Andrew's Life Enbloggened

I'm An Artist Too (154)

2012-01-11T08:27:00.000-05:00

I'm An Artist Too (153)

2012-01-04T18:10:00.000-05:00

I'm An Artist Too (152)

2011-12-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

Click to Enlarge.

I'm An Artist Too (151)

2011-12-21T08:07:00.000-05:00

I'm An Artist Too (150)

2011-12-14T08:05:00.000-05:00

Someone Should Make a Move About This

2011-11-25T10:47:00.000-05:00

I've blogged a lot about the obscene behavior of the music industry as it relates to pirates. The major four labels (which own a whole lot of smaller labels) sue sue sue anyone, regardless if the targets are alive, employed, own a computer, are of a decent age. The idea of big business suing individuals sickens me. So I boycott all non-independent record labels. I encourage you to do the same.

But what of the television and movie industries? While the movie industry is evil, is that a reason enough to boycott? At first, you may think so. But if you do your homework to find out if any company you may support has a history of evil, you'll soon be living on your own barge in international waters, living off of whatever you can grow.

In Today's Article we see 6 things the film industry doesn't want you to know.

Summary:

Using clever accounting tricks, movies that gross large can net nothing. The guy in the original Darth Vader costume has never been paid for The Return of the Jedi because that movie hasn't made a profit in 30 years.
They extort movie theatres - which is why a popcorn and a pop can cause you to have to take out a second mortgage on your house.
Movie review quotes taken wildly out of context.
Redefined copyright laws to go from protecting an artist and his works, to protecting the studios' profits for years and years to come.
Because the studios get more money from pay-per-view DVD sales, rentals don't make as much money, so they charge video rental places (like Blockbuster, Netflix, and your corner store) insane prices for rental editions of movies. A DVD that costs you $20 at the store, costs a rental place more like $100.
While stories can be copyrighted, ideas can't. Studios routinely reject scripts, only to turn around and write another script based on the same idea so they can control IP rights.

So, there you have it. Six reasons the movie industry is a cesspool. I don't know how that relates to the television industry. Is that enough for a boycott? If so, there's a lot of worse industries one should boycott to be consistent. If not...I don't know. Gotta think about it some more.

I'm boycotting the record companies because they're suing their customers. What about movie studios? In this case, it's mostly the independent studios that are suing. In fact, here's an article that talks about that. Their practices seem to be similar to those of the music industry. The first story is about a blind man being sued for downloading porn. You think they might have gotten the wrong guy? In the end, instead of trying to prove his obvious innocence, he settled with the studio. It's cheaper and easier and keeps his name out of the papers. And it's basically extortion. Now that should be illegal!

I'm An Artist Too (149)

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Own or Rent

2011-11-07T07:49:00.000-05:00

A while ago I blogged about renting vs owning. I concluded by saying I realized why owning is better than renting but I'd wait to post those thoughts. Well, here they are.

Why renting can be better:
When you rent, you pay rent, maybe utils, cable, Internet, etc. When you own, you also pay property taxes, condo fees (maybe) and a lot of maintenance. Generally, your rental costs are lower than your ownership costs.

While the costs of ownership can rise without warning or limit, rent control exists (in some areas) to prevent that. Last year my rent increased by 0.7%. Shortly after I moved in, I found I needed a new oven. I had one the next day, and it didn't cost me a cent. Taxes can rise. Heating and electricity costs can rise. Condo fees can go up at any time, and the condo association can come and ask for money for things not covered in the fees, and they want it now. With a house, you can put off non-urgent repairs until you have the money. Interest rates on your mortgage can rise, possibly forcing you out of your house.

Now, if you rent, figure out how much you would be spending on ownership and invest it in some investments. After 25 years, you're rent is going to be pretty darned low, and the returns on the investments (as long as they weren't too high risk) should be pretty good.

Renting is also for better short-term mobility. If you're working contract to contract and you figure you may be moving to another city at any time, renting is better. If you have to move, you just give your two-months notice, and move out. If you own, you have to sell, which is a lot more work, and more expensive. This is especially important in times of high unemployment.

But, here's why owning can be better: Long Term mobility. Let's say you move into an apartment where you're assured the walls are thick concrete, only to find out they're not. It's just drywall and insulation. You can hear everything going on in your neighbour's apartment. (This is my current situation). If your neighbour likes to make a lot of noise at all hours, then you may want to move. Now, if your desire to move happens in the first couple of years after moving in, no problem. Move. What if it's 10 years after moving in? You get a new neighbour, and suddenly your life is miserable. Rent control has kept your rent relatively low. If you move anywhere else, you'll be renting at market values. Your rent will increase. If you happen to be on a fixed income, like after you retire, then this is especially bad.

Now, if you had bought, then you will have built up equity. If you decide to move, after ten years, your property's value has likely gone up. Of course, if you're moving within the city, then chances are properties all over the city have risen at similar rates, but for a similar dwelling, you shouldn't notice too much of a price difference. You'll be able to make a larger down payment due to the equity you've built up in your current place.

Another reason is for moving to a different market. Different cities have different markets. Toronto and Vancouver have insanely high housing prices. Sault Ste. Marie is very affordable. Ottawa is in between. Let's say you live in Ottawa in a house. You and your next door neighbour both moved in at the same time, into identical houses, paid the same amount for the house, got the same mortgage, etc. Now, you and your neighbour have the same equity in your respective houses - let's say, $150 000. Then one day you, and your next door neighbour have to move to different cities for some reason.

Now, let's say you each have a friend who are each neighbours in an apartment building. One of the friends has to move to Sault Ste. Marie, while the other has to move to Toronto. Let's also say that you get a job in Toronto, and your neighbour gets a job in Sault Ste. Marie. So you and your renting friend are moving to Toronto. You're next-door neighbour and his renting friend are moving to Sault Ste. Marie.

You're next house will be way more expensive than his (and his will be bigger!). But you're both better off than the two next door neighbour's who rented. Each of you will be able to have a house in the next city. You'll use the equity to put a down payment on a house in Toronto, while he'll use his equity to buy a house outright in Sault Ste. Marie.

As for your renting friends? The one moving to Toronto will have to rent. Period. Owning will of the question (without some other finances, like a winning lottery ticket). The one moving to SSM _may_ be able to buy, but if he does, he'll likely only put 5% down on his house.

Another reason to own is when you need to upgrade your lifestyle. Renting a one bedroom apartment isn't too expensive. Two bedrooms are a little more expensive. But what if you have a growing family. You'll want more space. You'll want a house. At this point, you'll wish you had built equity up in a condo or bungalo or something smaller.

So, unless you see yourself moving to another city within 5 years, it's probably better to own.

As for me, I work in IT for the Canadian Government. Normally, that's about the most steady employment you can think of...other than maybe Tim Horton's franchise owner. But right now, it's less stable. And if I lose this job, I don't see me sticking around Ottawa for too long. If I lose my job, then so will lots of other IT professionals in government. Many of them will have more roots in Ottawa than I'll have. The job market will be saturated. At which point, the housing market in Ottawa will really cool off. I'm at a disadvantage; I don't speak French. So, if I can hold onto my job, then I should buy something, but if I can't, then I'll probably be screwed.

*Sigh* I'm getting really tired of listening to my neighbour's stereo.

I'm An Artist Too (148)

2011-11-02T15:21:00.000-04:00

I came into my cubicle one day to find the following coffee-cup art:

So, someone wants to be a contender, eh? Yeah, well, as the creator of Mr. Falcon, I figure the real Grandpa Falcon would be more like:

The TV Fast Explained

2011-10-31T07:21:00.000-04:00

I've talked a lot about my TV fast, and no one seems to really understand why I'm doing it. I will now explain it.

Why the Fast?

I want to expand my life. I want to do more things. I want to learn. There are summers from my childhood that I look back on and realize that all I really did was watch TV. What a waste those summers were! Now that I'm finished with school, and have a job, it would be so easy to just come home at night, have dinner, and watch TV. What a waste that would be!

What I Hope to Accomplish

I have goals. I have things I want to finish. I have things I want to accomplish.

I need to learn French.
I want to do some coding. I have been talking about the next Mr. Falcon game since High School.
I want to meet new people. I want to have a life. I want to be more social.
I want to take up new hobbies, and work on current ones.
I want to get out more.

The Problem with TV

Addiction: There's nothing wrong with TV as a form of entertainment, per se. But I get addicted to TV too easily. First I only watch one show. The next thing you know, one show becomes two, Then three. And on and on. The next thing you know, I'm watching 20 hours a week of TV. That's a part time job. If you put 20 hours a week into learning a second language, you'd be billingual in no time.
Habit: I've blogged about my Adventures in Housesitting. One time I took care of someone's apartment. They had a finiky TV set, and it sounded like it would be a lot of work just to watch TV. I was too lazy to watch TV. Instead I read a lot. And I talked to one random stranger a day. Yet, when I would housesit for the McQueens', I would watch hours of TV. I would waste a night away with Seinfeld and Simpsons reruns.The difference between the two places was habit. At the McQueens' I would just get used to watching TV as I ate. There was always "just one more show" on. At the other place, I never even turned the TV on. Breaking the habit would have to be done cold-turkey. That's why I started when I moved out of the McQueen's.
It's one step above useless: Really, what do you get out of TV? Entertainment, and a bit of education. Okay, if you watch educational TV, then you very well may be getting great use out of TV. But for most of us, we watch TV primarily for entertainment. Do you really need that much entertainment? Once upon a time, entertainment was not a daily thing. Weekly, monthly, or less. Otherwise, you sit around (not good for you) staring at the TV being subjected to hours of brainwashing advirtisements. I'm not saying entertainment is bad. I'm suggesting that maybe it should be more of a treat than the status-quo. Or find other types of entertainment, or ways to keep your mind occupied.
It's effect on the mind: I am fascinated with hypnosis. A lot of people I talk to are afraid of hypnosis (usually from a misunderstanding of it). Hypnosis is the process of putting your mind into a state of hyper-suggestability. In order to be hypnotised, you first need to go into a trance. In a trance you are highly suggestible. You're not asleep. You are focused on one thing: the voice of the hypnotist. Your brain waves are a little slower than your usual state. And it turns out that within a couple of minutes of watching TV, your brain goes into a similar state. You block out things around out (including your family). Then you're exposed to commercials in this state. That can't be good.
Priority: Besides becoming addicted to television, I find it give it too high a priority in my life when I am addicted. I avoid talking to people to watch TV. I avoid being with people in order to watch TV. Do you find yourself ignoring someing trying to talk to you when you're watching TV? Do you get mad at someone making you miss your favorite show? Sadly, I think I do this. I want TV to have a low priority in my life.

The Rule (and caveats)

For one year, I will not allow myself ot watch TV, with the possible following caveats and exceptions:

I'm out at someone else's house (including my parent's house at Christmas time). I'll allow this because being out accomplishes goal 5 (above). If I'm at someone's house, then I'm out. Mission accomplished. However, I don't want to go out to someone's house just to watch TV.
I'm sick. Sometimes you can only sleep so much, and you just need to occupy your mind with something that requires less effort than holding up a book.
I have people over for other purposes (games day, dinner, general socializing, etc.), and we don't feel like doing anything else. This requires me to move my whole system from my bedroom to my living room. Again, I'm too lazy to do this regularely.
Going out to movies in the theatre does not count as watching TV for the following reasons:
1. It's not habit forming. It's too expensive to be habit forming!
2. Going out to the threatre requires me to leave the apartment. See Goal 5 (above).
YouTube videos do not constitute TV for me. I do not find them addictive. I can only watch 3 or 4 in a row before getting bored with them. So, if someone sends me a 3 minute YouTube clip. I'll watch it....eventually. You may find them addictive. I don't.

However, some entire shows are on YouTube. To me, that's the same as watching TV. I'm not talking about the device, or the medium, but the habit, the time, etc. Watching shows on my computer, iPhone, YouTube, Crackle, streaming, torrented is all the same as watching on a traditional television set. Watching 5 minute clips is different to me.
DVD purchases and digital downloads are technically allowed - just as long as I don't watch them until the fast is over. If I see a set of DVDs on sale for an awesome price, I'll buy them now, and watch them when the fast is over. If I buy a movie from the iTunes Music Store, for example, that's okay. I'll wait until the fast is over before watching it. (This is the most misunderstood aspect of the fast.)

My Progress

Not so good. I started this when I moved out last July. Before I moved out, I recorded a few shows on my computer for me to watch after moving out in order to ease into my fast. But, with no dining table, I would eat in front of the computer. After watching my recorded shows, I took advantage of my 200GB/month Internet plan, and the next thing you know, I'm spending all night watching TV on my computer.

At Christmas time I realized what was happening. So I successfully gave up TV for January, and again for March. So I was contemplating just giving up TV for 12 months - one month at a time. And/or giving up each month. I had already done a January and a March, so I just had to do the rest of the months. I felt like both of those options was kind of cheating and wouldn't really help me accomplish my goals. So I decided, starting in August to go for 12 consecutive months. It is now the end of October, and so far so good.

The Future

What happens next August if/when I finsih the TV fast? Sadly, I'll probably start watching TV again. But hopefully I'll have built up enough of a life outside of television that I won't have much time for it, and it will take low priority in my life.

I'm An Artist Too (147)

2011-10-26T10:30:00.000-04:00

First Year Update

2011-10-24T08:44:00.000-04:00

It has now been over a year since I moved into my own apartment. I've blogged about my blinds, my couches, and some decisions I had to make about moving out (TV options, moving options, etc.)

How has my first year been?

First, the bad.

The walls are a lot thinner than I have ever had before. I pretty much know everything that goes on in my bedroom-neighbour's bedroom.
The elevators are constantly breaking down.
This is the first time I've lived alone since I was in school and working at the same time. So there has been some loneliness.
I'd like to buy a condo or house to get some better sound-proofing so I'd actually like to be home. But, given the uncertainty in the government for IT staff, maybe dropping most of my cash into one non-liquid investment isn't so wise. (More on that here.)

But, there's been more good than bad. Given my TV Fast (more on that here) that I mentioned in a previous blog, I've had time to do things.

I have a games night with some friends on a weekly basis. It's nice to have my own guests over without having to worry about the schedules of other people living in my home. It's also nice to not have to worry that someone else in your home is going to have a gathering when it's inconvenient for you.
I have spent a lot of time at Chapters - which I can see from my living room window. In fact, to date, I have read four complete books there, just a few pages at a time.
The theatre next to me occasionally shows older movies for $5. I can go from my apartment to being in a seat in the theatre within 15 minutes. Yet, I have not seen as many movies as I thought I would have.
I have gotten some coding done as well. I have made improvements to the Nordburg Music Database, as well as some other little programs I have written, or am in the process of writing.
I have done some cooking too. I picked a cookbook my mom gave me years ago to work my way through. Unfortunately, it's a very basic cookbook, and therefore not great. It'll prevent starvation, but there's only been one recipe that I've memorized. I look forward to continuing in this.
I have taken up Tai Chi. I try to go to class twice a week, and right now I'm helping out with a beginner's class one night a week. I also try to go to various workshops, instructor training, and other events put on by the Society.
I've been investigating different housing/condo options just in case the government lets me keep my job.
And I've been been working on my French, but not as much as I ought.

I'm An Artist Too (146)

2011-10-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

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2011-10-12T06:16:00.000-04:00

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2011-10-05T05:13:00.000-04:00

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2011-08-10T07:48:00.000-04:00

I'm An Artist Too (142)

2011-08-03T06:46:00.004-04:00

If you don't get this, perhaps the lyrics in the following video will help:

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2011-07-27T06:45:00.014-04:00

If you don't get this, maybe the below video will refresh your memory.

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2011-07-20T06:41:00.004-04:00

I thought I'd draw a bath.

How To Read 120 Blogs

2011-07-11T08:19:00.001-04:00

I love blogging. I love reading friend's blogs. I have an obsession with reading the news. Perhaps I love these things because I get addicted to checking things that change often - like blogs and news sites. Some sites update several times a day - like news sites. Others might go months without an update - like this blog. Isn't it really annoying to always keep coming back to check on sites again and again and again? It takes a lot of time, and it chews up bandwidth - which in Canada is very expensive. (Not only do you have to load the article, you have to load all the templates, ads, etc.)

Too bad there wasn't a way to know when a blog/site/comic gets posted, so you only read them when they get published so you don't have to keep going back. Too bad there wasn't a way to read those sites easily and efficiently without loading all that extra stuff. Wait! Maybe there is! (Cue cheezy infomercial visual wipe.)

I keep up with 120 blogs/news sites. How do I do it? I use a feed-reader. A feed-reader is a piece of software that keeps track of all your blogs and news sites. It keeps track of what articles you've read, and which ones you haven't. Instead of going to every blog individually (which takes a lot of time and bandwidth), the feed-reader does the leg work for you. It tells you when a new article, comic, blog post, or whatever is published.

It's kinda like Facebook. When you log into Facebook, you see your friend's status updates. It would be a big pain in the neck to go to each of your Facebook friend's profile pages to see if their status has updated, or if they posted pictures. Instead, Facebook tells you what your friends have done recently. It's like each person on Facebook has a blog, and by adding someone as a Friend you're subscribing to their blog.

I use Google Reader. I always keep Google Reader open in a tab in my browser at work and at home. When I find a blog or news site I want to keep up with I subscribe to it using Google Reader. That's how I keep up with 117 of my 120 sites. (The remaining 3 sites are made up of 2 work blogs that aren't available on the Internet, and one friend's blog who has seen fit to disable his RSS feed so I have to remember to check it all the time. I don't often remember, so when I do I end up reading about a month's worth of postings at a time.)

Whenever I explain the concept of a feed-reader to people they usually shake their head and say something like "It sounds really complicated." It's not. It's about as complicated as making a Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwich. Maybe I'm just doing a bad job of explaining it?

Here's how to do it:

Go to Google Reader (http://reader.google.com).
Sign in to your Google Account. If you don't have a Google account, click "Create an Account" on that page and follow the steps.
Optional: Bookmark Google Reader and/or make it your homepage when your browser opens. You'll want to go there a lot.
Go to a blog (like this one) or a news site and look for the RSS logo (). It may be in the address bar of your browser, or somewhere within the site. (Stinkin' Mozilla took that out of the address bar of FireFox as of version 4.) Click on it. It should give you subscription options. One of them should be to use Google Reader. Select that option.

Or

Copy and paste the URL into the textbox that appears when you click "Add a subscription" in Google Reader.
When you go to Google Reader to read your feeds, make sure you have "All items" selected on the upper left menu under "Home", and just the "New items" at the top of your feed list.
Play with some of the settings. There's lot of key strokes you can learn to make things go faster, like "v" opens the feed that you're currently reading in a new tab or window, and "r" refreshes the list. Even without knowing all the ins and outs, it's a very efficient way to keep up with your favorite blogs and news sites. As you learn more, you'll discover all sorts of wonderful things (starring, sharing, liking, emailing directly from Google Reader, etc.), you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

There, now that wasn't so hard, was it? I listed 6 steps. One of them is optional. The first two could really be counted as one. The final two are really about the settings of the reader. Really, its:

Log in to Google Reader,
Subscribe to Feeds,
Read feeds in your reader, and
Learn to speak Swahili with all the free time you now have on your hands.

Here's a video (from RSS Day.) that explains everything in a bit more detail:

There Are No Anchovies

2011-05-30T07:53:00.000-04:00

A little while ago I blogged that I don't believe in Anchovies; I'm an A-Anchoviest. Things have changed. Now I'm a believer. I feel like my sole has been saved.

This is the bassic story of my conversion.

A friend at work saw my blog and told me he has had anchovies. Then we walked through Costco and he tried showed me some. But they didn't have any. He assured me if I went into any Italian grocery store they'd have them. I thought he was just throwing me a red herring. I mean, for cod's sake, did he think I was some kinda sucker? Or, maybe he was just being koi?

My next clue was when someone at the office came into my cubicle one morning and plunked down a jar of anchovies onto my desk and walked away. Walleye thought something smelt fishy after that. I started to trout my beliefs.

I took the jar home and decided to make a pizza with anchovies. I invited three friends over to share the anchovies. I didn't want be shellfish, after all.

So, we made the pizza. (In fact me made two in a roe!) It felt like it took forever to make. We waited with baited breath. Anchovies are reel salty. The pizza was loaded with other toppings: peppers (green, red, orange, and yellow), onions, tomatoes, olives, cheese, and pepperoni. When I took a bite of a slice that had anchovies, the taste of the anchovies over-powered the taste of everything else.

Here's a picture of the pizza after I put the anchovies on it (and before I put everything else on it). As you can see, the anchovies are on three quarters of the pizza. There were four of us that night. The pizza would be divided by four. I asked "Should I make two slices with anchovies?" They said "Two? Nahhhh, make it three... just for the halibut."

Well, it was a fun night. You might even say it was like salmon chanted evening.

Incidentally, I didn't eat any of the anchovies raw. I was afraid I might fall eel. Then I would have needed some real professional kelp. I might have even needed a team of sturgeons to trawl through my system to cure me.

My experience is that anchovies aren't very common, so if you'd like to try them and you're in a store and you see a jar of anchovies, you'd better snapper up before someone else does. But, if someone else tries at the same time, you might get in a fight. Then it will down come to mussel. Who knows, in a thousand years anchovies could be extinct.

And now, as the French would say: La Fin!

(PS: Sorry for the crappie puns. They didn't serve any great porpoise and I'm sure you've just about haddock with them. I suppose I should have warned you. Oh whale. Caviar Emptor.)

My Haunting Dreams

2011-05-23T23:16:00.001-04:00

The rapture was supposed to happen on Saturday, and I, for one, am glad it didn't. Here's why.

As a Christian, I'm looking forward to the rapture. I'm not entirely sure I believe in the rapture, but if there is one, then I'm looking forward to it. Of course, I'm assuming I won't be left below. It's about the only way you can never die.

I figure that Heaven is going to be really busy right after the rapture. There's going to be lots of administrative work to be done. I imagine that there will be long lines, and insane waiting times.

One of the things I look forward to when I die is getting my haunting license. I'd like to come back and haunt a family in a big, old house. But for that I think I'd have to wait for my Family-In-A-Big-Old-House tags. Otherwise, I'll be stuck haunting schizophrenics in an asylum. The patients will tell the nurses they're being haunted, and the nurses will just say "Of course you are." And no one will believe them, not even Agent Mulder.

But after the rapture, Heaven will be way to busy for me to take haunting courses, let alone applying and waiting for the license. It could take decades. As you read Revelation, you can see that stuff gets more and more surreal as the tribulation continues. Haunting won't be as fun anymore. Then after the seven year tribulation period is up, haunting will be pointless. People will have a better understanding of the after-life.

But, since the rapture didn't happen, I can continue on with my haunting dreams.

I Hope I'm Not Left Below!

2011-05-20T20:49:00.007-04:00

As I write this blog, the Rapture is supposed to happen tomorrow. Then, the world will end in October. I have figured out how the world will end. The universe will be ripped apart by a giant paradox.

Here's my syllogism:

The Rapture is a Christian Doctrine concerning the end of the world.
If the Rapture happens, then it proves that Christianity is the correct religion.
If Christianity is the correct religion then The Bible is infallible.
The Bible says that neither the angles nor Jesus - The Son of God - knows when the end of the world would be. "Only The Father knows." - Math 24:36, Mark 13:32
If the Rapture happens tomorrow, May 21, 2011, then it has been predicted. Someone other than The Father knew about it.
If someone other than The Father knows when the end of the world is then The Bible was wrong, ie: fallible. (See points 3 and 4).
The predictor of tomorrow's rapture predicts an end of the world in 5 to 6 months - much shorter than the 7 years predicted by The Bible.
Point 3 contradicts points 6 and 7. It's a paradox. POW! The universe is ripped apart.

My recommendations:

A this point, crossing the streams might work.
DON'T PANIC

I'm An Artist Too (139)

2011-04-20T08:54:00.001-04:00

If this doesn't make any sense to you, this video should help, specifically 3 min and 30 seconds.

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2011-04-13T08:12:00.001-04:00

That's not a spelling mistake. It's a pun. Look it up.

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2011-04-06T09:01:00.000-04:00

I'm An Artist Too (136)

2011-03-30T08:46:00.001-04:00

I'm An Artist Too (135)

2011-03-23T08:47:00.001-04:00

Hmmmm, that should really read Unfurrrrrrrl the LLLLLLLLLid to Procure!"

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2011-03-16T08:58:00.003-04:00

I'm An Artist Too (133)

2011-03-09T08:52:00.011-05:00

I know this is a stretch - and by "stretch" I mean it's badly drawn - so I will explain. That's a camel on the right, and a pin cushion with lots of huge needles with over-sized eyes on the left.

I'm An Artist Too (132)

2011-03-02T07:46:00.002-05:00

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2011-02-23T10:05:00.001-05:00

I'm An Artist Too (130)

2011-02-16T08:45:00.000-05:00

Bountiful's Brilliant Students

2011-02-11T08:13:00.001-05:00

According to Today's Article students in Bountiful BC "...[are] among the highest ranking on the 2011 Fraser Institute Report Card.

Bountiful Elementary-Secondary scored a perfect 10 mark."

I guess it's easy to do well in school when you have fourteen moms helping you out.

I'm An Artist Too (129)

2011-02-09T13:44:00.007-05:00

In honour of Never Say Never

I'm An Aanchchoviest

2011-02-07T06:09:00.000-05:00

I don't think anchovies really exist.

Think about it. Have you ever had an anchovy? You know about them as pizza toppings that you pray are never on your pizza. They're a topping that only other people have on their pizzas - people with bad taste.

If you were with some people who were ordering a pizza they would ask you what you wanted on your pizza. You would likely say something like "Oh, just about anything is fine with me. Get whatever you want." If they said "Okay. How about anchovies?" You would make a disgusted face and say "Ewww! No. That's gross!" But you've never actually had anchovies.

If you ask your friends if they like anchovies, they'll make a face like they just bit into a lemon sprinkled with mace and say "No way!" But if you ask if they've had any, they'll say they haven't.

Once upon a time, I found the idea of raw fish was really repulsive. Now I love sushi. Once upon a time I found wine intolerable. Now, not so much. Tastes change. It occurred to me that I was judging anchovies without giving them a fair shot. So I started to try to order them with my pizza. But they never seemed to be on any menu! One time I did see it on a menu and I asked about it. They told me something like "Oh, we don't have those. If you want them you have to order a few days in advance." Who orders a pizza a few days in advance?

Then I forgot all about it. Until now. I found a recipe for Cesar Salad dressing. It calls for "1 can of minced anchovies (optional)". I decided to go for it. But, try as I might, I can not find any evidence at any grocery store that anchovies actually exist! So I make the dressing without anchovies. It's not too bad, but I'll never how bad it could be.

Rent or Own?

2011-01-31T06:03:00.018-05:00

For the last year the McQueens have stayed in Embrun, and I with them, unsure how much longer we'll be staying there. During that time I've assumed I'd be renting when I moved out. But, thanks to a nice tax return, some fiscal restraint, some on-call and higher-level acting pay, I had some unexpected growth last quarter. Suddenly, the idea of home-ownership was something that could happen for me in the not-to-distant future.

While the question is still academic, one day I will have to answer it; should I rent or own my dwelling place?

If you just answered "You should own. If you rent, you're just throwing your money away" then you've just disqualified yourself from being informed enough to give me advice on this subject. I'll try to explain why.

First, let's define "throwing your money away." I assume what people mean when they say that in relation to renting as opposed to owing is that you're giving your money away without building equity. In accounting terms, you're moving money from an asset (cash) to an expense (rent). It causes your total equity to decrease. When you own your house or condo, as you pay your mortgage you're actually buying something. When you move out, you will get that money back. In accounting terms, you're moving money from an asset (cash) to another asset (property). Assuming a 0% mortgage, your total equity doesn't change. Then, as the value of your home goes up, your equity increases without you having to actually do anything.

It's true that when you rent, you're throwing your money away. But, it is also true of owning. In fact, you're throwing a lot more money away on ownership. In both cases you have to throw money away on heat, water, utilities, cable, phone, etc. Some of that might be included in the rent, but you are paying for something that you can't get back.

Furthermore, with owning, you're paying interest. In fact, with a 25 year amortization period and a 10% down-payment, you're going to pay for the house about 2 and a half times over; once for the value of the house, and the rest is interest. Paying interest is definitely throwing your money away.

Now, if you're lucky, when you go to sell your house, you can get all that back. Don't forget, with ownership comes maintenance. With rent, somebody else is responsible for upkeep. There's also property taxes. With a condo, there's condo fees, and extra expenses that aren't included in the fees.

In order to compare price sheets, I wrote a little mortguage calculator program. You can fill in all the figures for owning and renting and compare the two. Generally speaking, at the end of the amortization period you'll pay way more for ownership, and you're rent - due to rent control - will be pretty low.

How do you get ahead by renting? This is the hard part. When you own a house, every time you're paying your mortgage you're taking part in a forced-savings plan. If you don't invest in anything else, at least you have a house! With renting, you must invest elsewhere! You need to invest in good mutual funds, money markets, etc. With good investing you can come out ahead.

"But what if the economy tanks, like it did in 2008? Then your investments aren't worth much." True, but neither is your house. When the markets fall your risky investments are worth less. (You shouldn't have many risky investments close to retirement.) In time the markets will rise. You will get your money back. Now, if the local economy tanks, people lose their jobs, and many have to move. Moving requires selling of housing. With people leaving in droves (because the local plant closed, as often happens in a bad economy) then there's lots of people selling their houses, but not many are buying. The law of supply and demand requires the value of the house to fall.

Remember, the value of anything is the most someone is willing to sacrifice for it. If the city estimates the value of your house at $300 000, but no one is willing to buy it for more than $150 000, then your house is really only worth $150 000. After all, that's all you can get out of it. Therefore, that's it's value. Maybe another time someone will to pay more, but not now. And now is when you need it.

Most people also say it's the best investment you'll ever make. I've read a number of books written by several financial advisers and most say the same thing; "If your house is your best investment, you could be in trouble." In fact, here is a good article explaining why it's a bad investment. And here is a good response. They usually say something like "Owning isn't for everyone. You should buy a house because that's how you want to live."

So, my point is that the debate between renting and owning isn't as clear cut as you may initially think.

I have recently come to the conclusion that owning is better than renting for reasons I'll explain later.

Successful Starving Artists

2011-01-21T05:25:00.000-05:00

Longtime blog readers will know how much I love the music recording industry. While I believe in supporting the artists, and I have no problem supporting those who bring the music to me by way of recorded media, like CDs - theoretically. I do have a problem when big business sues the little guy. Especially when the little guy is homeless, or a grandmother who's never owned a computer, or a little girl, or a dead person, or someone other than Bill Gates. It just seems so wrong. Espeically when the evidence of the wrong-doing is weak and easily faked. I used to buy a lot of CDs, until the lawsuits started. Now I boycotte. I only buy music from independent labels.

Then I stumbled across these articles.

It turns out that buying CDs don't really support the artists that much anyway. Read the articles to see the actual math, but a typical artist gets about $24 for every $1000 of record sales. If you buy a CD for $10, the artist gets 24 cents. The system seems designed to keep the artists down, while making the record execs rich. When the industry sues you for allegedly downloading music, they're not fighting for the artists. They're fighting for themselves.

Sleepers vs. Non-Sleepers

2010-11-19T06:18:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks after moving into my new apartment, there was a power-outage that lasted from 10:30 at night to about 4:30 in the morning. It was July. I live on the top floor. My room got very warm very quickly.

During the power outage, my apartment was very quiet. Sort of. There are two types of noise: white noise, and non-white noise. I normally sleep with the air conditioner and a fan on. The building's ventilation system makes a certain amount of white noise. That was all silenced. Now, I could hear all the non-white noise, such as people talking in adjacent units, cars driving by on the streets, dogs barking in the distance, etc.

I didn't get to sleep that night until about 4:30 AM. When I told this story to the McQueens Robin laughed and said I was the only person she knew who wouldn't be able to sleep at night during a power-outage. I tried to explain the difference between white noise and non-white noise, and how I can sleep with white noise, but not non-white noise. She didn't buy it. Jack suggested that there seem to be two types of people in the world: sleepers and non-sleepers, and sleepers will never understand non-sleepers.

Sleepers are people that go to bed and sleep. They sleep because they want to sleep. Or because they're comfortable and tired. I was a sleeper when I was a teenager. Actually, most teenagers are.

A non-sleeper can't just go to sleep. They need certain conditions to be in place. During the day, I am a sleeper. At night, I'm a non-sleeper. In the day, I can sleep while sitting upright on a noisy, hot, crowded bus with my head against the bouncing window. But at night, I need everything to be just so.

So I started contemplating the difference between sleepers and non-sleepers, trying to develop a theory as to what makes one one and not the other. Then I stumbled across Today's Articles. It turns out that science already has answers.

When you're awake, your brain produces high frequency brain waves. As you fall deeper into sleep, your brainwaves lower in frequency. Every now and again, while sleeping, a spurt of higher frequency waves are produced. Those spurts are called "spindles". The scientists found that people who produce more spindles don't get woken up as easily as those who produce fewer spindles.

Unfortunately, the question of "how do I make my brain create more spindles?" remains unanswered.

Church Hopping - Part 5

2010-11-15T05:57:00.002-05:00

Since my last Church Hopping instalment I have visited a few new churches.Since then I have been to:

Treevale Pentecostal: Being a Pentecostal Church, I knew not to expect an orderly service like what I'm used to at Baptist churches. Some of the stereotypes proved to be true. Singing was pretty repetitious. Overall the music was good. The preaching was probably not bad - most of the time. I don't want to start a holy war here, but I happened to visit this church on Pentecost Sunday. So, of course, the sermon was on Tongues. Every time I visit a non-Baptist church I am reminded about how Baptist I am. This time was no exception.
As for Friendliness, I found it somewhat lacking, which is to be expected in a church that large I suppose. But the pastor did make a point of coming and talking to me, which was good.
Village Pentecostal: I keep going to churches on the wrong Sundays. I went to Chedarview Alliance the day they had the longest preacher in history. I went to Treevale Pentecostal on Pentecost Sunday. I went Village Pentecostal on what turned out to be a very Pentecostal service. The singing started. But it never ended. They never did get to the sermon. They just got swept up in things. They sang for about 2 hours. But, being Pentecostal, they have a penchant for repetition. In those two hours, I think they only sang 3 songs.
Afterword a few people came to talk to me and assured me it wasn't usually like that, and they hoped I'd come back again. Which I did. Last Sunday I went there again. This time there was an actual sermon. Again, I couldn't help thinking about how Baptist I am. The music was very repetitious. When people talk to me at that church, they're always wondering what I thought of the service, and wondering if I'll come again. It's like they're insecure and asking me "So.....how did we do? How do you like us so far?"
West-Fence Alliance: This church was so-so on the friendly scale. A couple of people made sure they shook my hand and said "hi" as I walked in, but then they went back to what they were doing before. Afterwords, a few people came up to me to talk to me and told me they hoped I'd come back. The preacher was a guest, so I'll have to go back to hear the regular pastor at some point. The music wasn't bad, but it did make me miss Blackbelt Baptist's music. West-Fence does what most other churches do with their music. They play contemporary music - written to be led by guitar and vocals, and led with the piano. They didn't even have a guitarist there that morning (ministry opportunity for me!), so that could be the reason. But, it made me appreciate Blackbelt Baptist all the more.
I have since been back thrice. One time they had two announcements that should have each taken five minutes. They each took about 10 to 15 minutes, leaving the preacher with hardly any time to race through his sermon.
I went a third time where the preacher spoke for 45 minutes. I'm not sure if I happen to be going on the wrong Sundays, or if those Sundays are the norm. I'll have to continue to investigate.
As of writing this, I just went there again this morning. This time the sermon was 55 minutes long. It didn't feel like it - which is good. It felt more like 35 minutes.
Chedarview Alliance - Again: The McQueens wanted to check this church out one Sunday, so I said I'd meet them there. I figure they wouldn't have the world's most boring preacher back again. I would give it another chance. This time the preaching was great! They showed a video of Andy Stanley. As for friendliness, no one would shake my hand, not even the people handing out bulletins. Not only would they not shake my hand, they wouldn't even make eye-contact with me! That's it. I'm definitely not going back.
That one in Farhaven: I forget the name of this church, so I can't come up with a pun-based pseudonym for it. Pastor Jack was preaching here one Sunday morning, so I went. It was a small church in a school gym. The music was decent for what it was. The preaching was great. And the friendliness was also pretty good. However, it is too far for me to go every week. And, for fellowship reasons, I think I want a larger church.
St. Albany: This is part of the Anglican Network. We were told it had a cool young adults group. So we went to check it out. They had an after church social (which seems to be an Anglican thing) in the church basement. It took a few minutes, but people were eventually friendly. They took my email addy for the young adults group. Unfortunately, they meet at a time that's inconvenient for me.
The music was decent. The seats, however, were very uncomfortable. They were old-school pews with very little leg room.
For communion, they gave the option of drinking from a communal cup, or individual tiny glasses. If you know me, you already know I opted for the individual glasses. But when I got to the front, the person in front of me got the last individual glass. I had to go for the communal cup. Eeeeewwwwww!
Again; I am very Baptist.

So, this February will mark two years since we left Yahoo! Baptist, and I still don't have a regular church family. I might have to re-evaluate my church-selection criteria.

Did You Wash Your Hands?

2010-11-12T06:30:00.001-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows how I am about washing hands. I become aware of when I touch something that will cause me to have to wash my hands before touching food. When I'm eating at a function where hand-shaking is required, I shake with my right hand, and handle food with my left. When I have breakfast in a restaurant, pick up my toast with my left hand, and use my right hand for things like the Ketchup bottle, or the salt and pepper shakers - which are rarely washed.

In Today's Article, we get another hand-washing hint. If you wash your hands, and put them below an air-dryer, and rub your hands together it actually brings bacteria out from the pores in your hands, increasing the overall bacteria count on your hands from when you just finished washing your hands. The next best thing to do is not rub your hands.

But the best thing to do is to dry your hands with a paper towel. Using a paper towel allows you to turn off the tap without touching the tap that you touched with your dirty hands, and you can open the door without touching the handle.

The Whole Couch Situation

2010-08-30T05:55:00.041-04:00

I hate red-tag sales. I hate one-day-only sales. I hate pressure sales. When I make purchases under duress, I end up with Buyer's Remorse. The latest instalment in that story is my couch.

One week ago I decided to go couch shopping. I meant to go out and look. Sit. Lie down. Take measurements. Compare prices. My furniture budget had been depleted down to about $360. I didn't intend to buy - at least not that day.

I went with the McQueens. They have an eye for things like colour and design, etc. I don't. They're artists. Actuall artists. I draw on coffee cups. I'm an engineer at heart, and a computer programmer by profession. I value things like function and efficiency. To me function comes way before form. When my brother and I were both learning to program, he'd create beautiful user interfaces. I'd have black and white command line programs.

Before this ouch-shopping day, I had been to Ikea countless times sitting on their couches, trying to decide what I might like. I like Ikea furniture. I realized the other day why Ikea doesn't have salespeople. The furniture sells itself. So far, I have bought a chair, ottoman, stool, a dinning table, 4 dinning chairs, and DVD/CD shelves from Ikea, and I don't regret a single purchase. But, I haven't found an Ikea couch I really like that's comfortable - at least in the Ottawa Ikea. Perhaps cushions become softer with use?

I decided on a few things I wanted, and didn't want in a couch:

Not leather: Leather looks nice, but if it's hot or cold, the couch becomes very uncomfortable.
None of those little buttons in the upright cushions: I always manage to cause them to pop out. If I'm going to spend at least a grand on my couch, I don't want to have to worry about damaging it so easily. It would be one thing if I did it, but if someone else did it, that's frustrating in a different way.
Flat arms: When I was in university I had the ugliest couch and chair set. but the arms were about 5" wide, solid wood, and flat. I would often use it as a TV tray, and would leave my glass, pop can, and/or plate on the arm.
Long enough for me to sleep on: I figure a couch is like a substitute bed. It's going to get slept on. You want that to be a comfortable sleep. My couch in university was like that. I took a lot of naps on that couch. It was the perfect size, even if it was ugly.
Right price: If it was too cheap...well, I believe that you get what you pay for. If it's too expensive, I'd break the bank. I don't want that. I don't want to think about how much flying I could have done with that couch money. I had about $360 in my couch fund, but, given a few more pay-cheques, that could increase. I was planning on spending about a grand on a couch.

The first store the McQueens and I walked into was Dufresne (pronounced Dufrane, rhyiming with Moo-Frame, with the epmhasis on "Frame".). We were greeted by a loud salesman informing us it was their VIP red-tag day. One day only! We were shown a bunch of couches. Most where "meh". Then we sat on one. Oh my goodness! So comfortable! So soft! I just sank in! I wanted it! There was a couch and love seat. There was also a single chair, end tables, and coffee tables too that could come as a package. I wanted the couch. The loveseat was negotiable.

But, I wanted to look around first. After Dufresne, we went to Sears, Lay-Z-Boy, and United Furniture Warehouse. I sat in nothing that compared to that couch at Dufresne. So I went back to Dufresne, got a good deal on the couch and loveseat. I saved $700 from the list price. I set up the delivery for the following Saturday.

On Saturday it showed up. After much struggling to get it into the aprtment, I played with a few different arrangements. I sat in them for a while. I looked at my bank accounts, and finance spreadsheets. Buyer's Remorse started sinking in. Now I'm thinking of returning, either just the loveseat, or both. The return policy is that they'll refund 90% of the money (10% is a re-stocking fee), and I'll have to pay for a pick-up. And, I only have 48 hours to decide. 48 hours, presumably, from delivery, not purchase. That's not a very long period, especially when you're spending, potentially thousands of dollars. I kinda feel like punishing the company for such poor customer service policies.

I have the following issues with the couch and love seat:

It's big. It takes up a lot of space in my small apartment.
It's heavy. This is a problem if I want to move it around.
It's big and heavy. It had to be disassembled to get into the apartment. You should have seen the delivery guys grunting and sweating trying to get it in. If I have to move without the convenience of professional movers, that's gonna be me - except that I'm not a big, strong, professional furniture delivery man. I'm a computer programmer.
It's expensive. Even though I got a wicked deal on it, I'm still gonna have rob, not only Peter, but Frank, Chester, Sebastien, and Mary, just to pay Paul. This is actually the least of my concerns. I have the money to pay for it. I just have to pray that I have no unexpected expenses for the next few months while I recoup the losses.
It's expensive. I don't like having expensive things. You always worry if it's gonna break down or get stolen or something. I've seen someone puncture a car seat simply by leaving a pencil in their pants pocket. I don't want to worry about things like that.
It doesn't have removable cushions. Removable cushions are nice if you need to turn them over if someone spills something, or if you need to lay them out on the floor as a make-shift bed.
It's not _quite_ long enough for me to completely lie down on. I know this conflicts with problems 1 and 3, but if it's gonna be too big to get in my apartment without disassembling it, I want a good bed substitute.
It's not _me_. You know how some furniture just has _you_ written all over it? I bought these chairs from Ikea. Solid pine. Light. Assembly was ridiculously easy. $25 a piece. And they go with my table, which is also me because of the way it extends. My problem is that I don't know if a couch exists that is Me.

I should also list some of the positives of the couches (and my answers to them):

The two of them together makes sitting possible for 5 people. That's good for entertaining lots of guests.: I rarely entertain. I don't like entertaining. Having super-comfortable seating is just an invitation for people to want to come over.
It's super-comfortable.: At least at first. After sitting in it for a while, I'm not sure it feels all that good. I bought an office chair from Staples once. Felt great there. When I got it home and sat in it for a couple of hours, as computer programmers are wont to do, my back was killing me! I had to sit in my old, uncomfortable chair for a while before I could sleep at night. It turns out the comfortable chair was actually uncomfortable, and the uncomfortable chair was actually comfortable. This is important, as I will no longer be regularly seeing a chiropractor at the end of this month.
The green couch goes well with my burgundy carpet.: I don't care. I am such a form-before-function guy. I only know that it goes well because the McQueens told me it would. I would have still bought the couch if they said "No. It will totally clash with your carpet." I bought it because it was comfortable. In fact, my decorating mission statement was "I want the apartment to look like a grown non-student lives there. I don't want your used stuff. I want new stuff. But I wanted to leave room for a "woman's touch". Furthermore, if I move in a year or two - which is entirely possible - it is unlikely I'll be moving into a place with burgundy carpets. I suppose I could get a burgundy rug. Or just spill some red wine on the floor, and not clean it up.

If I return it, they keep 10% of the price as a re-stocking fee. I also have to pay for, and arrange (including reserving the service elevator in my building) a pick-up. Plus, I'd have to do all this shopping all over again. This could turn out to be a $200+ oops.: Oops.

So I have to decide by tomorrow what I'm going to do.

For reference, here's a picture of my couch from my university days:

And here's the couch I just bought:

The Blinds Side B

2010-08-23T05:55:00.049-04:00

Recap: If you missed it last week, I spent a lot of time and gas trying to find affordable blue PVC horozontal blinds for my bedroom and living room of my new apartment. Every store either had an extremely limited selection and/or were going to charge me an arm and a leg. The only good option I could find was to order from Sears online. So I did.

When I got the first blinds, I checked online how to install blinds. I would need wall anchors. I went to Home Depot to ask about them. The first guy I talked to was useless. He told me I'd need to find a stud. [Insert joke about the stud being 'right here'] If I had wooden studs I wouldn't need anchors. Otherwise, I would.

In fairness to him, he might not have been talking to me. He wouldn't make eye contact with me and he was speaking loud enough for everyone in a 3 kilometre radius to hear.

So I found someone else who was much more helpful. In fact people were crowding around him waiting for their chance to glean some home-reno wisdom from him. He showed me where to get the wall anchors, and a stud finder. [Insert joke about the stud being 'right here'] He told me what I needed to know. I bought some wall anchors and a stud finder [Insert joke about the stud being 'right here'] and went home.

I wanted to install the blinds in my bedroom first. I put my bed by the window so I could stand on it as I installed the blinds. I drove the anchor into the wall with my screwdriver. It took a bit of effort at first, then there was no resistance. I took the anchor out. I looked in the hole and saw that there was a metal plate with holes in it. I managed to put the anchor through one of the holes.

I thought I'd better ask the Super about installing blinds before I go any further. He suggested I install the brackets a little closer to the window. The window sill is pretty deep. So I tried that and it worked. The blind went in without trouble or incident. I didn't install the other blind in the living room because I didn't have a chair, stool, ladder, or bed to stand on to install the brackets.

I ordered the two custom fit blinds. When they arrived I decided to install the blind in the bedroom first. This one took a lot more effort than the other one. In fact, I ended up tearing some skin on my hand holding the screw driver. It hurt. One of the anchors was going in vertically, until it encountered some resistance. Then it went diagonal. Then it stopped before it was all the way in. In my effors I ended messing up the head of the anchor, so I couldn't unscrew it. If anyone knows how to remove one of those, let me know.

At this point you're probably asking two questions: "Why didn't you use a drill?" and "Didn't you use your stud finder?" The answer to the first question is that I did use the drill and that's how the anchor got messed up. After that I didn't want use the drill until I knew things were exactly right. It's a lot harder to undo something that's been done with a power tool than something that's been done by elbow grease.

The answer to the second question is that I did use the stud finder. [Insert joke about the stud being 'right here'] But, according to my stud finder, my window sill is one giant stud. So, I deemed it to be useless. It works fine on my walls, just not the window sill.

I tried again a little bit closer to the center. This time it worked. When I tried putting the screws in, 3 out of 4 went in easily. The fourth one stopped part way up. My hand really hurt, and I was sweating like that guy landing the airplane at the end of the move Airplane. I was tired. The bracket wasn't going anywhere. The screw wasn't getting in the way. So I left it.

Before installing the blinds in the living room I wanted to 1) let my hand heal, and 2) get a stool, or chair, or ladder to stand on. I figured a chair would be good because I would use it to sit at my table when I got one of those. Off to Ikea!

I must have sat in every chair in the kitchen area. I couldn't decide on a chair or a table. And I wanted them to be coordinated. As I sat there contemplating what to do, I saw a footstool. I walked over to it. It was new to the Ikea lineup. It was $15. It was solid wood. It was almost 2 feet tall. It was perfect! I could use it as a makeshift end-table, or rest my feet on it under my desk. I decided not to decide on a dinning set that day, and just get the stool.

Of course, they didn't have any of those stools in stock. The guy there said they didn't know when they would get any more. I checked their website everyday for two weeks until it was in stock. I bought it. I put it together. Due to a sharp edge in the packaging, I managed to cut my wrist. Now I look like an emo-kid.

This Sunday past, I was sitting in my living room looking at my blindless windows. I had marked out where I would put the anchors. I decided to get a start on it. The skin on my hand had partially healed. I had to install 2 blinds, 4 brackets, 8 screws and 8 wall anchors. After six anchors, skin had ripped off the palm of my hand again. I gave it a rest. Until last night, Wednesday night. I decided to takle the last two anchors. I decided I was on a roll, so I kept going. I drove in the screws holding up the anchors. I put the blinds in. Finally, my living room is dark. It might be worth trying to cool down my entire apartment with the air conditioner. My hand hurts. I have several blisters and cuts. I guess thats what you get when you try to do some manual labour after a lfietime of computer programming.

The Blinds Side A

2010-08-16T05:55:00.017-04:00

I have been in my apartment for a month and a half now, and I finally got my window blinds up last night. What took me so long? Procrastination? Yes. Laziness? Yes. But that's not all. It turns out that getting and installing blinds isn't as easy as it used to be, or should be. It turned out to be a real vortex!

The last time I had an apartment that needed blinds, I measured the windows and went out to Zellers. I found the ones that would fit in the colour I wanted (dark blue). I brought them home. Since I knew nothing about installing blinds I had a friend over to help me. He brought his drill. We got some wall anchors and installed the blinds in one evening. I didn't have a steady job at the time, and still going to school, so I wouldn't have been willing to spend a whole lot. Four blinds about 3 feet each probably cost me less than $100.

I thought it would be that easy this time too. Boy was I wrong!

I measured my windows. 5 foot, 11 and a three-quarters inches. What an odd measurement! Why don't they make windows a standard size? Why couldn't they have been an even six feet?

I wanted mini, a.k.a. horizontal blinds. I wanted dark blue.

One day I went to Home Depot. As soon as I found the window area I saw three employees hanging around talking. I thought "Great! I can ask one of them for help." Boy was I wrong! As I was approaching I heard one of them say "I'm hungry. You guys want to get some lunch?" They all agreed and scattered like cockroaches when you turn on the lights. I was on my own. So I went looking. There are lots of different kinds of blinds; wood, faux-wood, S-blinds, mini, PVC, etc. etc. The only mini blinds I could find were coloured white and off-white.

So, off to Walmart! They only had white. Someone there told me for better selection to check out Sears.

So I went to sears. The woman there first asked me if I was renting or owning. What an odd question. I told her I was renting. She told me I'd be better off ordering online, or from the catalog. If I ordered in store, it would cost me upwards of $250 for one set of blinds. I could get the exact same thing for as little as $27 from the catalog.

So I figured I'd order them online. I left the store. As I was driving out, I saw a store called Blinds to Go. Perfect! Blind experts! So I went in. They quoted me $150 for each blind. I needed 2. Forget that noise!

This was getting frustrating. I tried Bouclaire. They only had white and faux-wood.

I went back to Home Depot. This time I managed to get a salesperson to talk with. If I wanted blue blinds I'd need to get them custom ordered, and that could run well over $100 per blind.

What ever happened to cheap non-white blinds?!

Ikea had limited selection. As did Zellers. As did the Bay. I forget what other stores I checked out, but none had what I wanted.

I went to the Sears website to order. I was nervous about ordering custom blinds. What if they were wrong somehow? Could I return them? Their return policy doesn't allow custom blinds to be returned. So, instead of ordering one blind for the whole window, I decided to order two 3 foot blinds, and two 2 foot, 11 and a half inches. I would order the two 3 foot blinds first because they weren't custom. If they weren't any good, I could return them. Once I was satisfied, I'd order the custom blinds.

This entry is getting long, so I'll stop now, and continue next week.

Ontario Driving Laws

2010-07-26T06:13:00.001-04:00

I'm from Nova Scotia. I learned to drive in Nova Scotia. Then I moved to Ontario where I have lived in Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto, and Ottawa. I have noticed there are a few different laws in Ontario that you may need to be aware of if you plan on driving in this province. I will outline them here for your convenience.

The eighth-of-a-second rule.: In most places this is known as the Two-Second Rule. Here's the way it works.
Watch the car in front of you. When that car passes a pole or mark on the road, start counting "one one-thousand, two one-thousand." If you pass by the mark before you finish counting to two, you're following too close. In Ontario, it's an eighth of a second. Not two seconds. Two seconds is too long. How can you expect everyone to fit on the roads if they all follow the two-second rule?

Also note that in most places the number of seconds increases with the size of the following vehicle. If you're driving a school bus, you should probably be counting to 4 because your brakes will take longer to stop your bus than the Honda Civic you're following. In Ontario, it's the opposite. The bigger and heavier your vehicle, the closer you must follow.
Signaling: Anyone caught using their signal lights to show intention of changing lanes, or turning onto another street, driveway, etc. shall be sentenced to life in a maximum security prison with no chance of parole. Ever. - Ontario Highway Traffic Act.

They've attached the hefty penalty because they're so serious about this. They do not want people showing intention of turning by use of signal lights. 98% of Ontarian drivers obey this law without fail.

However, signaling you're going to turn, then not turning - even though you're in the turning lane - is quite fine. Leaving your signal light on while driving down the highway while never changing lanes is also fine.
Pullling Out Into Traffic:: It is advisable to look both ways before pulling out into traffic from a perpendicular street or driveway, but please ignore how fast any oncoming vehicles are going.
Merging:: When two lanes become one, and traffic must merge, all cars must do as much as possible to prevent the merging to look like a giant zipper from the sky. If you're in the lane that's ending, you must drive as fast as you can to force your way into the furthest forward, however inconvenient to other drivers, giving up as many open spaces as possible. You were probably taught in school never to cut in line. That applies to the cafeteria; not roads.

The following rules apply specifically to Ottawa:

Red Lights: In most places red traffic lights mean stop! In Ottawa, they're just suggesting you might want to stop. If you feel like it. Otherwise, just go right through the intersection at any speed you feel is appropriate - as long as it's at least 90 km/h. Besides, the Yellow Lights are mere flashes in Ottawa.
Lane Choice on the Queensway: Most highways operate in the following manner: The far right lane is the slowest. The far left lane is the fastest. Traffic moves faster as the lane moves farther left. If the posted speed limit is 100 km/h, people in the far right lane might go 100 km/h on an ideal day. If people want to go faster, they use the left lane(s) to pass.

This is how the Queensway operates: The posted speed limit is - oh never mind. It doesn't matter. Feel free to do anything between 50 and 180 km/h. Don't worry about being in the wrong lane for your speed. There is no wrong lane. However, if you find another vehicle going the same speed as you, it is an offence punishable by death to occupy the same lane. You have to adjust your speed until you're right beside the other vehicle, then resume your original speed. This prevents anyone from passing you.

Also, you are required by law to change your speed by at least 20 km/h at every exit. It doesn't matter if you speed up or slow down - as long as you're within the 50 -180 km/h buffer.

Also, don't let the weather interfere with your driving habits. If you want to go 180 km/h on a bright sunny day in July, then you must also go 180 km/h during an ice storm in January. It's the law. By the same token, if you'd do 50 km/h during an ice storm, then you must also do 50 km/h on a clear and sunny day.

The following pertain to Embrun:

Posted Speed Limits:: The posted speed limits around Embrun are in French. While the numbers look the same as English numbers, their meanings are quite different.

Between the 417 and the town of Embrun, the posted speed limit looks like 80 km/h to an anglophone like myself. But, as I have found out, when you do the conversion to English numbers, it's actually 120 km/h. If you do 80 km/h, you will be passed as though you're standing still.

But once you get into Embrun, it works the other way. The posted speed limit is 50 km/h. Or at least that's what it looks like in English. But once you translate it into the native French, it's actually more like 30 km/h. You can try to do 50 km/h, but you will be promptly slowed down to 30 km/h by the car in front of you.

Hey. I don't make the rules. I just break 'em.

I'm An Artist Too (128)

2010-07-21T05:55:00.002-04:00

This is a character in the Mr. Falcon universe; The Big Guy In The U.S.A. Jacket (TBGITUSAJ). He's a top goon in the Nordburg Mafia.

Mind Your Manners...and English

2010-07-19T06:12:00.016-04:00

I find it interesting that some people are anal about English grammar and spelling. See, English, unlike other languages like French or Korean, doesn't have a governing body defining what is right and what is wrong. Correct English is defined as being whatever is in popular usage. If you want to change an English spelling or rule, just get the masses to do it your way instead of the "right" way.

Some people say Dictionaries define what is correct. This isn't true. Dictionaries are in a constant game of catch-up.

I once blogged about how the meanings of words change.

A few case-in-points:

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Year for 2007 was "w00t". (That's right. Those are zeros in there.)
Americans spell it "honor", "labor", "favorite". Canadians spell it "honour", "labour", and "favourite". Who's to say what's right? Awww heck, Americans call it "Zee" and Canadians call it "Zed". Again, who says what's right? The only way to say they're both right is to admit that there can be more than one right way to spell something. If that's the case, why kan't I invent mai own ways to spel things? I'm just creating my own version of proper Inglish.
How to you spell it? Shakespear? Shakespere? Shakespeer? Other? In fact, in his day, people took pride in spelling their names in as many different ways as possible.
@#$@&! is considered a swear word today by some (but not all). If you get a really old dictionary, it's in there as an actual word. Who decided it was a swear word? What authority do they have? And who gave that authority to them?

Consider this paradox. If someone uses English that's considered to be improper today, they would be considered to have improper English. They would be wrong. But, if their "mistake" catches on, then they will retroactively become right. They will be seen as a pioneer. Shakespere invented many words, and prolly broke some rules too.

This does raise some interesting questions, like:

A lot of people use the word "literally" when they mean "figuratively." For example: "We were so late for our connecting flight, we literally flew through the airport terminal." They would have had to be superman. They mean "...we figuratively flew through the airport terminal" or "...we literally ran as fast as we could....". Nearly everyone makes this mistake. The question is "How long do words have to be confused with each other before they 'officially' take on the meaning of other word?" In other words, when will "figuratively" literally mean "literally"?
A lot of people don't know when to use "me" and "I" "properly". Here's the "rule": "I" is subjective, and "me" is objective. I think the way most people think of it is that "I" comes at the beginning of the sentence, or the end of a list of people. Otherwise, use "me." The question is: When will using "I" in the objective be considered "proper"? Consider the phrase "It is I!" It's considered proper, but how?

There is one other similar arena: manners. The primary reason behind manners is making people around you not feel uncomfortable. Passing smelly gas makes me feel less comfortable. Whether you stick your pinky finger out whilst drinking tea or not does nothing for my comfort level.

I had a landlord that taught me all sorts of manners, like tilting a bowl of soup away from you when you're getting towards the last bit of soup. He wanted to impress on me how my table manners would be the sole factor in how people thought of me. No matter how many orphanages I built and ran, no matter how many homeless people I fed, or illiterates I taught to read, if I picked up my peas with the top side of my fork, I'd always be seen as a little kid in an adult's body.

Like English rules, I find something odd about my attitude towards manners: If I see someone breaking a rule I know about, I think "What an oaf! Don't they know?!" But when I hear a rule that's new to me, I think "What?! You've got to be kidding! That's a rule?! Who came up with that, and on whose authority? That's so....so....so arbitrary!"

My favourite case-in-point is proper spaghetti-eating procedure. Do you use use a spoon or not? Here are some resources that say you don't use a spoon:

And here are some that say you do:

Yahoo Answers
My dad.
That old Italian man I saw eating spaghetti in an Italian restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie.

And this Life in Italy forum has references to both.

So, who's right? Or, like the English language, is "right" a moving target? Who cares? Mostly the people who know the rules. I think that most people who don't know the rules, or even that the rules exist, tend not to care very much....until they know the rules. Then some care.

If you feel compelled to leave a comment to set me straight on something in this post, feel free, but please state on who's or what authority you speak, and where they got their authority.

Decisions Decisions

2010-07-12T20:11:00.001-04:00

My upcoming move represents more than a change of address. It's a change in lifestyle. I haven't lived alone since I was working at MNR and going to university whilst in Sault Ste. Marie. My position at work was by no means permanent, so for financial purposes I had to live like a student. Living like a student means living inexpensively. It means taking furniture because it's cheap or free, not because it looks nice or matches.

This time I have a government job which is a little more long-term. This means I can get furniture based on my tastes. When I move into my new apartment I want to set it up the way I want to set it up. What I'm finding out now is that this means a whole bunch of decisions to be made over the next little while.

How To Move: I could rent a truck or van from a regular car rental place, a big truck from a bigger truck rental place (like Penske), I could get a U-Haul truck, get a friend with a truck, use PODS, or use a moving company.
Cable/Satellite/Rabbit Ears: This one is easy. For a while I've wanted to know if I could go for a whole year without TV. This year I'll find out. When I tell people about this, they usually say "Oh of course, you can download everything from the Internet anyway. I guess you don't really need TV." That's not the point. The point is that I 'm convinced there's a life to be lived that doesn't involve TV.I want to experience more of life! I want to get out and do things! I don't know what things. I'll think of that later. I want to be a better musician. I want to learn French. Maybe work on another Mr. Falcon game.

There are some caveats with this goal. This goal won't prevent me from watching the occasional YouTube clip, DVD, movie (especially at the theatre), TV at other people's homes, etc. The point is to not become addicted to TV. It's a question of habit.

I may re-neg on this goal under a few circumstances. If I suffer a health issue that forces me to have to lie down for long periods, then I might just order a TV, and digital cable. I also might re-neg if I'm wrong and there is no life to be lived out there. Feel free to ask me how this goal is going throughout the year.
Internet and home-phone: This one is getting me dizzy right now. My first inclination was to go cable. The building has a deal with Rogers for cable, Internet, and home-phone. But, after dealing with them for a short time, I didn't like how they do business, so I explained my reasons and told them I was going with Bell.

Other high-speed ISPs are: National Capital Freenet (NCF), Primus, Teksavvy, and Bell. Teksavvy claims they don't offer service in my area, which is false. But I had visions of having to go through a whole hassle every time I called them for something.

Me: "I need help with my bill."
Teksavvy: "I'm sorry. I see your address, and we don't seem to support that area."
Me: "Yes you do. I've been using your Internet, and paying you for months now."
Teksavvy: "That's impossible. Please hold while I check with my supervisor."

No thank you. So I consider the remaining three. When contemplating these, I go in the following circle: I think I should go with the Freenet because it's cheap. Except, they'll charge me extra for not having a home-phone. They don't have tech support staff sitting around to take my call, should I ever need it. For just a few more dollars I can get home-phone and Internet with Bell. I save with Bell because it's a bundle, and I already have my cell phone with them. But, I hate Bell's system when you call them. I hear good things about Primus' customer service. And they have a good Internet + home-phone deal. By this point in my cycle I'm already at $30/month more than I would be if I had just gone with the Freenet. So I should go back to the Freenet. But if I go Freenet, I should go Bell. If I go Bell, I should go Primus.
No. I should go with the Freenet. But if I go Freenet, I should go Bell. If I go Bell, I should go Primus.
No. I should go with the Freenet. But if I go Freenet, I should go Bell. If I go Bell, I should go Primus.
No. I should go with the Freenet. But if I go Freenet, I should go Bell. If I go Bell, I should go Primus.
No. I should go with the Freenet. But if I go Freenet, I should go Bell. If I go Bell, I should go Primus.
Ad nausium, ad infinitum. I don't know what I should do!
Furniture, dishes, cookware, etc.: I was all excited about getting stuff that suits my tastes until I realized I have no taste. That's not to say I have bad taste. I have no taste. I have no opinion. When I look at furniture right now, I'm not thinking about style and comfort. I'm thinking about how easy it will be to get to my apartment, then move if I move out in a year or two.

The last time I had to get dishes I got them from Canadian Tire. I was happy with them.

I also happened to get a 10 piece set of Cuisinart cookware for half price at Canadian Tire at that time.

I'm going to hold off on these decisions until I'm in the apartment. My philosophy is "never pay full price for cookware." Cookware is always on a huge sale somewhere. 30% off is a small sale. 50% off is common.
Cell Phone: My cell phone is starting to die. People complain I sound really far away and quiet, that is, if they can hear me at all. I could just go out and get a new phone. If I sign a three year contract, I could probably get the phone for free. But, my plan doesn't include any data plan. So I'm wondering if it's time to get with the times and get a smart phone with a data plan. That decision became a little easier today. I read that Apple was going to release the iPhone unlocked in Canada. I had been leaning towards the iPhone, but was also contemplating an Android based phone. That announcement clinched it. If I get a smart phone it will be an iPhone.

My main question about the iPhone is convenience of carrying it. My current phone is pretty small. It fits nicely into my pocket. The iPhone looks a little big to fit nicely in my pocket. I'd also be paranoid about it being stolen or broken. If I don't get a smart phone then I'll likely get a regular cell phone and an iPod Touch. Since I can get an unlocked iPhone I could get it, and not even use it as a phone. If it turns out I don't mind carrying it around all the time, I can take it to Bell and start using it as a phone.

What does this decision have to do with moving out? My cost of living is about to increase in mostly unpredictable ways. I don't know if I'll be able to afford a data plan. Only time will tell. It's going to take a little whole for the financial dust to settle. So I'm hoping my phone holds out for a while yet.

UPDATE:Here is what I've decided so far:

How To Move: I rented a cargo van from Enterprise. With the help of Pastor Jack, I loaded the van up at home. Then at night, the Jack, Wendy, and Robin, and two other friends helped me move into the apartment. The unloading of the van took 40 minutes.
Cable/Satellite/Rabbit Ears: So far, so good. I don't have cable. I don't have rabbit ears. Before I left the McQueen's house, I recorded some shows on my computer. I have finally watched them.
Internet and home-phone: I ended up going with National Capital Freenet for Internet. I don't have a home phone.
Furniture, dishes, cookware, etc.: I bought some Paderno cookware on sale. So far, so good.

I bought one set of dishes only to open the box to find out the plates were missing. So I returned them, got another set from the same company. These ones came with extra bowls.

The only furniture I bought was a bed. So far so good. I went to Sleep Country Canada. They had me try a few different mattresses too see which one I felt most comfortable on. He said, by the mattress I picked, I was a native back-sleeper. I thought I was a side-sleeper.
Cell Phone: I'm waiting to decide further on this. My current phone still works.

I'm An Artist Too (127)

2010-07-07T05:46:00.004-04:00

Today's Coffee Cup Art is a picture of me, after I move out of the McQueen's into my own place with sky high rent, parking, and utilities costs. I plan on having no money left over to spend wildly on things like food, and bus passes. I also found out today my insurance is going up. Twice! Once for moving into the city, and again because everyone's insurance is going up.

Yes. Those are moths flying out of my pockets.

My Car, My Hassles (Part 6)

2010-07-05T05:14:00.001-04:00

Long time blog readers will remember just over three years ago I bought a new car; a Saturn Ion. The car has served me well over that time. Very low maintenance. Just some brake work. Until this week.

This week, Ottawa saw some record highs. It went up to 34 degrees on Tuesday, and 35 on Wednesday. While I usually take the bus to work, I drive to work for extreme temperatures. If it's supposed to go above 30 degrees, I drive in. I'd rather have 1 hour in an air conditioned car, than 2 hours in a full, stuffy, stinky, sticky bus.

Everything was fine on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday I drove to work. I didn't need the air conditioning in the morning. In the afternoon, the temperature at Gatineau Airport was 35 degrees Celsius. I was looking forward to my nice, cool car. I got in the car and started it. I turned on the air conditioning. I put my hand up to the vent. Only warm air was blowing through it. I didn't think too much of this. It usually takes a minute or two for the air conditioning to kick in.

After an hour, when I got home, the air blowing through the vent was still warm. I thought that because it was so hot out, the air conditioning system was constantly fighting the warmth outside, and since the car was sitting in a hot parking lot all day, that maybe the whole car was so warm, that by the time the air conditioned air came out of the vents, it had warmed up. I took the car out again in the evening, after it had been sitting in the shade for a while.

Still no cool air.

I opened up the hood to see if there was anything obvious like a big "On/Off" switch stuck in the "Off" position. No such luck. Nothing obvious. So I closed the hood. Except it wouldn't close completely. There are two latches that keep the hood closed. The first one keeps it all the way down. The second one prevents the hood from flying up if the first one fails. The first latch was broken.

This is not good. I was willing to live with out air conditioning for a while, but I need my hood to close. On Thursday I called a local GM dealership to see if I could bring my car in for a servicing. My car is just past the basic warranty plan. I was hoping my extended warranty would cover these repairs too. Air conditioner fixes are not cheap!

When I bought it in, I told the guy I bought the extended warranty. He said the repairs should be covered, minus the deductible. "The deductible will be about $100 or $200. You could have gotten a $0 deductible, but those are usually really expensive, like over $3000."

I said "Yeah, I probably got the $100 deductible. I'm too cheap the pay an extra couple of thousand to save one hundred."

So I left my car there and went to work. He said he'd call me when he knew what was wrong, and what needed to be done to fix it. I got that call in the early afternoon. "Well, the good news is the hood latch just needed to be lubricated, so that was quick and easy. The bad news is we need to replace your air conditioner clutch compressor coil. Now, if you had gotten the extended warranty, it would just cost you the $100 deductible. As it is, it's going to cost you over a grand."

I had a mini heart attack. "I thought I did get the extended warranty."

"Are you sure? Here, let me check the GM system.......Oh yeah! I'm sorry! My mistake! You did get it. You have a $100 deductible."

"Whew!"

"Do you need wheels tonight? We're going to need to keep the car over night. We'll get you a rental for the night - covered by your warranty."

"Yes, please. I need the car to get home."

When I got home, I took out my folder with all my car purchase information. I took out the paper detailing my warranty - called Schedule A. It said I had a $0 deductible. What?! That guy said I had a $100 deductible! I'm being scammed!

Then I took out my "GM Warranty Service Plan," which is something GM sent me after the purchase of my car. It said I had a $100 deductible. Okay. What's going on?

I called GM. I told the customer service representative that Schedule A had different information than the Service Plan. She told me that Schedule A would be correct because that's what I bought at the dealership, and they probably made a mistake when they entered the info into the computer. She told me to fax her Schedule A and she would fix it in the computer. Then I could have the dealership call GM for confirmation if they wanted. I faxed her my Schedule A and waited.

The local dealership that had my car called me to tell me about the repairs. I told them about the $0 deductible, which I had just told GM about, and that they should could call GM to confirm. She checked the computer and said she still saw that it was still a $100 deductible. She told me to get GM to call them.

So I called GM to ask if the change had been entered into the system, and if they could call the dealership to notify them of the changes. The guy at GM told me "Oh yeah, I don't know if the girl who got your Schedule A put it in the system, and she's on break now so I can't ask her. And if she did, it takes 3 business days for the update to go through."

While I wanted to tell him they have these new things called "computers" and "the Internet" that allows information to be updated and disseminated in seconds instead of days, I decided to ask him to call the dealership.

"We don't call the dealerships. If you could get them to call us, we'll happily confirm."

I'm getting dizzy from going around in circles.

"Or you could try to get them to not submit the warranty claim until Tuesday. Or, better yet, you could just pay the $100 + tax deductible now, and on Tuesday call us, and we'll cut you a cheque."

Fat chance. I don't trust companies to do that. Getting money out of companies, even large prosperous companies like GM, to give you money can be harder than plugging an oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. "Look," I explained, "the dealership told me to get you to call them to explain this to them."

"Okay, what dealership did you take it to?" I told him. He put me on hold for a few minutes. He came back and said "Okay, I just spoke to the dealership, and they have the updated information, so you won't charged for anything the warranty covers."

"Thank you very much."

I have to say I thought I was going to have a hassle when I got to the dealership to pay for the car, but I didn't. I got my car back, and drove home with the air conditioning on! Oh it felt so good!

I'm An Artist Too (126)

2010-06-02T05:45:00.010-04:00

The cellmate asks the computer "What are you in for?"

The computer replies "I performed an illegal function call."

I find it humerous when people see that on their computer and think the computer did something in the statutory legal sense and they think the cops are on their way. For those who don't know, when your computer says that, it generally means that something got messed up and a program tried to write to a memory or disc location that it didn't have permissions for, or execution of bad code, or something. It could mean a lot of different things; none of which you need to call your lawyer about.

I'm An Artist Too (125)

2010-05-26T05:45:00.012-04:00

I can't think of anything to write about today's Coffee Cup Art. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Move It On Over - Part 2

2010-05-24T05:57:00.036-04:00

Last year I blogged about my previous moving experiences. It seemed whenever I had to move, I hardly had to look around. There was always an obvious no-brainer choice; a God event. When I went looking last year, there was no obvious no-brainer. There didn't seem to be a God event. Then Jack told me that if I didn't mind uncertainty I could stay with them. It sounded good to me.

Throughout the year, one of the places I looked at kept coming to mind. I would pass it on my drive home from work. I'd be stopped at a light, look up at the building and think "If I had taken that apartment, I'd be home by now." As it was, I had another thirty minutes to drive.

Last Sunday afternoon it has became clear that I would likely have to move out of the McQueen's house. I began to contemplate my options. Apartment vacancy rates are really low. There are still bidding wars over houses. And there was always a chance I could stay in Embrun. I asked God for His guidance. Like Gideon, I put out a fleece. I asked God for a 1 bedroom apartment in the aforementioned building facing East on either the top or bottom floor coming available in July.

On Monday morning I called to ask about available apartments. I told them I was looking for a 1 bedroom apartment for sometime between June and September. They told me "Yes, we have a one bedroom apartment on the top floor coming available in July."

"Oh really. Here's an odd question for you. What direction does that apartment face?"

"East."

"Sweet. I'd like to take a look at it." On Tuesday I was shown the apartment. I filled out an application. On Wednesday I was told my application had been accepted. Then yesterday I signed the lease.

There were three things that really attracted me to this apartment. The first was that it was mostly seniors. I really don't want to live in a building with a lot of students. I like to go to sleep at night. The second thing was that the rent was in the right neighbourhood. If the rent is too low, you're asking for trouble. If the rent is too high, I'd be better off owning. The third thing was the location. It's close to almost everything in my life! Here's a partial list of things it's close to:

Tim Hotons
Country Style Coffee
Blackbelt Baptist Church
At least 2 grocery stores
2 malls - a major one and a minor one.
My favourite multi-screen theatre complex.
Some of my favourite restaurants including an all-you-do-eat sushi restaurant.
A Farmboy
Zellers
Canadian Tire
My dentist
Giant Tiger
Staples Business Depot
FutureShop
The Highway
The Transitway
Chapters
A low-traffic route to and from work.
My bank
A Public Library

Now, there are a few things in my life it's not close to:

My friends.
A Blockbuster Video.
My doctor's office.
My barber
Other things that I'll figure out as I find I need them!

So, now I get to organize a move. I have to reserve the service elevator. Any volunteers? I don't have a lot of stuff.

Church Hopping - Part 4

2010-04-12T05:55:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since Church Hopping - Part 3. Since then, we've mostly been going to Blackbelt Baptist. We did go back to Golgotha Baptist once because they were having a retirement service for the pastor there. Since my last post on the subject, I have visited the following churches:

Fate Anglican Church: This was one of those small churches in a school gym. The pastor didn't like the liberal direction the Anglican church of Canada was going, so he broke off and joined a more conservative network of Anglican churches. You gotta really respect that. So, given what it was - a small church, it wasn't bad. I liked how the pastor had a Q&A period at the end of his sermon. It was different being in back in a liturgical church. I can see how some of those prayers and creeds could get old. They become just words you say every week, but once in a while, they're really good. The authors obviously put a lot of time and effort into them.
Redemption Alliance: The oddest thing about this church was that all the music was played before the sermon. There was no closing song. The music was very good. I enjoyed it much. The people were somewhat friendly. One distracting thing was this one guy on the worship team was wearing a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt. This was in February. It was out of place! Other than that, it seemed to be a run of the mill church. Nothing special either way.
Oak Orchard Church: Every so often Blackbelt Baptist and Oak Orchard Church have combined services. They also combine for their youth oriented groups. I've been to Oak Orchard twice; once in a combined service, and once in a regular service. The music was always very good. The people were really friendly. I haven't been assaulted with that many "Hello and who are you?"s since Beaver Creek Baptist Church. They do communion every week, which is odd to me. For communion, they just have one loaf of bread that everyone breaks a piece off of. The germophobe in me doesn't like this. Thankfully I brought my hand sanitizer with me that morning. Then the speaker, who wasn't the pastor, started speaking. He was to give a "quick summation" of the life of Joseph. This "quick summation" took a long time. I think it would have been just as fast to read that portion out of Genesis. All in all, it wasn't bad. I'd go back a few times.
Village Baptist: The music was odd. They had a lot of talented musicians, but the layout was different. They had two stages. On the main stage stood the guitarist, two vocalists, and an old-school choir. On the second stage sat the bass guitarist, an electric guitarist, a keyboardist, and the drummer. I find it really odd to have a choir singing contemporary worship music. But, they made it work. The preaching wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. And no one, not even the ushers, said "Hi" to me. I won't be going back.
Riverview: I enjoyed this service. There was a huge young adults group. I think they took up about 4 or 5 pews. I haven't seen that since my church in Sault Ste. Marie. One guy came over to talk to me and invite me to sit with the young adults. The preaching was decent. The music was good, although they lacked a drummer. (Ohhhhh, if only I lived closer to that church!) I'd go back.
Glebe Baptist: One morning when I was staying in the Glebe I didn't feel like driving very far so I decided to check out Glebe Baptist. It reminded me of my church in Sault Ste. Marie. The old wooden pews, with red carpet was like my Sault church. The percentage of the pews filled up was about the same was the Sault church when I left. And, they had an old-school choir, just like my Sault church when I moved there. Besides the piano and organ, this choir was accompanied by a bass guitarist. I thought this to be odd. That's usually one of the last instruments to be added to a worship team. There's not a lot of bass guitarists out there. They even did a contemporary worship song. The preaching wasn't too bad, except the preacher kept saying how Christ died for us out of his love for, and devotion to us. I thought Christ died for us because of his love for, and devotion to his father. Perhaps that point is debatable? Anyway, A few people came up to me and introduced themselves to me, so I felt welcomed.
Chedarview Alliance: I'm writing this the day I went to Chedarview. Let me say, it was not a good morning. It all started on Saturday when I had a late lunch. I skipped supper that night. I intended on a breakfast at Tim Hortons on Sunday morning on the way to church. I had picked the Tim Hortons closest to the church so I could stay and enjoy my breakfast sandwich. When I got to Tim Hortons, it was closed for renovations! I was hungry, grumpy and not happy! I drove around Farhaven looking for another Tim Hortons, and all I could find were gas station Tim Hortons. I wanted to sit down and read a book. I didn't want drive-thru! I decided to go to church hungry and get a big lunch afterwords. When I got to church, no one said "hi" or shook my hand - not even the guy handing out the bulletins. That was disappointing. The music was tight. But the preacher went on and on and on. And on. He was the freakin' Energizer Bunny. He just didn't stop. Even the best preachers start getting stale at 40 minutes. This guy was far from the best. I expected he's preach for about 30 minutes. After 45 minutes of preaching. I noticed people getting up and leaving. I would have left too except I wanted to know how long he intended to bore us. Was he planning on keeping us there until Jesus came back? It felt like it. After 50 minutes he finally closed in prayer. (My prayer was one of thankfulness.) The worship team cut their last set down to one verse of one song. I won't be going back.

Stick a Fork in 2009; it's done!

2010-04-05T06:10:00.021-04:00

2009 has been a pretty bad year for those of us living in the McQueen household. I am writing this on New Years Day, 2010. Now that the year is over, I'll write about why it was so bad.

The bad stuff started happening in December of 2008, so I'm going to lump that in with 2009.

Some things are worse than others. As the year started showing a trend of being "one thing after another", I started keeping track with a list. The first part of the list was the order I remembered things happening. After that, I added to the list as things happened.

The following order is the order of the list I recorded.

The OC Transpo Bus Strike: This started in December and lasted two months. By the time they put the rural buses back one, it was four months. I take a rural bus. I had to drive in to work every day for four months. I live far away from work. I put 8000 kilometres on my car in that time.
My health: Normally I don't get sick. I might get two colds a year, and that's it. This year I got four colds - twice as many as usual. But the worst of it was I got the stomach flu twice. I got it in December a few days before I went to Halifax for Christmas. I threw up for the first time in 18 years. Not cool. Then I had a relapse when I was home in Halifax.
The Economy: We're in the worst recession in a long time. Some were comparing it to the 30s. I don't think it was quite that bad - at least in Canada, but it was still pretty bad.
Pandemic: While the Swine Flu pandemic turned out to be pretty tame, it still was, by definition, a pandemic. It was a new virus that few people had immunity to that was hitting young people harder than old. It was the first pandemic in 41 years.
Pastor Jack Left Yahoo! Baptist: The very day I returned from Halifax from my Christmas vacation I found out Pastor Jack would be leaving Yahoo! Baptist. For the McQueens it would mean changes were likely on the horizon. They would probably move before too long. They would be facing unemployment in the worse economic situation in years. This would not be a year of plenty for them. It also had implications for me. If the McQueens moved, so would I . If I moved, I would surely face a huge rent increase. If my rent increased substantially, the possibility of finishing off my pilot's license in the near future would be pretty small. There goes that life goal.
Being on-call at work: Due to the recession, the Government of Canada put forth an Economic Action Plan which included an EI workload increase. So a bunch of us had to do some on-call time. I hate being on-call. I've done it three times before. I hated it.
Euphoria drinks rose in price: Euphoria is a store near by that sells smoothies and fruit drinks. They're really good, but a bit expensive. They just got more expensive. It's not a big deal. Just an annoyance.
July was the wettest on record: This summer stunk because it was really wet. The days were cool and the nights were warm. I want the opposite. I don't care if it goes above 30 in the day, I want to get cool at night. Instead, in the summer of 2009, it would get up to about 22 in the day, and go down to 19 at night. It was very humid. It was very hard to sleep. If I had continued to work on my pilot's license, I wouldn't have gotten very far due to the weather. So, at least the weather wasn't taunting me. :)
Pastor Jack fell off the roof, and broke his ankle: Being out of work is bad enough - this was just terrible.
The McQueen's car made several trips to the garage: They're out of work. The last thing they need is a failing car!
Corner Gas ended: This is a minor one. I really enjoyed that show. Now it's over.
Record Federal Deficit: The last time there was a record federal deficit in Canada was in the 90s. In order to balance the books, the government slashed a lot of programs. In the process they cut about 45 000 - 50 000 federal public servant positions. If they do that again, I don't have enough seniority to survive. So, this causes me to worry about my job security.
Saturn Dealerships closed: Saturn had such potential. But now it's over. GM says that any GM dealership should be able to fix my Saturn, but Saturn has a few parts that are different from other GM cars. I want to sell my Saturn and replace it with a car from a company that's still in business, but I'd never get for my Saturn what it's worth to me.

That's 13 items. I can count at least eight more that didn't make it onto this blog because....well somethings just don't belong on the Internet for all to see.

But, it wasn't all bad. Let's look a the bright side of 2009:

I got to fly First Class to Halifax at Christmas time.: 'Nuff said
The McQueens didn't have to sell their house.: God really provided for them and allowed them to stay. Since they got to stay, so did I. While, I didn't get to resume working on my pilot's license, I was able to put some money away. If they (and I) can manage to stay there for another year my question won't be "What apartment building should I move to?" But "What condo building should I buy a condo in?"
The McQueen kids got to go all over the world for school.: Bruce returned to Vancouver. Jane went to LA. Robin got to go to England.

So far, 2010 is shaping up to be a better year for me. The federal budget came down in March, and it seems as though my job is safe....for another year anyway. It has been a beautiful winter. As I write this, I'm living in the Glebe for a few weeks. Sweet!

Concentrated Bad Luck

2010-03-29T06:18:00.057-04:00

I have some theories on luck. My first theory is something called the "Universal Luck Constant" meaning there's only so much good luck to go around in the universe. If you use up a lot of luck in one area, there's less to go around in another. For example: one time my friend and I parked out car in the city to play pool for an hour or two. We didn't put any money in the parking meter - thus risking a parking ticket. We both played one of the worst games of pool in our lives. We couldn't sink a ball to save our lives. When we returned to the car, there was no ticket. We used up all our luck by not getting a ticket. We had no luck left over to play pool.

Another theory about luck is that you can have a lot of bad luck in a short amount of time, but then things turn around afterwords. In February of 2008 I had a really bad month. This is what happened (in chronological order):

It snowed a lot: That was the February of an almost record breaking winter. Pastor Jack went to Jamaica on a missions trip. Robin went to Italy on a class trip. The other two kids were away at school. This left Wendy and I at home. So I did as much of the shovelling as I could. It snowed 4 our of every 5 days. Shovelling was a daily chore. I was really getting tired of it. Ottawa almost broke a record that winter for amount of snow.
My uncle died: This was, by far, the worst part of that February. He should have lived to 120 years. It was the uncle with whom I lived when I lived in Toronto. He is greatly missed.
I ordered a used CD online, and when I got it, it was damaged.: I blogged about this before. The day I received the CD was the day my uncle died. I decided to deal with the CD when I returned from Toronto. When I returned, I found out the deadline for returns had passed.
My camera stopped working: It was hard to describe what was wrong with the CD, so I decided to take a picture. When I did that, I saw that my camera wasn't working.
My first cavities in years: Since my last trip to the dentist I had taken better care of my teeth than ever before, yet I got a cavity. Two of them, in fact. For the first time in my life, I was confident that this trip to the dentist would end well. It didn't. I had two cavities! I began to suspect a dental conspiracy. When I got the cavities filled my dentist took liberties and did some other work that I hadn't asked her to do. That extra work wasn't covered by my insurance. This eventually broke down my trust in her, so I had to find another dentist. You have to trust your health care providers.
A button fell off my jacket: I found this nice corduroy jacket at The Bay. I wear it at work. Then a button fell off. Upon examination, I saw a second button was getting close to falling off. No big deal - I'd just sew them back on.
I lost my sewing kit: This is not a big deal. My sewing kit is one of the $2 kits you find in the dollar store. It has some thread, a few needles, scissors, etc. It wasn't a huge deal, just an annoyance. I wasn't able to sew a button that had fallen off my jacket (see above).
My desktop computer stopped working: The day I realized I lost my sewing kit, I decided I wanted to watch a DVD on my desktop computer. When I turned the computer on, it didn't work. The video card was broken. Oh well, I still had my laptop. My laptop only has a 12" monitor, but it's better than nothing. And, it's an Apple so it "just works."
The DVD software in my laptop stopped working.: When I inserted the DVD, and the DVD software started, my computer froze. I rebooted and tried again. It froze again. I tried starting the DVD software without inserting a DVD into the computer. The computer froze. I looked around the Interwebs and found out that on my specific laptop model (12" PowerBook G4) the DVD software with that specific version of Mac OS X didn't work. I had to wait for Apple to fix the problem and release a patch.

As the last thing happened I was really starting to loose it. Everything was going wrong that month. The last four items happened on the same day. The only good thing that happened that month was that I signed my indeterminate contract at work. That means there is no determined end to my employment with the federal government. Other than that, everything was going wrong. When I couldn't watch a DVD that day on either of my computers, I just grabbed my iPod and listened to some soothing music whislt lying in the fetal position on my bed.

See how all that luck was concentrated into that one month?

Then March began. This is what happened in March:

I re-ordered that CD: It was in perfect condition when I received it. In the end I spent as much on the two used CDs as I would have spent on one new CD.
My camera got fixed: On a whim, I took my camera into Blacks to ask if they had seen my problem before. The guy at Blacks looked at it and told me "Yes I have seen this. In fact, that's a known problem with these cameras. Cannon is aware of the problem, and they're fixing this problem for free, regardless of warranty status." He told me how to go about getting it fixed. Yay!! I didn't have buy a new camera!
I learned a lot about oral health: My suspicion of the dental profession led me to do a lot of research. I found out some things like how cavities can heal themselves given the right conditions. I discovered something called xylitol, an all-natural sugar substitute that kills the bacteria that causes things like cavities, gum disease, inner-ear infections, and some throat infections. There's also evidence that it helps the bones absorb calcium. It has 40% of the calaries of sugar. It's digested independently of insulin, so it's safe for diabetics. The only downsides are that it's a wee bit expensive, and hard to find. I did find it in January of 2009, and I've had great dental reports since then.
I found my sewing kit: This happened within the first couple of days of March. I found it in the jacket that had the missing button. When I found it, I knew the month was starting to turn around. I promptly fixed the buttons on that jacket.
Apple patched their DVD player software: Apple released the patch, which I installed allowing me to watch DVDs on my laptop again!

I thought it was so funny how everything was concentrated into February of that month. By the end of the month I was really feeling defeated by life. Once March arrived, things started turning around immediately. Then life returned to normal.

I also noticed something about bad luck. Only one of those things was really bad; my uncle passing away. The rest of them were small. The thing that made them seem worse was that it felt like every single day something else went wrong. Even if it was just coming home and having to shovel a foot of snow off the driveway. By February the snowbank at the corner of the driveway was about 8 feet tall, and it was quite the feat of strength throwing snow over that hill. The bad luck incidences were accumulative. Eventually you just need something to go right.

So that is an example of Concentrated Bad Luck. 2009 was like that too, and I'll get to that later.

Here's a Dilbert comic illustrating the Universal Luck Constant:

The Dental Conspiracy

2010-03-22T05:57:00.045-04:00

When I was growing up, I found my oral health didn't seem to be connected to my oral care. The more I brushed and flossed, the more cavities I got. When I brushed and flossed less, I got fewer, or no cavities. When I was in college I never went to the dentist, and I was pretty slack about brushing and flossing. When I was in university, I went to the dentist. I expected to have 17 cavities, 5 extractions, and 2 root canals. Instead, the dentist said "Well, you have no cavities, but you need to brush and floss more." So I did. Diligently.

Two years later, once I had my job with dental benefits, I went to the dentist again. For the first time in my life I was confident I would have a good check-up. I had brushed twice every day. I flossed more than I ever had before. When I would drink sugary drinks, I would immediately chase them down with water. Take a sip of Pepsi, then a sip of water.

The dentist took a look, and some X-Rays and said "You have two cavities."

WHAT?! That doesn't make sense! I neglect my teeth, I'm fine. I take care of them and I get two cavities?! I suspected a dental conspiracy. I looked around the Internet for evidence to support my theory and couldn't find much. But, I did find an awful lot of information, which I will share with you now in the form of myths and facts.

Sugar causes cavities: It doesn't. Acid causes cavities. Acid slowly dissolves the minerals in your enamel. Eventually, your enamel becomes weak and worn away, and a hole appears. That's a cavity. A certain strain of bacteria uses sugar to replicate and create acid. Acid can also come in the form of acidic food (like oranges and lemons), acidic drinks, or your saliva could be acidic.
The only way to fix cavities is to have them filled: The truth is that your saliva has minerals in it that strengthens tooth enamel. But, the more acidic your mouth is, the longer that process will take. In fact, if your mouth is acidic enough, or for much of the time, the cavity will grow faster than the minerals will be replenished. If you put your mouth into a non-acidic condition, you can remineralize your teeth with your saliva.
Fluoride in our water prevents cavities: No, it doesn't - sort of. It's true that fluoride, in very small doses, can help teeth remineralize. In order for fluoride to work on your teeth, it needs to be in contact with your teeth. Fluoride in a mouth wash, or in toothpaste will help, but in drinking water, it won't do much once you've swallowed the water. While I didn't find any dental conspiracy, I did find a fluoride conspiracy. Fluoride is an industrial byproduct. In the bloodstream it can be extremely harmful to people and animals. It's true that cities keep fluoride levels low enough not to harm most people. But if you drink more water than most, you may consume more fluoride than is harmless to you. The bottom line is this: A dilute fluoride rinse (0.05% Sodium Fluoride) in a mouth wash is good for your teeth. Due to the nature of fluoride, a stronger concentration is not necessarily better than a weaker one. Stick with a 0.05% sodium fluoride mouth wash.
Sugar-Free gum is good for your teeth: That depends. It's true only if your sugar-free gum has the right sweetener in it. It probably doesn't. It probably has sorbitol, manitol, aspertame, and/or maltitol in it. None of those are good for you. Most sugar-free gums use sorbitol as the main sweetener. The bad bacteria in your mouth quickly learn how to use sorbitol instead of sugar. These sweeteners can cause gastro-intestinal problems. The sweetener you want to look for is xylitol. Xylitol is an all-natural sweetener that the bad bacteria in your mouth never learn to use, even after years of exposure. Xylitol also makes your mouth alkaline, so your saliva can remineralize your teeth. Look for Xylitol gum at your local health food stores.
Xylitol will give you diarrhea: It's true that in large quantities xylitol will give approximately one third of the population loose stools until their system becomes used to it. But, for dental purposes, you only need about 6.5 grams to 10 grams a day. You don't even need to swallow it. You can chew xylitol gum.
If Xylitol were so great, why don't we hear more about it?: Good question. I've found that some dentists are somewhat aware of the existence of xylitol as a molecule, but are unaware of it's dental benefits. Either that, or they don't want you to know too much. It could really cut down a dentist's business. :) The only downside to xylitol I can find is that it's expensive compared to other sweeteners. It's also not appropriate for all types of baking.
Sealants will help protect my molars from cavities: They will as long as they were applied correctly, and they stay on perfectly. Once they start wearing down, cavities can form beneath them that can't be seen with the naked eye. Besides, sealants don't fix the problem. They're a band-aid solution, except it's like putting on a band-aid before even getting a cut. Wouldn't it be better to fix the problem (ie: bacteria and acidic saliva)?
It's a good idea to take dental advice from a computer programmer.: It's not. Don't do it. (BTW: I'm a computer programmer, darn it, not a dentist!) It's better to take dental advice from a dentist. This dentist maintains a blog where she answers people's questions. It's really quite informative. She wrote a book called Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye where she explains things more fully. She has come up with an easy system you can use to keep your teeth healthy and shiny. You can buy the products from her site, but you can buy them elsewhere with no profit to her.

A Class All It's Own

2010-01-25T06:25:00.004-05:00

Late vacation approvals are ruining me. A few years ago, when I was a student on a co-op work term, I didn't think I was going to be able to go home for Christmas for more than a weekend. So I bought a ticket to go home on Friday, and return Sunday. Then I was told I could take a few more days off. I would still return to work as originally planned, but I could leave for Halifax a few days earlier.

When I went to change my booking, the only seats available were in First Class. They weren't too expensive, so I bought them.

If you've never flown First Class, I highly recommend it. It's not the same as being upgraded to First Class. Buying a First Class ticket is different.

When you arrive at the airport, you check your bags in a different line. It's a shorter line. Then you go through security like everyone else. Then, with Air Canada, you get to enjoy complementary access to their Maple Leaf Lounge. The lounge has Internet access, a TV, free food, drinks (including wine and beer, and other alcoholic beverages). (Okay, it's not free. It's included in the price of the ticket.)

When it's time to go to your flight, you can board at anytime. You get a bigger seat with more leg room You always have either a window seat, or an aisle seat. You get a meal with complementary alcoholic beverages. It's a much nicer experience.

Then, when your flight touches down, you're amongst the first off the plane. When you get to the baggage claim, at some airports they have a special carousel for first class bags. From the moment the plane comes to a complete stop, they have a certain amount of time before the first "priority" bag appears on the "priority" carousel. When I worked at Pearson in Toronto, they had a special priority carousel. They don't have one in Halifax. I had to wait for my luggage with everyone else.

That year, when I flew back to Ottawa I flew coach. I left first thing in the morning. I had a three hour stop-over in Montreal. My first class experience made that all the harder.

I haven't flown first class since - until this year. Our vacation approvals came in a little close to the requested dates. When I checked flight prices I could have flown pretty cheaply, but I would have had another three hour stop-over in Montreal, and an arrival in Halifax after midnight, which is like the middle of the night to me. In order to get a flight at a decent time, it was only a few dollars more to get a ticket under Air Canada's new "Lower Executive" class. It has a few more restrictions than their full Executive class. But, for all intents and purposes, it's First Class.

I'm glad I did get those tickets. My flight to Halifax was delayed by 7 hours. My flight back to Ottawa was delayed by two and a half hours. Let me tell you, if you have to spend 7 hours in an airport, you want to be in the Maple Leaf lounge.

Here are a couple of videos to highlight the differences between First Class and Economy:

The Decline of Tim Hortons

2009-12-21T05:49:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, Pastor Jack and I went to the local Tim Hortons in Embrun. They had just finished renovations. There was a whole new look and feel. For the most part it was good. But one thing was different that I didn't like: The sandwich bar was at the back, facing the back wall. It used to be off to the side, facing the customers. Now, the poor sandwich lady had to shout to one end of the store asking Jack about his bagel, then the other end to shout something to me about my sandwich.

I have watched Tim Hortons go from a really nice place to go for a snack and hang-out to a place I don't want to go to at all. It's time I blogged about it.

When I was in high school I used to go to Timmies all the time with friends. I'd get a hot chocolate and two oatmeal-raisin cookies. The hot chocolate was smooth and delicious. The cookies were big and soft. Over time the cookies got smaller and harder. They were no longer appetizing.

This was long before their switch to "Always Fresh" where they stopped baking the products at the local Tim Hortons' and started baking at a central location, freezing the product, and shipping it out to the individual stores. I know a lot of people were disappointed with this change. They felt the quality of the donuts, muffins, etc. really went downhill.

Then they got new hot chocolate machines. They used to have a dedicated hot chocolate machine. Then they got machines that would dispense hot chocolate and "cappuccinos". I suspect they got a new hot chocolate formula at this time too. The quality of the drink went down the drain. I switched from hot chocolate to tea.

The nice things about tea is that I can control how long the tea has been steeping in the cup, and it's one price no matter what size you get. I like weak tea. I like the fact I can take the bag out of the cup when I want.

Then they changed that! They introduced steeped tea. I got it once. Once was enough. I couldn't finish the stuff. I had to pour it out. Oh well, I usually got Earl Grey tea anyway. Their Ear Grey tea isn't steeped. It only comes in individual bags.

Then I went in one day ready to beat the system by getting a large Earl Grey tea. I could let it steep for as little, or long, as I wanted. Then I was charged extra for the large! A large tea is not any more product than a small. It's one tea bag! The only difference is the size of the cup and the amount of water! This was the last straw. No more Tim Hortons for me! Now I only go to Tim Hortons as a last resort. Unfortunately, in Embrun there really isn't much else. If I'm willing to drive to Vars I'll go to the Country Style by the exit. (It turns out Country Style coffee is way better than Tim Hortons coffee.)

Now, they've changed the location of the sandwich bar. Jack likes to get a bagel with butter. They usually put too much butter on his bagel for his taste, so he likes to tell them to go easy on the butter. Now that they're way over behind the cash, with their back to him, it's a lot harder to ask for that. Interaction with your sandwich artist is important. They have taken that away from us.

Another thing, which may be only at the Embrun Timmies, is they no longer have napkins on the tables. That is so annoying! You're comfortably sitting down, you get some schmultz on your hands, and you have to get up, and go over to the busy counter to look for a napkin.

To recap, the ways Tim Hortons has gone downhill over the last several years are as follows:

The Hot Chocolate quality;
The quality of the cookies;
The "Always Fresh"way of providing baked goods;
Steeped Tea;
Greedy tea pricing schemes;
Relocation of the Sandwich Bar; and
No more napkins on the tables.

It hasn't been all bad. In that time, Tim Hortons has introduced cappuccinos, Bagels, Sandwiches, Soups, Chilli, and made all restaurants non-smoking.

All these complaints. Tim Hortons will never listen to me. Now, if only I had a friend who worked for Tim Hortons head office.....

Wake Up! It's Time To Sneeze!

2009-12-07T05:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I was pretending to sleep for a long period of time. (Long story. Don't ask. Not bloggable. Yet.) Then something happened. I felt a tickle in my nose. It was coming. There was nothing I could do about it. I was about to sneeze!

There are things you can do to prevent sneezes. There are certain pressure points you can touch to stop the sneeze. You can stifle it. But you can't do any of these when you're pretending to be asleep. I asked myself "Quick! How would a sleeping person handle a sneeze?" I didn't have an answer.

I decided the jig was up. My cover was blown. (Pun intended.) No more pretending to sleep. I covered my mouth with my arm (a move I invented, by the way) and let loose.

It got me thinking. Can you sneeze while sleeping? I don't remember ever waking up to sneeze. I don't think I've heard of anyone waking up to sneeze. I suppose you could sneeze in you sleep, but surely it would wake you up! When you're sick with gastroenteritis (a.k.a. "Stomach Flu"), you wake up to go to the toilet. But, what about sneezing?

I thought about asking Quirks and Quarks - a science program on CBC, but that could take too long to get an answer. So I decided to ask Mr. Google.

It turns out, you can't sneeze while sleeping - sort of. Sneezing is a neurological reaction to stimuli in the body. But the reaction is processed in the brain. When you're asleep, you're brain is in a different state than when you're awake, and it doesn't respond to normal sneeze-inducing stimuli - unless the stimulus is strong enough.

I guess the only thing to say now is "gesundheit!"

I'm Tired Of The Pressure (Part 2)

2009-11-30T05:22:00.006-05:00

On Monday I drove in to work. When I walked out I saw one of my tires was looking a little low. Sometimes the tires just look low, but they're not. I decided it would be a good idea to check the pressure just in case. I did. It was low. Of course, when I was checking the pressure I noticed something was lodged into the treads. A nail!

I managed to get my car into Canadian Tire (where I bought the tires) where they took out the nail and fixed the tire.

If this blog post is causing you deja vu, that's because I blogged about something similar last week. In real life, these two incidents were about a month apart. That's right. Two nails in two tires within a month!

I'm Tired Of The Pressure

2009-11-23T05:41:00.004-05:00

One day shortly after I got home from work, Wendy was outside. She came in and yelled at me to check my tires. One of them looked flat.

Sure enough, when I went outside it was looking pretty low. I got out my tire pressure gauge and checked. As I bent down I saw something stuck in the treads. It looked like a little piece of metal. I started to push it, thinking it was just stuck. As I did, I heard the "psssssssst" of a deflating tire, and I saw the threads of a screw coming through the rubber of the tire!

The time was 5:30. I tried calling the dealership to see if it was something they could repair, and, if so, make an appointment for the next day. They close at 5:30. I couldn't get through. There was no guarantee of an appointment the next day. I checked the 14 day forecast to see if it would be going above 15 degrees much. Thankfully, it wasn't. I had an hour of daylight left. I scrambled and got my winter tires on in just over an hour.

When I got the tires on, I checked the pressure. 3 of the tires were right about where they should be - within 1 psi. One of them was down 20 psi! Great! Now I have to keep an eye on that tire all winter.

It's been a few weeks now. So far so good.

This Is All Very Draining

2009-11-16T05:56:00.011-05:00

Back in June, the main upstairs bathroom - the one I use - got a new sink. When the plug was raised, it wasn't very high. This caused the water to drain rather slowly.

One night, when I was shaving, I was trying to get the water to drain faster. I was jiggling it, and it stopped moving up and down with the controller. So I had to figure out (with shaving cream all over my face) how that worked. I managed to get it fixed.

As I was planning on getting some Draino to clear out the sink I heard a clunk somewhere in the pipes and the water drained really fast. Cool. Problem solved.

The next morning as I was taking a shower, I noticed the water wasn't leaving the tub at all. It seemed that the blockage in the sink pipes had moved into the tub pipes. I didn't have time to investigate until after work.

When I got home Wendy and Jack told me that they put Draino in the tub. This cleared out the tub pipes, but pushed some black gunk into the tub in their washroom. This blockage seemed to move from one set of pipes to another.

I believe they got that sorted out by now.

What About Singing In The Shower?

2009-11-13T06:12:00.015-05:00

A while ago I blogged about an auto-body shop in Britain that turned up their radio loud enough to be heard by the public. They were sued for copyright infringement.

I thought, and still think, that's ridiculous for the following reasons:

The very nature of radio broadcasts are public, not private. This is not a fuzzy statement, as one commenter said. Radio waves are fluctuations in the electro-magnetic spectrum which exists all around us.
Radio signals are easy to convert into sound signals. Spock can do this with egg cartons and tin foil.
Radio signals aren't encrypted.
If you own a radio station that plays music, you've (presumably) paid for the right to play that music over the airwaves on your frequency. The rights to the music have been purchased.
Playing music over the radio is a promotion device. It promotes the album, the band, and any concerts, etc.
If you own a radio station, you likely want as many people listening as possible, not as few as possible.
If you're a band trying to sell albums and concert tickets, you likely want as many people listening to your music on the radio.
As a radio listener, I don't buy the right to listen to the radio. The right to listen to any station it can pick up is implied. By not encrypting the radio signals, it's implied that if I own a radio, the radio station wants me to listen to their station.
At the risk of beating a dead horse: if you own a radio station, concerning what goes over the air, you have NO expectation of privacy.

Anyway. Suffice it to say, I think they went too far with that.

Then I read Today's Article! This time, the British equivalent of the RIAA told a shop to turn down their radio because it could be heard by the public. *spits on floor* So the store did. But one of the shop workers liked music. If she couldn't listen to the radio, she'd make her own music, Gosh Golly Darn it! So she sang to herself as she stocked the shelves.

She was then contacted by the PRS and told she needed a performer's licnese to do that! A performer's license for singing to yourself while you work! Well, you'd better fine me too! I listen to my iPod at work, and sometimes, I hum along with the song I'm listening to.

I shouldn't have to explain why this is ridiculous, but after the last time, I think probably will.

At least in this case, the PRS realized they were being donkeys, and sent her an apology, along with a bouqet of flowers. How nice.

All Dried Up

2009-11-09T05:50:00.009-05:00

The night before Jane left to school this summer, she did a laundry. Unfortunately, not all of her laundry had dried by the time it was time to go. Wendy informed me of this after my laundry was still very wet after spending over two hours in the dryer.

This is not good.

When I opened the dryer door I was hit with scalding hot moist air. The dryer was obviously getting warm, but my clothes weren't drying at all! Something like this had happened a few years ago, and I wasn't looking forward to spending more time at a laundromat again.

When I took out the lint trap, it had tons of red lint. I cleaned it off, ran the dryer for another minute or two, and looked at the lint trap again. Same thing. Tons of lint. It looked like a red sweater exploded in there!

It was soon time for me to go to bed. Wendy said she'd be up for a little while later, and she'd make sure the dryer kept going. When I got up the next day, there my clothes were: dry! Thank you Wendy!

That day I decided I was going to research how dryers worked. I didn't actually do that, but I did mention the problem to some people who told me to try cleaning everything out, even the vent on the outside of the house.

When I got home I pulled a huge hand-full of lint from the vent on the outside of the house. I went inside and Wendy told me she spent time cleaning out the dryer.

The following week, the dryer worked great! I was so happy. I didn't want to have to think about getting a new dryer.

Earlier this week, I noticed the washing machine was making funny noises. Uh-oh!

United Breaks Guitars, and Looses Luggage

2009-11-06T06:09:00.016-05:00

Remember that guy (Dave Carroll of Sons of Maxwell) whose guitar was damaged while travelling with United Airlines?

In Today's Article Dave was flying "to Colorado Springs to give a keynote address at a customer-service and social-networking conference, and also to perform his hit, United Breaks Guitars." The only direct flight he could get was with United Airlines. When he got to Colorado Springs, he found that United has lost his luggage.

I'm not sure if this is more sad or funny. It is ironic, though.

Take A Light Brake

2009-11-02T05:57:00.000-05:00

Where were we? Oh yeah. Last I wrote, the McQueen household was really busy, and they had to take their car in to the garage for the third time in four weeks.

Since then, Jane, Bruce, and now Robin, have gone to school. Wendy and Jack are emtpy-nesters with the exception of me. I'm experiencing only-child status.

Before the kids left - about a week or two after the McQueens had their car brakes fixed, they noticed the brake lights weren't working! You can't have that! Back to the garage they went, with me following close enough behind so that no one would get in between and accidentally rear-end them, all the while watching them close enough so that I wouldn't rear-end them!

I think that's 4 times in 5 or 6 weeks. Ouch.

That was back in August. I'm writing this in October, and I'm happy to say that they haven't had any car troubles since. I, on the other hand.....well, we'll save that for a further post.

Hands-Free Phone Law in Ontario

2009-10-30T05:57:00.034-04:00

If you were driving down the road, talking on your cell phone and there was a clown on a unicycle, do you think you'd see him? Would it make a difference if you used a hands-free phone?

Probably not, according to today's Article.

The reason is obvious to those who know anything about attention. You can only really pay attention to one thing at a time. We multitask the way a computer does, but we're not nearly as good at switching from one process to another. The problem is not that you're holding something in your hand. The problem is attention.

If you think the problem is holding something in your hand, try this. The next time you're driving, try holding something in your hand. Heck! Try holding your phone in your hand without using it to talk. There shouldn't be significant degradation in your driving skills. (This may be hard for you to measure. Most people don't notice the degradation in their driving skills when talking on the phone, fiddling with the radio, or polishing off a 2-4.) In fact, if you have an automatic transmission in your car, you can regularly drive with one hand.

Furthermore, if driving with only one hand was as unsafe as driving drunk, then everyone who's either missing an arm or hand shouldn't be allowed to have a drivers licence. And anyone with an unusable hand, due to injury or something, should lose their licence until they recover.

I guess the biggest problem would be for people who talk with their hands. If they're holding their phone with one hand, and gesturing with the other, then they're not steering their car.

So, if the problem isn't having something in your hand, but attention, then why are we passing laws that say "It's okay to be distracted when you drive, as long as you're not distracted while holding something in one hand."?

Hot Chicks -> Dumb Men

2009-10-23T06:02:00.000-04:00

This may come as shocking news to you, but according to Today's Article, men actually get stupider in the presence of beautiful women. But, attractive men don't have that effect on women.

Jeez! I could have told you that! And I could even have told you why....as long as their wasn't a beautiful woman near by.

I'm An Artist Too (124)

2009-10-14T11:06:00.000-04:00

This guy discovers a new mole on his back. Incidentally, according to this article in New Scientist, the Naked Mole Rat never gets cancer.

I'm An Artist Too (123)

2009-10-07T17:54:00.000-04:00

Nobody wants to address the elephant in the room.

I'm An Artist Too (122)

2009-09-30T05:54:00.002-04:00

Fear him, for he is Mr. Falcon.

United Breaks Guitars - Part II

2009-09-25T06:00:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago I blogged about a guy who's guitar was broken while flying with United Airlines.

As an update: He was offered compensation for his guitar, but he turned it down. He wanted to go ahead with his songs. He wrote the second one and posted the video on YouTube. Here it is:

It seems, according to today's article he, Dave Carroll, has now gone to Washington DC to talk to a hearing on airline passenger rights.

I'm An Artist Too (121)

2009-09-23T05:59:00.003-04:00

I don't know if you can see it, but the guy's feet are sticking out of the bottom of his shoes. The woman's asking what happened to his shoes. He's saying he sold his soles to the devil. The devil is walking away, realizing he just got hosed in a business deal, punning that it stinks.

Another Busy/Regular Weekend at the McQueens

2009-08-24T05:53:00.003-04:00

Some work places have a sign that says "It's been ____ days since our last accident." I think The McQueens could have a similar sign: "It's been ___ hours since our last guest."

On Friday I got home to find two cars parked outside our house. They belonged to this couple who are friends with Jack and Wendy. They decided to bring food over for us. They brought the main course and dessert. The main course was delicious. The dessert, however, was this opaque green stuff with brown crumbs in it. I won't go into any details, but I didn't feel good after dinner. And after Jane's sickness last week (Jane had a stomach flu that was supposed to last for several days), I started getting worried. The next morning I felt fine. I was told that the brown crumblies were bran muffins. So, that explains that! I felt much better.

After dinner on Friday night, as we were watching Jeopardy!, a neighbour, Lois, was out for a walk and saw all the cars outside our house. She thought "The McQueens must have company!" So she went to M&M Meats and got some food and brought it over for us!

When the company left, I went to bed, at which point Jane and Robin each had a guest over. Thankfully I didn't hear them. I was completely oblivious.

I got up on Saturday morning and sat in the art studio reading. I saw another neighbour, Sol, and his daughter, walking in front of the house. They stopped by, intending on a 15 minute visit. The next thing you know, Sol's wife was over. She brought corn on the cob. We made the food that Lois brought over on Friday night. Six hours after the beginning of the "15 minute visit", Sol and his family left.

Finally, when all the guests left on Saturday I was able swim for a bit, sit around enjoying the weather, and do some reading. Then Wendy came out with the phone. It was for me. It was the worship coordinator from Blackbelt Baptist. Somehow he found out I was a drummer. Blackbelt was without a drummer the following morning. I was being asked. I said "yes."

It was great to be back on the drums. And these were _real_ drums!!! Not those electric deals! I used real sticks, not brushes or anything! I was worried I might be playing too loud. But no one said anything. In fact, the first person to talk to me afterwords complimented me on my playing and told me his son played drums, but "unlike you, my son plays really loudly."

Acoustic drums are a bit of a double-edged sword. When you play on electric drums, and the volume is kept at a reasonable volume, the other musicians don't hear you all that loudly. Without that loud "thump thump thump" in their ear, they tend to keep their own timing - which probably stinks. Keeping and setting time is the job of the drummer. Acoustic drums, being louder by nature, give that "thump thump thump" that keeps the other musicians on your time. But, if your timing stinks, theirs will too. So, as a drummer, you need to have a good sense of time.

I was completely out of practice. Not having used a metronome in a while, my timing stunk. I decided to go home and spend time with my metronome every day just in case I got to play drums again. When I got home I found my metronome. After about 15 years, it was pooched and needed to be replaced. D'oh!

I spent most of Sunday, reading, swimming, and enjoying the sun. Jane had her boyfriend over for the day. It was relaxing, but still too hot and humid to take a much-needed nap.

Oh! And the McQueen's car brake lights weren't working. So, we had to take it to the garage again last night! For those keeping track, that's 3 times at the garage in 4 weeks.

It may sound like a busy weekend, but it was just a typical weekend at the McQueen residence.

When It Rains, It Pours

2009-08-03T05:55:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was a bad day. It was Saturday morning. Usually I take a long walk in the morning across Embrun and back. I stop in at Euphoria, a smoothie shop, for a pretzel and coffee on my way back home. I try to walk 70 000 steps per week. I was way behind yesterday morning. I was full of energy. Instead of stopping at the other end of Embrun, I decided to keep going.

I was well into Russell when it started to rain. Then it stopped. Whew! I wasn't prepared for that! I decided I had gone far enough. I turned around to return home. Then the rain started again. But this time it wasn't just a little smattering. It was a torrential downpour. It didn't take long before I was soaked all the way though. My shoes are still drying!

The walk was about 14 kilometres total. It took two hours.

I thought I had a bad time. Then I got home.

I walked in the door. There was Jane. She was not happy. Just as it started to rain, she was driving out of Embrun when the car died! She lost the engine and the electrics. The brakes didn't work, or at least as well as they should have. She couldn't put on her four-way flashers. She just prayed she didn't hit anyone as she rolled through a 4-way stop.

She tried calling me on my cell. With the rain I didn't hear my phone. She called home. Of course, they didn't have a car. She had it. I was in Russell and about an hour's walk away from home. Even if she had gotten ahold of me, I couldn't have done anything. Jack called a friend who was able to come get her. Bruce biked up to where she was. Somehow they got the car home.

So now they don't have a car. Hopefully it's something that can be fixed easily and cheaply. I'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: It was some electronic chip. They dropped the car off at a garage on Sunday night. It was fixed by Tuesday.

On the following Sunday, I took my car to church. The McQueens were going to take theirs. On the way I got a phone call from the McQueens. The brakes stopped working. The car would be in the garage again! Well, as my driving instructor said to me: "Thems the brakes, kid."

Someone Stole My Idea!

2009-07-31T05:52:00.004-04:00

It seems someone has stolen my Coffee Cup Art" idea!

Actually, check it out. This guy is pretty good. We share a medium, but our style is completely different.

I Need To Cool Off

2009-07-20T05:59:00.003-04:00

You know what grinds my gears? Apartments in this city (Ottawa) advertise "All inclusive". Then they say "$x/month for Air Conditioning". Well, then it's not "all inclusive" is it?

Charging extra for Air Conditioning is such a sham. What's next? Charging for using the stove?

I understand that air conditioners use a lot of power, but they're assuming that you're going to be using it a lot. How do they know how much you're going to use? They charge a flat rate.

This summer has been unseasonably cold. If the first half of this month continues, it will be the coldest July on record. Last week I heard, the average temperature was between 17 and 18 degrees. So the people who have air conditioning units probably aren't using them very much at all this summer. Yet, they're paying for them the same as though it was going up to 35 degrees everyday.

Consider this scenario: I live in an apartment with "all-inclusive" rent and being charged extra for my air conditioner. My next door neighbour moved in at the same time as me, so he pays the same rent. He also has an air conditioner, and he pays the same flat rate for it.

I don't have a television set. I have a laptop computer. I'm a vegetarian so I don't do a lot of cooking. I spend most of my day at work, and leave all my lights off at home. I spend the weekends out with friends. I enjoy the heat of summer, and set my air conditioner to keep the apartment at 25 degrees.

My neighbour has a plasma TV, which uses a lot of power. He has several computers he uses for gaming - a high power consuming activity, relatively speaking. He works from home, so he runs his lights, computer, etc. all the time. He loves foods of all kinds and cooks almost everyday. He enjoys his cool air, and he sets his air conditioner at 18 degrees. His social life exists in cyberspace, so he doesn't go out much. He's at home a lot.

Who uses more power? My neighbour. By a long shot. But we both pay the same amount.

Let's consider a second scenario. This scenario is almost exactly like the first, except my neighbour enjoys the heat and I don't. He doesn't even have an air conditioner. I do. I keep mine at 25 degrees. I run mine only at night.

Who uses more power overall? I'm not 100% certain, but I still think my neighbour does. Who's paying more? Me. How is that fair?! How is that right?!

Most places seem to charge a monthly fee of $10 for the air conditioner. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that that's what it costs to run one on average: $10 per month.

When I lived in an all-inclusive apartment in Sault Ste. Marie, I got a notice saying that the management would only be paying $40 per month for electricity. Any electricity beyond that would have to be covered by the tenant.

I asked my landlord how close I was to the $40. He said "pffft! You're nowhere near that! You're at, like, $12 per month."

So, assuming a $10 per month cost of running an air conditioner, if I had installed one, my power usage would have have been $22 per month. About half of my monthly allotment. If they had that air conditioner fee, then I would have been paying an extra $10, with an unused portion of my electricity bill of $28 per month. What a rip!

Of course, my whole rant depends on my assumption that apartment buildings are charging for air conditioning what it actually costs, and not just charging an extra fee that barely covers the cost of air conditioning.

Can anybody here tell me how much it actually costs to cool a one bedroom apartment in the Ottawa area?

I Hope This Class-Action Suit Really Takes Off

2009-07-17T05:53:00.002-04:00

If you fly Air Canada much, you may be aware that a few years ago, Aeroplan announced that if you didn't use your points, or add to them in the span of a year, you'd lose them.

Ouch. That's worse than the time Bell Mobility announced that they would be charging for incoming text messages.

That's just bad business. I'm a believer in the free market economy. May the best businesses prosper, and may the worst business go under!

Instead of going out of business, bad businesses can also suffer at the hands of our legal system when they drive a knife into the backs of their clients. According to today's article, that's whats happening to Groupe Aeroplan Inc. Some people are launching a class action lawsuit against Groupe Aeroplan Inc..

Way to go, gang! Stick it to the man!

United Breaks Guitars

2009-07-10T06:05:00.004-04:00

When I lived in Toronto, I worked for two airlines: Air Canada and Air Transat. I did the same job for both airlines. Most of the work consisted of getting luggage onto and off of aeroplanes. As a pilot wannabe, working there was awesome.

There was a huge difference working for the two airlines. At Air Transat, Fragile stickers meant nothing. Soon after I started working there, someone asked me why I wasn't throwing a guitar case like I did for the rest of the baggage.

Me: It's a guitar. It's easily damaged.

Him: Is that your guitar?

Me: No.

Him: Then why do you care?

I heard that line many times about many fragile items. One day, someone was bringing crates of olive oil back from overseas. Each crate had a Fragile sticker on it. The guys were just put them on the belt-loader like other baggage: with no care as to the fragile state of it's contents. The crates started falling over, breaking open and spilling olive oil all over the place.

Passengers in the terminal saw this and started taking pictures and making gestures to us. A few of the guys made some other more obscene gestures to the passengers.

I've seen the people riffle through passengers bags, helping themselves to whatever they wanted. I saw blatant damaging of office equipment.

Always lock your luggage.

Air Transat was like a company run by Jr. Highers on their way to Juvie.

Actually, I should clarify. I didn't actually work for Air Transat. I worked for a company called Haycott Services that was partially owned by Air Transat. Haycott was contracted to work on the ramp, and do cabin service for Air Transat. I always say I worked for Air Transat because nobody knows what Haycott Services is.

Haycott Services was like a company run by Jr. Highers on their way to Juvie.

When I started at Air Canada, I would hear things like "Woah! Be careful with that! It's Fragile!" Air Canada was a dream. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had. Air Canada was a company run by grown-ups.

One of my favourite bands, Sons of Maxwell, had an incident with United Airlines. One of the singers/songwriters, Dave Carroll, saw the ramp guys throwing guitar cases around as they were offloading the aeroplanes. When he got his guitar back, it was broken. United Airlines wouldn't acknowledge any wrong-doing or responsibility, and wouldn't pay for any damages.

So, Dave Carroll wrote three songs, and made a video out of one and put it on YouTube, seen here:

Way to go, Dave! It's really sad. It also doesn't help the rest of us when we get screwed over by a large organization. Most of us can't write and perform great songs with videos to stick it to the man. In a way, Dave, you're doing this for all of us. Everyone who's ever been jerked around by an airlines is behind you.

There should be two more videos coming. The idea is to get people to vote for their favourite. He wants to get one million hits in one year. This video came out 4 days ago. As of writing this, it's already up to 1 351 943 views.

Apparently, Dave is in talks with United to right the wrongs. I'd imagine part of that settlement will include Dave discontinuing his United-bashing. That would be somewhat unfortunate because he's a great songwriter. I love how this song doesn't cloud the message with metaphor. "United Breaks Guitars". Pretty simple, basic, and obvious. No hidden messages there. An English teacher's nightmare.

Of course, he'll probably only be offered the $3500 from United. But these videos will put him and Sons of Maxwell on the map, so to speak. He's going to get a real jump in fame due to these videos.

When I went to see Sons of Maxwell in concert, it was pretty small and intimate. At the end of the concert Dave announced he'd be at the CD table. So I went over and talked with him for about five minutes. How cool is that! When was the last time you went to a concert and got to talk to the musicians afterwords?

If Sons of Maxwell significantly increase their fame from this incident, then the next time I see them in concert, they might be too big to be able to talk to them. :( There'll be too many people.

Just kidding. I'd rather see them get the fame they deserve. I wish them (Dave Carroll and Sons of Maxwell) all the best.

Busy Month at Chez McQueens - Wrap-Up

2009-07-06T05:50:00.003-04:00

At the beginning of the month, I blogged about how busy the month of June would be at the McQueen's house. I listed the following things packed into the month:

BBQ with our Care Group;
Re-shingling the roof;
Pastor Jack's brother, sister, and her three young boys visiting for about a week;
Jane's friend (and her cat) coming to stay the night;
My parent's coming for a weekend;
My dying of Swine Flu;
I forgot to mention Robin's graduation, but it happened in June.

I'll recap each of these things in turn.

BBQ with our Care Group
We had a whole bunch of people over. They all brought food, and left behind what wasn't eaten. We used disposable dishes, so we didn't have any dishes to do. We were able to have the left-overs for dinner the next day, which is my day for cooking. So I was happy.

Re-shingling the roof
This is where the real craziness begins. Bruce and I were up on the roof with Jack. We went downstairs to get some breakfast/lunch. Aurthur stopped by to help out. He and Jack were up on the roof while we were taking a break. Then we heard a crash and Jack yelling. We ran outside to find Jack lying on the ground with his foot intermingled with the ladder. We called 911. As we were running around getting things ready for Jack to go to the hospital, Wendy stepped on a rusty nail. So, when we got to the hospital, Jack was checked in, and Wendy checked in for her punctured foot.

In the end, Wendy's foot was easily taken care of. Jack needed surgery. He has crutches now, and a wheel chair. He's going to be off his feet for a while now. This turn of events is most unfortunate. The day that happened was the same day that...

Pastor Jack's brother, sister, and her three young boys visiting for about a week
As Wendy, Jack, and I were at the hospital, Jack's brother, sister, and her three boys arrived at the house. The boys had done some growing since I saw them last. The oldest was able to really help out. Besides finishing off the roof, they were able to help with a number of other projects around the house. We had a great time when they were here, but I got to bed late every night during that time. It was tiring, nevertheless.

Jane's friend (and her cat) coming to stay the night
We had to pick Jane's friend up, bring her, and her cat, over to our house, then return her the following morning so she could be there for some people coming to help her move in. She was to sleep in Jane's room, and leave the cat in the basement - Bruce's room.

Once I reminded the pertinent people that Bruce was allergic to cats, we worked out another solution. Because Jack wasn't fully mobile, he was sleeping on a bed in the living room. Wendy was sleeping on a couch in the living room. Bruce, Robin, and I were in our own rooms. Jane slept in her parent's bedroom. Jane's friend, and her cat, stayed in Jane's room.

The only real problem was the miscommunication. Jane's friend thought that we lived near her apartment in Ottawa's west end. We live far away from there. We live east of Ottawa. So, to pick her up was an hour away. By the time they got back to the house that night, I was asleep. I didn't wake up the next morning until they left.

My parent's coming for a weekend
This gave me the chance to take a break from the craziness of the McQueen house. I spent an afternoon getting sloshed with a building filled with single women. In fact, they were all sisters. My Aunt was celebrating her 50th anniversary as a nun. There was wine. I'm a cheap drunk. Okay. I didn't get drunk. In fact, they put me at the kid's table! They didn't have any wine there! They didn't even come around with the coffee or tea!

Me dying of Swine Flu
It hasn't happened yet. But it's coming.

Robin's graduation
I was happy it was a small class. Except for the awards at the end, it hardly took any time. First they handed out the diplomas and mentioned certain awards and scholarships. In my graduation they announced things like "And Joe will be receiving a $500 scholarship to Dalhousie University." At Robin's school they said things like "And Joe will be receiving a gift certificate to the Lucky 7." The Lucky 7 is a restaurant in Embrun.

You know obesity is becoming a problem when your kid gets a scholarship to a restaurant.

Afterwords, they handed out other awards and scholarships. This part lasted approximately 3 days to finish. The class size was less than one hundred. I stopped counting the awards after eighteen thousand. Anyway, Robin cleaned up. I think she got five of those awards. Go Robin!!

Now that that's over with, we can get back to our normal level of craziness. Of course, Jack is still not on his feet.

Jack's not scheduled to preach anywhere for the next few Sundays, so we'll check out more churches. Of course, to find new churches, we'll use our favourite search engines; Google, Yahoo! and AltaVista.

You Can't Help Yourself Because Your Self Sucks

2009-07-03T18:50:00.000-04:00

According to today's article, Self-Help books that tell you to repeat mantras like "I am a lovable person" do not work for people with low self-esteem, (LSE) and only marginally work for those with high self-esteem (HSE).

I suspect they don't work for those with LSE because as they're chanting those they're thinking about how they're not true. It brings to the forefront of their minds how much of a lovable person they're not. Then they feel worse.

I suspect the reason a great many other self-help books don't work is that people who read them don't actually put them into practise. Reading a book won't fix your life. Doing what the book says might. Years ago I read The Wealthy Barber - a small, easy to understand, book about finances. I have yet to do anything suggested in that book.

Will Ferguson wrote a novel called "Happiness" about a self-help book that actually works. Everyone gets rich, looses weight, follows their dreams, and embraces the things they can't change. Hilarious.

BTW: Today's title is one of the best lines from the movie School for Scoundrels with Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder (a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite).

Avenging Angel - Review

2009-06-29T06:02:00.000-04:00

About a year ago Esther Carney, a doctor/author, found my blog. She found the book review I did of L'Avion de Gaston She contacted me and asked if I'd review a book she had written. Of course, I said I would.

The book, called Avenging Angel, is an action packed book about a girl, Angie Ryan, who was raised in South America in a camp full of mercenaries. Angie was raised as the daughter of the head mercenary, Colonal Morgan. Just before her mother passes away, she tells Angie that Morgan isn't her real father. Her real father is back in the States. Angie's mother dies before she can tell Angie her real last name, or the name of her father.

Angie escapes to the United States to find her real father. Doing so turns Morgan into her enemy. Her training as a mercenary allows her to do some Special Operations work with the FBI. But, it also gets her into trouble with the law at times. The book follows Angie's growth from a girl into a woman as she goes from town to town looking for her real father, running from the law, running from Morgan's goons, and beating up men who are several times her size.

What I liked
Angie seems to be a combination of Batman, Superman, Jason Bourne, Ferris Bueller, Jack Bauer, Parker Lewis, and a beautiful teen-aged girl. She seems able to do anything - even without Cloe's help. The book, at 642 pages, was a page-turner. I was never bored when reading it. It never made me fall asleep. There was lots of action. It was full of hand-to-hand combat, guns, aeroplanes, motorcycles, explosives, aeroplanes, terrorists, and a wee bit of romance...and aeroplanes. I like aeroplanes.

There were many characters in several subplots. This made the book seem, at times, like reading a bunch of short stories all strung together to make a longer story. Kinda like a TV show with an over-arching storyline. The only problem is if you forget someone's name, and the appear later on several chapters later, you're not sure if you should know them or not.

What I didn't like
Angie seems to be a combination of Batman, Superman, Jason Bourne, Ferris Bueller, Jack Bauer, Parker Lewis, and a beautiful teen-aged girl. She seems able to do anything - even without Chloe's help. She appears to have no weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Both incredibly smart and physically capable. I think the reason I like Spiderman is that you see his vulnerability. You don't see that with Angie.

The author is a doctor. There was some medical terminology in the book. I had to take it on faith that it was accurate. She had a weapons expert to consult, so I assume all the weapons stuff was accurate too. There was a lot of aeroplane/flying content. As a (student) pilot I got the feeling that some of those parts were written by someone who's read a lot about flying, and probably taken the controls of an aeroplane a few times, but never actually studied flying.(But that's the nitpicking pilot in me.) However, it does have a lot of accurate aviationisms.

The only other thing was the book was pretty big. It could have been two books. I think that was the original plan. I'm not sure why it was condensed into one.

In Summary
If you enjoy a good book full of action, head on over to Zeus Publications, or Fast Paced Fiction and pick this book up.

Phone Scam

2009-06-26T06:04:00.002-04:00

Today I want to talk about two phone scams. The first one is where someone calls you, lets the phone ring a couple of time, and hangs up. You see the number on the call-display. Even though you don't recognize the number, you decided to call it back. The number turns out to be an adult entertainment line in a foreign land.

If you call a number back, without knowing who it is, just because it shows up on your call-display, you deserve the $1000 phone bill that goes with it.

The second phone scam is a much more serious and widespread one; one which you may have already fallen victim to. I know I have. It's called "Paying for Text Messaging."

I remember once upon a time, texting was free. The technology was already built into the phone system. It seems the phone companies noticed that people were texting and they decided to make a quick buck out of it.

I'm with Bell Mobility. They charge me $3.00/month for unlimited incoming text messages, and 30 outgoing messages. Any outgoing messages beyond the 30 is 15 cents per message.

How much does it cost the phone company?

According to this article, "Srinivasan Keshav, Canada Research Chair in tetherless computing at the University of Waterloo, told lawmakers probing text messaging rates and the state of competition in the wireless telecommunications industry that the maximum cost of a single text message "very unlikely" exceeds 0.3 cents."

The author of this article, calculates how much texting costs compared to talking on his cell phone, assuming data transfer costs the same for each method. The talk-plan he assumes ($40 per month for 400 minutes) costs about $1.75 per Megabyte. Texting, at 15 cents per text works out to $786.43 per Megabyte. If texting were charged at the same rate as talking, it would be 0.33 cents per message, which is about what Srinivasan Keshav calculates.

What can you do about it? All I can think of is to get a Skype account, or some other Voice Over IP system and start making phone calls that way. If enough people do this, then the phone system as we know it will die.

My answer requires Net Neutrality to be in place. Otherwise, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will just charge for emails and instant messages. They might do that anyway, so it's important that we get Net Neutrality laws in place to prevent that sort of behaviour.

I'm An Artist Too (120)

2009-06-17T05:51:00.004-04:00

This guy in a body case and wheel chair is on the stage to audition for "So You Think You Can Dance" thinking he might be that shows equivalent to Susan Boyle, the woman who surprised everyone with her phenomenal singing skills.

Church Hopping - Part 3

2009-06-15T05:59:00.002-04:00

So far, since February, I have blogged about the following churches: a Catholic Church, Beaver Creek Baptist, Bedside Baptist, St. Arthur's Church, Golgotha Baptist, Blackbelt Baptist, Over-Easy Wesleyan, and even returned to Yahoo! Baptist for Good Friday Service. And that's where I left off.

Since then we've gone back to Blackbelt Baptist, Life Area Pentecostal, The Gathering House, and a Reformed Presbyterian church.

Life Area Pentecostal was my first Pentecostal service. It was like going to a rock concert on Sunday morning. The music was good, and tight. The light show was good too. As a Baptist, I tend to worry that people go for the show, for the emotional charge, instead of for worship. It can become about the show when it should be about Christ.

When the pastor got up to speak, you could see the Andy Stanley influence - the way the pastor dressed, spoke, had a bottle of water beside him on the table beside his high stool. I'm surprised he didn't slip into a southern drawl.

The following week, we went to The Gathering House. That's a church that's based out of Southern Ontario, and they have satellite churches set up around other Ontario locations. The satellite churches are in a theatre. They have a live music team there, and a local pastor. They let you bring food and drink into the theatre. The seats are really comfortable.

On the other hand, the morning we went was Mother's Day. Instead of taking time to have a mothers oriented message, or anything special about mothers, they had a status report! "This is how far we've come, and this is where we have yet to go." That was disappointing. They could have had that any other week. We decided to give that church another chance when Bruce got home. That service was much better. It was very culturally relevant.

We also went to a Reformed Presbyterian church. It was different, mainly because they didn't sing modern praise and worship music. They just sang the Psalms using only their voices. No other instruments. At one point we were singing an imprecatory psalm. Pastor Jack elected to not sing the bit about hating people who worship idols.

We also went to McDonald Baptist in Kanata. The pastor there is a Friend of Pastor Jack's. Unfortunately, he wasn't preaching that morning. So I can't comment on the preaching that morning. I have heard that pastor speak at night before. He always gives something to think about. The music at that church is done well. They are missing drums, which is unfortunate. They have some really good musicians on the music team. Drums would really add to it. The people are friendly too.

For the next three weeks Jack is preaching at Blackbelt Baptist. So that's where we'll all be.

We Could Make Beautiful Music Together

2009-06-12T06:01:00.002-04:00

According to Today's Article the same gene that correlates with musical ability "codes for a receptor for the hormone arginine vasopressin and has been linked with bonding, love and altruism in people." The thought is that people who are good at music are also good romantic partners.

I have nothing to say about this except "Fascinating!"

I'm An Artist Too (119)

2009-06-10T05:58:00.001-04:00

He's giving the Thumbs-Up saying "I escaped from the zombies."

Busy Month at Chez McQueens

2009-06-08T06:12:00.005-04:00

This month will be a busy month at the McQueen residence.

Tonight, a bunch of people are coming over for a BBQ. That's always a lot of work.

Last night I heard Jane talking to a friend on the phone. This friend is moving to Ottawa. Jane agreed to help her move into her new place. I think I heard her say she could stay over at our place on Friday night; cat included. Now, I like cats, but I'm not sure how the dog, Max, will feel about sharing the house with one. Jane suggested that the cat stay in the basement because Max doesn't go down there. That also happens to be Bruce's room. Bruce came to visit me last year when I was taking care of someone's cats while they were on vacation. He was there for about 20 minutes. Then it took him a few days to completely get rid of the allergic reaction brought on by the cats. Maybe he got over his allergies since then? This will be an interesting weekend.

We need to re-shingle the roof. Hopefully Arthur can help us out with that. The challenge so far has been to find a weekend with good weather. Ottawa weekends have had particularly bad weather lately.

On Saturday Pastor Jack's brother and sister, and his sister's three young boys are coming to stay for about a week. The idea is to do some much needed household repairs. Robin's heading into exams. She has declared she's not giving up her room. So, the question is: Where will we put everyone? I know where I'll want to be: at Uncle Joe's house — away from the craziness.

I may get my wish for at least one weekend this month. My parents are coming up for a family function. I told my parents I'd go with them to the function. My parents will be at Uncle Joe's while they're in Ottawa. When they're there, I'm usually there too.

I also plan on dying from Swine Flu sometime in June. I haven't been infected yet, and I don't know anyone who has been, but it is on my to-do list.

At least we know which churches we're going to every Sunday in June. Pastor Jack is booked to speak every Sunday this month. He's at Resurrection Church for one Sunday, then at Blackbelt Baptist for three consecutive Sundays.

I'll write further to let you know how things go. Stay tuned.

Should Have Seen In Coming

2009-06-05T06:41:00.004-04:00

In December I blogged that the RIAA announced they were going to stop suing citizens for downloading music. I wasn't sure if I was going to start buying CDs again. I still thought they were evil, but I thought maybe their new way of being evil would be better than the last.

It turns out, according to today's article they they launched 62 law suits in April alone. The boycott continues! Let the downloading keep going!

I'm An Artist Too (118)

2009-06-03T05:34:00.002-04:00

This guy is meditating thinking "I'm going to achieve inner peace if if kills me!"

I'm An Artist Too (117)

2009-05-27T06:19:00.003-04:00

A cow jumping over the moon. There's a fence there too.

I'm An Artist Too (116)

2009-05-20T06:18:00.002-04:00

The woman is saying "Don't you roll your eyes at me!"

I'm An Artist Too (115)

2009-05-13T06:18:00.004-04:00

The little girl is asking her teddy bear "Would you like some more tea, Teddums?" to which the teddy bear replies "No thanks. I'm stuffed!"

Okay. Definitely not some of my best work. The drawing stinks, and the pun is worse. Actually, I stole that pun from somewhere. I maintain that my worst puns are my stolen puns.

I'm An Artist Too (114)

2009-05-06T05:45:00.000-04:00

A guy getting punched in the gut by his punching bag. Worst. Punching. Bag. Ever.

Back Off! Get Your Own Sandwich!

2009-05-04T06:09:00.001-04:00

If you've hung around me for long enough, you've probably heard me say "Back off! Get your own sandwich!" I then have turned to you and asked you if you remember that commercial. Inevitably, you haven't.

We used to say that all the time when I worked at Tim Hortons. Maybe it was a Nova Scotian thing? Anyway, I searched for a long time to find the commercial. I found it, and I present it to you now. Watch it a few times, and you'll find yourself saying "Back off! Get your own sandwich!" every so often. In fact, if anyone (including you) ever says "Back off!" you won't be able to help yourself from finishing with "Get your own sandwich!" any more than a toon can prevent himself with finishing the old "Shave and a haircut" with "two bits".

I'm An Artist Too (113)

2009-04-29T05:52:00.002-04:00

The guy is saying to the other "My next-door neighbour is an excellent hunter."

Move It On Over

2009-04-25T06:00:00.002-04:00

I hate apartment hunting. Amazingly, I've rarely had to do it, even though I've lived in a bunch of different places.

When I moved from Halifax to Sault Ste. Marie, I got a list of places that rented rooms to students. I called through the list until I found a guy who had worked in the same hospital as my mother several years ago. He knew, and remembered her. I decided to live with him. In retrospect it wasn't a good place to live, but at the time it seemed like the obvious choice.

The following year I moved to Toronto where my aunt and Uncle lived. They offered to give me room and board for roughly the cost of having me there. I lived with them for a year. It was an obvious choice.

When it came time to move back the Sault Ste. Marie the following year I met a friend there who rented a room from someone. My friend was moving out. His landlord needed to find a new tenant. I needed a room. It was perfect. It was the obvious choice.

After three years there, the landlord needed my room back, so he told me I had a couple of months to find a new place. That night I met with a friend at a local Wendy's. When she asked how things were going, I told her I was going to be moving soon. I'd start looking for a place next week. She mentioned she and her husband had a couple of spare rooms in their house they were thinking of renting out. She talked to her husband, and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. It was an obvious choice.

After about a year living there I decided it was time to move on. I was about to get a job with the provincial government, and I wanted to live alone. I mentioned this to some friends. One told me that she and her roommate were going away for the summer and they wanted someone to sublet their place. It was in the building I have always wanted to live in. It had a good location, nice apartments, solid walls for quiet living. I couldn't afford to live there alone, but they only asked for a little more than half the rent. It was an obvious choice.

(Incidentally, that was the building Craig and I would eventually move into. Craig and I lived in the unit one floor above the apartment I was subletting.)

At the end of the summer I needed a new place. I did the traditional apartment search and ended up in a bad building. It was next door to the apartment in which I was subletting. At least it had a good location. I had a job with the provincial government, so I could afford a one bedroom apartment. The choice wasn't obvious, and it turned out to be not good.

After a couple of years there, my contract with the government ended, and I couldn't afford to keep the apartment myself for too much longer. At the same time Craig's current roommates were moving out, so he needed a new place to stay. So we moved back into the building I was in before. I didn't even have to shop around. I just knew I wanted to live there. It was an obvious choice.

Then when Craig and I moved to Ottawa, I came down with three weeks to find a room for him, and one for me. I spent the first week just getting to know the city. When it came time to actually look for a place I got a list from Carleton University of places that rented rooms to students. I called a few places. I hate apartment hunting. As I was walking to the first place to look at, my phone rang. It was Pastor Jack. He wanted to offer Craig and I to live at his place. He gave us an offer we couldn't refuse. It was an obvious choice.

I've lived with the McQueens off and on for 5 years this fall. As regular, long time blog readers know, there were frustrations. But there were a lot of good times. I spent a lot of time looking forward to moving out on my own. Now that that time is being thrust upon me, I'm not looking forward to it. I've started apartment hunting. I hate apartment hunting.

If you've paid close attention to this post, you will have noticed that the apartments I get through regular apartment hunting have been the worst. The best situations come from happenstance - usually a chance meeting, or a phone call. Serendipity. A God event. I've looked at a few places. I've liked two of them. They're just a wee bit expensive for my taste. (But, it may be worth it.)

Then, the other day Pastor Jack says "I don't want to sell, and there's a small chance we might not have to. So, if you don't mind living with uncertainty, you're welcome to stay."

I don't really like uncertainty. I have been looking forward to having my own place. But something about this doesn't feel right. I'm wondering Where's my chance meeting? Where's my phone call? Where's my serendipity? Where's my God event? Is it really time to move out?

I'm An Artist Too (112)

2009-04-22T06:08:00.003-04:00

Bad bun. Pad pun. Bad drawing. Bad hare day.

Church Hopping - Part 2

2009-04-20T06:43:00.002-04:00

It's time for another church-hopping report. To recap from Part 1, I had visited a Catholic Church, Beaver Creek Baptist, and Bedside Baptist. My preference is Beaver Creek Baptist.

Since then, I've gone to St. Arthur's Church, Golgotha Baptist, Blackbelt Baptist, Over-Easy Wesleyan, and even returned to Yahoo! Baptist for Good Friday Service.

St. Arthur's Church is a church plant. It's in the gym of a school. I was a minute or two late when I walked in, but I still had people saying "hi" to me before I could sit down. I was told it was a friendly church. I was told right. However, it was cold! I don't know if I took off my winter jacket. One of Arthur's brother's was wearing shorts! Brrrrr!

They had coffee sitting off to the side. It taunted me throughout the service. I usually get my coffee at the Country Style by the highway on my way to church. The highway was not on the way to St. Arthur's Church.

The next week I went to Golgotha Baptist. Pastor Jack was preaching there when I went. The people were nice The church was old-school. Old wooden pews. I was impressed when I saw the acoustic drum set there. I was less impressed when the only instrument that was played was the organ. Not that I have anything against the organ, but the drums led me to believe I might hear more contemporary music.

Then I went to Blackbelt Baptist. That seemed like a really cool church. Their kids program, so I'm told, is modelled after that of North Point, Andy Stanley's church. That struck a real positive chord with us. We're big Andy Stanley fans. I returned to Blackbelt for Easter Sunday.

Blackbelt, despite it's small physical size had acoustic drums. Blackbelt's music was, hands-down the best music I have heard at any church. Ever. The music was so tight! And well played. I find where most worship teams are weak is during the "trans and scans." They may be great at playing a verse, or the chorus, but going to and from is usually weak. Going from one song to another is also usually weak. If you're in a worship team, pay attention to those things! Work on them. Everyone needs to know what's coming up next! Always! Even in "free worship", you need some kind of signal system.

The teams at Blackbelt did not have that problem. I also noticed that they did not use the piano/keyboard very much, if at all. I find that a lot of churches fall into this "you need to have the piano, and it needs to be the lead instrument" way of thinking. Yet few, if any, big worship leaders lead with the piano. The leader of the team on my first Sunday there lead the congregation. He didn't just sing. It's hard to explain if you've never experienced it. If you have, no explanation is necessary.

Blackbelt Baptist might have done something very smart. Most churches have greeters at the door. Blackbelt either has three sets of greeters (at the door, in the lobby, and in the sanctuary), or they have really friendly people in those locations that are good with names. I can't tell. Either way, it makes me feel good when I go there.

I went go Yahoo! Baptist on Good Friday. My friend, who's birthday it was, was going there, and I was meeting up with her. Ironically, the person I talked to the most was my friend's dad, and they don't go to that church! But it was good to see some of my old friend's from that church.

This morning I went to Over-Easy Wesleyan with the McQueens. It was kind of like a reunion. We met up with a few people who used to go to Yahoo! Baptist. The people were super-friendly. There were lots of young people there. I could see me going there more often.