knew at the same age that made her react by hurting herself instead of something (anything) else? Is this normal? If so, why are teenagers so goddamned weak? Why do we champion emos and not champions? Why do we have unbridled pity and compassion without responsibility and support?
Are we teaching kids to be as insular, locked away and isolated as individuals as the rest of society has become? Why are we not pushing extroversion, connection to others, that its wrong to be a victim and right to stand up for yourself and shame anyone who judges you for it?
I think her video was very brave and it hurts me that it says “I’m still here aren’t I?” in the description, because it says she failed. So did a million other people, but in the end it was her who did the deed no matter how hard she was pushed. How many others out there?
I was punished relentlessly for standing up for myself and others, it was a key part of developing this monster ego I ended up with…I might not have survived without it. Why is it ok to be a victim, and not ok to be a warrior?

These bullies and torturers and the culture of hate they live in is what’s wrong. They’re not warriors they’re cowards.
We shouldn’t be forced to retreat within ourselves. We should have the tools BUILT IN to go out and get more help. Why did I have the tools and she didn’t? Why do so many lack the power and initiative?
Foolish, stupid, rash young woman… you could have been me…I could have been you. What was missing that made you not enough like me at 17?

You were so fucking close, why couldn’t you taste it and make it through somehow. You’d have been epic.

Post Rant remarks/observations:

A few thoughts resulting from comments and discussions of the Facebook post.

Teenagers (especially ones in crisis) always seem to think they’re alone and that is almost never the case… the trick is making them realize it in time. Amanda wasn’t even close to being alone. She was mere days/weeks from bringing the full weight of the school/legal system to bear on her troubles, and was still making all the same “battered woman/victim complex” mistakes in her thinking. Psychology is such a difficult thing. You have to prepare, be proactive in your development, not wait to react to situations like this.

We have to start treating/raising teens differently than before. We’ve never had such a rapid shift in consequences and ability as this last couple batches have seen. Even in the 15 years since I was 16 years old, I could have done a lot of what kids nowadays do on social media and the internet… but I was a genius kid and a computer guru. Nowadays you can do anything online with a few clicks and an app… no brains required. No consequences or sense of risk either.

Sex is normal. Yes, TEEN sex is normal. It always has been and it always will be. I had it, you had it, they are having it. Get over it. The stigmatization and controls imposed on them by others only make it worse. Amanda was no virgin, she didn’t do anything that any other girl (and guy) has done for generations. She showed her boobs on the internet (something every teen boy tries to get teen girls to do…perfectly natural) and then her whole life went to shit. When I was 16 you could do anything on cam and face no consequences, now you can record the video and take stills from it without any difficulty and make it into anything you want. It’s dangerous. If it weren’t “wrong” to sexually express yourself, it would not be something that others could hold over you and threaten you with. It would be healthy, beautiful, and strong… You could say “hey, those are mine, and they’re gorgeous. Fuck what other think, you have no power over me”. Own it, don’t let it own you.

There is a SERIOUS gap between what people CAN do to each other and what people THINK they can do to each other. Girls especially seem terribly ignorant, they don’t know how to use technology the way the guys who use it all the time do. They don’t understand the risks and exposure they have, and the gap makes them vulnerable. Everyone needs to know what the person on the other end of the webcam is capable of… not just how to turn it on and make it work. Education and understanding reduces victimization.

WordPress Tags: ADHDCanuck,bullying,bully,Amada,Todd,result,youth,frustration,victims,hell,pigs,situation,chivalry,life,father,action,ether,AmandaTodd,nature,person,steps,system,youngsters,HARD,health,teens,clue,fact,behaviour,supports,harassment,angel,girl,treatment,ALMOST,tragedy,attention,death,topic,friend,SPOKEN,TIME,knowledge,moment,nonsense,rules,boat,Very,tools,strength,self,reputation,friends,teenagers,compassion,kids,individuals,extroversion,connection,victim,judges,description,warrior,culture,initiative,Foolish,woman,Post,Rant,remarks,observations,comments,discussions,Facebook,crisis,Amanda,troubles,Psychology,development,consequences,genius,computer,guru,Nowadays,brains,Fuck,SERIOUS,THINK,Girls,technology,exposure,needs,Education,victimization,aggressors,situations,warriors,batches,generations,internet,didn,herself,shouldn,wasn,couldn,tormentors,parents

October 13, 2012
Categories: Commentary, Personal . Tags: action, ADHDCanuck, aggressors, Almost, Amada, Amanda, AmandaTodd, angel, attention, batches, behaviour, boat, Brains, bully, bullying, chivalry, clue, comments, compassion, computer, connection, consequences, couldn, crisis, culture, death, description, development, didn, discussions, education, ether, exposure, extroversion, facebook, fact, father, Foolish, friend, friends, frustration, Fuck, generations, genius, girl, Girls, guru, harassment, Hard, health, hell, herself, individuals, initiative, internet, judges, kids, knowledge, life, moment, nature, needs, nonsense, Nowadays, observations, parents, person, pigs, Post, psychology, Rant, remarks, reputation, result, rules, self, Serious, shouldn, situation, situations, SPOKEN, steps, strength, supports, system, technology, teenagers, teens, THINK, Time, Todd, tools, topic, tormentors, tragedy, treatment, troubles, VERY, victim, victimization, victims, warrior, warriors, wasn, woman, youngsters, youth . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: 3 Comments

Are “Made in Canada/USA” products everywhere? Lets BUY them! If not, WHY not?

I found this on Facebook, posted by a friend of mine. I try to find made in Canada options and this just encourages me so much! It’s also been shared on a few eat local blogs in a “Made in Canada” as well as a “Made in USA” version. Either way, buying “Made in North America” (excluding Mexico) is always the safest, highest quality bet you can make. Buy as local as you can!

I did some quick fact checking and found the Hershey’s move to Mexico to be accurate, as well the Colgate part. Home hardware carries Rainbird hose & garden products which are made in USA as well as Mexico and China, there are no Made in Canada options so that part is busted. Makes more sense in the USA version. The Made In Canada light bulbs in Wal-Mart are a MYTH, every single one in the store is made in Mexico, China etc. Equate is also not made in Canada/USA. Wal-Mart kills economies.Don’t be tricked by “imported for/by” with a Canadian distributor address. The mushrooms part is true though as is E.D.Smith! Store brands can be anything, so watch because store brand mouthwash may be made by one company and lotion or a paper product made by someone else in a different country.

At the very least take it as a lesson to always glance at the label before making a purchase. The Chinese have murdered our children with toxic toys and their own children with toxic baby formula… It only makes sense to make the attempt at being an informed consumer. Buy based on more than simply price.

Here we go!

Made in Canada.

A physics teacher in high school, once told the students:
That while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn’t
Slow a train very much, a billion of them would.
With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously Written by a patriotic Canadian:
Shopping in Home Depot the other day for some reason and just for the fun of it I was looking at the garden hose attachments
They were all made in China .

The next day I was in Home Hardware and just for the fun of it I checked the hose attachments there.
They were made in Canada!
Start looking……..
In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else – even their job.
A quote from a consumer: …my grandson likes Hershey’s candy. I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now, instead of Smiths Falls , Ontario . I do not buy it any more.
My favourite toothpaste, Colgate, is made in Mexico now. I have switched to Crest.
You have to read the labels on everything.
This past weekend I was at Wal-Mart. I needed 60W light bulbs. I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off-brand labelled, "Everyday Value".
I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats – they were the same except for the price.
The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in – get
ready for this – Canada at a company in Ontario . ~~Their Equate Products are also made in Canada , and are very good.~~
Wal-Mart only kills economies, I checked and none of this was true.

Just to add my own experience on buying Made In Canada , I was looking for canned mushrooms that were made in Canada and could never find any, so I would buy fresh. But recently I found Ravine mushrooms – made in Canada with a little red maple leaf on the can.
A little more money but when I opened the can I looked at mushrooms that look like real mushrooms, not a mushroom that looks like it was cleaned in bleach.
Another product I no longer buy is Del Monte or Dole canned fruit. Del Monte is packaged in Taiwan and Dole is now a product of China .
Why should we pay for their fruit when our growers are left with fruit rotting on the trees.
E.D. Smith is still made in Canada …. buy theirs, at least you will know what is in it and have some quality control.
So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here .
My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made In Canada . The job you save may be your own or your neighbour’s'! (Your children & grandchildren, also.)
If you accept this challenge, pass it on to others in your address book so we can all start buying Canadian, one light bulb at a time! Stop buying from overseas companies!
(We should have awakened two decades ago.)
Let’s get with the program. Help our fellow Canadians keep their jobs and create more jobs here in Canada .
If President Obama insists on a ‘Made in America ‘ Policy, which is
commendable of him, to support American workers, we should do likewise.
BUY CANADIAN! Read the labels. Support Canadian jobs.

My notes: Since we don’t have the manufacturing base we used to, buying Made in USA is the next best option to Made in Canada… just really try to avoid China, Mexico, other third world countries we rape for cheap goods who then murder us with toxic ingredients and waste our money on shit that doesn’t last.

Rather than a literal article, this kind of blog post can be inspirational and encouraging. It’s true, you CAN find better products made more locally. Work towards living local, by living as local as you can reasonably afford. Start by coming back into North America and then see where you’re at.

September 18, 2012
Categories: Commentary . Tags: ADHDCanuck, aisle, america, American, ANOTHER, article, attachments, bulb, bulbs, Canada, Canadian, Canadians, children, China, Chinese, Colgate, consumer, Crest, depot, distributor, Dole, Either, Equate, facebook, fact, Falls, formula, friend, fruit, garden, goods, Hardware, help, Here, Hershey, Home, ingredients, JUST, Leaf, lesson, lotion, Made, Mart, Mexico, money, Monte, myth, neighbour, North, notes, Obama, Ontario, option, options, paper, policy, President, product, products, Rainbird, Rather, Ravine, Read, shop, situation, Smith, Smiths, Start, Stop, students, Support, Taiwan, teacher, trees, VALUE, version, Walmart, Work, workers, world, Written . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

Why do we have a labour day? WTF is it?

Well, rather than rant about why it’s a big deal for ME… here I will share the 2 epic stories of American and Canadian Labour day. (Ours was first, and better… as usual) Winking smile

There was mass protest, political power crushed by the weight of the peoples need for change, and people jailed for speaking up! (Canada)

There was open warfare, murder, mass evictions, and perversions of justice to extend the oppression of the poor! (America)

Both led to more freedoms, Unionization, and better laws as well as a VERY important holiday. Even then, the way we did things differed wildly.

First, thanks to the Tyee for this enlightenment:

Canada’s Labour Day:

Like most things with Canada/US relations we did it first and better. Canadian Labour day’s story from the Tyee:

The origins of Labour Day in Canada trace back 140 years to 1872 and a parade held in support of a Toronto union’s strike for a 58-hour work week. Back then, union activity was illegal in Canada and 24 workers were jailed for their role in the strike.
An outcry of support and rally on Sept. 3 of 1873 led Prime Minister John A. MacDonald to commit to repealing the law banning union activity, helping to lay the groundwork for real progress for working people.

Since 1894, when Prime Minister John Thompson declared Labour Day an official holiday, working people have celebrated our gains and honoured those who fought for the rights and privileges we enjoy today.

*Personal Note from Mike via John O’Brian* In between the 1872 strike and the 1894 declaration of Labour Day, the Haymarket affair occurred in Chicago. In 1884, North American unions had picked May 1st as the day that the 8-hour workday would become standard, declaring general strikes until it was won. In 1886, there was a bombing at a May Day rally for which several union activists were unjustly executed.

May Day, is the day that working people picked to be International Worker’s Day. Thompson was a conservative and declared Labour Day in September as a clever way to defuse rabble-rousing (looking back on a history 24 people jailed for organizing doesn’t move people as much as 500k on strike, dozens dead or wounded and 8 murdered by the government) and break solidarity between Canadian unionists and lefties elsewhere in the world.
An equally cynical move came in 1958 when Eisenhower declared May 1st “Law Day”, to commemorate the importance of law and order, countering the “red”-ness of IWD.

So we should celebrate twice a year. At least. =D - I completely agree John, thanks!

Unfortunately, the last 30 years has seen a troubling growth in inequality in our society.
From World War II through 1980, working people shared equally in the gains of productivity with shareholders and owners through higher wages and improved purchasing power. But from 1980 forward, while productivity increased at an even greater rate, workers’ wages stagnated and all gains of productivity have gone to owners and senior executives.
Today’s middle class family feels like they are having a harder time making ends meet, because they are. Meanwhile, the rich have never been so rich.
Signs of hope
On this Labour Day, however, I look forward with optimism that we are turning a corner towards greater equality.
Front-line workers in B.C.’s public service are negotiating for fair and reasonable wage increases. And despite the intransigence of Christy Clark and Kevin Falcon, polling consistently shows that women and men across British Columbia support these workers in their simple demand to not fall further behind or lose rights they and their predecessors fought to secure.
British Columbians want a fair and equitable society, and they recognize that the front-line workers in our schools, hospitals, and social and government services are an important part of that society.
In the private sector, workers are once again negotiating agreements that see them share in the gains of their productivity and the value of their work. Recent agreements between workers and companies like Rio Tinto and Teck Resources have put more income in the pockets of workers, and boosted the fortunes of local communities.
The power of local investment
Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy are too often invested in overseas companies or simply held as cash, creating no local economic activity. But when working people earn more, they tend to spend it in their own communities.
Just ask business owners in Trail, where employees of Teck Resources, represented by the United Steelworkers, negotiated a $10,000 signing bonus earlier this year. Trail businesses in every sector, from auto sales to restaurants to retail, immediately reported a significant increase in economic activity in their community.
These agreements are setting a pattern for wage growth for all working people, whether in a union or not. This is good news for working and middle class families and it’s also good news for our economy.
Liveable communities are anchored in a strong middle class and it was unions who were responsible for the development of the middle class.
This Labour Day, as investment bankers and CEOs fight to hold on to a greater and greater share of the wealth working people generate, unions remain as relevant as they were 140 years ago when our predecessors fought to reduce the work week to fewer than 60 hours.
We continue to fight for better work and better lives for all Canadians, and I am hopeful that we are turning a corner towards better times for us all.

American Labor Day

(I spelled it wrong, because they do).

This weekend marks the anniversary of the most brutal confrontation in the history of the American labor movement, the Battle of Blair Mountain. For one week during 1921, armed, striking coal miners battled scabs, a private militia, police officers and the US Army. 100 people died, 1,000 were arrested, and one million shots were fired.
It was the largest armed rebellion in America since the Civil War.

This is how it happened. In the Twenties, West Virginia coal miners lived in “company towns.” The mining companies owned all the property. They literally ran union organizers out of town – or killed them.
In 1912, in a strike at Paint Creek, the mining company forced the striking miners and their families out of their homes, to live in tents. Then they sent armed goons into that tent city, and opened fire on men, women and children there with a machine gun.
By 1920, the United Mine Workers had organized the northern mines in West Virginia, but they were barred from the southern mines. When southern miners tried to join the union, they were fired and evicted. To show who was boss, one mining company tried to place machine guns on the roofs of buildings in town.

In Matewan, when the coal company goons came to town to take it upon themselves to enforce eviction notices, the mayor and the sheriff asked them to leave. The goons refused. Incredibly, the goons tried to arrest the sheriff, Sheriff Hatfield. Shots were fired, and the mayor and nine others were killed. But the company goons had to flee.
The government sided with the coal companies, and put Sheriff Hatfield on trial for murder. The jury acquitted him. Then they put the sheriff on trial for supposedly dynamiting a non-union mine. As the sheriff walked up the courthouse steps to stand trial again, unarmed, company goons shot him in cold blood, in front of his wife.
This led to open confrontations between miners on one hand, and police and company goons on the other. 13,000 armed miners assembled, and marched on the southern mines in Logan and Mingo Counties. They confronted a private militia of 2,000, hired by the coal companies.
President Harding was informed. He threatened to send in troops and even bombers to break the union. Many miners turned back, but then company goons started killing unarmed union men, and some armed miners pushed on. The militia attacked armed miners, and the coal companies hired airplanes to drop bombs on them. The US Army Air Force, as it was known then, observed the miners’ positions from overhead, and passed that information on to the coal companies.
The miners actually broke through the militia’s defensive perimeter, but after five days, the US Army intervened, and the miners stood down. By that time, 100 people were dead. Almost a thousand miners then were indicted for murder and treason. No one on the side of the coal companies was ever held accountable.

The Battle of Blair Mountain showed that the miners could not defeat the coal companies and the government in battle. But then something interesting happened: the miners defeated the coal companies and the government at the ballot box. In 1925, convicted miners were paroled. In 1932, Democrats won both the State House and the White House. In 1935, President Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act. Eleven years after the Battle of Blair Mountain, the United Mine Workers organized the southern coal fields in West Virginia.
The Battle of Blair Mountain did not have a happy ending for Sheriff Hatfield, or his wife, or the 100 men, women and children who died, or the hundreds who were injured, or the thousands who lost their jobs. But it did have a happy ending for the right to organize, and the middle class, and America.
Now let me ask you one thing: had you ever heard of this landmark event in American history, the Battle of Blair Mountain, before you read this? And if not, then why not? Think about that.

Courage!

PS Here is the story in pictures, via heavy metal history

WordPress Tags: ADHDCanuck,American,Canadian,Labour,Ours,mass,Canada,warfare,justice,oppression,America,Both,Unionization,VERY,Tyee,enlightenment,origins,Toronto,Back,workers,role,outcry,Sept,Prime,Minister,John,MacDonald,groundwork,Thompson,rights,privileges,growth,From,World,ends,Signs,optimism,Front,intransigence,Clark,Kevin,Falcon,British,Columbia,Columbians,government,services,sector,Recent,Tinto,Teck,Resources,income,investment,cash,Just,Trail,employees,Steelworkers,bonus,news,Liveable,development,CEOs,wealth,Canadians,times,Labor,marks,anniversary,confrontation,history,movement,Battle,Blair,Mountain,coal,militia,Army,rebellion,Civil,Twenties,West,Virginia,Paint,Creek,tent,children,machine,Mine,Matewan,eviction,Sheriff,Hatfield,jury,steps,wife,Logan,Mingo,President,Many,bombs,Force,perimeter,Almost,treason,Democrats,State,House,White,Roosevelt,National,Relations,Eleven,event,Think,Courage,Here,pictures,Enter,caption,owners,predecessors,hospitals,agreements,fortunes,corporations,sales,restaurants,officers,organizers,confrontations,week,women,miners,goons,southern,mayor

September 3, 2012
Categories: Labour, Union, & Worker . Tags: ADHDCanuck, agreements, Almost, america, American, anniversary, army, BACK, Battle, Blair, bombs, bonus, Both, British, Canada, Canadian, Canadians, caption, cash, CEOs, children, Civil, Clark, coal, Columbia, Columbians, confrontation, confrontations, corporations, Courage, creek, Democrats, development, Eleven, employees, ends, enlightenment, Enter, event, eviction, falcon, force, fortunes, From, Front, goons, government, groundwork, growth, Hatfield, Here, history, hospitals, House, income, intransigence, investment, John, jury, JUST, justice, Kevin, Labor, labour, Liveable, Logan, Macdonald, machine, MANY, marks, mass, Matewan, Mayor, militia, Mine, miners, Mingo, Minister, Mountain, movement, National, news, officers, oppression, optimism, organizers, origins, Ours, outcry, Owners, PAINT, perimeter, pictures, predecessors, President, Prime, privileges, rebellion, Recent, relations, Resources, restaurants, rights, role, Roosevelt, sales, sector, Sept, services, Sheriff, signs, Southern, State, Steelworkers, steps, Teck, tent, THINK, Thompson, times, Tinto, Toronto, trail, treason, Twenties, Tyee, Unionization, VERY, Virginia, warfare, wealth, week, West, White, wife, women, workers, world . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

The National Benefit Authority (NBA) has hurt or abused a lot of people… according to their “clients”.

My blog has become a sort of central point for many people researching the National Benefit Authority. The NBA is a highly questionable company, entirely private and for profit, which uses harassment, high pressure tactics and legal pressure to reap many thousands of dollars from otherwise unsuspecting disabled Canadians. They are HEAVILY advertised and seem to almost impersonate a government agency, even in the way their forms are designed.

I encourage all of you to keep emailing me. I’m happy to help where I can, although my advice (such as it is) generally is something like “Speak to a lawyer, preferably one experienced in tax law, speak to and retain a real accountant not one of the part time hacks at H&R Block or the mall kiosk, call Canada Revenue Agency and request all forms related to the disability tax credit (DTC) and any help they can offer, and speak to your doctor/healthcare professional. Be very careful when choosing a tax preparer and make sure you or someone you trust FULLY understands what’s going on before you sign anything… especially crap that comes photocopied from the government website printouts and is accompanied by a series of sales pitches from a call centre”

Please read this article, where I outline the practice in more detail. I also wrote a follow up article, which you can read by clicking here as interest and traffic picked up. Media has all but been silenced on this issue by lawsuits against their parent corporations in Ontario. (Downside of corporate media).

Basically they take over full power over your Canada Revenue (tax) file, and if you take it back by cancelling their authorization many people receive threatening, intimidating, pressuring phone calls and mail. They get you access to a tax credit retroactively and in the future, they have been shown to use fake and discredited professionals and other shady practices which may or may not be legal. They could (not that they do, but could easily) file any kind of false claim on your behalf with questionable support, and any future action by Canada Revenue would be taken out on the person NOT the corporation. It seems really risky to me and they take 30% of your refund, not only the money they get for you but the entire thing including any money you would otherwise have gotten! They also charge fees, which are often waived as a sales closing tactic.

There are widespread complaints about misrepresentation, outright lying, potentially illegal collection practices and violations of privacy. I’ve heard about some very abusive and nasty call centre people at the NBA as well, if they were legitimate they would use only professionals and not generate customers using the same skills and techniques as phony investment salesmen. Canada Revenue cautions people to take great care in selecting a tax preparer and those I have spoken to in the public service and at CRA have mentioned that NBA filings are not considered very highly within their ranks. Very serious statements have been made by these workers that place the NBA in a negative light, and these people deal with this stuff all the time. If only we had government whistleblower protection so people could be encouraged to speak out.

I have received a steady stream of emails from people asking for help, as well there are many comments asking for help from people who are often unable to help themselves any further. They also relate some pretty negative experiences that are quite disturbing to read. I will share some in a later post, with their permission.

Some are heartbreaking reports of abusive treatment, despite the victim being disabled and not very able to manage the situation. Others are of people who realized it was a scam and cancelled only to receive legal papers, threats of lawsuits, even actual lawsuits and collection attempts to say nothing of the endless phone calls and letters.

Some chatter about exploring a class action lawsuit of some kind has begun, and several people have spoken to lawyers after being harassed or threatened beyond their ability to cope. But what about those who can’t afford such services? People seem to have this feeling that what the NBA does is illegal, or should be… and why can’t anyone do something about it other than just tell people not to use them? They’re getting filthy rich (millions and millions of dollars by now) off our handicapped, and the fake claims by the non disabled that are encouraged by their practices.

MP’s for the conservatives including my own Peter Goldring seem to support the NBA and want to be totally hands off with regard to the actions of this private corporation operating within their ridings. Even the NDP can’t really do much other than sympathize and perhaps offer some research or staff resources to look into the company. Still, I encourage everyone to contact their member of parliament and demand assistance, or at least explain to them what’s happening and ask them to consider some future legislative option.

I will keep the emails from all of you, and seek permission from all of you to make a contact list to put all of the victims (and other people who narrowly avoided this likely scam by researching online first) in touch with each other. A couple of lawyers and tax professionals will be invited to offer introductions and basic advice, and anyone will be free to follow up on their own or as a group for further assistance.

I wrote the original articles because I have ADHD and thought hey, here’s something to look into that I’m skeptical about. It turns out I was right to be suspicious and I now feel really good about helping so many people (thousands now who have read the articles and some of whom have emailed me with their thanks as well as some horror stories). It’s kind of surprising to see how much daily traffic they get and I am the #1 Google search result for a whole range of search entries relating to the NBA.

Keep it up! I started talking about it and I feel responsible to at least be some conduit between concerned people and sources of assistance.
Please let me know via email (adhdcanuck @ Gmail.com), twitter (@adhdcanuck) or Facebook as well as the comments here on my blog what you think I ought to do and if you’re willing to assist in some way… It just really gets my goat that these sick companies can take advantage of people, potentially act illegally, put us all at risk of future illegal activity, retain and use personal information, and take a HUGE amount of power over our lives with the swipe of a pen and a few high pressure phone calls. The government needs to start helping, and providing people better access to these services… but of course under the Harper Conservatives at least we can see these things are designed to be inaccessible.

I hope I can help. These people didn’t get my money and I feel good about letting people know you can do it yourself without involving crooks and shady outfits.

August 21, 2012
Categories: ADHD, Commentary, Health & Wellness . Tags: abuse, accountant, ADHD, ADHDCanuck, Agency, authority, Benefit, blog, Canada, collections, CRA, credit, disabilities, disabled, government, handicapped, harassment, lawsuit, lawyer, National, nba, Profit, rebate, Revenue, sales, tax . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

Health Canada allows dangerous fake medical products to be sold, knowing they are lies.

This pisses me off. There are issues to which “fairness” is a fallacy, and there are no other sides. We hurt ourselves by refusing to accept reality. Sometimes an argument is just BS. We can’t be pretending fake is real, just to say we had an equal debate. All sides are not equal. Let’s learn about vaccines and homeopathy.

Generally I am anti big-pharma and anti-drug, but this is one area where evidence to the contrary must win out over general distrust. A critical mind examines each issue, instead of painting the world with a single brush. Onwards now…FOR SCIENCE!

There are some elements of natural medicine which are proven to work, some which I’m sure are effective but unproven, and some whose claims are unfounded but are generally understood to be at least helpful or supportive. There is also the placebo effect, where something totally bogus will still appear to work for a certain small percentage of the population (usually below 10%) based solely on their will and wishing for it to work, and powers of self-delusion. Then below that, way below that, there are snake oil cures which are known to be ineffective, proven to be totally useless at best and indirectly dangerous at worst. Homeopathy resides in this lower region. Today I address one issue which falls under the homeopathic quackery category. Nosodes.. and how they apply to vaccination.

Nosodes are watered down bad stuff, basically. Homeopathic quacks practitioners will tell you that to cure something or prevent something (HIV for example, or whooping cough/measles) you simply dilute some of the harmful virus and ingest it. This might mean mixing pus and blood with water, then diluting it about a million times so that it takes an advanced laboratory to even detect what if any there is in the water other than H2O. It’s pure bunk. Health Canada allows these to be sold by homeopaths (who often consider themselves and can be confused with doctors by ignorant patients led down the garden path).

I urge you to click every link I post in this article. It is crucial that people see this is not opinion but supported FACT. The rights of people to believe stupid bullshit based on nothing is not the same as forcing the rest of us to consider that nonsense as being equal to factual reality.

Health Canada accepts “references to traditional use” as a type of evidence for whether something works. This is pure political correctness, a tip of the hat to aboriginal and other natural/tribal or ancient culture based remedies which can be real and effective when studied and refined by modern science. They also accept references to homeopathic textbooks, which seems an awful lot like asking a panel of child predators whether one of their own has been rehabilitated, or getting environmental advice from big oil. Go ahead, ask the fox whether the hen house is locked… you get the idea.

We must rely on real science not racial sensitivity or pop culture/vapid ex playboy models to determine what is a safe and effective medicine. By approving homeopathic remedies which do not work, Health Canada is working against their own programs to improve vaccination levels that have saved countless lives.Health Canada is putting us all at risk by allowing these products to see the light of day. Any support for nosodes (and indeed most if not all other untested and unproven homeopathic products) is a direct threat to public health and should not be supported by Health Canada. I want to increase awareness of these types of fake-medicines, and urge Health Canada to stop allowing them to be listed as medical products. We must call them what they are, and differentiate between legitimate natural medicine and abusive quackery.

The reason nosodes (water cures) can be considered deadly, deadly dangerous is that the anti-vaccine types have latched onto it and push their agenda from behind a veil of “natural alternatives”. These products are pushed as a healthy, natural alternative to those nasty scary vaccines which are in fact proven safe and effective. When people use these homeopathic fake fixes, they do so instead of real medicine. They are no longer contributing to the long standing immunity of human society against diseases which today would kill thousands and cost billions of dollars to contain/treat due to the compressed nature of our urban society and high costs of operating our medical system.

We are currently in the midst of the worst whooping cough outbreak in the last generation or two. This is a disease that kills babies, is mainly harmless to adults who usually don’t even realize they have it, and can be prevented in a completely safe manner by a simple vaccine. Vaccination levels have dropped to around 60% for this disease in the general population here in Alberta and we require about 80% levels or higher to maintain “herd immunity”. Herd immunity exists when the entire population is sufficiently protected that the disease cannot spread and is properly suppressed. Nice bonus, you can get vaccinated against it and also boost your vaccination for tetanus at the same time!

Measles and mumps and other diseases used to cost us billions of dollars in lost production and healthcare bills as well as seriously strain families as outbreaks could cripple entire neighbourhoods. This was considered a fact of life until vaccines were developed that have suppressed these diseases almost entirely. In recent years we have seen resurgences of them where they have not been seen in decades, in areas where vaccination levels are lower than necessary. They tend to afflict the poor more than the rich, putting strain on working class families while leaving the privileged class more untouched.

All we have to do is de-list, un-register, even ban homeopathic remedies like nosodes or at least apply the same regulation to them that other REAL health related products must follow. Until they follow it they must not be allowed to be sold under any label or pretence that implies they have an ounce of medical merit. Educate the public about the quack science of homeopathy which is NOT natural medicine but in fact is its retarded cousin. Real, working medicines and real information must be freely available and fully understood by more people if we are to combat ignorance. Health Canada MUST focus on its core principles, to improve our health, to protect our health, to increase the levels of vaccinations in society and not do things which work against their other efforts.

Please click here & check out / support Bad Science Watch, an advocacy group which calls out policy based on bad science. Take a look at their request to Health Canada to de-list these dangerous homeopathic products.

Bad Science Watch is an independent non-profit activist organization that provides analysis of dubious scientific claims to Canadians, our government, and the media, promotes objective critical thinking and advocates for the enforcement and strengthening of consumer protection regulation.

Bad Science Watch is funded by individual donations, and is committed to organizational transparency.

Time for a reality check:

Nosodes are treated like water by the body & generate zero immune system response. This is because they are usually so diluted that there is literally nothing left of the original substance.

Think vaccines are harmful? Reports of side effects are often fabricated, as are essentially ALL links to other disorders. Here is the straight information on what we suffered without vaccines, and what we get from them.

Lack of vaccination murders children. Maybe not YOURS, but someone’s you came into contact with or by simply allowing the diseases to exist in the population. Seriously, look up herd immunity it’s not complicated.

The (ethyl) mercury in vaccines (not all contain it) is not fat soluble which means it does not stay in the body like the (methyl) mercury in your tuna fish. You do more harm with tuna sandwiches, here’s a New England Journal of Medicine article proving with peer reviewed science that there were no negative side effects of mercury vaccines used in children. Oh and the one article that did indicate that vaccines were harmful was discredited as FRAUD and the doctor was kicked out of medicine. Thanks, asshole.

Even if vaccines were dangerous, caused autism, had common dangerous reactions in people other than mild discomfort, and were guilty of all the other things that anti-vax people say they are (which they are NOT) they would still be better than not vaccinating. The impact of a fully vaccinated population with all those “evil vaccine fallout” results is still infinitely superior to the guaranteed, proven result of an under-vaccinated population…This result would be thousands upon hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as compounded crippling lifelong conditions as a result of diseases that we can easily prevent. To say nothing of the massive impact to our fragile economies of the sudden huge burden on healthcare and unplanned losses of productivity.

Please watch at least the first 3 minutes of this video for the best demonstration of vaccine theory EVER. The rest is great too Smile

Homeopathy is an industry that, when faced with basic science based regulation has said it would simply label its medicine as candy instead of complying with demands to prove its legitimacy through science for the safety of the public. Would you allow Antidepressants, morphine or oxycontin, or cancer drugs to be sold over the counter as candy? No, because we know they work and what they are. Somewhere inside, we all know homeopathy is quackery…or this would not fly.

Need it in a simple, supportable statement?

If you refuse to vaccinate yourself, and your children…you are murdering babies (as well as helping to waste billions of dollars, and helping create endless suffering that can be easily avoided). So whether you care about babies, healthcare costs, human suffering, scientific evidence, safe medicines, the economy, yourself, or those around you it really makes no difference. We should all understand vaccination and get the damn shots.

I commit today to checking my vaccination history (needed an excuse to call my mommy anyhow) and updating as necessary. Please share, tweet, discuss, complain, comment, love, hate, or whatever you like… I’m just handing out jewellery here.

For more information, and for other important issues please go to Www.badsciencewatch.ca and support government policy being set by good science, not quackery.

I had research help on this piece from the lovely and brilliant young mother and skeptic activist Twylla Bugg. Thank you!
Please seek more information at the Www.Stopjenny.com website…seeking to debunk anti-vax propaganda and properly educate the public. Jenny McCarthy is a dangerous idiot.

August 5, 2012
Categories: Commentary, Health & Wellness . Tags: ADHDCanuck, advice, advocacy, agenda, Alberta, analysis, Antidepressants, area, areas, argument, article, babies, BILLIONS, bonus, bunk, Canada, Canadians, cancer, candy, caption, category, children, consumer, cost, cough, culture, deaths, delusion, demands, demonstration, difference, discomfort, disease, diseases, disorders, doctor, doctors, dollars, donations, drug, Edmonton, educate, efforts, England, Enter, example, fact, fallacy, fraud, garden, generation, government, health, Healthcare, Herd, Here, history, Homeopathic, Homeopathy, human, ignorance, immunity, impact, Industry, jewellery, Journal, Lack, legitimacy, lies, life, links, losses, manner, Maybe, Measles, Medicine, medicines, mercury, midst, MMR, nature, Nice, nonsense, Nosodes, Onwards, opinion, organization, ounce, outbreak, outbreaks, panel, path, percentage, piece, placebo, policy, population, pretence, production, products, protection, quack, quackery, reactions, REAL, references, region, regulation, reports, response, result, rights, science, self, Sometimes, Somewhere, statement, substance, system, Take, Thank, Thanks, theory, thimerosol, THINK, THOUSANDS, threat, Time, times, transparency, Twylla, vaccinate, vaccination, vaccinations, vaccine, vaccines, virus, Watch, Whether, world, zero . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: Leave a Comment

Badly burned working on a car… so why not blog about my healthcare experience! Nurses rule.

WARNING! AWESOME BELOW!

I will be posting graphic images of my injury (burn) in this article.

Friday July 20th I had the nastiest little automotive related accident. Some of you may have caught my tweets.

I was working under my VW and bleeding some pressure off the coolant system which was at max temperature. It has to be done while hot in order to do an open system flush but the temp and pressure was way higher than I realized… Something not working right. The radiator has no drain so it has to be drained at the radiator hose. Well, as luck would have it the hose blew in front of me. I was doing it right but I should have noticed the temp was WAY higher than normal and bled some pressure off from the top as well first. My mistake.

Scalding coolant in EXCESS of 250 degrees f (121 degrees C) exploded all over me as I was stuck under the car. Well I’ve never shot out from under a vehicle so fast before in my life. I was smart enough to be wearing heavy gloves, safety goggles, and a heavy duty carhartt work shirt so I mainly scalded my hand and some of my head/face. My hand took almost all of the burn thank goodness and the glove helped protect me.

I got out of the gloves and clothing and immediately started flushing myself off with cold water from the hose. It felt glorious. The second the cool water wasn’t flowing over my burns it felt like acid and salt being rubbed on an open wound.

This is what it looked like, within moments of the incident. My neighbour Marcelle covered my hand right away in baking soda and water paste. It helps neutralize the burn and combined with the immediate water cooling might have saved me from skin grafts. I love my neighbours!

(I am a huge nerd, some of my first thoughts were to record the details and blog about it when I was better… even in an emergency while I take care of critical tasks like first aid I think of all of you out there in internet land.)

At the hospital ER my neighbour John drove me to (approximately 3 minutes drive from my house) they had me keep a constant flow of saline over the burns under soft wet bandages. Then they wrapped me up and gave me T3’s. I made a cool video of them wrapping it, so everyone can see how to properly wrap a hand. I’d already downed a few (4 or 5) of my T1’s (over the counter but still has a little codeine) to take the edge off. The staff at the 50st @ Manning freeway ER were awesome. SO MANY hot nurses and they all checked in on me (probably to check out my cool burn). This really sweet girl named Sonya was taking care of me and was a really happy bouncy friendly person. I kept forgetting to mention to her how pleasant she was and how lovely she was with the other patients who were in worse shape than me. I noticed this very sharp looking nurse go by a bunch of times though, always very sleek and swift like she had important purposes. I wanted to say how she carried herself so well, seeming so sharp and dedicated (and she’s very attractive too) and then she came and did my bandage! You can see her in the video. I didn’t catch her name but she sure did a nice job and was very accommodating of my video nerdery. I wonder if her friends at the ER will get her to watch her soon to be famous “how to bandage a hand for a half stoned burn patient” video.

The middle finger got the worst of it, 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The rest of my hand had some 2nd degree burns and blistering scattered around mostly along the index and ring fingers. It was wrapped in a WHOLE tube of polysporin for the night and I went back the next morning to get it changed. The blisters had formed… HELLO YUCKYTIME!
I spent a day and a bit with them all puffed up and then the doctor sliced them open and drained them to avoid infection. I got a cool new wrapping, a little less bulky this time.

The next day (Sunday now) I went back again and met this amazing nurse. His name is Stan (Stan the man!) and he was the best! He checked my burns and whipped out a little snipper tray, cleaned me all up and cut away all the dead skin that he could get. It felt strange! He did the best dressing ever and it felt a lot better. Raw, but on the mend you could tell! He’s also a hoot! Tells great stories, is full of fun commentary, and knows his stuff. He deals with burn patients a lot and doctors call him up to say thank you because he makes their jobs so much easier. I imagine it also makes the patients treatment and healing a lot easier too! He should get some kind of ribbon or something. The rest of the skin on my finger came off today (Tuesday the 24th) as he could only carve off half my finger on Sunday. I don’t think anyone ever had so much fun getting chunks of flesh removed as I did, I hope they get him mentoring new nurses. It’s a rare person who can be that kind of funny and goofy but very caring and professional at the same time. Thumbs up for Stan! (Since at least I can still do that!)

Stan spent the time with me to show me how to dress the wounds myself properly. I was sent home with a great goodie bag full of really cool medical supplies like self-adhesive bandages and syringes full of saline. I got some of this awesome ADAPTIC stuff too. It’s basically a bandage soaked in vaseline so it doesn’t stick to wounds. Freakin AWESOME! I will be back to get my dressing changed and hand checked again this week but I can go a couple days safely at home in between. I’m pretty comfortable with medical stuff (can you tell?) so I don’t mind doing some of my own, but the people at the ER are also happy to do it for me every day if I need them to, it just might mean a bit of a wait. A walk in clinic doctor gave me a prescription for this EXPENSIVE burn cream with silver in it called Flamazine, but everyone at the ER told me it was stuff they used 20 years ago and clinics give it out because it helps the pharmacies make money. Polysporin is what they suggest at the ER, most of them hadn’t seen this FLAMAZINE stuff in years. Polysporin feels way better anyhow, and I learned how valuable proper medical care is. We need more proper family doctors taking patients not walk in clinics which are basically revolving door prescription factories. The walk in clinic also did a lousy job on bandaging my hand, something called a “clinical aide” instead of a real nurse did it & haphazardly at best. Deregulation and privatization at work. I wish he had more opportunity to get a real career in healthcare not some low paying clinic position with no room for advancement. I definitely felt I got better care at the ER than the walk in clinic, and a LOT faster too though I know that isn’t the case at other hospitals where wait times are higher.

On my first three trips to this ER I spent about 10 minutes waiting each time, even when I went for just a bandage change. I went for my bandage changes about 9am when it wasn’t busy. My fourth visit I went at 3pm to check at a more busy time. I was waiting 2 hours and then Stan got me all sorted out. My total time including treatment was 3.5 hours. THAT is how medical care is supposed to be. 90% or more of the people in the ER could easily have been treated by a family doctor but they didn’t have one! I asked around, it’s impossible to find good doctors so they clog up the ER. I was chatting about that issue with some parents waiting to get their kids checked out when my turn came up.

Check out this awesome stuff! I got a few goodies every trip and now I have enough to do my own dressings for a couple weeks in between doctor check-ups. Down side is I don’t get to hang out with Stan as much, and I met this totally awesome triage nurse I would love to see again named Alysson (love that spelling) who was SO charming and funny. We were cracking jokes and she said I was her favourite patient Smile I Think I might have a bit of a crush. She’s a deadly babe too. All the other nurses I chatted with (and I talked to quite a few lol) thought Alysson was pretty fantastic. Nurses and electricians do get along very well…I wonder if she knows? I got a really great photo of her when I was grabbing a shot of the triage station where you get assessed upon arrival. She really does deserve some attention for being so much fun to deal with (and such an incredible distraction from things like pain and suffering). She chatted with me and was super friendly but still switched back into nurse mode the second this older lady came in, didn’t waste a moment and helped her right away. Cool lady but still eminently professional. From this station you go to registration and then either the waiting area or into a treatment bay.

Well, at this time I have done two bandage changes myself (a little awkwardly but effectively) and feel pretty good. I got a nice prescription for T3’s which I hope to not fully use up. They are always handy to have around for emergencies. I intend to go back and see the good people at the ER later this week and thank them in person (some more, since I always remember to say thanks while I am there too).

Here’s my first one handed attempt. It feels better than it looks.

Throughout this whole experience I tried to keep in mind that I want to share the details with the world. I made an effort to mentally record as much as possible and really absorb what I could from the people around me. I’ve always thought that in times of injury and stress a joke is better than a complaint, a smile is better than a scowl, and a friendly polite happy attitude will yield better results than a whiney, demanding, ignorant one. I asked questions, made wisecracks, empathized with the people who work in the hospital and appreciated them for what they do.

A cleaning lady spent 10 minutes with me in a hallway while I waited for the doctor, and brought me a list of clinics accepting regular patients when she found out through conversation that I had trouble finding a general practitioner. There was a new building opening and she wanted me to get in first so I could check it out. Very kind! Everyone showed genuine care, concern and even a little curiosity about my injury. Though the nurses and people who operate the main desk station inside the ER back room were a bit quieter and less friendly I imagine they were dealing with about a million things at once. Nothing a few hugs couldn’t fix.

Oh, the doctors were good too. No real jackasses, all friendly enough, capable and seemed highly skilled. Always in a rush of course but I wasn’t exactly a critical case. They seemed interested in getting me better and able to take care of myself at home as quickly as possible, and they sure do know a lot of stuff! When you can get one chatting they’re very interesting. Since 95% of my time I was dealing with other healthcare workers I guess 95% of the article I can dedicate to their awesomeness. In all honesty, my actual treatment was at the hands of nurses except for having the blisters cut open and I’m 100% sure Stan could have done that too given half a chance. The doctors took a quick look and made sure I knew about infection risk, gave me pain meds and left me in the capable hands of the front line people who make the healthcare system work. Nurses (& other care workers) RULE.

July 25, 2012
Categories: Commentary, Labour, Union, & Worker, Personal, Reviews . Tags: accident, ADAPTIC, ADHDCanuck, adhesive, advancement, aide, Alysson, area, arrival, article, attention, attitude, AUPE, AWESOME, babe, blog, caption, Check, clinic, clinics, commentary, complaint, conversation, Cool, coolant, degree, degrees, Deregulation, desk, didn, distraction, doctor, doctors, door, Down, easier, Edmonton, effort, emergencies, emergency, Enter, EXPENSIVE, factories, Flamazine, flesh, Freakin, friends, From, girl, goggles, hallway, Healthcare, Hello, Here, hospital, hospitals, hours, HSAA, images, incident, index, infection, injury, John, kids, lady, life, luck, MANY, Marcelle, mode, moment, moments, money, neighbour, nerd, pain, patients, person, photo, Polysporin, practitioner, prescription, purposes, radiator, registration, ribbon, room, Rule, self, shirt, Some, Sonya, Stan, system, tasks, temperature, THINK, Though, Throughout, Thumbs, times, tray, treatment, triage, tube, UNA, vehicle, VERY, wasn, week, WHOLE, wisecracks, workers, world, YUCKYTIME . Author: adhdlogan123 . Comments: 1 Comment

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So I’m sad about my can opener… dealing with it a very “Mike” sort of way.

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The National Benefit Authority (NBA) has hurt or abused a lot of people… according to their “clients”.

Health Canada allows dangerous fake medical products to be sold, knowing they are lies.

Badly burned working on a car… so why not blog about my healthcare experience! Nurses rule.

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