July 23, 2008
Yesterday, I lost my wallet. Worse, I was not even aware that I had lost it until someone from my former employer’s office called me and informed me I had lost it after receiving a call from their alarm company who in turn had received a call from the person who had found my wallet (I sometimes use my former employer’s conference room so I have the number of the alarm company in my wallet).
I quickly got in touch with the woman who had found the wallet and it turns out she works in an architects firm close to my workplace and I was able to retrieve it a couple of hours later, and with everything intact, I am relieved to report. So a lot of grief and aggravation avoided by the kindness of a woman who, it should be noted, refused any reward, saying instead that the only thing I could do for her was to pay it forward if I got the chance.
Continue reading… good people and bad people (and their dogs)
June 24, 2008
People who know me know I generally have, euh, confrontational relationships with banks, at best. My general view is that banks are evil, that they will suck the life-blood out of you if they can and the world would be a much better place without them. I believe that instead of banks, we should have friendly “Buildings & Loans” type establishments and they should all be run by George Bailey.
So believe me when I say I would rather stab myself in the eye with a fork before I could ever bring myself to say anything good about banks, especially one of which I might happen to be a customer at any given time. Well, time to hide all the forks because I am now going to say something good about my bank.
Continue reading… who are you and what have you done to our bank-loathing friend?
June 17, 2008
Ok, so I am going to blog about BSG because, besides desperately needing to get my mind off [a lot of] other things, the latest episode was the best I have seen in a while and I can not believe they are going to make us wait until January 2009 for the rest of the frakking dénouement.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know there was a writer’s strike and that everything was delayed and all, and believe me, I totally sympathise with the cause. I know these shows are quite a production and you can not just snap your fingers and voilà!
But six months?! Six months before we find out what happened to the 13th Colony, why Earth seems to be in the midst of long nuclear winter? Six months before we know who the hell the revered final fifth Cylon is? Six months before we know what the fuck happens to everybody?? I could go on and on, of course. But really. Six months??!!
June 13, 2008
They say life is what happens while you are making other plans, or words to that effect. Well, whoever “they” are, they sure got that right. I have been, to put it mildly, very busy, with work mostly, to the point that I have given up on making any plans beyond trying to find enough time to eat and sleep.
So, because my life these last few months has been mostly comprised of work, work, work, eat, sleep, bills, bills, bills, work, work but thought I should at least give some kind of news, else people think I was dead or something, here is a quick list of stuff I feel like sharing at the moment.
Continue reading… random update #8
May 19, 2008
Out on the road today
I saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said,
“Don’t look back. You can never look back.”
The Boys of Summer - Don Henley
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May 3, 2008
“Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary. It happens all the time.” – Susan Cheever
OTTAWA-The federal Conservatives have quietly killed a giant information registry that was used by lawyers, academics, journalists and ordinary citizens to hold government accountable.
The registry, created in 1989, is an electronic list of every request filed to all federal departments and agencies under the Access to Information Act.
Known as CAIRS, for Co-ordination of Access to Information Requests System, the database allowed ordinary citizens to identify millions of pages of once-secret documents that became public through individual freedom-of-information requests over many years.
But in a notice last week to civil servants on the Treasury Board website, officials posted an innocuous obituary: effective April 1, 2008, “the requirement to update CAIRS is no longer in effect.”
A spokesman for Treasury Board confirmed Friday that the system is being killed because “extensive” consultations showed it was not valued by government departments.
The full article is available at TheStar.com
January 27, 2008
I have not been posting these last few weeks because I do not have Internet access at home yet (long story). I have to say, going without has been quite euh, well, bizarre. On the one hand, it does not really bother me. I have been rather busy trying to get my new appartment organised (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say trying to get me organised in my new appartment) and I can always access my personal email accounts from work. And I have been doing a lot more reading which is always good.
On the other hand though, no Internet at home has also made me feel a bit frustrated and anxious, like there is a certain void in my life. So I have not been able to keep up with my favourite blogs or other Web stuff and since I do not own a television, I have not been able to download the few tv shows I like. And of course, I have had to curb my reflex for searching for just about any word that comes to mind. Which I guess is not really such a bad thing.
I saw Michael this week at an event organised by my employer and contrarily to every one else’s reaction to the news that I am sans Internet (typically along the lines of “OMFG!”, “Hein?!”, “T’es pas sérieuse!” or “you poor thing”) all he said, in true Michaelivian fashion, was “good”. Anyway, since I am presently at my ex-flatmate’s doing laundry (because a washer/dryer is another thing I am still without), I thought I would sign in briefly and give y’all a bit of news.
Continue reading… random update #7
January 3, 2008
Some guy called Jonathan Keller from Motor City has been photographing his face every day for the last eight years and posting the photos on line. It is a strangely fascinating experiment if you are into that sort of thing and yet it is actually very ordinary somehow but for some reason I find his follow-through quite admirable.
He claims in the oft entertaining FAQ that the project will continue until the day he dies and that “only then will it be complete, and worth its true value”, though “unfortunately, [he] won’t ever see it finished”.
He has created a timelapse animation of the series called “Living my life faster” and it really is quite something to see though I must admit it almost triggered an odd epileptic seizure.
Aside from the hair (facial and otherwise), he has not changed much in the last eight years but I imagine that, if he can keep going (and, barring any unfortunate circumstances, I imagine he will), it will be kind of interesting to see the changes in the long term. Which I guess, or at least hope, is ultimately the point.
December 31, 2007
As was recently announced in Statistics Canada’s official release bulletin, the federal government has published partial data from its latest Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS 2006). According to this latest survey, an estimated 4.4 million Canadians, one out of seven people in Canada, reported having a disability in 2006, an increase of over three-quarters of a million people in five years. The article from the bulletin indicates:
Data showed that the number of people who reported a disability increased 21.2% from 3.6 million in 2001, the last time the survey was conducted.
In 2001, 12.4% of the population reported a disability. By 2006, this rate had increased to 14.3%.
Statistical reports are somewhat useful though not terribly interesting in themselves, at least not to me. And besides, as I often say, math makes me nervous. But there are a few things I would like to comment on.
Continue reading… show me the data
December 22, 2007
I know I have already written about the STM’s crappy service when it comes to Paratransit and I might be tempted to apologise to my handful of readers because really, this is not what I want this blog to be about. But yesterday was an all time record in corporate stupidity and utter lack of consideration for those of us who rely on this service to get around the city.
So, yesterday morning, I wait and wait for the gawd-damn taxi or minibus or whatever it was supposed to be to show up. After a half hour (which is the requisite time I am expected to wait before contacting them to ask “where is the transport?”), I call. After waiting on the line for about 10 minutes, I am told unceremoniously that my reservation has been cancelled. Just. Like. That.
Needless to say that I was quite pissed off. I mean, wtf?! But I did not have time to debate it with the woman on the phone nor to ask the reason for this decision as I was going to be late for a meeting. So I did the only thing I could do and called a taxi and high-tailed it to the office, arriving 10 minutes late for my meeting, pissed off and stressed out. Thankfully, the guy I was meeting with was really nice and understanding, not to mention hilarious, and we had a really fun and productive meeting so at least that was something.
Continue reading… foiled by the STM’s Paratransit service yet again