My Life is A Drama Free Zone

Selling out to the Americans again.

The biggest monopoly on Canadian telephone and DSL service is apparently set to become the biggest US owned Canadian monopoly. Thanks largely to a ruling courtesy a Quebec judge. There are no words for this. Except, that is, a thank you. You see, I didn't think the government could sell us out to the US all on its own. Thanks for the help, moron.

And now, an actual update.

Because while it was a pretty accurate summary of my opinion of the current situation on Monday, it doesn't really do a whole lot of explaining, well, anything. So here goes (warning: the below is probably going to be an essay. Deal.).

So back in November, they transferred a lot of the overnight folks–okay, *all* of the overnight folks–over to the XPS division. Now, I have no interest whatsoever in doing hardware related support, which is what that department's primarily involved with. Not that I can't do it–it's relatively easy to do, particularly when you're not the one fiddling with the inner workings of the bustified computer. But that's also the problem; it's too freakin easy. If something physical is broken, it either works, or it doesn't. End of story. You either replace the part, or tell the customer he's an idiot and to RTFM and go on to the next call. The longest and quite probably most irritating part of the job now is more than likely going to be waiting for the diagnostics Dell builds into their systems to finish running and tell me which part I'm going to be replacing. Now, I'm all for easy as pie work, usually. But this is ridiculous easy. In a week or two of doing this, I suspect I'll be able to just coast right through it like it's nobody's business. Not good when it's me. I tend to get into things I shouldn't. Like finding random little tidbits about my coworkers about which to insult them on here. But primarily just… being me. Which can and often times is a little freaky in and of itself–just ask any member of my family! So, yeah. This week I'm going through the retraining process that goes along with a rather forced change of career path. On the bright side, it means at least for the next month or so, I'm back to having 3 days off–and an actual weekend to boot! On the not so bright side, holy late. But that's another rant for another day. Like say, on the weekend when we're being hammered yet again by snow–a third rant for the next 3 days. That one I'll probably fire off tomorrow, when I have linkage to back up my pissedness. In the meantime, though, there be hockey on my television, and I barely watch that anymore. So I go do that now.

Still way too frickin cold out there.

As I told the whacky bus driver this morning–yes, that one was behind the wheel again–it's minus too damn cold outside. I heard in the neighbourhood of -23. I don't care. It's still minus too damn cold. I wanna go back home and to bed. Because bed is awesomely good.

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.

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.

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.

I despise Microsoft Office 2007.

Well, actually, I despise Microsoft. But Office 2007 for specific reasons. Primarily, it should not take me, who knows his way pretty much around Office products for the most part like the back of my hand, an hour and a half to figure out where the hell they put this or that setting that in the end it takes me 30 seconds or less to change. Nor should it stick document templates in easily corruptable files that it takes a small army to locate. And also takes 30 seconds to fix (read: delete). Microsoft, you suck. That is all.

Satan invented winter. Only explanation.

I made the stupid mistake back in December of showing up to work when I had plenty of warning about a "significant" snow storm that later turned out to be hell, blanketed in white crap. This morning, Environment Canada has released a statement about two potential major storms, one from Alberta and one from Texas, that will quite probably merge and become yet another "significant" snow storm. Now, I don't have a problem with winter–in fact, I rather enjoy it for the most part. Just… not on days when I have to work, and not on a Sunday when it's already gonna be pushing the limits of an hour and a half getting to work. I'm rather tempted, in fact… very tempted, to just schedule Sunday and Monday off. Mother nature, you tend to give me a rather nifty headache…

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…

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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.

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?

24 hours without phone service.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to take the day off to actually have this delt with, but apparently, someone over at Bell needs to be called back, blasted, and then properly instructed on how best to fix my freakin' phone line so it actually works for more than an afternoon. Apparently, it's not about to fix itself, however. And I'm not waiting until Monday to have it looked at a second time. The call gets made, tonight. And it'll be pretty one-sided. In the meantime… I've received possible alternatives to mother Bell. They will be investigated.

Why am I paying for service I'm not getting?

For the third time this month, and the second time in 2 days, I presently have no home telephone line. Which, for whatever reason, has no effect whatsoever on my DSL service. My overall pissedness with the ISP side of my phone company is already well documented, but I've yet to actually make mention to the problems I have with the phone company side of it. Which makes sense, really–until this month, I've had none. But, as it stands right now, I currently have no dial tone. I've had no dial tone since I'm not sure when this morning. I had no dial tone until the technician showed up yesterday at about noonish to replace the phone line. We know it's a problem with the actual building. Meaning, the line going from building to main box a couple streets over. Which means at least it didn't cost me anything to replace it. However, it *should* also mean that once the technician replaced it, it should be fixed. Not so much. Granted, it worked yesterday afternoon. And last night, until I'm not sure when. But she no worky now. And it's not sitting well with me. fortunately, after outage number 1 I got smart and had my home phone number forwarded to my cell, so at least now any incoming calls I should be expecting won't be missed. But I purchased home phone service through these fools for two reasons. It makes teh interwebs cheaper, and I still need to call folks long distance. Not doing that on my cell, thankyaverymuch. So now I'm paying for a phone line I'm only using for internets, and a long distance service I can't use until the internets people start doing their phone company job, too. And all of this comes wrapped in a neat little what the fuck package. Tempted am I to ditch Bell/Sympatico entirely. Except I'm not a big fan of VOIP, and the only real alternative to them for the internet is Rogers. Um, can we say no thank you please? Suggestions are welcome. If the 1.25 of you who actually read this thing have any. Until then, mother Bell can kiss my ass.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Could the Leafs be looking at a whole new lineup next year?

It really couldn't hurt. While earlier today I did refer to them rather directly as a steaming pile, there are a few faces I'd love to see stick with the team while the rest of it gets blown to hell. Immediately coming to mind is Sundin, but only because at least as it stands now, he's the best performer this team's got. Who would I most like to see get blown off the roster? Mister good for nothing Ferguson, for starters. Further proof he was a ridiculous choice for GM–he goes out and builds himself a crap team, then tries to fire Paul Maurice because the players he picked are stinking up the place. Sorry Ferg, but… I wouldn't of picked Raycroft or Toskala either. Toronto will officially be known as the place where old fogies go to retire if JFJ has his way. MLSE, do us all a favour please and fire that man. Fire that man now. Before he really gives me a reason to abandon the team I grew up watching.

Sympatico pisses me off again.

For the second time in just over a month, my internets decided they would go south on me. Not pretty. It happened sometime between when I woke up at 5, rolled over, checked the time, cursed, and went back to sleep, and when I finally dragged my ass out of bed at about 7:20 or somewhere thereabouts. I have no idea what the hell caused it this morning–probably another attempt to prevent me from continuing to rebuild my video library (a month or so and counting!). At any rate, it's irritating as hell. And making me contemplate the possibility of canning Sympatico as my DSL provider. It's also making me consider the possibility of creating a 'Sympatico' category on here. Hey, I did it for moronic cellebrities. Would this be any different? I didn't think so. In the meantime, Sympatico, fix your crap service.

Update:

I have decided, I'll lose nothing anyway. Category created.

'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!

If at first you don't succeed, sue and sue again.

I've been finding an aweful lot of stupidity floating about the headlines lately. Almost scary, really. Article of stupidity number 1054? Fred Goldman's lawyers will continue to go after O.J. Simpson, no matter how his robbery trial plays out. At first, the article spelled serious grudge/vendetta. Which, okay, the guy killed his son–it's understandable. But really, take a read at that article and tell me it's not more about money and trying way too hard to get his greasy little hands on it. I mean, I know Americans just love a good lawsuit, but come off it already. You can't try a guy for a crime multiple times for a reason. You had your day in court already, Fred my man.

Why I think it's a hell of a money grab:

When news broke that Simpson was in trouble in Las Vegas for a Sept. 13 armed heist of sports memorabilia he claimed had been stolen from him, Goldman's lawyers were back in court so fast that Goldman obtained an order to get the items before Simpson was arrested. The items, including photos, footballs and jerseys, could fetch tens of thousands of dollars if they are found to belong to Simpson.

Yup, money grab alright. He says in the exact same article that all save, like $5000 was taken up already by legal fees. Well gee, freddy, you just added a few more dollars to that bill. How much of that $5000 did you plan to actually keep?

Goldman's $19 million share of the judgment has risen to approximately $39 million with interest, but he knows it's unlikely he'll ever collect more than a fraction, no matter how many court battles he wins.

Good reason to stop trying in my book, bud. Never mind the fact you've *already* gone and doubled your potential earnings. Gees, if you wanted to just give the guy an excuse to start throwing counterclaims back at you, you're doing it. Hm, query to those people insane enough to be studying US law. What's the statute of limitations on a whackjob situation like this before it stops being a punishment and starts being harassment? Inquiring minds want to know.

PS:

One of these days, I'd love for the whole Simpson affair in general to get the hell off the headlines. Any volunteers to make that happen?

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.

The Hilton effect strikes again!

Did she receive special treatment? Survey says… quite probably yes! Why else, after all, would miss Lohan spend a grand total of 84 minutes in a cell for a DUI charge that'd quite probably wind anyone else up spending a whole lot more? Even Paris, for all her moronicness and being the reason for the creation of a whole new category on here, spent nearly a month behind bars for the same damn thing. Where's the fairness in that? And this be why I j ust have to say… only in America can you take a public shit and not get called out for it. Only in America.

I wouldn't mind seeing that proof.

Apparently, according to a recently published study anyway, this here federal government of ours is adicted to temps. Which, also according to this here study, hurts… just about everyone else's chances of getting their foot in the door. Of course, to this I have only to say–uh, no, not really. Work experience in general hurts that. I should know, I thought about applying for a government job… that's part of the reason why I'm working at Dell. So, while their efforts to do what they're good at and overstate the obvious are appreciated, in my honest opinion they're just the slightest bit off the mark. Besides, Trish rather enjoys temping. Like I'd vote to take that away from her.

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.

Quebec strikes again.

Warning: If you don't want to read the below rant, scroll down to the next entry.

Quebec has officially managed to screw itself over in more than one way, but this time methinks they're desperately looking for any old excuse to cut themselves off from Canada. And as I've said before, I won't miss it any. But really, can they really find so little to complain about nowadays that they need to cry about the fact that, like *every* other government telephone system, you are given the option to choose between English and French instructions at the *beginning* of the interaction? Apparently they answer is yes, because they are. And I can only say one tiny little thing on that one. Jesus fucking christ just cut the chord and be done with it already. I didn't want anything to do with them before, and now if I don't have to bother with them at all, I'll be thrilled. Extatic, even. And headache free! Say, how long before they go running to the US? Anyone placing bets?

Well now. That was cold.

The walk and subsequent bus ride to work, that is. Uber, freaking, cold. Somebody must hate me. It's not even January yet, either. Ladies, gentlemen, and people of indeterminate genders, I officially hate winter in Canada. And it's neither snowed nor actually become winter yet. Bloody hell times 6. I wanna go home…

Required dose of optimism: I think the Leafs play tonight. That means pizza. Which means I don't have to cook. I like this arangement.

An open letter to winter.

Dear winter,

I would just like to point out that you have, once again, managed to show up way too freaking early. You aren't supposed to be anywhere near here until December at the earliest. It should not *be* this cold in early November. And there's a nasty rumor floating around that there was a snow sighting this morning. You are not welcome here. Kindly screw off until December.

Sincerely, me.

PS: If it gets any colder tomorrow, you and I are going to have a very long, very one-sided conversation.

So there's this idiot brother...

I thought I could avoid it. I thought after he got pissed off with her and cancelled the wedding, that'd be it. Then they got back together, but swore they weren't going to try to get married again–always room, then, to call it quits before one of them winds up in jail for murder. So the bomb shell that got dropped a couple days ago just now means this family's screwed. He and my once again future bitch-in-law are, after all, getting married. And I can only say this time, I'm not taking the time off work for it–I can't. I took my last bit of vacation time for their first attempt. They're not coming back to Pembroke for it, it looks like. Which… actually suits me just fine, really. Less of a chance I can attend, then. I saw her all of twice, maybe 3 times since the wedding that never happened. And my opinion of her hasn't changed all that much–she's still an immature bitch. Marrying her will probably cut his life in half faster than any millitary asignment overseas, but… heh, I could never accuse him of being all that bright. A little backwards, maybe–he's from Pembroke, it's expected. Ah well, this this much milage between us and both of us working the hours we are, at least I don't have to talk to his again fiance and again soon-to-be bride/bitch. Hm, on the other hand, I don't really feel sorry for the guy, either–he brought this one on himself. Twice. I still hope they never have kids.

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.

And this is why I don't vote liberal.

so maybe 2% from a GST standpoint isn't a whole hell of a lot. I'd still rather the 5 cents on a case of coke stays in my pocket rather than makes it to the government. but then, I'm also a cheap little man, too. So when I came across this article that suggests the liberal leader would reverse the GST cut if elected, I was… well… just a little tiny bit pissed. but then, I probably shouldn't be surprised–they haven't exactly been doing a whole lot to save us money when they were in office. A large part of the reason why they now aren't. Well, that, combined with the fact that I, personally, don't want another bloody Quebec Prime Minister. We finally got rid of Cratien… why inflict dion on this country instead? And yes, I'm ignoring the fact they've done a complete 180 so far as what they promise in elections–but then again, you show me a political party that doesn't. Ah well, a penny saved on taxes is a penny kept away from people like dion. I'll take that, too.

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…

If the intent is to keep something quiet, perhaps you shouldn't scream about it on camera?

Ah, Paris. If only you had a clue. But no, you seem to be having difficulty with locating your common sense. Only real explanation, isn't it, for pretty much acting about 13 and throwing one hell of a hissy fit over walking into a porno store and seeing posters of that stupid sex tape of hers on the wall. Now, personally, I was never a Paris Hilton fan–I rather thought she was a stupid tramp. Now, though, after pretty much taking notice that she's proven the number 1 rule about keeping things quiet correct, I've reached the conclusion that she's an immature, stupid tramp. An immature, stupid tramp who has just taken the Streisand effect to a whole new, real life level. You can look at Wikipedia for the definition, or check out Techdirt's website. One of its authors initially came up with that particular phrase referring to most moronic attempts to keep something shushed on the internet, only to have it wind up on about 50 billion places on the internet. Paris, my dear, you have made that list. Shall we define the real life version of the same to the Hilton effect?

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 didn't think they'd leave it alone.

Way back when, I ranted the hell out of the prospect of Quebec actually being considered a nation. And I distinctly remember saying if and when that day gets here, they should have no say whatsoever in how the *rest* of Canada is run. So what's the Bloc Quebecois go and do now? Why, they decide that rather than just cutting themselves off from the rest of the country and getting it over with, parliament should instead bend over backwards and just kinda rewrite a handful of laws/bills/what have you, including the federal labour code, to basicly say the official language of Canada, that being the only language that actually matters to most Canadians not stuck in the past, is only applicable outside of Quebec. Yet another "except for Quebec" rule, not entirely unlike just about every other law they've managed to push through–minimum wage, anyone? Call me prejudiced if it makes you feel better, but… really, either shit or get off the pot. either follow Canada's rules and regulations *as they're written*, and as they've been written for, like, ages, or get out. And take Gilles Duceppe and his backwards party with you.

The unknown element is still unstable.

Vesa Toskala. The man some have pinned their hopes and dreams for this season on. The man who, in spite of the fact he's still not got a whole lot in front of him–we just happened to score more goals on Saturday, that's all–still pretty much proved 2 losses against Ottawa still doesn't mean we're tanking the season. The man who, as of right this very minute, has given me absolutely no reason as yet to actually fall in love with the guy. Not helped in the slightest I'm sure by having been ker-shmucked by a team who, last year, *did* tank the season. And why? Well, I wanna blame the new guy–'cuz that's just what I do. but really, he's the last line of defense here. granted I didn't exactly watch the game tonight–have I mentioned lately I hate, hate, hate that I can't get half these games, even for 10 minutes, from work? But, that being said… what the hell? Why, for the love of God, did we have little to nothing going all night? Defensively, *or* offensively? Can *anyone* explain that to me? I mean, granted I'm going by Yahoo's ever so explanatory description of the game–it's all I have until I plunk myself down in front of a TV, sue me–but really. If the way to the net was as open most of the game as I'm getting the impression? Oh. My. Freaking. God. Just call off the season now. It'd be less painful. And all you Vesa supporters (I'm looking at you, Boonmaster, I challenge you. If you really think he'll do any better than Raycroft, which at this point is doubtful and growing less likely, prove it. Bets are open in the comments. Not that I think Raycroft's the starter of 07-08, but… neither's toskala if we wanna go cup hunting. Or at least make the first round. And that's the opinion of a Leafs fan stuck in Ottawa.

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.

You don't know this person? That's okay, here's some junkmail.

Moron. Of. The. Year. Canada Post has given me reason to conduct all my business via email. A new policy has been introduced, with no shortage of resistance, that pretty much means any junkmail that shows up there, whether the person it's intended for or not actually lives there. Brilliance unmatched. Really. Let's just legalise spam by the can over here. Only in the land of ice and snow…

This is America's scientific future.

It took a university level student to come up with a study that pretty much advertises the obvious. If gas prices go up, people won't drive as much, and will lose weight. yay obvious! Give this man a Captain Obvious award! Oh, wait… I guess we should actually see this as a scientific fact now, eh? Nothing to do with common sense? Oh–it's the US. As I've said many a time… common sense is a foreign idea to the US. And, like anything foreign, it's either ignored, laughed at, walked on, or deported. Hey, what's it doing on TV in Canada then? I worry for thee, Canada. I thought the worst was already here when Harper was elected. Oh, le sigh. I'd move to britain but I'd probably find something over there to mock.

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.

And from the ultimate idiot 2007 category...

Y'know, I don't like repeatedly asking questions made mandatory by the US either, and I live in Canada. But I wouldn't be quite going to these lengths to protest it. My opinion on the US's terrorism policies and whether or not Canada should be in line with them doesn't really matter here–not that they aren't already made quite known or anything. Now, it's about breaking the law. Y'see, yes, it's a crackpot paranoia tactic now. But they've made it law to the point where people can lose their jobs, and companies can be shut down for not following it. so, if it means I get a paycheck every second Friday, I'll jump through Bush's hoops a couple dozen times a day, and listen to people get irritated about it. Like any good law abiding citizen working for any good law abiding corporation. Do I agree with it? read the above link and you'll probably draw your own conclusions on that one. But, they're there, they're probably not going anywhere, and wining about it won't change that. Hm… I wonder, did the physicist decide to go and do business with HP instead? Bet they do the same thing. If they're still in business, they should be. Not that I haven't seen enough questionable tactics in this company, never mind others, to know not everyone will be following that… but… eh, it's not my ass. Hm. I should have taken more than 3 calls tonight. this is getting disturbing.

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.

Adios, reality.

Welp, it's official. After 82 miniutes, Nicole Richie's one free flake. If it were you or me, we'd get nailed with a year. Hell, if it were me, they'd nail me with a year and shoot the idiot who let me drive. The irony is, little missy Hilton spent a grand total of 3 weeks in the exact same place for the exact same thing. It must really, really be all kinds of awesome to have money.

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.

Weekend in T minus 3 hours!

And I never thought I'd be looking forward to it quite this much. Guess that's what happens when you spend nearly 3/4 of an hour explaing that, no, if you power your computer off while frozen, the world will not, in fact, come to an abrupt and firy end. Curious minds can request specifics when I'm not working. For now, let me just say this. Paranoia on that level? Not healthy. Not even close. In fact… I think he's on medication. Or, um, should be.

An open letter to Sympatico...

Dear Sympatico,

Kindly stop blowing sunshine up my ass and lower the bloody prices for a change, rather than continuing to increase them. I've noticed no significant improvement in my service since I signed up, and therefore left scratching my head as to what, exactly, this price hike is supposed to go towards–besides some CEO's pocketbook, I mean. So, please, either start dropping prices, give me something to justify paying the higher prices, or kindly fuck off.

Sincerely,
Me.
PS. I despise form letters, in any way, shape or form. Just for future reference.

Dear Valued Customer,
We would like to inform you that as of August 8, 2007, the regular monthly rate of your
Sympatico High Speed Internet service from Bell will increase from $46.95 to $47.95, plus applicable taxes.

As always, your Internet access is never shared, even during peak periods of usage.1 Plus, you’ll continue to enjoy:
• Automatically updated and fully supported security solutions, including Parental Controls, Email Anti-Virus, Junk Email Filter and Pop-Up Blocker
• Round-the-clock technical support
• Multiple email addresses and access to Sympatico Webmail

If you have any questions about your continuing service, would like more information about this rate change or wish to respond to this notice, please visit

bell.ca/contactus
. Otherwise, the new monthly rate will be reflected on the corresponding invoice.

Sincerely,

Ellen Malcolmson
Senior Vice President, Customer Experience
Bell

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.

Did I miss anything else while I was sleeping?

In a relative twist of my usually drama free life–thank God, as if there's one thing I really hate it's familial drama, the mother ended up calling this morning. Not entirely out of the ordinary… she usually picks a bad time to call. So we're doing our usual conversing and whatnot, and talk eventually gets around to a supposed fight I was apparently having with someone. Names were named, but to protect the innocent they won't be named here. It was pretty much asked point blank, though, if the reason said individual hadn't been over lately happened to be because we were fighting/not speaking/whatever. To which I, of course, promptly responded with my own point blank "What the hell?" I mean… it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that it could happen, or could have already happened and I'm just being clueless, but I don't think I'd not be aware of something like that. Which only leads me to one conclusion. The great Pembroke grapevine's working overtime again. Yes, mom. Me working nights plus person working days just happens to mean we're fighting. If anything… not talking might be more appropriate, but only in the sense that neither of us has picked up a phone/opened an IM window in a grand total of *gasps* a whole week. But that's not quite as gossip-worthy, I guess. Hm, if I sold my family on ebay would I get away with it? Someone already tried selling his mother-in-law…

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.

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.

Yep, it had to be Friday.

So I'm standing at the bus stop on my way to work tonight, and sure enough, I think those same people were there tonight who were a couple weeks back. I kinda recognised the voices, anyway… at least a couple of 'em. And again, they were complaining because the bus just so happened not to be there when *they* wanted it to be. They had to be not much younger than me, but seriously, I've seen more patient/grown-up 6-year-olds. Quarter to 8 in the evening is not the time to start complaining because the bus isn't here when it shows up at 5 *after* 8 in the evening, oh people of much brilliance (read: morons of the year 2007). Bah. I never thought I'd look forward to getting off the bus and coming to work… but guess what? I was. Thanks a lot, brats. Here's the wambulance's phone number.

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.

Stats Canada states the obvious, the media makes it actually newsworthy.

After quite the time studying, Stats Canada comes up with the ultimate of revelations. People are overweight thanks to their own daily routines. Zuh. It's the queen of obviousness… sap is in a hurry, swings past McDonalds on his way to insert job title here for which he'll be fashionably late for. And suddenly, before you know it… he's gained 5 lbs in a week. Government analyst, meet common sense. Not that I should talk… I've whipped together my fair share of 2 minute meals 5 minutes before I have to leave for work, or wherever else I happen to be going. But I also acknowledge if it wasn't for the insane amount of walking I do on a daily basis–okay, on days wherein I work–I'd weigh a bloody ton. Not surprising. Not unexpected. And not worth taking up space on the headlines for. If people don't catch onto that without the media's help, they won't catch onto it with the media's help. Remember that rule about not believing what you see on TV? Certain folks think it applies here. Good try, though. Now give me back the tax dollars that went to this piece o' crap.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

Now we're bordering on the ridiculous.

It makes sense to ban the use of things like cell phones and MP3 players inside the classroom, and anyone who tells me differently is on crack. But if you've got a couple minutes between classes, when the most you're doing is probably either hanging out at your locker/at the nearest vending machine/wherever the hell it is highschool kids hang out these days when they're trying to delay actually having to go to their next class, how is it things like that can disrupt the learning process? That's one of the reasons behind a local highschool's decision to ban the use of cell phones, iPods, and other crapola of that nature, *outside* the classroom as well. So basicly, if you get to school 15 minutes to half an hour early like I used to do (I took the bus, sue me), you can't throw on some tunes and kill that 15 minutes to half an hour before your first class. Well, gee. Now you've gone and given them one more thing to do behind teachers' backs. Or off school property a ways where they can't get in shit for it, thus possibly making them late for class. And for what? Because one or two students decide to videotape a teacher in the hall and post said video on youtube. As much as the reasons against the ban given by the students they interviewed irritate me, they do in some ways make sense. If I needed to call a cab to get home, or if something came up, I had a choice… stand in line at a pay phone for anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour depending on how talkative the person(s) in front of me were, or call on my cell on my way out the door. And, because I hate relying/waiting on other people when not absolutely necessary, guess which option I picked. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and say they were wrong to do anything about what happened, but IMHO, they did the wrong thing. Even one of the parents who supposedly support what the school did say they didn't particularly have a problem. Well, now they do. The person(s) who posted the video pretty much got away with it, and everyone who actually bothered to be responsible–they do exist… I should know, I used to be one when I was going–pretty much gets told "Yes, we know you didn't do it. But you're still being punished.". I dunno, maybe I'm a bit more on the defensive side than I should be, simply because I've been on that side of a policy change thanks to the jackassery of one or two morons. But I still say they went just a little tiny bit overboard. If I had children, I'd be ashamed to send them to that highschool. It's a catholic school, though, so that wouldn't even be an issue. Although… if I had children, I'd be very, very worried. Father material I am most definitely not.

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 media's stating the obvious yet again.

Surprise. If you work more, you'll spend less time with your family. Apparently, Statistics Canada is just finding that out now. And of course, now it's headline news. Sorry folks, but I coulda told you that and I've only actually had a job for 2 months. It's not a 9-5 world anymore, folks. Hell, it's very near a 24/7 world. When I leave here at the end of an 8:00 shift, the place is still packed. It'll stay that way usually until 11, then everyone but the overnight crew takes off. And we do it again in the morning. If I had family here who wasn't an uncle who's only borrowing my place for a place to crash, they'd shoot me for how much time I don't spend actually home and awake. And yet, people who look for trends like this professionally are just drawing that conclusion now. I worry for these people. I really do.

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.

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.

Someone's the paranoid sort, me thinks.

Just another example of a backwards country. A Jordanian father decided his daughter's word and the word of a medical exam weren't good enough, apparently, and shot her for supposedly not being a virgin. Now, granted I'm on the wrong side of the world to really care, but… around here, that's perfectly and totally normal. I wouldn't be surprised if people at 17 weren't shot for still *being* virgins, really. Ah, well. If we can have nutty dictators, we can have off the wall social norms. Thank the gods I don't live there.

Oh for Christ's fucking sake.

Last week I made vague mention to a girl who's been pretty much made to stay child-sized for both her own benefit, and the benefit of her parents. And today (yesterday, I guess?) a rights activist group has apparently decided to focus on the for her parents benefit part of that statement, saying they've pretty much violated her rights and all that crapola. Okay, so everyone's entitled to their own opinions on the matter. But let's look at the facts for a minute. The kid's 9 years old, in the physical sense only. There is no *real* higher brain function there. She can breathe, and generally do all manner of flaling. That's as close to independant as she's gonna get, so says every single medical professional who was involved in her case. Now, I'm not about to go on a disability rights kick, here. I'm the first person who flat out says disabled people in general receive too much pity, sympathy and whatnot already, none of it all that helpful–try patronizing. But Christ almighty, do these people not read the stories they go ape shit all over? I mean, beyond the headlines?

Critics want an official condemnation from the American Medical Association, which owns a medical journal that first published the Washington state case. They also want state and federal officials to investigate whether doctors violated the girl's rights.

Um. State and federal officials had plenty of opportunity to raise a red flag or 6 while it was going on. Or does an ethics panel of that magnitude somehow escape their attention? So not everyone will agree it was such a good idea. Not everyone has to take care of a 9-year-old infant, either. I, personally, am not sure if I agree with *all* of the treatments they've done or not, a fairly complete account of which can be found here. But ya know what? I'm not in that position, and not to sound like more of an asshole than usual, but I hope I never am. Not all of their reasons entirely make sense to me, but hey, disabled or not, an infant mentally or not, completely incapable of taking care of herself or not, she's still their daughter, and if she can't communicate what she needs, then like any other infant who's actually an infant, it's up to the parents to do the communicating *for* them.

Okay, so maybe she doesn't *have* to be 4 foot 5–clearly being taller won't kill her. But I'll say this much. My x-girlfriend weighed about 130 pounds, and I had some fun throwing her over my shoulder. And, for the record, I'm not what most people would consider weak–I'm no body builder, but I can hold my own. It'd be hard on Ashley, *and* whoever ends up taking care of her, lifting that much dead weight. And it's not like she can help, either. Not exactly a fair comparison, but even someone in a wheelchair, most of the time, can at least put some of their weight on their arms with the help of support bars and such while they're being helped to the bathroom. She ain't that coordinated, sorry. She ain't gonna be that coordinated, sorry. So like I said in my last entry, if it helps her parents to be able to take care of her, *and* there's no objections from the people who'd actually be performing the operations, never mind the people who actually enforce their regulations, then… more power to them, plain and simple. And you people who wanna cry it's not what God would have wanted, or bring up some crap about how they're not doing a damn thing in her best interest, you can just pull your heads out of your asses. She has a right to a healthy, long and complication free life. A whole shitload of people obviously agree what they're doing to her will give her that, so this isn't just her whackjob parents using her as the experimental girl.

Besides, let's just go out on a limb here and say some clueless idiot decides to overturn the decision that was already reached regarding her treatments. What in the 7 levels of hell are they gonna do about it? Reverse them? News flash, folks. People had their chance to scream unfair when it was going on. Now, what you think, what I think, hell, what good old president fucktard thinks really doesn't matter. It's done, it's over with, she's a kid for life. Which suits her just fine. Hell, so long as she can be comfortable, fed and played with, anything suits her just fine. You people who're still up in arms over it need a hobby. Preferably one that involves an education in minding your own bloody business.

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.

Happy after New Year!

No, this isn't going to be one of those regular occurances wherein I blog about things 2 or more days after they happen, or at quarter after 2 in the morning. Okay, scratch the second one. That one's already a regular occurance. The new years party was awesome. A little dancing, a little alcohol, a lot of good food… all that was missing was a very special person, but unfortunately you just can't drive from BC to here and expect to make any kind of short-term appointments. I did have plenty of fun, though, even if for all the alcohol that was consumed I still felt sober. I dunno what they were serving, but oh my god if it got any more watered down it wouldn't be alcoholic. Aside from that, though, the week I spent in Pembroke, some of which got blogged about already, was… eh… so-so. It was nice spending Christmas and new years with my parents, but I coulda done without the sister-in-law. And probably so could they, to be honest, but eh, 'tis life, no? Only having to work for a day last week and getting paid for the whole week was rockin. And I'll get some nifty little $$$ for not working yesterday either. You can tell I've never actually been employed before… the idea of getting paid to not work amuses me. And… hm. I'm a lot more all over the place with this entry than I'd thought I'd be this early. That's not good. I go wake myself up now.

Blah...

It is not supposed to be cold *inside* a building. Stupid building.

Just keep proving me right, folks.

It only took just about 2 months (typical government delay tactics no doubt), but mister sex offender dood has gone from arrested trying to enter Canada after a judge pretty much told him he was allowed to, to being formally deported back to the US. At this point, I would just like to again point out that whoever the hell told these people Canada was a good place to send their creaps to should be summarily shot and pissed on. If it's illegal in the US, it's illegal here. The difference? He'd of done loads and loads of time behind bars here. It's your problem, mister W. You deal with it.

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.

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.

Since when did my apartment become a crash pad?

So, as she's wont to do, mom decided on like 48 hours' notice that she'll be staying at my place tonight for a doctor's appointment tomorrow. And then, that she'd just kinda sorta wait around 'til I get off work tomorrow night. And then on 3 hours' notice, apparently my aunt is coming with her. And the point of this is, exactly… what, again? It sure as hell isn't just for shopping's sake, I can about guarantee you that much. So that leaves checking on me. Or, kinda, just waiting here just in case I can't manage to walk from the bus to my own apartment on my own tomorrow. I love my mother, don't get me wrong… but grah. I did not move to Ottawa so she could check up on me. And I certainly didn't move to Ottawa so I could have more people over than I have places to put people. Blarg… I want to be working already.

My opinion of relying on other people remains uncontested.

And this time, the no contest nod goes to my ISP for taking for freaking ever to escentially flip a switch. I'd originally got told before I moved up here that I'd have everything activated by the 6th of this month. Okay, so that's not bad. I can live with that. Except not really. Because when I got up here, it turns out I was handed a fair amount of wrong information. The phone number I was originally given when I signed up for phone service earlier last month was wrong. And I'd been handing that out to people getting other things set up. So I spent about a week or so fixing all *that* up. Then, apparently, because the phone number I got was wrong, certain activation of other things (see: long distance service, and quite probably internet) needed to be considerably pushed back a fair bit. And then, they decided to be incredibly nonspecific about when exactly I could expect certain things to be turned on. So, I ended up spending most of yesterday at home, waiting for people to figure out what they were trying to do, only to be told at about 6:00 last night that I didn't actually have to stay home. Gee, that would have been nice to know before my day was pretty well shot in the ass. So, to be rather blunt, people suck royally. At least, the people I was forced to deal with suck royally. If I ever end up that bad at my job, someone please do me a favour and shoot me. Repeatedly.

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.

This dog of my brothers...

Is really making me reconsider whether or not I want kids. It's a good thing I don't plan to sleep. Too bad same can't be said for my parents, who planned to be on the road for Ottawa tomorrow by 5:30 tomorrow.

The 2006 Santa Clause parade.

As we do every year, a good portion of my family–that being a couple of my aunts, a few cousins, my mom, me, and now my future sister-in-law–took in the traditional Pembroke parade tonight, the first time in a long time they actually held the parade in the evening. Not that it was anything too noteworthy, other than the change in time… there was the occasional interesting float, but for the most part, the parade was a little bit on the meh side. I might have been better off going to the one in Ottawa, but of course, that was last week. And there was only one band to start off the thing. Even when compared to last year's parade, this one was a bit disappointing. Also disappointing, though, was that it was the first or second time my sister-in-law had actually been to one of these, and she's lived here as long as or longer than me. Although, I think it's more disappointing that the first or second one she's ever been to sucked so bad as this one. On the bright side, though, at least the parade's suckage wasn't compounded by a loss of feeling in the extremeties, as most often is the case. I just wish that did something for the actual enjoyment factor.

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.

They're playing with semantics again.

So first, Quebec is a nation. Then, Quebec is not actually a nation, just its own separate entity within Canada. Then, it's a nation as a society or however the hell the liberals kinda half-assed put it as. And now, thanks to mister Harper, we're back to quebec is a nation within Canada again. I really wish people would make up their minds–then actually do something about it. Like, you know, give Quebec its status as a nation, then politely tell them to butt the fuck out of the rest of Canada's affairs. I already mentioned my feelings regarding that, but this latest bout of stupidity warrants a second mention. Sure, okay. So let Quebec do the being its own nation thing. Except… where they expect to still have a say in Canada's policies as a whole, tell 'em to stuff it. They've been kicking and screaming for years to be able to do their own thing. I honestly probably wouldn't notice one way or the other if it actually happened that way. Except, perhaps, the little kids screaming in the back will shut up.

It was a loss, but still the best part of the afore mentioned party.

They shouldn't have lost, but that aside, it was still better than sitting in the kitchen while the women (there were, after all, mostly women there) all talked about things I really didn't want to hear about. We're going to ignore the 2 empty net goals at the end of the game and kinda pretend like they didn't exist. And then we're all going to line up and take turns slapping mister Caberle upside the head for being a fool and not clearing the freakin' puck, leaving Raycroft to try it and well, apparently he's not very good at clearing it either because it ended up in the bloody net. The good news, though, the game could have gone either way. The bad news was it didn't go the way it was supposed to. Ah well, there's always Friday, when they gang up on Washington. And now, maybe someone can tell me why they felt the need to extend our beloved GM's contract? At least, this early in the season… could they not wait until we've managed to get into the playoffs? Bleh…

Essays on blindness, and other random things.

It's bloody amazing the things a person can find out when they're not actually doing the work. A friend of mine (that's how you shall be referred to on here 'til you tell me whether or not I can use your actual name, hun, sorry) was doing an essay for a college english course, and the topic was blindness, and whether or not it should be considered a disability. Now, admitedly part of me kinda suspects she picked that topic because she had a bit of an unfair advantage, but hey, whatever works. Well, in going through the essay with her, kinda helping her to correct it before she handed it in today, I discovered something a little surprising, and a little disturbing. In the span of maybe a week, she'd not only found a fair bit of information I knew about and used on a daily basis, but she uncovered a few things I pretty much had no clue about. Now, I dunno if that says more about her research abilities or my questionable ones, but… still. The essay must have been a good one, if it managed to teach a blind person a thing or two about blindness, no? It was *her* essay, for *her* english class, and I think in some ways, I ended up learning almost as much as she did. That's not fair! I haven't been in college now for damn near 3 years…. I dun wanna start now! LOL

And now, I go finish getting ready to go to a cousin's birthday party… *mutter mutter mutter* 20 freakin' years old, and she's still been reminding everyone for the last week and a half that her birthday's today. Did she expect 50 screaming kids and a birthday party, perhaps? I guess I aughta make a showing, anyway. Since it sounds like not many people are gonna be doing that. Mm, maybe I'll get lucky and at least one other person will have the hockey game on that I'll be missing otherwise. Why couldn't her birthday be on Tuesday…

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…

She's a goddamn drama queen.

This is what happens when I say it's quiet around here. Freakin' Stronach has to go flying off the handle about a comment made by Alberta's premier. You know, I have to wonder sometimes. She wants crap like this to just kind of disappear, but then she goes and throws a hissy fit over a comment that, until she decided to make headlines with it, I'd never even heard of. And I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't even intended to be how she took it, although that would be deserved. Sorry, but if you're gonna be a bitch, you're gonna be called a bitch. Why should the fact you're one of the few women who bothered to enter politics make a difference? The only difference I see is if she wasn't in politics, while she was busy pouting and crying on her friends' shoulders, people might actually be getting back to things that matter. Some people's vanity amazes me.

Update:

Apparently, he's not planning to appologise for the comment. I dunno. Would you?

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…

The waiting game, round 2, day 3.

Virtually everything else has been taken care of now. Well, what can be taken care of, at least, without proving that I'm actually employed. So, in short, there isn't all that much that's actually been accomplished in the last couple days. I'm still calling, still getting voicemail, and still suspicious that, if nothing else, the whole damn HR department's on vacation. This is gonna be murder on the long distance bill at that. And then people ask me why I'd want to pay a little more for a phone plan with free long distance… heh, this is why. Ah well, it's Friday. Hopefully come Monday things will actually get back to their regularly scheduled insanity. And hopefully the apartment I want isn't taken by then. Stupid goddamn other people.

The waiting game, round 2.

Now, however, I'm not waiting for apartment people to get back to me. I'm waiting for employment people to check their voicemail. I've been haunting it since yesterday, after I got home from Ottawa, and so far she's not called me back. Part of me is thinking she just had yesterday and today off, or was sick, or something… of course, there is the pesimistic part of me that just wants to go on thinking they filled the position and just didn't feel like telling me. Fortunately, I've learned to ignore that tiny insignificant part of my mind. However, she *is* being all manner of difficult to get a hold of. She supposed to be emailing me paperwork, some of it needed for my rental application, and all of it needing to either be filled out, signed or at least read. I can't fill out the application until I have proof of employment, and I can't have proof of employment until chick dooing the hiring sends it to me. Too bad, too, 'cuz I love that apartment, and the longer she makes me wait the less likely it is that it'll remain vacant. Did I mention I hate relying on other people? Blah…

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.

When in doubt, pass the buck.

Nothing ever gets done in Canada's parliament. I've made that implication before. But now, it's an implication all parties involved, at least, think about acknowledging. So what's their solution? Well, they *could* agree to start prioritizing things, giving room for the bills with the least likelyhood to be completely and totally torn apart by one side or the other to actually get past. Or, they could just blame each other. This has become yet another conservative versus liberals faceoff, much akin to the dog comment–by the way, no one really gives a fuck about that either. I don't want to be waving my right to vote, but damn… if this keeps up, people are gonna end up voting for the Green party not because they agree with their platform, but because they're sick and tired of the big players acting more like 5th-graders. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This be why I won't vote conservative, or liberal. I won't even vote NDP if it can be avoided–I'd rather vote for an independant. At least it has a better chance of not being wasted.

I think I'll now be offended.

So apparently, a US judge doesn't think all too highly of Canada, judging by the fact he gave a man convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl the choice between spending a year in jail, and spending the next 3 years exiled to Canada. Of course, the defense lawyer raises a good concern with that–now that he has a criminal record, and with a charge like that, Canada may yet not refuse him. In fact, I hope they don't. Canada does not want the US's trash, folks. We have enough of it already thanks in large part to the current government. I don't care that this guy's got a wife and kids in Fort Erie, where he's apparently to be exiled to. In fact, *because* he has kids of his own, he should be tossed in jail, no questions asked, answered, or thought about. But, instead, it would appear the lovely dumbasses in charge have apparently not yet learned to solve their own goddamn problems. I know people in Fort Erie, for crying out loud. I don't want an American lunatic living there. Toss that sucker in jail for a few years, then ship him off to Mexico. Maybe we'll all get lucky and he'll wind up missing. And the judge that gave him that choice should be shot. Twice. Three times for good measure.

If Quebec is a nation, then yall can stop running mine.

I've heard way too much already about the debate as to whether or not Quebec should seperate or stick with the rest of Canada, and quite frankly, either way, I could really care less. I have no reason to bother with Quebec, I have no reason so far to bother learning french. I used to know it, then you know, I lived in BC for like 3 years and it all went to hell in a handbag. But I'm getting off-topic already. So apparently the Quebec wing of the liberal party just passed a motion recognising Quebec as a nation. I say, then, good on them. So Quebec is now a country in and of itself, according to them. Well, in that case, they can pack up their shit and pull out of the debate to run my country. Because, to be perfectly honest, as much as I don't care either way for it, if it all pans out and Quebec ends up becoming a nation in and of itself, then IMHO they give up their Canadian citizenship, in favour of a *Quebec* citizenship, and if they want to keep their Canadian citizenship they should have to go through the same damn red tape as any other immigrant. And all these lunatics who're running for national political parties and screaming about how Quebec doesn't belong to the rest of Canada should form their own damn national parties for the sake of governing Quebec, and let someone who gives a damn about the rest of us take their place. Let me say right here and now I have no problem with Quebec, with people from Quebec, with the french language, or anything like that. But for crying out loud if you're gonna scream seperation, then at least do it while not occupying a seat in the national parliament that would be better occupied doing something that's actually going to help the rest of Canada. There's a reason, folks, why we don't hear much out of the Block Quebecois except vaguely when election time comes around. No one outside of Quebec probably even cares whether they stay or go. But if they're gonna go, then… see ya. Stop beating a dead horse and just get it over with already. And by the way, when Quebec does finally seperate, if it happens, I really hope it forces the disbandment of parties like the Block Quebecois. If they wanna run their own country… they've got no place here. Bye.

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.

Golden rule of politics: keep your big mouth shut.

And this is why I won't join any particular political party. Offering opinions on a weblog, which as just about anyone knows I do quite frequently, could stand to get you the boot. Hm, a politician grows some balls and he's no longer *really* a politician. Too bad, really. It was starting to show some promis. Ah well, file this under the category of idiots I did not elect. It's amazing the crap you find when you can actually have time to breathe.

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…

Where in hell did that come from?

Okay, so I didn't watch much more than 3 minutes of the third period, and the extra frames. But… what in the 7 levels of hell? Rarely do I see a team up 6 3 going into the third period, like the Leafs were, only to lose 7 6 because of stupidity. The few minutes at the end of the game were an example of that one… save in the overtime period, the puck seemed to spend most of its time in the wrong end of the bloody rink. I can't really comment on much more than that, because… well, while they were playing, I was driving home. But, to lose like that in a game in which they were clearly dominating, something had to have fucked up. I should catch a replay and figure out exactly what the hell broke in the third period… because that was just absolutely rediculous in the extreme.

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.

Look at that. Another nuclear whackjob.

Ordinarily I wouldn't bother bringing mention of things like this, I mean I already beat the issue to death with my several references to Iran's stupidity, but you know, half this crap wouldn't be going on if it wasn't for the kinds of policies the US and its allies are trying to push onto other countries. It's always been a belief of mine that absolutely no one should be allowed to possess or use nuclear technology. But, since only a select few countries are, any country found to be doing research in the field is automaticly on the hit list of the countries who've already done said research. I don't want to see nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea's whackjobs either, but then again, I don't want to see them in the hands of the US, or Britain, at the same time. Admitedly for different reasons, but the thought's still the same. I mentioned before exactly what I think of the hypocrisy of the US. My opinion hasn't changed. And neither has the US. Figures.

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?

I feel all accomplished and such.

After spending nearly an hour in wallmart when I only had to go there for, like, 1 or 2 things but my mother decided she'd buy something from every sale coming, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me but anyway, we finally got into the music store so the guitar that's been threatened to be bought could actually be purchased. It was worth the wait, though… it plays well, as evidenced by the fact anyone who's ever picked up a guitar just had to try it out. So that's one more thing to be taken off my to do list. I've already pretty well numbed my fingers picking at the thing today, and I plan to get back to it… eh… a bit later on. It's not bad, though. For about $313, after taxes and what have you, I walked out of the store with what I figure is a fairly decent deal. The guitar itself was supposed to be something like $249 or something, but the guy selling it to me knocked $20 off the price, then tossed a case, extra strings, and picks for about $40. Not bad, when you consider the strings themselves were originally $13. It amused me, though, to a degree… I've only been there a grand total of maybe 3 or 4 times in the 3 years I've lived here. Yet the guy doing the selling to me recognised me from one of those times, presumeably when I bought my piano from there, because I decided to kill like 15 minutes dinking around on one of their display models. It was all kinds of nifty and such. And completely irelevant to the entry as a whole, but like I care. We ended up just shooting the shit about all kinds of crap, and I got the number off him for a piano teacher that does her instructing kind of on her own but through them, some kind of arangement where she just rents the studio space from them but takes care of her own affairs, so I can talk to her probably tomorrow, and tell this dimwit I'm finishing up with tomorrow that I'm sick of taking my lessons at a different time each week or not at all–explanations of a clarifying nature to come when I'm bored. So yeah, today was actually a surprisingly productive day. Not bad for a lazy sack-o-crap.

And, because I'm due for a random topic jump, more positive news. My brother's gone to basic training in…. *checks* 33 days. I'll get into the specifics of hours, minutes and seconds when it actually gets decided exactly when he's being kicked out. In the meantime, though, the countdown begins! Maybe he'll come out of basic a bit more mature…. eh, one can always hope. I do have to kind of feel sorry for my mother in a way, though. With him going to the millitary, my dad usually on the road and me hopefully getting this job, there doesn't exist much company for mom, who'll pretty much have the place to herself when we all clear outa here. And the girl can't even go anywhere because someone still needs to stick around and make sure the bills get paid, and such. But, on the bright side I suppose, she'll have more reason to spend her days off in, say, Ottawa. Or Quebec. Or… take a couple weeks' vacation and go travel with dad. Ah, who am I kidding? She won't even notice we're gone. Much.

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…

But it's okay to fracture a guy's foot, you know.

Okay, so explain to me this, since it's gone over my head entirely. How is it that, for taking a golf swing at Bell's foot, Ottawa's Dany Heatley gets off pretty much unskathed, while Bell gets to spend the first few games of the preseason on the injured list, yet for an alleged cross check (you show me where there was a cross check) on Jiri Hudler, Kubina gets handed a game's suspension? That's just a little lopsided, if you ask me. And no one ever does, but I really don't give a shit. Making it even more of a pissoff, never mind the severity of the offense, but Bell had to leave the game due to the injury, and he's still out. Hudler, on the other hand, came right back and played on the powerplay that resulted from the major penalty Kubina's supposed chross check drew. I'd bet any money if Kubina took a golf swing at Hudler's foot instead of just supposedly chross checking him, he'd get at least the first 3 games. Let's see some objectivity, here, for crying out freaking loud.

Maybe he just plain can't read?

Mister Hillier seems to believe we're in full support of the goings on in Afghanistan, in spite of a survey that clearly says otherwise. Speculation from the opinionated is simply that maybe he just can't read? Or, perhaps, he figures that because he says, not for the first time, that they're doing the right thing, that survey/pole/whatever you want to call it must be wrong. Well, whichever it is, he's still managed to demonstrate a remarkable ability to blow sunshine up his own ass. Perhaps he should reread that survey a time or two more…

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.

Randomness rantings...

Warning: the contents of this entry will in no way, shape or form be relevant to one another, save in that way in which they have all managed to piss me off. And now, the disjointed ramblings of the irritated.

When I show up for a piano lesson, I do expect the instructor to actually be there. Or a phone call so I'm not wasting someone else's gas just for the sake of no one being home. Thank the gods I wasn't taking a cab. I paid in advance for a month of lessons. Now fucking teach, bitch.
If I tell you I need to leave at 7:30 to be somewhere, and therefore we need the car, that does not mean take said car to the movies. Punishment for inconveniencing me will involve significant amounts of pain.
Hey, you in the screwed up SUV. The red light is for the *other* street. Kindly get your foot off the break.
Unless you're planning to pay me the going rate for a secretary around here, stay home and take your own damn phone calls if you're expecting them. I have my own crap to do and don't have time to do yours, too.

Future ramblings will depend entirely on the stupidity of others. Stay tuned. Or don't.

Wil Wheaton says it best.

I've slammed Bush on this thing and in person (no, not in person with him, regretfully) several dozen times. But no one does it quite like mister Wheaton. And I know he isn't slamming Bush just for the sole purpose of slamming him, but I do have to agree wholeheartedly. George Bush isn't a lot better than the terrorists he's supposedly fighting. And, unfortunately, our beloved Prime Minister, who I've also slammed on this thing more than a dozen times, is dragging Canada down along with the US. But, I'll just shake my head, and move on to reading the next blog, because to be blatantly honest, I didn't vote him in. And if it were up to me, he'd still be looking for a job. But it's not, so I'll just wait until next election, and hope there are more than a handful of people who want a change from the usual liberals versus conservatives bullshit that's very slowly screwing us over. Heh, and I don't even read this guy's blog just because I happened to see him on Star Trek. Although now that I mention it… I wonder if he RP's.

Because them damn terrorists are just waiting to cross the border, you know.

The US must think Canadians are a bunch of flops when it comes to things like border security, and things like that. I mean, the fact that the conservatives are making us look pathetic on our own border is one thing, but still, that's no reason to go way the hell over the top and start live amunition drills right in the great lakes. Neverminding the environmental issues this promises, I always thought it to be a neutral place between the ajoining Canadian and US shorelines. And, of course, there's the fact that we *can*, believe it or not, defend our own goddamn border. But no, the good old US coast guard wants to start deploying armed ships along their side of the border just in case. Not that it makes a huge difference anyway. Anyone with any intent who wants to get into the US already knows the way in is across the US Mexico border. If you wanna start showing millitary force on a border, start there. Stupid freakin' american coast guard…

Medicinal merijuana - or: Why morons get elected.

There's way too many articles circulating both online and off both for and against the supposed benefits of medicinal merijuana, if there's even such a thing as using it strictly for medicinal purposes. A mailing list I'm on went up in arms last night and earlier this morning when it was released that our government would be cancelling a project started by the liberals for the specific purpose of medicinal merijuana research. Now, personally, I could really care less one way or the other–I don't use it, don't know anyone who uses it (well, not medicinally, anyway), and just generally… don't really give a shit whether the research project stays or goes. My indifference on the subject, however, prompted some rather… surprising responses, even from those who were obviously pro-merijuana research. Some of these responses, mind you, really make me question the kinds of people we have voting for our governments of late. One in particular really made me shake my head, and ask myself what the hell people are thinking nowadays. Names shall be altered to protect the innocent and/or misguided.

Bob as I said I have a prescription for medical marijuana no longer need to take pain killers one toke lasts me 3 days and nights nothing else stops the pain and swelling from diabetic neuropathy.They offered me morphine , when I was in the hospital with a broken pelvis. I turned down all their drugs even though I was in agony came home asap grabbed a toke relaxed and slept without pain for the first time in over a week!

Okay, so extreme run-on sentences and otherwise bad punctuation aside… this smells of either stupidity, or massive stoner. I somehow don't think it's the latter, but I really don't *want* to think it's the former… the original sender of the email *usually* has a good point. But refusing morphine, which is pretty much the strongest pain killer they can give you at any hospital up here, at least–there's a reason, after all, why it's only available in hospitals–in favour of going home and hitting a joint instead? I don't know. Even if I supported the idea behind merijuana research, I sure as hell wouldn't be turning down something to at *least* take the edge off the pain, if nothing else. I mean, I know I have a high pain tolerence anyway, but still. That's just all manner of rediculous, IMHO. I'm beginning to think the only reason she did that was for the sole purpose of just going home to smoke up. Seriously… that doesn't do a damn thing for the pain. You're just too looped to notice it's still there. Not much different from morphine, if you ask me. Except that it's regulated, and if you have problems with it, at least you're already *in* the hospital–again, this is why it's only given out to people who're actually forced to stay there. Of all the reasons to be in favour of something like this, that has got to be quite possibly the worst reason I've ever heard. I worry for you, Canada. I really do. If this is an example of the voting public nowadays, we're all fucked.

Well now. Ain't that just peachy.

Guess it was only a matter of time… we've already had the mandatory day or two of comment spam that must come with all blogs of any and all varieties, so it's only fair that now, the day or two (hopefully it's only a day or two, anyway) of trackback/ping spam begins. In the last hour, I must have junked about 30 spam trackbacks to this site. Ah well, excitement like that's what makes the world go 'round. Maybe we'll get lucky and a few of these people with nothing better to do will fall off.

It's not a trial, it's a mockery.

Unfortunately, the blame for making it that way lies on both sides of the issue, and starts off with the chief judge getting pissy and tossing Hussein out of the courtroom. Of course, he did ask to leave, after pretty much saying the justice system was out to get him–well, duh. Of course, why they hold the trial in Iraq anyway is way the hell beyond me. You probably aren't going to find anyone there who's not biased either for, or against, Hussein or anything he did. Plus it's still being supervised by the US so it may as well be in the US.

Well, at least this judge is starting to do what Hussein asks… I wonder if that means he'll have his other request granted. Probably not, but quacks like that *are* why I think people should be shot. And he'd make a fine public example.

I wonder if the conservatives are getting the message yet.

Ten years is *way* too long to take to start arming Canada's border guards. Not to mention it's not going to help them any time soon, in situations wherein the RCMP get word that an armed killer is probably going to make a run for the border between Washington and British Columbia. And you just know he's only making a run for the border because he knows they can't, or won't, stop him. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be working there after getting a warning like that, considering he's probably got a gun and by law I wouldn't be allowed to. And the US border guards probably won't do a damn thing, because it's on the *Canadian* crossing side of the border, and so doesn't really effect them. Stupid lazy american border guards. I've ranted before, though not on here, about the rediculousness that is the US constitutional right to carry a gun, which I still think is both stupid and the exact reason why there are so many freakin' gun related deaths in the US, and why it's so damn easy to slip guns across the border–there's really nothing the Canadian guards can do about it, short of turning them around, *if* they have reason to believe they're being brought across the border to be sold, but with the average joe being able to pick one up in the US, that in itself is going to be hard to prove, I'd think. At least up here, they're trying… kind of. Even though the gun registry is poorly implemented and should probably be redone. But… I'm getting off track, again. Anyway, yes, the right to carry a gun is rediculous. I've said it before. At the same time, though, the right to be able to defend yourself is to be expected. And if, for border guards, that means being armed, then for crying out freakin' loud arm the poor bastards. If they're expected to keep the rejects of the US out of Canada, they're more than likely gonna need it. And in less than ten years.

There's only one thing I despise about Ottawa. Their damned hockey team.

Especially when they end up outplaying my team, as was the case last night. And after they'd been doing so well, too… 8 shots in the third period? What the fuck? And where in the name of all that is good was our defense? I mean, yeah the big names were watching the game instead of playing, but jesus. These kids are supposed to be trying for a spot on the major league roster. They didn't even seem to be trying last night, for anything. With the exception of maybe 2 people, but even they kind of fizzled out after the first period. What. The. FUCK? Okay, I'm done. Until Wednesday. Then we do it all over again. And we'd better damn well do it right.

Goddamn comment spam...

That makes twice in two days I had to perform a minor cleanup operation. I'm not being very impressed. So, if someone posts a comment and it ends up moderated, you now officially know why. Nothing against you, unless you're a spammer… at which point I'll have your IP address and you'll be promptly screwed. Most people probably won't have to worry… but for the rare few that do, you've been forewarned.

Coming soon: email whitelists. Then, well, there's no reason for 100% open comments anymore. No one spams me more than twice. Bitches.

The movie industry has gone to the dogs.

And this time, you can take that expression literally. the MPAA, the very people who're trying to screw up the movie watching experience for honest folks with DVD burners everywhere, is sniffing out illegal DVD's in a whole new way. Now, of course, the first question I have to ask here, is an obvious one. How the fuck are they gonna tell a legal DVD from an illegal one? I mean, seriously. If I'm walking through an airport with a burned copy of, we'll say just for kicks, V for Vendetta (I don't have one yet, but I want one!), how in creation are these dogs gonna know I didn't pick it up legally? Assuming, of course, they even know I have it in the first place. I never quite understood how people could come up with ideas like that. I mean, unless you're actually looking at it, you're not gonna know it's not a legally purchased copy. And you're not gonna be looking at it unless you know it's there–even if I didn't have anything like that I didn't want anyone to see, you try looking in my luggage without a warrant and a cop present you're gonna wind up with a bloody nose. So what the fuck are these dogs gonna be able to tell you? I'm just waiting for reports to start coming in that they were responsible for the arrest of someone who's never burned a CD or DVD in his life. Or doesn't have anything burned on him, at any rate. I give it 6 months.

All your base are belong to us.

I never actually thought I'd have a reason to say that. But, so says Pakistan's president anyway, that's pretty much what the US told him. Not that it surprises me or anything. This, of course, in the same message he says told him if Pakistan didn't help the US, the US would have just bombed the royal fuck out of them. Yeah, that's the way we ask for help, morons. Let's give them a reason to be afraid of us so they'll actually do our dirty work for us, that way we can't be the only ones to blame for fucking it up in the first place. As if ordering Pakistan to turn over control of its millitary bases on the border to the US, presumeably under the same threat, wasn't bad enough. Call me insane for agreeing with Iran's president here, but the US is making it hard not to. They're coming across like a superpower who managed to come out of a world war on the winning side and is now using that victory to control the rest of the world. I dunno. Iran's president's a whackjob, but damn… if "help us or we'll blow the fuck out of you" doesn't put that thought in your head…

When they say don't try this at home, they mean it.

And this is exactly why. Note to stupid teenagers everywhere: you are not that good in real life. If you try to reenact a scene from your favourite computer game, you are going to get your ass kicked. Particularly if you openly advertise it by way of a tattoo. It's like I said before. Video/computer games aren't to blame for people doing stupid things because they think they can get away with it. Stupid people who haven't quite got a grasp on reality are. 'Grand Theft Auto' does not make people decide to go out and find a car to steal. Stupidity and general braindeadness does.

If there is a god, let him save New Brunswick.

All because they redistributed the electoral ridings, the liberals bloody well walked away with a win. Well, at least now, when their new code of ethics comes into effect, they'll only screw up a province, rather than the whole damn country. Although, to be blatantly honest, I'd still love to see a NDP government for a change from the usual choice between mediocre and just plane bad. After all, they can't really do much worse can they?

Take your iTunes store and stuff it.

People really don't buy much from it anyway. They'd much rather have non-DRMed music. Not that it's surprising, really… I mean, it's nothing I haven't criticised before or anything. People like to share their music, whether they buy said music or not. And not everyone has iTunes, they realize that, too, or *wants* to bother with iTunes. So what services like that escentially say is "You can share your music with whoever you want to, as long as they use the same programs you do." Kind of takes away from the "whoever you want to" part of that sentence, methinks. Stupid morons and their thinking crap like that would actually work…

You're not fat enough. Go home.

It's no secret TV and other forms of media promote a thinner is better kind of mentality. Mostly where women are concerned. But now, a fashion show in Spain has decided skinny isn't right, either. Then people wonder why you hear a lot of crap about an increase in depression in teenaged women and crap like that. This image that you need to fit yourself into a size small to be considered pretty is all over north american TV, then you get a hold of a report like this, and suddenly *smack* too thin. And I thought that was the only thing left without a double standard in society. Ah well. This is why I'm glad I have no reason to bother watching fashion shows and such. I mean, not that I could see anything anyway, but you know…

Don't spike her coffee again. Now go pick up some trash or something.

The nurse with the afore mentioned medication problem pretty much gets off with a slap on the wrist, after pleeding guilty to drugging her co-workers. Now, she gets community service. I honestly have no idea what the hell the prosecuter was thinking letting that go. But, then, all we really know about the guilty one other than her name is she's bipolar. If that was important enough to only warrant the lightest form of punishment possible, I'd really love to have a conversation with the idiot judge that let that slide. I mean, not to trivialize the disorder or anything, but in my honestly not worth much opinion, that's like practically letting someone off the hook for decking someone because they'd been depressed and just finally lost it. You still haulled off and decked the person. I fully expect at least one of the people she sedated to sue her, or something of that sort. I mean, these people still at the very least were unable to go to work because of her, even if it was only short-term. If it were me, damn right I'd be seeing her in a civil court.

From the drunk tank to the court room?

It would appear that way, anyway. Some jerk ended up tossed from a baseball game in Winnipeg for pretty much being an irritating asshole. Of course, he called it just heckling, but enough people obviously disagreed with him that he ended up arrested and tossed in the tank for the night. So now, the genius is suing the baseball team, the Winnipeg police chief, the officers that arrested him, *and* the drunk tank that held him for damages and such. Yeah, that's nice. He gets plastered and gets to be a real shit disturber at a ball game, then thinks he has the right to sue people when he gets tossed for being a shit disturber at a ball game. I dunno, if that many people could tell he was drunk, he definitely had more than one beer, even though he's insisting to the contrary. Ah, stupid people. Pissing the world off one enjoyable pass-time at a time.

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.

Liberals: check your reality at the door.

As if we needed a report by a panel of ethicists to prove it, the liberals have absolutely no credibility in the eyes of the Canadian public. And why the hell would they? They've been screwing us over for years, and when people finally called them on it, they spent the last year or so passing the buck. Oh, almost forgot about the ever so famous "I had no idea" response. How the hell does a finance minister not know what's going on with the country's finances? Was he on vacation for 95% of his time in cabbinet. And this is just too good to pass up.

Steven MacKinnon, national director of the Liberal Party of Canada, said Sunday that the party has been working on a code of ethics since last year, although it won't apply to MPs or senators.

So who *will* it apply to, then? The guy that brings the coffee? I don't see statements like that changing a damn thing. Except, maybe, people's opinions about the liberals. Now, instead of being lying, cheating good-for-nothings, they'll be lying, cheating good-for-nothings with no support. Oh, wait… they're already there. Guess they've got nothing to lose.

Check please...

It's now a growing trend in the US, at least, to run a credit check on potential employees. I could go into my opinion on it, but I'll just say it's about goddamn time. There's a lot of argument against it, but… truth be told, chances are if you haven't gone into debt for something in your entire life, then you're probably well enough off that this doesn't even become an issue. Of course, I don't know that more employers are doing so in Canada, so that's probably moot from a me standpoint, but… still. It's that whole responsibility thing. You may be a decent enough financial planner to avoid *needing* to go into debt for things you want and/or need to buy. On the other hand, you may be like certain relatives of mine–too stupid and/or stubborn to go into debt for things you need, choosing instead to rely on a barely functioning vehicle, for instance, until it craps out completely leaving you somewhere between home and the grocery store. Fact of the matter, though, is *most* people are going to need to start collecting debt, and the such, if they expect to get anywhere financially, so employers looking at credit reports/histories and things are actually a *good* thing. It's that whole responsibility thing–if you've had a debt of $3000 for the last year and a half and have only paid $50 of it off, what the hell have you been doing with the rest of your money during the year? This is, IMO, most important if you're planning to work in the financial industry… but it's a good indicator for a few other jobs, too. If you can't handle your own affairs, why should a company, or a customer, trust you to handle theirs? If I were an employer, I'd certainly much rather have someone working for me that didn't default on every second lone/creditcard payment. But then, I could be just being a stuck-up asshole, too. Oh well.

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.

This is not a good indication for the rest of my day...

I've been awake for an hour and a half, which kind of relieves me. It beats the hell out of 4:30. But in that hour and a half, I've done more dealing with keeping the rest of the house from being woken up than anything else. Apparently, my brother's dog had set up an ambush for when mine decided she had to go out. So from my bedroom door to the kitchen she had a permanent attachment to her face. And, of course, my brother and his bitch are still sleeping, so I end up having to take their mut out at the same time. Then it turns out mine won't go out if he is, so that makes things all the more complicated. 45 minutes later and that's taken care of, so while she and my mom's dog are outside, I march the one with the lazy owners downstairs so they can mind them. Of course, their extent of minding him is to wait until he barks once, then get up, let him back upstairs, and go back to bed. Gee, thanks for minding your dog, bastards. So, I get to spend another half an hour after they come back in getting him to leave her ears alone long enough to get her in here so she can go back to sleep, and so her attempts to get rid of him don't end up waking up the dead. And now, I actually have 5 minutes to myself, my parents can sleep in which is probably what I should be doing, and no unwanted muts end up slaughtered. Of course, this also means my idiot brother and his brainless girlfriend get to sleep in too, but you can't have everything. Would anyone like a 3-month old puppy?

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*

Blah.

On the other hand, if I'm unresponsive for the next few days I'm taking that damn dog of my brother's somewhere in the middle of nowhere to shoot him.

Can I have my hand back now?

I love it when other people agree with me. Especially considering I used to actually be in college, so this was quite the uh, problem. Someone in my overly protective family, either my mom or someone who'd been badgered by my mom, would call almost every day, usually every second day… just in case, and all that. And these people like to talk on the phone. I mean an hour and a half kinda like to talk on the phone. Which, ordinarily I wouldn't mind, but they'd usually pick a really crappy time to call. Like when I was getting ready for class, or had to go somewhere else, or, you know, was going to bed. Yes, I actually tried to get to sleep at a relatively decent hour when I was in college. It didn't usually work, but I tried. And when they'd call, it was usually (not always, but more often than not) to ask the same 1500 questions they asked me the last time they called. And then to double check. And then they'd ask a half dozen times if I was sure of the answer. And it was usually things they know I do on a set schedule… like paying bills, or buying groceries, or whatever. You know, all the things I've pretty much been doing for ages. Yeah, my family has its awesome moments, but criminy… if they could just let go of my hand for 5 minutes it'd make doing things a lot easier…

Jehovah's witnesses may be a little nuts at times, but...

I can certainly see the point in this case. This time, it's the Canadian court that wants to stick its nose where it doesn't belong when it comes to certain people's medical needs. A 15-year-old girl refused a blood tranfusion for religious reasons, and now British Columbia's medical system is trying to force her to undergo the treatment. Okay, so I don't agree with her reasons. It still should be her choice. I've already bitched about the court systems in the US sticking their noses where they don't belong. And that one involved someone who was refusing chemotherapy. Again, so I don't agree with the reason. It still isn't the court's, or the medical system's, decision. If the patient, or the patient's family, doesn't want to undergo a treatment in question, doctors and health officials *cannot* force them to. It isn't their place, and it most definitely isn't their responsibility. And the sooner someone reminds them of that, the sooner they can stop wasting the court system's time so they can actually deal with something that matters.

Well, it killed an afternoon...

Unfortunately, that's all it did. I now remember why I don't tell my grandmother anything… she flips like nothing else. I made the fatal mistake of mentioning I was thinking about taking up guitar lessons… you'd think I asked her to hand over a kidney and a thousand dollars the way she flew off the handle. She got all paranoid and such about me not being able to read braille if I took lessons, and all that… meanwhile, I haven't touched anything in braille that wasn't absolutely critical in at least 5 years–everything I need, from bills to newspapers in most cases, I find online anyway. Though that's admitedly necessitated by the fact virtually no one sends bills in braille anyway, so if I plan to pay to use, say, my cell, I'd best be with a company that offers an online bill. Fortunately most companies nowadays do, or should, so that isn't an issue. Though for the second entry in a row I've gone and gotten off track again.

Anyway. So she threw a fit about that, and everyone there–which consisted of the 3 of us (see my last entry)–pretty much told her she was looped. Yeah, okay, so I'll probably end up with calouses on one hand. That's why I was born with two… I've read one-handed before, I can do it again. But, my dear old grandmother bless her heart likes to think she knows what she's talking about, and half the time the information she's got is about 30 years out of date, not that it would apply to me anyway. Of course the other half I swear she's just being senile, but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, so the afternoon served only to remind me why it is she knows as little about my life, as stellar as it is, as humanly possible. If only because I'm not downplaying whatever the hell she decides to exagerate to the point of complete and utter nonsense about my absolutely stellar life. That's supposed to be my job. At least I can make it believeable. Sorta.

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.

Careful who you whisper to about China's sweatshops.

You may end up sued for everything you're worth and then some. Apparently, in response to claims that an iPod factory forces employees to work in substandard conditions, the company that owns that factory is now suing the reporters who wrote the story for 500 times the average wage for a reporter, and has requested and got the reporters' accounts frozen. Brilliant. So now, rather than it all going away, people are gonna wonder just what they're hiding. Not that it takes a rocket scientist to figure out.. they're hiding exactly what they're suing the reporters for. Publicising what anyone who doesn't live under a rock already knows. Obviously someone didn't fill these folks in that by throwing a tantrum about it they're just drawing more attention to it. Or maybe whoever the hell does their legal work just doesn't have a clue. Anyone wanna speculate?

Well, I guess it had to happen.

First, I should probably point out that I haven't RP'd there in ages. But, that said, before I stopped having time to RP there and still keep up with everything else, including some fairly interesting RP I've got going on elsewhere when I can manage to log on, I'd been playing there fairly consistently for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3-4 years. And, I just found out not even half an hour ago, Eternal Struggle is shutting down. I didn't even find out from the people in charge… rather indirectly, from someone who barely talks to the people in charge. Apparently, it's been decided for the past couple weeks, and the plan is not to tell anyone–I guess one of the owners accidentally let it slip, then? Anyway. Yeah, it's a little irritating, but like I said, I guess it had to happen. Numbers have been fairly low for, well, the past like 6 months, and they're only getting lower. I dunno, they could have, maybe? … just said something about it, rather than just let it wind down until it's eventually not there and whoever shows up to play not having a clue. Bleh. People's reasoning for doing things is one thing I'll never quite understand. Ah well, it's done, I gave up any right I had to a say over it when I left the staff. Anyway… I'll probably hold off actually publishing this entry until after it's shut downn or at least until it becomes fairly well known… not that anyone from ES actually reads this thing anyway, but for just on the off chance people do, yeah, it was planned. And, yeah, they knew it would happen. The only reason you didn't is because they wanted to keep it a secret. That's politics, though. And that's why I didn't really care too much when I ended up having to leave the staff. I like RL politics. Politics in my RP, though, pisses me off.

Now the NDP thinks it knows what Canadians want.

Harper says we can't spare the troops for Lebanon, Layton says we can. And James says who cares? Canada's millitary spends more time overseas lately than they actually do *in* Canada. Yeah, yeah, I'm well aware we have a rep to keep up as peacekeepers. But Christ almighty, enough is enough. Just because we can spare the 1200 people to send to Lebanon does not mean we should. In fact, that we can *only* spare 1200 people to send to Lebanon is, in my honest opinion, exactly why we shouldn't. I tell you right now as part of a millitary family, though not having actually been *in* the millitary, 1200 people are not gonna make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. If this supposed peacekeeping mission goes south, it's gonna go south whether that small gathering of troops from an already stretched thin country is there or not. Keep this up, folks. I wonder how an independant victory would work in the overall election picture. If enough of these fools keep making decisions like that we may yet find out.

Prediction: the US bombs Iran by end of next year.

Prediction based on what? Why, them damned weapons of mass destruction, you know. So, maybe if Iran keeps testing missiles, the US will decide Hussein didn't keep them in Iraq, but hid them in Iran instead. Hey, it's a stretch, but then again, at least there's more evidence of at least the potential in Iran than there was before they tore Iraq up. Of course, my guess is if the US doesn't do anything to Iran, Israel's going to, so either way, by end of next year someone's gonna be shooting. Hm, wasn't it even 7 years ago the biggest thing to hit the front page was someone getting stabbed in Toronto?

If one more drunken family member hugs me this month...

That sums up my experience at the reception tonight, which I should point out I left early. I could go into a detailed rant, but I don't have the energy for it. Suffice it to say, though, when we got there, keep in mind this was like 8:00 or so, at least one member of our extended (by extended I mean extremely out there) family was already half loaded, and a few others were trying their best to join her. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but answering the same questions 50 times throughout the course of a night gets irritating on a good day. Answering those same questions 50 times per person because they're too wasted to remember, though? That's… getting a bit much, I think.

It's a good thing I didn't go there with a plan for dancing in mind. The music, what could have been heard of it at least, wasn't exactly the type I'd be caught dead dancing to… or anyone else by the looks of it. Apparently the dance floor spent most of the night abandoned. Of course, I could have shot the DJ. I think I could maybe manage to hear a whole 2 songs out of the set he played. And when he wasn't playing anything he sounded like he'd joined the one(s) who were getting loaded before I got there. So, long story short, that reception was boring as hell and I ended up leaving early. *cringes* And it's a good thing, apparently. Mom just called to commend my choice to run outa there like hell. One of the bridesmaids got it in her head to sing, and she can't. It's a family theme, I think. Go to a family function, set a new low. Well, they did it… my parents' poor, poor ears.

They're so like little children...

Tell them no, and they see it as just another reason to go for it. And, in true little child fashion, Iran's going ahead with all things nuclear. And we're back to the whackjob comments… I really am running out of things to say about that country that no one else has bothered to say yet. And of course, now the UN will just send Iran's president to his room with no supper, or something equally rediculous. Because, uh, they're obviously not really giving a shit. I've said it before… middle-east peace is an oxymoron.

Don't nuke us, we'll nuke you.

So says Israel to Iran. Not in words, so much, but in nuclear subs. Because, you know, "we'll do it too" is the perfect way to stop something you don't agree with. I mean, I don't particularly care all that much for these nutjobs and nuclear technology either; hell, I've criticised that idea indirectly at least once. But seriously. This is, in my opinion, like saying "I don't care why you want a shotgun. You buy one, and I'll blow your head off with mine." Hm… I take everything I said back about the US. They could learn a thing or two from Israel about looking for any old excuse to blow someone or something all to hell.

hypocrisy - you voted for it.

And now, you have it in the form of a conservative MP by the name of Jason Kenney. A couple days ago, he was one of the ones to jump on a couple liberal party members for suggesting Hezbollah be removed from Canada's official list of terrorist groups. And, in true conservative style, he puts his support behind another group on the same list. And this would be why I voted independent in the last election. Neither of the two big players will grow the hell up.

Ah, law. I love it. It hates google.

Or maybe it's just that the people who're dooing the law-ing don't have a clue. Either way, they're suing a Brazillian office over a social networking site they run, based out of the US. I don't follow Brazillian law, but… um.. well… usually you don't sue a company in one country, particularly when the office in question doesn't have anything to do with what you're suing for, because that same company in another country is doing it, do you? I wouldn't. The office they're suing, apparently, deals strictly with ad sales… so my guess is it doesn't even have a say in that particular issue. Blah. I need to brush up on my international law.

Sorry about your reputation, Mikey.

On second thought, no I'm not. You fucked up the Ontario school system good enough to ruin your reputation without the help of an inquiry. But, if that's how they wanna do it, then I'll just sit here and laugh… I mean feel sorry for you. No, never mind, I mean laugh. Mister Harris, you are a stupid man. And, as I have said before, stupid people should be shot.

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.

One more job taken out of the hands of Canadians.

Soon, if our beloved conservative crackpot government has anything to say about it, immigrants will join the millitary. *Without* Canadian citizenship. Great… so now, rather than calling tech support and getting some guy who doesn't understand more than every fourth word you say you get millitary personnel who have about the same level of understanding. I've got no problem with immigrants, really. But for the love of all that is sane if you're gonna defend the country, or at least try, bloody well have something to gain for it other than, you know, it's a convenient place to work.

The slave labour dog sitter is on strike.

My brother and his girlfriend (for the record, he ended up not going with the new one… idiot) are currently sleeping downstairs. Have been since I got up at like 6. Which means, for the past 3-4 hours, I was taking care of their dog, plus my two. Fortunately for my sanity mom was home for most of it, so we managed to divide the task pretty evenly between us. But, of course, much like the evil that it is, work demanded she actually go in, which meant I had to somehow manage to keep 2 dogs in the house while the one dog that isn't mine gets taken outside. Not an easy thing to do when you don't know exactly where they are and you have to be quick because one likes to take a flying leap. That would be a literal expression if he didn't weigh a ton. So, I finally manage to improvize my way through that, to find out he doesn't much care for the rain. Of course, I didn't know about *that* until my second attempt. So, while I thought he did his thing the first time, turns out I was dead wrong.. he decided to come in here and do it. Lucky for me and my brother I caught him, and we took another little walk… this is when I discovered he doesn't much care for the rain. In fact, he downright despises it. Well, after wrestling with that for 10 minutes and getting soaked, while still not entirely sure he actually *did* anything, I finally got fed up with it and marched him right the hell downstairs. They bought that damn dog, they can mind that damn dog. If they don't choose to, all they need do is say so and I'll find that damn dog someone who will. He's cute, and I don't *usually* mind watching him, but this morning was absolutely rediculous. Rediculous in the sense that I'm up at 6 taking care of *their* dog while the two of them get to sleep in until one of them has to take a piss. Nuh uh. Welcome to the life of a dog owner. Your dog has just become your responsibility. I'm on strike.

I smell a new participant.

I could write an entire essay here on exactly why Iran testing surface-to-surface missiles is bad, and not just in the bad as in they'll get yet more criticism from the US–and me, but that's mostly because they're whackjobs–but I've probably covered most of those points already here so that would just be all kinds of redundant. Instead, I'll just leave it at this. If Israel was concerned about Iran backing the opposing side of the problem in Lebanon before, this on the heels of the month-long war, and on the heels of Israel's having violated the ceasefire agreement, now they're more than likely just downright pissed off. Of course, who wouldn't be in their place? I mean, after all the hard work Israel went through just to agree to that ceasefire in the first place. Oh, wait, hard work? Where? Well, okay, so it wasn't completely unexpected… right? I mean, it's not like there were any kinda warning signs or anything. Oh, yeah, that's right. There were. Hm. I've plum run out of explanations. Who needs an essay on why missiles are bad? I've got the makings of another one going on right here. And it only took me 5 days. Too bad I'm not in school where this crap would actually count.

Short and sweet, not unlike an election promise.

And, not unlike an election promise, a week after it was made, Israel's going and dropping folks off in Lebanon again. Did they not already agree they were pulling themselves out of the country? Granted, they had said before they'd defend themselves… okay, so that's expected. But, uh, that wasn't defending themselves. That was another move into Lebanon, with the intent on blowing shit up. And you just know as son as Lebanon retaliates Israel will scream violation.

I almost feel sorry for criticising teenagers.

Only because they actually do possess a small hint of common sense. According to a survey, most teens don't think CD copying is illegal. And they're right, as much as the music recording industry would love to have you believe otherwise. It's no different from the late 80's early 90's when the popular solution was to copy a tape for a friend, or even just so you've got a copy at home and a copy in the car, or whatever. We got some of our Christmas tapes that way–copied off tapes or CD's owned by relatives. As long as there is portable media, be it music, movies, whatever, there will be people copying said media. Unless the recording industry plans to show up at every single person's front door with suppina in hand on the basis that joe shmoe copied his Greenday CD for his kid sister, there's not a whole hell of a lot they can do about it. That they're actually trying is almost laughable. But, I shouldn't be surprised… I mean, I'd imagine if they could keep track of it before they'd of probably put the breaks on copying tapes, too. But, they can't, they won't, so let's all move on. And speaking of moving on, I sleep now.

Common sense not included.

We went shopping this afternoon, just for a couple things we needed around the house… nothing all too major, really. It was still the biggest mistake I made today. First, my mother couldn't make up her mind where the hell she wanted to go, so we're doing the halfway up one isle, turn around, 3 quarters the way down another maneuver. And dodging people who should not be allowed to operate anything on wheels in the process. For once, I actually agree with something my brother said while at the store. If you don't have a driver's license, you shouldn't be allowed to push a cart. Although, there's people around here who shouldn't have a driver's license that do so I dunno how much less likely we'd be to end up watching out for other people's stupidity.

We finally got everything we were there for, and a few other things (I don't know why it is we always come home with more than we went for), and the drive home was just as… ahem… eventful. People have apparently not yet learned that no more than one object can occupy any given space at any given time without catastrophic results. So, we got to play the hit the breaks before the truck that isn't watching where he's going hits you game. Back to what I said about people who shouldn't have licenses. Obviously we made it through alright, since I'm here bitching about it, but… it was irritating as hell, to say the very, very least. Then, less on the common sense needed list and more on the screwing with us list, we had to stop for gas and the station we were planning to stop at was closed. At 3:00 in the afternoon they were closed. That can't be good for business. So we went somewhere else and saved a penny. Pretty sad when the price of gas is down to $1.1/liter. A month ago that price would had at least my mother cursing to no end. Ah well. Back to CSI, lasagna and lazyness. Pembroke's stupidity can only do so much to fill an entry, and I've got nothing else.

Bottled water has made an enemy of religion.

You saw it coming. But not really. But it's here. Oh nos! It is now official United Church of Canada policy not to buy bottled water. I love one of the reasons they give for the decision.

"If you've got $100 to spend on groceries each week, we don't want people buying into some subliminal message that the water in their taps isn't safe and that . . . they have to be spending $10 to $15 on a couple of cases of bottled water.

Uh, duh… it's entirely possible some people's water *isn't* safe. Besides, no one likes drinking hard water. And, let's see. What else can I tear apart in this latest piece of brilliant religiousness?

"In fact, they're paying for their water twice. They're buying that bottled water and they're also paying taxes for water – crazy if you're on a limited income.''

Unless, of course, you're not on municipal water. Then, things like power outages tend to necessitate the good old bottled water. Granted, this is regarding churches buying bottled water, but the same arguments still apply. I don't particularly care what your religious philosophy/policy is, but… bah. I will never understand some people's attempts at logic. That I don't attend church just makes it less likely I'm going to try.

The media states the obvious again.

And this time, it's the obvious I knew about while I was going to highschool. Apparently, 1 in 10 students in Montreal are adicted to pot. Uh, no, really? About 95% of the students in my highschool were more than likely adicted to it. Granted I didn't go to school in Montreal, but still. What the fuck did they expect? Although, I expected that statistic to be higher… but then, how many people smoke up and don't admit it? My brother tried that for the longest time, stupid idiot that he is. Ah well, I don't expect that to change a thing, but at least it isn't kinda shoved quietly off in a corner somewhere. And just think, I was gonna post a boring entry on advice and such instead of this. This is slightly more entertaining.

US law: running people's lives, whether they want it to or not.

A 16-year-old boy, who just so happens to have cancer, and his family are being taken to court because they don't want to go through chemotherapy treatment. Uh, okay. Who's business is it? Apparently, they went through it once, and the cancer he has came back. So, naturally, they're a little iffy on going through it a second time–that's hell to go through once, never mind twice. So, they want to try some herbal treatment instead. Now, personally, I'm no fan of herbal medicine, but that's just me. I'm no fan of the more mainstream medicine either. I don't care what the hell treatment this or that person prefers. If you're the type to close your eyes, snap your fingers and believe it's supposed to fix things, then by all means go for it. At no point, though, is it the state's right to tell you what the hell to do so far as medicine goes, in my honest opinion. But that's precisely what the Verginia courts apparently want to do. I dunno. Maybe I just don't care about the popular opinion, but I figure the court system should go back to putting people in jail, and let the individual families decide how the hell to make the big decisions. But, it's the US, who seems not to have a problem in monitoring everything from your internet trafic to your phone conversations in the supposed name of homeland security, so I aught not to be surprised.

Because middle-east peace is an oxymoron.

No sooner do things in Lebanon show signs of possibly getting back to normal, if there is such a thing in the middle-east, does Iran toss its 1.5 cents into the mix. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there's some unwritten law that says there can't be any less than 3 countries at war at one time in that region or hell will freeze, lightning will strike and whipe out whole cities, and Bill Clinton will be appointed US president; screw elections. Ceasefire isn't even 12 hours old, and Iran's making more threats. Just another little piece of insanity from a country of whackjobs. And these fools have nuclear technology. We're fucked if they decide to pull a Hitler.

Proof I did not sleep through my law course.

I know the stuff better than the moron acting like a security guard at the gate to what's left of the much advertised waterfront festivle this afternoon. Me, my mom, and my aunt decided to go see what all was going on, since today was the last day of it and well, it killed a couple hours. We didn't even have to go inside before the fun started–it was waiting for us at the gate. So, we show up, each of us with a coffee, and the ladies decide it might be more worth their while to carry their purses with them, rather than leave 'em locked in the car. Beats carrying loose change with them, and all. Well, turns out they were wrong… the nutjob we'll call a wanna-be security officer thought it'd be fun to try making them let him look in their purses, *supposedly* for drugs and/or alcohol. Okay, no big deal… i mean, they didn't have any on them anyway, but still. Never mind the fact he doesn't have the authority to do a search, but he doesn't have reason to either; we weren't doing anything incredibly out of the ordinary, or anything that would *give* him just cause for a search. But, that wasn't even the biggest part of the idiocy. This guy's not a cop, and we know for a fact he's not a cop. There was not a cop present. So, assuming he had just cause for it, he couldn't do a thing about it right then anyway. As mom said before we got home after all that, family gets told to politely fuck off when they try routing through purses… what the hell makes him think he's gonna be any different? The amusing part of it is he tried to argue his case with me–huge mistake. I won't provide a blow by blow account of the conversation here, because I'm too lazy, but near the end of it, I was about ready to straight out tell him he's more than welcome to search anything he pleases. *If* he finds us a real cop. Ah well, once we got past the one guy stupid enough to try and out-asshole me, it was kinda fun. The moral of the story: just because you took law does not mean you stayed awake through that class. If this guy had, I wouldn't have been able to walk all over him like I did. Ah well, it's Pembroke… stupidity is par for the course.

Random fit...

I'd just like to point out that the next piece of junkmail I get advertising OEM software is going to cause me to accidentally murder someone. I must average about 5 or 6 of those emails per day. Downright pisses me off, that.

I did not sleep last night... I died.

I blame 5 hours of concert, bad beer, and the fact by the time we went home it was… considerably cooler than when we got there. But it was loads of awesome, anyway. After the concert we weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we went for coffee and such instead, and got some of the worst service I ever remember getting at a restaurant. It's one thing for it to be busy and for things to take a while… that's understandable. But, it was pushing midnight, the place wasn't that busy until we'd been there for a while, and the waitress we had couldn't get her act together. By the time the waitress actually remembered we did have an order placed, most of our food was cold, and a few of us were on our third time asking for a refill on coffee. To add to that, all my mother ordered was rice pudding and it took 3 tries and a different waitress before she got it. Oddly enough, every time there was something not to our liking about the service, it was someone else's fault; not the waitress's. Like, again, my mother's order, which she blamed the afore mentioned different waitress for because she 'told' her to bring it to us. Meanwhile, I'm thinking "Okay, this isn't her table for starters, so why's she doing your job?". If things kept going like they had been, that different waitress would have gotten our tip. As it is we never left one… I was tempted to demand a poor service discount. Which reminds me, it's a good thing we didn't have a problem with the bill, or paying for it… she just punched in the information and buggered off to do whatever the hell it was she'd been doing when she was supposed to be serving food. We could have just hit cancel on the payment and walked out, and she'd of been none the wiser for it. We didn't, though, 'cuz we're honest folk like that, though the thought did cross my mind a couple times. And it wouldn't be the first time I ended up not paying for a meal. Or the first time I ended up not paying for a meal because the waitress was too ditsy to collect. But that's another amusing story for a different entry. I just find it kind of amusing, in a way. I mean, it wasn't that busy in there, and the waitress we had seemed 3 steps behind herself for the whole time we were there. I cringe to think what she'd be like during the supper/lunch hour rush. If only their schedules were common knowledge I'd plan my eating there around her.

In somewhat–okay, very–unrelated news, I swear my brother now has a new girlfriend. And, in fact, she happens to be the lap warmer mentioned in the last post here before I died for the night. I'm… not sure exactly what to think of her *quite* yet. I mean, so far she's at least slightly more mature and less bitchy than the last one, but then, I had an English teacher in grade 9 who was less bitchy than the last one, so that doesn't tell me much. Now, if they'd just get out of the driveway and go do whatever it is she came over here so they can do, so they can stop driving my dogs up the frickin' wall, I might like her a little more. Or at least not get the urge to scream out the window for them to bugger off. Much.

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.

Some people's logic is just laughable.

Or maybe it's the 4:30-ness of the post that's doing it. I dunno. If you didn't have permission to write a book about someone in the first place, would you later sue said person for *anything* related to said book, and then order said person to officially endorse said book, and write a positive review for it, whether they like/agree with the book or not? If you said no, you're smarter than she is. And, on top of that, she wants over $200000 in damages. For a book she didn't have permission to write/publish in the first place. I mean, I'm not a Clay Aiken fan, but… guh. Oh the stupidity. Where's my shotgun?

And you thought I'd go 2 days without blogging.

Heh, yeah, that could happen. Because I have such a crammed schedule and all. Well, I was just going to leave some vague entry up here about how absolutely nothing happened, but then I had to go find an excuse to do what I do best; bitch about stupidity. So, long story short, I did nothing yesterday, and didn't sleep last night. It was much fun. And now, on to my bitching of a fit. Those who don't want to read any farther, take a quiz.

Okay, so everyone knows te US and its allies–which, now, unfortunately, includes Canada–are on the hugest pro-democracy kick ever known to exist. Well, okay, I don't agree with forcing our way of life on anyone, but that's neither here nor there. So, what does Israel's bonehead army go and do? Why, capture a legitimate member of Palastine's government, of course. Thus, not proving anything except that they will do what they want, when they want, and with who they want, as long as they have US support. And, as luck would so have it, the odds of Bush actually calling off his new bloodhounds are next to nill. And, of course, like the lost puppy he is, Harper won't do a damn thing about it because he'd rather cozy up with Bush and screw us all over. And never mind the whole Lebanon situation, now… even if there was to be a ceasefire put in place (ha, not likely) it's *way* too late for it to do a hell of a lot of good, now. Unless the UN wants to go in and pull the two sides apart like a couple kids hell bent on strangling each other. Well, on the bright side, Harper's saying we won't be contributing any of our millitary to any international force that might be headed over there; we're spread thin enough already, what with afganistan (spelling, I know… sue me), people probably still in bosnia, and… wherever the hell else we've got people–it gets hard to keep track after a while. But, on the not so bright side, Harper isn't doing anything else to help out yet, either. Like, you know… stop agreeing with the US. If I haulled out a "Steven Harper has to go" petition, would it actually get signed?

The record labels' solution to the music download problem: give 'em another format no one wants.

So now, rather than doing something to make things *easier* for people to put music on their computers, so they don't have to go and do exactly what the record labels are shitting bricks about, they decide it'd be more fun to stick music on a DVD. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. So, while yes, there is the option of additional video content to accompany your music, among other things, but you'll be taking this in favour of, say, being able to play said music in your car. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't something like this just *encourage* people to download music and burn it to CD? People… bleh. Should be shot.

Now he's just stirring the pot.

I can't be the only person who's sick and tired of hearing anything and everything middle-east. And now, one of the local whackjobs is trying to get his share of attention. Again. Lunatic, much? I mean, I'd rather read that story over another casualty report, just because Iran at least has the potential to be amusing. But at this point, they're doing more irritating me than anything else. Ah well, at least they're in partial agreement with the rest of the world—there will be no ceasefire. Frickin nutjob.

I'll take a cheap host with periods of down time any day.

Especially if the choice is between these folks, who I use now, and these duds, who I'll be cancelling once all the important crud's been transfered over. Why, you ask? Well, okay, so maybe you don't ask. I don't care. The answer is simple. I pay $15+ per month at the soon to be out the door site, and I don't think they've gone down once since I started. Of course, I wouldn't know for sure because, shortly after I started there, I got fed up with their pathetic excuse for an administration system and switched to the good guys. Now, while there have been more occurances lately of down time with them, it's *usually* been an isolated case or two that hasn't effected me. The two exceptions to this are, of course, when the datacenter they're in lost power, taking them, My Space, and a couple others with them. But, down time aside, the difference really? I'm informed. Not only do they *try*, being the key word here, to keep their customers updated on their status page, but posts on their blog, like this one, are the difference–not only do they keep their customers informed, but they have absolutely no problem admitting when they screwed up. Though I just like that they keep us informed. The guys I'm getting away from as soon as humanly and sanely possible, on the other hand… the only thing I receive from them is an automated email each month basicly saying "this is how much you owe us, now pay up". Yeah, reliability's kind of a necessity for me, too. But, aside from a power outage or two, I haven't had a single problem with them since January, when they fully admited they fubared a configuration setting for their email servers. The point? If you get what you pay for, then these folks should start jacking their prices up… because I've already got twice my money's worth, which is balancing out the bad taste in my mouth left by these other fools. Of course, someone's probably gonna try and argue with me on just about every point raised here. And I'll bet the first time their website goes down with some other hosting company, they'll bitch a fit and switch back to DH. You can't please everyone all the time; it's a fact of life. Some people won't be pleased until they get 6 months free, and won't stop crying about the small stuff until that happens; that, too, is a fact of life. That fact, though, can at least be ignored easily… like those people.

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.

What's in a promise?

Well, that was a short 48 hours. Israel's back in the US mindset. They've managed to piss off a good majority of the world now, resuming their bombing runs and whatnot… but they don't seem to give two shits. And the US still won't back a ceasefire… an *immediate* ceasefire. Not that it's surprising, or anything. Some people's definition of "peace in the middle east" are just fucked up, methinks. In US terms, it means "as long as Israel gets to blow the hell out of someone every couple years".