The Rock says...
Bleh. I'm sick. My throat hurts, I'm hacking like crazy and I have a crapload of snot pouring out of my face. Boooooo. I slept in til almost noon today. Ian woke me up. I had spoken to him briefly last night about starting to feel under the weather and he brought me soup. I have the best friends. As a bonus he brought me donuts from Granville Island. Wow. I thought I was gonna lose weight but with the number of donuts I'm putting back I'm gonna look like Homer soon.
Tried to get some work in today. Decided that RFP is not what I want. On one hand I felt like maybe I should finish responding to it but I'm gonna take my own advice and walk away from it. i just don't get a good feeling from it. It's not really design work and it just seems like I'm not going to be able to make it worth my while. I think there's other stuff I can go after. Spent the rest of the day trolling the job boards and applying for jobs. Some interesting possibilities. The Pittsburgh Penguins AHL affiliate had a job opening, Major League Baseball also had a job posting for a designer and the crème de la crème, WWE had an Art Director position open.
Now for those of you that don't know, professional wrestling is my guilty pleasure. I grew up watching the Hart brothers bash it out on Stampede Wrestling against guys like Honkey Tonk Wayne, Mukhan Singh, the Great Gama and the Karachi Vice, Bad News Allen, Kerry Brown, Jason the Terrible, The Stomper, the Viet Cong Express, Goldie Rodgers, "Champagne" Gerry Morrow and my all-time favorite heel, The Cuban Assassin. I watched my heroes Jim "the Incredible Hulk" Neidhart team with Mr. Hito to capture the tag championships, watched J.R. Foley make an unsuccessful run at the Mayorship, watched the early days of the British Bulldogs before they became household names, watched a skinny kid from Edmonton named Chris Benoit grow up before his tragic end.
I've seen wrestlers come and go, some heroically, some tragically. Through it all, I've still continued to watch. I can't say I enjoy it now as much as I did back then. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan. I just find these days, there's too much talking, not enough in-ring action and it's become somewhat predictable. The performers are being asked to do more and more extreme things to entertain the crowds and I think some wrestlers feel the need to put their bodies at risk to keep their jobs. I'm not a fan of chair shots to the head. I think the recent spotlight put on football and hockey players who have suffered multiple concussions have shown that repeated blows to the head if severe enough can have adverse effects. Chris Benoit, case in point. An autopsy revealed years of concussions had taken a toll on his brain and when he died at the age of 40 his brain resembled that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient. Combine that with steroid use and it's very likely Chris was not in the right frame of mind when he took the lives of his family and then himself. Several other wrestlers have also died young with mental disorders or steroid related medical problems. I think there has to be a way to protect these performers from feeling they have to put themselves in danger in order to keep their jobs. I don't know if unionizing is the way but certainly i think there should be something that gives them the ability to say no to things that could negatively impact their well being in later life.
Professional wrestling is a physically demanding job. Injuries are commonplace and to some degree expected. It's the preventable stuff that I'd rather these athletes not have to put themselves through in order to make a paycheque. There is still an art form to wrestling. A combination of storytelling and physical performance. Good versus bad. Heroes and villains. I think some of that has been lost in favour of shock value and cheap laughs. I wish I could bring wrestling back to the days of old where we could suspend our belief to watch an epic battle between babyfaces and heels. Junkyard Dog, Andre the Giant, Bam Bam Bigelow and Ravishing Rick Rude. They were great characters. Great performers. All have passed into memory. I think back on those days fondly and wish they would return.
Bleh. I'm sick. My throat hurts, I'm hacking like crazy and I have a crapload of snot pouring out of my face. Boooooo. I slept in til almost noon today. Ian woke me up. I had spoken to him briefly last night about starting to feel under the weather and he brought me soup. I have the best friends. As a bonus he brought me donuts from Granville Island. Wow. I thought I was gonna lose weight but with the number of donuts I'm putting back I'm gonna look like Homer soon.
Tried to get some work in today. Decided that RFP is not what I want. On one hand I felt like maybe I should finish responding to it but I'm gonna take my own advice and walk away from it. i just don't get a good feeling from it. It's not really design work and it just seems like I'm not going to be able to make it worth my while. I think there's other stuff I can go after. Spent the rest of the day trolling the job boards and applying for jobs. Some interesting possibilities. The Pittsburgh Penguins AHL affiliate had a job opening, Major League Baseball also had a job posting for a designer and the crème de la crème, WWE had an Art Director position open.
I've seen wrestlers come and go, some heroically, some tragically. Through it all, I've still continued to watch. I can't say I enjoy it now as much as I did back then. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan. I just find these days, there's too much talking, not enough in-ring action and it's become somewhat predictable. The performers are being asked to do more and more extreme things to entertain the crowds and I think some wrestlers feel the need to put their bodies at risk to keep their jobs. I'm not a fan of chair shots to the head. I think the recent spotlight put on football and hockey players who have suffered multiple concussions have shown that repeated blows to the head if severe enough can have adverse effects. Chris Benoit, case in point. An autopsy revealed years of concussions had taken a toll on his brain and when he died at the age of 40 his brain resembled that of an 85 year old Alzheimer's patient. Combine that with steroid use and it's very likely Chris was not in the right frame of mind when he took the lives of his family and then himself. Several other wrestlers have also died young with mental disorders or steroid related medical problems. I think there has to be a way to protect these performers from feeling they have to put themselves in danger in order to keep their jobs. I don't know if unionizing is the way but certainly i think there should be something that gives them the ability to say no to things that could negatively impact their well being in later life.
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