The Unpopular Opinionist

Air Freshener

2011-12-22T00:49:00.002-05:00

You know those spray bottles of air freshener? Those aerosol bottles? The only place in my house I ever use those is in the bathroom. I leave a can of the stuff on the counter or on the back of the toilet so that if ever anyone takes a massive dump, they can spray some out to mask the horrid odor. I think it's rude NOT to have some sort of odor-masking aerosol spray in one's bathroom, particularly for guests. I would never spray those aerosol chemicals anyplace other than in the bathroom because the chemicals poison the indoor air.

Anyway today I was at Wal-Mart and, it being close to the holiday time they've put out these "seasonal" aerosol flavours. I noticed some were like "Pumpkin Pie" or "Cinnamon Chocolate Bun" or "Cranberry" or whatever other smells are associated with delicious holiday food. Well, I was laughing thinking of someone leaving a can of Pumpkin Pie aerosol spray in their washroom to be sprayed out to mask the odor of someone's huge dump. Imagine that after taking a massive shit, the air has been so befouled that it's necessary to dispatch the fetid odor with a commercial aerosol spray. You reach for the can and press the nozzle, sending pumpkin pie smell into the air to mingle with the smell of your rancid feces. As you leave the washroom, the smell of your disgusting shit mixed with the sweet pumpkin pie odor slowly wafts out the open bathroom door... permeating the house... will this not ruin the thought of pumkin pie forevermore for you??? Furthermore, will you not come to associate the smell of pumpkin pie, after some time, with feces since you continually smell the both odors in conjunction??? It just don't make sense to buy these food-scented sprays! Why poison your indoor air with those chemicals, and they don't make sense to use in the bathroom either! "Cinnamon Buns" and poop odor? I think not!!

Worth More Dead Than Alive

2011-12-22T00:38:00.002-05:00

I'm referring, of course, to Amy Winehouse, who passed away just this year. Like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson; Amy was worth more dead than alive. Once an artist has completed a significant body of work, their continued existence often becomes more of a drain or burden than anything else. Particularly if the artist has issues, such as Winehouse's alcoholism / drug addictions or Michael Jackson's eccentricities. If the artist's work is completed, it can be peddled and profiteered from irregardless of whether that artist remains alive or is stored in a cemetery someplace. If you're an artist or musician, be very careful about releasing a significant body of your material, because once you do you yourself may become a body (as in corpse). Once the songs have been produced and put out there in album form, it becomes a nuisance to have to maintain you, feed you, house you, supply you with your drugs or chimps or whatever else you may be into. It's easier to merely dispatch you and that way someone else (or some corporate entity) may then take control and profit fully from YOUR material and YOUR work. Yes....

Just look at all the hypocricy that occurred following the death of Michael Jackson. Folks who would never have admitted to liking any of his music while he was still alive (I guess because of his weird, eccentric behaviour) suddenly were coming out of the woodwork to praise him. Many people have pointed this out. It's the same with Winehouse.

Once the artist has died, suddenly they're releasing all kinds of special "tribute" or "collection" albums; or maybe a never-before-heardof batch of "previously unreleased" material, which may or may not have actually been composed by the artist themselves, let's face it. Look at what happened to poor V.C. Andrews - following her death, her name and writing was commercialized to the extreme and stuff she never wrote or would have endorsed was suddenly being published under her name. Awful.

Beware.

Christmas Fund Inanity

2011-12-22T00:19:00.002-05:00

I don't really like organized charity in general, and The Gazette Christmas fund in particular really irks my ire, gets my goat and annoys my ass. Here's the latest sad-sack story they've trotted out in a pathetic endeavour to try and guilt an already financially strained public into forking over more cash for their cause:

Gazette Christmas Fund: Single mother of three unable to work
By Ashliegh Gehl, Special to THE GAZETTE December 20, 2011

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Gazette+Christmas+Fund+Single+mother+three+unable+work/5883196/story.html#ixzz1hEpEY4Eu

MONTREAL - Miriam knows how a nice-looking home can mask the poverty within.
As an unemployed single parent, she lives with her mother, grandmother and three children in the Town of Mount Royal.
“People are under the misconception that we have, but we don’t,” she said.
She doesn’t work because she can’t or because she doesn’t want to. She’s doesn’t work because when the telephone rings there’s a good chance there’s a principal on the other end, phoning about her 12-year-old son.
“I have a son with behaviour issues, so for the past two years being able to work has been sort of impossible because anywhere I go he gets suspended often. I have to be at home for the phone calls,” she said.
Four years ago, Miriam was making progress. She was on her way back to work when her son’s behavioural issues started to occur. It was around the same time she was in the beginning stages of cervical cancer.
“That was like my darkest days,” she said. “Things are starting to look better.”
Miriam is among the thousands who are to receive a $125 cheque from The Gazette Christmas Fund this year. The money helps families and individuals in need get through the holiday season.
At 43 years old, Miriam is cancer-free and even though she relies on her family to help make ends meet, she feels she’s on the right track.
“If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where I’d be with my kids,” she said.
With three generations living one house, family traditions are well kept in the household.
“They’re not materialistic kids at all, but I know they would like to have a lot of what their friends have. But they don’t because we’re more on family traditions and I’ve always emphasized that Christmas isn’t about what you get.”
She has done her best to shield her struggles from her children by making sure they don’t see how hard it is for Miriam to meet their needs.
“I don’t want to ruin their childhood with my issues, with my problems.”
Miriam said she can’t compete with the presents her children’s friends have wrapped under the tree, but she’ll spend the Christmas Fund money on buying them what they need.
“My daughters, a decent pair of pants,” she said. “My son, I don’t know what I’m going to get him yet. He’s really into hockey, the Montreal Canadiens.”

Blahrg! I have so many problems with this "charity case", I don't even know where to begin!

First of all, the woman in this story lives in TMR (Town of Mount Royal), an upper-class suburb of Montreal. Sell the house in TMR, turn a tidy profit and downsize to something smaller & more affordable if you need $125 so badly! She claims she "can't work" due to her son's behaviour issues, what with all the phone calls she receives about him & his rotten behaviour from his school principal all the time. Are these calls coming in daily, then? If the kid is a brat, isn't that partly her fault in the first place? The kid dosen't go to school 7 days a week, does he? A couple weekend shifts here and there at Wal-Mart would be enough to supply the $125 she needs so desperately that she had to turn to The Gazette: Christmas Fund. Surely she can get her ass out of the house a day or two a week, when her ill-behaved boy isn't at school, and work someplace part-time? While I feel sorry that this woman had cancer, the article does state she is now cancer-free so her health shouldn't be an issue for the working thing either. It seems to me like this woman is simply just lazy, too lazy to work for a living and that's the type of person the Christmas Fund seems to want to support and coddle. I hate the Gazette in general and thier charity in particular. Where is the boy in this story's father? There are too many questions here that don't add up.

All it equals out to in the end is the fact I won't be donating a penny to their charity.

The Christmas Fund is not a charity worth supporting.

The Remains Weren't Moving...

2011-12-09T22:58:00.003-05:00

Found this article about a missing scuba diver, found dead after 26 years.

Some choice comments left by posters:

SpackMan writes:

"Sorry to be gross, but wouldn't the sea critters got him? Perhaps they just found the suit?"

Makes perfect sense. Let's close out the case on the diver who disappeared 26 years ago after finding a loose scuba suit. Case closed, mystery solved! The family will be so pleased!

Canucklehead64 writes:

"One way the remains were identified was by way of the injuries he had suffered in a previous car accident that caused him to be confined to a wheelchair."

I decided to add my mirthful commentary in reply:

"How is it possible that his remains were identified using his injury? The remains weren't moving, so how do we know they were paralyzed from the chest down???"

Why did so many people thumb me down???

Waterdog & TrueBaDoor are on the same wavelength, as each respectively writes:

"its true what the other guy says.....The nets have been in the water since 1985?."

and...

"I'm perplexed... the nets remained in the water unobserved for over 25 years? Or the nets got hauled out and nobody noticed a scuba diver? "

LOL. Just LOL.

Pubert

2011-12-03T07:33:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted here for awhile.

Pubert has now arrived.

I Hate Rememberence Day

2011-11-14T18:26:00.004-05:00

I hate Rememberence Day. Every year around what could be a great time of year - Halloween - we're assaulted by these dour-faced veterans pushing poppies, making you feel guilty if you pass by their table without buying one. And that at a hefty price. Why can't we just enjoy Halloween without these people all in our faces? They're like charity grubbers but much worse. They push their stupid Remembrence Day in an effort to usurp Halloween, Halloween is fun. Rememberence day is shit. I don't give a rat's ass about veterans, sorry. Soldiers aren't special people. They're people who were used to promote political ideologies of different times. What they fought for yesterday prolly isn't even important anymore today. Who cares about them? I know I don't. I don't wear the poppy at all and I don't care about rememberence day. I'm sorry people died but the lesson is, don't trade your life for some stupid political ideology that will be outdated in 10 years. Don't be a dumbass. I hate Rememberence day time of year because you're made to feel so guilty if you don't do as the veterans want - which is buy a poppy from every fucking stand you pass. No, I don't appreciate the veterans sacrifice. I know that makes me a horrid person. I don't agree with war. It wasn't their fighting that gave us what we have today, it was political ideologies. If you can't see that you are stupid.

Temple Grandin

2011-05-05T22:07:00.002-04:00

Watching a documentary on YouTube about Temple Grandin (The Woman Who Thinks Like A Cow).

Temple states her favorite animal is the cow. She loves livestock. So what does she do? Makes significant contributions to the livestock-killing industry, ensuring more and more of her favorite animals will be killed in the most efficient manner possible.

With friends like that, you don't need enemies.

The Only Midwife I'd Want...

2011-03-26T04:31:00.005-04:00

... would be one with an OB/GYN M.D.

Contemplating Pubert or perhaps Wednesday, I stumbled across an article about midwives. We aren't living in the 1800's. Why on earth would anyone want to deliver their baby at home, or without an epidural?

From one article:

"Another midwife, who isn't willing to be named, described another clandestine way of delivering babies at home. She screens her clients, making sure that the mother has already given birth several times, and that they were uncomplicated, fast births. The midwife tells the mother to call her once she's well into labour, so that by the time the midwife gets there with her equipment, the baby is too close to being born to risk transferring the mother to a birthing centre. Then the midwife is able to record that it was an emergency delivery, a "precipitous birth," which is allowed under the law."

Midwifery appears to be a reckless, irresponsible profession.

Pugsley's birth was neither uncomplicated nor fast.

There are so many things wrong with the quote I've pulled from the article. Firstly, even if a woman has had several "easy" (uncomplicated & fast) births in the past, no guarantee can be made that subsequent births will follow the same pattern. Gomez & I joked afterwards that we were glad we had Pugsley's name all picked out & knew his gender well before he was born; there are enough surprises in the delivery room as it is, and one doesn't need nor want more of those, nor any uncertainty at that time. Secondly, if the midwife referenced in the quote is at all representative - as I'm sure she must be, otherwise why bother centering the article around her statements -it's evident & apparent that midwives are utterly useless for anything other than fast, uncomplicated births. This automatically rules out primigravida (first-time pregnant) "clients", since it's unknown how their labour & delivery might progress. Midwives are useless for all except the very easiest of deliveries, which begs the question of why one would even bother with one in the first place, if one might just as easily given birth with the aid of one's own husband or possibly, alone. According to the quote from the article, the midwife only arrives when the baby's almost out anyway, so why would you even need her, in that case? I love the way they refer to expectant mothers as "clients", same as in any shady money-making scheme like maybe an escort agency or at a happy-endings massage parlour.

Midwives were great in the 19th century, before the advent of hospitals, pain-killing drugs and procedures, and modern obstetrical care. Midwives were relevant and necessary at that time, but nowadays? Midwives are irrelevant and irresponsible, only marginally useful in a small percentage of cases. Midwifery will eventually (if it hasn't already - because it seems their activities are clandestine and hush-hush) cause a mother and / or baby to be seriously hurt or harmed.

Midwifery should be banned. The same as it would be illegal to hire a non-certified person to perform open-heart surgery upon a person at their own home; so should it be illegal to hire a midwife to "deliver your baby" at home. Babies should be born in hospital, with all the necessary medical attentions and care at ready disposal, including powerful pain-killing drugs and procedures which can be used by the mother to make labour & delivery as easy as possible. There's nothing great, noble, or wonderful about suffering through 14, 18, or 24 hours of painful labour contractions. It won't make you a better mother, it won't prove you love your baby more, and it isn't necessary nowadays. I toughed out 4 hours of the most painful contractions before asking for my epidural, and couldn't take a single second longer, no one should have to live through that, it's not a part of life that's necessary in today's modern world. I have a headache, I take an ibuprofen. I have contractions, I get an epidural.

I have no respect for midwives. They are the witch-doctors of the modern birthing world.

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

UPDATE: June 27, 2011: Just came across this article about how a baby died at a "birthing center" in my area while being born / attended by midwives. Midwives suck.

HMV - Good Riddance

2011-03-21T17:06:00.002-04:00

Good riddance to mainstream music stores like HMV.

I'm glad that the era of digital music has ushered in their demise.

Before the advent of the Internet, I used to visit HMV as a teenager to check out music. Sometimes there was a particular song I was looking for. Every time I used to ask a staff member for reference, I'd get nothing but attitude. Condescending attitude. Like they couldn't be bothered to help me find the music I wanted and liked, because the music I wanted and liked was beneath them with their superior tastes. They just wanted to get rid of me. Not help me find my music, which I was willing at that time to buy.

Now I don't buy fuck all. I download it all, and I LOL everytime nowadays I pass by an HMV outlet in a shopping mall, peer in and see that they've now had to resort to selling things like movies, T-shirts, mugs, and other junk in order to try and remain in business.

Haven't bought anything at HMV in years. Although I sometimes browse the music section to check for stuff I might want to go home and download.

HMV sucks.

Food Prices

2011-02-28T22:30:00.003-05:00

Found this article on CBC regarding how world food prices have now increased to "dangerous" levels.

Well, food prices have increased for certain. Today, I was at the grocery store and I saw some canned gravy that I normally buy, but only when it's on sale. I stock up on it when it's on sale for a dollar a can. Because, the last time I noticed the regular price, it was $1.59 / can or so. This gravy I use as my benchmark for gauging food prices, because I can remember when it cost a dollar a can as the regular price. Today I saw it for $1.79 / can, regular price.

Good gravy!

Yup, food prices are definitely on the way up, been noticing it for years. My gravy, prime example. Oh sure, here in the first world, we're lucky and we can forgo certain items (like luxury canned gravy) or only get them when they're on sale. We can always afford staples like rice, meat, and so on. In the rest of the world, not so much.

The price of the gravy has almost doubled in the past couple years. Other items have also gone up in price.

This does not bode well for the future. I'm glad, at a time like this, I own an affordable home, and own it outright. That, at least, provides some security with regards to my budget. Housing expenses for me are minimal, leaving more left over for things like food (and my brand-new SUV). Particularly since I like to eat whatever I want and not have to work with budget constraints when it comes to eating. I don't like the idea of going to the grocery store and not being able to get whatever I want, when I want it. If I want to eat something fancy or more expensive, I want to always be able to get it when I want it, and not have to settle for only what I can afford. Furthermore I want Pugsley to be able to eat well, to eat decent meals of good-quality nutritious foods.

$1.79 for a can of gravy that used to cost a dollar.

Also, is it just me, or does it seem that food AVAILABILITY is also being effected? Today, I wanted to buy some tater tots, some frozen bagged spinach, and a whole cooked chicken. I wasn't able to find either the tater tots nor the frozen bagged spinach at Super C in Vaudreuil on the weekend - hence my having to go out to another, different grocery store to look for it today. The store I went to today (Maxi in Pincourt) had neither tater tots, frozen bagged spinach, NOR whole cooked chickens available. Cripes! I felt like I was in Soviet Russia, or Haity, or someplace like that. No frozen bagged spinach, tater tots, nor whole cooked chickens to be had for love nor money. And these are basic food items.

On my third try, at IGA in St. Lazare, I finally found the items I was seeking. But is it really becoming necessary for me to run all over the place, go to three different grocery stores, in order to find the basic food items I want to buy? Cripes!

Food prices are on the way up. Food availability is on the way down. Especially here in the first-world nation of Canada. Meh.

A Chicken Emergency

2011-01-21T00:21:00.003-05:00

You know how sometimes you're driving and you glance in your rear view mirror, and you see flashing lights like on top of an ambulance or police car, or maybe on a fire engine of some sort?

Sometimes, when driving along the street, you see a car topped with a flashing light. Usually this indicates some type of authority figure such as police or ambulance or fire trucks, on official business.

However, there is another organization which also employs the flashing-light-topped car. St. Hubert Bar-B-Q restaurant.

Their car features a flashing light on top, denoting a chicken emergency.

Get out of the way! Make room! Let the delivery car pass! Some fat-ass sad-sack slob is having a chicken emergency!

It's an emergency, and a greasy, fatty, salt-laden chicken dinner MUST be delivered with haste to some lardass someplace. Out of the way! Let the car pass, can't you see that the flashing light is on??

I'd be embarassed to order from St. Hubert. I wouldn't want anyone to know that I was having a chicken emergency. I wouldn't want anyone to know that my hunger and craving for a chicken dinner was so grave, they had to send a specially-equipped car with a flashing light on top of it to deliver my feed to me. I wouldn't want that car to pull up in front of my house, light flashing, screaming to the neighbours what a gluttonous sad sack I was.

Seriously, those delivery cars are ghey.

Earl Joes Et Al.

2011-01-18T03:36:00.001-05:00

People like Earl Jones, Vincent Lacroix are driven to do what they do by the COMBINED GREED of society as a whole, represented by their clientele. When satisfying the greed of others is your business, your day-to-day work and the path you walk in life; it's almost impossible not to be effected by that greed. As a pornographer will eventually sink into the amorality he encourages, so did Jones & Lacroix. Blame yourselves, people. You wanted high returns for your money, did you ever pause to think where those returns might have come from? Did you care whether someone else somewhere had to suffer in order for you to get that 10% return promised? I doubt it. The same blind eye you turned waiting for your 10% was also turned ON YOU by Jones & Lacroix. These "financial scam" stories are symptomatic of a deeper societal problem which unfortunately, few care to acknowledge.

Book Reviews

2011-01-18T03:20:00.002-05:00

A few book reviews I've provided on Amazon.

I'll have to make it a point to post more reviews of other books.

I download e-books off the internet and read them for free. Ho ho!

Ask me how.

Stealing? Is it ALWAYS Wrong?

2011-01-18T02:24:00.002-05:00

In my opinion, no.

When I finally get fired from my sinecure (which shall be a most liberating life-experience), I'll have to think about finding another job someplace, a job whose proceeds shall go towards enriching the lives of other people, Pugsley first and foremost. Knowing I'll have to seek alternate employment gets me to thinking, where would I like to work?

Obviously, with jobs in short supply, beggars can't be choosers. While compensation has heretofore always been my primary consideration (hence continued sinecure attendance) with regards to job-choice; lately I've begun thinking there might be OTHER factors that might weigh in and become even greater considerations, what with the life-experience I've gained to-date in the work force and new developments on the home front. Proximity to home, for starters, with Pugsley now in the picture, might be for instance an attractive factor in any future job selection.

Another thing I'd like to consider, is what potential for on-the-job theft any possible future employer might be able to offer to me. In that regard, a position in retail sales might work out for me the best.

A store like Wal-Mart, for instance; might be simply wonderful for a person like me who has no scruples about stealing.

Found this wonderfully inspiring article, written by an ex-K-Mart employee, regarding the foibles he & his got away with at one particular store, during his tenure there. I can't help but wonder whether I'd be able to accomplish as much elsewhere.

With over a decade-and-a-half of work experience now under my belt, I have to carefully consider what I've learned during that time and be sure to apply the lessons gleaned to any future employment I might someday undertake. One factor especially that I'll have to consider before agreeing to be hired on anywhere, irregardless of salary, would be what I call the "FDF", or "Future Disgruntlement Factor". That is to say, that when evaluating a store, corporation, or company as a potential employer, I'll have to carefully weigh what opportunities exist within that organization for me to exonerate my conscience and seek personal restitution against the organization for future slights and/or maltreatment which I might be subjected to over the course of my employment there. I'll need to consider whether there is ample opportunity within the organization for me to extract some measure of personal payback against the organization, for any abuses it might inflict upon me over the course of the time I'll spend with it as an employee.

I must consider the "FDF" (Future Disgruntlement Factor) before taking on any employment, ever again, and I must choose only to work for the organization which affords me the greatest opportunity to personally lash back at it in whatever fashion I am able, once I reach a point where I can no longer live with or tolerate the abuses that greedy corporation heaps upon me over the course of my time there.

I am very interested in corporate sabotage and sabotage techniques. Those are of great use in a place where there's nothing really available to steal, such as at my current employer. However, for future reference, I'd think it would be worth my time to involve myself with an employer which was rich in items I wanted or needed, so that I could plan to eventually steal some of those, when the FDF kicked in.

For example: Wal Mart. Everyone knows, Wal Mart is hell on earth to work for. They treat their employees like crap, and all of their merchandise comes from third-world sweatshops where workers are exploited (big "DF" - Disgruntlement Factor - there, but what can those people do about it?). However, if I were to work at Wal-Mart, I could merely help myself to whatever of their merchandise I so pleased, if ever I became disgruntled or maybe if I even just needed some more of it at home.

Which brings me back to the question I posted in the title of this post: is it ALWAYS wrong to steal? In my opinion, NO.

Wal Mart steals the lives of third-world women & children, forcing them to slave for pennies a day to produce merchandise they then sell for huge profits upon their store shelves. It is NOT wrong to steal from Wal-Mart, because Wal-Mart steals from human beings, and what Wal-Mart steals is so much more valuable than a T-shirt or a toy boat. Wal-Mart steals LIVES.

Most corporations are like this. Most corporations steal, or otherwise use dirty, underhanded business strategies. Most corporations seek to screw over their employees, rather than treat them fairly and with respect. I fail to see how it is in any way wrong to steal from those corporations, or sabotage them, or otherwise cause them trouble, particularly if one has become disgruntled from years (or even certain specific incidents) of maltreatment. Corporations deserve it. Corporations are a plague upon the earth, which should be eradicated so that human beings can evolve and grow and so that society can become less money-driven and more like the idealistic nirvana presented in "Star Trek". Are there any corporations in "Star Trek"? No.

It is right and correct to steal from greedy corporations.

If Robin Hood were alive today, he'd agree with me.

Down Syndrome

2010-11-06T21:50:00.008-04:00

I was on the internet the other night when I decided to look at some YouTube videos featuring kids and/or babies with Down Syndrome.

In case anyone cares, I had tests performed during my pregnancy in order to determine whether or not the fetus I was carrying at the time was a Down Syndrome baby. Had it been discovered that the fetus was positive for Down's, I would have terminated the pregnancy.

Pugsley was born in June.

Why do I like to look at videos about kids and/or babies with Down Syndrome? Maybe, out of a desire to see what I might have aborted. I'm not second-guessing myself in my conviction to proceed with abortion in the case of Down Syndrome - rather, confirming my rationale. It is my choice and my opinion, that is all, end of file.

In any case, I decided I wanted to leave a comment on several of the videos I viewed. A comment reflecting my honest & true feelings about Down Syndrome kids, my situation, and so on. I posted the following comment to two videos, here, (video 1) and here (video 2):

"Is it wrong that I feel happy that my son was born WITHOUT Down Syndrome? No, it is not. I am glad he does not have Down's. I will teach him to respect and protect those who do have Down Syndrome, all the days of his life. His ass is grass if he disrespects Down Syndrome kids. I want him to meet as many Down Syndrome, Aspergers, or otherwise "abnormal" peers as possible, so that he can see the entire variety of the human race and be taught to respect them."

For the first video link above, there didn't appear to be any problem with my comment. It went through, got posted, and as far as I know still remains on the video's page today.

For the second video link above, where the video's owner has chosen to exercise comment moderation - my comment never showed up. Never appeared.

I'm not called the unpopular opinionist for nothing, I realize - but still, WHAT about my comment is so wrong, so bad, or so nasty that it doesn't deserve to be published?

I try not to be a hypocrite. For instance, I too exercise comment moderation upon my blog. This is mainly to prevent spammers, or people who post nothing but profanity, from littering my blog with their trash. Anytime anyone leaves a thoughtful comment otherwise - even if it's rife with spelling mistakes or shows an opinion different from my own, I leave it intact and publish it as-is. So it irks me to no end when others censor my internet postings wherever - YouTube, CBC.ca, or what have you; merely because my opinion is unique or differs from their own.

What, on the second video - do they not want HONEST comments, HONEST assessments, and HONEST opinions from other members of society? Members of the society in which their Down Syndrome child will be LIVING? True, they might be able to keep me & my opinion from their video comments section, but will they be able to keep me & my opinion from EVER influencing anyone who in turn, will have influence on Down Syndrome kids?

I suppose they only want comments on the video, that coddle and condone Down Syndrome. That show it in a totally positive light. They only want to publish things that confirm their view of how those with Down's should be perceived in a perfect world. They don't want to hear that another person is equally as GLAD that her baby was born WITHOUT Down Syndrome, as some are that their baby WAS.

"To see a world through eyes that don't judge,
to love with hearts that don't discriminate,
to look at people for who they are,
and accept them for simply that,
This is how children and adults
with Down Syndrome see the world,
They love, they feel, unconditionally
they are role models,
and all the inspiration anyone needs."

Words from the opening sequence of the video. Beautiful, really. But begs the question: If the authors of the video had Down Syndrome themselves, would they too have exercised comment moderation and edited out my comment, refusing to publish it? I think not. They don't even follow their own advice, to "see a world through eyes that don't judge", "don't discriminate", and "accept people for who they are". See, these video-posters; they JUDGED me and my comment, they DISCRIMINATED against me and my comment by refusing to publish it, and they DID NOT ACCEPT me and my comment for what it was an who I am. So, they are not even as good, as the Down Syndrome kids/people shown in the video. Cripes!!!

What was so bad about my comment, in the first place anyway? I wrote that I would teach my son to protect and care for people with Down Syndrome, all the days of his life. He doesn't have Downs, otherwise, he wouldn't be here. He will be Lord and Master of his universe, a universe which may include people, kids, and /or babies who have Down Syndrome. Is it not correct that he should be taught to respect and protect them? I will teach him to do so, and enforce it in a big way, believe me. I mean that too, wholeheartedly. Do the video authors / comment moderators NOT want to hear that sort of thing? It's not like I wrote that I'd teach my son to make fun of, beat up, and take advantage of Down Syndrome kids. I could understand them not wanting to publish THAT sort of comment, which would be totally inappropriate. But editing out a comment from a mother with a "normal" son containing POSITIVE reinforcement messages of how I, in my own little universe and in my own little way will endeavour to help the Down Syndrome kids? Someone who has said she'll raise her child to be a PROTECTOR of Down Syndrome people, all the days of his life? Un-be-lievable!!! Pugsley doesn't have Down Syndrome, but WHAT MORE CAN I DO to help those who do?

I can only conclude that these people have failed utterly to interpret plain English. I therefore shudder to think they might be raising not only a child, but a special-needs child. That kid's fucked whether he's got Down's or not.

I DO want Pugsley to meet as many diverse types of people, human beings, as he conceivably can. Correct, he will be their Master, and with time this will become quite evident. It's up to me to ensure he will be a good and decent one, and that is a responsibility I take very, very seriously. He will not fuck around or get out of line on MY watch, I am the toughest bitch he's ever going to have to please. I am proud of Pugsley; and I know his behaviours, his successes or failures, will to some extent reflect back upon me. Because Pugsley is very very strong, he will have a responsibility to protect the weak and vulnerable, and I will make sure he understands this. He and his generation could conceivably marshall in a new era of understanding for humanity, and create a better world.

The only reason I can legitimately conceive as to why my comment wasn't published is that perhaps, it came across as a little smug - my boy doesn't have Down Syndrome, and I'm glad of it. So be it! What am I supposed to write? That I wish he did? That would be a lie. I don't, and I won't. I believe that pre-natal testing around the 15 th week for chromosonal disorders is fairly standard nowadays, or can be had nearly everywhere in the first world. This implies a certain degree of CHOICE in the matter with regards to parents with Down Syndrome kids. I don't mean to imply it's the parent's FAULT the child has Down's - rather, that deciding not to find out would be the choice. Perhaps it boils down to the ethics of abortion, which is not a subject I'm willing to get into. In any case, the reality is that one has to live with one's decisions.

God doesn't make mistakes.

Russell Williams

2010-10-22T00:43:00.003-04:00

How low can one individual sink? Could anyone on earth be lower than Russell Williams? I don't think so. This is pretty much the bottom of the garbage can on a hot summer day, you know that garbage-juice-liquid and sticky stuff at the bottom of the garbage dumpster after the garbage truck passes and empties the trashbags? Well if you scrape that gunk off you will find Russell Williams underneath it, and he's worth a lot less.

I'd like to say RIP to his victims, but that seems inadequate for what I feel when I think about those young women and what they went through at the hands of an indescribably evil, revolting excuse for a human. It's for people like Jessica and Marie-France I hope there's a heaven and a beautiful place where they can find peace. It's for people like despicable excrement Russell Williams that I hope there's a HELL where torments last eternity. Least he'll get a taste of it over next 25 years, rotting like garbage in Kingston penitentiary. I think death would be better than 23 hours a day in a 6 by 11 foot cell, or however big they are. I dunno but that cell looks a little bit too cozy and cushy for the likes of Williams; a coffin seems more fitting.

At least we can take some comfort knowing Williams will find himself in the company of such sweethearts as Paul Bernardo, Clifford Olson. I mean, if you could choose to spend every day for the rest of your life with any person living or dead, why wouldn't it be either or both of them?

What kind of a sick, fucked up world do we live in where people commit atrocities on this scale? Williams was discovered but, like earwigs and roaches, for every one you find there are a dozen more hidden away someplace. That thought keeps me up at night. I was at home today and I felt like turning on the alarm, with me INSIDE the house, and locking all the doors. I'm gonna get Gomez to install a bar on the downstairs bedroom window. I'm traumatized just from hearing about this case.

The sickest thing is how normal he seems on the police videos of his confession. He just seems like your average guy, a man you would see anywhere at work or a shopping mall or anyplace. Nothing about him seems unusual or monstrous externally. You would think that a person capable of committing heinous acts would show some outward sign, but clearly no. Isn't that always the case with these killers? Isn't that what his neighbours, his own wife said as well?

Great, now I have to go to sleep. Pleasant dreams, me.

What Do You Do When The Cashier Makes A Mistake In Your Favour?

2010-08-29T00:20:00.004-04:00

Found this question on Craigslist, it's a question of scruples, really.

"Today I took my son shopping for the last of his school clothes. We bought 3 tee-shirts and a pair of shoes from a trendy teen shop. I was expecting the bill to be $150 (3 x $30 shirts and $60 skateboard shoes) plus tax. The girl at the cash rang it up and said it was $82.xx. I asked again "How much?". She repeated the same total. I thought anyone giving even the smallest amount of thought to their job could quickly see that this would be well over $100 before taxes. I paid with 5 $20 bills. The girl gives me 1 of them back and then gives me my change of $17.xx. In the parking lot my son says "That's amount was wrong.". I said I thought so too and checking the receipt in the car I see that she didn't scan the shoes and in fact that the tee shirts didn't even ring up correctly. After that I counted my money and see that she did give me back $20 too much. Now up until recently I have always corrected the cashier from giving me too much change or ringing things up incorrectly but it seems like I did so at least twice a week. Now I have stopped as I figured out the cashiers aren't learning anything (like my local dep where this would happen at least once a week) and they don't give any thought to their work. I told my son this and I said if the businesses hired anyone at more than minimum wage, and in the case of the trendy teen shop - stopped hiring air-head bimbos that look good but have no discernible skills what-so-ever, then the shop owners would have people who cared about their job and worked to do it properly (and selling $30-$70 tee-shirts I'm sure they can afford to pay their staff more). So was it wrong to show my son that it's okay to short-change the 'stupid people' or was it correct to use them as an example of what he should rise above when he starts working? Should a customer be doing the employee's job of caring for the companies bottom line - or is it just tough luck and one should get whatever consequences of messing up if you're simply not qualified for the job? "

My response (which I posted) was as follows:

"When the cashier at a store makes a mistake in your favour, you should DEFINITELY keep the money / merchandise.

Most stores, and all boutiques, sell things at grossly overinflated prices to begin with. They are cheating the consumer from the get-go, by charging $45 for a shirt or $65 for a pair of pants. A pair of shoes is not worth the $120 the store wants to charge. All of the merchandise in any store is usually produced in some third-world nation, where workers toil in unsafe and slave-like conditions for mere pennies per hour. Take the example of a woman in El Salvador, earning 12 cents an hour sewing a Gap T shirt or factory workers in China paid pennies per day to make merchandise for Disney. To say nothing of child labour & sweatshops.

Stores / boutiques are STEALING from the consumer to begin with with their grossly overinflated prices. Shirts would be worth $45 and pants $65 if that money would go to the workers who toil to make the merchandise, if those prices could be justified by saying that elsewhere in the world they were helping to improve the standard of living of hard-working human beings, but it does not: it goes into the coffers of the store, towards the bottom line of the company and ultimately to enrich some greedy, corrupt executive asshole. Most stores / boutiques are headed by companies who are STEALING from first the consumer, then the workers who toil to make the merchandise they sell. All to make corporate profits which will be enjoyed only by the executive elite.

It is a non-issue when you are not charged, or are incorrectly charged, for what you buy. When a store / boutique makes a mistake, that's more money in your pocket instead of in the pocket of some grossly overpaid executive scumbag asshole. Don't feel the least bit guilty for getting free merchandise. Think of it as karma. "

I Love My Brand-New SUV

2010-08-27T00:17:00.005-04:00

I love my brand-new SUV.

Fuck you, environmentalists.

The arrival of Pugsley has precipitated numerous changes - one of them, vehicular. My sub-compact is now gone, sold to a happy young man who promised to love & take good care of her, and a brand-new SUV is now part of the family. With Pugsley and all his accoutrements, a larger vehicle was required. I, we, chose the SUV. It's the second in our household. We are now a two-SUV family.

SUV's rule. When you're driving them, you're up high, livin' large. They're comfortable to ride in and sporty to show off. They make you feel good. They make driving pleasant. They have cool features like cruise control, which make driving fun. My sub-compact had none of these fancy things - power windows, a hatchback, power heated mirrors, a rear windshield wiper, all-wheel drive, etc etc etc. So it's a huge upgrade.

Yeah it's costly, but whatever. Pugsley deserves the best for his security and I feel safe in my new SUV. He's much better off inside it than he was in the sub-compact. The SUV is black, with chrome accents and black tinted windows making it impossible for anyone outside to observe Pugsley inside, because why should asswipes on the street be able to feast their eyes on him at their leisure & liking? They should not. Black tinted windows. Like a limo.

Montreal is a very anti-car city. They are waging war on the automobile. They want to discourage cars from entering the city, driving around in the city. You have to pay a fortune for parking, and vehicles get vandalized all the time. The roads are in shit shape, and the traffic is horrendous. I don't really go downtown in my SUV for these reasons. But the suburbs are great. One time, Gomez & I were downtown in his SUV to visit my brother. We were driving on a street, and these people walking on the sidewalk were glaring at us as we rode slowly by in our SUV, looking at us all stink-eye, like. They were probably loser locals from the downtown core who'd been brainwashed by environmental propaganda into hating cars in general and SUV's in particular, so when they saw us trolling my brother's street for a parking spot they felt justified in giving us the evil eye. Like, how dare we, ride in an SUV! And as I said Montreal is a very car-unfriendly city, so doubtless they'd also swallowed the Ville de Montreal's anti-car propaganda hook line & sinker as well, in addition to the environmental garbage. Seriously they were like totally disgusted & disturbed to see us & our SUV on the road, for whatever reason. I've noticed that, when I go downtown, don't have to be in an SUV necessarily, even in my sub-compact I used to get stared & glared at by loser local pedestrians, like how dare I ride in a car! How dare I have the audacity to utilize an automobile! Nowadays Montreal is all about Bixi bikes & touting the benefits of riding public transit, well guess what assholes? I got me an SUV and you guys can suck on the tailpipe if you don't like it. Secretly these people are just jealous because they can't afford a car themselves, although they'd love to have one but how can they when they make $25k per year with their university degrees? And, having no means of transportation other than the shitty bus & metro system and whatever spare change they can maybe panhandle for a taxi ride, these losers are confined - TRAPPED - in the downtown core proper where employers know they don't have to pay more than $25k per year for some schmuck with a university degree. Hahaha, haha, ha. What a bunch of sad-sack a-holes.

I love riding in my SUV and I love driving past losers who look at me all stink-eye.

I really don't think that cars are necessarily the reason for the supposed "environmental pollution" around us. I've posted way before about environmentalist bullshit (go back and read it) so I won't get into it here in detail except to say that I don't agree with it. Besides, what good is a nice environment if there isn't anyone around to enjoy it? I need to protect Pugsley and to my mind the best way to do that is to ferry him about in a hulking-big SUV. That way, he's more of a chance of withstanding it when environmentalist assholes in their SMART cars fuck up behind the wheel and careen into us. The SMART cars will merely bounce off the bumper and ricochet into a ditch or tree someplace, while we continue merrily on our way, safely inside with the doors locked tightly. Yippee!

SUV's rule.

Fat Ugly Sad-Sacks

2010-08-26T23:58:00.003-04:00

With the arrival (and prior gestation) of Pugsley I have been neglecting my blog, my blog here and it's high time I recommenced updating. So, here we go!

Found this article on Canada dot com. Hahaha, fat ugly sad-sacks. Now I understand why I see so many around me whom haven't a pot to piss in.

While I agree with some of the points in the article, notably the fact that "The kid wants mom and dad together. They don't care if they fight or are happy," there are other pearls of wisdom spouted in the article that make me livid. "the departing parent might explain, "Daddy/mommy has a special friend. I need to go to be with that person."" Hold on just one cotton-pickin' minute, what a way to screw up your kid and teach it to be a self-centered bastard when it grows up, just like the "departing parent". A "special friend"?? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Leaving your MATE with whom you have a child for some asswipe someplace whom you refer to as a "special friend"? Now I know why the majority of you people who I see around me are fat, ugly, sad-sacks without a pot to piss in. This is how you're running your lives. And, now I know why your kids are such ill-behaved brats. Look at the horrid influence - it cannot rightly be called upbringing - with which they've been instilled. And now I remember why I need to get Pugsley enrolled in a serious Marshall arts program ASAP, stat, and yesterday - so that he can defend hisself BODILY against the likes of you, and your spawn. "A special friend", seriously? Like Grover is a "special friend" of Oscar the Grouch? Crawling away from family, parental, and financial responsibilities (like a maggot would after sucking the last meat off a month-old corpse), bye bye lover & on to the next one? Cripes.

People get divorced not because there's anything wrong with their mate. People get divorced because there's something wrong with THEMSELVES. Being divorced shows you have serious issues, and that you're a fat ugly sad-sack of a human being who isn't capable of compromise, acceptance, adjustment, or reasonability. Being divorced shows you're a selfish a-hole who can't keep it in either your pants or your wallet. Divorce brings nothing but trouble & heartache, and harms innocent children.

Pugsley is very blessed, that he has TWO parents who understand this. I would never sacrifice the tiniest part of Pugsley's security, happiness, or stability merely to chase after a piece of ass. A "special friend". Why would things get to the point where divorce would be necessitated? What, in life, could possibly be worth the price Pugsley would have to pay? I'd want to kill myself if I divorced, hurting Pugsley. I would never forgive myself and the price of his sacrifice would be far too high. I guess I married a good one, because he feels the same and I know this. What asswipe would be worth Pugsley's security, I do not know. Jesus Christ himself, not even.

Divorce is for losers.

Pugsley

2010-08-21T02:15:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I updated this blog.

Pugsley has arrived.

CBC News - Montreal - Montreal church group leaves Haiti for safety reasons

2010-01-21T10:16:00.001-05:00

CBC News - Montreal - Montreal church group leaves Haiti for safety reasons

The article states that "they see us as sources of money and food," which leaves me wondering. Do the impoverished locals see the white foreigners as a way to GET food (like maybe rice & beans) or AS THE food itself?

"It was too risky because, first of all, we're Canadians. We're white — as they call us, les Blancs. Basically, they see us as sources of money and food," he said.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm......

Winter Olympics

2010-01-21T06:22:00.002-05:00

Just read this morning about how there isn't enough snow available at at least one of the winter olympics sites planned in Vancouver.

Contingency plans are now being rolled out. They include using straw and wood in place of snow to build up the courses. Snow will then be brought in to layer over the straw and wood to build the course.

That being the case, why call them the "winter olympics"? Why not call them the "straw olympics" or "sawdust olympics"? I mean, snow isn't really required, evidently. Why not just do away with the winter concept altogether, and just hold sports competitions upon wood chips and hay?

If the environmentalists are to be believed, we soon won't have any winter anywhere left in the world anyway - with global warming and stuff like that. So we better Goddamn well get used to it. We better get used to skiing on straw, sledding on sawdust, and stuff like that. Who knows where we'll skate.

Helping Haity

2010-01-20T11:15:00.011-05:00

Haiti, or Haity, as I prefer to spell it.

They're having real trouble down there as a result of the massive quake that happened just recently. Still, I look at pictures of "before" and "after" the quake and I honestly can't see much of a difference in some of them, or readily tell which images represent "before" and which "after" because the country was such a shit-hole mess to begin with.

Now, a 6.1 aftershock. That's like a whole other earthquake, there are catastrophic earthquakes elsewhere in the world that have happened measuring 6.1.

Our world is falling apart - literally. Socially, economically, physically. If I believed in God, I'd say we might be close to end times. The only good that can come of end times is the extinction of human beings. Even that won't be so great. The earth needs humans, we are part of the natural balance of things.

If I believed in God, I might want to pray. To pray to God to show leniency to poor Haity - hasn't Haity suffered enough? The proof that God does not exist is there in Haity. If God exists, he's a twisted phucker.

How can we help Haity? Most of us cannot. If we donate our money to some "charity", we'll just end up getting scammed, giving our money away to greedy people who will use it to enrich themselves - very little of that money will actually make it's way to Haity. I don't believe in giving to organized charity (well, money anyway). We can't all go down there and literally do stuff, bring stuff. How could I get away from my "job" which requires my attendance 8.5 hours per day, 5 days per week (where completion of my daily assigned workload takes 30 minutes of those 8 hours). We can't bring stuff, what, is there an airline that would fly me, my shovel and work clothes, garbage bags full of clothes and non-perishable food, down there free of charge? Hahahah!

It's difficult to help Haity.

The ones who are going to be the most upset about all this are the Disney and Nike companies. Their sweatshops will be out of commission. Disney pays its workers in Haity about 28 cents an hour, but hey, that's good money compared to a woman in El Salvador (where incidentally, the company I work for is headquartered) working in a sweatshop for 12 cents/hr sewing a GAP T-shirt.

Look for the price of plush Disney figurines, running shoes, and shoddy T-shirts to rise in the near future.

Some sheeple are whining about "big pharma" and the oil companies. How these companies ought to suddenly grow a conscience and help Haity for free. That's certainly true, they should. But they won't. We don't live in that kind of a world. Big pharma don't give a rat's ass about people's health. They're businesses, pure and simple, they answer to the shareholders. Giving stuff away free is not their modus operandi. Don't you realize by now that human life is expendable? There are always more humans - whereas the world's resources represented by dollars are finite. Big pharma shareholders covet dollars, not lives. If lives were as valuable as dollars, the world would be a vastly different place.

A poem for Haity:

They are freed slaves,
servitude of white knaves
in bygone days
corrupted by evil ways

Now the quakes have shaken
all of those who were taken
they who have been forsaken
when will the world awaken?

They have no business on any island in the Caribbean
torn from Africa, their home, to serve some Europeans?
Back in the days of big ships and dark-skinned-people-misteatin'
Pray these sins can be beaten.

Help Haity now
They need medicine, clothing, chow
Rebuild, help them say "wow"
Make up for the past - and how!!

UPDATE: January, 2011

Found this post on another blog, referencing part of my post on this blog here (which I'd also posted on a news article someplace).

It feels good to have one's work acknowledged.

Raising A Child

2010-01-19T09:27:00.002-05:00

Somewhat different than managing a dog, I guess.

There was an article in the Gazette a little while ago about how Quebec's new Parental Leave Program supposedly can't keep up with the birth rate. Boo hoo, boo hoo.

A large contributor to the declining birthrate is the way society continues to be structured around the assumption that women (or that one of the parents) will remain at home to be the primary carers for young children, even though that hasn't been the case for many decades now. This is evidenced in the lack of an adequate number of day-care spaces, our outdated Canada Labour Code which does not provide provisions for time off work for personal or parental reasons (beyond basic maternity/paternity leave), the rising cost of living and housing necessitating that both parents be income-earners in order to support a family, and other factors. The way our modern society is structured, along with our continued materialism and inflated consumption habits, have combined to have an adverse effect on the overall birthrate. I do not see this trend reversing itself in the near future.

I posted my pithy commentary (unpopular opinion) as a comment to the article.

I for one think the program is great! The only people who are against it are those who are bitter they cannot themselves take advantage of the program, perhaps because they are infertile or impotent. Looking forward to commencing my year off!

Even the homeless can use a festival

2010-01-19T09:12:00.002-05:00

Even the homeless can use a festival

Reminiscing about how much I hate lazy-lout lardasses....

"The homeless will be pampered, fed, sheltered and entertained by hundreds of artists and volunteers who hope to give them a few days of good cheer."

Gee, if only I, a working stiff, could be pampered, fed, sheltered and entertained by hundreds of artists and volunteers who hoped to give me a few days of good cheer. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing? But no. Sadly, instead of laying about lazily and being a lardass, I choose to go out and work for a living so that I can have things - a house, a pet, a husband, some material possessions, food, etc. So I don't deserve to be pampered or entertained by hundreds of artists over the course of several days. Only layabout lardasses deserve that, only folks who choose not to participate in contributing to society. Only asswipes who lay around drunken in gutters deserve to be fed sheltered and pampered at a special "festival" in their name.

I weep for the future of society. Have we got our priorities misplaced.

Kangaroos may hold skin cancer cure: Study

2010-01-19T07:59:00.001-05:00

Kangaroos may hold skin cancer cure: Study

Another article improved with the addition of my pithy commentary (unpopular opinion) at the end.

"That's right, let's greedily covet kangaroo body parts & secretions for our own selfish, human requirements. Species are nothing more than commodities to be used, sold and bought piecemeal. Dissect all the kangaroos, make them go extinct so that some leather-lunged smoker someplace can retain his chance to smoke 3 packs a day repercussion-free. Greed, the worst disease of humanity."

Animal Rights

2010-01-18T09:20:00.004-05:00

I agree it's commendable to treat animals fairly & with respect. Humans as the ruling species on the planet have a huge responsibility towards lesser creatures. However, it irks me to see dogs / cats elevated beyond the status of some human beings, who are ALSO suffering and in need of care & charity. Many "rescue" organizations for animals are better-supported and recognized that organizations which endeavour foremost to support causes which would benefit HUMAN BEINGS. While focusing on Scrappy the dog's sufferings, we forget the plight of the downtrodden of our OWN kind. Do not forget, pets are an industry. "Shelters" hoarding & glorifying large numbers of animals often do little to dispel this misplaced use of resources. From your friendly veterinarian to the pet-supply shop at the local mall, everyone would like you to have a pet. It's great to help out animals, help animals, YES. But don't forget there are people who are also in need, and don't elevate Spot or Patchy's interests above those of a person's. If only we had organizations like this one dedicated to helping orphaned Cuban children, for example. But I suppose a 14-year-old orphan boy who's lived a life of suffering is much less appealing to take into one's home & nurture, than a 14-year-old Beagle who's experienced the same, would be.

I submit, for your reading:

www.theonion.com/.../28859

It seems to me, following dealings with various animal "rescue" organizations in an attempt to secure a pet (familiar) for my household - that many of these organizations exist for little reason other than to enable animal hoarders. They make it so difficult for you to GET a pet, for you to ADOPT any of the animals in their custody / care; that one wonders whether that is their primary motivation in the first place. The endless questions, interviews, home visits, surveys and questionnaires to be filled out ("have you ever owned a cat before?" No, I'm 32 and I, just yesterday became aware of the existence of small, furry, four-legged creatures commonly called "cats" that share the planet with us...) seem designed to deter, rather than encourage, the adoption process. Yep. I personally feel that many so-called "rescue" organizations are nothing more than groups of crazies with hoarding tendencies, organized under pretext. Ho-ho!

Additionally, ever wonder why Quebec is the Puppy-Mill capitol of North America? Why the animal protection laws are so, so lax here that idiot white apes can get away with any sort of mistreatment imposed on our four-legged friends? Nobody in the Quebec government cares about animals. Why should they? Animals can't be forced to speak French, so why bother with the likes of them!

Pre-Natal Screening II

2010-01-14T00:18:00.009-05:00

Yesterday my pre-natal screening test results came back.

NEGATIVE.

Trisomy 21, Down Syndrome. Trisomy 18, Edward's Syndrome. Spina-Bifida. And other genetic factors.

This was the integrated test - 95% accuracy. I will not be going for amniocentisis.

I feel very blessed, but then again - God doesn't make mistakes. HE didn't take my little dog from me for no reason. And he certainly didn't take her from me to send me a Down Syndrome child, which I would have aborted. What would have been the point implanting a Downs child within me? When some store sends me home with a defective product, I'm back promptly to return it. Why would God waste my time and his, implanting a defective baby in my womb? Trying to pass off defective product to me? He knew he'd not get away with it, so why bother? I've already written about how much I admire Henry Morgentaler.

I made it back to my car before the tears of relief came.

Down Syndrome people are at too much of a disadvantage in our world here at present. A Down Syndrome child would only be exploited, taken advantage of, and abused at the hands of the world. It is nothing against Down Syndrome people, but rather a reflection on the rest of society.

Lying in the dark,
staring at the ultrasound
the doctor shakes his head and says I'm sorry but this baby has
Down Syndrome
and I know
it's hard to decide...
but she's so fragile that she'll probably die...
and it might be a blessing if she did
little did he know we're all the more blessed 'cause she lived...
no, she's never gonna look like the other kids
and she may not learn to talk like the other ones did
and I guess she's always gonna walk just a little behind
but I don't mind
cause she lives her whole life without one trace of guile
and she lights up the world with that crooked little smile
and she loves you with a love so pure it just makes your heart break...
and I'd like to tell that doctor
God dosen't make mistakes.

I admire all parents who choose to have & raise a child with Down Syndrome - perhaps God has gifted them with something he did not choose to bestow upon me. Those parents are to be supported and encouraged; their children are to be protected and cared for.

I will teach my child to respect and protect people who have Down Syndrome.

Here's a link to an article I found about a mother who explains her reasons for terminating her Down Syndrome pregnancy. I don't think I could sum up my opinions any better than she already has in her article - although it was posted awhile back (2001).

The pro of abortion is that you spare an innocent soul the torment of incarnation in human form here on earth, where it will likely be exploited, abused and tormented beyond its ability to be able to comprehend or defend itself. You spare yourself the anguish and worry about your innocent soul at the hands of a cruel & uncaring world.

The con is that you may experience feelings of guilt, doubt, or conflict over your decision to terminate the pregnancy, perhaps feeling doubts at having "second-guessed" God - but, as the Down Syndrome support community point out, "God Dosen't Make Mistakes". Indeed, endowed with free will and the ability to choose, you may take some ultimate comfort bearing in mind when reflecting on your decision, that unerring God gave you free will and the ability to choose. That wasn't a mistake either. The decision is yours, as you live in the physical world in flesh form, whereas God does not. Do not think you are "going against" God. Choosing to send your Down Syndrome soul back to God - no deposit, no return - could be an option if you do not feel ready or able to cope with the increased demands custody of such a special-needs soul will place on you and your family.

Order Of Canada

2010-01-11T20:04:00.004-05:00

Ah, to be pregnant. Such a joy. To feel a life inside of me, slowly and gradually growing stronger, week by week. Never in all my life have I felt so beautiful, so powerful. When I attended church on Christmas eve, the service was especially poignant and I found myself paying special attention to the liturgy where the topic of giving life was concerned. Never in my life have I felt so close to God, as in God-LIKE. The church of course has bastardized years of texts to its own political ends, but nonetheless the message that giving life is the greatest power attainable within the spectrum of human experience shone through clearly, and I felt that power. I feel it now. I am the most powerful being on the planet, I am the most God-like, as I conjured into existence a life - I called life up and I determined when it would begin, I created that life and I am now carrying it within me and I can feel it growing, gaining strength. I will follow that life all the remaining days of my own. As I stood in church on Christmas eve, a strange thought came to me that among all the words about and of God and worshipping the deity - no force in that church could equal me. I was the deity, I was the closest thing to God there. Me, with my new life. No God above me.

I am God.

On that note, I think now's a wonderful time to express my utter delight at the appointment of Dr. Henry Morgentaler - abortionist - to the Order of Canada.

How wonderful that Dr. Morgentaler is to be honoured for his contribution to women's rights! Henry Morgentaler is a true hero, ending pregnancies left, right and center and preventing the birth of unwanted children everywhere. Thank God for Dr. Morgentaler. I'm certain that I'll eventually need to make use of his clinic. Now, with my womb full of life, I feel especially inclined to draw attention to the wonderful contribution Dr. Morgentaler is making to the world, by preventing so many unwanted children from being born.

There is nothing I love more than my little peanut, and I will defend her with my life. I have already protected her from numerous threats which she faced as an unborn foetus - my mother in law, for example, and her heavy smoking (sorry, Gomez); the "swine flu vaccine", idiot people at work, etc. etc. etc. Of course, I will continue to protect her for the next however many years of life I have left.

God bless you, Dr. Morgentaler. Sir.

Cryonics

2009-12-17T09:31:00.005-05:00

Cryonics, cryogenics. I found this great book, "Frozen" at Chapter's the other day. I've also been re-reading Alcor's website (which I originally perused several years back). Alot of interesting reading, cool (no pun intended) articles, and stuff like that.

Cryonics makes me laugh.

Oh sure, it's entirely plausible that one might be frozen and then re-animated years from now, but why would you want that?

Cryonics is for the incredibly selfish.

I can't believe that so many cryonics patients are in their 60's, 70's, 80's. First of all; sucks to be you if you die aged 60-75, it's just bad luck (maybe influenced by life choices) because a good majority of people do live those years well (as I hope to if I can keep away from the smokes and keep the boozing to a minimum). 75-80, ok, you can reasonably expect to lose some quality of life, but still those years can be fun in a reduced-capacity kind of way. After 80 it's anyone's guess. My point in all this is that after 6, 7, or 8 decades - irregardless of anything - most people have lived relatively full lives where they've experienced many things and had many adventures (whether people want to admit it or not). So I can't believe how incredibly selfish these assholes are to then want themselves frozen upon death (or "de-animation", as it's called in the cryonics world) in the hope they can maybe come back to life later and continue on living round 2.

Selfish fucks.

I could understand if you were terminally ill in your 20's, or maybe for children - it would be great to be able to be frozen with the possibility of being brought back to life later on to sort of "continue where you left off" and go on to have all those experiences you'd be missing out on. That seems fair, that seems like a good thing to do. But for a 70 or 80 year old? It's just selfish horseshit.

Greedy 70 and 80 year olds want to have their dessicated, ancient corpses frozen and secreted away so that later on, they can hopefully be brought back to life to RE-DO and RE- EXPERIENCE all the things they've already done and accomplished and experienced before. Greedy, selfish assholes. I don't condone that at all. I think it's horrible. Horribly greedy, horribly selfish.

By being de-frozen in the future and re-animated back to life, some greedy 70 or 80 year old of today will be depriving some young person of tomorrow (when I say tomorrow I mean, like 100 years from now or whenever) or maybe some un-born person of tomorrow, of the chance to enjoy life. Yes, by going back for seconds on life, instead of giving somebody else a turn, the greedy 70 and 90 year olds of today are hogging life, hogging the world's resources in a way they have no right to do. Shame on them, greedy old frozen people.

It's like in a buffet where some lardass starts out at the front of a long line, loads up his plate with everything there is on offer, then goes off and scarfs it all down while the buffet line continues. Next, having finished his plate and when the lardass decides he's still hungry for yet more food, the lardass goes right up and cuts in at the front of the line a second time and loads up his plate again, when other people haven't even had the chance to eat yet. By taking all the food the lardass is preventing other people from getting any, or getting their fair share. That's exactly what these greedy cryogenically-frozen oldsters are up to: cutting in line like some ill-mannered lardass at a buffet.

Fuck 'em.

There are finite resources in this world, and everyone is already fighting over what little there is, as it is now. The world population continues to grow and expand with birthrates climbing. What makes these cryonics folk think that in 100 years, there will be any desire to suddenly add even MORE people to the mix, fighting over scarce resources, especially when the "newcomers" will be coming back for seconds? What desire will there be to re-bring-back-to-life a small army of those who should rightfully be dead, and add these in to the population of humans?

It's not like we're talking about Nicola Tesla here; or Mother Teresa, or anyone else of great import to humanity who really made a contribution in some way that'd have made them
WORTHY of preserving & extending their lifespan. NO. We're talking about idiot people, sheeple who think themselves so important as to be worthy of being frozen away and bringing back in the future. What good will they be? No good at all, except to hog more resources than they should rightfully be entitled to. Why do they deserve a second chance? They don't.

I'm disgusted by people who have themselves cryonically frozen. Being cryonically frozen is the most selfish, earth-unfriendly thing you can ever do. Being cryonically frozen is the ultimate sign of being a total asshole. Ironically, none deserve death so much as those who choose cryonic freezing for themselves. Assholes.

Personally, when I die, hopefully I'll be old and I'll have accomplished the baseline things I needed to do here on earth. What happens after is really anyone's guess, but death is natural and therefore not to be feared. I think it's better to die in peace than be frozen cryonically.

Pre-Natal Screening

2009-11-27T01:23:00.004-05:00

I went for a couple of tests today - blood test and ultrasound.

To check for Trisomy 21 - Down Syndrome.

If my baby is shown to have a high probability of being born with Down Syndrome, I will abort it.

I will not bring a child with Down Syndrome into this world. Life is difficult enough, one does not need to live with the disadvantage of a permanent, incorrigible, lifelong mental deficiency to compound life's challenges.

Found this site: Living With Down Syndrome. There are a very many pro-Down Syndrome sites, Down Syndrome support sites, resource sites. That's wonderful, and all of that must be extremely useful for people who have Down Syndrome, or parents of children with Down Syndrome. I just won't be needing any of those sites or resources at all, except to confirm my decision to abort in case my baby is found to have Down Syndrome.

I await my test results.

I love this video.

They're right, God doesn't make mistakes.

God gave us free will, and that wasn't a mistake, either.

In most cases, with prenatal testing; we can make the choice to either have or not have a child with Down's Syndrome.

I have nothing but admiration for people who do choose to proceed with pregnancy and bring a Down's child into this world, and it is right and good and correct that those children and their families be supported, nurtured, & protected. However, in my case, if God in his infinite and unerring wisdom elects to send a child with Down's Syndrome to me, that child will be returned to him.

My choice. My decision, my will. The will he gave me freely, and knowing me when I was in my mother's womb and having created me; he knew I would do this.

For this reason, along with other physical and circumstantial ones; I find it highly disprobable that my baby (fetus) will be found to have Down's.

I await the results of my test.

Air Miles

2009-09-25T09:01:00.002-04:00

I've amassed quite a large quantity of Air Miles in the years since I've had my card. Is it just me, or are many of the consumer products featured as Air Miles "rewards" basically just junk no-one really needs anyway? For instance, I saw one "reward" consisting of a "salvaged wood serving tray" - basically, a busted-off piece of some old log that somebody found someplace, glued little rubber feet & handles onto, and slathered with a layer of varnish. The serving-tray reward can be had for the redemption of 900 Air Miles. I was not impressed - the item is unnecessary and silly, and seems to me would be more useful rotting away on a forest floor someplace (or burning away in someone's woodstove) than used as a "reward" for collecting Air Miles points. I saw a fugly, cheap-looking, supurfluous and useless "faux-leather bench" available for 2,000 Air Miles points - not at all worth it, in my opinion. I saw a "gift card for iTunes" available for I forget how many miles, another useless item which no-one of even slightly above average intelligence would have any need of whatsoever - just use Shareaza or The Pirate Bay to download any & all music you might need. These are but a few of the items I noticed, browsing the "rewards" section of this site, that I was astounded to discover as being on-offer and that I would consider to be utter junk. Frankly, I'm unimpressed by the "quality" of the "rewards" that seem to be available, after one has gone to the trouble of using the Air Miles card, visiting Air Miles sponsors, and amassing large quantities of Air Miles points.

I've spent time browsing the available "rewards" in various categories, trying to find SOMETHING of interest or that I deem worthy, which I might actually WANT, NEED, or be able to USE; and to date, I've come up with very little. So far, restaurant gift certificates, deals on activities (outings), or magazine subscriptions seem to be the closest things to useful and which, so far, pique any sort of interest on my part. Even then, I'm disappointed in the lack of variety available. Electronics would be great, but the items on offer simply aren't worth the number of Air Miles they'd cost - you'd be better off merely waiting till whichever product you want comes on sale at a retailer someplace.

Honestly, I'm thinking of ceasing use of my Air Miles card altogether in the near future, simply due to what I see as the limited number of quality rewards available. I'm also thinking of switching my credit card from an Air Miles collector card, to a simple cash-back card. The cash (as opposed to Air Miles) rewards I earn will be far more useful and will give me access to a wider variety of "rewards" than merely those available through the Air Miles program - rewards I find to be sadly lacking.

Darfur: Nobody Cares

2009-09-18T01:07:00.003-04:00

Nobody really cares about what's going on in Darfur.

Oh sure, some people care a lot. But overall, nobody really cares.

Humans are evil. Humans are greedy, intelligent mammals. That basically sums humans up. Intelligent, and also greedy. Humans will try to covet and hoard anything that has any wealth, and will try to store-up as much of this wealth as they possibly can, ad infinitum. Human greed has no boundaries. I see it in myself, I see it in society, I see it in the world. There will never come a point where a human will ever say, "I have enough; I have my fair share, I don't need any more, let's let someone else have their share too."

The United States is not responsible for policing the entire world, and they don't. The United States only wants to take care of what's happening in their own backyard. They are Capitalists, after all. The principles of Capitalism are based on greed.

When the US goes to a place, with their army, it isn't to serve that place. It isn't to correct wrongs. It's to serve their own interests. People fail to grasp this fact. And why shouldn't the US be self-serving? Is there anything wrong with that? It's the nature of humans to be self-serving, self-servitude leads to greed. Greed is inherent in humans, part of our nature.

The US has a lot of problems in it's own backyard already. They need to work on solving those. A small number of humans at the top of society are serving their own interests. Acting like humans. Intelligently, and with greed.

Nothing will ever change in Darfur. If I were in Darfur, I would probably kill myself - it's the best way out, really. Life is not worth living in Darfur.

I predict that humans will eventually self-destruct.

If something were to be done about Darfur, it would best happen out of a united group of countries pooling their resources. We could call that group, "The United Nations". Hey! Doesn't that already exist?! The United Nations are basically useless. They don't give a rat's ass about Darfur.

Sending American troops to clean up some mess in some worthless, shit-pile country. Sending American troops, our fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, to be killed for nothing?

I agree there's a compassionate component to be taken into account, but that's where the United Nations should come in. Seeing that the US is 22% of the UN, disgusts me. Other countries need to become involved. The problem is with humanity in general. Greedy humans only care about themselves. Jinjaweed, Americans, or whoever. Humans are the same everyplace.

What frightens me the most, is how humans are capable of such evil. If that could happen in Darfur, it could happen anywhere. Humans are evil. Humans suck.

Ashes

2009-08-26T21:56:00.003-04:00

Well, I got the dog's ashes back today.

I feel some sense of closure, and I feel strongly that she has now returned to me. I like this. She is here, with me, in a physical sense. Not in the form she was - but here with me physically nonetheless.

It was so tastefully done - a 3-inch high ceramic urn, a certificate of individual cremation ("cremated with respect"). A card, a note.

I want to keep her with me forever. She was the thing I loved most while I had her, except possibly for Gomez and my family.

Nothing can compare with her. She was so sweet and good.

Next week I'm in Cuba. While my colleagues are at work, I'll hopefully be tanked and topless on Varadero beach. Hey, I'm 32 - I gotta expose 'em while I still can.

Nah, yer never too old.

I may bring some ashes with me to Cuba to scatter into the ocean. Just a very tiny amount. To leave her in paradise.

I miss her so much.

The Saddest Thing

2009-08-12T10:46:00.006-04:00

Patchie was the sweetest and most beautiful Chihuahua. She died so suddenly in a freak accident at home. I remember how much I loved her glossy black fur, loving temperament, and sweet stinky breath. I was so very proud of her. So unprepared for this sudden death and the amount of hurt it has left behind. I do not understand why God chose to take Patchie away from her loving home, a home where we tried everything to keep her safe and happy. I remember how sweet she was sleeping under my arm, curled at my stomach, snug under the sleeping bag with me in the tent on what would turn out to be her last camping trip. Today I saw an ad up on the board at work for a 5-year old Teckel to be given away because it's owners were moving. Why did God take Patchie and allow irresponsible idiots to continue owning pets? Clearly God does not give enough of a rat's ass to involve himself in day to day affairs down here. Last night I asked God for a sign to tell me that Patchie was safe someplace - Heaven, or wherever. I am very angry with God. I am upset and very hurt by this sudden loss. Patchie was my child. I have no children and I never wanted any white-ape brats, just my little dog. Clearly the universe disagreed with my desire and somehow is against me. This is the SECOND pet we have lost to an untimely death (the first being a cat who died of cancer at age 4 years). As we were praying and stroking Patchie's dead body at the vet, I asked my husband why God didn't want us to have nice pets. He had no answer for me. We tried everything to keep the dog safe - heartworm pills, shots, invisible fence, all manner of safety equipment, and close supervision. In the end she died hitting her head on a coffee table. I have been re-living and re-living her final moments over and over and over again since the accident happened. This was one of the most horrible things I have ever had to witness in my entire life, watching my little dog that I loved so much die before my eyes. Was there anything I could have done to save her? I don't know if she died instantly. What should I have done? I am probably partly responsible for her death by not knowing what to do, but I tried to do what I thought was best at the time and I had about 5 seconds to make a decision. I was the only one with her when she died. I was not good enough to save her. I never wanted children, just my little dog. Clearly, that was too much to ask of life, God, or the universe. My dog was the best-taken care of dog around. My pain is unrelenting although I lie to people to downplay it, people want me to get over it and move on. I have lost my child, my only child. The day it happened I got drunk and bent down over her bed and started screaming her pet name over and over and over again at the top of my lungs, I have never screamed so loudly in all my adult life. I screamed and screamed to take away the pain and as an outlet for my frustration. Please pray for Patchie. Please beg God to keep her in heaven till I get there to smack her little bum again. Please also say a prayer for me, if you don't mind, I am not coping very well with this at all. I am so terribly angry.

It is going to take me a long, long time to get over the grief of losing my little dog. It is also going to radically change the way I see the world and my perception of what this universe and life is, which was not so great to begin with. This world is shit. Yesterday at the gym, I had a random thought from all this and it was an honest and true thought; that I don't care if I die. I started feeling that way around age 30 or so, and now, at 32, that feeling is getting stronger. I mean - I care. I'd rather fuck around Cuba for a couple of weeks than be dead. What I mean is at my time I'll accept it because I see what a fucked up world this is, and leaving it behind is not necessarily going to be a bad thing.

I hope there is an afterlife. For the dog, for me, for everyone.

***
August 13th:

Today is the one-week anniversary of Patchie's death.

I miss her so much. Last night I was sobbing & reading poetry written for dog-loss, online.

We are waiting to receive her ashes. We requested individual cremation with an urn. Hopefully, the company who takes care of that sort of thing is honest. For once in my life I'm going to believe that a company is honest and will do it's work properly, sight unseen.

I know I will get my little dog back. In some form.

This morning in the shower I was thinking to myself how this is the amount of time (one week) from which we were normally separated from the dog when going away on holiday to the Carribbean or South America. It always felt so wonderful to come home, we looked forward to coming home only to be able to be reunited with the dog again. She always looked so small, glossy, sweet and energetic - a baby all over again, when seen with vacation-fresh eyes.

We - I - am going to scatter the dog's ashes at various spots that were important to her, and to us. I will be the one choosing these places, mainly. My husband had some ideas but few, and I didn't like the ideas he had, although I know he was well-meaning. One idea was for us to buy some jewellery in Cuba (handmade stuff on the beach) so that he could poke a hole into it and put some of the dog's ashes inside, for us to then wear around. I'm LOL-ing as I type this, it's certainly a fine idea to possibly commemorate the dog with jewellery we could wear around, containing a part of her we would keep with us forever, but I don't see how poking a hole into some necklace we bought in Cuba relates back to our little dog. She never went to Cuba, and the handmade-Cuban jewellery would somehow seem inappropriate. I dunno. I know he meant really well and I feel bad laughing at his suggestion, but I just didn't feel it was fitting. He had another strange idea like that - I can't recall what it was now - that I also disagreed with for not feeling like the right thing to do. He has not pushed the issue when I disagreed. I think he knows that I need the closure more than he, perhaps, so ultimately I know he will let me decide to do whatever I feel is appropriate, and go along with it. It is so nice of him to let me be the one to ultimately decide. He has agreed with most of my suggestions, anyway.

One place I want to scatter some of her ashes is on Varadero beach at sunset. Yes - I know I said in the previous paragraph that the dog had never been to Cuba, and this is true. Indeed, whenever in Cuba, I always used to remark to Hunny that, although paradise for us, how much the dog would HATE it there, on Varadero beach. It would have been far too hot & sunny for her with her black fur, she would not have liked the sand, and she hated water - even fresh water - so I can only imagine the level of loathing she'd of had for salty ocean which would have burnt her ears and eyes, waves crashing, without even the benefit of being able to have a drink of it. I still want to bring a part of her ashes down to Varadero with us, because Varadero was a special spot for US, her family. I want to scatter this part of her ashes into the ocean. I will wade into the ocean and scatter the ashes there, around sunset time. This will be important to me because I will feel like I have consigned part of her forever to paradise, even if it's my paradise and not necessarily hers. Varadero beach is pretty much the closest thing to paradise on earth, in my opinion; - for visitors at least. When I told Hunny about this plan, he agreed with it and actually suggested something I'd not thought of as well - that scattering a part of her ashes into the ocean would allow for them to drift back towards Mexico (in theory, at least). Fitting tribute for a Chihuahua. So, if we have her ashes in time, part of her ashes will be scattered there during our next trip in three weeks' time.

The rest, I have numerous ideas:

The wooded path near our home where I used to take her to exercise & ride in my bike basket.
In our yard, specifically in a small flower garden I have planted at the side of the house - perhaps I will wait till next spring to do this and plant a new flower there in her memory.
Long Sault, Crysler's Farm area.
Glengarry Park - she loved it there so much in the fall.
Lac Ernest, Parc Papineau-Labelle. Patchie camped there a couple of times, and she always loved camping. Also, how fitting that this is the only campsite in the park where - officially - dogs are allowed.

These are all good places.

***
August 26th:

Got the dog's ashes back today. Already posted about that. I don't understand why that cocksucker God would take away the dog from me. We tried everything to be responsible pet owners. Clearly, this is not enough in his eyes. Clearly, the best care possible isn't quite good enough to satisfy that assclown. So what the fuck? If responsible people like us don't deserve to have a fucking dog, who does? I never wanted any fucking white apes. I only wanted my little black dog. MY LITTLE BLACK DOG. WHAT THE FUCK? Why did she die? I'm pissed off and very, very upset. I don't understand this world. She was so sweet, so unbelievably tiny. These little dogs are so fragile, with small bodies. FUCK the universe for cursing her with a tiny, fragile body. I can't wait till I die so I can see her again. She will be the first one to welcome me to Heaven, if that cocksucker God thinks I should go there. Maybe there is no afterlife. Well fuck that shit. Who gives a rat's ass. Thank God I have the dog's ashes. If I bring any to Cuba it will only be a tiny amount because I know she would hate to be separated from us. Yeah, I will only bring a tiny amoung - I will have to hide it in my luggage with all the other fucking contraband (only someone like me would hoard fucking contraband into a communist country - but I'm not afraid of man nor devil, after all) because if they see I have this vial of white powder in my carry-on, prolly those asswipes will freak out and not believe it's cremains.

I LOVE MY DOG STILL.

Test

2009-07-16T10:00:00.002-04:00

Just did a personality test: "Eysenck Personality Test".

My results:

Extroversion results were medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

Neuroticism results were very high which suggests you are extremely worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Psychoticism results were high which suggests you are overly selfish, uncooperative, and difficult at the expense too often of the well being of others.

Hahaha! I love the last part.

Here are my results for another test, the "Personality Disorder Test":

Personality Disorder Test Results

Paranoid	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Schizoid	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	66%
Schizotypal	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Antisocial	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Borderline	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Histrionic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Narcissistic	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	66%
Avoidant	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	90%
Dependent	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	58%
Obsessive-Compulsive	\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|	74%

Take Free Personality Disorder Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Hahah! Again, bang-on. I agree 100% with what-all results have come from my self-testing.

I don't fucking care, either.

Perhaps these tests could be used to diagnose flaws in one's personality, to remedy. For example, according to the tests, I could probably stand to be much nicer to people around me. But fuck that, why would I want to? I don't give enough of a rat's ass. I have been moulded by many things which have happened to me, and I am the result of my environments, upbringings, and society in general. Also, I choose to act or behave certain ways. I can see that other people have other ways of doing things, and that's wonderful for them - it seems to work for them. But those ways would not be appropriate for me. They would not fit well with me. I would not feel like myself, behaving the way that they do.

I believe I might be a psychopath. The older I get, it seems, the less regard I have for people around me, and most distubingly, the less regard or respect for authority. I enjoy usurping authority, or failing to acknowledge quasi-authority that I can see most other people would normally obey.

Do I think I am better than other people? Yes. I do. So I've got that going for me, as well. I think so, because I am.

The older I get, the less of other people's shit I feel like I should be willing to put up with. So I don't. The less of society's shit I should have to put up with. So I don't.

My husband is ALOT like me. I've often mused upon our lifestyle, which is outwardly normal yet intimately quite different (and by intimately, I don't mean SEXUALLY) than most people's. I have ZERO hang-ups about sex. No, what I mean is the way we behave and keep to ourselves. The things we do when we're alone together in our house. I think my husband may be WORSE than me, in some respects, on the tests I've taken. I'd ask him to take them too, but who really cares, he'd probably not be honest. I can see how he is.

The thing I like about him, that he HAS and I DON'T, is a convincing exterior facade; enabling him to get along better with others than I do. He also has more respect for authority than I do. He would never pull any of the stunts I pull.

We talk about other people, together. ALWAYS to point out how idiotic those people are. How they've screwed up, how they're going to fail. We laugh and say, "glad it's not us!". We are better than them. We consider ourselves such, because we are.

This might sound like sick stuff to many people. Hahaha, suckers. Checkmate. We might be your neighbours.

I'm going to take more tests now.

Earl Jones

2009-07-15T07:02:00.002-04:00

I've been reading article after article and following the case of Montreal financial planner Earl Jones who just recently disappeared after leaving a hauntingly cryptic message on his office answering machine ("we are NOT in a position to remit your funds"), ostensibly absconding with the life savings or a huge proportion of the wealth of many West-Islandites.

"He was a good man who did good things" is how one article described Mr. Jones.

Interesting how a lifetime of good deeds and opinion can all be changed with $50 million. Goes to show how yes indeed, ANYTHING is for sale, including one's reputation.

In the message on Jones' office answering machine (which I called), the recorded voice (Jones himself?) states "you will hear from us after 30 days". I can't believe the feeding frenzy that's currently happening on Jones' reputation. 30 days have not yet passed.

While it's true that Jones has disappeared, if he really was a good person, shouldn't people give him the benefit of the doubt seeing as he's not around any longer to defend himself, tell his side of the story? People are upset because they can no longer have free and ready answers to their questions about their life savings which they invested with Jones - but shouldn't we wait 30 days and see if Jones re-emerges to offer some explanation?

This is the worst economic recession since the 1930's (if media reports are to be believed). Who knows how that effected the totality of Earl Jones' clients' portfolios? It's odd that he simply dropped off the map - not even his own family knows where he's gone. What in the name of God would possess a person to just leave, depart, and disappear; breaking contact with everyone and everything they'd ever known and loved, abandoning a life they'd spent DECADES creating? Family, friends, community, and reputation are more important than money, a fact of which I'm sure Mr. Jones was well-aware. I find it difficult to believe he ran off with the intention of never coming back.

I wonder if foul play wasn't involved somehow. It will be interesting to continue to follow this case as more details emerge. Perhaps I'm wrong for defending Mr. Jones, however I don't believe that a lifetime of good deeds, positive reputation, and service to a community deserves to be overlooked or destroyed simply on the basis of rumor and speculation. For that's all there is at this point, isn't it? People assuming their money is gone, merely because they cannot access it right this second and Mr. Jones is not presently around to offer any sort of explanation. I say we wait the 30 days, as the message on the answering machine indicates, then see what comes out.

Maybe I'm giving Mr. Jones too much the benefit of the doubt. I tend to do that with people, I know.

Let's wait and see what happens after 30 days.

Pets

2009-07-09T12:23:00.002-04:00

I love pets. Got two of them, a dog and a cat. The dog I've mentioned here before; the cat maybe not.

I was just looking at Petfinder.com. I love to browse through and see what dogs there are up for adoption / rescue.

My little doggie came from a pet shop. Pet shops ought not be encouraged. Obviously Petfinder is a better way to find a pet, but I am quite happy with my dog. Sometimes I get to thinking how it might be nice to have another dog, a little girlfriend for my little girl. We could easily have another small to medium-sized dog at our place. Our yard is even equipped with an invisible fence.

It's nice to see there are so many organizations out there - Petfinder, the SPCA, local rescue organizations - eagar to find loving, permanent homes for abandoned or neglected animals, or animals in need of re-homing. I wish all these pets the best, and I wish I could somehow adopt them all, care for them all, and give them all the wonderful lives they so richly deserve.

On the one hand, in society we are encouraged to own pets by rescue organizations for animals. Also, by the pet industry, which is huge. The pet industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and of course, it's in their best interests for all households to own a pet or ten.

I'm an excellent, responsible pet owner. I always ensure my animals are healthy and happy. However, the last time I took them to the vet for their routine health checkup (yearly), the total was around $250.00! I have a real problem with that. Here are all these animals who need adopting, but it seems like animals are so costly to own. It shouldn't be that way at all. Why aren't there any low-cost animal health clinics? Next year, when my pets are due, I'm going to try and find some sort of low-cost animal health center - maybe where they train veterinarians - and have them get their health checkup there. The cost of veterinary care is tremendous - and believe me, all these rescue organizations want to make sure you keep the animal in tip-top shape! Better shape than most people. That reminds me of this article from "The Onion".

Pet food is not too costly, really, I guess unless you have a particularly large animal. It's only in recent years that the pet industry has exploded with vet fees, special food, toys, and all manner of accessories for pets that were never-before-heardof. Why, I recall my grandparents owning 5-6 dogs and assorted cats at a time. The dogs would live their whole lives outside, never coming into the house, and would eat all manner of leftover table scraps including bacon grease and lard. As far as I know they never had any special vet visits or food or toys. They lived happy lives. My grandmother used to toss her cat into an onion sack once a year and take it down to the county fair where they had a vet giving a single shot to pets, for rabies. That was it.

Another thing that bugs me is how, when you have a dog, you aren't allowed to take it anywhere. I only discovered this fact once I GOT my dog. I would notice all these nice wooded paths, or paths beside the water or trails or parks somewhere, and think to myself, "gee, wouldn't it be nice to take Chewy there? She could run around and feel so good! And it's such a beautiful place!" Then when I actually WENT, I'd discover on closer examination there were all these signs about "no dogs allowed" or a picture of a dog with a red line through it. Not a pooping dog, just a dog. Not "no dogs pooping", just "no dogs". That really sucks. So here you have these rescue organizations encouraging people to get pets, but to do what with them? "Don't leave your dog chained up!" was a campagain at some point - but where else can I take her? Don't say "to a dog park", because there are none in my immediate area which don't involve a car ride, and those dog parks are often full of ill-behaved Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Great Danes, and other assorted high-energy, large-breed dogs. My dog is a Chihuahua who tips the scales at 7 pounds. I'll hardly turn her loose in one of those dog parks as an appetizer for the larger beasts while their idiotic owners look on and laugh. No.

In some places, they've even banned cats from being let outside (I guess except on a leash, or something). Cats!? Why? Because - cats might kill a bird. Or a mouse. Or a mole, vole, hare, or toad. Cats must be kept indoors to preserve other wildlife. Whaa--?! What gives? Isn't that the point of having a cat? If I didn't keep a cat - and a good mouser, at that - I'd soon be overrun by all manner of varmits living between my walls! I want the cat to hunt. Cats were made to hunt, they are natural predators. How can some people want to contain them solely indoors? Cripes.

So, on the one hand, you have all this encouragement to adopt a pet - and on the other, pets are discouraged. I didn't even mention the idiot people around who complain they have "allergies" (euphamism for "my genes came from the piss-n-shit-contaminated section of the gene pool") and can't be around pets, even other people's pets. Or asswipe losers who are "afraid" of my 7-Lb Chihuahua (like some asswipe I met in a store once when I had my dog with me).

Places you aren't allowed to bring your pet (I know from experience):

- Campgrounds in Quebec (this is the great outdoors, for God's sake!)
- Bike path beside the soulanges canal.
- Watefront in Dorval
- The Old Port of Montreal
- Mount Royal Cemetery
- Campgrounds in Ontario
- Wal-Mart

I have nonetheless entered all of these places with my dog in tow. Once I got kicked out of Wal-Mart for having the dog with me. People have tried to discourage me with my dog from the other places, but I do it anyway. Fuck it!

As you can see, pets are great, but not so great. More places need to be opened up to allow pets. Pets should be allowed everywhere, including restaurants. How many times have I passed up a restaurant meal because the dog wasn't allowed inside? A few times, but never at the food court in Fairview!

Final Destination In Real Life

2009-06-11T12:47:00.006-04:00

Just stumbled across this story:

"Woman who missed Flight 447 is killed in car crash"

Scary.

Clearly, when, death has it out for you - or when your time is up; when God wants to call you home - that is it. You are finished here, on earth.

I've always sort of felt that way, a story like this only confirms it.

Some people may think it's coincidence. I doubt it. I doubt it a lot. What are the chances? Infinitesimal. Planes hardly ever crash. It's more likely you'll win the lottery than die in a plane crash. That lady just happened to miss that flight, and now all of a sudden, she's killed in a car accident in Australia? Come on.

Seriously. When Mrs. Ganthaler missed AF 447, it caused a flaw in death's design. Naysayers may wish to view the documentary, "Final Destination" (2000) which chronicles the struggles of a group of youths whom find themselves in a situation identical to the one that lady was in:

Indeed. You can't cheat death.

Cripes. If I were any of the other passengers who'd missed AF 447, I'd be worried. Very worried. And, getting my affairs in order pretty quickly.

Kiva Has Jumped The Shark

2009-06-10T11:52:00.003-04:00

Kiva has really jumped the shark.

When I recently logged in to check on the repayment status of a $50.00 loan I made to a woman in Ghana, I found this on their website:

"Kiva realizes that access to credit is a challenge for entrepreneurs everywhere. Kiva started out as a website focused on developing-world entrepreneurs. In June 2009, Kiva began experimenting with allowing entrepreneurs in the United States to raise money on its website."

I came across the above note when I became curious after seeing a photo of a "needy"party requesting a "micro-loan" in order to enable them to continue to operate, promote, and upgrade a gourmet hot-dog business upon a street corner in a large city within the first-world nation of the United States.

Huh!?

I got involved with Kiva because I thought I'd be able to assist people who REALLY need help. Third-worlders. Those without access to credit through any other means BUT an organization like Kiva. People for whom $10.00 can literally change the entire course of their lives. People who are dirt-poor and can barely scrape together enough earnings for substinance food for their families.

I didn't get involved to "help out" greedy, swine-like sad-sacks.

Compared to the rest of the world - ALL first-world citizens are filthy rich, disgusting pigs.

Sure, I'm certain these greedy sad-sacks all have some sob-story or another cobbled together for the sake of gleaning sympathy, but I'm not fooled. And "the maximum size of a Kiva loan for entrepreneurs in the United States is $10,000" (link).

I'm disgusted. Dosen't Kiva realize how truly many people in the third world could be helped and how truly many FAMILIES living in poverty could have the course of their entire lives changed with that kind of money? I don't consider myself poor by any stretch, but even for me, $10,000.00 is ALOT of money! What right do greedy, fat, filthy-rich-by-comparison first-world pigs have to whine about their "need" for "micro-finance"?

And why is Kiva only offering $10,000.00 loans in the United States? The United States jumped the shark on 9/11, but that's a whole other issue - why don't Kiva also offer "micro-finance" in other first-world nations, like CANADA!? Luxembourg? Monaco? The French Riviera, perhaps? Ridiculous.

I have contributed my last penny to Kiva, and I'm removing the Kiva link and ad I've had up on this blog ever since I first became a Kiva member.

It's only a matter of time now before Kiva becomes just another bank, with perhaps a "charity" angle of some sort a la Village des Valeurs. Hey! I need a new car pretty soon... maybe I can hit Kiva up for a loan! I wonder what kind of interest rate I'll get from them, or their "micro-finance parteners"? Oh wait - I can't, I live in CANADA!

Screw Kiva. Kiva has jumped the shark. Kiva is becoming commercialized, and the site is no longer doing something truly worthwhile to improve the world, it's slowly becoming just another shylocking organization. "Kiva is a global organization and seeks to provide working capital to entrepreneurs all over the world." That wasn't the angle I was fed when I joined.

I'm going to withdraw all of my funds right now, and send a note off to Kiva telling them precisely why.

Bad Boss Behaviour

2009-06-10T01:32:00.002-04:00

My boss has it out for my head. He wants me to leave our department within the company. Why? Because he has a family member working in the SAME department where he is the boss and this family member is a direct-report to him. Fortunately I work in a unionized environment, so he cannot merely fire me on a whim, as he would like to in order to get rid of me. I have a greater amount of seniority within the department than this family member, which irritates my boss as it means he must ask me FIRST for overtime, special projects, etc. (according to union rules) instead of the family member, whom he would like to give these things to. My job performance is top-notch, A+++, gold-standard EXCELLENT and this is undeniable by anyone and easily proven. Again, this irritates my boss because it means he cannot merely fire me for incompetence or start proceedings against me for not doing my job properly, because I AM and can easily be proven to be efficient, competent, and extremely good at my job. My boss hates that I am good at my job. The only option open to this petty little man is to try and discredit me through spreading rumours, lies, and twisting different situations around to make it appear I am some sort of monstrous, psychopathic, unreasonable individual. Today, he phones me not from his office but from a cell phone someplace and makes all kinds of unfounded insinuations and allegations about how I supposedly did or said this or that to whomever and that certain people have all kinds of complaints against me and that nobody can work with me (all lies.. completely untrue). I tried to remain calm and told him to gather his evidence and put everything in writing and send it to me. I appraised a union steward on the situation and that person agreed there were some improprieties going on. My boss cannot handle stress at all and tries to make me look like a scapegoat at every opportunity. I am fed up of his shit. I have taken to not answering the phone at all when he calls (I have call display) and communicating with him solely on email so that there is a trail of any and all correspondence. Even after all this I do not want to hurt him and the family member who works in our department is a really nice person, I do not want to hurt this family member either, I have a feeling the family member may not be "in on it" or aware of what's going on. I continue giving my boss the benefit of the doubt, because I am a better person than he is and because I don't want to hurt him or the family member. Still, I am getting very fed up. I like my job, I like the work that I do, but I can't stand all these ridiculous politics and twisting things around. I don't want things to escalate any further and I wish he would just leave me the hell alone!

Goodbye To Little Rocky

2009-06-05T11:28:00.004-04:00

Rocky was a Boston Terrier who lived in my neighbourhood, in the row of houses in back of ours, a few doors down. Rocky's owners let him run loose in the neighbourhood. Rocky was never restrained in a yard, by an invisible fence or a leash and rather had the run of the neighborhood as he pleased. No one was really bothered by Rocky, he was a cute little dog if somewhat standoffish as Boston Terriers are, however many people feared for Rocky's safety on the neighborhood streets with cars passing and little Rocky running about carefree as he pleased. I remember Rocky in my backyard, Rocky on the bicycle path behind our house, Rocky following Chewy & I as we took a walk through the neighborhood, Rocky playing with his friend - another Boston Terrier - on the front yard of his home.

Tragedy struck last night for little Rocky. As Hubby and I were returning from a short trip to the other side of our town where we'd gone to check out a house for sale - on the major, busy, crosstown street running past our subdivision I spotted something laying in the road that looked like a sack. I knew it wasn't a sack because a car was stopped nearby and people were at the side of the road. Approaching the scene I screamed for my husband to stop the car when I spotted the little dog. He quickly braked and I threw my Chihuahua into the backseat of our SUV and frantically jumped out of the vehicle. It took only a few seconds to recognize the small victim - Rocky, who had been hit by a car and killed on the busy road. A kind family had stopped on the scene of the accident which must only just have happened and the father was moving Rocky off to the side of the road where at least he would lay peacefully and not be further mangled by traffic. I was horrified and screaming "Oh no! Oh no!" as I gazed down at the stricken dog - apparrently he had been hit hard, and twice, by passing cars. The scene was not gory as the dog was intact, and we hoped he had merely been stunned but sadly, Rocky had been killed. I laid my hand on him and asked aloud for God to bless Rocky. Everyone at the scene knew whose dog it was. The general feeling was that the owners were irresponsible and "shouldn't be allowed to own dogs". Of course everyone was upset and saddened by Rocky's death, we all knew Rocky and how he had been allowed to roam the neighbourhood loose.

Leaving the small corpse aside the road Hubby & I went to the home of Rocky's owners and Hubby delivered them the sad news. I assume they were devastated.

It makes me sad to think of Rocky's fate.

I realize that at the scene of the accident, where emotions were running high, it was easy to blame Rocky's owners and curse them for allowing Rocky to run loose. However: allowing the dog to run loose is merely the manner in which some people choose to keep dogs. My own grandparents did such - and they lived on a country road with fast traffic. Some of their dogs too, were killed in the road. Some people are of the philosophy that dogs must fend for themselves. While I do not share this opinion, I respect it. We tend to be overprotective in this society - overprotective of children, animals, ourselves. Does it make sense? Were Rocky's owners really all that wrong?

There are other dogs in our neighbourhood which are allowed loose - I know of one specifically, a little white dog with a brown face and short legs. He is always off-leash and we often drive by his home to see him sleeping contentedly in the front yard, free. I have also seen him walking with his owners, again, completely leash-free and following them well. I have also seen him running through yards in the neighborhood. He always looks so very happy. He is one of the happiest dogs I have ever seen, and so well-behaved. Is this partially the result of his constant freedom? My little Chihuahua is neurotic because of the invisible fence installed in our yard. The little brown-and-white has no worries.

In no way am I trying to justify what happened to Rocky - merely, to point out that there is more than one way to raise a dog. To understand another perspective.

I feel terrible for Rocky's owners.

I would not allow my dog to run loose, however, some people do.

What I really want to know is why the fucker who hit Rocky with his car never bothered to stop. If I hit a dog, I'd definitely be man enough to stop and see if it was OK. How can you just drive away after something like that?

I really like Boston Terriers.

Please & Thank You

2009-05-14T10:10:00.005-04:00

It's no big secret that basic manners are being in general lost within our society. I think that's mostly due to all the new immigration, here in Quebec at least - and the fact that a lot of French people are just naturally rude.

Quebecois French is a rude language, period.

Anyhow, it would be stupid for me to write a blog post on either of the above: too obvious and commonplace - a GIS would doubtless reveal thousands of articles on either topic. What I want to write about here is the polite manner in which I address my pets.

I find that speaking to my pets politely, demonstrating good manners towards them - saying please and thank you, really gets results for me.

Go ahead, laugh. Scoff. Then, go fuck yourself (I said I address my PETS politely - are you my pet?).

Example. My cat is a rescue which was discovered outdoors in a shed during wintertime, starving and frozen, on a minus -40 degree celsius night. He was an adult when first brought to our home. He had some habits, bad habits, which I believe enabled him to survive his stray ordeal outdoors - but which were no longer appropriate to maintain when he came to live in our household. During his first week or two with us, I once saw him upset our kitchen garbage can, in what I'm guessing was an attempt to "forage" for scrap food. I saw him stretch both front paws upwards like hands, and with an surprisingly elegant and obviously well-practiced "S" motion, topple our kitchen garbage can, spilling its contents onto the kitchen floor. How did I deal with this situation? Most people would have screamed at the cat, possibly hit it, and maybe even hurl something at it - not me. In a soft and light voice, as though I were speaking to a child, I politely told the cat:

"No-no, we don't do that here, there's plenty of food for everyone without having to eat out of the garbage."

I then proceeded to pick up the overturned trash can while the cat watched.

I did not need to tell the cat a second time, and he never upset our garbage can again.

People think animals are unthinking, devoid of emotion. Nothing could be further from the truth. That misconception originated partially at the hands of the meat-packing industry and the scientists they "hired". Animals DO have emotions, they DO understand, and they DO appreciate love and care and politeness - as most living beings do. Especially household animals such as cats and dogs.

I'll never be able to read this book (The Pig Who Sang To The Moon).

I also address my dog with politeness - saying please, as in "please don't do that," when I catch or see her doing something I don't want her to be doing. She understands. Always, I speak to them in light, playful voices as though addressing children. They ARE my children, for all intents and purposes. They are child-like in temperament as well as in emotional development. They will remain such for the duration of their lives, I know - they are not as intelligent as we white apes and won't develop to the same level. However, this is not to say they are not possessed of feelings, emotions, and personalities. I know my pets look up to me and look to me for guidance. They need this and they need my strength. I treat them as such, always with respect and bearing the nature of their relatively small, yet at the same time meaningful, emotional & intellectual development in mind.

Sometimes, of course, politeness won't do. Generally it will, however, if necessary I will yell at my pets, generally the dog. The dog is more stubborn, and sometimes won't listen to my polite requests. She is always shameful and remorseful after I have yelled at her. I never stay upset of course - I am a good and decent pet owner. A proper dog owner needs to be the leader of her pack - and the leader is always in charge, dominant, and will have her will accomplished while always being even-tempered and fair in general, quick to forgive mistakes and transgressions but not hesitant to point them out. I like to think of myself as a proper leader for my dog, and always strive to be the best Alpha of our pack that I can, for her. I know she looks to me for such and needs me to be such for her. She is only a Chihuahua but in turn, she is teaching me to properly handle a dog.

Try being polite with your pets, as I do. See if it works out as well for you, as me being polite with mine has. If you've had the benefit of a good upbringing, you'll want to put those good manners you learnt to good use somewhere, and pets / animals deserve it so much more than so many people in society!

God Spilled The Lick

2009-05-09T02:14:00.002-04:00

God spilled the lick into the recipe for my ChewyPep.

(ChewyPep is my little dog, about whom I've written here before).

God wanted to add a little bit of lick to the Chewy recipe, when Chewy was being made in His presence. Likely due to Mr. O (my kitteh), God accidentally spilled the lick into the Chewy recipe. Too much lick in one dog.

When we are in the kitchen in the morning, and Mr. O is there, Mr. O prevents us from properly pouring coffee by walking around on the countertop and violently head-butting our pouring arm with his kitteh head, causing coffee to spill everywhere.

Mr. O clearly did the same thing to God when God was making the ChewyPep, causing God to spill the lick into the ChewyPep recipe.

Chewy is so licky. She can lick and lick and lick for 15 minutes straight.

She will lick your hands, your face, your ears, your legs, your feet, your stomach or any other part of your body.

My favorite is when we are do-do and ChewyPep begins licking, under the blankets curled up against my stomach, she licks and licks and licks my hand. She will lick and lick and lick and lick and then suddenly, the licking will stop and ChewyPep will literally collapse on the spot, suddenly dead asleep in the little nook of my tummy, safe and warm under the blankets.

She literally licks until she falls asleep.

Sleep is the only time Chewy is not licky.

Chewy licks too much. It's not her falt, God spilled the lick into the ChewyPep recipe.

Living: A Privilege, Not A Right

2009-05-08T07:02:00.004-04:00

When can this begin to be enforced?

Boston, She 'Ave Good Hockey Team...

2009-04-22T22:35:00.003-04:00

... 'dose Maple Leafs is nice, but LES CANADIENS is best 'dat hever skate de hice.

- Monsieur ??? (Poem)

Someday; I will re-locate that poem in its entirety someplace.

Anyhow... just finished watching the final game for our Habs in this, their 100th season. Such a sad ending to such a significant time period - swept in four games by the mighty Bruins, in this, the first round of playoff elimination.

Sniff.

Carey Price. IMHO, he is NOT an NHL-caliber goaltender.

There were more than a few times during tonight's game where the Bruins shot on net, and Price stopped the puck by sheer chance. It's like he had his eyes closed, and just stuck out his glove or stick wherever, and then opened his eyes to discover the puck laying between his knees, like "whew, I stopped it this time!". Or he managed to deflect the puck by sheer chance. Price was obviously intimidated by the Bruins. He would glance behind himself in the net after one of these lucky stops to find out whether the puck was there. So clearly, no idea where it actually was, as a good goaltender should know all the time.

The previous game, I had to laff once or twice when the Bruins shot on net, and Price made absolutely no move to stop the puck, but it merely bounced off his goalie pads and ricocheted out in front of the net where some other Habs player would pick it up and carry it away. Seriously, Price's arms were like limp at his sides, he merely fell to his knees in front of the net and just happened to be in the spot where the puck went. Those can hardly be called "saves".

Some French TV announcer guy was comparing Price to Patrick Roy. What a laff.

I propose that next season, Price should be replaced by a piece of plywood taped over the center of the Canadiens' net, with openings on either side. Hey, it would be just as effective.

The truth of the matter is, that the Montreal Canadiens are nowhere near the powerhouse team they were in decades gone by. The hockey franchise has seriously slumped down, they are merely riding the coattails of hockey greats from a bygone era nowadays. Sure, they love to brag about all the Cups they've won - more than any other team in the league - but when was the last one? 1993? With Patrick Roy?

Coasting along on a reputation earned 50 years ago. What a laugh.

But hey, what's the point of hiring quality, decent players in Montreal? The Bell Center is sold out for every, single game the club plays - such is the love of the sport of hockey in this town. Makes no difference whether they're the first or the last team in the league, the fans will come out en masse no matter what. So there's really no incentive for team management to seek out decent-quality talent the likes of which could help propel the team to another Stanely Cup-winning season. They just won't make the investment. It's really disgraceful.

Take a player like Vincent Lecavalier, for example. A habitant, for sure. Where does he play? Down in the southern USA someplace. 50 years ago, the Habs were exactly that - habitants - the home boys, the local boys from around here. It's no secret to anyone that Quebec churns out some of the best hockey stars in the world, and while as youngsters they may grow up with dreams of someday playing for the bleu-blanc-rouge; in the end they are pulled away from Montreal by the lure of higher salaries offered by other franchises in the league, in far-off and never-before-heardof hockey territory.

So sad. That is the problem with Les Canadiens nowadays. Nobody cares. The team makes money no matter what, so why would this ever change?

Globalization hits the hockey world, I guess. It sucks for Montreal, because in this town, that's the only sport people really give a rat's ass about. I myself couldn't give a rat's ass about any other professional sport other than hockey. I've never sat down to watch a football, baseball, or basketball game - but hockey? Hell yes.

How I wish the Canadiens franchise would smarten up and try to win a Cup, for the fans.

Here are links to a couple of hilarious sites about how badly the Habs suck. I wish I could post links to sites about how badly the Habs rule, but sadly - no can do. Likely, these sites will be expanded upon going forward. Our team has definitely given them much fodder to work with.

Go Boston, I guess. Or New Mexico.

DS9

2009-04-16T09:37:00.002-04:00

Reasons Why I Don't Like Deep Space 9:

1) Many of the episodes centered around stuff I don't particularly care to watch or learn more about, like the Ferengi society. Ferengi are not interesting. They are obnoxious. I don't care about their society.

2) The cast is the fugliest assembled for any Star Trek series. Seriously, there is no one good looking to look at. I like to look at 7 of 9, Chakotay, Troi, Picard, Geordi, etc. But on DS9, who is there? Odo? "Chief O'Brian"? Sisko? Only for the final season did they bring in this good-looking girl.

3) I hate Sisko's accent. It irritates me.

4) Major Kira, and Bajorans in general. I don't like the way they look. I HATE Cardassians, they look awful. Not only are the cast of characters a fugly bunch, even the aliens are ugly.

5) Regurgitation of the characters of Wharf & O'Brien. There was nothing new, it was merely a re-hash of two of the most boring characters from TNG. I don't like klingons and I didn't particularly like Wharf. As to O'Brien, he is the most forgettable character in Star Trek, ever, why was he given a second go-around in a new series?

6) O'Brian. He's weird looking & he irritates me.

7) Wierd species. Like the Ferengi, I've already mentioned, but also the "Trill" (not to be confused with Bun B "Trill") which are some sort of combination of a worm living inside a humanoid body. Ewwww. Other Star Treks had much better alien species.

That is all.

Earth Hour Is Pointless

2009-03-27T08:34:00.003-04:00

This coming Saturday (March 28th) will be "Earth Hour".

I'm not going to bother participating.

Earth Hour is stupid and pointless.

The first stupidity, is the fact that "Earth Hour" takes place at "8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth". There's no coordination betwixt time zones, no fixed-upon hour where there will be a city, or planet-wide voluntary blackout. No - it's just wherever it happens to be 8:30PM, wherever you happen to be. Why bother having a set time at all, then? Why don't they just make it so that you turn off your lights for one hour sometime during the period of time known as March 28th? What would even BE the point of having an "Earth Hour" at all, in that case? Don't people generally turn out their lights for a set period of time during each 24-hour cycle, anyway - and isn't this lightless period generally known as "nighttime," the time when people generally sleep? So maybe not everyone sleeps at night - but even people who sleep during the daytime usually do it in the dark (ever tried sleeping with the lights on?). What's the point of having an "Earth Hour" at all, if it's only one hour long? Most people sleep for several hours consecutively - during that time, most people's lights are turned off anyway, so "Earth Hour" represents only a tiny percentage of the time, and therefore "energy savings", that regularly occur during each 24-hour cycle. Is it really worth it to schedule a special "hour" to commemorate the saving of this small amount of energy?

Since the savings will be so small, why bother? I mean, if we're concerned with such infentisimally small details, let's get right down to the nitty-gritty, then: a website has been set up, for example, for the "Earth Hour" cause. How many thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of people have visited, or will visit, that site as a result of the promotion of the "Earth Hour" cause? Computer monitors consume energy. How much extra energy will be wasted by all the thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people visiting the "Earth Hour" website and displaying it on their computer monitors for extende periods of time? And then telling their freinds to do the same, or sharing links to the site on Digg or Twitter, and encouraging others to do the same? I don't know whether there is any print advertising for "Earth Hour", but if there is, isn't that a source of pollution? How about all the carbon monoxide being exhaled unnecessarily by idiots talking about "Earth Hour" ceaslessly? Wouldn't it be a better "environmental protection" to just have those people STFU?

Seriously. I mean, what about in parts of Africa, where people don't even HAVE electricity. They won't be participating in "Earth Hour". At home, I have energy-efficient bulbs which are supposed to last YEARS at a time. I'll save LESS energy by shutting off my lights for "Earth Hour" than I normally would by merely going to sleep at night.

I love how big celebrities are endorsing "Earth Hour". Yeah, like turning off their lights for an hour is going to make up for all the excess consumption, waste & pollution they personally create with their very own luxurious, jet-setting lifestyles.

Sure, I agree, there are environmental problems. But having a stupid "hour" dedicated to lurking in the darkness isn't going to help solve them. The problems run deeper, and I find it strange that people are being brainwashed to believe that by merely shutting their lights for an hour, they're going to make some humongous environmental contribution. It simply isn't going to make enough of a difference.

Perhaps it's thought that bringing environmental concerns to the forefront of the little sheeple's minds will be a good thing. That's correct, but not for the reasons you might think. The reason is to get the little sheeple to consume more. That's all the REAL powers-that-be care about. All the better if the sheeple do it on credit. But that's a whole other issue.

Don't bother with "Earth Hour". It's pointless.

How To Lose Friends & Alienate Countries

2009-03-26T09:02:00.014-04:00

One thing is certain, following this controversy:

Defense Minister MacKay is HAWT.

Seriously. What's next? Making fun of children who are dying of cancer? Mocking the frail elderly? Laughing at disabled quadriplegic veterans? Clearly, no low is TOO LOW for Fox News & "Red Eye" (waste of airtime). They will sink to any low and mock anything, they have NO ethics or respect for ANYTHING and that makes them NOT HUMAN. Human beings have the trait of empathy which allows them to feel for their fellow humans. These people are scum, born without a conscience.

The cheesy-ass intro music to the "program" sounds like the soundtrack from a porno movie!

Doug Benson, one of the commentators, apparently had to cancel several comedy shows he'd had planned in Edmonton, as the result of his idiotic statements. No shit - I would have booked my ticket and flown out there myself and I would have been waiting for him as he de-planed with a bat. COME SAY THAT SHIT TO MY FACE, BENNY-BOY!

I would invite ALL of these assholes to come up here - right up here, to Canada - and try making these comments live to our men & women in the military. Or not even - just come here and try making these comments to anyone, just on the street, and see what happens. No? Not so much, worthless cowards? Didn't think so, it's so easy to mock from inside a TV studio, when you're GUTLESS like GREG and his fugly bunch of henchmen. Not so tough would they be outside. Seriously. I dare them.

Those fucking cowards sit in a TV studio and mock our great nation, ignorant excrement who have wasted valuable oxygen we'll never get back making the "TV Show" Red Eye (or should I say, HORROR MOVIE based on the looks of everyone on there). Living abortions.

THIS is supposed to be a COMEDY program? Fox News is funniest when it has technical difficulties and goes off the air.

I remember a plaque inscription upon the site of the battle of Crysler's farm which took place during the war of 1812:

This plaque is dedicated to
the Canadian and American nations
whose common memories of
old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago
not only contribute to their separate
heritages and traditions
but form a bond between
two friendly peoples.

That has always been one of my favorite plaques.

This article pretty aptly sums up the disgusting charade.

Job Bailouts

2009-03-25T09:13:00.002-04:00

Having well-paid, fair-working-condition, fair-benefits, pension-providing jobs; i.e. UNION jobs, is GOOD for our economy and GOOD for our standard of living.

It is GOOD for the workers, GOOD for their families, GOOD for children, GOOD for adjunct industry, GOOD for other business.

Workers earning a decent wage have disposable income to spare for spending on goods and services which keep a good majority of other businesses operating in our economy, businesses which would likely tank or go under otherwise.

It's NOT the autoworkers' problem if many whiners accept work for $10/hour, with no pension or benefits. The good, union jobs ARE WORTH PRESERVING.

Some people obviously don't feel such, because they themselves are likely stuck in jobs with terrible pay & working conditions, and feel everyone else in society ought to sink down to THEIR LEVEL to make THEM feel better about their lot.

This is not going to happen.

I DO NOT support the idea of autoworkers taking any kind of pay cut, or otherwise compromising their working conditions - believe me, if they suffer, many others in society / our economy are going to suffer as well. We'll all be paying the price one way or another - either with government bailouts, or else increased costs for more government services required to pick up the slack for all the workers & families who no longer enjoy good salaries or decent benefits.

Either way, tax dollars are going to pay, get used to the idea.

Good luck, autoworkers. Solidarity.

The Habs Are As Good As Gone

2009-03-25T07:20:00.003-04:00

There's talk lately about the current owners of the Montreal Canadiens selling the team off.

I'm pretty sure that the Habs, like the Expos, will eventually be removed from Montreal.

Montreal is not really a city which cares about maintaining a reputation as world-class, or even North-American class. Montreal is deteriorating to the point where it will eventually no longer even be bothered to be marked on world maps, except when you zoom in really closely, like those little towns way up north.

The deteriorating roads, crumbling infrastructure, weird laws, new taxes, and general mismanagement all contribute to this, and people are leaving in droves before the entire city implodes.

Why should The Habs be any different?

They are as good as gone - mark my words, a year or two from now, we can kiss them goodbye as they are moved to and become a new franchise team somewhere down in southern New Mexico, USA.

We have no rights to our team, and when push comes to shove, no one will care about all the supposed "heart" in this city - only about the dollars our Habs will bring to new hockey markets in the deep south of the USA.

Go New Mexico, GO!!!

I Am Not Obliged To Help You

2009-03-19T08:52:00.000-04:00

This morning, one of my co-workers asked me whether I had a certain supplier's contact information.

I said no.

I lied - in reality, I maintain a large, personal database of supplier contact information. I had the information she was looking for, I just didn't feel like giving it to her, so I didn't.

What people fail to understand, is that I'm not obliged to help them. I realize people are full of their own self-importance, and that many of them see me as a sort of "underling" or "servant"; but unfortunately, I don't feel that's the case at all. Particularly, co-workers who've been in this job less time than I have (but with the company longer, because I got promoted ahead of them - ha!).

What's wrong with these people?

I lied to this woman about not having the info she needed - just because she is generally a nice person, and I don't want to start any trouble with her. Sometimes it's best to tell a white lie. Other times, I've flat-out told co-workers NO - as I did to one fella who wondered if he could get a copy of my entire supplier-record database. Ho-ho!

I hate how the workforce brings out the most competitive, psychopathic, sociopathic side of people - myself included. If I saw a stray dog at the side of the road, or someone in a parking lot in need of some sort of assistance - I'd gladly lend a hand. But here at work? Fuck 'em all.

It irks me that I spend hours consistently and meticulously maintaining a supplier database with contact information, email addresses, product lines, telephone numbers, and other assorted relevant data - I literally update this database nearly DAILY with the latest information as it comes in, just to make sure I'm always current - and then other losers (who see me as an underling of some sort) think they can merely swoop in and vulture this data away? Nuh-uh, fuckers. Is it my problem that the master vendor files in our specialized software program what we use here are full of junk, outdated, and incorrect information? Fuck it. GOOD, I say, it'll confuse most people, send them off on a wild goose-chase. Meanwhile, I snipe in and come across efficient, organized, and intelligent. Which of course I am.

Another co-worker. She sends out emails - emails! - requesting, "do you have contact info for xyz?" "Do you know how to get hold of such-and-such company?". I responded to ONE of her messages with some cheap info - I'm a playa, and I have to maintain good relations - but the rest I flushed into the "trash" bin. That's the thing about being sociopathic - you're glib, but you don't mean any of it. Work definately brings out the sociopath in me, and in many people.

Fuck off, co-workers. Organize yourselves, don't come running to me to steal my data just because you're too stupid to understand WHY you should be maintaining a list of job-related contacts for yourself.

Idiots.

My Cozy Basement

2009-03-14T20:51:00.003-04:00

I'm fond of reading about creepy crawlspaces.

I want to describe here an image of my cozy basement, since it seems like many are not fortunate enough to have such a place.

The basement of my home was always a spot I sort of took for granted. In my split-level home, the basement is as much of a living space as the upstairs. I figured this was normal. It wasn't till I first began reading all the stories about creepy crawlspaces that I really began to appreciate the basement for the rare jewel it seems to be.

Here in Quebec, crawlspaces are unheardof. Homes either have basements, or are built on a slab. Most houses have a basement, the home value drops like a stone if there isn't one. From what I've been able to glean, this is due to our harsh, long, and cold winters - which I LOVE, BTW, more than summer, fall and spring combined. November to April - freezing temperatures in the arctic range, and tons and tons of pure, white snow. I'm getting excited, someone get me a cold cloth please. Anyway, here in Quebec, homes are built with basements because the depth beneath the home is needed to pass below the frost line, or something like that.

Anyway; my basement. The actual basement floor is concrete. Atop the concrete, my husband installed what is known as a "floating floor". This floating floor was created using 2 x 4's turned on their sides to support plywood sub-flooring. Prior to installing the 2 x 4's, I had Hunny seal the concrete with a special sealant, and also attach plastic vapour barrier to the floor basement-wide. I insisted upon this after reading about something called "radon gas". We asked around at various home-improvement centers, but nowhere were we able to find a test kit for the stuff, or anyone for that matter who'd ever even heard of radon gas here in Quebec. Oh, I'm sure it exists, just that people don't seem to be familiar with it here. No matter, it's probably not significant, and our home was built on old farmer's fields, in filled-in lands whereas I've read that radon is primarily present in homes with a certain type of basement near to indigenous rocks of some type - the gas emenates from the rock, like with those granite countertops in houses now (I still want granite countertops someday). Yeah! Nonetheless, I wanted to be on the safe side, so we sealed the concrete with the liquid sealant, then plastic and TAR over visible cracks, before putting down the wooden sub-floor. I insisted on it, so Hunny did what I asked. Thanks Hun. : )

The sub-floor is about 3-4 inches off the concrete. Getting it level was a real &%!@#$ pain in the ass. I helped with that a bit, and gawd was it a bitch. The concrete floor was not level - hahaha! NOT level in the least, there were small dips and valleys over the course of the basement here there, and everywhere. It looked straight to the eye, but oh no, when measuring? A quarter inch here, an eighteenth of an inch there difference... BIG differences when you're putting down the supports for sub-flooring basement-wide. We had to use wooden shims, measure, level, then correct, shim again... measure, level, crack off a tiny piece of shim, slide it under, measure, level, OK... move on - a very time-consuming process, to say the least. HOURS. It took positively hours. At my parent's house, the basement just had concrete with carpeting over it. So much easier, but makes for a colder floor. With the final, finished sub-floor about 4 inches higher than the concrete, I must say the basement is much warmer. So pleasent.

Once the wooden sub-floor was installed, the next step was to install laminate flooring. We purchased $700.00 worth of laminate flooring and, if you can believe this, loaded it ALL into my Toyota Tercel for transport from Laval to St. Lazare. We installed the laminate floor - a fake-wood looking floor which is fairly tough, all over 80 % of the basement. The rest of the basement, namely the laundry room and downstairs bathroom, have ceramic tile on top of the wooden floating floor, instead of laminate flooring.

When the contractors originally dug our our basement, they made an error which turned out to be quite fortunate for us. They dug too deep. Consequently, we were left with an extremely high basement ceiling. The basement ceiling in the "common room" is more than 7 feet high, WITH the floating floor (which is about 3 or 4 inches up above the concrete). In our basement bedroom, the ceiling is easily over 8 feet. The only spot in the basement where the ceiling is lower, is in the laundry room & downstairs bathroom - owing to the fact of our large storage space (crawlspace?) which is accessed through the back of the garage in our split-level home. The ceiling in the basement hallway WAS at least 9 feet high, before we put the suspended ceiling in. Anyway, you get the idea - a very deep basement. So deep, and so cozy during my favorite months of the year - the wintertime months.

The hilight of our basement is the wood-burning stove we have installed down there. During my favorite season, it operates almost constantly, and I never let the temperature in the basement drop below 25 degrees C if I can help it, even during the coldest winter nights.

I love my basement.

There's A Worse Job Out There...

2009-03-13T08:04:00.001-04:00

I love to complain about work.

Who doesn't?

Truth be told, there are far worse jobs out there than my little sinecure.

Monster.com's slogan is "There's a better job out there". I'm sure there is, but one certainly won't find it on Monster.

Monster is rife with MLM schemes, fraudulent job offers, and jobs so horrible and low-paying they can't find anyone to fill them. Hence their presence on the Monster job board.

Every once in awhile, when I'm feeling jaded about my job, I log on to Monster and browse through jobs in my city - just to see what I'd be looking at if ever one day I really did get fed-up and quit.

Dog

2009-03-12T23:08:00.003-04:00

When I arrived home from work this afternoon, to my horror my little dog had unleashed a flood of urine and a torrent of diarreah all over the basement floor during the day while I'd been away.

Usually I lock up the dog in the main bathroom during the daytime. She has food, water, a bed, and toys in there; as well, there is a long, tall window with a wide sill, accessible from the edge of the bathtub, that she can perch upon during the daytime to watch the world go by while we are away. However, this morning before I left for work, the dog was curled peacefully in our bed, warm and snug underneath the covers. I was loathe to wake her and roust her from her cozy sleeping place, so I departed the house with her still tucked away out of sight beneath the blankets, figuring she'd wake up later during the morning sometime and just sort of hang out "loose" in the house 'till I got home.

Well, you can't trust a dog to be clean while you're gone for the day.

There were two disgusting puddles of diarreah on the basement floor when I got home. They were smelly, and I angrily mopped at them with paper towels and a bleach-based household cleaner. The diarreah had obviously been there for a number of hours, and as a result, had had the chance to "set" to the floor, with only the middle portion of each puddle still remaining liquified. The edges had hardened and coalesced such that I was obliged to fetch a curly kate scrubbing pad from the kitchen, and use the abrasive steel-wool pad to vigorously rub and scrub at the floor, scouring away the worst of the mess.

Luckily, this was on a ceramic tile floor.

I couldn't believe the size of the urine-puddle I found, either. The dog is a Chihuahua and weighs 6 pounds - but it looked like a gigantic water balloon had popped and exploded everywhere. The urine puddle went on and on and ond, like a river all over the floor. I didn't realize the dog could contain such a volume of liquid at one time, it was like she'd been storing it up or something. She released this flood right beside the pee-pee pad she normally uses. A few inches is all it would have taken to avoid the mess, but for some reason, she unleashed the urine right beside.

Obviously, being alone - wait, no, the cat was home too - loose during the daytime, with the run of the entire house, is too stressful for the dog. She likely freaked out, realizing we were not there when she awoke, and this obviously drove her into a flurry of stress, resulting in the diarreah and urine mess. Clearly, the dog needs to be sequestered during the daytime. It is far less stressful for her to be confined to one single small room, than to have to worry about what's happening in the entire house when we're not there.

I love my dog, but scrubbing diarreah off the floor with a curly kate? I draw the line.

That is all.

Star Trek

2009-03-12T09:35:00.005-04:00

I love Star Trek.

Voyager is balm for my soul. A universe where everyone has their place & knows what it is. Where people are recognized for their contributions, and where everyone's contributions are important. Starfleet Captains are the ultimate managers - they make the right decisions, and are true leaders.

The total opposite of my real-world workplace.

There are so many excellent Voyager episodes:

"Counterpoint" - so much fan fiction has sprung from this episode, needless to say, some of it R-rated. I would be lying if I said I didn't see how this could be the case.
"Warlord" - I like to pretend she isn't being possessed by an alien consciousness.
"Tuvix" - Fascinating moral dilemma, what should have been done, do you think?
"Resolutions" - The original J/C episode. Uh-huh, more R-rated, and X-rated fan fiction sparked by this episode than probably any other.

... and many others.

That being said, there are an equal number of cruddy episodes.

Some notable quotes from one such horrible episode of Star Trek: TNG - "Outcast":

"Commander... tell me about your sexual organs".

"Our foetuses are incubated in fibrous husks"

"... inseminating a husk."

Equally ridiculous dialogue is uttered at my workplace on a daily basis, as well. So everything about Star Trek isn't perfect.

Here's a site I found which makes some interesting arguments for the fact that Star Trek Sucks. I don't believe the author of the site has had sufficiently broad exposure to Star Trek, based on some assertions made. Nonetheless, interesting opinions.

I love watching Voyager in my warm basement.

The problem with the episode, "Outcast" from ST:TNG, is Commander Riker. I never really liked the Commander Riker character at all, and the "Outcast" episode epitomizes why. Riker is an arrogant asshole. I posted my opinion about the "Outcast" episode to this site, which also contains a brief summary of the episode's plot. In case that site goes down or whatever, here's a partial summary of what I wrote:

"This is a totally ridiculous episode centering mainly around Commander Riker's willingness to hump anything that moves, be it female, androgynous, genderless or anything. Riker demonstrates that he has NO respect for the laws of alien societies when those laws come between him & his loins. If Riker's personal gratification comes at the expense of having an alien break the laws of their society, so be it!!! Riker's urges MUST be satisfied no matter what the cost!!! Picard is not concerned with...(delaying departure of the Enterprise or its crew from the planet's orbit, as Riker runs amok on the planet's surface trying to make up for the mistakes his horniness and inability to keep it in his pants have caused, violating the prime directive and causing all sorts of trouble for the alien society.)"

I prefer Voyager with Janeway, a woman captain would never put up with that kind of bullshit from an asswipe like Riker.

Star Trek rules.

You, Too, Can Rat Out Your Neighbours

2009-03-12T07:45:00.001-04:00

Found this article in The Gazette this morning.

I left my pithy commentary.

Marijuana ought to be legalized. I don't smoke the stuff, I do not enjoy the effect it has on me - but yes, it should be legalized.

Why is it more acceptable to create a community of fear, suspicion, and spying; than to enjoy plant life? Fucking society. I hate The Gazette. When I was in high school, an English teacher told me The Gazette was a tabloid. Yes. The Gazette is, indeed, a rag. I hate the spin they put on most of their articles.

Case in point.

Oinked-In

2009-03-11T14:22:00.001-04:00

I've just set up a profile for myself on the social networking site, "Linked In".

I can have all manner of fun there.

Free Pants

2009-03-09T13:02:00.002-04:00

I like to amuse myself, both online and in the real world.

Here at work I have a ball pulling all manner of prankery that would probably get me fired anyplace else.

Last Friday, whilst cleaning out a drawer at home; I discovered a pair of grey pants I'd been given but never worn. They were a pair of those weird pants where they fit on the hips and legs, but the waist is much to small, and when buttoned / zipped up, the pants garrote you around the middle. I decided to get rid of the pants, but how to do so? I tucked them into my gym bag and brought the pants to work with me.

In one of the women's washrooms at work, there is a bank of lockers. I have taken the liberty of assigning a locker to myself, and that is where I store my gym things in betwixt exercise sessions. Anyway, I decided the washroom would be the perfect place to get rid of the pants. I therefore merely abandoned the pants at the washroom, draping them over the side of one of the bathroom stalls. Hahaha!

I chuckle to myself to think how other people will be all like, "WTF?" and "how the Christ did a pair of dress pants wind up here? What, did some person come in and take a piss, and maybe forget to leave with her pants on, departing bare-assed?" Hahaha! Hahaha! Hahahahah!

I'm so good at amusing myself.

Misplaced Societal Values

2009-03-09T09:30:00.003-04:00

Humanity is all screwed up.

I recently posted my opinion to a hockey discussion forum. The topic of the forum was whether NHL goaltender Patrick Roy deserved to be honoured for his contribution to sport.

The answer is, quite simply: No.

Our society has misplaced values. We idolize and glorify materialism, consumerism, and the pursuit of greed. I posted the following in response to the discussion forum's topic regarding the Patrick Roy honouring:

How many brain tumors did Roy cure? How many starving orphans did he save? Abuses did he prevent? What has Roy done for the long-term betterment of this world, our society? Very little. No, he does not "deserve" any "honour". Roy is no hero, he is the product of a society which glorifies the wrong values. I'm disgusted at the misplaced values of society, demonstrated this weekend through Patrick Roy. Needless to say I wasn't at the "ceremony" on Saturday. I would close with, "smarten up, people"; but I know it's impossible. White apes are doomed. Good riddance.

I certainly hope this latter will be the case.

Wood Heating (Again)

2009-02-10T08:30:00.013-05:00

So I've already voiced my opinions on the topic of wood heating.

The topic is a hot one right now in Montreal, and likely will only continue to heat up in coming years.

Of course, I left my own opinion in the comments section of the latest article to come out on the topic, fanning the flames of debate with a self-plagiarized (off this blog) blurb; and as well, I also posted (under a different nickname):

Why are we blaming wood-stoves for all of our pollution problems, all of a sudden? Smog is also a huge problem during summertime... can they also claim that is because of all the wood-stoves in operation then? All this talk about banning wood heating serves the interests of government. Make the population slaves to government-controlled sources of energy by outlawing alternatives. Then, Hydro-Quebec will extort whatever fees they feel like charging for electric heat / natural gas... and we'll have no choice but to pay, because alternatives like wood will be banned if certain groups have their way. Is that what we want? Independence is freedom. Think carefully.

Food for thought. Wonder if anyone cares? It's doubtful. Adult daycare for all! A place where sheeple shall have neither wishes nor problems, reversion to the utter, careless bliss of babyhood. Governmental parental.

Deliverance through cyanide, destroying angel. Safe in their coffins. Perhaps I can smoke them out of existence. I'll certainly try.

------------

March 9th, 2009 - ADDENDUM to original post:

Due to the outcry over wood-burning heat sources being put up by a small, stupid, but quite vocal minority of idiots here in the Greater Montreal Region; I determined to start my own pro-stove blog out of spite, to piss the idiots off. The pro-stove, pro-wood-heat blog can be found here. I will be updating it on a semi-regular basis, more often as the issue of wood heating is debated and the vocal minority of idiots make their small-minded opinions known. Tee-hee! My pro-wood blog has already been noticed by the idiots, and some arsewipe has already left about 20,000 words of commentary on a single one of my blog posts. That's great! As long as idiots are kept busy commentating on pro-stove posts, they'll have less time to actually DO anything to advance their anti-wood agenda. How do you keep an idiot busy for hours? Stick 'em in a circular room & tell them to find the corner, and all of that. Morons.

Thin-dustry

2009-02-06T13:14:00.007-05:00

I am a 31 year old woman. I burn 200 - 400 calories per day by exercising (cardio) at a gym. Typically, I will use a treadmill, a StairMaster, or attend an aerobics class. I also occaisonally work with weights.

I'm 5'3 and I weigh 164 Lbs.

Sometimes, I drink an entire bottle of wine before I go to bed - on a worknight. Fuck it, I enjoy drinking. The next day, I'll do a 40-minute workout in the gym - I find nothing cures a foggy head like a good gym workout, mmm mmm! 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the StairMaster or so, will usually do it nicely. I rarely get hangovers, there's some gene in my family, I think, we can all drink like fish. So I'm lucky that way.

I love to munch brandy-filled chocolates while laying on the couch in my cozy basement, watching TV. With a crackling fire going in my wood-burning stove.

I also smoke cigarettes, because I enjoy smoking.

Why all this emphasis on ultra-thin toothpick-like bodies? I feel good as I am, and I like to think I'm pretty healthy. I know of several "overweight" people like me, who are as I am; fit, happy, and strong, rather than suffering from body dysmorphia as websites like this one encourage, by promoting a toothpick-like appearance for "health". Seriously, were I to reduce my food intake to the "portion size" and "calorie count" suggested on that site, I doubt I'd have enough energy to make it through the day. Never-mind the fact that I'd be depriving myself of some of the things that I enjoy about living and that make me happy - having a nice meal, dessert, and a few drinks, and a smoke or two afterwards.

When I was in my late teens and early 20's, I was really thin - around 105 Lbs. Surprisingly, even though I'm now quite a bit heavier, males continue to be attracted to me, fuller figured though I am. Thin may be "in", but guys still jerk off to tits and ass (not my original words, quote from some website someplace). It's my opinion that in the vast majority of cases, normal males are neither discerning nor fussy enough to care about a few extra pounds or inches, either lost or gained. Evolution has ordained this and made them this way. The subtleties of what makes for a beautiful female figure are really best appreciated between women, must be very nice for lesbians.

I have extremely low blood pressure and rarely get even colds, or otherwise sick. I feel physically quite strong.

Fuck the "thin"-dustry. Fuck people who tell me how to be "healthy".

UPDATE March 18th, 2009: Well well well, fuckers, look what I found today in The Gazette!

I agree wholeheartedly with this article. The standards used to determine healthy, normal, overweight, and obese are archaic and outdated. BMI does not present an accurate assessment of a person's overall health. Body weight alone cannot predict an individual's overall state of health. I know of many "obese" people who are fit, healthy, and active. The danger lies in being too thin - where one's body has no reserves to draw upon in the event of illness or injury.

UPDATE June 12th, 2009: Another article in support of non-anorexic body types.

Am I A Sociopath?

2009-01-29T11:03:00.003-05:00

I would be remiss to refuse to acknowledge the sociopathic streak running through my personality.

Doesn't everyone have this?

Canada Is A Second-Rate Country

2009-01-29T10:19:00.004-05:00

Take it from me. I'm a Canadian who lives here! Everything about Canada is one big fat joke. We have no "culture" worth mentioning nor national interests more relevant than those of other countries. Canada is the ultimate in cheesiness. Our flag is a fugly rag. We are nothing but a cheap knock-off of the United States, like the dollar-store version of some expensive perfume. We are the joke North America. I don't blame the Yanks for laughing behind their hands - and often overtly - at us all. I'm embarrassed of our country, can't wait till we're annexed and officially finally become the "51st State" we really are right now anyway. Bah.

We are too socialist for our own good, and hard-working people like me end up pulling the weight of lazy layabout Frenchmen who spit on us for being anglophone, and spend time dreaming up new ways to hurt & oppress us.

I fucking hate Canada. Why haven't I claimed my US Citizenship yet? I'm entitled to it by birth, all I need to is fill in a few forms, head down to the embassy. It's high time I got going on that.

I personally can't wait 'till the United States finally annex us, officializing Canada's status at the "51st State". That will happen soon. Back in the 1400's, SUGAR was the OIL, and WATER is the OIL of the future. Canada has alot of water. This will become more and more important going forward.

We are a country rich in natural resources. The USA hungers for natural resources. It only makes sense that we are to be annexed. Can't happen quick enough for me.

Fiscal Irresponsibility

2008-11-26T20:23:00.008-05:00

I just found this article from The Gazette online, which I wish to annotate with my commentary.

A Struggle To Keep Heads Above Water
Where Does Our Money Go?
Catherine Solyom, The Gazette

Published: Monday, November 24, 2008

"I want clothes for my Barbie, and I want a castle and I want a carriage for 12 people," says Annabelle Morrison, 3, running down her Christmas wish list. What a fucking little brat! I want! I want! I want! What she should GET is a good spanking.
It will be an expensive season because I give in to whatever my child demands, creating a monstrous little brat who expects everything will immediately come to her on a silver platter, laments her mother, Rachel Sauvé, ruing the day she bought the idiotic 12 Dancing Princesses DVD. "It came with the catalogue."
"When we were kids, our Christmas stockings were Dad's old woolen socks and every Christmas we each got an orange in it," Rachel, 43, recalls. "They were hard to come by, so it was something special - an orange in Dad's old sock." If that was fine for you, why do you feel it necessary to shell out for a load o' crap for your kid? Use this opportunity to teach your child about making choices - wants vs. needs!
It sounds a bit like the Monty Python skit, where four well-to-do men smoking cigars compare their youths of abject poverty. We used to live in a shoebox, says one. "Luxury!" continues the next.
But there is no denying the financial aspect of bringing up children has for idiot people changed significantly in Rachel's lifetime - for better and for worse.
Sitting around the proverbial kitchen table in the bad neighbourhood of Petite Patrie, all agree: Children are worth their weight in gold - when you add up all the costs. Why did you spawn kids in the first place, if you weren't sure you'd be able to provide for them?
This fiscally irresponsible family's Children's dental and medical expenses are now covered by ~~the government~~ large deductions off the earned paycheques of working taxpayers like me, whereas Rachel's mother, Shirley Sauvé, had to pay out of pocket for her children - all seven of them.
"I had to take one of them to see a pediatrician," recalls Shirley, 75. "I got a bill for $135 because he was considered a 'specialist.' But I didn't pay it", and because I was fiscally irresponsible by merely choosing to NOT pay bills, my children weren't able to follow a good example. Good example, where from? Hahaha!
On the other hand, costs were "lower", but not compared to income vs. expense level back then. When her first child was born in 1956, it cost her $30 to stay eight days at a hospital in Quebec City run by nuns. Now a private room - which you can have for 36 hours after delivery - will cost about $175, not really too expensive for people who are working decent jobs, but naturally unattainable for idiots who deserve death rather than child-delivery.
Babysitting was also cheaper for Shirley and her husband, an infantry officer with the Van Doos regiment. If they wanted a night out together, they paid a sitter 75 cents an hour.
Forty years later, Rachel had to pay $8 an hour for someone to look after Annabelle when she couldn't find a spot in a daycare.
"We were paying $250 a week for a while," says Rachel's useless husband, Douglas Morrison. "And we had a lot of unnecessary things to buy ... diapers, diapers, wipes, diapers, formula - just the formula was $100 a month.", but we were too idiotic to think to look for other solutions.
Children may be priceless, but they are also pricey. A Manitoba government study found in 2004 the cost of bringing up a child to the age of 18 was over $166,000. The first year was the most expensive at $10,000. Couples with two children, like Rachel and Douglas, spend one-quarter of their gross earnings to feed, clothe, house and educate them. WTF do these people expect? Isn't that a part of LIFE?
Add to that "new necessities" like the Internet, cellphones, the car, organic produce (Whaa-- ?!? Why is this - why are any of these things - suddenly "necessities"? Organic produce? Cell phones? Come the fuck ON now, people!) and the occasional DVD, and Rachel and Douglas have something else their parents never had: a lot of debt. HAHAHAHAHAHAH! LOSERS!
Rachel still owes $15,000 on her student loan, for example. She regrets going to school when she wasn't sure what kind of work to do. Agreed - dumbfuck move.
"At the time people said, 'C'est pas grave, get a student loan and continue,' " says Rachel, who worked with the Cirque du Soleil for 22 years on and off before becoming a teacher. "Now I'm stuck paying it over and over again. It's a nightmare."
Then there's debt incurred for everyday needs with two young daughters. Stella is now 41/2 months old, so Rachel has given up teaching for breastfeeding. Her maternity leave benefits have dropped to 55 per cent of her salary.
To pick up the slack, Douglas has maxed out three credit cards and a $5,000 line of credit and taken out a personal loan of $10,000 to buy a car that could fit two infant car seats, and pay for a trip to Scotland to show the kids off to the rest of the family. A trip to Scotland? Come right the fuck ON now, people. We're supposed to be sympathetic to this family who obviously haven't got their priorities straight? Complaining they can't afford this and they can't afford that and are in debt like crazy, whilst simultaneously splurging on overseas trips? AND THESE PEOPLE ARE PROCREATING!?!
It sounds bad, until you compare it with the average Canadian household, whose debt in 2006 had risen to 150 per cent of annual income (compared with 50 per cent in 1971) and whose savings rate dropped to 2.8 per cent in 2008, compared with 13 per cent in 1990.
"As of tomorrow I'll have paid off the loan!" Douglas says cheerfully. "Now we can take out a new loan to celebrate." Great idea, idiots! What's the point of paying off one loan, only to replace it with a brand-new one?
The truth is, Rachel and Douglas are far from the poorhouse. They both have good, steady jobs (did I miss something here? If their jobs are so great, why are they in debt and whining to reporters at this cruddy-ass quasi-tabloid?), somewhat immune from the impending recession (Ha! Ha! Great joke. In another six months I'll be reading a follow-up sob story about these poor slobs, whilst an even larger percentage of my paycheque deductions continue to pick up the slack for their irresponsible financial decisions).
Douglas is a structural technician who refurbishes jets to sell to corporations which would otherwise have to buy new. (That job's going to tank in the coming economic crisis - airlines & airplane companies are notoriously cyclical luxury industries - bye bye luxury spending, private jet brokers going belly-up soon!)
Rachel teaches French as a second language - also in increasing demand as the provincial government makes "integration" a political priority (any idiot can do this -hell, even I could do it, only I don't have time to waste languishing for 8 bucks an hour - I prefer to man-up and buckle down in order to maintain a decent income level in a higher-paying job, to support myself and my dependents. HEY LADY, get off your government-make-work-program, forced-by-idiotic-provincial-law COMPED ass and get out and get a DECENT paying job!).
The problem is they're stuck in a boom-and-bust cycle: Boom they come into some money, then something goes bust. (See above comments.)
"We're not missing anything, but we're always trying to find a way to put money aside and there's always something dying on us," Rachel says. "The fridge, the computer (you CAN'T manage your OWN computer???), the transmission (your husband CAN'T fix an automotive transmission? What good is he, aside from being a repeat sperm-donor?) - and our account falls back to zero." Sucks to be you.
Now they'd like to buy their own house, instead of paying $700 a month toward someone else's mortgage. But where will they get the down payment? AH HAHAHA! Whaa -- ?!? Pissing money away on RENT, for cripes' sake? Seven hundred bucks a month? I never even had to pay that much when I had a mortgage! Something is seriously amiss somewhere. Sheesh. I'm surprized they haven't been offered my paycheque-deduction money yet to use as their down-payment. Ooops! Knock on wood somewhere!
Rachel's mother, Shirley, doesn't own her own house lovely example!, nor does she have any stocks or shares to cash in now that her only work is teaching tai chi at the downtown YMCA in exchange for her membership.
But she and her husband both have good pensions. And she's always been good at bartering.
When she wanted Rachel to go to nursery school but couldn't afford it, she started teaching there so Rachel could go for free. When she needed to buy Christmas gifts for some of her now 15 grandchildren, she started selling toys on her lunch break for a discount. Too bad some of that industriousness didn't rub off on her offspring!
For Shirley, a medical secretary by profession, owning a house was too much of a burden, financial and otherwise. As an army family, they were always on the move, to Germany, to Ghana, to different parts of Canada.
For Rachel and Douglas, however, buying a house is the best investment they can make, and the only one sheltered from the chaotic market that has seen retirement savings and pensions alike plummet over the last few months. The problem is, no one will give them a mortgage. Sucks to be you.
Rachel is constantly penalized by credit agencies and banks because her job is ~~permanently temporary~~ horseshit busywork: Despite the "demand" (notice quotes!) for FSL courses, the provincial government ~~does not want to hire~~ can't get away with sinecuring using public funds any more basically unnecessary public servants, opting to renew teachers' contracts year after year.
She will be making ~~an extra~~ $25,000 a year (Yippee!) teaching once she completes her master's degree (degrees are unnecessary and over-rated) - but the banks still won't consider her loanworthy, she says.
Douglas, with his various - albeit shrinking - debts, was recently refused an extra $2,000 on his line of credit. Quit with the credit already! Wise up! LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS!
It's a situation unlikely to get any easier if the U.S. credit crunch spreads to Canada.
"I'm supposed to meet with the bank manager," Rachel says. "But if he refuses me because on top of everything I'm on mat leave, I'll bite his head off." I hope that, after you do that? The bank manager has you removed by security in disgrace; and that he then calls the police and files a report on you for disrupting or threatening behaviour in his place of business - the bank. That's exactly what I would do, after all, you don't deserve credit, lady! Accept the fact, and lean to live with it. Sucks to be you.

These people suck. I hate The Gazette. The Gazette does nothing but glorify the predicaments of sad-sack people who are merely laying in the lumpy beds they've made for themselves. That is why I refuse to donate to The Gazette: Christmas Fund charity, and why I'll never subscribe to The Gazette.

Crawlspaces

2008-11-18T11:03:00.005-05:00

Crawlspace.

Crawlspaces.

I love that word.

Crawlspaces are so creepy-sounding. Like, a space that contains things that crawl. Insects; critters, deformed, demented people, and the like.

I have a "crawlspace" in my house. Actually, we call it a "storage space".

For some reason, lately I've been fascinated with learning all I can about crawlspaces. I had no idea that in many parts of the United States, and I guess elsewhere, like maybe in different parts of Canada? Crawlspaces UNDERNEATH homes are seemingly the norm.

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, knowing there was a crawlspace underneath my house.

I actually do have a "crawlspace" located inside my own home. The crawlspace, or "storage space" that we have at home, is located at the rear of our garage. You access it by stepladder through a small door about halfway up the garage wall. The storage space is actually located between floors in our house, with our basement laundry room & bathroom ceilings that are about 7' high being the floor of the storage space, and the floor of an upstairs bedroom being the ceiling of the storage space. The storage space walls are just rough, plastic-covered insulation, no gyproc. Anyway, you literally have to crawl around in the storage space, which is why technically, it could be considered a "crawlspace", but I refuse to refer to it as that. Crawlspaces are too creepy. I'll not have one in my home. Our storage space is clean, dry, and there are no insects or creepy critters inside. As long as the cat isn't in there, that is!

Anyway, back to creepy crawlspaces. I'm fascinated by them. Thank goodness my crawlspace is not at all creepy. It's off the ground. There are no bugs. Some of these crawlspaces I've been reading about online are absolutely horrible. They have dirt floors. Dirt! There are things like sewage pipes running through them, pipes that sometimes leak. They are damp and dark, cold and clammy. They are havens for horrible creatures, like poison spiders. Thank God there are no poison spiders near where I live.

How could you live in a house, with a gross, creepy, bug-and-germ-and-stagnant-water infested crawlspace beneath you? As I said before, how could you sleep at night? How could you live in a house which contained such a nightmarish area? A part of the home you just wanted to forget?

What about when you have to go in there? You may want to forget it, but eventually, you might have to enter the crawlspace. I most certainly would NOT, EVER, go into a creepy crawlspace. No matter how much you paid me, I would not go. I would NOT want my husband to have to go into such a place, either. I would be all creeped out and bothered, imagining him crawling around in there.

Why do those places exist? Why aren't all houses built with nice basements? I love my basement, it's finished, and it's my favorite place in the house during winter! What's the deal with creepy crawlspaces anyway? They're scary & gross. Make a basement, I say! Not a creepy crawlspace!

Here's a horrible anecdote regarding a crawlspace I discovered :

"There was the one with a hobo-spider gauntlet I had to crawl through to enter. Once inside I discovered a disconnected sewer pipe that was leaking into the crawlspace." (Source)

Creepy crawlspaces creep me out.

Charity Case

2008-11-18T07:01:00.013-05:00

Sure, I'm all for charity. Appropriate charity, at the right time & place. There's a time & place for everything, as they say.

The Gazette: Christmas Fund. A charity not worth supporting.

Sure, they've got the right idea, these Gazette folks. Charity is great! 'Tis correct to help out the needy. Trouble is, I don't believe in helping people who don't deserve it, who ought to be helping themselves, or who are suffering due circumstances of their own creation.

Sadly, in my opinion, The Gazette: Christmas Fund serves only to dole out handouts to individuals & families, who oftentimes don't really deserve the money in the first place.

It's a hard knock life, for sure. Let people learn that the hard way, sometimes it's really the best thing for all involved - survival of the fittest - the weak will just die out. Nature intended it that way, after all.

I don't support The Gazette: Christmas Fund, and it's not likely I'll ever do so, given the sorts of people they ostensibly provide "assistance" to around the Christmas season.

Like this showcase family. Selected excerpts from the article, below:

"...putting enough food on the table and buying the children new clothes for an Islamic festival will be as close as the family can get to celebrating."

Sure. Times are tough, that's for sure. Good to see that at least, this family has it's priorities straight - any money will be spent on basics, like food & clothing for the kids. One positive thing.

"Sarah lived in Montreal with friends and earned a living packaging products at a cookie plant. A year after she arrived, Sarah got married and quit work before she had her first child."

Okay, here's where things start to go south. So this lady gets married, wonderful... but then she what? Quits work? Huh? How come, why? I don't get it, how did she figure she was going to support the child? Personal accountability! Personal accountability! Defenestrated! Defenestrated!

Sarah's husband is an economics student at UQàM.

So wait. SHE doesn't work, and neither does HE? Is there something I don't understand? Sure, it's wonderful to be a student... and I'm sure it's lots of fun to pursue university studies, but ought that REALLY be one's priority with....

six young mouths to feed - ranging in age from 4 months to 10 years

Damn! They've been multiplying like ... well, whatever. Is that really so surprising? But anyways... something definitely seems wrong with this picture, by now, to me anyways. Defenestration of personal accountability, I re-iterate.

money just seems to head in one direction."It just goes, goes, goes,". [ ...] "Clothes are expensive these days," [ ... ] the family will be using the money from The Gazette Christmas Fund for the most basic of necessities: food.

Money goes, eh? What a fucking surprize. Maybe if one or the other of these people manned-up enough to get a job, all these charity handouts wouldn't be necessary?

I too could sit at home on my ass, cranking out kiddies one after another, but I CHOOSE not to, I choose to WORK instead, to gain INCOME. I too could laze about, becoming a full-time "student" at UQAM, but that wouldn't pay my bills now, would it? I am NOT insinuating that students are lazy: university is HARD WORK, I know... merely that at a certain point in life, one ought have other priorities. What the hell is this asswipe father doing attending university, anyway? With six kids and a wife to support, he ought to get a fucking job. Contrary to idiotic opinion, it is NOT necessary to hold some big-ass degree or certification, in order to hold gainful employment, I'm living proof of that. And don't tell me, fuckers, that there aren't any decent jobs to be had "unless you have some kind of degree", way-wrong answer, neither my husband nor myself have "degrees" of any sort, but guess what? There's another thing neither of us have either: a mortgage anymore, or any other significant debts of any kind. And why? Because we manned the fuck up, buckled our asses down and worked for a number of years, put money aside, and paid that fucker off! All without the "benefit" of any kind of special "university degree".

The parents of the family in this article are totally irresponsible, as far as I'm concerned, and ought NOT be provided with handouts. The father, at least, needs to get off his otherwise useless, burden-to-society ass, man up, and GET A JOB already, in order to support the six kids he chose to spawn. Quit relying on society, or charity, to provide. I shouldn't have to work to support his student ass with a huge chunk of my paycheque. It's not fair to me, or to any working people. Families like this give immigrants a bad name. I know some recent immigrants to Canada, to Quebec, who are hard-working families who are sacrificing and doing without in order to make a decent life for themselves here. That's what the hell I did, what my family I grew up in did, what my husband & I did, in order to attain the standard of living we enjoy now. Why should society & charity have to comp this loser's ass while he studies away leisurely while his kids starve because they can't afford food? Why does his wife keep getting pregnant with a new white ape every other month when they can't afford the ones they already have? Why is The Gazette: Christmas Fund FOR screwing Canadians & charity donors out of money, to give to stupid people like this?

It pisses me right the hell off.

Banning Wood Heating, Eh?

2008-11-18T06:35:00.014-05:00

Plans to ban wood heating, eh? Already going into effect in certain parts of the Greater Montreal region?

Quote from the article:

A new [ ... ] bylaw that bans installation of wood stoves or wood-pellet-burning furnaces "is currently under study" by Montreal ...

Hmmm, gee... terrific! What could be better? A ban on wood heating... using the ole' "air quality" ruse now, eh? Pretty clever.

all stoves or furnaces fed by wood and already installed be permanently extinguished within seven years, by Nov. 3, 2015.

No kidding? This ban.... it wouldn't happen to have anything at all to do with wood heating's possible undercutting sales of hydro-electric energy here in this province? No?

No no, didn't think so... after all, those massive, gynormous hydro-electric installations here, in our province... owned & operated by the government... prices ever on the rise for hydro-electric power... right, right. Four legs GOOD! Two legs BAAAD! Hydro GOOD! Wood BAAAD!

See this ????

That lives in the basement of my house. Guess what, fuckers? It's not going ANYWHERE. It's NOT going to be "extinguished". We are going to CONTINUE using it, bans be damned!

In fact, I like my stove so much, that if they start instituting bans, and ticketing people? I'm just going to factor that in as part of the cost of using the stove. That's right, fuckers. I'll pay a fine, before I'll switch back to heating with pure electricity. Heating with electricity blows. Paying fines & heating with wood, will prolly end up being cheaper than heating with electricity anyway.

Why, just last night... we had it on... we were cranking out our own heat... nary a joule of hydro-electricity being eked from any of the baseboard heaters anywhere in the house.... mmm! mmm! mmm! Nice n' toasty warm? You betcha! Score: Us, 1; Hydro, ZERO! Hahahaha! Put that in yer stovepipe n' smoke it.

What really gets my goat, is this:

The use of indoor masonry fireplaces not equipped with inserts will remain perfectly legal.

Sure, so the fact that none of this actually has to do with bullshit "environmental concerns" is perfectly apparent in the legislation. Masonry fireplaces, which are totally inefficient for heating, by the way, will remain legal, while stoves will not. Masonry fireplaces cause MORE pollution than woodstoves by simple virtue of the fact that they do not burn as cleanly as stoves do. MORE particulates & smoke escape into the outside air (and into the interior, household air) from a masonry fireplace, than do with a wood-burning stove. Modern wood-burning stoves are equipped to be extremely efficient with regards to combustion, and release few if any pollutants or particulate matter into the air outside. Speaking from personal experience, when our stove is burning at optimal temperature, there are nearly ZERO emissions: smoke CANNOT even be seen emerging from the chimney when the stove is burning within the correct temperature burn-zone. Fuck! Masonry fireplaces let all manner of crap loose into the atmosphere - including cinders and ashes and little pieces of half-on-fire paper, terrific.

This new-in-Hampstead & proposed-island-wide legislation, is bullshit.

Update: November 21st

Well, I just found this gem of a quote, from an article I found online regarding wood heating:

"While burning and fires can be relaxing, keep in mind that
it is the toxics that make it so:
carbon monoxide causes blood vessels to constrict
and creates a false sense of wellbeing.
Breathing toluene from wood smoke,
like sniffing glue,
can get you high."

Hahahahaha! Fuck OFF, people! Come the fuck on now!

UPDATE May 9th, 2009: Well, the wood-heating season is over, done, and finished with for another year. But something just occurred to me: something obvious, yet it NEEDS to be stated. I'll prolly post something to this effect on my new, wood-heating blog (conceived to piss of anti-wood-heating activists). WE LIVE IN FUCKING QUEBEC. This isn't some tropical island in the Caribbean. IT'S FUCKING QUEBEC. Winter lasts from November through April, and snow or no snow, it gets COLD. This isn't SoCal, or Florida. It's Quebec, when some nights the temperature is forty fucking degrees below freezing! We NEED heat, it isn't optional, it isn't up for debate, and it isn't a choice maybe or maybe not - it's a question of SURVIVAL. How DARE these fucking "activists" seek to limit our choices for obtaining such. I'm pissed, I want to execute these people. If they're so unhappy here, please move to wherever (Arizona?) you DON'T need heat 6 months of every year for mere survival. Fuck! I hate stupid people, why are so many around and spawning?

Ban wood heating, willya? Fuckers.

Foul Air

2008-11-07T07:44:00.004-05:00

A cloud of foulness has overtaken the greater Montreal region.

This article from the Gazette summarizes the situation.

Disgusting. Yesterday I was outside and I could actually smell the stench, the stench of the pollution. It smelled sour, foul, like something burning.

They say it's due to hot, stagnant air. Gross. Hot, stagnant air; which refuses to leave. Get lost, air! We don't want you!

Seriously, it's gross. It's like a thick fog. You can't see through it. Pure pollution. From cars, factories, and who knows what else? And it's so hot lately - WAAAY above normal for this time of year. Like, short-sleeves hot. That's gross, who wants to wear short sleeves outside in November? I hate hot weather, and I hate hot weather even more when it happens in November. During November, and in subsequent months, I want it to be as cold as possible. Cold, until around May. Then, I'm ready for warm and hot weather again.

Now I know what it's like to live in Mexico City. Or Beijing. But I can't believe how severe it is, even out at my place. I mean, I live like 40 minutes from downtown! There are farmer's fields within walking distance from my house! How could all that pollution reach so far out of the city?
And I live at an elevation which is higher than the level of the city itself. Maybe that's got something to do with it?

I hope the gross air blows off soon.

Symbols & Circumstance

2008-11-04T07:21:00.004-05:00

Certain sets of patterns, groupings, namings or labellings will attract ill-fortune or bring bad luck.

Many cultures around the world, notably the Chinese (Feng-shui) agree that patterns and arrangements (for example, of furniture within the home) are important and have an effect on circumstance - either positive or negative, desireable or undesireable.

I'm not really superstitious, but it's obvious there are things in this world which are far beyond the scope of human comprehension & which cannot necessarily be quantified scientifically.

I believe that certain pairings, groupings, or arrangements - specifically of symbols like letters and numbers - can effect circumstance and result in fairly ominous outcomes.

Symbols - letters & numbers - are extraordinarily powerful things. The use & manipulation of symbols or strings of symbols are what distinguishes humans as higher-consciousness beings. Humans alone on this planet are the only creatures who use abstract symbols. Symbols represent the world, ideas, concepts, physical objects or places. Symbols can be manipulated, as in mathematics, to interpret & measure the world and to allow us to understand it.

As I said, I'm not at all superstitious - I merely observe the world around me. It is a fact that one ought be quite careful about grouping certain symbols, or strings of symbols, together at the same time. Certain groupings will bring ill-fortune. This can be proven quite easily, don't believe me? Consider: KKK. Three symbols (letters), grouped together. How about a swastika (I don't think I can even GET that symbol to appear here on blogger, and it prolly ain't included in MS Word either for me to copy & paste). Don't believe symbols can be bad luck? Paint a swastika on the outside of your house, and see what happens, buddy. Get back to me on that. In any case, examples abound - but yes, certain symbols, or combinations of symbols, are ill-fortunate, ill-advised, and will effect circumstance negatively.

Recall the problem of the farmer and his wolf, goat, and cabbage; needing to cross a river in a boat which could carry but the farmer & one other item at the same time, necessitating leaving two things (some manner of wolf-goat-cabbage combo) alone together on the shore while he made the crossing with one of the items. One must be extremely careful how one arranges things. This includes naming, or labeling things. Certain names or labels are certain to bring ill-fortune. Again, numerous examples abound, although I won't go into detail here.

In summary: groupings and / or pairing-together of certain symbols; or labels applied to objects or ideas, are often ill-advised.

The pairing together of the symbols 1 and 9 is always ill-advised, especially, when these symbols repeat over and over again.

1, symbol for the smallest number, a single unit. This symbol also represents loneliness & solitude.

9, symbol of the largest single-digit integer which is not a plus-10 or factor-10 in our base-10 mathematical system. Two numbers, two symbols, naturally diametrically at odds, and as far removed from one another as possible within the numerical spectrum, representing completely different things. Having nothing in common and being the antithesis of one another, the symbols 1 and 9 ought never be paired together at any time, and especially not in repeating pattern.

You may believe I'm referring to 9/11, or that I cooked up my "9, 1" theory following or as a result of 9/11. Sure, 9/11 is a good example, however; there are others. Consider:

Swissair Flight 111. Many repeating 1's and 9's feature as symbols for or within references to the doomed flight. Swissair operated flight number 111 using a McDonnell-Douglas MD-11 type aircraft. The disaster took place on September (the 9th month) 2nd, 1998.

9/11 - goes without saying. Another huge disaster, 9's and 1's again.

I'll have to look for more examples.

Similar labels upon identical objects are also ill-fortunate. Space shuttles Challenger & Columbia, both christened with names beginning with the letter "C", both destroyed due to technical mishaps; Challenger on launch & Columbia upon reentry.

Maybe the above coincidences are not anything more than just exactly that - freaky cooincidences, but it does give one food for thought. What do you think?

Village Des Valeurs

2008-11-03T12:53:00.011-05:00

Q: How can we start a business?
A: We'll open a store.
Q: Terrific idea! But where will we get merchandise for our store? What will we sell?
A: We will sell assorted odds & ends which people will give to us, for FREE!
Q: Give to us for free? Why? How?
A: We'll play the ol' "charity" angle, of course!

Sounds like science-fiction - but it seems to be working. Village des Valeurs is a real rip-off. The prices they charge are outrageous, particularly when you consider that the stuff has been GIVEN to them free of charge. The decrepit dump of a store they use is proof they have little overhead, other than possibly heating, lighting, and (likely minimum-wage) staff.

The outlandish products they sell are hilarious. I oughta take some photos, stick 'em up here. Last time I was there (I always pop in for a minute when making a donation), I saw an old-fashioned ethnic "mammy" type black-person figurine. One time, I found a "casket key" on a rack. HAHAHAH! A casket key, what for? Why would someone have that? Why would V de V want to re-sell it? A shark in a jar. Not kidding... there was this miniature shark inside a jar of preservative liquid. I almost bought it but they wanted like 89 bucks for it or so. Rip off. I would have buried it in my backyard. Fugly pictures & paintings that should be burnt away. Fake-wood furniture.

That reminds me of the fake-wood shelf I garbage picked years ago, and recently gave to Village des Valeurs. I think someone bought it there for $14.99. Would I have been able to sell the shelf for $14.99? No. See - that's the whole problem - why do people pay for crap in Village des Valeurs they'd not buy on the street, from someone like me?

I've noticed that there are certain "regulars" at the Village des Valeurs outlet which I frequent. There are several people whom I see in the store on a regular basis, whenever I am there. Some of these people are obvious losers. I think those people are the castoff clutter of society. They practically hang out in the thrift shop. Other people are collectors of various sorts, scouring for collectible items, or looking for things they can buy cheap, then re-sell for profit on eBay. I tried doing that myself for awhile, but quickly grew tired of the hassle. I used to spend far too much time and money at V de V. But as I said, there's something comforting in browsing through racks of items people have loved and then abandoned - it can get to be addictive. All the items are used, so this means they were at one time valued possessions, now tossed away, abandoned, in a terminal phase with V de V their final hope for new homes, new life before the landfill. It's weird, sort of peering into people's lives. Seeing what sort of junk other people had, hoarded, or what possessions they possessed and spent their money on.

It's a wierd place.

The thing that pisses me off about V de V is that they also charge taxes on all their stuff. Fuck. I mean, some asswipe arbitrarily determines that some random toilet seat that some loser "donated" is worth $5.99, then they charge taxes on that too? Yeah, like that money's going to the government. V de V is a very sketchy place, a money laundering place, maybe? I bet they fudge the receipts for the register all the time. You could hoard away a killing in cash, operating a place like that.

Village des Valeurs is a huge scam. They claim to be in cahoots with "charity": this is just an angle that they play in order to get people to give them things. People like me. In reality, the liaison betwixt V de V and any "charity" is very, very slim. Whoever thought up the V de V concept is probably a millionaire right now. Why couldn't I have come up with the idea first?

Ethical question. Is it wrong to steal from Village des Valeurs? I don't think so. I mean, you donate all kinds of stuff, you should have the right to help yourself from time to time, as well, gratis. Hey, that's a good plan - it's morally justifiable. I think I will begin helping myself from V de V's shelves, whenever possible for me to do so. Why shouldn't I? Nothing wrong with it. And it would be so easy. Good plan, I've hatched.

I want to go into secondhand goods re-sales.

Unintentionally Hilarious Movie: Leprechaun 6 - Back 2 Tha Hood

2008-11-03T10:19:00.014-05:00

You know when someone asks whether you believe in ghosts, ESP, trolls, or other supernatural phenomenon?

You know how sometimes people recount little anecdotes about supposedly supernatural encounters? Like how they were half-asleep in bed one night and they suddenly made out a vague, shadowy shape in the corner of the room and maybe it might have been a ghost or an angel or a spirit in their room? Or about the time they were playing Ouija board with a candle and they contacted an evil spirit who displayed his great power by making the flame of the candle flicker just slightly?

Well, imagine the characters in this movie. If you were to ask whether they believed in the supernatural, they’d be like, "yeah, once there was this troll chasing me & my friends around, and it ripped off legs & stuff."

Stuff like this just doesn't happen. That's why this movie is hilarious - it's totally nonsensical. Not at all scary. Just nonsensically hilarious.

A screen-capture of the leprechaun's first body-part harvest. The leprechaun in the film is fond of tearing bits & pieces of people off. Above, the first image features an upper mandible the creature ripped from the skull of one of his victims in order to claim a gold tooth, made out of the leprechaun gold in his leprechaun-gold-chest which was stolen from him (the premise of the film). Note the casual way in which the leprechaun discards the mandible as a useless piece of trash, over his shoulder, once the gold tooth has been removed from it. What a monster!

It's natural the characters in the film would be absolutely terrified of the leprechaun after seeing what horrible deeds he is capable of. They can only sit in the rear of the police car with looks of abject terror on their faces, as the leprechaun goes head-to-head with an officer of the law.

The leprechaun flies through the air in order to attack the officer! Nevermind the fact that the leprechaun is 3 feet tall or so, he's somehow magically able to propel himself upwards and through the air as though launched from a cannon, in order to attack the tall officer from above!

Officer tough guy is ready, so ready, for that muthafuckin leprechaun. His stance screams, "gimme all you got BITCH!"

The leprechaun grabs officer tough-guy's leg! What's going to happen next? We already know the leprechaun's penchant for ripping body parts off of people!

The leprechaun tears officer tough-guy's leg right off, at the hip! AAAAAAHHHHH!!!

Good God, man! Officer tough guy suddenly realizes HIS LEG IS MISSING! AAAAAAHHH!

Fuck! Officer tough guy can now only hop impotently towards the leprechaun! His leg is GONE! The leprechaun is holding on to it!

The leprechaun finally discards the now-useless leg, having dispatched officer tough guy. Again, total disregard by the leprechaun for the body parts of others.

Once again, the characters are in awe of the sheer evilness of the leprechaun. Hey, who wouldn't be? The tough boyz-in-tha-hood gangbangers are rendered impotent and can only watch helplessly against the 3-foot tall troll.

The leprechaun reaches into this guy's chest and GRABS HIM BY THE HEART!

The leprechaun rips the guy's heart out.

Hahahah... this scene is hilarious. Baseball-bat dude confronts the leprechaun, while, in the background, two others have been rendered so full of terror they can only feebly limp off-camera to save themselves rather than joining in to fight against the diminutive troll. They have seen what-all the leprechaun is capable of!!

... Capable... of stabbing baseball-bat dude in the knee! With his baseball bat!!! AAAAAAHHHH! Stabbed with a bat, in the knee!

This has got to be the best movie ever!

UPDATE: 22Nov -

Well! Look what I found! A candid shot from (I guess) behind-the-scenes during the making of this cinematic maserpiece. How wonderful! Seems backstage, the action was just as absurd as what-all took place onscreen. Hahahhaah!

My Child-Free-By-Choice Baby

2008-10-24T11:51:00.016-04:00

Whenever people who don't know me well ask whether or not I have children, I always reply:

"Yes - the dog."

The dog is my child-free-by-choice baby.

Traditional parents (i.e., of white apes) usually scoff at my answer. This, quite frankly, offends me to no end.

How would they like it if, after announcing their progeny to me, I laughed at them, and said "poor you!" or "glad I'm not in your shoes!" - which is usually what I'm thinking.

So many idiots seem to feel that having a dog is nothing at all like having kids. I beg to differ. In many ways, it's identical. In others - correct, it's simply not at all comparable - being mommy to my doggie is actually much better, and far preferable, to possessing a litter of white apes.

Sigh. I can understand the predicament parents face. I understand fully why it's absolutely necessary that they delude themselves, constantly seeking to assure themselves & convince others that their kids are aMaZiN'!!! I get why they are obliged to spout rubbish about how grrrrr-eat! it is to have kids, while belittling me, with my dog. It's a psychological defense mechanism, pure and simple - without it, they'd be unable to continue living their miserable lives, and would likely commit suicide.

No one ever thinks anyone else's kids are all that cute, adorable, funny, or great. Being nice to another person's children is just something that adults do to maintain cordiality betwixt one another. Most people think that most people's kids are BRATS.

This being the case, nature has evolved to create the human brain such that one is able - no, one MUST, for the species' sake - remain able to tolerate one's own progeny for a number of years or decades. It's this evolutionarily-hard-wired species-continuance mechanism that is, in fact, springing into action, when people with white-ape children make fun of me & my dog.

Tsk.

Parents. A few of their brood may have been conceived accidentally. And isn't that white-ape litter the reason they're stuck in their shitty job, probably until the day they die? Isn't that why they're driving around in a 15-year-old car, have a wrecked house, no money in the bank, little free time for activities / pursuits of their own choosing, unable to take decent vacations, etc etc etc?

What really irks me, what drives me positively LIVID, is the belittling of the time, effort, level of care, and love that I have for my dog, and that I put in to ensuring the animal's quality of life. As if that effort were somehow not worthwhile, compared to the efforts & sacrifices made for white apes. Fuck that. Tell that shit to Lionel Dahmer.

The vast majority of parents do not really pause to consider, on a deeper level, just what implications their decision to beget progeny would have upon them, their lifestyle, and society, prior to spawning. Nope, most people procreate on a whim, as a result of mere feelings, or worst of all and sadly, often enough - as the result of "accidental" circumstance or impulsive behaviour. Faced with the consequences of their actions - spawn - collioquially, "kids"; and given that it's not (usually) really feasible (other than through abortion) to correct their mistake, what other choice do they have than to declare undying love for, loyalty to, and desire to please their offspring? It's the only way to justify the repercussions of their ill-thought-out actions and / or irresponsible behaviour. I have met only a very few people to-date in my life who've openly admitted to me that, if they could turn back the clock, they would never have had children in the first place.

Those are to be applauded for their honesty.

Sure, I know some people plan kids. That's great! I laud them! They're really happy with their babies, good for them. "Planned" is the operative word here. I respect their planned choice to have a child - if it makes them happy great, but that lifestyle choice wouldn't be for me. My choice was to adopt a dog. Having my dog makes me happy, as happy as you say you are with your kids, your white apes. Don't be a fucker and belittle MY choice, or imply that MY choice is somehow lesser than yours, because the small being in my custody is not of the same species as the small beings in yours. If you planned having kids, terrific! Be happy with that, but know that dosen't give you the right to sneer when I tell you I have a dog.

I like to try and be nice with people. I like to try and be friends with people. But it's difficult, when you're an unpopular opinionist. You learn to keep your unpopular opinions to yourself, except for maybe, expressing them on a blog that nobody ever reads.

Humans are dumb, conformist, pack animals, just like dogs are. They don't like to accept others who are different from the majority of the pack. I learnt this many, many years ago. I've lived with ostricization in the past, nowadays, I merely play along with the stupids. I agree with their idiotic mainstream ideas. I give the correct answers to questions, even when they're not really what I believe. I walk around with a stupid, fake grin on my face (nobody can tell the difference) to appease the stupids. AND IT WORKS. And then, I come and post here, on my blog, about my real feelings. I rather enjoy playing the games of society - they can be fun, as long as I have my secret mind and heart in which to keep alive the real me. It's a win/win situation. The stupids are easy to manipulate when you understand the game.

I find toddlers irritating, I find children irritating. I'm being brutally honest, I assure you. Whenever I see some poor girl at the store, at the post office, or anyplace; struggling with an oversized stroller containing a snot-nosed, screeching (or not) toddler-brat; my first thought after an initial feeling of disgust is "thank God I'm not her". No, no, no. I don't like children at all, really. I don't want one of those, no thanks. I looovve my childless lifestyle. Not having kids rules, see how quickly we were able to pay off our mortgage? I looove the fabulous vacations we take to far-off tropical islands, the Caribbean, partying all night with other child-free-by-choice couples (because resorts at beautiful destinations are crawling with these). I have money in the bank, I'm gonna get a new SUV. I buy whatever I want, when I want it, I hold down a cool job, and people are envious of me. I feel really good about that, the responsible decisions we've made will serve us well going forward, kids or no kids. How many parents can say THAT?

I have a large, extended family whom I love to death. I am so blessed that way. I have all kinds of love in my life, and more friends than I can count or name. I am never alone, except when I choose to be. I think I have a pretty great lifestyle.

I once posted a question to Yahoo! Answers, regarding screeching brats. The question was purposefully somewhat-inflammatory. Nonetheless, I would be lying if I didn't admit that there are times in my life when I really did feel as vicious towards parents-of-progeny as the question implies.

I have no kids. I have no kids! Yippee!

I love my dog with all my heart. She is my baby. My child-free-by-choice baby. I'm going out to adopt another dog right now. Get yourself one, too. Don't spawn progeny you won't care about as much as you pretend to. See you at the SPCA!

Jaqueline Saburido & Reggie Stephey

2008-10-24T08:09:00.005-04:00

I'm quite certain this particular article isn't going to win me any new friends, but maybe it'll influence a few people. My blog isn't called The Unpopular Opinionist for no reason.

Jaqueline Saburido.

It's horrifically tragic what happened to that girl.

BUT: and this is where I alienate myself from the herd - it's EQUALLY tragic what happened to the driver who hit her.

I'm very sorry for Jaqueline, but I'm just as sorry for the young man who caused the accident which led to Jaqueline's scarring, disfigurement, and subsequent suffering.

Jaqueline has received much sympathy. She has received support, counselling, medical care; and has been literally made into a poster girl for anti-drunk-driving campaigners, most notably: MADD. Fine, if she wants to do that, and if she somehow can benefit. However: the young man who caused the accident, what of him?

He deserves just as much sympathy as Jaqueline is receiving.

I might donate money to Jaqueline - to help cover her medical expenses & bills - but I'm not really sure whether she really needs my donation at this point. MADD, being heavily involved in her case, and having usurped the tragedy to use for their own ends and in order to promote their own, prohibitionist agenda - I'm assuming they're also compensating her handsomely? Paying for her medical expenses, at the minimum? If they aren't, something is very, very wrong.

Who is looking after the interests of Reggie Stephey, the young man who caused the accident? As I said, he also deserves sympathy. Which pseudo-charity will come to Stephey's rescue?

Who will collect donations on behalf of this young man, in order to make up for the fact that his life has been ruined by one senseless, thoughtless, decision he made one fateful night? One too many beers before hitting the road in his truck - what was he, 18? 19 at the time of the accident? 18 and 19 year olds make stupid mistakes.

My sympathy for Stephey might seem somewhat out of character - I'm a huge proponent of personal accountability and responsibility - but Stephey was barely an adult when the tragedy with Saburido occurred. This does not justify what he did, but nonetheless, neither does he deserve to be drawn & quartered.

I dunno. Just my opinion, at the moment.

Culled From The Herd

2008-10-22T08:13:00.006-04:00

Found this oddball and slightly creepy site, whilst using StumbleUpon.

I've already addressed the subject of obscure minority groups and voiced my opinion about them. The oddball & creepy site I found is the perfect example of yet another minority wanting his /her /their particular cause & condition brought to the forefront and placed ahead of the well-being of mainstream society.

After reading the site a few times, I was going to leave the following comment :

"After hogs & other livestock have been slaughtered, USDA food Inspectors carefully examine each carcass for signs of infection and / or disease. Animals who had been ill, for example, with Tuberculosis, are tagged “unfit” (for consumption) and their carcasses are (hopefully & usually) barred from entry into our food supply. Consider yourself the human equivalent of this Tubercular pork, and think of the US Customs agents who barred your entry into the country as USDA food Inspectors. You have been culled from the herd as unfit meat."

but then I thought, why bother? I'll keep my opinions to myself, here on my own personal blog. I may be an unpopular opinionist, however, I still don't believe in hurting others unnecessarily, or directly provoking them to offense. It's not the right thing to do - if people want to live in a fantasy world and believe the sky is sugarcanes & lollipops, and if those fantasies help them cope with life, so be it and good for them.

Maybe I just feel sorry for the individual involved in this particular case - because I've left dozens of inciteful insights as commentary on various articles all around the Internet. Meh, whatever, maybe I'm just having a good day.

Whatever, anyway... I LOL'd when I was typing the comment out.

There's a word we use to describe those who have shunned from society due to health issues - LEPERS. AIDS cases are the new lepers of society.

I think it all depends on how exactly a person contracted the AIDS virus, on whether or not they ought to receive any sympathy for their condition. Folks who've behaved irresponsibly and who have brought their misfortune upon themselves ought not be coddled, but rather, given a kick in the pants and told to man up & accept the consequences of their actions. Innocent victims, on the other hand, do deserve extra-special care. Just my opinion on the subject.

Like this gem of a responsible young woman and AIDS-case, operating her own "Cyberbeggar" website, hand extended for donations (BTW, did you notice that the guy or girl from the slightly oddball, creepy website; was ALSO looking for a donationary handout? "Click here to donate" and all of that?). Miss Cyberbeggar claims she was cheating on her husband, and that "I didn't know HIV could be transmitted in woman-to-woman sex. It was." as justification for her ailment, and is seeking support & sympathy for the horrible situation she now finds herself in, and which she brought upon herself. It drives me positively livid, the stupidity & irresponsibility. Again, I re-iterate: culling from the herd, nothing more than that is occurring here. Something akin to a regular Darwin award is taking place, and I say we let nature & evolution run their course.

Sorry, but I personally don't want anything to do with many AIDS cases, such as people as I've mentioned above. They can rot away & die for all I care, let's save the expensive AIDS drugs for people who really deserve to get them, who contracted the disease through no fault of their own and who are merely victims of unfortunate or terrible circumstance. There are plenty of people like that in the world, they deserve to get the meds first.

That is all. Now, please make a donation to me. I don't really deserve it, but I could always use some extra money. Thanks!

October

2008-10-20T13:01:00.008-04:00

The month of October.

When October rolls around; the harvest comes in. The fruits of a summer's labour are realized, and thereafter, life begins slowly dying out, shutting down for the winter. Fittingly, Halloween & The Day of the Dead (All Soul's Day) arrive at month-end to remind us of our own mortality.

Mortgage-Free Living

2008-10-10T01:11:00.011-04:00

It's official: I NO LONGER HAVE A MORTGAGE!!! Yippee!

My husband & I have just finished making the FINAL payments on OUR home. October 3rd, 2008, was the day we officially FINISHED paying off our ENTIRE home mortgage, every last penny. Hooray, hooray, hooray!

What with the horrible economic situation going on in the world at present - US financial collapse & bail-out, ever-increasing prices of basic necessities such as food & gasoline, the threat of global recession; my husband & I absolutely could not be happier, more content, or feel more secure in our financial situation than we do right now.

We had been planning from the get-go, right from the start of purchasing our house, to pay off our mortgage ASAP, fast, quickly and post-haste. Now, that day has finally been realized, and boy does it feel GOOD! No more sucky mortgage payments, our home is entirely OURS to enjoy! Wonderful. Thank goodness we hatched a quick-mortgage-payoff plan from the start - I can't imagine how stressed-out I'd be in times like these, if we still had the crushing mortgage debt hanging over our heads.

It took us a total of six years, one month, to pay the sucker down. I'm 31 years old, and my husband is 32. We recently had our home evaluated by a Real Estate professional, and she guessed it's approximate market value at present to be around $250,000.00. A 250k asset, entirely in our names. Nothing exorbitant, I'm aware, but our home is comfortable, and provides us with secure living.

It's entirely possible that, given the current economic climate, our home may depreciate somewhat in value - hey, that's normal, given the current possibility of recession. Still, we stand to have made money no matter what. We originally purchased the house for $130,000.00 six years ago. Our house would have to lose a fairly significant portion of its market value, in order for us to lose money on the deal. We've already made over $100K. Suh-weet.

Our home is currently only 6 years old. The house we bought was actually a brand-new construction (contributing directly, therefore, to national GDP - thanks ECON 201, even though I failed that fucking course). We really like having a new house. We know there are no major foundation cracks, the windows & doors are all new, the roof won't need replacing for at least another few years, etc etc etc. The peace of mind of living in a mortgage-free, NEW home, is simply wonderful - I really do believe that NEW HOMES are the way to go, for any young couple thinking about buying.

I really don't feel that we've done anything all that special, in succeeding in paying off our mortgage in it's entirety in 6 years, 1 month's time. My husband is, and always has been, far more excited about the accomplishment - which I really don't see as anything special at all. From listening to other people talk about their finances, and from what I've heard through various sources, it does appear that my husband & I are somewhat of an anomaly. It seems as though it's "normal" to stretch out mortgage-having over decades of time, with many people / families opting for this, rather than the quick pay-down my husband & I opted for. Cripes. Why?

In addition to paying off our mortgage, over the past six years (and one month) that we have had mortgage payments, I can't really claim that my husband and I have ever really deprived ourselves of anything, at the expense of paying the house off quickly. For each of the past six years, for example, we've been able to take lovely vacations to the Caribbean (Cuba) on a yearly basis. We've dined out in restaurants regularly - decent restaurants, with nice food & meals & wine, etc. We've gone out to local shows on Saturday nights. We've been able to continue "renovations" upon our new home, such as finishing the house's basement with floating floors, ceramic tile, a second full bathroom, an extra bedroom, and a wood-burning stove (SO pleasant during wintertime!). We've been able to purchase furniture, household appliances, electronics such as a flat-screen plasma TV with satellite package, desktop & laptop computers, and other things. We've been able to make some improvements to our property, such as installation of a backyard gazebo, and planting a cedar hedge around the perimeter of our backyard. Next year, we may start to think about getting a pool (I want in-ground!). Walking through my house, I can honestly say that there isn't ONE single item here that isn't paid for in full, owned, and entirely belonging to us, OURS.

Is that weird? Am I rich, or something?

I don't usually like to mention the fact that I don't have a mortgage. Okay, so NOT having a mortgage is a relatively recent thing for me - what I mean to say is, that even over the past two years or so, I never used to like mentioning to other people the fact that my mortgage was going to be paid off in full in only two more years' time. NOWADAYS I don't really like mentioning the fact that I don't have a mortgage anymore. Yeah, that's more accurate. I dunno, it just feels weird. I was talking to a guy at work one time - a very nice fellow who I like alot, in his mid-to-late forties, a family man - and during the conversation the topic of mortgages came up. He mentioned that he was in no rush to pay off his mortgage, and would be doing so slowly over the course of the next 10 years. Well, great for him, if he can live with that. I'm 31, and my mortgage is finished.

It feels weird. I have no mortgage, and NO other debt. The only real debt incumbant upon our household at present, is a $20,000.00 loan that my husband took out in order to purchase a newer-model SUV. That was his dream - he really wanted this SUV, a Jeep, and he wanted to purchase it after the mortgage had been paid in full. Well, now it is, and now he has. It's a cool truck, I love riding in it and driving it, and am thinking about maybe purchasing an SUV of my own. But two SUV's in one household might be a bit much. It's weird having no mortgage - I still feel like I have to make responsible financial decisions, rather than piss my money away on stupidities. You have to be so careful what you do with your money.

Aside from the SUV loan, we have no other debt, and that really feels great. I personally owe less than $100.00, combined, on the two credit cards that I use & maintain. I'll take care of paying that off with my next paycheque, due next week. I'm not really sure what my husband's credit cards may be like, but it's low, that's for sure. He will also be clearing his debts I think next pay, or wait - by the end of the month maybe, is what he told me. Whatever. I'm not ever worried about it.

My husband & I both work full-time, we have jobs both at the same company. Neither of us have University degrees - personally, not having a degree is a source of shame for me - combined with the fact that I failed ECON 201, which I attempted to take in pursuit of higher education. I guess maybe I'm not so scholastic. I've been working at the same company, in basically the same job, for the past 11 years. My husband is the same.

I don't particularly LOVE my job, but I'm finding lately, that I'm starting to enjoy work more than I ever have in the past. To be quite honest, I've simply quit taking anything that goes on there very seriously, whereas in the past, different work-related occurrances in my life used to stress me out terribly. I guess, with no longer having a mortgage, I sort of feel that meh, even if I lose my job, I can always find another one - at this point, even working at Wal-Mart would provide sufficient income to cover our bills. The worst for me was, like 4 or 5 years ago, with the new house & mortgage, where I HAD to drag my ass in to work every morning, to get the money to pay for it. No choice in the matter at all, no recourse, no being able to say "fuck this shit, I QUIT", etc. But I did it, and my husband did too, and it all seems to have been worth it now. I'm not really afraid of being laid-off or fired - I can't really be fired from my sinecure, and a lay-off is unlikely for someone with my level of seniority. My husband & I both belong to a labour union. Being unionized rocks. Yeah! I really do find myself smiling, joking, and laughing more than ever before at work now. I really feel like whatever happens, happens, whereas before I would take things very seriously and be gloomy if the company wasn't doing well... if I lost my job, I guess, I was also worried about losing my home as well, due not being able to make the payments! I can't imagine how it must be for people who live their entire lives in that place, people who drag out their mortgages over decades (as my parents did - but their situation was different).

Being mortgage-free is the way to go. Don't drag your mortgage out for years and decades, that will only serve to line the pockets of bankers. Pay the fucker off STAT, and you'll have years where you can enjoy a mortgage-free salary or income.

So I suck ass as economics (ECON 201 = FAIL, me). Still, I can offer the following advice, and this is how Hubby & I became mortgage-free in 6 years, 1 month, when neither of us were born into any kind of money (parents are hundredaires), and when both of us have very normal, workaday, habitant-type of jobs. Pay attention. If you want sound financial advice, take it from me, 31 years old and mortgage free (hey, that rhymes!)!!!

Credit cards. They suck ass. Don't use 'em. If you MUST use (a) credit card(s), do so sparingly, and pay off the entire balance each month. This is what Hunny & I did consistantly. We were able to do this mainly because:

LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS. Do not spend money you don't have. Hunny & I are BIG proponents of CASH-ONLY living. If we couldn't afford to pay for it immediately, cash, we never bought it to begin with, hence the no-credit-card-debt thing.

Make supplementary payments towards your mortgage each year. Lump-sum payments. Hunny & I payed down an average of nearly $10,000.00 extra per year, over and above our regular monthly mortgage payments, towards our mortgage principal, for each year that we had a mortgage. This reduced our interest payments significantly, as well as shortened the life of our mortgage, allowing us to pay it off in full in only 6 years, 1 month's time.

SAVE. This cannot be repeated enough, save your money. When you receive your paycheque, SAVE FIRST, then budget for expenses. At my very best, highest-rev level of savings, I was putting $1,000.00 a month aside from my pay for SAVINGS purposes only, and was not spending the money at all, except at the end of the year to put lump-sum payments against the mortgage. I recommend that anyone do the same. If you can make lump-sum mortgage payments, your mortgage will be paid off all the quicker. Plus which, that $1,000.00 a month saved was great to have and nice to be able to draw from, for yearly Cuban trips. Now that my mortgage has been paid off in full, I fully intend to continue my savings plan, $1,000.00 per month, to rebuild my finances in a short amount of time.

Old cars. Hubby & I were driving old-ass, shitbox cars, during the life of our mortgage. What this meant was that we had ZERO car payments, only the cost of insurance, repairs, and gasoline, during the time we were hammering the mortgage down. Yeah, maybe certain people scoffed and thought we looked like losers, arriving to work in my decrepit looking Tercel, but who gives a rat's ass, and we sure the hell don't FEEL like losers now. Who needs fancy cars? The Tercel did the job, and we are now mortgage-free, so Hunny splurged on his dream SUV. HAHAHA! And, I still have my Tercel for now, and am only starting to think about upgrading it. Old cars rule, they rock when it comes to hammering down a mortgage, and will save you thousands of dollars you can put towards your home, rather than a stupid vehicle.

Purchasing a NEW house, rather than a re-sale home. This is significant, because we've had no major structural repairs to perform on the house to-date; with the only renovations we've undertaken being towards the completion of our basement living space, as previously mentioned. The roof, foundation, windows & doors, wiring, flooring, etc. are all up-to-date and up to code. This allowed us to devote more of our income to paying down the mortgage, rather than repairing our home.

Controlling our spending. Our home is far from perfect, and we like it that way just fine. We don't have all the latest furniture, and there are a few issues with various things in our home that we've simply chosen to accept & live with until now, as a compromise towards being able to hammer down the mortgage all the sooner. The blind in our master bedroom, for example, is ripped, and has been such for some time, holding together with tape. Our fridge & stove, as well as our dining room set, are all second-hand items which are at least a decade old. Much of our furniture is actually second-hand, although main pieces such as our living room couches were purchased new. Now that our mortgage is paid, after we rebuild our finances (cash), we will start to think about replacing or upgrading some things inside our home. We elected to control our spending by purchasing second-hand furniture and appliances for our home where possible, in order to save some money, and this worked out well in that it helped us to pay off our mortgage all the sooner.

NOT using lines of credit or personal loans. Again, we operate on a cash-only basis. When we first moved in to our home, my husband & I each contributed $500.00, for a total of $1,000.00, towards the opening of our joint bank account; and these combined funds provided (and still continue to provide) us with a small "emergency overdraft" balance which we could and can use, in the event we were over-budget one month. This overdraft protection remained constant in our joint account the entire time we had our mortgage, and we would then contribute monthly expense funds to the joint account over and above the cushion every month, to cover regular spending. During the entire time we had our mortgage, I can't ever remember being significantly over-budget. However, the couple of times we were, our small cushion really helped. We replenished the cushion, after eating into it, as soon as we were able to do so. It's nice to know that the cushion is there, even though through careful budgeting, it's seldom used. Having & maintaining this cushion sure beats paying overdraft fees to the bank.

Hmmm, what else? Well, that's essentially it, I guess. Our formula for financial success. Anyone can do it, the problem is, that most people are too greedy, too want-it-now, to lazy-ass and too unaware of the REAL costs of paying interest, and can't be bothered to sit down and think things out from the get-go like Hunny & I did. So sad.

It feels great!~ I'm now working for cash only! No more mortgage payments, yippee!!!

Here's a link to an article from Canadian Living magazine about another Canadian couple who also scrimped, saved, and struggled to pay off their mortgage quickly, as we did. They are also now feeling financially secure, as we do, and our hats go off to them! It does seem that the couple in the article deprived themselves somewhat more than we had to, in order to accomplish the early-mortgage-payoff feat, however they have two children whereas Hunny & I have only the dog & cat to think of as dependents. Irregardless, it's nice to know there are some other Canadians out there who are also reaping the benefits of a mortgage-free lifestyle at a relatively young age. Imagine if everyone could accomplish this. I don't believe the US economic collapse would have occurred, or perhaps occurred to the extent it did, if only more people & families made responsible financial decisions.

Olympics

2008-10-09T12:26:00.002-04:00

Canadian athletics programs need to rise up on-par with third-world standards; if Canada ever wants to show its face again in a future Olympics stadium.

Let's face it - Canada simply cannot compete on the world stage beside great athletes from nations of the third-world.

Canadian athletes are sub-par compared with greats from Blambanistan, Ethniclashistan, or Uzbehkihistan.

Third-world nations have the coaching, athletic programs, facilities, and financial resources in place; along with the drive and motivation to encourage athletes to excel at their sports, doing their nations proud and bringing home fistfuls of medals.

Nations like Canada simply cannot compete with mighty third-world powerhouses, and we need to realize this fact.

Until Canadian athletics programs are able to rise up to par with third-world standards; Canada will continue to degrade itself as an underachieving nation in Olympic sport.

22Aug08: I just checked the current medal standings.

Canada is now tied with Cuba for 12th place overall, with both nations having picked up a total of 16 medals of assorted flavours at the games.

Considering that first-world Canada has a population of 33 million, whereas third-world Cuba's population is only 11 million; something definitely seems amiss.

Again, I must re-iterate: Canada desperately needs to drag it's athletics program standards up to third-world levels, else continue to embarrass itself upon the world stage.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Now THAT'S what I call GUTS!

"Eric The Eel" representing Equatorial Guinea on the world stage! Swimming with his best effort in the same pool as swimming greats from the first world! Bringing pride to his nation, showing the world that Equatorial Guinea can contend along with the very best!

No matter how long it took him, he FINISHED that race!

How he did his nation proud! GO EQUATORIAL GUINEA!

Ferret On The Bus

2008-10-09T12:25:00.003-04:00

I was just reading this article about allowing this one lady to take her ferret with her to ride on the bus.

I can't believe the number of idiots protesting it. Protesting a ferret.

Oh, for cripes' sakes people; quit whining.

Some asswipes have busted out the ole "allergies" ruse as an anti-ferret argument. Surprize, dipshits! There are more allergens floating about in the general outdoors at any given time, than on a single bus with a tiny little "special" ferret passenger. If these peoples' "allergies" are soooo severe, how I wish they would please arrange to hermetically seal themselves inside of their homes, or better yet, coffins, to protect themselves - and us - and ferrets.

If you're riding the municipal bus system, believe me, ferret germs are the LEAST of your worries.

As to the "cleanliness of the animal issue", I'll bet money that that ferret is undoubtedly far cleaner, sweeter, and better-smelling; as well as far more pleasant to look at; than 99.9% of the people riding on the bus system. For instance, I personally would MUCH rather share my bed with a soft, warm, cozy ferret that I saw riding on the bus; than with any other human co-passenger I saw on the bus.

Some lady wrote: " ... the day animals are allowed on public transportation is the day I'll stop using it", great, is that a promise? I'm going out to buy myself five ferrets right now. See you at the next bus stop, lady, my ferrets will be together in a soft cloth sack - hopefully, a sack will also be over your face.

It really irks me how people are so intolerant of animals. Animals rule. Humans are on earth to be custodians of all other members of the animal kingdom. Dogs, rats, ferrets. Everyone should own a pet, and pets should be allowed everywhere. I have a dog, and it really irritates me when there's a nice nature trail, or path someplace, but I can't use it because DOGS aren't allowed! Most of the time, I say fuck that shit, and the dog goes anyway:

My dog is important to me, more important than stupid human rules are. I've carried my dog into shopping malls, Wal-Mart, hardware stores, restaurants and the like. My dog is better-behaved than most people's children, so they just have to suck it up. When I see a screaming brat, I feel like telling the mother, "get an abortion next time". If brats can be everywhere, so can my dog.

And so can that ferret.

Patrick Deuel: Half-Ton Man

2008-08-06T09:55:00.015-04:00

Just viewed the documentary, "Half-Ton Man"; featuring the disgustingly obese human manatee named Patrick Deuel.

Viewing the documentary leaves one with the impression that not only is Deuel physically repulsive due to his grossly overinflated bodyweight; he is also an obnoxious and unpleasant individual personality-wise. The filmmakers were able to capture the essence of Deuel's horrid personality on film, undoubtedly an unintended side-effect which Deuel probably never figured would shine through when he agreed to make the film.

Some choice examples? Watch the documentary, paying special attention at times:

07:40: - Deuel belches loudly & shamelessly, interrupting his wife, who is speaking to the camera. Touch of class.

14:48: - Addressing the issue of how he blew up to such grotesque physical proportions by gorging on food, Deuel announces that the "easiest way in the world to alienate me is to tell me not to do something". There is a pause, then he adds, "I'll rip you to shreds." Yeah, okay, whatever that means. Deuel's announcement is meant to justify the reason why Deuel's wife just kept bringing him food and bringing him food, as he continued to increase in weight. Frankly, I felt totally uncomfortable after hearing Deuel's proclamation, and disgusted by the self-image Deuel revealed. It's as if he's trying to come across as a bad-ass, but how bad-ass can you be when you're too fat to leave your house, too fat to leave your bed? "Rip you to shreds"? Impossible, farcical, and when you weigh so much you can barely move, it's probably best not to alienate others, especially those close to you and who physically care for you, by threatening to "rip them to shreds" if you don't get your way or your next extra-jumbo pizza. Deuel obviously does not even realize this, proving how deluded he is. Deuel's wife is another matter altogether, why anyone would allow themselves to be manipulated the way Deuel purports to be able to is utterly ridiculous. Deuel & his wife have basically copped-out of the reporter's question, and Deuel's "alienation" and "rip to shreds" commentary are totally silly.

15:47: - Deuel provides an obnoxious, condescending, and totally false answer to the reporter's question regarding the volume of food he was eating at his heaviest. We can see that Deuel is lying, even as he drones in his obnoxious, whiny voice, by cutover shots to his home's filthy, junk-food-ridden kitchen, empty soda cases, and trashcans overflowing with empty wrappers and extra-jumbo pizza boxes. "That wasn't the deal!" Deuel announces in a sing-song whiny tone. The reporter is too polite to contradict Deuel, confident that the cutover shots in the final documentary will serve as proof's pudding.

Seems I'm not the only one to come away from the documentary with a negative impression of Deuel - have a look at some of the other docu-watchers' comments on a YouTube page hosting another Deuel video.

Other points to add:

08:43: - Deuel's wife claims part of the reason she married him was due his "fun-loving personality". Cripes, How much fun can this dude be having in life, if he's too fat to leave the house?

16:06: - Deuel claims his obese condition is due to genetics, "not volume" of food being eaten. Yeah, and I'm Miss Congeniality, as well. This right after cutaway shots showing empty pizza boxes and soda cases overflowing the kitchen of the Deuel household.

As if being disgustingly obese weren't enough of a risk to his health, Patrick is also a smoker (as seen in the documentary at 07:57). Don't get me wrong, I've been known to enjoy a good smoke from time to time myself (Cuban cigarittos are my favorite), but I don't ALSO weight 1/2 a ton.

Gross.

My Cat Is Evil

2008-07-23T07:48:00.004-04:00

My cat is thriving. And evil.

Look into his eyes. Eyes are the windows of the soul. My cat's eyes are hard, cold, devoid of compassion. These are the eyes of a natural-born killer.

He is black in colour. Everyone knows, that black is the colour of evil.

At first, you might be tempted to believe that I personally brought this fiendish creature back with me, following one of my regular journeys to Hades to consort with Satan & his demonic children. After all - what better harbour and haven for such an accursed being than at the right hand of Satan himself? Although it might come foremost to your mind, you would be oh, so, wrong, in that assumption. Rather - his company in my domicile came about via an only slightly less diabolical medium - the Internet. You see, my evil cat was discovered outside, last winter, stray shivering and alone, in a shed on a minus 40 degree night. Punishment by God, perhaps, for evil misdeeds? Who can say. A kind lady rescued him, and brought him to the sanctuary of her home. At that time, my previous cat was dying, at the tender age of four, of incureable cancer. Incureable cancer, at the feline equivilent of 30 years of age? Doubtless proof of God's sheer hatred of these beings - but I digress. Petfinder, agent of Satan that it is, allowed me to seek out a replacement familiar for my household. And there you have it.

My cat is the most muscular cat the vetrinarian has ever seen. We call him the "Arnold Schwartzenegger" of cats. In keeping with the Arnie theme, he is now nicknamed "The Terminator" due to his efficiency as a killing machine. He is lethal to small creatures of every kind. He has brought home dead frogs, toads, moles, voles, mice, rats, birds, and one time, he came into the house with a dead rabbit dangling from his mouth, which he proudly proceeded to carry into our living room despite my screams, and deposit behind the La-Z-Boy. A blood and virgin sacrifice to his keepers. After futile attempts at resucitation, the poor dear innocent murdered creature was wrapped in a clean cloth and given a solemn burial in the backyard behind the shed... as the Evil One, close by among the hedges, looked on, admiring his handiwork. I don't think it's appropriate for serial killers to attend the funerals of their victims. Furthermore, while I'm opposed to the idea of the backyard becoming a cemetary, what am I to do with the tiny corpses? I'm sensitive, perhaps, but a ziploc bag and the trash can on garbage day hardly seems proper.

This article, which I discovered on the Internet, elaborates on the pure evilness of cats. I've taken the liberty of pulling some outtakes from the full article, which I suggest should be read in its entirety, in order that these quotes be fully understood in thier complete (crackpot) context.

"To invite cats in our house is to toy with disaster."

Most definately. $3,000.00 for two La-Z-Boys, and he uses them as scratching posts.

"black cats bring ill-luck and possess demonic forces."

Well, I still haven't won the lottery (although it might help if I actually PLAYED). How fortunate that it's CATS which possess demonic forces, and NOT the other way around... I mean, have you ever seen "The Exorcist"? Being POSSESSED BY demonic forces is whacked, man, but I don't know how scary that movie would have been if the little girl, instead, had possessed the demons. What would she have done, made them play with dolls?

"While the animal itself may be unaware of this tragic condition,
it serves only its true master - Satan."

Not true. It's a well-known fact that cats care only about themselves. That's why they don't come when you call. That's why you can't train them, the way you train dogs. You'd think the prince of darkness would know better!

"cats practice many unclean habits [...]"

"[...] Coughing up fur balls, licking inappropriate body areas on their own bodies [...] urination on the floor, vocal and blatant promiscuity (unknown to any other species, all others being endowed with Godly chastity and decorum) and widespread sexual misconduct without the benefit or sanctity of holy matrimony [...] substance abuse of catnip [...]"

Holy matrimony, bleh, who needs it? And substance abuse rules. Go kitty. As to the "urniation on the floor..", well, that sometimes happens, if you've been abusing substances.

"[Cats engage in] consumption of the undrained corpses of the victims
of this nocturnal creature; eating bodies filled with [...] sacred blood [...]"

Mmmm. Sounds like an accurate description of the juicy steak I had for dinner.

"Would it be proper to hand over such a creature of Satan to a person of the world?"

Most definitely. He's evil. Go, kitty.

Look at his demonic EYES! THE HORROR!

Evil lurks at home...

Evil rests with maw agape!

Movie one featuring the demon at home enjoying disco music!

...Or movie two featuring the demon stuck in the basement ceiling!

...Or movie three featuring the demon and his friend!

Review Of A Terrible Movie: "Batman, The Dark Knight"

2008-07-22T13:42:00.011-04:00

(NOTE: I realize this review is somewhat vague. I love horrible movies, and as soon as this piece of crap comes out on DVD, or as soon as I can download a pirated version off The Pirate Bay, I'll be re-watching the film, and re-writing this review, detailing in extremis precisely where the film fails, and why I think it sucks so badly. Till then. Enjoy this small review).

I did not enjoy Batman: The Dark Knight.

Here is a photo of the ONE thing I enjoyed, about the entire movie:

Batman: The Dark Knight was way overhyped.

Imagine the card game "Pickup 52". The deck falls, cards flutter to the ground. As they begin to settle, a lone Joker card facing up, comes to rest on top of the messy heap. The analogy aptly summarizes the heap o' crap currently playing in theaters, named "Batman, The Dark Knight".

As with the emperor's beautiful new wardrobe, very few dare admit the truth: this movie sucks ass. In our cinematic game of "Pickup 52", the only other cards visible below our Joker are all spades, and I commend the few, brave, critics who've called the movie out as such; crapfest that it is.

Unless you really really want to see Heath Ledger as Joker (which was my main motivation for viewing the film), don't bother with it.

The performance of Heath Ledger as the Joker, was the *ONLY* good thing about the film. Joker is HAWT in every sense of the word. The movie was *ONLY* interesting, when the Joker was on-screen. Sadly, Joker was only on-screen for about 10 scenes, out of the entire movie.

As I recall, seemingly 75 - 80% of the entire movie consisted of ridiculous, boring discussions, rather than action. Discussions, or scenes, featuring secondary, even tertiary, pointless, useless, uninteresting characters, such as a police commissioner, "Alfred" the butler, Morgan Freeman, assorted "bad guys" not including Joker, Maggie Gyllanhall (or however you spell it), and the like.

Deeply convoluted, layer upon layer of various politics, policies, and procedures; meetings and intense discussions regarding goings-on in Gotham City from a legalistic perspective, take up a good chunk of the film. Moral debates rage. For example, there is a lawyer character in the movie, and the movie seemed to center as much around that fella and the police commissioner; as it did around Batman himself, or Joker for that matter. There were probably at least a dozen lengthy, boring, non-action scenes in the movie which centered around or featured some form of either a press conference, a speech at a microphone-topped podium, a workaday-esque meetings, or some other similarly excruciatingly boring and deeply convoluted storyline. Lawyers and politicians and tertiary characters feature prominently in the film, and the lack of action and emphasis on legalese, press-impressing political agendas became quite tiresome. Batman: The Dark Knight is as much a political thriller laced with levels of intrigue a la "JFK", as it is a "superhero" film.

I had been hoping to see quite a lot of action in a superhero movie. Sadly, as a result of the large amount of screen-time and plot-line devoted to all the intrigue and political goings-on, action was desperately lacking. Main characters, like the Joker, seemingly took a backseat.

What few action scenes were actually included, were unconvincing, unsatisfying, and anti-climatically presented. Most of what could have been them most exciting action in the film actually ended up taking place off-camera, and was merely mentioned as having had occurred or happened, in the next political soliloquy, press conference, or meeting shown as part of the film. During the action sequences, there were far too many extreme-closeups, or tight shots of characters a la "Rollerball", preventing us as the audience from actually witnessing whatever was finally going down. We never saw how characters got where they were or accomplished what they did. The audience is left to guess, for example, precisely how it was that Joker plans and manages to break into Bruce Wayne's social gathering, plant bombs in a hospital, stage a kidnapping, and escape from police custody - all of which could have been some of the best parts of the film. What could have been the most exciting parts of the movie are completely skipped over and never shown. A real shame.

Heath Ledger SHOULD win a posthumous Oscar for his dedication to acting. How sad to think that he gave so much to the character he portrayed in this movie, that it ended up killing him. Ledger did an excellent job. The movie simply doesn't live up to his level of dedication, and almost makes a mockery of his performance through it's sheer suckiness. Imagine Chopin or Beethoven performing in an elementary-school Christmas concert featuring grade five students. A waste of talent.

Download a copy of the film off The Pirate Bay, if you really feel you must devote time to seeing this movie.

Amusing

Yahoo! Answers

2008-07-22T13:37:00.001-04:00

Exhaustive searches of the Yahoo and Google search engines have successfully yielded archived posts of previous Yahoo! Answers postings by moi, Madame Morticia. Search engine archives are necessary, as I've had many, many of the accounts I used to post content on Yahoo! Answers suspended; due inciteful insights posted and likely flagged or reported by other users of the Yahoo! Answers site as "offensive commentary". Yahoo!'s censorship of the Answers site is random, arbitrary, and the subject of much debate as to inconsistent policies employed; as well as the ire of Yahoo! Answers users.

Once an account is suspended, it is impossible to view, within the Answers site, prior answers, questions, or commentary posted. Search engine archives then become necessary to resurrect content.

I both love and hate Yahoo! Answers at the same time. One takes the time to provide quality, interesting content to the Answers site; fodder for the internet, material which remains on the site and the internet apparently in perpetuity, and from which Yahoo! therefore continues to derive revenue through advertising, web traffic, and the like. Some of that content is even plagiarized onto other sites on the Internet, so it can't be all that bad! As thanks, Yahoo! suspends one's account seemingly on a whim or possibly, upon the tattletale-"flagging" of posts by other Answers users, making it impossible for one to review this content on the site, and rather having to rely on search engine archives. It is hypocrisy that Yahoo! suspends user accounts and access to the raw material one has created, contributed to their site; yet continues to benefit and profit from maintaining such content. But such is the business, moneymaking world, I suppose. If Yahoo! were really concerned with "offensiveness" of content, content and posts would be removed from the site altogether rather than left for search engines to archive, for Yahoo! to continue profiteering from.

On the upside, it's fun to answer questions!

Computer "Security"

2008-03-07T08:16:00.008-05:00

As part of my job function, it's necessary for me to gain access to a wide variety of password-protected websites and software systems.

Under each site or system, for the most part, I have a separate and disparate username and password.

It's very annoying to have to try and keep track of 30 different usernames. One for program x, another for y. A different one for here and another for there. When I arrive in to work each morning and fire up my computer, I immediately must remember at least two or three separate and disparate usernames and passwords; just to gain access to the computer and basic softwares I require in order to perform my job.

The icing on the cake, however; is that every three or four months or so, I'm "asked to change my password" on each of these systems or websites. It's not enough I have to track all 30 of my separate and disparate usernames, I also have to practically maintain a database of which-all password goes with which username on which system or site! AND, as the passwords are constantly changing, I'm having to spend a goodly amount of time updating my personal username / password database quite often.

Of course, there's no synchroneity betwixt any of these systems or websites with regards to when I'm asked to change my password; which means I could be being forced to "pick a new password" for something or other on an almost weekly, if not daily in some cases, basis. That means I have to cook up a new password of some sort, jump through all of the "password change" hoops on that particular site or system (which takes time in itself as I have to login, click here there and everywhere, "confirm" multiple times, etc etc); then perform database-maintenance in order to update my records to be able to remember the new password for next time.

As well, there's no synchroneity betwixt any of the passwords in use at any given time on any or all of the systems or sites that I must gain access to. You see, many of the systems and sites maintain their own records of which-all passwords I've used in the past; be it over the past year, six months, or whenever. The "security" system in place whereby I'm not permitted to recycle old passwords means I'm ever having to cook up new and ever-more-obscure secret words and codes to use as "passwords", further necessitating the use of a massive password-maintenance- database on my part. Not all of the systems or sites require that I not re-use old passwords, but some of them do. I can recycle old passwords only on the ones which don't.

Here's how I'm organized presently, with regards to all my different usernames and passwords. I maintain one file, a database, for personal-use passwords to websites and things like that. For work purposes, I have a small .html file which I use and maintain, with links to relevant websites and notes on usernames or logins, along with the current password for the account. On top of this, I also have information stored in my memory (brain), for yet other usernames and passwords to either sites or systems I need to gain access to, either for work or personal reasons.

Cripes, what a mess.

Certain passwords and usernames, i.e. for my online banking and money transfers, I've decided that I'm just simply NOT going to put down anyplace, either written or in digital form on some file. It's just too risky. I've resigned myself to the idea that remembering my logins and passwords for banking and financial sites will just have to be a lifelong necessity, akin to how I was taught to remember my full name, home address and phone number when I was a little girl (in case I got lost somewhere). Fine, I can live with that. But the rest? I'm certainly NOT going to start forcing myself to remember the usernames and passwords to all five "hotmail" accounts that I use. Yeah, and the sixteen different Yahoo! Answers accounts I maintain (because their stupid rules about what you can and can't post on Y!A keep getting my ass banned). And whatever other sites I visit and register to, sign up for, or am required to gain access to in order to perform my job function and thus, earn my livelihood. I simply don't have enough space in my brain, to be able to remember all of that.

Hence, my use of little "databases" and .html files, for storing username and password information.

This brings to the forefront a very interesting question. Are computer systems really all that more secure, for all their old-password-remembering and constant requesting that you change your password?

I really don't think so.

If some hacker finds my little .html file, with usernames and passwords to all the websites I access for work purposes; that will be quite the little treat now won't it? Likewise, if a hacker discovers my other, personal-password, database file; that hacker will be able to immediately gain access to all manner of fun stuff!

I use the word "hacker" above, however; I could easily substitute "co-worker", "friend", "enemy", or "little brother", now couldn't I? The result would be the same.

The point is, in this day and age of being beset by so many different requirements to gain access to computer systems and sites, NOBODY can possibly remember what-all they need to get in to everything. A new security hole is emerging, whereby in writing things down and recording everything electronically, all a person need do is gain access to ONE or TWO (normally NOT password-protected) files, in order to suddenly gain access to a plethora of things they normally shouldn't be able to. Ta-da!

Furthermore, what-all on all of these different websites, and what-all in all of these different systems, is SO secret and SO important, that it's absolutely necessary that I change my password every couple of months or so? I mean, the stuff I use for work - some of it is not really what I'd call top-secret. So what if someone other than "authorized users" discovers that ABC Inc. charges $6.00/ea for widgets? Who gives a rat's ass? Is the price of a six-dollar widget really so sensitive that it must be protected by the highest level of computer security implementable? Does my ability to perform X function in program 1234 really necessitate safeguarding my ability to perform it (when dozens of other employees ALSO can do the same) with a history of the past five years' passwords used to access my account on the system? I really don't think so. In my opinion, it's all overblown, what-all security measures are in place nowadays ostensibly to "protect sensitive data" and "restrict access" to information and things that aren't really in my opinion all that important.

It's not like I work for CSIS, or NASA, or even in an industry where it's important to safeguard confidential data. The only "confidential data" I ever come across at work is that widgets cost six dollars each. Big deal.

The reason we have all these security measures in place now, is because somewhere, some consultant and / or programmer has been paid big bucks to cook up the tightest level of security imaginable, and then sold that level of security to all kinds of places and corporations where it wasn't required in the first place. That level of security then became "industry standard", and annoyingly is in place almost everywhere nowadays. What are we protecting? Is it really that sensitive? How arrogant to believe the price of widgets is so important in the world. Who even gives a rat's ass? I once social engineered a guy I met online into giving me the password to be able to access his "Hotmail" account. It was really just to see if I could do it - get his password off of him, I mean, and I did it in the cheesiest, simplest way imaginable. The idea of hijacking this guy's password came to me when he first mentioned he was having trouble with his Hotmail account. I very quickly logged in to Hotmail, and created a brand-new email account that I named "hotmailhelp63@hotmail.com", or something of that nature - then I told the guy that he had to email his hotmail username AND password to "hotmailhelp63@hotmail.com" in order for them to fix the problem. Unbelievably, the fellow fell for it. It was rather evil of me, and I did feel bad, so much so that once I had the password, I never even bothered to use it to log in to his account. I simply lost interest, felt bad, and decided that I just simply didn't care to see what idiotic messages he'd been sending and receiving on Hotmail, or what pr0n sites he was subscribed to the mailing lists of. It just wasn't that important to me, I didn't care one way or another. The same probably goes for all kinds of data, systems, or sites. Another time, I used a password-cracking software to gain access to a file I found on a shared drive at work, just because I was curious to see what-all was SOOOO important that it had to be kept secret. There was nothing at all interesting within the file, and likely, I'd not even have bothered glancing at the file anyway out of sheer disinterest, except for the fact it was password-protected in the first place; suddenly making it out as an object of my curiosity. Ironic, no?

I wish I had ONE username and ONE password for everything. That would be so much easier. I think, perhaps, in the future, things may begin to be designed in such a way as to provide synchroniety in a way which currently does not exist. How will that happen? I'm not entirely certain. But I know I'm not the only one who finds remembering and maintaining usernames and passwords tiresome, cumbersome, and the source of much annoyance.

Someone, someplace, is going to make millions solving the problem.

Cuberat Consulting

2008-03-02T22:59:00.006-05:00

I was surprised this morning on email (note: this was originally written awhile back), because I received a forward in which I recognized the name of a former co-worker of mine of whose existance I used to be aware when working in another department a couple years back.

Didn't really interact with the guy at all, but he worked in my office.

He was a typical cubicle-dwelling rat, with an Alfred E. Newman face.

The thing that always struck me as remarkable about this fellow, was the fact that he never had a computer on the desk in his cubicle, ever. I dunno, therefore, what he did in his cube to keep himself occupied all day long, as he didn’t have Internet access; but he was on the phone a lot talking loudly, so I guess that’s what he did to make up for it, harass others.

I can’t recall what his job function was precisely, but basically he was a rattish cubicle dweller. So anyway, I was surprised when I got this email forward because lo and behold, all of a sudden I see this guy's name and then his email signature or footer listing his job title as “President - XYZ Corp."

HAHAHA!

Well, this struck me as mirthful, as I remembered this fella was in no way high enough up the chain of command to in any way have any kind of clout at a real company, so I knew right away that it must be some company he just started up on his own, calling himself the "President"!

This guy left my workplace awhile back and I guess, decided to start his own consulting firm. That got me thinking, based on what I knew of the guy or the impressions I had, about what his new company must be like.

As it's based in our industry, I right away ruled out MLM or other pyramid-type schemes, which would have been my first guess as to his business' nature.

This company he started, it must be a very cheesy place, probably "headquartered" in a corner of his unfinished basement where there is little light; where it is damp and cold and the toilet sewage pipe covered in condensation passes right nearby.

I imagine he has an old desk that he got at a garage sale set up down there, one of those big huge outdated ugly heavy ones, with a fake wood top and metal legs and metal drawers that screech and scream when you open them, just like in his former cube here.

He sits in a totally mismatched chair that he garbage-picked, which has, like, one busted wheel; so that it constantly gets caught on this annoying crack-in-the-foundation-floor of his basement, or else rolls into a small pockmark in the cement just beside, and gets stuck so that when he tries to push away from the desk he instead gets spun out at an odd angle, bumping into the concrete basement wall / circa-1970’s plinth heater. Then he bangs his knee on the pointy edge of the dangerous metal handle protruding from his drawers at knee-height, and he screams and curses in pain.

When he stands up from his desk, the top of his head brushes against the under-six-foot-high unfinished basement ceiling, and cobwebs get stuck in his hair, stray wires pull and hook around his misshapen ears.

He has an Ikea desk lamp set up in one corner of the desk, cutting through a section of the basement gloom and illuminating dust particles in the air; and a green tray importantly labelled “IN”.

He has the latest computer equipment that he paid an arm and a leg for at retail because hey - only the best for the president! And then there is an overflowing trash can nearby full of used Kleenex. Near the back of his desk in a way that is always visible to him he has a placard, “(his name) – PRESIDENT – XYZ. Corp” which he gazes upon daily.

On his web browser are links to internet porn.

He spends his day down in his dank, spider-infested, basement “office”.

I know for a fact that his "company" is cheesy and totally unprofessional, because they don’t even have a website. Uncool.

One of the things I remember best about this guy, is how one day I was in my cube at work, and he was on the phone with one of these Lebeau Vitre D'Auto places where they do stereo installations and he was all about getting his car stereo installed, kept calling the place and I guess they transferred him around 20 times or so (cause he has no real authority) and anyway he kept shouting in a loud voice about how he was arranging to get a car stereo installed, he wanted his car stereo installed. I guess maybe he thought this would make him look like a big man, because he has the money and clout to have a stereo installed in his car! He’s giving orders to other peepholes! They are scrambling to complete his requests! I bet he got the best stereo money can buy - NOT.

Anyway, just struck me as weird that this guy, a cube-rat, is now calling himself the "President" of a cheesy literally hole-in-the-ground consulting firm. Definately makes my list of wierd people.

Here is the email I want to save for posterity (edited to preserve anonymity):

From: John Cuberat [mailto:john.cuberat@xyzcorp.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2006 6:59 PM
To: 'Horatio Jones'
Cc: 'Jane Cuberat'
Subject: RE: Regret the passing of Norman Nibblynuts
Importance: High
Horatio,
Thanks so much for informing us of Norman’s untimely passing. Your notices will reach more hearts than there are people in China. Here are the details: (blah blah edit depressing funerary details here).
John Cuberat
President
XYZ Consulting, Inc.
tel. 555-555-5555
cell. 555-555-5555
johncuberat@xyzcorp.com

Another thought just hit me - now I understand why he responded so quickly to the death notice, copying "all", when no one else did. It’s because he wants to showcase his new title at his self-fabricated company and catch our attention!

Maybe we will use him for consulting puroposes! Yowza, cha-ching!!

Clearly, this is his plan and I bet he is going to hijiack every single email thread that comes his way in hopes of coming across as a competent professional, getting his company into our master vendor database, etc etc (I just checked and it is NOT there – yet).

Wow! What a master plan, from a shrewd businessman – piggybacking upon email death notices sent out by fading retirees!

What better way to showcase your newly-created firm and announce to everyone, “HE may be dead… but I’m still alive! And GOING STRONG! As (self-appointed) president of my own (newly created in my basement) company!!!

What cheesiness.

"Tide Pure Essentials With Baking Soda" Laundry Detergent Commercial

2008-03-02T21:23:00.010-05:00

A couple of times now, whilst watching TV, I've become absolutely enraged by the following commercial, for the ghey product, "Tide Pure Essentials With Baking Soda" laundry detergent:

Here is a link to a ghey site, all about the TV ad. Not really worth clicking, but included here for reference purposes nonetheless.

I frankly couldn't give a rat's ass less, one way or another, about this fucking laundry detergent. It's probably just about as effective or ineffective as any other laundry detergent product on the market presently, any way you slice it. No - the reason I'm driven positively livid at the sight and sound of this whoring commercial has got to do with the music being played during the commercial, and used to advertise this new-fangled product.

The music in the commercial is the tune, "Linus And Lucy". It is a jazz piano piece originally conceived to be used in Charlie Brown television specials; most notably, "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

I have many happy childhood memories of Christmas. Until now, the Charlie Brown Christmas theme of "Linus And Lucy" was a pleasant little ditty which would immediately bring all manner of wonderful childhood memories and recollections of Christmases past flooding pleasantly back into my mind.

The Charlie Brown Christmas special is one of my all-time, sacred, most-loved Christmas specials, right up there with the original animated version of Dr. Seuss' "How The Grinch Stole Christmas."

Imagine my surprise, utter shock, and horror; upon hearing the "Linus And Lucy" Christmas theme, hijacked and being used to whore laundry detergent.

Something akin to a sacrilege is taking place here.

These fucking "Tide" advertising people are raping my memory of wonderful Christmases past, trying to usurp the associations my mind has made between the "Linus And Lucy" theme and Christmas time. They are retroactively disrespecting "A Charlie Brown Christmas" by hijacking a well-known theme-song and using it to their own ends of pushing a shitty product. They want to edit the memories of a generation, and fuck with our brains; transposing their fucking laundry soap into people's minds; skewing our perceptions and memories brought forefront & awakened auditorily by listening to the "Charlie Brown Christmas" song. They are retroactively editing pop culture by hijacking a well-known reference and twisting it around to meet their own ends. If the "Tide" people have their way, no longer will the "Linus And Lucy" theme be associated with Charlie Brown; but rather, with a fucking worthless, superfluous, pretentious little laundry soap nobody really needs. Something very evil is taking place in the world presently, all at the hands of the "Tide" corporation. Think about it.

To re-iterate: henceforth, "Tide" marketing assclowns would replace our associations of "Linus And Lucy" with Peanuts, Christmas time, and Charlie Brown; in favour of thier fucking little soap-product.

How dare they!

I cannot fathom a more obnoxious, a more insidious, a more poisonous, or a more harmful marketing campaign than the one "Tide" is using here. They have stolen something precious and are using it for something ludicrous and in the end, completely meaningless. They are taking something that has great significance and are abusing it to their own greedy ends. They are ruining something lovely which was created and meant for all generations to appreciate in good spirits, one of the purest, most innocent things in our entire sickfuckedup world, and fucking around with it for their own greed.

Hey, why don't they wipe their collective asses with the Shroud of Turin, while they're at it? Take a dump on the Mona Lisa, maybe?

What is happening here is quite dangerous. This had better NOT become a recurring theme amongst advertisers. Likely, the hijacking of a song, phrase, image, or other known reference originally intended to mean, represent, be used and/or stand for a certain thing, thought, memory, or idea; has occurred before. I, however, became instantly congnizant of what occurred in this case, and am documenting it here because of the sheer impact it had on me.

Furthermore, because this issue has pissed me off greatly, I am going to TAKE ACTION. I could send letters of complaint to "Tide". I could post nasty stuff about them and their product all over the Internet, on Epinions.com and the like. I could boycott "Tide" altogether and swear nevermore to purchase any of their laundry soaps. I can and I may do any, all, or some of these things; but, in addition and more importantly, the next time I'm at the store? Say, Canadian Tire, Super "C", or Wal-Mart for the sake of argument - and I see some "Tide Pure Essentials With Baking Soda" on sale? I'm going to ruin. that. shit.

I think I will peel labels off bottles. Maybe I will fuck around with the product itself, tampering with shit on a couple dozen bottles thus rendering it unfit for sale. I might load up a cartload of the stuff, and wheel it away someplace; to some other section of the store where it'll languish unpurchased hopefully for days. Maybe I'll put the whole cart on "layaway". Whatever! The point is, I have to do something - anything - to prevent this shit from being sold.

I must take it upon myself personally to prevent the "Tide" corporation from profiteering on the backs of "Linus And Lucy", the Peanuts gang, the ghosts of Christmas past, etc etc etc.

Charles M. Schultz must be spinning in his grave. Those fucking "Tide" bastards. God help 'em.

Weirdo Number One: "Larry The Loser" from Yahoo! Answers

2008-03-02T19:48:00.007-05:00

"Larry The Loser". Larry is a frequent poster on the Yahoo! Answers forum. Larry claims he's 34 years old, still a virgin, and has never had a girlfriend. He also complains that he is ugly because he is balding and has "a big nose, a skinny face, a long neck". He often posts questions pertaining to whether he can ever hope to have a girlfriend, in spite of his so-called terrible looks. Many people always answer Larry's questions, with kindness & insights as to how looks aren't everything, out of concern for a depressed, self-deprecating soul. Larry however, is a weirdo. Examination of his question history reveals that he is apparently obsessed with the notion that people are judged on looks alone. He repeatedly asks the same questions, or the same types of questions, over and over and over again. Always about being bald, being 34 and single, being 34 and still a virgin, etc etc. In spite of the fact that people continue to answer Larry positively and that the tone of the responses are sincerely helpful and do endeavour to lift Larry's spirits, Larry refuses to believe what he is told and continues to seemingly dwell upon looks and superficiality.

Have a look at Larry's past question history. A creepy pattern can be seen emerging. Why doesn't this guy realize already that for the general population, looks really aren't everything, based on ALL the responses he's received? Why does he keep continually posting the SAME questions, re-phrased or worded differently, over and over and over again?

Larry has a link to this picture on Photobucket which he claims is "of him". Larry is a very average-looking guy. Somehow, the picture itself strikes me as very, very creepy. See the look on the little kid's face? Why would he post this kind of photo to the internet, featuring the kid & also the old lady, to have people examine and rate his looks on? Strange.

Why is this guy trolling the internet, repeatedly asking the same types of questions about the same things, over and over and over again? He's gotten so many answers, he should be more than satisfied with the results. Furthermore, people are really going out of their way to be extra-nice and reply to his postings. Larry really seems like a troll. Also, a sick troll who is like a psychological vampire. It's like he feeds off of being perceived as an object of pity, and he wants to evoke pity in other people. It's like he's figured out how to do this and how to draw attention to himself on the internet by calling himself a "loser" and phishing for kindly responses to what seem to be genuine, heartfelt questions from an individual in the depths of despair. Reading Larry's question history, however, and the answers given, provides a completely different view of him. As I said, it's creepy.

Take, for example, this question he asked about whether he should "turn gay" (ostensibly due to his lack of luck with attracting women). Look at the "Best Answer" which someone provided, and which Larry picked as "best". The answerer (girl) says she tried to befriend Larry, but that he stopped responding to her messages. That is very odd. Could it be because Larry only wants to portray himself as pitiable all the time, and does not want any real help?

I too, took the time to answer one of Larry's questions. I wrote a sympathetic response. I will not post a link to it here, because first of all my response was posted from my non-Madame Morticia account; and secondly, after delving deeper into the "Larry" saga, I regret answering. This Larry guy is obviously to be avoided. All he does is gripe about how much of a loser he is, how he's never had sex and can't get women, and about his bald head. He is certainly not interested in any real solutions. He just wants to be pitied all the time, and it's sick that he's sucking everyone's pity out of them, like a feeding vampire.

Another theory of mine regarding Larry: it may in fact be that Larry is simply unhappy with his lot in life, perceived due to his lack of fine physical looks. Larry may be bitter that he is not handsome enough to attract the kind of physical specimen of a mate he feels he ought to be entitled to. It may be the case that the women accessible to a man like Larry are not, in his perception, "good enough" physical specimens for his liking. To re-iterate the fact, Larry -if that Photobucket image is truly of him - is a very average-looking man. He may feel frustrated that his average looks do not provide him with ready access to date women in the physical-appearance strata of celebrities, models, and the like; who probably tend to date better-looking men in general. As a result of Larry's dissatisfaction with his own quite average physical appearance, he may have taken to asking loaded questions on Yahoo! Answers as an outlet for his frustrations.

Whatever the case, my advice is as follows. Stay away from creepy Larry The Loser. He really IS a loser, but not for the reasons he purports, nor for the reasons anyone thinks.