You’ve heard right, Medicine Hat Media now officially has a twitter account and is going to be updating it as frequent or more frequently than site updates or posts here. I went through the advanced search function on Twitter to try and find everybody from Medicine Hat to follow,  so don’t mind how we follow so many people (I heard it’s a bad thing to do since people think you’re spamming). I promised a couple posts ago that we would stop using 80/90’s cartoons references and obscure internet dialect in these news-less posts, so this is pretty much the end of it then. Here’s our new badge:

Also, for no reason at all, there’s an obligatory 80’s cartoon intro after the jump:

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

The newest old Medicine Hat Media logo

Medicine Hat Media was first came into realization after many days of wondering what to name ourselves in an ongoing discussion between Sean and myself. We eventually settled on “Medicine Hat Media” – it just had a good ring to it, plus it fit our vision of what the site would be. Unknowingly for us, “Medicine Hat Media” was a a physical company before we snagged the .com domain in 2008.

Looking back, we actually already suspected that this domain was being used for some purpose before because we were getting link backs from other Medicine Hat sites that attributed us (or the Medicine Hat Media before us) to website design and development. Through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I was able to take a look at what existed before in two entries:

November 20th, 2004
February 13th, 2005

From what we are able to see (from the portions of the site that still work) it was a graphic and web design company with a team made up of Mike Helton, James Robertson, and Niko Poulopoulos. Where they went or what they did after is a mystery! Judging from their earliest archived site, it seems like they might have been around longer than 2004 too, since they refer to that site as version 2.0. Comment if you have any stories or know anything else about the previous Medicine Hat Media.

So, there I was, merging onto the #1 from the overpass by The Medicine Hat College. There was a police officer next to me and as I began to merge he was not slowing down or speeding up to let me go in front or behind him. So I tapped the gas to get in front just as he begins to go into the right lane to go onto 13th. He pulls back and turns his lights on, drag. I was not speeding by enough to warrant a ticket, so what else could it be? He says “You did not signal”, which is like impossible (like as in, one in a billion amount of times I will forget it, since I am a very signal, mirror, shoulder checking type of person – usually). Although in thinking back, I did not see him signaling, but whatever. He checked my signal light, and it was working.

So in the way that funny stories go, he says “You have a nice car”. Oddly enough, I have been pulled over so rarely that it is years in between, and despite having probably the most recognizable car in Alberta/Saskatchewan (probably), it has never been the reason I have been pulled over in the past. He checks my insurance and it turns out that it is out of date. Double drag. But he calls it in and of course it is valid. He seems to be a good guy about it and polite as well, and not a jerk, something most people would contrarily attest to, and not without warrant, because usually cops seem all too happy to write out some tickets as opposed to realizing people are fallibly human. This one time I was going like 7kph over the limit at 11pm on Highway #3, got pulled over, cop asks why I was speeding, I said “I do not have cruise control and sometimes my foot eases on and off the gas ever so slightly”. Apparently that is not a good reason, and 7kph over on the loneliest of roads is a hazard to everyone around me.

He comes back to my car, we talk a bit, and in saying I am from Saskatchewan and only recently changed my plates over to Alberta plates. Insurance is way different there, which he agreed with and even said he liked Saskatchewan’s system better (diss to expensive Alberta insurance), he did not give me a ticket for either offense.

Long story short, most of the time police officers seem to hand out tickets without reason other than “because”, but sometimes it is not entirely a bad experience.

This is the first post I’ve done of this kind on Medicine Hat Media. Small tweaks and changes over the sites short history were always just done and never commented about. The changes done in this case are more important – or important enough to do a post about.

Logo

New Logo

Somebody recently asked us for our logo which made us come under the realization that our “logo” was more of just a site header rather than a traditional logo-type that could be used in multiple applications. Which really was bad considering I never do that for any of my projects and I did graduate from the Visual Communication program after all. I was also never satisfied with what I created in the first place – it was just too busy and meaningless for the sites function.

Although I’m traditionally opposed to using the “tipi” imagery since it’s so cliche; I think it speaks more about our site than anything else ever could. I also wanted to add things like “art” and “music” symbolism into the logo but was too busy and maybe was too specific anyways since this site ranges topics a lot more now than it did in the past. So more than anything, this site is about commenting about Medicine Hat – the reference that the speech bubble with the tipi conveys.

Old Site Header

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

If there was any indication that Billy Joel was playing in Medicine Hat it would be the all the posters and even some mobile billboards posted around Medicine Hat saying, “BILLY JOEL” in huge letters. You would be wrong on two accounts though. For one, he is actually playing in Redcliff, at Harmony Hall, and two, he’s not Billy Joel, he’s a Billy Joel tribute artist named Don Wolf. I guess it’s kind of clever, but ultimately deceptive advertising, and I’m sure it says “as Don Wolf, tribute show” somewhere on the billboard and posters – but when you’re driving past them it would be hard to notice, especially since the words “BILLY JOEL” take up 50% of the board. Anyways, end of that rant.

Don Wolf Promotional Collage via billyjoeltribute.ca

Harmony Hall seems to be a new and upcoming venue, which I first heard about when Gob played there. Don Wolf will be playing a 90 minute set playing all of Billy Joel’s greatest hits including Piano Man, Uptown Girl, and River of Dreams. Admission costs $49 and includes a full buffet dinner and the show. Doors open at 6PM and the dinner & show starts at 7PM. For more information, call 403-979-1572. Harmony Hall is at 1 – 1st Street SE, Redcliff.

The story has changed somewhat since our original Gregory Fritzke post. Tuesday, police charged Gregory Fritzke, 43, ex-vice-principle from Ross Glenn School with two more charges: Sexual Assault and Sexual Exploitation to go on top of his original charge of Accessing and Distributing Child Pornography. The alleged assault is believed to have taken place in 2004 against a young girl at Alexandra Junior High School where Fritzke was vice-principle.

This is hard because on one side I hope this charge isn’t made up because it would just be one of those exploitation of the accused cases, but at the same time I hope it is made up because it’s really sick and terrible. Would people rather want this be true and have a tortured child or would they hope and pray that it’s made up to exploit the Fritzke case. What do you think?

To many, this simply reinforced their original beliefs and speculations; however, I am still cautious with saying he is not guilty of anything yet. He is due for court appearance on February 12th (tomorrow). Only after he is defined by law as guilty or innocent will I respectively call him either or – this isn’t the middle ages anymore (ordeal by fire/water).

We have will have more information after (and possibly during) the trial.

Original Post:

To the Gallows, Gregory Fritzke!

Angry comments below (sarcsm):

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 »

In the Discovery Channel finale of Canada’s Worst Driver, Ashley Van Ham was given the title of “Canada’s Worst Driver”

Many people seem to dig this show, but honestly, you wonder how someone can be so ignorant as they appear in the show. From a young age, kids grow up seeing their parents or guardians driving. It does not take a genius to realize that the gas pedal accelerates, the brake decelerates, and you turn the wheel at which ever direction you want to go. Combine that with traffic lights, and obviously again, as we are conditioned to think from a young age that green means go, red means stop, amber (or yellow) can only be between the two, and mean proceed with caution. Signs like stop signs are clearly labeled “STOP”, while other signs can easily be determined with even the lowest of I.Q.’s.

Image Courtesy of DiscoveryChannel.ca

Ashley Van Ham was quoted saying: “It was a great experience overall, and I use the skills I learned every day,” but who really needs to go on a public show and prove their ignorance just to learn something not only learned since a young age and while growing up, but should also learn in Drivers Education class?

This show is parallel in many ways to the show Canada’s Worst Handyman. The difference is that building something takes some form of logical thinking, and not everyone is conditioned with the thought process of how to build things from a young age. But still, you need a good foundation and appropriate support to hold up a roof.

Back to Ashley Van Ham and bad driving habits. If you are overly distracted, aggressive, and unskilled to the point of not learning the skills, then get off the road. As if the ice was not bad enough, or the bumper-to-bumper action going down Dunmore road or any of the bigger hill roads in Medicine Hat, now the news and television perpetuates the fear of Canada’s Worst Driver cruising around the streets.

Medicine Hat has been hit, as we all know, with a belated snowfall. What is more, it rained prior to the snow, making the roads all the more slippery. Lack of traction is not entirely the culprit for accidents; it rests mostly on the drivers who do not give themselves enough time to properly brake on the winter-coated streets.

Following the actual speed limits in winter and pre-braking are the easiest way to avoid accidents, but also down shifting helps quite a lot. When I come down the Dunmore Road hill ever morning for work, I ride the clutch in first year and barely brake at all, because it is just that effective and easy.

Coming home from work on Tuesday, I noticed a car beside me on Dunmore Road following too closely to a van in front of her. Naturally the light turned yellow, the van stomped on the brake and the girl slid into him. Even with no one in front of me, I still down shifted a good way prior to the intersection because I did not want any 180 degree spins going on. And when people might think their car is too light to maintain such traction, keep in mind that I drive a light little Neon that has all-year-round tires, not winter tires. It weighs nothing (in comparison to most other other vehicles), and takes a while sometimes to get going on an icy street, especially in icy hills, but I have never been in an accident and never have gotten stuck, even in deep Saskatchewan snow falls.

If you are in the right lane on a two lane street, the best thing you can do if you are sliding or having trouble slowing down is to grind against the curb on the side of the road, or even a boulevard, not randomly crank the wheel one way or the other, which initiates a spin. Grinding or hitting the curb is a better alternative to hitting someone in front of you by far. That way, since it would be your fault for not giving enough brake time, you would have to pay for their damages, your damages, and your insurance rates would increase from being in an accident that you are at fault for, and most often, hitting the curb will not damage your car much at all, if at all.

Drive safe.

Not only one, but two deer were euthanized or put down recently. The two deer, one of which was the mother and the other, the mother’s “injured” fawn. The fawn and a sibling have been seen hanging around outside the Riverview Care Centre for a couple weeks. The mother supposedly had a “badly-injured” leg, while the fawn was missing half of his leg with part of the bone protruding. It might sound like they were in bad shape; however, I have personally seen at least one of them, dating back to about a year ago (the pictures are below to prove it). The ultimate reason brought forth by Sustainable Resource and Development spokesperson Darcry Whiteside was that it was their policy to put down animals in distress and also noting human safety concerns. They were originally phoned in to the Fish and Game Conservation by a women looking to get treatment/help for the injured deer. The Fish and Game Conservation later put down both of the two deer in question on separate dates.

Here are the photos I took on December 24th, 2007. This may or may not be the mother in question; however, the fawn (shown younger in these pictures) is clearly the one in question. These pictures were taken at the Medicine Hat College.

Possibly the mother deer in question

Fawn missing half of its leg

Close up of the fawn's injury

This is pretty much bulls**t – I mean, they were not in distress, they weren’t actually sick, they were just previously injured. I seen them almost a year ago, and they were still alive (until yesterday) – they must have been doing pretty fine. A matter of human safety? Ya right, healthy deer that run in front of traffic, now that’s a matter of human safety, these two deer would never try to run anywhere, because they couldn’t. I’m not a huge animal activist or a practicing vegetarian but you don’t have to be to realize this kind of stuff is just wrong. They were a nuisance and an eye sore to some and instead of moving them to another location they were killed off, in my mind, injustly.