In the days of Windows and only Windows, the usual routine was find a bug, hit report a problem, kick back and maybe someone would get around to eventually, if you asked really really nice and forked over a hundred, maybe possibly fixing it. If they weren’t busy sucking back a beer or something. There was no real two-way exchange of information, per say–they either fixed it and you didn’t know about it until later, or they ignored it and you didn’t know about it until later if at all. Flash forward to the last week or so.

As I make no secret of, I power this site on WordPress plus about 20 wickedly handy plugins to take care of everything from statistics to adjusting things so folks who come across a 4-year-old link that no longer works can still find the entry they’re looking for at its new location. It was that latter redirect plugin that decided at one point to give me issues. For the record and those curious, if you want something similar for your own site the plugin is Smart 404, and it only works–to my knowledge, anyway–on WordPress. Now, before my year or two of experimenting with that other blogging platform, I had this site running under a different piece of software. That piece of software, still in development, took care of my needs back then with the exception of the whole comment spam thing–but the way it handled links in general was just different enough that when I set this up, and included the old entries from my first attempt at a blog, those links promptly broke. Not horribly, just a slight enough change that Apache threw a page not found error.

WordPress in general is very good about redirecting things within its own isolated environment to where you want to go. So, for example, if you were to go to http://www.the-jdh.com/index.php?post=123, it would redirect you to the appropriate post automatically–and to the appropriate, much more readable URL of that post–with no coaxing from me whatsoever. Kind of wicked nifty cool in an “I’m a lazy tech geek” kind of way. The problem is, there’s no native functionality for redirecting other links, not created by WordPress, to their appropriate wordpress equivalent. Enter the redirection plugin, Smart 404.

When I set it up to do what it was intended to do, though, I ran into another, slightly frustrating, problem. If you were to go to http://www.the-jdh.com/year/month/date/some_post.html, which was the old link structure on the blog, even with the plugin in place you’d get a 404 instead of being redirected to http://www.the-jdh.com/year/month/some-post/, which is one of WordPress’s default structures. Now, if we were talking closed source projects here, I’d of just switched to something else that did a similar thing–I’d have a better chance of seeing the problem fixed, and sooner, by doing that. But instead, it started out entirely in public comments on the blog of the developer of the offending plugin.

The actual conversation was, were it to happen over IM instead of blog comments, very short yet still very effective.

I posted a couple comments over there, pretty much explaining what happens when someone references one of the old, non-working links, and what according to the plugin documentation is supposed to happen. After running a real quick test to get access to exactly what it was the plugin was trying to do, the conversation effectively turned very quickly to something like this.
Dev: Okay, try this line of code and let me know if it breaks.
Me: *copy, paste* Okay, looks like it doesn’t explode. And hey, it does what it’s supposed to now. Who knew?
Him: Awesome. *throws it into CVS*
Me: Hey look, new version. And there’s the fix I tested. Awesome squared.

Yeah, it was literally that easy. And a very awesome reason for why sometimes, being able to actually see the program’s inner workings is a very good thing–you get to escentially debug and test a patch for your own problems, rather than waiting on the software’s tech support department–if they have one–to get around to communicating with the developers, who may or may not then get around to actually diagnosing and fixing the problem. The open source community as a whole gets major props for that. And major props to the Smart 404 developer for being nearly as quick to implement solutions to problems as his users are at finding problems to fix. And huge props to WordPress, because–really, do I need a reason? Now excuse me while I go consider for the thousandth time learning PHP or something.

Just because I spent a month out of the country doesn’t mean I didn’t find things to blog about. Or mock. Or snicker at. Yeah, it’s been a hell of a busy month. And, once I got back through the door of this apartment, my first thought was “holy shit busy”. It’s apparently been busy for the readers, too. Here’s what folks found interesting in the month of August, courtesy Google Analytics.

• For some, the time for things to break is on a Thursday. For others, it’s the entire month of August. Apparently, I fall into the latter category. Near breakage, outright breakage, fake breakage, and oh yeah, beyond my control breakage–if it could break, it probably did. Or tried to. And I summarized most of it.
• Just when you thought it was safe to take off your mask. Not even 36 hours after H1N1 was declared dead, they up and invented a new superbug. And hey, it’s already going global. Yeah, you guys can probably guess my opinion on it. But in case you can’t, there it is in link form.
• As Canadian as fiddle fest on a labour day weekend–which, by the way, is coming up next weekend if you’re in the area, and nearly as unknown to folks south of the border, Great Big Sea. I wrote about them here, and included a sample video. Really, they’re awesome and must be checked out. Like, now-ish.
• Twitter is awesome. No, seriously. If you don’t have an account, get one. Also, now-ish. But that having been said, not every thought I have makes it that far. Usually because it loses its context by the time I get around to glancing at Twitter–like tonight, for example. I posted a sampling of them here. I’ll probably do a similar post again later. Or maybe just update that one. I dunno.
• And making a comeback on the popular posts list, what the hell, Ottawa? I still can’t wrap my head around why they forked over more assistance for convergys than they did when the Dell office went splat. And hey, five months later, apparently I’m not the only one. And I still don’t have any more of a clue.

Disclaimer: This entry may be offensive to the religiously sensative. I only wrote it; you chose to read it. You have been warned.

I used to see it only on rare occasions, but the more time I spend watching and interacting with the community, the more a patern sticks out that kind of has me at least somewhat scratching my head. There are an aweful lot of blind folks out there who’ve decided to fall into religion. Of the religions out there, the most common one for folks to fall into, at least in my experience, has been Christianity–and not just the absent belief in God, but often times some of the strictest definitions of Christianity.

Some were very likely raised on it, and would have very likely fallen into it whether they were blind or not as a result–there’s an entire sub-entry on that subject I’ll get into when I’ve got a little more brain power. But a surprising number seem to fall into it later in life, and usually fall hard as a result. I sometimes wonder what prompts people to suddenly flip that switch on in their brain that throws them into ultraconservative mode. I’m not sure it’s a particular type of personality or what have you that does it, per say. The more level-headed usually end up being for some reason or another nudged in that general direction by someone/something either known or not to them, whereas folks with less balanced personalities tend to make the decision to do so at the drop of a hat–there are several dozen examples of folks well-known for doing things that most Christians would be convinced they’d be on a fast track to hell for doing, who have suddenly had a change of heart, and overnight seemed to switch off that other lifestyle/persona, and switched on the lifestyle/persona who would have probably sat in a room with their previous one and been more than happy to spend 20 minutes on exactly how many levels of wrong and in exactly how many ways that lifestyle was. And there are still some who, quite probably out of not knowing exactly what they’re trying to accomplish, seem to float somewhere between the two–one minute they’re a Christian, and the next they’re into the whole bondage thing or what have you that, once again, their Christian side would probably want to slap out of them. Twice.

It probably doesn’t help a whole lot when you consider that Christianity in particular, though I suspect other religions as well, regularly refer to blindness as just a part of the evil that God will wash away if you’d just let him–the phrase “Was blind, but now I see” comes to mind. In my view, no one reinforces the viewpoint of blindness being somehow bad/wrong/evil/whatever better than a large portion of Christianity. I can see folks who are uncomfortable/unhappy/disenchanted/whatever about being blind gravitating to it for that, possibly–the thought that if they try hard enough to believe/pray/do all the things a good Christian’s supposed to do, they might possibly regain–or, in some cases, gain–their sight. According to the bible that’s how it’s supposed to work, right?

Is being blind, even having been born so, such a life-altering experience that your only option in most cases is to cling to the first thing that offers to “cure” you, or is there more to it than that? And what about the people who, while they say they’re perfectly comfortable being blind, still cling to a faith who escentially dictates that by virtue of not having a working pair of eyes, they are somehow less equal at best, sick at worst, and the ideal beneficiary of some other honest Christian’s cherrity in either case? What draws them to the church? What keeps them there?

A conversation was had among friends a few weeks ago that really started me thinking about that aspect of this entry. A girl who lives a ways out of the city for her own reasons has to rely on people in her church group to help her with doing her grocery shopping. These people don’t necessarily approve of the way she eats and/or in general keeps herself, and make no bones about trying to change her mind–forcefully, where possible. This includes things like offering to take her for groceries, on the condition that said groceries do not include dog food in the hopes that she’ll get rid of her dogs and move into the city, or the purchase of supposedly healthier products because they don’t approve of her usual choices, in spite of the fact the offending healthier products just so happen to be products she’s apparently alergic to. Yet she stays there, and still goes to that church, and still goes with that group for her groceries in spite of that.

On a more personal level, and one that seems to back up the perception that at worst you’re viewed as sick, on one of my very first few trips down here, Jessica and I were coming back to her apartment from somewhere and we were stopped on the street. A nice, apparently young lady asked us if we knew where a particular church was–the name escapes me at the moment. Not being Christian or having had any other reason to be in or near that church, we didn’t, and told her as much. Then, without missing a beat, she responds, “Well, our service is at 9. You should come–God will heal you.”. When she left, Jess and I stood there and just looked at each other for a minute or two with that “Bwuh?” expression on both our faces, before continuing home. I think the exact words that came out of my mouth when we’d cleared earshot were “Do we need healing?”. Someone clearly thought we did–and that’s probably far less surprising than it should be.

It’s things like that, among several others–but this entry’s already a mile long, that make me wonder just what it is blind people in particular see in it, and why so many, even if they were never really brought up around it, seem to be drawn–or, if you’d prefer, run screaming–towards it. Is there something mixed in with all this other crap that I’m just not seeing? Do people actually like a lot of this other crap? Is it something else entirely that I just plain won’t understand on account of not being one with the collective? I’ve spent years trying to wrap my head around it and only succeed in wrapping it around a headache. Is there some connection here between blindness and faith, or is it just blind faith? Inquiring minds want to know.

I was originally planning to leave Rochester a little over 2 weeks ago due to potential school things. Those potential school things ended up falling through, so I got to stay for the rest of the month. I was due to leave this past saturday, on account of I have a potential job prospect–albeit not one I’m overly enthused about, but a job (more on that in another entry). For reasons of convenience–mostly that of the folks who will be my ride from the bus station, that date’s been pushed back. So now, in order to take a stab at securing myself something resembling gainful employment, I officially pack up and depart for the other side of the great divide tonight, for a tomorrow noonish arival. Which, I won’t deny, doesn’t hurt my feelings in the slightest–it’s potentially a win for me, and later Jess, either way this thing goes.

Going back means I can start the ball rolling and get me employment, which escentially makes me more able to aford to come down here more often and later bring her up to Canada on a more permanent basis. If it ends up falling through the cracks, I won’t end up with the employment, but I’ll have more free time–if not necessarily the money–to spend with, or at the very least keeping in close contact with, the fiance. Which is beneficial for several dozen other reasons. From where I sit, I can’t really go wrong.

If rules are made to be broken, then plans are made to be changed. And these ones have been changing since I left Pembroke in July. And you’ll probably never hear me complain.

I always said I have my Twitter profile for things that wouldn’t make sense to blog about–those little thirty-second snipets of random that seem to come out of nowhere and you’ve forgotten before your blogging platform of choice is up and ready to accept them. You know the ones. Random observations you’ve made, short little comments on events, things it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to go into any amount of detail and would therefore sort of waste a blog post for what you could probably do in less than 140 characters elsewhere. Like, say, Twitter. Problem is, at least today, I’ve been having random thoughts that, if posted on Twitter when I’ve finally had a chance to actually glance in its general direction, would probably make very little sense with the exception of to perhaps a small handful of people. So, in substitution, here are thoughts that didn’t make it into my Twitter stream today, in no particular order, but in list format. Because lists are cool.

• OC Transpo’s losing money. Again. Wasn’t that 2-month strike and its eventual resolution supposed to prevent that?
• Reasons not to call 911: your sister won’t share the computer with you. Don’t laugh; it happened.
• Related: Calling 911 to request a taxi? Really? Is that even legal?
• Hey look. Two years later and Ottawa still hasn’t sorted out its transit-related contractual problems. I love my city. Really.
• The one time I’m not home to pick up a ticket, and an Ottawa area resident picks up a Lotto Max Jackpot. I tell ya, it’s fixed.
• This is August 25th. The NHL preseason starts September 21st. There are too many days in between. Just sayin’.
• Who wants vodka? Who can aford it? Cool. Bring me some.

I may have spent the last 3 days playing catch-up on what happened over the weekend, but the weekend was still far worth it. It was pretty well back to back cellebrating of one thing or another–first with a belated wedding shower for a couple friends of ours on Saturday, which I think went about as well as I expected considering the collection of people there, and then on Sunday with a birthday cellebration for one of said friends–equally as awesome, in spite of the fact I apparently butted heads with a few folks over trivial stuff but oh well.

Saturday consisted of a huge bunch of us getting together for dinner and talking, with some variety of music or another in the background. Then Jess and I went back to stay with the guests of honour and their family overnight so we could be there for her birthday in the morning. There was a bondfire and more conversation when we got to the house, then the lot of us pretty much went one after the other for the nearest bed and promptly fell into it.

Sunday was pretty low key, though that may or may not have had more to do with the fact her mother stuffed us all to the point I know at least I was considering just rolling away from the table than it did with the weather, which had apparently decided to pick that morning to be nasty at us. We sat around for most of the day, and I finally had an opportunity to introduce Jess to an Adam Sandler movie she hadn’t yet actually seen. The house got busy later on, when several more of their relatives dropped in with birthday wishes, and some stuck around for the dinner they’d planned–which, I think, was only slightly bigger than the breakfast we had that morning. More conversation, more attempts at humour on all sides, and I got a couple snorts out of people with, of all things, a simple ring tone I snagged forever ago from the brother thing. Then it was the typical birthday stuff–opening of cards/gifts, singing happy birthday, cake, ice cream, all the usual shananigans. When that was taken care of, we started to all get back to what served as our usual routines. We were naturally among the last to leave, and ended up hitching a ride with the birthday girl and her husband on account of her mother had offered to drag us home. Got back here, flaked out for a few minutes, and eventually, crashed.

Monday was equally low key, what with the fact we hadn’t actually had a day to just not do much of anything all weekend–it was fun, but that many people gets to messing with your head, even if you’re me. So we sat around being zombies all day. Then came the catching up on pretty much the last 4-5 days of current events in the news, tech and blogging worlds–then it was off we went to pick up right where we left off.

If I had to pick a weekend to not have to be anywhere, this past weekend would have definitely been it. As it turned out, I think all told everyone who was there had a reasonably good time. And with this weekend seeming to be pretty well cut and dry, as much as I’d rather forget my way back to Canada sometimes, if I had to leave, I’d almost prefer it to be on a weekend like this next one. In the meantime, since this weekend hasn’t happened yet, I’m going to go back to my daily routine and pretend I don’t have to go anywhere. Because, hey, it worked before.

About 3 weeks into a 4-week stay in Rochester, I finally decided I didn’t feel like getting run past the point of broke by Rogers. This prompted me to bite the bullet and deal with its slightly less evil twin. So I called up At&t and decided on their pay as you go job.

The easy part of getting set up with them was actually unlocking the phone. Once I found a site who’s payment system wasn’t broken (it only took two tries), it was just a matter of paying the boys and sitting pretty. Couple days later, I had a Nokia E71 unlock code, and had the carrier restriction removed on the first go. The fun part came later.

Rogers didn’t just buy At&t out in Canada, but I think they learned from them how to make things difficult for potential new customers. Since I already had a compatible phone, the sim card was all they needed to send me. Good thing, considering what I ended up having to tapdance around to get it.

Apparently, At&t doesn’t like those of us who have the unmitigated gall to order their service without a US creditcard. Fortunately, I don’t leave home without backup, and this time was no different. I was able to put the whole $5 on Jessica’s card, which got me around that part of the restriction.

The next part, the actual activation of the service, required a touch more creativity. Because of the above mentioned issue with their payment system not liking billing addresses that aren’t in the US, I needed to borrow one. Seeing as I all but live here when I’m on this side of the border, I used this one. And, because the Royal Bank of Canada is made of win, it only took 3 painless steps.
1: Call up the bank, change my address temporarily to match this apartment.
2: Call up At&t, give them my creditcard info complete with new address and zipcode.
3: Change the address back to my Canadian one, and laugh at At&t.

It’s convoluted, and more than a little headache inducing if you aren’t quite sure of which hoops to jump through–kind of like another cell phone company we all know and love. But I didn’t need to reach for the tylenol or the vodka, so we’re making progress. I’m now not afraid to pick up the phone and risk my soul to Rogers. I’ll just sell half of it to the guys they bought out in Canada instead. Enjoy it, At&t. I’ll need that back eventually.

And here we have one of my reasons for creating, and then recreating, this blog. And just on a day when I didn’t think I’d have much newsworthy to snort over.

Out in Alberta, we have a teenager with some pretty no-nonsense conditions on his staying out of jail. Like, say, being on his best behaviour and keeping the pease. Pretty standard stuff, you’d think. But it didn’t occur to this appropriately slapped teenager that maybe he should consider how he gets to his appointment with his probation officer a little tiny bit more carefully next time. He ends up doing something–probably lazing around the house–that lands him dangerously close to the wrong side of being late for his appointment. No biggy, you say–he just calls his officer and lets him know he’s gonna be 5 minutes late, right?

Stop making sense, right now. We don’t mock people who do that on here. Rather than picking up the phone, he decides instead to pick up a bike and cruise on over to the police station in style. Not a bad idea, if the bike didn’t first have to be picked up from someone else’s property. Now he’s made it to the police station on time and doesn’t have to worry about going to jail for not being late. Instead, he’s on his way to jail for breaching the conditions of that probation anyway. How’s that working out, I wonder? Oh well, at least he can say he wasn’t late, right?

Last year, I had an opportunity to take a shot at participating in a survey for the general accessibility of certain features of then current cell phone models. If I’m not mistaken, it focused almost entirely on the ability to make payments for certain things via your cell phone, among other things. My name was on the list for that, though for one reason or another I never actually got in to participate fully–too bad, as they were offering to pay me for my time.

Flash forward to yesterday. I get an email while I’m going through finding political morons to mock, inviting me to another focus group with the option of also or instead doing a survey by mail. Like the last one, the focus group will be held in Ottawa by the Neil Squire Society. Like the last one, it’s focus is on the ability for the visually or otherwise disabled to make use of certain aspects of cell phones–in this case, the ability and ease of use when it comes to obtaining emergency services via cell phone.

The only difference between this one and last year’s is I’m not currently actually living in Ottawa–not yet, anyway. So getting to the actual focus group could require some creative effort. Still, much like the last one if it comes up, I fully intend to be there. Blame my interest in most if not all things accessible. And, hey, they offered me money last time. I’m not stupid.

When folks think of Canadian music, their first thoughts are Nickleback, or Celine Dion, possibly even occasionally Bare Naked Ladies–though not so much as I’d like to see. When I mention Great Big Sea, anyone who hasn’t spent some time in eastern Canada looks at me like I’ve got 2 heads and 3 eyes. Perhaps surprisingly, though, this group has more of the traditional Canadian than any of the other bands I’ve mentioned–if by traditional Canadian you’re speaking in terms of reflecting some of our actual history and/or heritage.

I touched on this back when the olympics kicked off in Vancouver, and included an example for the curious. And, while folk/fiddle music has a certain place in the Ottawa valley, it actually extends a lot farther out than that–all the way to the east coast, which spawned this group. They draw on that folk history, along with a touch of local to the area influence, and borrow a few things from the Irish and British cultures that seem to have come with most of the folks who settle out there. And, because I’d never turn down an excuse to introduce people to it, have an example of which I speak in the form of an originally British song they’ve since redone–and quite well, too. But first, read this. Then, watch this video.

There are days, albeit not entirely very many, where I actually sort of feel about a drop of sympathy for anyone sitting in the presidential office in the US. I think I might be able to spare two drops for this–but only if it doesn’t get completely blown out of proportion. So, in other words, probably not.

More and more American citizens are becoming disenchanted with the way Barack Obama’s handling t hings south of the border. In fact, it’d probably be simpler to say if opinion polls drove presidential elections, he’d be looking for another job tonight. But that hasn’t been able to grab headlines since about 6 months after he took office–something about the status quo being considered old news or something. So instead, headlines are shifting to another viewpoint–the religious aspect. And, right on queue, they latch onto a poll that escentially says more people think Obama’s a muslim than did last year.

What a person’s religion should have to do with how they’re running the country, so long as the more extreme elements of that religion don’t end up making it into law–no honour killings, thank you very much, I will probably never understand. But, the majority of folks who seem to think of Obama as a muslim also happen to be in the same camp as folks who don’t approve of how he’s handling things so far as the economy, healthcare, etc. Anyone else seeing a patern, here?

I’ve been known to miss the obvious a time or three, but I’m not getting what his being christian, muslim, gewish or whatever has to do with his ability or lack thereof to run the country. Aside from the fact that in some US camps, all non-christians should be placed on a terrorism watch list–but that’s a rant for an entirely different entry. He has a congressional majority, at least until November. He has a senate majority, or close to it, also at least until November. If he really wanted to bring in whatever laws are more appropriate for whatever religion he chooses to subscribe to, you’d think it wouldn’t be entirely too difficult to do so.

Once again, the US has Canada’s problem in reverse. Where south of the border there’s a growing faction of folks trying to label Obama a pro-muslim nazi dictator, in Canada we have the same faction–meaning folks who don’t necessarily agree with what the current government up here is trying–naming Stephen Harper as a pro-christian dictator. I’m willing to bet neither is coming altogether entirely too close to the truth, though they do unintentionally reinforce the opinion that religion, be it favourable or not, has absolutely no place in the political halls of your country of choice.

In continuing with the theme of the previous entry, even at this level and on this side of the border, nevermind all politics being local–all politics is becoming more and more personal. Where a mayoral candidate broke the wrong law 11 years ago, Barack Obama was given the wrong name, and lived in the wrong country, with the wrong parents when he was a child. Now, t hey both get to wear that in 2010 while media and political entities established to oppose them go to work t rying to turn that into someething damning to their chances at actually doing a semi-decent–or at least, less aweful than those who came before them–job at keeping their respective jurisdictions from going completely to hell–metaphorically, or religiously. Forget about the issues of the day. We’ve got ages old dirty laundry to sling!

Put religion in bed with politics, you’re gonna have a bloody divorce. Put teenaged mistakes in bed with politics, you’re gonna have a hell of a fireworks display. Put either in front of a TV camera, and it’s a match made in hell. Doesn’t it just make you want to run for office?

Update: Apparently, changes to the Google Analytics code over here do not play nice with the LJ copy of this entry. We’ve fixed that malfunction. Small note to LJ: let me use javascript in my goddamn entries, goddammit.

Today’s theme, at least for the next two entries, is of things political. Not just political, but personal. And how, in spite of the fact the one should have nothing to do with the other, just about every political event from election to debate to legislation in the House of Commons almost always comes back to someone’s supposedly personal motivations. Or, in some cases, personal dirty laundry that need not be aired.

Take the latest kerfuffle surrounding Toronto mayoral candidate Rob Ford as a prime example. According to various media sources, he’s been previously convicted of DUI. And by previously, they mean over 10 years ago. Now, considering in spite of DUI being a federal offense in Canada the most you’ll get in several dozen cases is a very light slap on the wrist, you’d think it wouldn’t be made into a huge deal. Particularly if, as reports have been saying, it happened in 1999. But then, he wasn’t running for mayor in 1999.

Now, okay, I can see folks sounding alarms if this guy was a real problem insofar as being well-known for having a few and then hitting the road. Or if he’d gone and did something equally stupid in the months or so leading up to, or during, his campaign. But let’s keep this semi-real, here. It happened in 1999. According to what’s publicly available, the guy’s around 30 now. Which would have made him 19, 20 at best, when he up and decided it’d be fun to have a drink or two and drive home–or wherever it was he was going after he decided to have a few. Or, as us non-political types like to put it, he was young and stupid.

Around that time I was 16 and right smack in the middle of my own stupid decision or two. Now, 11 years later, I’m no longer in that particular situation, and probably a couple degrees smarter for it. A whole crapload’s changed on my side in 11 years–and this guy’s not a whole lot older than me. But, because he up and decided to run stupid as a teenager, back when several hundred other teenagers were all busy doing pretty much the exact same thing. And now it’s a headline in a political campaign in Toronto.

I always figured all politics was local, but this t hing about all politics being personal? That’s new. Not altogether surprising, but new. And just one more reason you’ll never see my name on a voters’ balot–unless as a direct result of one hell of a technical glitch.

Update: Hey look. Another Toronto candidate has some dirty laundry she, or someone else, would like you to see. This one’s also 11 years old. Hey, I know. Let’s all just scrap the political system and pick the one with the better criminal record. Yeah, that’s more fun isn’t it?

The month is just over half over, and already things have gone and decided breaking is the thing to do. It started last week, with the near breaking of my plans to return home this past weekend–plans that were changed for other reasons, which will be elabourated on once the appropriate people have been properly hunted, nailed to the nearest wall, and my time and effort in aranging things is appropriately compensated–in blood, if necessary.

Then, earlier this week, the old blogging stomping grounds of LiveJournal, where I still occasionally show up mostly because I’ve yet to convert all the cool people away from it to much more fun things, decided it would be fun to break my LJ RSS hack. More specificly, one of their upgrades apparently broke their own authentication mechanism. That only ended up being fixed an hour ago–and not, laughably enough, before several people who were experiencing similar problems re: their RSS feeds had decided to bring it up quite blatantly in the dev community–I should really consider watching that community, now that I think about it.

Last night capped off the reason for renaming the month of August to the month of Broken. We needed to get laundry done. As in, like, ASAFP. Which turned out to be at just about midnight last night–hey, we never claimed to keep a normal schedule. That was around the exact same time we figured out that hey, this building’s supposed to have two working washers and two working dryers. This building has one of each. And the broken ones are broken in such a way that by the time we figure out they’re broken, we’ve wasted a dollar in each. Those are, to my knowledge anyway, still broken–we’re presently air-drying the affected articles of clothing. Sadly, my name isn’t on the lease here so I don’t get to personally scream in some poor maintenance bastard’s ear about it, but Jess will undoubtedly take amazing amounts of pleasure in doing exactly that just as soon as she can find 30 seconds to breathe.

Well into the third week of August, and we’ve already had plenty of things go breaky smash on a technical and non-technical front–an average of one per week at this rate. I’m officially renaming the month of August to the month of Broken. Now, to go whip something real quick up to make it official on this here website.

This probably should come as no surprise. But, well, it does. A group of parents in Toronto has apparently decided that the wifi network services provided by their kids’ schools is responsible for making them sick. They took the matter to the Ontario government, who’s just now referred it to the federal. Who, just for the record, has already provided information that says they’re safe–as has the group most likely to pull the next health crisis out of a hat, the World Health Organization (WHO). Sadly, I can see at least half a dozen studies coming out within the next few years supporting this. Be careful around your wireless router–it may give you cancer! Or, you know, not. But that doesn’t generate headlines.

I got a random call from my father while I was down here, with the probably fourty millionth tech question the family’s posed to me since I turned geek. Only this one with a twist. It would appear my parents, who haven’t even looked at a gaming system since I was probably 13, just grabbed themselves a Nintendo Wii. His question? How to hook it up to the network I threw together for them. Why? They thought it’d be fun to browse the web on their TV. Ladies and gentlemen, I suspect the birth of a glorified PC. For the record? I’m so not fixing this one.

I’m usually not one of these people who sees doctors/drug companies/whatever as evil entities out to slowly and sometimes painfully kill us all after depriving us of all our hard-earned money. But sometimes, even I get a little confused. Particularly when, not even 48 hours after they officially declare an end to the H1N1 crisis that wasn’t, they’ve latched onto a new one. this one, which they’re just calling a superbug, already has global medical disaster written all over it, according to scientists in the UK among other places. Supposedly, it’s already shown up in Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and several other places in between. And, much like another superbug we all know and love, it’s supposedly resistent to most if not all current antibiotics available–I see yet another new vaccine in our future.

Yep, on tuesday they cancelled the H1N1 disaster, and on wednesday we found out why. They now have a new one to splatter all over the newspapers. Just when you thought it was safe to come out of quarentine.

Unless you’ve been under a rock all afternoon, you’re probably aware already that former US Senator Ted Stevens died in a plane crash in Alaska at 86 years. Now, being that I live in the great white north, beyond the whole “series of tubes” quotation, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about this US Senator. According to some, he was apparently quite the moron. Well, sir, you very well might have been an idiot. But you’ve provided years of hillarity among my particular geek circles with that one quote. For that, you’re awesome. And because it still makes me snort, here’s the infamous monologue in video format. Yes, brought to you by that very same series of tubes.

Holy freaking busy. And I do mean busy. For a small sampling of what I mean, have a look through previous posts. Or, wait until the popular posts for this month gets tossed up. In the meantime, here’s what caught people’s attention in July–a surprisingly way less busy-ish month, considering.

• Right on queue, when I was thinking about possibly finding some way to bypass the US only limitations and at least try out Netflix, they go out and bring it to Canada. Well, sort of. About goddamn time we get something folks on this side of the border already have.
• All the busy in the world doesn’t quite make up for the first week of July, part of it was spent with Jessica. It was during that week that she became my fiance. And she’s not managed to run screaming yet.
• I effectively and officially started the ball rolling on the whole getting me into college thing around the middle of July. Naturally at that point I had no idea that ball was going to try and roll right over top of me, but it got started then. And even that took some twisting of arms.
• I have a nasty habbit of screwing up my sleep schedule completely beyond recognission. Sometimes, it ends up resulting in 4:00 wake-up calls. And most of the time it ends up not actually staying stable, even in its screwed up state, for very long. Gotta love the flexible routine–except when it’s way, way too flexible.
• And in slightly mock-worthy news, Sarah Palin has a thing for occasionally inventing new words, then claiming it’s because everyone else is doing it. I harass her for it as often as I can, much to the dismay of many I’m sure. But, hey, considering the couple months I’ve been having, even minor amusement/mockery can be good.

Okay, so not as entertaining as some of the other lists. What do you want for the middle of summer? Now, back I go to the land of oh my god busy.

Just when you thought it was safe to jump across the border, someone up there’s pointing and laughing. Apparently, Ottawa’s local transit service isn’t the only one who sees a shutdown as the surest path to a contract dispute resolution. Greyhound Canada, also known as those people who will be meeting me in Toronto in order to get me the rest of the way home, is threatening to lock out its drivers on thursday. Assuming I can beat an answer out of people, and that answer is one I like, I’m due to return to the right side of the border on sunday. Houston, we have a problem.

As it stands now, provided they do actually end up locking out, I might be able to get as far as Toronto on the ticket I just purchased. As for getting me past Toronto? Well, that may require some degree of creativity.

Greyhound, you and I have been getting along famously this trip–I didn’t even have to fight with you over the purchase of my ticket for a bloody change. You do not want to start in with this crap now. Really, you don’t. So by all means, don’t. That would be awesome.

Also: What is it with bus services out of Ontario? OC Transpo was talking not too long ago about a lockout at the next contract negotiation, too. Really? Did we learn nothing from the 08-09 bus strike? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Update: Yeah, I thought so. Greyhound, if this happens, please find yourself a nice big fire and die in it. Thanks.

Remember the assessment of doom I was studying for? The one I only had a week to get everything accomplished accessibility/preparation-wise before it was either going to make or break my attempt at further education? Yeah, that one. It broke. Badly. I got word of the proof of such brokenness last night. It was no shocker, though admittedly part of me was kind of hoping for a small miracle. I don’t think it’s very over yet, though–as I mentioned before, I did the test on a week’s notice. The test included algebra, and the extent of its accessibility after a week’s notice consisted of someone reading the questions to me, me trying to remember the equasions, going over most of them in my head and not having much ability to actually check things on my own. The chick doing the reading told me she was surprised at the result I got considering, well, I had virtually not a whole lot more than what I was allowed to bring with me–the cell phone I was planning to use for a calculator. So was I, but given a half-assed shot at doing it on my own I also know I’d of probably done considerably better.

It’s on that thought that I decided, within about 30 seconds of getting word of that from my side of the border last night, that today would be the day heads rolled. So calls were made, and one of the names on the bottom of the denial letter got to have a very pleasant conversation with yours truely. Surprisingly, there was no yelling/screaming/what have you–I didn’t even curse, though I had plenty of them floating around in the back of my mind just in case. I informed her due to the fact it was either do it on a week’s notice or not at all, in spite of the fact I pretty much told the chick when I was speaking to her I didn’t figure anything could be done in a week’s time to make it any easier for her or me, I was pretty much a step behind from the outset. I was even nice enough to explain to the person in question, who gave me the “I’m just a lowly admissions officer” shpeel, that I asked about having it, and/or my entry date into the program, pushed back to allow for the needed time to figure a way through whatever accessibility issues should so happen to crop up.

Since the decision supposedly came from significantly above her pay grade, she told me she’d speak to the one who ended up making the final decision. I got the slight impression she was sort of being noncommittal, but we shall see. So she said she’d see what she could do, I threw the number here at her where she, or the person(s) above her pay grade who made the decision, can reach me, and now we wait. In the meantime, I’m closing in on the deadline for getting things submitted to second career, and I still have absolutely no idea what if anything I’m about to actually be getting done.

So, I may or may not actually have plans for September. I may or may not actually have the backing for said plans in September. And I may or may not have a bit of time left to try and twist a few arms in order to secure both. It’s a very good thing I’m not averse to doing things the hard way. I’ve a sneaking suspicion I’m about to do exactly that at full speed.

Update: I got my phone call. And surprise, more waiting games. This time, I get to wait until next tuesday, at which point someone *else* I’ll need to get a hold of re: the mess this testing thing’s becoming will be in. If I were the overly paranoid type, I might be slightly suspicious of the fact I got that phone call after writing this. If someone’s trying to tell me something, I don’t think I’m getting the message they think I am.

So I’ve been on the US side of the border for nearly two weeks now, and busy as all get out for most of it. Part of the busy was spending the majority of this past friday evening at the Rochester public market. We were planning to check that out anyway, Jess and I, since she’d only been there maybe once before me, and of course I hadn’t been there yet. So i cruised by where she was getting off work, picked her and Kyle–who conveniently also hadn’t been there yet–up, met Heather over there and we crashed it for a few hours. And in doing so, were treated to a free performance by Donna the Buffalo. Apparently, both Kyle and Heather have heard/seen this group live before, which left both Jess and I to experience it for the first time. Hell of an experience, really.

From right around the first or second song, I had a feeling it’d be a pretty damn near wicked awesome performance. Of course, anyone who can perform “Ring of Fire” and not completely kill it deserves at least a shot at not making me cringe. I didn’t cringe. Instead, I find myself rather unsurprisingly in the category of those who highly approve. I don’t think any of my partners in crime were entirely all that surprised by it either–I’m looking at you, Heather.

They only played for an hour and a half, give or take–a lot less time than I thought they’d get, but apparently the organizers decided to do the headliner thing first. Still, it was long enough for me to decide when I do return to the cooler side, I’m gonna have me some downloading. Because I don’t have some downloading right now, have a video instead. Not Friday’s performance, but a performance. I approve by this. And if you find yourself not approving, evaluate your musical tastes. Right now. Enough said.

Sometimes, the department of national defense really screws with my head. I think they do it on purpose. Soldiers suffering from PTSD won’t be prescribed marijuana, which the folks on the pro-legalisation and/or decriminalisation side of the issue say can and does help with situations like that among other things. But, the folks who ultimately are in charge of such things apparently have little to no problem with testing out ecstasy under the same circumstances. Yeah, we’ll just throw you in jail at worst and kick you out of the millitary at best for making use of a supposed gateway drug, but here, let us help you blow right through that gateway at warp speed. Did I skip out on logic 101, here? Am I missing something? Or has the DND finally made that left turn at Loony avenue? I honestly lost track about a paragraph into that article. I can has clue plz?

A couple weeks ago, I made mention to the fact Canada’s only real alternative to DSL from Ontario east was taking it to their customers again, in the cleverly sneaky form of decreasing the quality of service provided and maintaining the same pricing structure. At the time, all the techy blogs were up in arms about it–and that was pretty much as far as it got. I suppose Rogers should be congratulated for finally breaking that barrier, what with the Ottawa Sun doing us all a favour and publishing their own take on it. And y’know, reading that doesn’t make me feel any less like kicking Rogers squarely in the face. But I’m still no closer to reconsidering my decision to avoid having anything to do with their internet packages for as long as I have at least one other alternative. On the bright side, at least geeks aren’t the only ones who’re about ready to slap around a Rogers employee–this was posted under the finance/money section of the Sun, for the curious. I’ll take my small moments of satisfaction where I can find them, thank you.

As much as I bitch about small-town life, and the Pembroke/Petawawa area is actually surprisingly small, sometimes it has its awesomely cool points. Like this kid, who’s up for a CCMA in September. He’s not only done solo work, but has played with several well-known groups/singers. The kicker? My mother used to work with his sister. Hang on a second–I need to reset the nifty meter. In a way, I sort of indirectly–yeah, very indirectly–know this guy. Awesome.

Twenty seasons is all we’re gonna get out of the original Law & Order after shopping it around got the creators nowhere once the original network it ran on dumped it. It’s dead. Permanently. The funeral’s at 7:00 if anyone’s interested–I’ll bring the rum. And in other news, Law & Order: Los Angeles? Really? *Really*? You hollywood types could have done so much better.