My Life is A Drama Free Zone

I didn't want to see spring until August anyway.

We got hammered good with a freezing rain storm on Monday. We got absolutely dumped by snow on Wednesday. Upwards of 30 CM in town, here. And we're expecting a crapload more over the next day or so.

A STORM IS CURRENTLY OVER WEST VIRGINIA THIS MORNING AND WILL PUSH
NORTHWARD TODAY GIVING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO MOST OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO.

THE FIRST ROUND BEGAN FRIDAY MORNING OVER AREAS NORTH OF THE LOWER

GREAT LAKES AND LAST EVENING ACROSS EASTERN ONTARIO AND SKI COUNTRY.

THE NIAGARA PENINSULA AND OTTAWA HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED NEAR 20

CENTIMETRES AS OF 9 AM. THE SECOND ROUND OF HEAVY SNOWFALL IS NOW

RAPIDLY SPREADING ACROSS THE REGIONS. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE ENTIRE

SNOWFALL DURATION WILL BE ABOUT 36 HOURS BUT THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL

BE THIS AFTERNOON INTO THIS EVENING.

STORM TOTALS WILL LIKELY BE NEAR 30 CENTIMETRES ALONG AND EAST OF A

LINE FROM LONDON TO LAKE SIMCOE THEN TO PETAWAWA. THERE IS POTENTIAL

FOR 40 TO 50 CENTIMETRES OF SNOW FROM THE NIAGARA PENINSULA THROUGH

TRENTON TO OTTAWA BY THE TIME THIS STORM SYSTEM MOVES OUT.

Thank god I don't have to shovel the crap, but still. Methinks someone really, really hates me…

What's worse than fixing Microsoft's mistakes?

Fixing apple's. What's worse than fixing Apple's mistakes? Fixing that which they already know about. For the record, I never want to get that involved with anything Apple related again. And this from a guy who's got a well documented hatred of Microsoft. But at least their software doesn't break everything else when you're installing a supposedly updated version. Good job, dipsticks.

Oh nos!

Terminator wasn't kidding! Roughly translated: dood, step away from the crack pipe.

And yet, Microsoft's status site says it's all stable.

Now that's a cover up for anyone who doesn't happen to bother reading the local news. I probably shouldn't be irritated about it–well, or using MSN messenger either for that matter, given my already stated opinion of Microsoft. But I do. So this morning I thought I'd jump online and see what was going on. Except it was apparently down. Not that Microsoft's status page said so. According to that, all systems were stable. Well, things that get media attention are obviously true, or so I'll keep telling myself, so does the fact that CTV has escentially told us otherwise change Microsoft's opinion? Nope.

This page will be updated when information becomes available.
.NET Messenger Service All systems are stable and running.

The error message on my screen that says it's temporarily unavailable says otherwise, but thanks for coming out. Ladies and gentlemen, corporate snow job at work. Just thought it deserved mentioning. Because I do that when people and companies are morons.

Is today the national day of malware or something?

Only explanation I can think of for the reason every call, except maybe 1 or 2, has been a badly messed up system in desperate need of a serious cleaning. If I really wanted to play dirty, I could probably break the single-person record for amount of times reinstalling Windows in a typical day at the office. Ah well, on the bright side, by the time I get off lunch I'll only have maybe 2 hours left. I can drag a call or few out long enough to cover it I'm sure…

Now there's a random search woops.

I think Google may have had a momentary laps. A Dell technician in India has, apparently, stumbled across this entry while looking for a solution to one of I'm sure a meriad of Sympatico related problems. Particularly surrounding Windows Mail. Now, uh, don't get me wrong–I like the attention, but that's got nothing to do with that particular entry. Oops. Ah well, hopefully it's the same idiot I was talking to shortly before writing that entry. Now there's open feedback for ya.

My computer sucks...

It's a sad, sad day when you work for a computer company, doing tech support, and your computer goes on the blink. Mine's already developed this nasty habbit of restarting for no real apparent reason. And now while making someone pay me to fix their brokenness, my computer started to again display its brokenness by half freezing up on me all over the place. There was much of the suckitude. I wonder if they'll let me bring in the beast from home. At least I know that one works.

If you're stuck on hold, I'm sorry.

Very rarely will I make 2 work related posts in one day. Not because I don't like my job, but because I'm too lazy. But today–oh, today… there are 23 people currently waiting on hold. One of them, the one I'll probably get to talk to when my break ends, has been waiting for almost 20 minutes already. And it's not even noon yet…

Baby, it's cold outside.

Another Friday morning which feels more like a Tuesday morning. And another freakishly cold morning. Thank you wind chill for making -12 roughly translate to -19. And now you can go right to hell. And now they're threatening me with snow. I thought I evicted you yesterday? I'll say again, winter sucks.

This collective duh moment brought to you by morons inc.

Someone else is starting to clue into the whole common sense thing. Not really a new fad, folks. Pot may impair mental functions of MS patients. Gee, ya think? If the media says it, I suppose it must be true. So now can we embarrass the royal hell out of those who say otherwise? Ah who cares? I'll just do it anyway.

Winter, we need to talk.

I've let this little conversation of ours go unhad for way too long, and it shows. Not only are we being hit with snow on average of every second day, but now you go and throw at us temperatures upwards of -18, *before* wind chill, on top of that? And a wapping -29 after? What ever I did to piss you off, you've just given me reason to do it twice over. Oh, yeah, and go ahead and drown us in snow tomorrow. I have the day off. I can freely bitch you out from the comfort of my own, very heated apartment. Ha and such.

I left work nearly 12 hours ago.

I'm back at work now. I'm off at 7:00 tonight, barring another 10.5 hour day. Uh, crap on a cracker? The hours I'm billing Dell for are gonna be bloody well insane…

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Ladies and gentlemen. When I left work yesterday, it was snowing like hell. There is more snow in Ottawa's forecast for today. Somebody up there is intent on pissing me off. And it's thinking about working.

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Can someone please tell me, just once, why it is the Writers Guild of America was holding out and being a bunch of royal panzies for the sake of higher royalties to have material streamed over the internet? Are they, perhaps, not aware that if the TV stations weren't doing it, some other generous soul with a nack for getting his hands on free content–not me, RIAA/MPAA, relax–would just do it instead? I mean, not that I haven't thought about it. But really, if that's the only reason they're striking, which is sort of what the article in question's leading me to believe, it is making me contemplate perhaps watching significantly less actual TV content than I already do. Realisticly, I only have a TV right now so I can watch hockey and/or baseball. And since my team's biting the suckitude bullet something fierce, it's going to end up just being baseball. At least this year. And hey, that I can probably get online, too!

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The computer they have me working on at the office has developed a habbit of randomly and inexplicably restarting without warning. No error message, no blue screen, no notta. Just I'm in the middle of typing/reading/whatever, and then kerpoof. I bitched a little about that last night. And I'm still thinking about taking the bitching to our I/T folks and flat out giving them the option. Give me access to something as uber basic/simple/non-retarded as MSConfig and let me tell you what the hell's wrong with this thing. That way all you need to do is replace the faulty component I know exists, and then get out of my hair. I wish I could work in I/T…

*****************

It has been decided. OC Transpo isn't *all* evil. I only took an hour and 15 minutes or so to get here today. An improvement, really, over a week ago. I'm… not quite to the point of irritated. Yet.

So yesterday was apparently senior citizens' day?

So this week's work routine started off as per usual at 7:00 or so on Wednesday. And… got very different after that. A guy I work with got shown the door due to cost cutting measures, or so that's what the rumor mill says anyway. So as of that afternoon, I'm back making regular use of Ottawa's ever so very lovely transit system. So yesterday, I get on in the morning as I suspect I'll be doing for the foreseeable future, and the bus I take to actually get me to work just so happens to be driven by one of the older gentlemen on staff. Which, okay, I'm all for that. I mean, hell, I like the idea in Ontario that you can actually keep right on working 'til you damn well don't wanna. But in certain cases, like yesterday morning… he really should have not wanted to. Harsh-ish? Yeah quite probably. But true. So I catch his bus at 6:00 yesterday morning. It's a pretty straight forward route–through the busy part of Kanata, down a couple back roads, loop around and come back up pretty much up the street from where I work. So my plan was to get off at the corner and just walk from there to work. It wasn't *too* freezing cold yesterday, so I could get away with it. Well, if the moron didn't flat out miss my stop. So rather than be half an hour early for work, I ended up being rather half an hour late. And that's not one of those buses where you can just get off at some random stop and catch one going the opposite direction in 5-10 minutes. There's one bus an hour, it goes one direction, and if you miss where you have to get off, you get to go around again. So I got to go around again. And because it was his last run on that route, I got to go back to the original stop where he picked me up from, call my boss to tell him I'd be late, and hop *another* bus to work. Pretty pretty. But not really. And then coming home after work, I had the pleasure of being driven home by another senior citizen. Who also missed my stop going back. That one, at least, decided it'd be better if he just dropped me off at the halfway point so I wouldn't have as long to wait to catch the second one I need. So I still didn't get home too insanely late last night, all things considered. Pissed me right off though, for sure. And of course this morning, senior citizen number 1 was behind the wheel again when I caught that bus, so to say the least, I wasn't exactly bursting with confidence. But, um, I'm here. And I was here on time this morning. And I didn't kill anyone. But I'm not all that thrilled about the prospect of the return trip. And people might die on that one.

Is this the international day of dialup?

I just got finished the third call in a row I could do something with wherein the customer's on dialup. That combined with the fact I'm not the only one here who's got that problem makes me think every year or so, there is an international dialup day. And today is apparently it. I wanna go home…

Mother nature doth hate me.

Why else would, out of 3 days I had off, it picked the 4th day when I work to decide there's going to be a freezing rain and flash freeze warning? Winter, you and I haven't had that long and drawn out conversation yet. Does this have to be the start of it?

And this is why I won't say no to a ride to work.

Ottawa city bus kills 3. They say alcohol was a fctor. I say it still would have been a long night for anyone involved. Not pretty when one has to work the next day. In fact, not pretty… in general. As if OC Transpo doesn't have quite the brilliant reputation already. I'm so glad I'm getting a ride home tonight. Unless he leaves sick…

Is it Sunday yet?

The calendar says no, but it's lied to me before. I've been back to work for a grand total of a week, and already I'd kill for a week off. It's been *that* busy this week. Add to that the fact that I've actually been making a conscious effort to semi-keep up with the cleaning of my tiny little place, and not just leaving it all for a day off, and I've been pretty busy. Lazy is the preference, so you can probably guess at my state of mind right about now and not be out somewhere in left field. Right field, maybe. I'm just now getting used to the idea of my weekends being Monday and Tuesday, and now we're talking about shifts changing again. So I'll probably wind up with some funky thing like Wednesday and Thursday being the new weekend. Well, as long as I'm not doing the 2:00 to 11:00 thing again, I'll go for it willingly. I did that when I first got out of training–ironicly, it was just about this time last year. Actually, almost exactly this time last year. I won't willingly do it again unless there's, like, no other option. It interferes with the roleplay. And some days, particularly after lengthy stretches of time with the family, my roleplay is the difference between a murderous rage and a nervous twitch. It would be unwise to take such a thing away from me. *rubs hands together*

I hate to say I told you so, but...

Well, okay, so I don't. And I did. There's no real such thing as "medicinal marijuana", there never was, and there never will be. And this is only really proven by a supreme court decision that, really, should never have had to happen. But, thank you again, Steven Harper, for reminding me why it is I believe you should be taken out back, tied to a tree next to George Bush, and shot. According to this article, users of "medicinal marijuana" can now actually pick their own grower. Now, how in the hell they intend to enforce something like that in a way that the government can still have its fingers all over it is beyond me, but to me, it sounds an aweful lot like "Buy from whoever you want, and have fun doing it.". Which, okay, I can see the point of it from a constitutional point of view, but still–bad, bad move. Never mind stupid, stupid move. Forever ago, I went on my own mini rant on the subject, after a discussion on a blindness related mailing list I'm a part of–the email that prompted that one was also quoted in the linked entry. I won't just plain up and say it's ridiculous–primarily because really, if you have half a brain, you don't need me to say it. But from the brief look at the outlines points in the judge's ruling, it very much does sound like a choose your dealer type of situation. And I still maintain the opinion that, next to the entire decision to actually allow the idea of medicinal marijuana, this is quite possibly *the* worst decision our dear court system could come up with. It makes me cringe to say it, but I really hope the government decides to appeal this one. For a change, I actually like their idea better. Which… mostly means I dislike it less. But, I suppose if I had to pick between two crappy poker hands…

I should not be allowed to think before 9, ever again.

Bad things happen. For example, yesterday. I went to work, which ordinarily wouldn't be all that big a deal. Except I saw the exact same warning I posted about yesterday, in preliminary form, on Saturday. I guess I should have got the hint when the first three words of the warning are "near crippling snowstorm", but again, shouldn't be allowed to think before 9. So I went into work yesterday morning. And by about noon, we were talking about closing the office. So yes, I'm an idiot. But I survived. And now, I get to take down a list of names of folks I get to send emails to wondering exactly what crack they were on when they decided,, nah… it's not gonna snow up here. You wimps can go to work. Yeah, about that. I think next time I'll just preemptively book the day off. Thanks for a whole load of absolutely nothing, jackasses. You're lucky I happen to like my job.

This is where I check out.

I have no idea why I think of about 3/4 of the things I do. But apparently some random part of me finds it amusing. I will seak help immediately.

*****************

Winter storm warning for: City of Ottawa">
Someone tell me they can see why I seriously thought about the possibility of not going to work today. Although granted, the predictions were worse yesterday. It's still nothing anyone should ever have to be out in, never mind have to go to work in. Bleh.

*****************

I think I'm managing to come down with my first winter cold. And a week before Christmas. Go me. At this rate I should be half dead by new years.

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I thought we were supposed to suck this year? The team I'm beginning to love to hate has started pulling themselves together. And I was just beginning to accept another season of golf…

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Conrad Black officially makes less than me. According to this storry (thank you, CTV), he'll be making 12 cents an hour in prison. See, I'd complain, but what expenses has he got there? His food and housing's paid for. Besides, he made enough money breaking the law, he can afford to lose some following it.

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If anyone ever has to know why it is I absolutely despise vista, just try and set up file/printer sharing. You will pull your hair out. I nearly wanted to… thank god today's my Friday. Oh. My. Lord. Good thing I'm not easy to piss off.

*****************

Another spyware call. Another bloody mac user/windows newbie. Wonder how long I can drag this call out before people start pointing fingers at me. Anyone taking bets?

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And lastly, mother nature, please and thank you kindly, stop it with the freakin' white stuff. It's bad enough I get to freeze my ass off on the way to work. Again, bleh. Nature sucks.

Only doing this job...

… can you still sit here on a Saturday morning, working, and still watch Saturday morning TV. Unfortunately you have absolutely no say in what's on. This guy's 13 or 14-year-old daughter's sitting there watching Power Rangers, for instance. And all I can say is my god, I wish her father had the remote controll.

Why I don't go by 'Jim'.

My father and I both have the same name. So to make it less of a headache on both of us, he goes by Jim, and I go by James. And where the legal, given name is required, one of us will usually stick our middle initial in there as well–which, admitedly, can also be problematic given as that's also the same. In 24 years, I've never willingly answered to Jim–willingly, of course, meaning that there are always those few people who just don't really care either way and call me whatever comes to mind. So when I got a phone call this morning asking for 'Jim', I was admitedly a little confused/irritated. He asked for him by last name, too, so sure, I figured it was going to be for either me or my father–if it's for the latter they pulled the number out of the wrong phone book. I still have no idea who this guy is, and then he mentions that I did a job for him a while back on behalf of the ministry of labour. By this time I've gone from general curiosity to "Zuh?". Okay, so now he's not looking for me *or* my father. Now how do we get him out of *that* awkward situation? worst of it is, he called from a Toronto number, so he just paid Bell Canada some coin to be told to try again. I almost felt sorry for the guy, but… then I figured, I needed some amusement. And that was it. I gotta get a life…

Oh. My. Lord.

I don't know whether to be extatic or frightened. So I'm a little of both instead. There was, at one point this afternoon, 63 people available to take calls. Even now, less than 5 minutes later, there still sits 54 available. If I'm lucky, I'll take *maybe* one call before I have to check out. Lovin' it.

'Crunch'? My parking lot does not 'crunch'.

At least, it sure didn't yesterday. But apparently, someone thought they'd be funny and dump a whole crapload of white stuff on it this morning. And in my half-asleep-ness as I usually am, the fact that it was late November didn't immediately register–so I was, understandably, a tiny bit confused when normally solid ground went crunch. Of course, when I was finally 3/4 awake–thank you, colder than hell snow that still has yet to let up–I just had to wonder if, perhaps, we hadn't already had this discussion at least once. Of course, then the trusty archive of my various random ramblings and rantings that is my blog reasures me that, indeed, we have. At which point, of course, I shall now point out yet again, my parking lot should not go crunch. At least not until December. Or until I find some vacation time. Both applies and either would be awesome!

My coworkers are evil!

A direct conversation in an employee only chatroom not 5 minutes ago.

Evil Coworker: it's snowing, folks Me: bite your tongue. i gotta walk in that. Evil Coworker: join the club

Snow. *Before* I have time to go home and sleep. Wicked evil cruel. People like that should be shot. Twice. In both knees.

So this morning. Hella freezing. Why?

That pretty much summarizes it. Yesterday, it was bordering on springlike weather. At least to the point where I thought about taking 5 minutes before the bus came and throwing my jacket back inside. This morning? Freaking, cold. I walk out my back door and across the parking lot to where they've stashed my bus stop, and I wanna turn around and grab a coffee. It royally, and painfully, sucked! And it's not about to suck any less, if the weather netework's got anything to say about it. That's it, I'm calling in sick tomorrow. And every day until it goes above freezing. Winter should be illegal. The cold doesn't bother me usually, except when I have to stand in it for upwards of 20 minutes between buses. *Then* it bothers me just a bit. And *then* I get bitchy. Or maybe it's just that then I have a reason to. Same difference.

You know what they say about rules...

A 23-year-old college student who got told she couldn't wear a revealing outfit aboard Southwest Airlines sure knows. She went and put even less on Playboy. Just goes to prove, tell someone they can't, and they'll just make it worse. Anyone who told these people negative reinforcement works should probably have been shot. On the bright side, it gave me something to read while on this call…

Would you pay to tube?

Techdirt saves me from being completely and totally bored out of my frickin frackin mind! Talk of the prospect of paying for YouTube content has, quite possibly again, made its presence known. And to this, I can only say… um, why? If it's on YouTube, it's because people don't *want* advertisements. Or maybe that's just my messed up opinion–that's a possibility, too! I know fer sure I'd avoid it like the plague if they stuck ads up there. Hell, I might be tempted to launch my own video site. Or at least get all my hillarity from BitTorrent. Kinda like I already do most of my TV watching. Oops, did I say that outloud? Quick, call the MPAA–lock me away before my horrible horrible influence spreads! Too late.

Schedule my lunch at 10:30, will you? I'll show you...

Ha. Got this call at 10:25 or so, and have so far managed to streetch it out to 11:00. Hopefully we can hit closer to 11:30… y'know, the actual lunch hour. And then I'll only have 3.5 hours left of my shift. Suh. Weet. Who says I don't know what I'm doing?

Maybe I live on the wrong side of the border to understand, but...

Is it really worth giving someone a detension and getting their parents involved just for hugging someone goodbye? I know it's been a while since I was in highschool, but so far as I know that was still acceptible. Yes? No? Maybe so? Does someone living in the US want to maybe correct this apparently misguided young man? Any volunteers?

When I bought it, it was warm.

Of course, I bought my coffee at 6:30 this morning. And I ended up not finishing the thing until 10:15, when I could actually get off the phone long enough. I've taken a grand total of 2 calls so far, and one of those ruined a perfectly good cup of coffee. Thanks loads, asshole. I didn't want to wake up this morning anyway. Ah well, maybe this half-empty can of coke I tossed in with my lunch'll do it…

Sidenote: who the hell scheduled a lunch break for 10:30 in the morning? I know I've been here since 7, but come on. It's bad enough that it's an hour. Does it really also have to be early?

Wherein my opinion of relying on other people gets more confirmation it doesn't need.

So remember when I was looking forward to the day shift because I could catch the decent buses going to and from work? Well apparently, they neglected to make that the case on Saturdays. Now, Sundays is understandable–bus service sucks on a good day then anyway. But I distinctly recall seeing that there was a bus running this morning, at the usual 5:20 or 5:21 time slot, just as it did on a normal day. So, silly little me goes out and freezes his ass off waiting for said bus to show up. 5:45 gets here, and… yup, still no bus. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't particularly care–just go to the next stop and catch another bus that's heading in the same general direction, and I'll meet up with my transfer on the other end. Except the only other bus running that early? One that leaves at… you guessed it, 5:46 in the morning. And that particular bus stop is a 20 minute walk from my house, and from the stop I was currently standing at-. 25 if I decided I couldn't be bothered to cut through my building to get there–it's freezing cold. Yeah freaking right. So thanks to OC Transpo misinforming me, my shift was a writeoff before I got out the door. The end result? A phone call in sick, an explanation to my manager of all of 4 days that I did not, in fact, decide to take a Saturday off whether I had one or not, and… I get to enjoy an unplanned Saturday off. Which, okay, can't complain about that. But it would have been nice to have actually planned that unplanned Saturday off, rather than OC Transpo deciding that I didn't want to go to work anyway. Well, I guess on the bright side, I can get some housework done around here. Eventually. Meaning… just as soon as I figure out whether or not I want to go grab a couple more hours' sleep. It's not like I don't have the option now.

Put a wall around Quebec. Then fill it with water.

Or at least put a wall around it. Mayhap then the separatist movement will be content. It's apparently not good enough, after all, when someone who isn't even from Canada and has already learned english, and *only* came to Canada to play hockey, doesn't speak french. Sacreligious, I'm tellin ya! What ever will we do about it? Oh, I know, let's throw the world's biggest hissy fit and further prove you're deserving of the moron of the year 2008 award! I've said it once, twice, 3 times before–the sooner Quebec goes buh bye, the better. I have no problem whatsoever with people from Quebec. Or French-speaking people in general. I do, however, have a problem with the holier than thou attitude certain groups in Quebec like to adopt. News flash, folks–thou art not holy. You are not the exception to the rule. If you would like to continue believing you are, you may walk thyself off the nearest cliff. And thank you for trying to screw with my game. even if it isn't my team.

Where's my invitation to the Britney pity party?

You know she's getting exactly what she's after when now she's got a church pretty much begging for its members to send her love during her supposedly troubled period. Keeping in mind, of course, it's a troubled period she brought on herself. This is why I have to laugh at churches from time to time–they make her out like some fallen angel, some innocent thing who's just lost her way. News flash, folks–she was never all that innocent to begin with, nor was she ever that bright to begin with. And now she gets to realize, guess what–people thought you were just another teenaged drama queen in the beginning, and now you're proving it. Good job, moron of the year.

I gotta have a bit of a laugh at the comparison the priest at this church draws, though.

If she were your next-door neighbor in the same situation without the money and success, wouldn't you care about her problems? Wouldn't you pray for her and offer her support and encouragement?

Nope, not really. I wouldn't offer her or loan her squat, to be blatantly honest–I'd be very likely to either have it not returned or have it completely and totally wasted. I like to think I can get along with just about anyone. But not people who so openly make themselves out to be complete and total idiots, and then still manage to draw people's pity based solely on the fact they used to be famous and a somewhat not all that horrible singer. I saw it coming, and I can't say she didn't deserve it. Hey, maybe next time her and Paris can be cell mates…

Wake me up when it's over, m'kay?

They expect me to be in training until 2, and then in a meeting 'til 4. Which means by the time I take my first phone call, it could be 5. This is gonna make for one hell of a long night…

What a horrible fan am I.

I promised I'd blog more about my hockey team, then promptly fell off the wagon for all of 2 games. I should really make up for that–for the record, they were games in which we both got crushed and did the crushing, so at least I'm missing games on both sides of the equasion. O'course, I'd of probably remembered to write about the thing if I were at home for 'em. Sometimes, I wonder why I ended up working nights. But then, that only lasts long enough for me to catch the morning bus home, at which point I clue in–oh yeah, getting off at 12:30 when the last bus shows up at 12 pisses me off. A moron sometimes, I am. It's what gives me the right to call other people morons. Which anyone who knows me will know I do frequently–and usually with good reason. Just… not necessarily a good reason which I'll admit to. Unless asked. Then all bets are off. Speaking of off… I should be off sleeping. Or something. Other than rambling senselessly. But I'm *good* at rambling senselessly. I have to work tonight–dammit to hell. Sleep wins. At least 'til 2. This random collection of what in creation's inside my head brought to you by way too many calls taken in one night. If I got paid by the call, I could retire in 6 months.

Can we vote for a law against morons in power now?

And they wonder why people don't speak up when shit happens. The Western University of Oregon, in a brilliant act of absolute unrivaled genius, came about *that* close to expelling a student for violating one of the university's policies. And, for the record, it was a policy that basicly said if a student was found to have accessed confidencial information that was *accidentally* left in a publicly accessible area of the network, the student would be responsible for it and thus have to take the fall. Now, keep in mind the only reason he was known to actually have the information was because he reported it. Do I *really* have to explain how stupid, backwards, and outright brainless that is? The idiot factor of this dumbass move makes it perhaps the most hillarious thing I've posted on here. Ever. If… you find retarded policies and the morons that enforce them hillarious. Of course, if not, there's always other websites–Google's full of 'em. But still, the way I see it, the university has preetty much just told this kid, look, yes we screwed up. But you're not getting paid–you're expendable. If it were me, I'd certainly think twice about reporting anything else I accidentally discover. Just in case they've got a policy against that, too. How much you wanna bet even though they didn't expell him, he doesn't catch it good in the end anyway? That's the danger of technology, I guess–there will always be someone there who doesn't have a clue how it works, and blames everything on people doing what they're not supposed to be doing just because they fucked up in the first place. And I get paid to talk to some of them. Somebody save me.

My interwebs were one huge clusterfuck.

It, apparently, started last night at some point, and didn't get straightened out until about 6:00 this morning. Not sure if anything I did to correct it actually helped or not, but at least in doing so I could tell it wasn't anything within my control that was screwed. Translation: Sympatico sucks. Loads. But it's still better than Rogers. I'd switch to Primus for DSL–they already have my long distance service, but they still use Bell's phone lines, so that'd just be shooting myself in the foot in the long run. Damn, we need more choices for internet service up here. That aren't dialup.

I promised you a rant, and here it be.

Warning: this could get very, very long-winded. Possibly requiring it not be posted until the end of my shift–taking one look at how busy we are right now (35 people currently on hold, just for the record) with about 20 minutes before I have to actually start, it might take me that long. So anyvay. I get on the bus yesterday, same old routine I've been doing since, oh… about the first day I started here. Except this time, there happens to be a Senators game. In Ottawa. No big deal, there'll just be a tiny bit of a delay. Except that tiny bit of a delay turned out to be 20 minutes. Which, for those of us keeping score, chalks up one more reason for me to not rely on other people–I recall saying as much at least once on this here blog. Although being at work, I'm not about to take the time to find exactly where. so, I've pretty much missed the bus I normally catch. Which… again, no big deal. I'd just show up 45 minutes to an hour early for work anyway. except the next bus drops me off right smack at 8:00. Which means by the time I haull ass from the bus stop to the office–for the record, they call the cubicle I'm currently sitting in an office–it's kissinig 20 after. And I still have to fire up all the crapola I need to refer to during the process of taking calls. By the time it comes around to actually start working, I have 10 seconds to breathe. Then I go head first into a pile of anywhere from 23 to 31 calls waiting, and don't really come up to breathe again until my break.

sidenote: I'm so not complaining about the job–I love it. It's the other people interfering with the getting to the job that I'm not entirely a huge fan of. The bus driver and I today actually reached a sort of agreement, something I really think they should make law. Every time the Senators win, they should give us a day off to be used when the Senators next play at home. that way, those of us who're sick enough to actually like that particular team can go watch them, and those of us who hate the team (toronto fan over here) and the sudden massive influx of trafic their games provoke can stay home, watch *our* team, or do… anything else that doesn't involve fighting through that mess to get to work. That's it, I've decided. I'm gonna have a look at the Senators' schedule after about January or so, and every game they play at home, I'm booking vacation time for. Before they make me late. Chew on that, mr. Murphy!

Even Dell technicians hate Dell technicians. And Sympatico, and Microsoft, and...

Welp, as some of you know and others of you guessed I'm sure by now, the formerly Vista and now XP computer is up and running. Well, partially. No wireless network support and there's still a rather lengthy list of devices Windows doesn't have drivers for. But I'm slowly piecing that together. Now, here's why every time I have to call tech support, I cringe. And not because I am one. So I call up Del on Monday, because their support site doesn't have a driver for my built-in wireless card. Not for XP, at least–which, okay, no big deal; it came with Vista, after all. So I check the Vista drivers list, like I've been doing with a few other things, and there's none listed there. So I just flat out asked the technician I spoke to on Monday, "does this machine even come with a driver for the wireless card?" Honest question, and a simple enough yes or no question to be sure–if I were sitting on the *other* end of that conversation, I could have probably told myself one way or another in about a minute and a half. But, not with this guy, who first wanted to spend 5 minutes making *sure* I wasn't a moron calling up with the misguided belief that, because I got this new fangled desktop thing sitting in my living room, it automaticly comes with a wireless card. Did I mention I pointed out to him at least once I'm employed with Dell, doing things like network troubleshooting on a daily basis? So I know when a computer's supposed to come with a wireless card–like, say, when in your order information, it says that one was specificly requested. So, we get by that round about, and he finally decides he actually wants to varify whether or not it does. So he tells me to go to their support site–I guess he wasn't listening when I said I've already been there and they don't have it. He finally just decides to put me on hold and do some "research"–for the record, when a hardware tech says they're doing some research, you know they're asking one of their l2's if this is a good enough reason to transfer them to the Dell on Call department. About 20 minutes go by, and he comes back, saying he can't find the wireless card on my system. Insert long, exasperated, frustrated sigh, and me telling him, yet again, that it doesn't give a brand name in the order details, but, and this is where I think I drive the point home that I work for the same company, I tell him the training material *should* say what brand the wireless card option includes for my particular model of computer. Silence. Then he asks to put me on hold again. Another few minutes go by. Presumeably, more "research". Then he comes back, says he thinks he found the brand and model of the wireless card, the exact details I honestly don't remember–for the record, when a technician says "I think", it's never pretty–and tells me that it looks like the support for that particular model is built directly into Vista. And there are no drivers for XP. So, not wanting to argue the point, I hang up, and plug that particular model into the almighty goog. And sure enough, inside of 10 minutes, I could have called that particular technician a liar. But… rather than openly and blatantly advertising the obvious, I just dinked around a bit, installed a few things I needed to install, and called it a night–I had to work the next night, and it was 5:00 or later in the morning before I finally decided to fall into bed. So it got to sit there until tonight, when I ended up not going to work–thank you, public transportation, for showing up early and thus making me miss the only bus that'd actually get me there before I was well into my shift. So I go back to that computer, figuring if the support is built into one version of Windows, the other version should have *something*. So I do a little fiddling, and sure enough, one wireless driver, for windows XP, located and installed. What was that you were saying about it was only designed to work with Vista? Now, the problem comes up that it's telling me to make sure the actual card's turned on. Now, they have a funky little keyboard command where you can do that for laptops, but I wasn't sure about this particular desktop. Cringing again, I called tech support. Shoulda figured it out myself. First guy first of all had the same hearing problem as the last technician I spoke to, in that it took me 3 tries before he accepted that yes, Dell technician who troubleshoots networking problems on a daily basis does have a wireless router, does have it turned on, and does have it in the next room, well in range of the card that is trying to look for it. All I wanted to know was the one thing he either didn't know how or didn't want to tell me–was there a switch or something on the back of the bloody machine to turn the card on manually, or is there a similar command via the keyboard to do so as there is in laptops? He finally at least gets me over to the wireless department, and the girl on the other end actually has a brain. And is using it. If it wasn't against the rules, I'd of done my own troubleshooting at work when I went in tomorrow… there, I'd at least have access to the same things these people do, and could have found the answer in probably 45 seconds, instead of 45 minutes and 2 technicians. Move on, now, to what I have to get done so I can actually get the antivirus software I'm using set up on my other computer. First requires actually getting the password from Sympatico for my current email address, so I can resurrect a really, really old one I haven't used since I moved out of Pembroke nearly a year ago. Now, Sympatico uses Microsoft's hotmail interface–so yes, a uber craptastic service to be sure–to manage their web interface for all things email. So in order to change, create or delete email addresses, I have to log into that craptastic interface. Not an altogether too thrilling experience, to say the least. But, I do it anyway, because for reasons beyond my control, I have to. So I enter my email address, and move onto the next screen to enter my password. And it sits there, loading… and loading… and loading… then shows me the logout screen… then sits there loading… and loading… and loading… eventually, I just said screw it, and closed the window. I can think of a lot of things I'd like to do on an unplanned but certainly not unwelcome night off. One of those is not deal with the idiocy of people I have no choice but to trust to keep methods of accessing services I pay for from going tits up. So instead, I shall go drop in on an RPG I haven't played in forever. I'll curse at the evil that is Hotmail, and the stupidity that is Sympatico's decision to join forces with Microsoft, later. For the next hour or so, I'm planning to have fun. Or something.

James 3, Microsoft 0.

And all because of a little CD HP didn't send me. Round 1, external HD goes on the blink. Or so I thought. Turns out Windows just decided it suddenly didn't know what it was. Well, after getting frustrated with that, I decided to go right on ahead and start following these instructions figuring, y'know–it isn't working anyway so how much more can I possibly screw it up? Turns out that fixed it, at least temporarily. But, about… oh I wanna say 3 weeks later, it went kerpoof again. And, in the attempt to see what flopped this time, Windows seemingly forgot where it put the *internal* HD. Brilliant. So, it continuously went through the endless loop of startup, logoff, shutdown, restart. And it decided to play the welcome and logging off sounds repeatedly as it went through, indicating it *could* find at least part of the OS–really, really, anoying… I turned off the speakers after a bit. I screwed with it a bit, then decided to bug Trish and see if she had any ideas–she's damn near my equal so far as this crap goes, so it made sense. She dinked around with it on her own, got about as far as I did, and I think we both kinda just… randomly decided the thing was getting repaired. Call it the last act of a desperate couple of techs who don't want to do a complete format. So now, after the repair–for the record, a repair instalation of Windows on a 40 GB HD with 512 MB RAM should *so* not take 2 hours to complete–we're right back where we started. Except with a working machine. And an apparently missing Internet Explorer–easily cured by the fact it didn't touch Firefox. So, this little piece of crap lives another day, giving me time to complete the downloads I'd like to complete, and possibly email myself the crap I wanna get off this machine–I don't plan on keeping this for much longer, since I can get a faster laptop for cheap, even if this thing lasts another 4 years. And with the new email setup now, prompted largely by the near catastrophy I just narrowly avoided, I can actually do that and not run the risk of not being able to pick it up on the other computer–which, for the curious, is now hooked up and just awaiting me to get around to installing the drivers. What can I say? Vista lasted about a minute and a half before the format process kicked in. But that's in another entry when I don't feel quite so geeky and want to. This one's rambling on long enough about things probably only understood by about 2.5 people, with the rest going "Zuh?!?!?!". So now, I go do stuff. Like… clean. Or sleep. Or laundry. Or watch one of the CSI eppisodes I can now access again, thanks to a now fully functioning external HD. Hm. The possibilities are endless. Should they feel that way on a 4-year-old machine that only barely meets the minimum specs?

T Hos lifts the highschooler ban, highschools become babysitters?

If I were still in highschool, I'd probably be given a bit more reason not to be. Now, I think I'll start planning my coffee runs based on how close the Tims is to the local highschools. A tim Hortons restaurant made the rather smart decision to force highschool students to buy their shit, and get the hell out of the way so people that matter can actually enjoy their coffee/lunch/breakfast in peace without having to fight with a potential dropout who'd rather hang out at Tims than go to class for a table. Of course, then they went and reversed that decision, proving anyone will cave if enough people cry about it. Of course, now the highschool who's students were crying about the ban has decided to stick its staff in there over the lunch hour to keep the kids from being proper terrors. So basicly, I give it a week and they'll go terrorise and subsequently be banned from the local McDonalds. But at least they'll keep their relationship with Tims squeeky clean. Which is really all that matters, right? When I was in highschool, I went to the Subway halfway across town because the highschool irritated me. with this rather… idiotic decision, I wouldn't blame anyone for avoiding Tim Hortons like the plague now, just for the simple fact of it'd feel like an extension of the highschool. Which I, personally, was trying to avoid. But that being said, even now, not being in highschool, I'll avoid that place if ever I find myself in this particular area, just based on the fact that… uh, well, duh–I'm not in highschool. So why would I bother going to some place where it's being monitored by the highschool staff? What, pray tell, if you so kindly could, would be the point in that? Oh–right, there is none. Go back to banning the highschoolers. Make it a chain-wide ban. It's good for business. Trust me.

because 2 weeks is long enough.

Of course, when you do as much in 2 weeks as I've somehow managed to do in *this* 2 weeks, yeah… it's long enough with no updates. Let's see… where best to start. Vell, I could always start with the usual, easy routine of what had me so busy that I couldn't post to the thing. but… well, that'd take up all of about a sentence. 'Cuz, well, when the highlight of your little bit of time away is getting absolutely soked beyond all repair at the ex, there's not that much of an essay to be written about it. Not that it wasn't still fun–anything that results in making Trish's poor husband nearly lose it is entertainment for me. I'm sorry, was that… um, too mean? Ah well, whatcha gonna do? I'm gonna… well, I guess I'm gonna sit here at my desk and wait for a call. That's what I'm gonna do. And… curse the people for whom I work for stiffing me on a computer. Y'see, I took one of these, customised the absolute hell out of it, threw in a few fancy toys just so I have something to do when I'm bored, and had it shipped to my apartment. Where it promptly wouldn't turn on. I figured it'd be the mobo or power supply, but… eh, I got the max on warranty, so I was gonna use it to the fullest. fortunately mister probably outsourced technician from India agreed with me, so it got set up for a return real fast. And will be returned in… about… um… oh, 5-10 days. Not that it bothers me all that much; everything else works. It's currently sitting in my room right now, hooked up to my ever faithful but still slowly dying laptop. Which makes it sound a whole hell of a lot meaner than it actually is. Not that it wasn't mean when I got it… but… eh, that was like 3-4 years ago. It's a kitten now, in comparison to the potential monsterness of some fo today's systems. and the monsterness of the one currently, um, not working. Stupid computers. If it wasn't for the fact their breaking keeps me employed… okay, I'm over it. And now back to our regularly scheduled taking of calls. Which… just for the record, I haven't actually done since I got off lunch. Granted that was 10 minutes ago. But still. When I get home, and if I don't forget, I have politically motivated pictures to display. And a picture that should have been a bit more threatening than it actually is. Not that I'd know anything about picture quality–I'm going by the opinion of the girl holding the camera. Surprisingly, I'll trust her opinion on a lot of things before most people's. Setting myself up for difficulties? We shall see. Granted she *is* family, but so far… she and I are proving to be exceptions to the family rule. In just about every category. They hate it. I love it. It's all good. And… that's why they hardly call me. But, y'know, you don't hear me complaining about that one. If you ever do, please shoot me.

Oh glorious stupid call.

Not only are 95% of people who call me idiots, they're also cheap/expect things handed to them. Evidenced by the guy who proceeded to screw up his system, complete with oh my spyware up the wazu, and then demanding pretty much that it be fixed for free. Yeah, that'll happen. People like that fine gentlemen should have one finger removed from each hand, be shot in both knee caps, and have their computer user's license revoked. And if their computer's halfway decent, like the killer XPS this customer had, it should go to me. That would make the world a better place, I think. And one enthusiastic geek very happy.

God, I hope I get a raise.

Performance reviews are coming up at work. And the timing rocks. I just checked my mail this afternoon, and apparently, my land lord just got approval to jack up the rent by about 2% by April of next year. For those of you who haven't quite caught on yet, yeah, that all kinds of sucks. I like having money–not giving away money. I'll be keeping an eye on the rental demands over the next bit… something tells me, though, I may be looking for a new hole to crawl into when my lease ends. Stupid land lord. Stupid rent. Stupid money I don't have. Stupid me for not having it. I want a raise.

A smattering of update.

Because I only have a couple minutes before my shift starts.

My late birthday present, one hell of a computer, should be shipping today. It's about time.

Apparently, the storm we got yesterday took out my internet service, and Sympatico decided to conveniently state there were no service outages in the area. Disproven. That didn't take long.

For the record, when dealing with internet issues, it so should not take over 24 hours to solve. Of course, the only reason it did was because I only bothered to sit down and fight with it just before I had to go to work yesterday–also shitty, but it's a paycheck.

Completely and totally not related in any way, shape or form to… um, anything else in this post. Not that this post has any actual point to it as it is, but oh well. Oh my. Identical twins is kinda funky enough. But 4? Freakin' 4? Well, could be more unusual I guess.

And I have managed to make writing this entry last past my having taken my first call. Suhweet. I think.

It should be legal to show up to work naked.

According to certain forecasts, it's upwards of 33 degrees C outside right now. Which, ordinarily, wouldn't be unexpected. Except it's 6:00 PM for crying out loud. And by the time I get off work tomorrow morning, it's supposed to still feel like 30 degrees out there. And to that, all I can say is… oh. Crap. Take your clothes off and the first 2 layers of skin and tell me if you still feel warm. On the bright side, there's at least a breeze out there. This bit of optimism is dampened slightly, though, by the fact that said breeze is not exactly what I'd call cool. If anyone wants to convert this to that stupid system the US uses, go nuts. Just don't tell me if you do–33 degrees C almost makes me wanna cry as it is. I don't need to hear a higher number.

There goes another one.

You can thank Lindsay Lohan for answering my question. She has decided cellebrity stupidity deserves its own category, after this latest Hilton immitation. Maybe I'm wrong, but methinks 2007 is the year of the moron. Folks, this is why you see those shows that strongly advertise don't try this at home–if you're an average joe, it's irresponsible and you probably wind up in a whole huge lot of oh shit. If you're… oh, I dunno, Lindsay, you wind up with a slap on the wrist. And a jail sentence that's more like a stay at a luxurious hotel. Oh, wait, wrong dits. Moving on.

Update:

Looks like they found drugs on her, too, which she's promptly said aren't hers. Yup, I believe you. Honest.

I never was much of a Mindy Mcready fan.

On the one hand, she's the only artist all of who's albums I can safely say I own. On the other, that's because she only ever made, like… one or two, tops. And I think I somehow ended up with both. At least one person reading this is probably going "Mindy who?", and that'd be about right. Considering she hasn't had anything new out in… oh… about 10 years, I had to take a second to remind myself who the hell she was, too. That is, besides the idiot who joined a growing list of cellebrities winding up arrested for alcohol related moronicness. I guess it's like that one Brad Paisley song–when you're a cellebrity, it's adios reality. Do I have to make a stupid cellebrity category up here? Sheesh, and it all started with that damn Hilton mess. Every time someone gets booked for anything involving alcohol, I'll now blame her. Hey, she apparently likes attention–we both win.

4Real?

Surprise, surprise. Yet another buncha stupidity from people who probably shouldn't be parents. Now, a New Zealand couple wants to name their kid 4Real (uh, 4real? How's the capitalization work for that?). Because they couldn't believe he was actually here. Uh, mm'kay. And the only reason it was denied was because names can't start with a numeral. I think–mind you, this is just one poor sop's opinion–they really didn't wanna come right out and say "Y'know what? Stop with the ridiculous names and we'll approve you.". Dunno why… I've got no problem saying that. Gees, do people have an aversion to Bill or something?

Somebody skipped out on Common Sense 101.

After an Applebee's restaurant accidentally served a 2-year-old a margarita, all the management pretty much said about it was "We're sure it was accidental.". Of course, serving the two in identical containers, you'd think they'd have, you know, expected the mistake to be made eventually. To this, though… I just have one very tiny little question. Which is the more ridiculous? That they were stupid enough to use identical containers in the first place, or that it took something like that to happen before they realized, oh yeah–there's the distinct possibility you could wind up giving a kid alcohol. Inquiring minds want to know. Good call, Kim–people capable of that level of moronicness are beneath just about everyone. I strongly recommend Mcdonalds… the food's not as good, but they don't serve alcohol.

So um... where's the problem?

Aboriginal bands have taken up arms against the almighty coffee chain for an admitedly stupid prank/joke thing pulled by one of its staff in an Alberta restaurant. Namely, taping a sign to the drive through window that said "No drunken indians allowed.". Now, being part indian, and a *huge* fan of the place–they make damn good coffee and it's on the way to wherever–I just have to ask… what's the problem? Have you *seen* my family? I'd tape that sign up too–and mean it. Throw coffee at certain family members and they're strung like nothing else. Mix alcohol? I'd be leaving the room. Really, really quickly. As in, cancel the vacation in Hawaii. I want my sanity back. But… hey, at least we admit we're on some kind of natural crack. Who needs the peace pipe?

Today is official stupid people day.

Lady on oxygen dies after power to her house is cut? Are people really that stupid? And, as if that wasn't stupidity in and of itself, the idiot who turned off this lady's power apparently saw the breathing machine she was using. She died within 2 hours of the power being cut. I mean, I can understand wanting their bill to be paid up, but c'mon. Nothing says "Pay us or we'll kill you" quite like just outright killing her for being behind on a payment or two. On the bright side, they restored power to the place the next day. That was quite thoughtful of them, no?

Hang on a minute. People... actually do that?

I've heard a hell of a lot of stupid crap lately, but… um, this takes the freaking cake. I'm sorry, but… a water pipe? A freaking water pipe? I understand it's an African idea/tradition/whatever, but… a water pipe? Really, that's gotta come close to people who find new ways to do crack. I'm not a smoker, but methinks I'd start before I thought about giving that a try. Kinda reminds me of a bong party without the weed. Not that I've been to one, but who's counting? Ridiculous, moronic, guaranteed to kill ya… no wonder it's becoming popular in the western world. Now confirming: 7 out of 10 people are idiots.

Cleanup operation in progress.

So it took me a small eternity to fiind the hole all of that precious comment spam was sneaking through. And now that I did, I feel really, really, really stupid. But, also now that I did, said hole has hopefully been plugged. Further plugging forthcoming. In the meantime, I shall now begin the rather lengthy process of cleaning up. Oh joy of joys. So if the 2.5 people who read this start wondering why there hasn't been a post in a while, I'm probably still over my head in spam. Either that, or I've found the source of said spam and am presently in the process of brutally murdering it–hey, it's entirely possible. Don't count it out 'til you try it.

Respecting my elders gets difficult when they're idiots.

The teenagers complaining about the bus not being here now, now, now take a back seat suddenly when compared with my latest discovery on my way to work tonight–the grandpa who actually calls the control station for the city buses to complain because one of the doors to the shelter at the stop we both just happen to be waiting at is locked. His reason? "We shouldn't have to walk around to the other door. clearly you can't see, so you must understand that." Uh, let's see… I'm lazy. That's the only reason I was inclined to agree with him in the first place. But, of course… it ain't gonna happen. Why? Because as lazy as I am, I'll walk around the freaking shelter–which, by the way, isn't that big to begin with–before I pick up a phone to bitch about one door being locked. I pointed out to the fool, rather politely I'll add, that in about 10 minutes when the bus showed up it wasn't going to make a difference to him. His response? "The way I see it, I'm doing a service to the public." And the way I see it, you've just wasted brain cells. And some poor soul at the control station's time. Gotta love it. Except… now, you just made yourself look stupid. Which… I guess is what he was aiming at. Figures.

This would surprise me if it wasn't Quebec.

And now, Quebec gets to prove it can be the exception not because they're different/better than the rest of Canada, but because they're fucking morons. An explanation:

The legal drinking age everywhere in Canada is 19. Except Quebec.

Everywhere else in Canada, you can actually make a right hand turn on a red light. Except Quebec.

In Canada, English is the primary language spoken in most/all businesses. Except in Quebec.

Canada has acknowledged our constitution as of 1982 at the latest. Except for Quebec.

Canadian governments are smart enough to understand that the cost of living will go up whether we want it to or not, and have planned for the most part to increase the minimum wage accordingly. Except Quebec.

Are we noticing a patern, here? I think so. Counting the days until Quebec finally seperates… the US can have 'em. I don't want 'em anymore.

Well, I wasn't meaning for that prediction to come true.

When me and Trish decided on the weekend gas would hit $2 by summer's end, I wasn't actually being serious. Well, okay, so I'm hardly ever being serious. But apparently someone thought I was making an exception. Oh. My. Freaking. Lord. Thank the gods I don't drive. When I checked on this article earlier, there was reports of upwards of $1.25 in places. Per liter. I dunno… buy a coffee or buy enough gas to at least get yourself home. Which shall we pick? … That's a good question. Someone tell me when we have an answer. In the meantime, I'll enjoy public transit. Has it really gotten that bad?

Update:

There's a nasty rumor going around that it hit $1.27 in Vancouver this afternoon. Oh. Shite.

Hello, legal quicksand.

And people wonder why I have an interest in law. Tech Crunch, who I read more for the snark than the news about startup businesses/websites, is getting slapped with a DMCA takedown notice for an article it posted yesterday about the CEO of rivals.com, a sports website. Specificly, the common opinion that that particular site's partnership with Yahoo would go south just based on the fact the CEO's in some hotness waterness. And now there's the possibility, as remote as it is and as amusing as the situation is, that they'll end up sued for it. Of course, that having been said, I see a long list of takedown notices in this lawyer's future. Starting with TechCrunch, and ending with TechDirt for this article. Oops, guess they'll be suing me, too. Oh damn. Let me know when I should be concerned.

Hey look, an update!

There's a whole hell of a lot to update yall on, and I have no idea when my next call's coming in, so let's see how much I can cram into a small piece of downtime.

*****************

I never noticed teenagers were quite that whiny when I was one. And, well, I know for a fact I wasn't the slightest–I was too busy not really caring. I bused to work last week, like I almost always do, and wouldn't you know, some chick decided to pick that particular night to complain about the bus schedule, and how the bus was taking too long to get here. Keeping in mind it was about 20 minutes at most. Now, just for comparison, had it been, say, sunday–or, say, good friday (rant on that one to come later)–there'd of been an hour, count it, an hour, between buses going where she needed to be. And I, personally, did *not* want to listen to her cry about it for any longer than I absolutely under any circumstance had to. It was bad enough the bus she was taking just so happened to be the bus I was taking. First thing that came to mind: call a wambulance. I run that route daily–get over it. I did.

*****************

Okay, next up. Parents who want to name their daughter 'Metallica' (link to come when I get back to the computer that has it)? What. The. Fuck.?!?! I'm sorry, but um, ignoring the fact that's almost off the wall as naming your kid 'Legacy' (I've seen it), their excuse for doing it is pretty flimsy. "The name suits her" and "There's already someone with that for a middle name" wouldn't fly with me. It doesn't make sense… it's like me saying I should be allowed to let my 6-year-old drive because people do it in Texas. And your point, exactly, would be… what? One jumps off a bridge, they all jump off? News flash, folks. "Because they're doing it" is what gets kids to smoke. I almost question their parenting skills at this point.

*****************

Why, oh why, dear lord, do you insist on surrounding me with idiots? It's just not fair. People in Ottawa have got to learn what "I'm blind, not an invalid" means. No, fellow passengers who apparently don't know better, "I know where I'm going" does not mean "Please, grab me by the arm and attempt to drag me off the bus". My trip home on Friday morning velry nearly resulted in someone losing their arm because, put plainly and simply, they didn't listen. I don't like people who don't listen. They make my head do hurty things. Hurty things are bad for me.

*****************

It's April. It's baseball season. It should not be raining on Tuesday, snowing on friday, and freezing most the week. Spring has sprung, for crying out loud. Winter's on vacation. Extended. Preferably permanently. People get all uptight about global warming, I say bring it on. No freezing while waiting for buses. Suh. Weet. How can anyone be upset with that? You're all on crack, you are. All of you. I know none of you. None. Environmental issues be damned. I'm sick of freezing. MWA!

*****************

Disclaimer: If you buy any of this crapola, you belong in the category of moron. I will personally make sure you get there. And send a public farewell with you.

I feel so devalued right now.

Apparently, by 2010 I could be making about as much as that moron at Tim Horton's who, after taking your coffee order for the fifth time, still gives you the wrong one–I live in Ottawa. There are a *lot* of those. That's the plan, anyway, according to our oh so generous provincial government. It's somewhat… depressing to think in a couple years, what I'm doing is gonna be worth just slightly more than burger flipping. I've been living in the wrong province for all these years, that's it.

Explanation:

The link to Tim Horton's is for those of you south of the border who're going "What the fluff?" Think Starbucks, only better and cheaper.

And from the "You're just realizing that now?" department...

The shocking discovery that people pay way too freaking much for rent in Ontario. I mean, I probably don't have much room to complain–I can still aford the not quite modest amount I pay on a monthly basis to the folks who keep a roof over my head. But still. Without getting into specifics, I make per month more than enough to get me by on a day-to-day basis. But that having been said, nearly half what I make per month is sucked up within 2 weeks when the rent's due. Again, I'm not complaining, but if I didn't have a job that pays as well as it is, I'd still be living in Pembroke. Why? Because rent anywhere else is freaking insane. Hell, rent in Pembroke borders on insane some places. If you're lucky, in Ottawa, you can probably get a room for $300/week (I've seen it). Per *week*. That's less per month than I pay and considerably more than any sane person should pay. You almost have to hook up with a real money maker just to get your foot in the door if you can't land a job that isn't in fast food or retail. Not that I want some 18-year-old with a Mcdonald's paycheck and a partygoer personality like I've never seen, but hey, I've been there. I thought about moving out a couple years ago, except… yep, you guessed it. On what I was making, rent per month would kill me. But that's a whole other rent I might get into on a day off when I can devote the whole day to writing said rant. Suffice it to say, though, if they want people to actually be independant, and be contributing members of society, they really should make it a bit easier for people to do so. But then, I never claimed to be able to understand the government. I just pick certain aspects of it and tear into them. Frequently.

And you have problems with 'vagina'?

I know, I know, I don't blog for a week and this is the best I can do? Well, I'd originally planned to go into detail on how I've transferred the processing of all the email I get away from DreamHost, but that hasn't actually happened yet, so deal. Anywho. From the only in small down New York department comes this month's most moronic move thus far. A highschool has decided, just on the off chance there might have been kids in the audience, it would suspend 3 students for saying the word 'vagina' while reciting a portion of The Vagina Monologues. Okay, so explain to me what the problem is? I'd understand if this was, say, 10 years ago… you know, when kids at least gave the impression they'd never heard such things. But today? I've overheard conversations between some fourth-graders that involved more swearing per person than Buttercup on a bad day. And a highschool had a problem with that one word? If kid's old enough to understand what's being talked about, they're probably already *saying* a hell of a lot worse. I'm glad I'm not actually in highschool anymore, to be blatantly honest. Public education systems nowadays piss me off. Hell, public education systems when I was going there pissed me off. And speaking of going, I'm going to get ready for work. Night shift time.

Insanity: my life summarized.

A whole shitload's happened since I last had time to breathe, let alone post here, so I'll try to squeeze it all into the half hour I have to write before my shift starts. Lessee… where to start.

It would have been so much less confusion with a phone call. But, o'course, Purolator doesn't think quite that far in advance. So they showed up with one of my presents to me from me on Saturday morning, presumeably between 9 and 10. When, of course, I was already on my way here. Which meant now I had to reschedule the delivery. Good job, morons.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. An average of 30 minutes of downtime may be boring, but one call after another non-stop except lunch break and meetings? Brutality. All manner of brutality. Breathing time would be awesome.
And again, at least one bus driver needs to be educated on how to follow instructions. I think I end up getting dropped off at the wrong stop more often than not lately. Ah well, on the up side if it happens a couple more times, I'll be able to walk home from any nearby stop on Baseline.
Ladies and gentlemen, even if you do not like the Bare Naked Ladies' music, go to one of their concerts. Tickets for the Wednesday night show cost me $60 a pop before taxes, and I'm telling you right now the crap that went on between songs was pretty damn near worth the money by itself. Or maybe that's just because they made fun of Ottawa a little. That's always good in my books.
And again, to the individual(s) who decided to turn off my hot water, can you pretty pretty please go right to hell? Thank you and goodbye.

There was more, but I forget. If I think of it later it'll get posted. Maybe.

The secret to pissing people off: write an entry and wait 6 months.

I'd of thought, at least from a general perspective anyway, people tended to stick to commenting to the more recently posted entries, unless you're a spammer/troll/idiot. So why's an entry I posted in June just now getting a response from the very people it was aimed at? Not that I'm complaining, really–it *was*, after all, exactly what I expected. But really. Oh, and, I personally like this one.

We have long since left our days of ES behind and stand on our own as an inpendant and continuingly succesful game. I do not see the need to drag up old blood.

I wonder if she even bothered to figure out exactly how old that entry is. Probably not… she just heard someone was criticising her MUD, and thought she'd set the record straight. Welp, it's still crooked, but I'll let you have your delusions. I do just have to point out something, though. If you're gonna try rubbing in the fact a place shuts down, it might actually do you a fair bit of good to know the details. Like, say… when it shut down–no, contrary to the one person's comment in the above posted entry, it wasn't in June. But like I said, I'll let you have your delusions. Just don't be too surprised when reality slaps you in the face. I expect another predictable response to this entry in roughly 6 months. And by then, I'll have forgotten what in the hell you're going on about. But oh well.

Something unfair about this shift change...

I've been here since 9:30 or so. I start at 11. 'Nuff said? I think so. Don't get me wrong, I love the play time… but, um… that's way too early for my liking. Particularly since I leave at 8:30 to get here, give or take walk time. Um, eww. I want 2-11 back, dammit to hell… Or, at least, a bus that doesn't give me the choice between here way too early and here just barely on time. *shakes fist*

I knew working at Dell would be bad for me.

Tonight went well enough that I 1: had lots of free time during my shift, 2: got off my shift on time for a change, and 3: had time to kill afterwards while waiting for people to get done so a rather large group of us could get a ride home–by the way, fitting 5 people in the back of one supervisor's car does not a comfortable ride make. Just so you're aware. So, I took half an hour of said time to kill, and finally went and bought my late Christmas present from me to me. And then I decided I needed an early birthday present, so took real good care of that, too. That small situation remedied, I can now rest easy tonight, knowing both occasions have been selfishly provided for. Which… just means I'll have to do more shopping when my birthday comes around. Gotta buy early for next Christmas, you know.

To the person who turned off my hot water: fuck you.

So I get up today and decide I'll grab a shower and then maybe get my day started. Okay, nothing all that unusual about that. Now, I should point out it takes about a minute or two, sometimes 5, for the shower to get to a point where it's actually considered something I'd want to spend 15 minutes standing under. Well, I wait the customary 5 minutes or so, and wouldn't you know, the shower's still damn near ice cold. Give it another minute or so, and it's still freezing. My first reaction… what in the name of fucksville? So I start turning down the cold water. Now, at this point it should be hot enough that you run the risk of leaving evidence on your hand you've stuck it under a tap of running hot water. But, surprise surprise, notta. Okay, it's been cold as hell here today, I assume the pipes have just frozen over or something. Except you'd think I wouldn't have cold water either. Well, I've got a shitload of other things to get done, including dishes, so I go ahead and get most of that out of the way. Still no hot water, though, so there goes dishes. I finally decide about 10:00 tonight to go and actually check to see what the hell the problem is, and sure enough, some fucktard decided he'd do me a favour and turn off the water for me. Now, I just know someone's gonna ask me why I didn't check that first, so I'll go ahead and explain. See, the tank is *usually* supposed to be locked, and only one person aside from the land lord has a key to said tank–me. Now, I haven't been down there in a week, and I know that tank's been turned on for the last week, so that kinda rules out any change I should be aware of. Except, it's probably a good idea in general to make me aware if you're replacing the valve on that hot water tank. Especially when, in doing so, you become this building's biggest moron and decide not to put the lock on said valve. Now, for background's sake, each apartment has its own hot water tank and it's supposed to be locked unless, for whatever reason, you're using it to wash your clothes. I dunno exactly how they decide which hot water from which tank makes it into that machine, but apparently they do. So there are plenty of morons afoot, and some of them will receive a phone call from me later on asking them just where the hell they put that lock, and who I can boot in the ass repeatedly for depriving me of my shower. So, yes. Fuck you for turning off my water. And a big fuck you to the idiot(s) who made it possible. You have officially irritated me.

This building's basement smells decidedly like pot.

And, of course, to do my laundry I have to make regular trips back and forth from the basement. Keep in mind I live on the third floor, but that's a whole other issue. So every time I have to make a trip down there, to bring clothes down or take the clean ones up, I get a nice healthy dose of weed smell. I've never smoked it, but I've been around enough people to have… I can tell what's going on. Now, personally, I could care less one way or the other, I mean, I can't control what these other fools do in their apartments, but Christ almighty. Not what I want to smell when I leave the laundry room, thankyaverymuch. Ah well, they just let anyone rent apartments here it looks like.

I'd be insulted too, but for a different reason.

A fast food group is up in arms about Kevin Federline's participating in an ad campaign for an insurance company, playing the part of a fast food worker day dreaming about starring in a music video. Now, I can understand how it is they could perhaps see that as being a tiny bit insulting, I mean, it's implying that everyone who works there would rather be doing anything but that, right? But… honestly? I think I'd be more insulted by the fact it's Kevin Federline doing the acting. The guy can't act… that's such a truth. The guy can't sing… that's a more obvious truth. Even the insurance company says if anyone's being made fun of here, it's Federline. At which point I silently snicker and move on to the next article, and try to keep a straight face while taking this call. That's the hardest part…

Oh my freaking cold...

-21 degrees out there right now, according to the weather network. I tend not to question the weather network all that much when it gets to be that extreme. Even if they're off by a couple degrees… freaking cold is still freaking cold. And I have to walk in that! Fortunately I get to spend an hour or so on the bus… but I have to walk in that! It's cold! It's inhuman! I want my mommy! Okay I'm over it now. Now to finish getting ready for work.

Apparently I have a house guest.

It would seem, for the next 6 weeks or so starting tonight, my apartment will again become a crash pad. This time, though, at least it's for a decent reason–my uncle's taking a course and, to be nice about it, there's no way in hell he's driving 1.5 hours here and back for it on a daily basis. Hopefully he can get used to a sofa… 'cuz the place definitely isn't geared for more than one person, unless said more than one person is a significant other. Ah well, he knew it was coming and wants to do it anyway. The poor fool…

I've caught up to my schedule!

Proof that I can be ready and out the door in an hour or less. I ended up getting mobile by about 4:30, and after discovering I actually won't be able to take what I'd originally planned for lunch (those little soup thermases are awesome, but small), I was surprisingly ready and gone by about 5:30. Meant I missed the bus I usually catch to get myself to my transfer stop, but the stop I get picked up from has 'em going by every couple minutes so that wasn't too much of a stretch… for once. My day, which usually starts at 3:30, is no longer getting ahead of me. Thank the gods–that would have been embarrassing if I cared. And now, I go blog browsing for the last, like, 5 minutes of break.

Different year, same routine.

I've said it before, and probably on here, but it deserves being said again. It's a *really* good thing it's just me living here–I couldn't come up with the time to clean up after anyone else. I got home again today at about quarter to 6, or there about, which is pretty much the usual for me now. That gives me just over 3 hours to go through a to do list of varying lengths depending on the day and what I didn't get done the day before, and then it's time for bed, and we do it all over again the next day. Don't get me wrong, I like what I'm doing–at least I'm never bored, but if I had roommates, knowing my luck they'd be lazier than I ever used to be, and well, like I said I just don't have time for that. My day starts between 3:30 and 4 usually, except for this morning but we'll just ignore that because well, I was dead tired coming on noon. And unless it's a weekend, my day ends at about 9. I dunno when it'll end on the weekend, because I haven't actually had a weekend to myself since I moved up here, what with Christmas related things having gone on.

Ottawa's bus system's apparently running some kind of new schedule, so I'm left to figure out a whole new set of drivers. And I was just getting used to the newbie with the accent, too. Ah well, these ones at least give the appearance of being fairly decent, so we'll see. I'm usually an extreme critic of people in general, so I give it maybe 24 hours and I'll have an entry brewing about how brainless at least one of them is. But for now, they seem fairly decent. One even borders on cool… impressive for a bus driver in this city. He will never actually *be* cool, though, until he can magicly remove the need to wake up insanely early to get to a less insanely early but still insanely early shift.

I probably shouldn't complain too much about the shift I've been stuck with for training–I mean, yeah it's early, okay… fucking early, but then again, I get home between 5 and 6 too. If I had a typical 8-5 shift, I wouldn't get through the door 'til about 7-ish, give or take… maybe closer to 8. Suddenly, a quarter to 7 shift isn't so horrible. But I still don't wanna wake up at 3:30 to get there. As I've said often, I love the job, I hate the shift. But I should probably clarify… I like the shift, I hate needing to take a bus to that shift. But, I bus, so I shall now move my lazy self to bed, so the wake-up call doesn't kill me. And… hey, I actually managed not to jump all over the spectrum of thought in this entry, as opposed to the one at dark o'clock this morning. Go me.

It's amazing what 5 minutes in trafic can do to your time table.

Usually, which translates to like… 2 or 3 days so far, I manage to actually catch my connecting bus to get me the rest of the way home from work at 5:00 or so. I think I mentioned it takes me 2 buses to get me there and back. Ah well, if I didn't, I have now. Today, though, thanks largely to Ottawa's rush hour trafic, I missed that bus by about 2 minutes. Now, ordinarily I wouldn't give a rip–the next bus pulls up in 15 minutes–but, *that* bus is apparently the one driven by our apparent newbie. This time, though, he actually didn't miss the stop I need… but only because it was pointed out to him rather blatantly by another passenger as we were coming up to it. I still say this guy is either new or stupid, or both, but I'm again digressing. That aside, though, this time I actually didn't have to drive an extra 40 minutes, meaning I actually got through the door before 6 tonight. Just barely, but can't have everything. I suspect that's going to be an every Tuesday thing, what with the trafic and all… God I hope not, though. I really don't want to have to curse out the transit system again. And to jump the track a little, I may only be 1 person, but after working a 9 hour shift, I still *really* don't want to come home and do dishes. Nor do I want to watch my team get their ass kicked, but the game's on, so I may as well go and do that.

I need to go back to work to get some rest.

So I went back to Pembroke this weekend to give my parents a hand with decorating their Christmas tree, and–well, duh–because my mother was baking and well… enough said. We ended up doing that, finishing my Christmas shopping for the most part (ideas for Christmas gifts for mom, anyone?), then going to my aunt's (no, not the cool one who's earned a mention or two on here already) place for a premature Christmas Eve party, since my uncle goes back to Afghanistan in 3 days. Now, as is the family tradition, there was alcohol involved in that party–and lots of it. I actually managed to behave myself, though, which surprised the hell out of me; I only bought a 6-pack, and by evening's end I'd drank 4. Considering I'd intended to finish the pack, I'd say I didn't do too badly. Of course, leave it to the sister-in-law to negate the possibility of me finishing said 6-pack. I won't get into detail,because to be blatantly honest it was ridiculous being there, and it's even more ridiculous talking about it. Suffice it to say, when after an hour and a half of drinking your tongue is looser than most hookers, it's not going to be a good night. For you. Particularly if half an hour later your head is first in a bucket, and then in the table whilst you pass out. It became necessary to pour her into a car and get her the hell home just so we could keep the place clean. O'course, then we all ended up starting to file out an hour later anyway, but that's so not the point. Surprisingly, she was fine when she finally came alive this morning (translation: noonish), and she and my brother took off to… um… somewhere, presumeably to get food into one or both of them since neither had eaten since supper last night, and she barely even ate that (hint: she knew she was going to be drinking. Ding dong, stupidity calling.). She tried so hard to make me believe she remembered everything that went on last night, but as soon as I said "We have pictures" I think she knew she was fucked. We only stayed there until maybe 11:30, and I think we got there about… oh… between 6 and 7 let's just randomly guess at, but I'll bet an hour and a half of that party was just spent making sure she passed out on the table instead of the floor, and then figuring out the best way to actually move her doorwards without her losing the rest of what she drank that night–by the way, that was a miserable failure. And this would be me *not* going into detail. Then today was basicly the part where I pack up my shit and get a lift back to Ottawa, where I now can actually get some rest, then do it all over again in a week. A whole 2 days and I left like haulling off and drifting her. And if she wasn't across the table from me last night, I probably would have–but I wasn't alone! If that's an indication of how Christmas is gonna go at our house next week (by the way, I have 5 days off… yay!), I'm seriously going to give thought to going home Sunday morning, and coming back Monday night. In as nice a term as I can place on it, this was just horribly fucking bad. I want my weekend back.

And now, the media acknowledges what the average Joes have known for ages.

Not that this explains the uh, too revealing positions this article makes reference to, but it does prove what anyone with an IQ of 1.5 already realizes. Cellebrities, particularly those of the hollywood variety, are a bunch of goddamn liars. And next, official confirmation that gas prices are only inflated because no one says they can't be. I wish I'd kept my Captain Obvious award for the year.

Oh how I sometimes despise thee.

I should have taken this morning as an indication. First, as I said last night one of the buses I need for my insanely early shift doesn't run as early as I need it to, so I've had to improvize my way through figuring that out. Needless to say it worked, I'm still alive, and all is well. But it still should have been an indication. And then, when the bus driver apparently couldn't find my stop near the office (it's that hard to miss?), I should have been paranoid. Even if he *did* end up just making it easier on me and dropping me off at the corner instead. But no, I continued to be unsuspecting. Now, here's where I get the good old fashion disclaimer out. I don't mind foreign people in the slightest. In fact, conversationally, I have absolutely no problem with them. Professionally, as well, so long as I'm not the poor soul who has to deal with it on a daily basis. Well, I get on the bus to come home, I must have told him the stop I need to get off at about 5 or 6 times. This guy has an accent, presumeably Indian or so but I'm a poor judge of accents, but that doesn't even raise the usual red flags with me. The telling him 5 or 6 times was a little irritating, but I was willing to just let it go since the bus *was* fairly crowded. He may not have heard me. But apparently he did, all 5 or 6 times. And when we've gone a ways past it, he finally admitted he couldn't see the stop. *That* irritated me to no end. My first thought was he was new to the route, or to the job, even, but someone else quickly disproved that theory by signalling in advance they wanted to get off at the next stop we were passing. And wouldn't you know, he just about missed that one, too. I was gonna say something, but the guy who's stop almost got missed beat me to the punch, so I figured I'd be nice. This time. All told, I ended up about 20 minutes out of my way, waiting for the bus that goes in the other direction so I could actually get back to my stop. Now, again, I have all kinds of respect for the foreign folk. Really, I do. But it's stupid fucking morons like that that really make me reflexively cringe when I hear an accent that almost resembles the Quicky Mart guy off the sympsons. I may not be able to see, but assuming, just for the sake of argument, he actually *was* new, did it really not occur to him to ask? I know which side of the road the street it's nearest to is on, I know how far past that street the stop is, *and* I know how long it takes me to get from said stop to my apartment, roughly. Not counting a couple minutes here and there if I get turned around. I really like living in Ottawa, and I do like their transit system, but sometimes, I really, really despise their transit system.

Hey, there's no more screaming kids...

Quebec must have gotten what they wanted, and ended up being recognised as a bloody nation in and of itself. Well, on the bright side, now that leaves the door open for the next government to take away any federal assistance they've been getting, just like any other province in Canada's been getting. When I said I wouldn't notice, I must not have taen into account there'd be all manner of cellebrating in the house of commons, the type of which apparently needs to be headlined. Hm… are they cellebrating because Quebec is finally a nation, or because Quebec is finally not Canada's problem? Jurry's still out…

Blah.

I can tell today is already going to be the day from hell, and it's only coming up on 10:30. The obvious indicator of it should have been when the phone started ringing more often for my way too soon to be sister-in-law than for anyone who actually lives here. Not helped was it by the fact her damn dog reminds me very much of those kids you just wanna tie to a chair and inject with the heaviest sedative going until their parents come to collect them, which in and of itself is going to be still way too far away from now. I just hold my breath, count to 10, thank the gods I move in 4 days–starting to count hours, now, too–and wait for the inevitable screw-up that will no doubt result in my sister-in-law being given the choice of either finding that damn dog a home or having it shot. I love my family, but there are a few members I could stand not to see for a good long time. She's becoming one of them.

And in other news… I officially kick myself for picking the apartment I did. There's gonna be a fair bit of walking involved in finding my bus stop. Not good if you're a lazy fuck, and well, I am. And it's gonna be a uber bitch come the days of 20 below. Ah well, can't have it all. Good job, good apartment, decent city, so of course the location's gonna turn out crappier than it looks. Then again, that's why they invented carpooling. Or I can always, you know, take my own advice and stop bitching, suck it up and walk, dammit. But, no. It's my blog, I'll bitch if I goddamn well wanna bitch. Then I'll suck it up and walk.

This unusual combination of topics brought to you by boredom. Screwing people out of being distracted/entertained for longer than I care to guess at.

A job update.

Because people have been asking. There's absolutely not a damn thing that's changed since the last time I mentioned it, though. I'm still waiting for paperwork to land in my mailbox. Paperwork that I was told would be there by early this week at the latest. Well, now it's a little tiny bit past early this week, and the HR person I've been in contact with is apparently out of the office until early *next* week. Needless to say, she got yet another email from me–and another phone call–and I'm about 30 seconds from calling the guy that originally was the one handling my file. Why they keep transfering me from one HR person to the next, though, is beyond me. But they do. So now, I'm a week away from moving to Ottawa, and I'm really no closer to having landed this job. And if I lose the deposit on this apartment, I'm *really* going to be significantly less than impressed with these people.

Captain obvious award...

From Techdirt, proof the US government is just now catching on to what everyone, including the media, police, and all manner of other people have known for freakin' ages–there is actually porn online! And in related news, scientists have confirmed the sky is actually blue. Idiots. Very much deserving of the award. I think the national IQ level just dropped 15 points…

The waiting game, round 3, day 2...

Surprisingly enough, or, perhaps, not so, this is beginning to take on a rather striking resemblence to the last time I tried to get myself a place, a job, and moved in all in the span of less than a week. Except, at least now the apartment's been put on hold for me. But, on hold does not a secure rental agreement make, and we can't do that without some kind of piece of paper from these people who wanna pay me that says they actually wanna pay me. So, apartment people have a cheque and a rental application, I have the money and a copy of the rental application, and people I'm technically employed with now have two voice messages waiting for them. Sounding familiar yet? Blah, they should already have the paperwork done up… it's just a matter of attaching it to an email, hitting send, and sitting back and waiting for it to be sent back to them. It takes 30 seconds. So it should not be taking upwards of now 24 hours. If I lose this deposit, the shit will hit the fan…

Whole new meaning to public discipline.

India is a fine example of where judgement by one's peers goes a lot further than the legal system. Police wouldn't arrest a man for raping his neighbour, who was deaf and mute, because she couldn't actually make a case against him. They claimed to be still investigating on their own, but couldn't do anything about it until proof was found that she was actually raped. So, the village where it happened took matters into their own hands, and their elders apparently decided the man was guilty. Couldn't very well toss his ass in jail, but they had to do something, no? Enter the publlic humiliation phase. He was publicly slapped 51 times for his offense. Suddenly, I'm guessing he's really wishing he'd been arrested.

Suddenly, the US's former defense minister seems inteligent.

Well, on the one hand, this one knows where to look for them ever so elusive weapons of mass destruction. On the other hand, though have you seen the possible sources? I dunno, I'm just waiting for the first time a hacker from Britain actually pulls something off on the US under the watch of this nutjob, if it's actually confirmed he'll be taking over as defense minister. Or secretary. Or whatever the hell they're calling it now. We'll be hearing about the need to topple Britain's current government next, looking for them damn WMD's. Oh, the idioticness of it all!

And amidst all that stupidity, something somewhat positive, if a little idiotic in itself.

I have discovered the reason for it taking a week for me to actually get a hold of something that wasn't someone's voicemail. One HR person I'm to get in touch with was, in fact, on vacation, or… something of the sort. The other? Well, see, she was transfered to Edmonton, and the girl who was taking over for her apparently dropped the ball, or that's the impression I got, anyway. So the HR person who didn't get transfered finally called me back, and is probably going to end up having a conversation with her… yay people in charge! Or… something. So I might actually get somewhere before 2007 is over. Possibly. My opinion regarding relying on other people, however, remains unchanged.

How many people called it a train wreck?

I didn't figure it'd last long, and I was right. Not even 2 months after giving birth to number 2, miss Britney has apparently smartened up and, in an attempt at salvaging what's left of her image, she's ditching the moron. Some would say it's about time. On the other hand, though, will it do her any good? Um, probably not. She stunk before, and now, well, now she just stinks with 2 kids and a deadbeat. And his attempts at being a bigshot can't be helping her, either. This girl gives people my age a bad name.

And it's back to square 1.

Still nothing but voicemail from the Dell people. Yay people who don't return phone calls. And now, they've already cost me an apartment, as the rental application I preemptively filled out has basicly been declared null and void–the apartment I was applying to rent has already been occupied. I guess I wasn't preemptive enough. If this keeps up, they're gonna be scheduling me to start in January. Which… actually might not be such a horrible idea. Well, if I can ever get a hold of these fools, I'll see if *that's* an option. It's probably not, but if not, then it's back pounding the pavement and looking elsewhere. Have I mentioned lately I despise having to rely on other people? Blech…

Saddam isn't quite finished yet.

In spite of the fact he's already been rather effectively sentenced, he probably still has another trial to go through yet. And he'll be hanged, so there goes the theory that he'll get what he wants–he did, after all, request a shooting. Well, there is a bright side. There will soon be one less whackjob on the planet. Make room for someone with a brain and an IQ above 0.2. Yay inteligence!

The things we talk about on a Saturday afternoon...

So an IM conversation I was involved in somehow got onto the topic of whether or not a blind man could actually own a car. How that happened, or why, is still anyone's guess. But, in doing so, I discovered something perhaps too glaringly obvious about the system that regulates vehicle ownership up here. There's more goddamn red tape involved than you can shake a stick at. Thank the gods I don't drive…

She... didn't... know?

I suppose anything's possible, but… perhaps someone who's been through it can explain to me exactly how it is you *wouldn't* know you were pregnant? I mean, I can see not knowing at first, hence things like pregnancy tests and things, but… after 9 months, still not knowing? Hello? Although, there is something to be found amusing about going to the hospital for abdominal pain and coming back with a kid. Or maybe I'm just twisted.

Halloween spooktale or just plain stupidity?

My day just wouldn't be complete without pointing out the obvious stupidity that seems to congrigate in the unlikeliest of places. In this case, a German court, where apparently you can be a complete and utter idiot and believe in a magical cure for a bad relationship, then sue the nut who thinks she's a witch when it inevitably does not work. Folks, I worry about the inteligence of the people around me. Although, to be blatantly honest, I'm not sure which I find more amusing. The lunatic who thought she was a witch or the idiot who believed her. You be the judge.

So that's what having power feels like.

Somewhere around 1:30 we ended up losing power, for reasons I still don't exactly know. Well, other than that Pembroke/Pettawawa's hydro system sucks royally. So, needless to say, it was not fun when the temperature outside happens to be hovering at or just barely above freezing. I don't know exactly, but hey, if it was snowing, and it was (er, uh, still is), then… I guess freezing or just slightly above it is. Fortunately, much like our last attempt at a snow fall, it didn't stick around. Thank the gods… I'm still too damn lazy to be shoveling. By 4 we were getting pretty close to being fed up with it. And, of course, it was looking more and more like the ever so helpful hydro company estimate would yet again be just a little tiny bit off the mark. By this time now we're tossing around ideas for supper, taking into account the fact we can't cook, microwave, or otherwise put any effort into actually making something–thank you, hydro company. We ended up going out instead, since… well, you know, it beat spending the rest of the evening sitting around a powerless house and slowly freezing. And, as Murphy's law would have it, not even 10 minutes after we get back, we have power again. It almost never fails. Almost, of course, meaning except for, you know, that spell of 24 hours wherein we had no power. *That* was fun. In a… never again kinda way. At least we didn't freeze that time. And now… I suppose I should get back to what I couldn't be doing while we were in the dark. Namely, more house hunting.

Update:

We aren't in any of the named areas, but are right between a couple of them, so I suspect strongly we got hit by this mess.

If I have to have a sister-in-law, does it have to be that one?

Apparently, she who shall remain nameless save the various titles I've already asigned her on this blog is now officially engaged to my brother. Certain members of my slightly misguided family are still thinking (hoping, perhaps?) they won't actually end up getting married. I, however, expect it. And am definitely not looking forward to it. Ah well. It's not like I'll have to see either of them in like a week or so, so I suppose it isn't *too* horrible. But still, I can't help but wonder if it's too late to replace her…

I'd hate to be this guy's defense lawyer.

I believe I've mentioned to a few people a passing interest I have in law. That goes along with the interest I have in politics, as evidenced by, well, just about everything in this category, and a few entries I'm too lazy to look for to include in said category. Well, that interest in law has lead me to take special notice of this article in the news. Nearly 300 sex charges, ranging from sexual assault to, well, just plain assault. Um, just how much would a defense lawyer want to get paid to try and make this guy look like he might not be guilty? Since I don't really think there will be a plea bargain. Why am I writing about this when there's a hockey game on, you may be asking? Well, um… uh well… they're losing. So I'm getting ready to write it off. And it's only the end of the first period.

Does anyone remember playing dodgeball in highschool?

I'm assuming the answer to that is a resounding yes. Now, add to the mix, in place of the odd idiot who'll just accidentally on purpose whip the ball at your head (never happened to me, but I've seen it happen), several idiots with shopping carts who're concentrating more on attempting desperately to control their misbehaving children than, you know, watching where they're going. You can see where this is heading, and quickly. This would be why I avoid going to Wallmart on a weekend if at all possible. The place is hard enough to navigate on a good day, never mind trying to do that *and* dodge morons who should not be allowed to push a shopping cart. And I'm talking about trying to navigate around that with sight… no way in hell will I bother doing that on my own. And that's saying something, because… well, me asking for help with something just… doesn't happen often. And just to make it more interesting, we had to dodge a kid or two who's parents seem to have lost all control of them. Which is why you should not bring your children to Wallmart. At least, not when the goal is to teach them to be better behaved. It makes you look like an idiot, and it pisses those of us who don't have children and do have things to get accomplished before we turn 90 right the hell off. Just food for thought. 'Cuz I still have to do the thinking for some people around here.

Oh, if only mister Ignatieff wasn't running for leadership of a dead party.

Already, he did the first smart thing I've seen any liberal do in quite a while. He made blatantly obvious the fact that everyone's favourite president–taken with as much or as little sarcasm as you please–is a disaster. Hm, I've said that at least twice on here that I can specificly remember, though not in those exact words. Now, if he were the leader of the NDP, he'd get my full congratulations. But, instead, he's a goddamn liberal and I'm sick of them screwing us over. Ah well, can't have it all.

Sometimes, you just have to do it to know it's a bad idea.

I should complain about there being nothing particularly blog worthy coming from the morons in newsland more often. People go and pull crap like this then. I dunno. Maybe I'm just uber odd for thinking it, but tongue piercing just begs for all kinds of problems. Why people even bother doing it is really and truely beyond me. Why people bother doing it then think it'll be found sexy is just out of the realm of any possible comprehension. That's a real good way to turn me off, anyway. But, lack of sexyness and outright stupidity aside, I'll bet the real problem behind it doesn't even register with half these people. It can kill you. Or at least make things supremely awkward for you. I dunno. I always thought tongue rings were just a complete waste of your money, and I didn't even have to get one. Does that make me an exception?

I may actually have 5 minutes' peace.

I of course wouldn't hold my breath, but by the looks of it… that dog of my brother's is here again. So that should give an indication. Fortunately, though, the two that actually belong here are outside… so there's no constant battle of him wanting to take one of their noses off and them wanting to have him for lunch. It's pretty sad, though, when my idea of peace and quiet is sitting here listening to him do that puppy pouting thing he does when he wants out. Of course, we all know he only wants out because that's where they are… and I'm *not* chasing him out there, thankya much. As usual, his owners are downstairs sleeping, and as I've discovered the last 6 times they've done this to me, sending him downstairs lasts until he starts barking, then they send him back upstairs and we do this dance all over again. So, until either all 3 of them get tired and go to sleep or the owners of the odd dog out actually wake up, my patience will be stretched very, very thin. And that's difficult to do. Ah well, there's nothing else blog worthy to bring up so I guess that'll have to do. Hell, there aren't even any obviously moronic people in the news so far that I can laugh at on this thing. And until if I ever actually get a life, there won't be much original content coming out of this corner. I'm running out of ways to say I hope those two downstairs never have kids…

Apparently, common sense has not yet caught up to the average idiot.

You would think people would kind of make sure that, if not everyone in the vehicle is at least *wearing* a seatbelt, there are enough in the vehicle that everyone could actually do that. You would also think you wouldn't try cramming 10 people into a vehicle that only actually seats 7, wouldn't you? Apparently they need to make a law here in Ontario for it, because certain morons slept through common sense 101. And it only took 4 people in a minivan being killed before that apparent loophole in the trafic act was spotted and subsequently worked towards being plugged. Well, on the bright side, it's now illegal to be a stupid fucking idiot. It's about time.

It should not be that cold yet!

It's only October 16th. So why, then, am I going outside and nearly losing the feeling in my fingers? Blarg… winter's coming too early! I miss the 30 degrees…

Well, that's better...

Okay, now that I can pretend to be awake, let me see if I can't… at least summarize yesterday without making myself look and sound like an idiot. It'll be damn near impossible, but hey, I could pull off a miracle. Possibly.

Before I get into anything, though, I'll say right now anyone who tells me being up and actually on the road for 15 hours is fun deserves to be shot, pissed on, and strung up by their hair. Now, with that having been said, getting up at 6 to be in Ottawa by 9 for an interview that started at 1 is no fun. Fortunately, mom had an appointment she had to get out of the way, so we were able to get that done and still had time to swing by a decent restaurant for breakfast (by the way, Cora's (probably misspelled) is bad if you expect to eat a light breakfast). Then it was to the interview, which was a whole adventure in itself. First off, the directions we got were a bit misleading, so we thought the place I had to be was actually closer than it was. To look at the directions, it looked like the office complex was kinda right on the corner of two streets, in an area where, you know, it'd be hard to miss. Wrong answer. So we ended up guessing at exactly where the place was. We weren't far off, though, so it only really took us, maybe, about 5 minutes longer than it should have. And 3 of that was finding a place to park (visitors' parking is just not heard of in Ottawa, apparently). So we finally get in there, and keep in mind I had to be there 15 minutes early for the interview, I guess to give me time to clear the security checkpoints and such, and the first thing they want me to go through apparently is a manager's meeting. Okay, so no problem. Figure it'd take that maybe half an hour. Well, it did. Unfortunately, it took 10 minutes longer than it should have for it to start–I was there on time, but where was he? God only knows.

We finally got that out of the way, though, relatively painlessly, and he ended up asking me a lot of primarily technical/work experience questions (since when the hell do we still use MS DOS on a regular basis, anyway?). I think I did alright with that, though, considering the oddness of some of the questions. Then I waited another 5-10 minutes (they do like their waiting games) for the HR person who set up this whole thing so we could get onto the customer service assessment/simulation/thing, whatever the fuck it is you wanna call it. To say that was brutally tedius would be a grose understatement. I mean, I know the job itself calls for some degree of tedium, but that was just… over the top. It started alright enough, though, with anywhere from 150 to 200 questions related to the kind of person you are and work experience/preferences, that kinda thing–think personality survey. I think I did alright with that. Then they put me through 7 simulated customer service situations, 1 via a simulated chat environment, and 6 pre-recorded script-driven calls, or somesuch, for a fictional GPS tracking company. If you've never done call center/customer service work, I'll warn you right now–bring a notebook or a good memory. That was a simulation for an interview and I still had a hell of a lot of crapola to memorise. I managed, though, considering I only had 5 minutes to memorise it, and the only particulars I had to look at were the minor, customer-specific things, for obvious reasons. I think, with the exception of 1 or 2 where I know I kinda fubared the answers a little, I did alright on that section. We shall have to see, though. It was pretty rappid fire–you'd get done one simulated exchange, then they'd sorta quiz you on it. Then you'd move right into the next one. So at least in that regard I didn't have time to think about where I could have maybe done things a bit differently.

All told, the interview must have lasted a good 3 and a half hours, easily. Officially the longest interview on my personal record to date. I'll hopefully hear back, the HR person told me, in anywhere from 5 to 10 days, so… we shall see. 'Twas a learning experience, though, if nothing else, and definitely showed me that's something I'd at the very least like to learn more about doing, if not make a career out of it. It seems to be a bit more… I dunno, relaxed than what I thought, which is kinda a good thing. In between meetings, I was sitting in the front lobby talking with someone who's doing the same job I was being interviewed for, just kinda killing a few minutes before we had to go do our own things–apparently, he was applying to move to a different position–and I'm guessing they don't try to enforce a strict average call time. Either that or he just got unlucky… we were both rather amused over a call he took the night before that took him 3 hours to resolve, and it ended up being something rediculously simple–the laptop the customer bought had a network card his router wouldn't support. That'd be a kick in the teeth… 3 hours just to be told to replace the card or get a new router. So that was a decent distraction, anyway.

Of course, after the interview was over came the mandatory 3 hours of boredom–my mother and my aunt, in the same vehicle, in a city with at least 6 malls, maybe more. You can see where this is going. Lots of wandering through stores I have no interest in, and no actually buying anything. So after that interview, I got to try to stay awake for 3 hours while they browsed supposedly decent-looking art work, and other asorted pictures, then went clothing/jewelry shopping. My uncle, who had an appointment at the same time as my interview so at least they had something else to do while I was occupied, was probably less enthused with the idea than I was, and he can see the damn things. We'd planned to swing past my cousin's place, but apparently there was no one home… so we ended up going out for supper (by the way, Montana's is just bad, period) instead, then we headed home. And then I caught the last 5 minutes of a hockey game (rant about that mess to follow in a few minutes), thought about updating, half-ass attempted to update, and passed out. And now, I shall stay home today, and actually inside, unless I absolutely have to leave… because it is fucking *freezing* out there.

It's a conspiracy.

Why else would circumstances present themselves just right for my brother to be in town just long enough for his damn dog to piss on my floor? Freakin' 3 months old and still just going where he stands. Murphy must be specificly out to piss me off today. Retribution, perhaps, for landing a job interview?

Some people just won't take yes for an answer.

And instead, will take their daughter to another state under the pretense of a shopping trip in order for her to miss the wedding they already objected to. So now, they lose twice; the daughter gets married, and they get charged with kidnapping. And they all lived happily ever after. Eventually.

And in a brilliant attempt to get in someone's pants...

An immigration judge and former politicion (go figure, eh?) pretty much said the only way a South Korean woman would not be deported is if she had an affair with him, and told absolutely no one. Now, keep in mind that while she was being propositioned, her boyfriend, who was also one of the people she was explicitly told not to tell, was standing presumeably a few feet away–close enough, at least, that the exchange was able to be recorded. Sorry, judge, but Canada is *not* such a perfectly paradise-like country wherein anyone would be desperate enough to actually do that just to stay here. Neverminding the fact that no decent person would just let any decision that resulted from that conversation stand. I'm quite sure they could have held that video and royally fucked him over when he tried to have her deported, much like he was trying to fuck her over by threatening her with it, but obviously she was raised better than that. Well, now, not only does the judge not get laid, but he'll probably either be fired or forced to resign, and my guess is whatever's left of his marriage is about to go right down the crapper. No need for an affair now, pal. You're about to be single again. We shall add your name to the list of good-for-nothing losers deserving of being lined up and summarily shot for lacking in a brain. I still plan to motion we shoot one every Wednesday…

Go shopping for a guitar and end up with clothes. Go figure.

The original plan was to drop my brother off at work, then get a bit of household shopping out of the way, before we went to at least price out a decent-sounding guitar so I can actually give my uncle's back to him. Well, we managed to get 2 of the 3 accomplished, getting the shopping and such done by about noon, so figured the music store which, actually, is the only real decent place around here to buy things like that (no duh, right?) would have to be open by now. You'd think they would. Unless, of course, they weren't open at all on Sundays, which just so happened to be the case. Irritating, but it's Pembroke. I should have expected that. The alternative was Wallmart and, well, of all the things I'm likely to buy from Wallmart, a guitar is most definitely not one of them. Specificly because they overcharge for crap like that, and then you end up paying $150 for a guitar that sounds like it's only worth about $75. No thanks. So, it's back to square 1, and waiting for the music store to actually be open late enough that we can get in after we get the rest of the week's bullshit out of the way. One of these days, I'll manage to get everything accomplished that I left the house to get accomplished. One of these days. Just not any time soon.

Look at that. I was right.

I know I said at least once that if there was a stupidity award, George Bush would get it for sure. Well, there is, and he has. I'd say this should give him an indication so far as about where he stands in the public eye, not just in the US but in other parts of the world–like the northern US, for instance–but any obvious signs you'd think would catch his attention probably went over his head. Funnily enough, the awards do explain why his vice president is the only one who believes Bush's spouting off about there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And he got an award, too.

I have again been up since 4.

I swear, it's borderline unhealthy. And I didn't even have all that much caffeine either… bleh. At this rate whatever the hell routine I come up with probably won't even do me for shift work. Bleh. Someone just sedate me and get it over with. LOL

I would just like to point out...

I have now been awake for 3.5 hours. I should not be awake for another 4 hours, minimum. Somebody hates me.

Technically inept parents... not fun.

I just got done explaining, or trying to explain, the concept of bandwidth to my mother. That was… well, to put it nicely, not a very feel-good endeavor. She doesn't quite the idea that just because your connection to the internet *can* be faster on DSL than it is on dial-up, it isn't gonna feel faster when you've got a network of 3 computers, 1 of which has decided to upload half its hard drive to whoever asks. Well, okay, scratch that. It'll feel faster if you're on that 1 computer. The other 2, though… let's just say my 56k modem goes faster.

And it just so happens that I could use our network as an example. Until about 15 minutes ago, it was crawling at about 1/4 of a turtle's pace on the computers we have up here. So, to prove my point, I had mom go down and turn off my brother's laptop, as I know damn well he's been downloading and/or uploading crap all day in spite of not being home. And, of course, as soon as she'd shut it down, our DSL connection that's supposed to be 1MB/s actually *was* 1MB/s. I love it when demonstrations are so easy to pull off. I just hope she actually caught on… or I'll be explaining the concept to her again the next time he does it. In other words, tomorrow morning when she wants to pay her bills.

Due to sympatico's complete and utter stupidity...

I've begun the process of phasing out that email address. Also, due to the fact I'll hopefully be moving at some not too distant point, pending job prospects. For those of you curious to contact me, my MSN is the most recent thing to get a changing. The old address is done, in favour of msn$the%jdh#com (munged purposely). Alternatively, email and comments still work. No longer shall I be given headaches by my ISP. Yay.

I gotta love it when Bush looks stupid all on his own.

It means less work I have to do making him look that way. Not that I have to do any work at all, though, really… I mean, when you get caught in the biggest lie of your career, it tends to do a lot of the making you look stupid for you. And for everyone else. But, he's still clinging to that notion that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in spite of the fact anyone with an ounce of smarts knows better than that. Except, apparently, those few people who still think Bush was right to bomb the hell out of Iraq. I know I've said it before, but it deserves to be said again. At least once. Possibly twice. Stupid people should be shot.

The stars aligned, and my blog died.

More accurately put, my warning about crashing was justified. The server this thing sits on, and in fact the whole network it's on, got uber hammered today, taking it down since… oh… at *least* just after I posted my last entry here. So, suffice it to say, James is not pleased by any stretch of the imagination. It sucks, because not only was this blog down, but at least 2 others I regularly read kicked the bucket with it. But, we're back, at least for now… and hopefully, it stays up long enough for me to post my overdue weekly MP3. Watch this space, and I'll keep an eye on the web host and try not to lose what little sanity I have left. Which isn't much, but we knew this already.

And now, my web server would like to screw up on me.

So, if you don't actually see this website, then we've crashed. And I get to shoot someone. Repeatedly.

Gotta love microsoft's priorities.

It takes them forever to release a security update, or a fix so something like the MS blaster worm stops actually affecting people, but you go and break their DRM features, intentionally or otherwise, then watch what happens. And that, folks, is why I wish I could use linux. At least we know where their priorities are, though!

I take it back.

I'm glad I'm not insured… the payout would kill me. If my brother's irresponsibility doesn't. Okay, so his baking attempt resulted in blackened cookies. Why? 'Tis extremely simple. He did what he's good at, and didn't bother paying attention. He'd rather sit on his rear downstairs instead. So uh, yeah. We won't be sampling his cooking. Ever. *cringe*

But I'm not insured!

My brother, my accident-prone brother, my brother who can't even take his shoes off without needing stiches in the back of his head (it's happened), is baking. And me without my life insurance. And me stuck minding his damn dog while he screws around in the kitchen potentially setting the place on fire. But I'm not crazy… I'm not… well, not yet… okay, maybe? Kinda? Fine, i'm a loon.

I've done it again...

I think I screwed up somewhere along the line trying to get myself into something resembling a routine, and now that routine's all different levels of messed up. Apparently 4:30 or there abouts is the ideal time for me to wake up, as that's how it's been for the last few days. It doesn't usually matter when I decide to sleep… 4:00, 4:30, occasionally 5 I'm awake anyway. So I killed a couple hours messing around with the site again. Nothing too drastic… I just got rid of the category listings because, well, they're just a touch redundant and really, how many people use those? Yeah, I know, no one cares. But that's what happens when I'm bored out of my mind. I should not be conscious before 10, mobile before noon. Bad things happen.

I knew I shoulda stayed in school.

The lucky bastards at a Toronto area highschool are getting a free Bare Naked Ladies concert to start off their school year. Gees, I know it makes me sound old, but if they had crap like that going on when I was in highschool I wouldn't have bothered taking as much time as I could between waking up and showing up for class. I mean, sure I'd of still bitched a fit about it–james is not a morning person. But a free concert and a cup of coffee would more than compensate for that. Because it's free. And it's not class. And… and… damn those Toronto kids! Okay, I'm over it now.

Is your email getting through?

Probably not, if it's directed at a comcast user. Yesterday, the people who so generously put up with me opinionating all over the webspace they provide me had a few issues with emails to that ISP, be they forwarded or just sent the normal way, being blocked because of an apparent excess of spam. And now, it seems, they've done it again to an ISP. Is anyone reminded of the days when AOL users could only email AOL users? I thought that went out of style. Stupid comcast and its being stupid.

Corperate backlash at AOL

A couple weeks ago AOL was all pleased with themselves after publishing search data that most people didn't even know they collected. Why they didn't know it is beyond me… I mean, everyone collects information about everyone in one way or another… and you'd be surprised just how much trouble an apparently randomly generated user ID can cause. Enough trouble that they've gone from patting themselves on the back to firing people. Unfortunately, the guy who did the actual publishing is getting canned along with the people who told him to, but hey, at least he's trying to fight it. The executives who're getting shown the door don't really have a legal leg to stand on… he might, though. I dunno, maybe it's just my oddness, but there's just something that out and out pisses me off about someone getting fired on the basis that someone else, who's also getting fired, screwed up. Particularly when if he'd of said no, he'd of been fired and the screw-ups would have kept their jobs. Gah. I love mankind… it's people I can't stand.

Show me de mo-ney!

Exactly what a Montreal guy wants a newspaper to do after it misprinted the winning numbers. Understandable, I'd think. I mean, if I thought I won I'd certainly be out for blood. I don't know that it's worth being taken to court over though, I mean whatever he gets out of this would probably just end up being sucked into legal fees, but hey, all the man wants is a little $$$. So do I. I should sue his newspaper too!

And this is the reason why.

Highschool kids have a small pot problem, and now we know why. The stars do it. Okay, it's been proven. Everyone under the age of 20 is not allowed to watch TV anymore. I mean, hell, if an 18-year-old sees an 18-year-old doing it… ah, who am I kidding? They'd do it anyway.

Ah, I do love meladrama.

Not really, but this is amusing. I dunno how true or not it is, but the voicemails are priceless. I almost wanna work there just so I can hear crap like that as it comes in. Who needs commedy central?

Ah, Sony. Where the stupid live and the idiots shop.

Stupid. Expecting people to go for yet another closed content environment when there's so much more available *without* their supposed DRM (digital rights management) software getting in the way. Idiotic: actually buying the crap rather than getting the same thing legally, free, and without 50 gazillion restrictions that all boil down to "God forbid you let someone else use it.". Hm, between DRM and MP3 players that don't work 32 days after you buy 'em, I haven't the foggiest how they manage to stay in business. Oh, yes… right. The need to replace 'em after the 32 day break. You'd think people would learn to switch brands.

Some wake-up calls are not good things to have.

And, when your power goes out 5 minutes before you plan to shower, that's not a wake-up call you want to have any part of… especially when you're not on municipal water, and so depend on electricity for your running water… kinda like us. So, there was lots of excitement to be had… and I didn't even have to leave the house. Our power *just* came back about 10 minutes ago, more or less, so now I'm kind of somewhere between doing the panic run around the house making sure nothing decides it wants to crap out on us, and contemplating whether or not to risk jumping in the shower to have the power go out yet again. Ah, what the hell. Hydro company made me wait this long… and unless they want another phone call from me, that's as long as they're gonna make me wait for the rest of the week. I got crap to do, and more things to rant about later.

I give you, the latest AOL marketting inovation!

But not really. It would appear, however accidentally, everyone's favourite ISP has proven why it is they're loved completely and totally to death. In an act of unrivaled brilliance, they've released some rather… critical user information. While search queries *usually* aren't anything to be worried about, you ever done a search on your own name? Or a phone number you have/had? Or anything like that? Apparently, some of the released information contains just that. Oh, but that's just the beginning. How much information, you ask? Well, okay, so maybe you don't. Since when have I cared? Without compression, there's… something like 2 gigs of information that's gone and oops… been leaked. And this, ladies and gents, is what makes AOL awesome. I don't know why it is we haven't switched over yet. I mean really… what *are* my parents thinking?

Due to technical difficulties...

… the job I'm being interviewed for is haveing said interview temporarily put on hold while they track down a piece of software they need? I dunno, part of me wants to be all paranoid at the guy who's supposed to be doing my assessment, and figure it's just a delay tactic so they don't have to tell me they're not interested, but you don't usually try to get rid of someone who's, apparently, on your top 3 priorities list. At least, I wouldn't. Well, regardless to what's actually going on, it's on hold, so um… yeah. Business as usual for me tomorrow afternoon. Which means I should be awake about noonish, if all goes well. Anyone who wakes me up before noon had better 1: have coffee, or 2: be out of arm's reach.

I just realised.

In setting up my RSS feeds for this thing, I neglected a comments feed. Wopsydoodles. Ah well, problem solved. I love modern easy to write and easy to screw up technology.

The stuff you by on Ebay amazes me.

And now, thanks to one particularly creative individual, Ebay is becoming the auction center for selling access to a DIGG account. I dunno why people won't just create their own accounts, but apparently, someone would rather sell one. $5 says that account won't work when it's bought. But someone gets money, anyway!

Not how I wanted to spend a friday...

I haven't exactly gotten all that much sleep, at least as yet. But that's perfectly fine… I haven't had time to think about it yet. I'd planned to go to bed about 2:30 this morning, but by 2:25 I got hit with… something. I don't know if it was a DoS attack, a virus, or whatever, but this machine was pretty well hammered, and the network was all kinds of saturated from the resulting… whatever it was that happened. I couldn't even bring up the google homepage. On top of that, the virus scanner I use took a pretty heavy hit, to the point where it needed to be reinstalled. Okay, no problem. Fortunately I had the instalation file on this machine from when I saved my family's computer, so that wasn't *too* much of a headache. Except for the fact I had to run back and forth between computers comparing information and trying to figure out how the hell I pulled it off installing it on the other one. I love Trend Micro's virus scanner, but damn it's a bitch to install. Finally got all that sorted out by about 7:00 this morning, thank the gods of all that is sane, and grabbed a couple hours' snooze–it was damn well deserved! The rest of the day was pretty evenly divided up between dealing with the finer details of the afore mentioned interview with Dell, and kicking the shit out of my web host for being crappy on a day when I coulda been blogging instead of doing what I actually had to get done. And, apparently, we're being hit with another DoS attack again… so if I can't post this freaking thing, we know why. Bastard child that it is. But, all has been averted, at least for now, anyway. Disaster number 54000 of my online life. Sadly, closest thing to a real life I've got right now. At least until I've got me a job… *fingers crossed*

The voices made me do it!

So, earlier today (that would be yesterday) I made brief mention, and bitched a fit at the same time, about our friend Andrea and her non-conviction that's a load of crap. And now, she's choosing to maintain that, in true 1960's/70's bad movie style, "the voices" made her do it. Apparently, voices in her head told her to drown her kids. Yeah, I already went on a take it like a cold-blooded killer kick about it, but… oh well. I don't know what I find more surprising. The jury actually bought that defense, or the judge didn't overturn the virdict. I *really* hope the prosecution plans to appeal. I'm not holding my breath, but… what the hell? I would wonder if the average American citizen is really that stupid, but recent election results tend to reply with a resounding yes before the question's even out of my mouth. Oh good lord no, I've criticised the American people *and* their president in one post! I will never recover from the coming onslaught of hatemail! What ever will I do?

DISCLAIMER

Anything and everything mentioned in this entry is true. Not because I said so, but because anyone who can prove me wrong is smoking something real good, and I want some. If only because there will be no arguing if we're both just as high.

Not guilty by reason of insanity?

I never really agreed with the whole not guilty by reason of insanity thing. I mean, either you're guilty, or you're not, it's as simple as that. You still did the crime. Now suck it up, call yourself nutty if you want, and take your lumps as they come. And this here case is a perfect example of why I don't agree with it. A mother drowns her 5 kids in a bathtub, then says she was insane. I followed this story closely when it was developing 5 years ago, though I couldn't very well be blogging about it then. Whether she snapped, lost her mind, or whatever it is you wanna call it or not, the point is moot in the end. She still killed all 5 of her children. And the only difference in the case was that her husband didn't testify. Personally, I'd of had him testify anyway if I was the prosecuter. She'd of probably been found guilty, then. Ah well, no one's perfect. Some people just so happen to be farther from perfect than others. Sorry, mad mommy, but you're on the wrong end of the perfect spectrum.

That was all sorts of unfun.

Shortly after my last post to this here thing yesterday, we decided to lose power–thank you, thunder storms. Originally it started alternating between going out, and staying on… with the occasional blink/flicker thing in between. Then it just died for good, and stayed dead for over 24 hours. Not good in 30 degree weather. That's celsius, by the way. We only just got our power back about 8:00 or so, or so I figure anyway, about the same time we were sitting down at a restaurant for supper. This after my aunt and I both spent the day harassing our hydro company for something akin to an answer, or a rough estimate at least, as to when we'd get our power back. Of course, all we got back from them was "We don't know", or the famous "Sometime between tonight and tomorrow". Yeah, helpful. Really. But, I suppose on the up side it was an excuse to kill a couple hours this afternoon in an air conditioned coffee shop. Yay for Tim Horton's restaurants that actually have power! Now, if Pembroke hydro had actually been paying attention to their phone calls last night, this morning, this afternoon, and part of this evening, *all* of the Pembroke/Petawawa area would have probably had power by that time this afternoon. At least, I can always hope, anyway. It gives me something to bitch about if nothing else.

The computer guy strikes again.

And in true idiotic fashion, my brother decided it'd be fun to start downloading music and such without a virus scanner. Oh, sure, Limewire's got a virus scanner built in… but does it do a thing for spyware? Or viruses that *don't* come in through Limewire? Nope… sorry. So, the family computer spent a day or two in completely fucked up land, until I got around to finally fixing the damn thing. The browser they use ended up highjacked,, and pointed to some web page with a dialogue box that popped up warning us we had spyware. And it would keep repeating, and repeating, and repeating… real hard to get things done when you're trying to combat with that, and it was irritating my mother to no end. So, I finally said fuck it and gave them a copy of Trend Micro's virus scanner with built in spyware protection. It works awesome, considering. An hour after I installed the thing on their computer and tweeked the settings a little, I had that machine virtually completely clean. And without a Zango toolbar. That… was surprisingly the worst of it though, at least. Not that it makes me want to hurt the idiot brother any less, but at least now I can concentrate on seeing how many ways I can hurt him rather than how else to fix that computer. I love it when a program is all the difference it takes to solve a problem. Now, perhaps, a sledgehammer will get it through the moron's head… there's a reason we have virus scanners! *screams*

If you can't hold your alcohol, stay home.

Apparently, our drunken crusaders with a Canada day pissing problem have finally been identified. One of them is 23 years old, and being charged with public mischief. The other two are under 18 and apparently not being charged, which I think is just rediculous but I didn't call the shots. Apparently, the reason they pissed on the National War Memorial, not that it's any excuse in my honest and not worth shit beyond this blog opinion, is they were drunk as fuck. The 23-year-old claimed not even to remember dooing it, and didn't even know about it until one of his friends told him he made the front page. Public mischief, though? I'd of at least charged him with providing alcohol to minors, if absolutely nothing else. I mean, he flat out admited that whole group came loaded with alcohol and had been drinking the whole day, and they couldn't have bought the crap themselves, so that wouldn't be too far a stretch, I wouldn't think. Of course I wouldn't know worth a damn, but that's just me. I bitched a fit about it when it happened, so I won't bother doing it again even though it still pisses me off. But jesus christ people, enough with the slaps on the wrist already. At least the public mischief charge carries a maximum of 2 years in jail. Maybe he'll come out of there a bit more mature.

One very bad goalie... done with!

Eddie the Eagle, otherwise known as last season's worst goalie (no, we're not counting the backup goalie who I can't spell worth a crap), just got canned. Sweet fucking Jesus. That was one *really*, *really* bad goalie. I mean, he was good once… and he had a decent record last year… but the guy's a total flop. As soon as the first rumors floated around that there was a possibility management wouldn't pick up the extra year on his contract, the guy fakes a back injury with like 2 months left in the season thereabouts, and I know damn well he was faking it. So, judgement day came up, and voila, master faker doesn't get picked up for the extra year. Suckith to be you. Maybe the former Boston goalie will actually do us some good. Belfor was a loser.

Well, that was a waste of an upgrade.

So, anyone who pays attention to half the crap I put here knows I'm blind, and use a screenreader. Specificly, this screenreader. Well, it just so happens that today they released a new version of said screenreader, and that one has more holes in it than your average program designed by AOL. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I didn't like a lot of the new features they threw into the upgraded version of that program. But, when they break the features that already exist, work perfectly, and I use regularly, it stops being an upgrade. Ah well.. that's why I don't delete older versions of programs for like ever. Yay procrastination at this point.

Webhosty upgrades...

So apparently, the webhost I'm with (see the bottom of the page) is upgrading their database servers to the latest OS, as of… about… 6 minutes ago. Gee, I hope mine wasn't the first to go down, because they just sent out the notice for it 4 minutes ago and I've been using it! Stupid tech guys…

It must be true; it was in the news!

Certain topics of casual conversation present different meanings between men and women. Specificly, men are more likely to assume sexual intent, and do so more quickly, then women. This, at least, according to a study of college-aged students that's just recently been done. Do people not just assume this is a common sense thing? Ah, yes, and I love the generalization, too. Did I mention I despise statistics with a burning passion?

First major blogging catastrophy averted!

Of course, there wouldn't have been a catastrophy in the first place if I'd actually, you know, thought what I was doing through last night. But that's just me. So anyway. I was moving the database I use to a new server, which required that I download it from the old one. Well, in doing so, PHPMyAdmin decided it would screw up my backup of the database. And of course, stupid little old me didn't think to set up the new database before deleting the old one, figuring, you know, the backup is stable enough it'll work. Well, Murphy's law dropped by to say hello, and anything that could go wrong… did. So, I spent half an hour cursing Murphy's law last night, and cursing PHPMyAdmin, and 5 minutes slapping together a script that would prevent me from being stupid again. I'm no PHP expert, mind you, but it works! So, yes, I say I lost the database but the website appears for the most part to be intact. Well, it turns out that whehn I set this thing up *way* back at the end of January, I was actually thinking. You can faint now. Normally, I'd be the first to jump on the "static pages are bad" bandwagon. But in this case, staticly built pages saved my ass. Each and every entry had its own little HTML file that didn't get squashed when I fucked up the database. And I still had the original template files from when I actually figured out what the hell I was doing with the site, so replacing those wasn't hard. So the better part of the day, meaning up until I started writing this entry, was spent with just me, and the cut/paste commands while I rebuilt the site one tiny little entry at a time. But, with the exception of a few comments on one entry, fortunately the only entry that ever got comments, I think we're all back together, patchwork and all. The moral of the story? Fuck you, Murphy's law. I own you!

So this is what they do with closed down schools...

So apparently, a school that was closed down last year in town here is possibly being sold to the city, to be used as a kind of central building for city hall, the police department, fire department, and library. I guess budget cutbacks are starting to become less of an issue, because they're contemplating selling the school in question for $1. Yay for cheaply sold crappy construction. I wanna move to Ottawa…

Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to breed...

So apparently heavy metal music is to be credited for saving some 20-year-old's life after he was hit by a train. What he was even doing on the tracks is anyone's guess but no one ever said these people were very bright–hell, they listen to heavy metal. He made the news, so I guess it wasn't a complete and total uselessly stupid act. Was probably what he was aiming for anyway. When interviewed, his basic reaction to it was "Dood. I was just hit by a train." Uh. Dood. You're a fucking idiot.

It was a mistake for crying out loud!

4:30 Randomness

Okay so amidst being bored, I realised just out of completely and absolutely nowhere, that on average I forget about close to 3 birthdays per month. That's
just wrong. Well, easy solution… happy birthday to whoever I haven't said happy birthday to yet this month! Ah, staying awake until damn near 5:00 in
the morning is a good time.

Urge to pull someone's hair out... rising...

Okay, so I decide to finally make an email address on this server serve as my primary one, because well, I'm insanely tired of sympatico. Logical choice, you'd think. And you'd be right… usually. But, the day I decide to do it is the day they break their servers. So, while I can send email from my primary address, I can't receive email on my primary address. Kind of makes the whole idea of a primary address useless, don't it though? They eventually got it
fixed… a whole 36 hours after they were supposed to. It's a real good thing I'm not in business… that might verry well just piss me off. Oh, wait… it did.

My Life is A Drama Free Zone

I didn't want to see spring until August anyway.

What's worse than fixing Microsoft's mistakes?

Oh nos!

And yet, Microsoft's status site says it's all stable.

Is today the national day of malware or something?

Now there's a random search woops.

My computer sucks...

If you're stuck on hold, I'm sorry.

Baby, it's cold outside.

This collective duh moment brought to you by morons inc.

Winter, we need to talk.

I left work nearly 12 hours ago.

So yesterday was apparently senior citizens' day?

Is this the international day of dialup?

Mother nature doth hate me.

And this is why I won't say no to a ride to work.

Is it Sunday yet?

I hate to say I told you so, but...

I should not be allowed to think before 9, ever again.

This is where I check out.

Only doing this job...

Why I don't go by 'Jim'.

Oh. My. Lord.

'Crunch'? My parking lot does not 'crunch'.

My coworkers are evil!

So this morning. Hella freezing. Why?

You know what they say about rules...

Would *you* pay to tube?

Schedule my lunch at 10:30, will you? I'll show you...

Maybe I live on the wrong side of the border to understand, but...

When I bought it, it was warm.

Wherein my opinion of relying on other people gets more confirmation it doesn't need.

Put a wall around Quebec. Then fill it with water.

Where's my invitation to the Britney pity party?

Wake me up when it's over, m'kay?

What a horrible fan am I.

Can we vote for a law against morons in power now?

My interwebs were one huge clusterfuck.

I promised you a rant, and here it be.

Even Dell technicians hate Dell technicians. And Sympatico, and Microsoft, and...

James 3, Microsoft 0.

T Hos lifts the highschooler ban, highschools become babysitters?

because 2 weeks is long enough.

Oh glorious stupid call.

God, I hope I get a raise.

A smattering of update.

It should be legal to show up to work naked.

There goes another one.

Update:

I never was much of a Mindy Mcready fan.

4Real?

Somebody skipped out on Common Sense 101.

So um... where's the problem?

Today is official stupid people day.

Hang on a minute. People... actually do that?

Cleanup operation in progress.

Respecting my elders gets difficult when they're idiots.

This would surprise me if it wasn't Quebec.

Well, I wasn't meaning for *that* prediction to come true.

Update:

Hello, legal quicksand.

Hey look, an update!

I feel so devalued right now.

Explanation:

And from the "You're just realizing that now?" department...

And you have problems with 'vagina'?

Insanity: my life summarized.

The secret to pissing people off: write an entry and wait 6 months.

Something unfair about this shift change...

I knew working at Dell would be bad for me.

To the person who turned off my hot water: fuck you.

This building's basement smells decidedly like pot.

I'd be insulted too, but for a different reason.

Oh my freaking cold...

Apparently I have a house guest.

I've caught up to my schedule!

Different year, same routine.

It's amazing what 5 minutes in trafic can do to your time table.

I need to go back to work to get some rest.

Would you pay to tube?

Well, I wasn't meaning for that prediction to come true.

It should not be that cold yet!

DISCLAIMER