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As I turn on the news once again and have to hear another Heath Ledger report done, not in the entertainment section but at the top of the news hour I start asking myself is this the type of field I’ll be working in? Don’t get me wrong it’s terrible that Heath Ledger died, I feel sorry for his family and especially his young daughter. But common how many of thousands of people die each day from drug overdoses and don’t get any mention of them whatsoever? I have no problem with this sort of stuff being on the entertainment section of the newscast, but personally I would rather hear about what’s going on in Afghanistan.
There are so much other real news going on in the world, do we really need to focus this much time on Ledger’s death? I mean some stations are devoting 10-15mins of their entire show on this one person’s tragedy. Let shows like Entertainment Tonight or The Insider deal with this subject. I don’t want to keep listening to this on stations like CNN.
The news it seems today is more focused on what’s going on in Hollywood than what’s the actual real news. I’m not going to lie I like to know what’s going on in entertainment, but I believe there is a time and place for this sort of thing. I mean do people really care that much about where Heath Ledger is having his funeral take place? I have a hard time believing that so many people would be that interested in that.
Even as I turn on the news this morning, a couple of days after his death, it is still one of the top stories. I got so bored listening to the same thing I just decided to turn off the T.V and start blogging. The question I keep asking myself is how much is too much?
My goals for this course is mainly to learn more about computers and the internet. I am not very strong in this field so hopefully by the time this course is over with I will be a lot stronger.
THUD! And with that I am thrown on the floor of my father’s boat by a crashing wave. As I look up and stare into the sky I see a seagull looking back at me and I truly believe he’s laughing at my situation. I stumbled back only to have another wave smack the boat and have the cold Atlantic Ocean spray bone chilling water on my face. A friendly reminder that I am not in Ontario anymore.
Only 48 hours before this I was finishing up the last newscast of 2007, for my Journalism program. I was relieved to have finished for the semester as I knew in two days I would be back home, in Nova Scotia, lobstering for my father.
As I walked off the airplane into the bitter coldness I knew I’d be in for one hell of a ride this year. The weather this winter has been the worst most people living here have ever seen. There is a part of me regretting coming home, knowing that for the next 3 weeks I’d be freezing my ass off. My fears turned to reality the next day as we start hauling the traps at about 5 o’clock in the morning. I kept saying to myself, is the weather really this bad or am I getting soft? Probably because the answer is somewhere in between.
As the first day finished up I was ever so grateful to be going home for the night. I was just inches away from just falling over the boat as I slipped on some ice almost falling overboard. I figured out years ago if I were ever to fall overboard I would be swimming with the fishes for a long time, as I would probably drown. This is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and you always need to pay attention. I did it for a split second and almost paid the ultimate price.
It is now a week into lobstering and I’m starting to get into the groove, but my back is killing me so badly that I crawl into bed as soon as I get home taking four Tylenol to try and get some sleep. I fall asleep knowing that in two days its Christmas and I will be getting come much needed rest. The next day I awake to find it a beautiful day as we start hauling our lobster traps we see the sun come out and no wind at all, what a perfect sight. I would almost say this was close to a perfect day as one could get for this time of year. Lobstering can get extremely brutal, there’s the long hours, back braking work, the threat of falling overboard, the loneliness of being stuck with one person for 14 hours a day – and than there’s the bad parts.
But none of these things matter on day like today, these days reminds me of the good things like having peace and quiet, making money and not thinking about assignments and homework.
The holidays have now come and went. Every year it seems to go by quicker and quicker as the day’s role by I start to miss my class mates a little more. My back has started getting better but the weather has started getting worse. It really shouldn’t be a surprise now that it is January. The lobstering season has been a successful one as all the boats have caught a good number of lobsters this season and no one has died.
As I get my things packed and than my father for my pay I take one last look at the Atlantic Ocean, ever thankful that I am going back to Hamilton in one piece. I am reminded of the people that weren’t as lucky in years past whose bodies sleep in the Ocean, and am thankful for at least one more year to be out of the dead zone.
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