Twitter Twittering Tweets. If you don’t already know somehow, Twitter is a social networking and extremely popular micro-blogging service that enables users to post short messages (or tweets) from their phone, computer, their own website and other devices. There is not a lot of people quite a few people and businesses that post regularly on Twitter that are from Medicine Hat. This post is another one of my famous lists, so here it goes:

*Updated July 26th, 2009*

Medicine Hat Public Library
That’s right, the MHPL uses Twitter to post updates and events happening in the Library. It’s nice to see a place you would think would be fairly old-school using this service.

Medicine Hat College
Now, even the Medicine Hat College has begun to tweet! I’m told they will begin to post event info, advisor updates and more.

Medicine Hat News
Medicine Hat News has started posting links to their top and local stories using the “twitterfeed” web application.

TriCube Media
Local web design and development company has just started using Twitter to post and will post a variety of things including finished/portfolio work, cool gadgets, internet happenings, and more.

From Womb to Cradle
The From Womb to Cradle posts about pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting information as well as professional events.

Memory Lane Computers
This local computer store and web development company uses Twitter to post about new stock, technology/computer news and other things.

I originally had a very large list here of individuals in Medicine Hat that post on twitter, but it just got to hard to keep up with. So instead, please take a look at who Medicine Hat Media follows (login required). We try to follow everybody from Medicine Hat, unless they have been inactive for months, then we usually un-follow them to keep our list active; however, we do try to keep all the businesses and organizations followed.

Well that concludes it, I hope you found some twitterers that tweet in Medicine Hat to follow or friend! Okay, I’m sick of saying Twitter related words now. One thing I did notice was the mass majority of Twitter users also have their own website, in most cases it is another blog which 99% of the time contains their Twitter feed in it. Comment if I have missed you!

*Thanks to Sarah and Michelle*

As plastered on the front page of the Medicine Hat News, Gregory Fritzke has been arrested and charged with accessing and distributing child pornography. Okay… pretty sick, but to make matters worse, he was the vice-principle at Ross Glen School. Start the angry parents riot! Parents of children that go to Ross Glen are going crazy, and this is just from the comments posted on the Medicine Hat News website (most of the comments are now gone when the Medicine Hat News website was updated), who knows what the future of Ticked Off & Tickled Pink will look like.

Greg Fritzke, 43 - Image from CTV Calgary

Quotes have appeared like “We as a society need to screen the people involved in our childrens lives on a daily basis more carefully” from one commenter. Comments like this remind me of the Grey Hound bus situation – one person gets killed, or one sick bastard is all it takes to warrant spending thousands if not millions of dollars for these “screening” procedures. Obviously in this case, I believe the commenter is referring to using ourselves as a “screen” to weed out child pornography collectors (somehow). This is a rare and  isolated event in this community – just like the Grey Hound bus slaying. There’s no magic “pedophile-meter”, just like there is no method to gauge if somebody is just going to wind up and kill somebody; obviously there are warning signs to these types of psychological issues, but they aren’t accurate, even so, the average person is not trained to spot these “warning signs”. In no way am I defending Gregory Fritzke or his actions, I’m just against the irrationality involved with people commenting and ranting over these isolated events (isolated in terms of the Medicine Hat community, not on a global scale).

Supposedly Gregory Fritzke did not have any images/photography of children at the school in his stash – but the fact of the matter is he was a vice-principle and he seen kids all day. Obviously this makes parents feel pretty sick even if he didn’t actually harm any children at the school. Psychologically speaking, Gregory Fritzke knew that what he was doing was wrong which is why he never acted out on his thoughts at school, instead he went home and downloaded child porn to satisfy his urge. Obviously I’m not a psychologist but I’ve read enough on the subject to know that most of these people aren’t pure evil, Satan incarnates; rather, they may have psychologically traumatized in their past or some past experience made him this way (maybe he was molested as a child). Obviously I’m being general and pretty speculative on the incident until actual details arrive. The bottom line is he downloaded and looked at child pornography which is wrong, granted, but he is NOT a child molester, child rapist, nor did he physically abuse children in any way as far as anybody knows currently (this may have changed though – see below). Guilty before proven innocent? I guess there is no gray area to most people…

*UPDATE – February 11th, 2009*

More charges have been laid against Fritzke which leads me to not retract my above statement but to clarify. I said that “nor did he physically abuse children in any way as far as anybody knows currently” which is still the case right now since he has NOT been found guilty.

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

If you are like me then your favourite section of the Medicine Hat News is reading the commentary, and one section in particular “tickles” your fancy – Ticked Off & Tickled Pink. Home to the strange, weird, stupid, infuriating and funny comments from people around the city. Recently the Medicine Hat News website has posted a “best of” list showcasing 20 of the funniest (stupidest) comments submitted this last year.

Medicine Hat News – Ticked Off/Tickled Pink – Best of 2008

Some of my favourites from the list:

A little specific aren’t we?

“Ticked Off: I’m ticked off that my assistant CEO is allowed to abuse employees by throwing shoes at them. It’s a degrading and an embarrassment to our industry. Something needs to be done.”

Definition of irony?

“Ticked Off: I’m a little bit ticked off because all you have in the Ticked Off/Tickled Pink column is ticked off. Nothing positive, everything is negative. How about putting some stuff that is a little brighter so everyone can smile and laugh.”

Wow… possibly the best comment ever?

“Tickled Pink: I am tickled pink that the 1970s cheesy, pornstar, handlebar mustache still exists in this world. It can turn a little man into a big man, especially if he suffers from small man syndrome.”

Definitely has their priorities in order:

“Ticked Off: I’m fed up with the constant time change every six months. In our house, the clocks are not changed and every six months we are right on time.”

1 word: Google

“Ticked Off: I’m ticked off on Thursday’s paper, it shows Malcolm Bauld, a Montreal based artist, coming to play in Medicine Hat at the Ottoman Lounge. I’d like to know where the Ottoman Lounge is. Is it in Medicine Hat? In Montreal? Or Calgary?”