I’m a little tiny bit more human than I was earlier today, so as a free something type thing, have a thing. There’s a whole crap ton of other shtuff that still has yet to post–it’s coming, promise–and more still I get to add to it, but this should see you through until then. It’s in no particular order, but it is in a list. See? Accomodating and everything.

• I saw several hundred job ads today, which is a change. So of course, that change has to come with a catch. Because it does that kinda thing. Today’s catch? Every single goddamn one of those ads was completely and entirely in French. I kid you not. I only moved here last year–I shouldn’t be contemplating moving elsewhere. Or should I? You be the judge.
• I’ve decided. As far as pitchers go, the Bluejays are a jinx. Steve’s probably gonna wonder what the hell I’ve been smoking, but here’s my evidence. And yes, random games from random years is evidence, dammit. First it was Roy’s postseason no-hitter in 2010, while with the Phillies–the freakin’ Phillies, goddammit! And in Detroit yesterday, Justin Verlander came damn close to one. If memory serves, he played quite sucktastically the few times I saw him in a Jays suit. Who the hell is this guy? At least Roy was still good when he was with us–he just became a god after he left. But this? Yeah. Jinx. Has to be. Now hearing arguments to the contrary.
• It’s the long weekend. Officially the first long weekend of the hot. That means countdown to AC. I suspect sometime this week or next, it shall exist once again in the living room window. Now, the question becomes–do I get completely plastered after putting it up, before putting it up, or while putting it up? Either way, I think there’s booze in my future.
• Speaking of booze, long weekends and that Steve guy, he’s at it again. Long weekends mean booze, and one or both usually means audio. So he and Carin, of Vomit Comet fame, are obliging. Their first one went damn near an hour. Their second? I have no idea. And they’ve still gotta survive tomorrow and Monday. That hangover’s gonna blow hard, I do believe. Go check ‘em out, toss ‘em a comment or 5, and–hell, since it’s all over Steve’s twitter anyway–fire a question or few at ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. Rumor has it they’ll answer anything. Or at least they’ll fake it.

This is my brain. This is my brain on random. Enjoy. Now, where’d I put that shtuff I was gonna add to the mock list…

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Yes, yes, yes, I’m way behind. And I have things saved that are long overdue to be ranted upon–but the following 3 links, just… really… what more can be said?

• I get the thrill of joining the “mile high club”. Really, I do. I’d never *do* it, mostly because those seats are damned uncomfortable on their own, but I get it. Here’s the thing, though. I thought a plain was required? And no, I don’t mean to jump out of–although, nice touch, guys.
• Growing up around guns, you tend to learn two very important things. Keep them out of the reach of small children, and don’t take them to the bathroom. Well, okay, so maybe some folks only learn one. Hey, Darwin? I’ve got one.
• Very, very few folks will be familiar with my actual reason for leaving the W Ross school when I did. In terms of readership, very few folks will probably even be filliar with the W Ross. One school in New Jersey, though, seems to be borrowing right from the school’s handbook–and has decided a a no hugging policy would absolutely rock. Yeah, I’m not getting it either. But I’m probably not supposed to.
• And of course, I’m forgetting entirely the entire mess with SIPA (go internets go!) and the newest form of what the yarf from that corner of the world, CISPA (hey internet? Yeah, can we do it again?). Both bills mock themselves, but if you’re not entirely familiar with the latter, these guys have a pretty good take on it. And yeah, it’s a little bit what the yarf.

It’s amazing the things I miss when I’m being tossed in 6 different directions. And later, I get to prod the TSA in the eye with something hot. Again. God, I miss that. As for now, though, enjoy reading. Just remember the rules–if you’re gonna snark, do it in the comments. That’s why we’ve got ‘em.

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I’d love to say last year was exceedingly exciting, but in reality, the best I can come up with is average. And, since I haven’t been keeping up with statistics and the like for about half the year, there’s not much sense in pulling a year-long popular posts type thing–those will return starting end of this month, life permitting. The year was so average that, well, I can listify it. So, I will. Because lazy wins on this day after booze.

• Of course, the team I call my own (hint: over here) choked again. In spectacular fashion. They call this the rebuilding year–well, those of us who haven’t seen the playoffs since 2004 are still waiting. Oh well. We’re also used to it.
• I got a lot closer to spending the rest of my life with someone–I even had a quote in hand for a wedding, which was something a lot of people–myself included–didn’t see me doing.
• I moved back to Ottawa, where I actually started to put my life back together–or, rather, where I actually started to have a life again. This whole getting out and doing things idea? Yeah, let’s keep hold of that, yeah?
• That wedding quote I mentioned? Turned out it wasn’t going to be needed after all–I ended up single this year. It was hard getting there, a lot of things went down that kind of kicked me in the face, but I can’t say I didn’t see it coming.
• Met some extremely awesome people this year–and actually started talking to a couple of them more regularly. Get these people in the same room with a nifty amount of something alcoholic and there may not be a room left, but hey, we’d have fun doing it.
• Did a ton of job searching. No job finding, but plenty of searching. That’s halfway, right? That’s what they tell me, anyway.
• And, most importantly, survived to see 2012. Some days I don’t know how, but you’ll have that. Provided life doesn’t continue to kick me in the face, this year will rock in comparison.

So how was your year?

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So. I’ve once again gone and not done this kinda thing in at least a month. You’d think I’d learn to stop that, after 2009, but well–yeah, you know. Where to start and not come off like I haven’t a clue. Well, okay, like I haven’t any less of a clue than usual. Things have been more than a little up and down the last month and a bit. More up than down lately, but you’ll have that. I’ve been going through some things not altogether fit for blogging–they weren’t fit for discussing in general, but you do things like that when you’re, well, the best way to put it is not quite yourself. Things are looking a little better now, at least. Sometimes I still think I’m on shakey ground, but again, you’ll have that. Still, things are being worked out, other things are just being accepted, and I’m getting back to where i was–much to the dismay of a few people, I’m sure. Moving on to bigger and better, as it were. Which, yeah, means I’ll find plenty of things to mock, have plenty of personal things to throw out here just because, and probably do much more bitching about the job market. Because that’s what you do when you’re me. The month of August and first half of September were… well… fun, except not, but now, it’s high time to either get things together or get gone. And, because I’m doing exactly that, have the rest of this entry in list format.

• Employment prospects were looking good, right up until they weren’t. Typical patern for anyone who’s been looking for work the last 3 years–hell, Zoom found herself a job after 2.5 years’ looking herself (congrats for that, by the way). I can’t even be surprised it took 2 and a half years–but only because I’m working on 3 and a half. But, again, you’ll have that.
• Certain plans have been brought to a screaming hault while things related to what I’ve been dealing with away from the blog get themselves worked out. They may come up again. Or they may not. See certain things, acceptance of.
• Hockey starts this week. Yet another reason for me to get back into blogging. Go Leafs go! Preferably farther than last this year.
• Related: I am such a bad horrible not so good fan. Thursday is hockey night. Thursday is also departure night. Which means I miss hockey. Not getting off to a positive start this year, me.
• Thanks giving shows up again this coming weekend–meaning, well, 8 (7, since it’s after midnight?) days from now. I take off Thursday to spend the weekend at the parents’. It’s gonna feel more than a little strange not having Jessica here this year, but as they say, it happens. Maybe next year.
• It used to be awesome warm outside. In 24 hours, it hit OMG WTF where’s my brain cold. They’re forecasting awesome warm again this coming week. Fall, make up my goddamn mind–these windows don’t like to be opened/closed on a daily basis.
• And lastly, finding interesting ways to save money–and yet more interesting ways to purchase apps for the purpose of accessibility testing? Priceless. For everything else, there’s a maxed out creditcard.

Do what you do, kids. Mockery commences at some point. Just, well, right now? I got nothin’.

PS: Go postseason baseball go! I don’t really care who wins–the Redsox are toast. Just, for the love of cheese, whoever does, do something about Philadelphia will ya? That’d be wicked nifty.

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I still exist. And surprise surprise, nothing’s busted this time. I’ve been most of the time playing catch-up with the stuff everyone else has written, not to mention helping Shane out when he decided to up and nuke himself. Yeah, classy. In and around that, I’ve actually managed to find a tiny little handful of jobs to apply to–including one from a company I’d escentially given up on. After the departure of the fiance, that’s been pretty much it–yeah, exciting stuff, no? I’m getting back into the usual routine, though, which means–yes, you guessed it–mockery, snark, general harassment, and oh yeah, the popular posts for June and July that never actually got done. Plus, my official, final review, of a former web host. Until then, I leave you with these few short, barely twitter-worthy (so they wind up over here, instead) thoughts.

• I live in Ottawa. Why for am I reminded of Toronto, then, what with emergency vehicles passing by here every half hour?
• Listening to an online scanner, one should not be able to pick up pieces of live music in the background while the person using the radio’s attempting to talk–or rather, yell–over it.
• Related: Said background music and the fact I can actually pick it out should not amuse me.
• One of us gets stressed, somebody sends us Mcdonalds money. Drama doesn’t have to suck completely.
• And lastly, is it wrong of me to sit here and listen to the afore mentioned online scanner, wondering if someone’s going to get a call to this address or one near it? Anyone?

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Every time I come to Ottawa, whether it’s to live or visit, I always have this wicked huge list of things to do. And almost always, within the first week or two, I end up making a sizeable dent in that list. Which is exactly why it is they should absolutely never let me anywhere near Ottawa. Reasons this is bad for me include, but are not limited to:

1. Random, most-of-the-day walks that take up more distance than most people could see themselves walking and still being healthy
2. Stops along said walks to occasionally collect random bits of random, in photo form



3. Popping into random specialty stores just to see what they’ve got on for cheap that’s semi-original (hint: there’s a crap ton)
4. Yet more walks, with yet more photoworks, with yet more scenery



5. Yard sales–every second weekend, on every second block
6. Random crap picked up at said yard sales, for cheap–like my new coffee table (it’s on wheels)
• Or the old coffee table, which doubles as a temporary TV stand (it cost me a dollar, 5 years ago)
7. Grocery shopping, sans the actual shopping–hey, I’m lazy, and I hate shopping
8. Milano Pizzeria–no, seriously, if you must have pizza, you must have Milano
9. And oh yeah, yet more photoworks



10. And I guess that whole employment thing doesn’t hurt, once I figure out what that is

If that’s a week in Ottawa, no freaking wonder the previous 2.5 years just kinda sailed by at warp speed. I know this much about Ottawa on my second time around, at least–I’ll definitely get back in shape. Now, then. Where’d I put the rest of my to-do list?

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No? Okay fine. This would be, for the first time in a little bit over a month, my attempted reemergence into the realm of this whole blogging thing. This may or may not include yet more mockery, and that thinggy I’m supposed to do about what you guys were reading last month–conveniently, 4 or 5 days before I should be doing that thing about what you were reading while I was being all unavailable and things. There’s an abso-freaking-lute metric ton of crap I probably could, and should, be writing about. Sadly, most of it kind of stopped applying about 2 weeks ago–sorry, life does that to ya. Things that do get a mention here and may or may not be elaborated on when I have slightly more brain power. In list format, because hey, first post in a month, here. Lazy.

• Moving: Jessica got herself all moved in, relatively in one piece and with most of what sanity she has left after dating and being engaged to me intact. Her stuff, thankfully, also made it to the other end in one pice. Find her take on that and several million other things over on her blog. Go now. I’ll wait.
• Technology: I’d started the process before I left, and finished it while down there–in and around the above mentioned move. Shortly before my return to Canada–where I’m currently flaed out now, the new laptop I’d been aiming for met me here. It’s nifty cool, in the wicked sense. Still getting used to using Windows 7 on a more than occasional basis, but hey, so far I’m not complaining much.
• The stupid: there’s acrap ton of it. It starts with local cab companies, and it’ll all warrant separate entries. Again, see the need for more brain power.
• Hockey: the playoffs are closing rappidly in on us. There will be playoff mockery involved. There will not be Leafs recaps involved–again. Ah well. You saw it coming.
• Leafs: I quit. At least for this season. I haven’t done a recap since mid-February. To recap this many games would be both exceedingly spammy and a very good reason to develop a migraine. Naturally it would also double as an excellent exercise in frustration–like all mid to late season attempts at playing the comeback kid do. You’re just not that team, Toronto. Sorry.
• Mockery: Oh, dear lord, the mockery. Not in this post, but the mockery. I’m buried in it. It’ll get posted over the next couple days. Trust me–it’ll be more than worth the wayt.

So that’s kind of where I’ve been. Now, where’d I put my caffeine?

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Hey, it only took me 4 days–considering my previous record, that’s not bad.

The trip itself went amazingly well. So did all the 80 million things I had to get done before I fled the country–with the exception of the post office, but that entry I’ll save for when I have more brain cells to devote to the topic. I’ll leave you with this regards to that, though. Not only are they inaccessible, but they’re starting to inch across the line towards incompitent. Still, we got past that and everything else went smoothely. Hit my bus on time, actually with about an hour to spare, so took it easy around the place. Got into Rochester an hour and a half late through no fault of my own–hi, people holding us up at the border, nice to slap you. That, also, gets an entry of its own when more brain power is available. Jessica has spent the majority of this week sick, so we took it wasy after getting here. She called out from work on Tuesday, and almost slept the entire day away with the exception of being awake long enough to eat and talk for a few minutes with Heather–we really need to get that girl a blog of her vary own, speaking of. Then it was bed and sleep again. She went to work yesterday, I started getting cought u on things. Got a little closer to getting caught up on things today, and she got a little closer to being back to her old self after again taking it easy last night. We’ve got some running around to do tomorrow, then it’s off to see everyone’s favourite new mom and baby on Saturday. Somewhere in between that and the rest of next week, I have a metric ton more mockery to throw up here–including a couple things I was clued in on by Shane on his blog while I was buried in everything else. Here’s a very wee tiny small sampling of the coming stupid.

• The CRTC gets a federal slapdown, and nobody elle loses much sleep.
• The next big thing in terror: toy soldiers with equally toy guns–I dunno. Thank the British.
• Surprise surprise. OC Transpo doesn’t actually have a labour plan. Told you that strike wasn’t a smart idea.
• My hockey team actually wins. Twice. It figures they be games I’m physically incapable of watching.
• Speaking of hockey, hi, Ottawa. Still sucking after the all star break, I see. Don’t worry, I have a special blog post just for you. Courtesy the Onion.
• Breaking Canada, one US politician at a time. Next on the ridiculous meter? Potential visa requirements for border crossings. Because passports just weren’t stupid enough.

There’s more, but I’m running out of brain juice and well, I do have something very slightly less than screwed up to blog about before I go fall over beside my fiance. Tiny little hint: this is not a good year for traveling if you’re us. And now, back to whatever it was you were doing before I interrupted you. I’ll be back.

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Try saying that 3 times fast. While you do that, I’ll be busy very quickly disposing of a departure Monday. This is more of a “God please don’t let me forget something” exercise primarily for me, but if you’re curious just how dead my Monday is, here’s a hint. I leave in an hour and don’t stop ’til Tuesday. Between now and then, I have a shitload of things to accomplish. In no particular order, I need to:

• Finish packing things I’ll need to carry with me, IE: foodstuffs
• Yank my phone off the charger, pocket phone, pack charger
• Put together the package I’ll be shipping off on my way out of here
• Hand mother relevant info re: packages to be expected in within the week that will also be shipped out while I’m not here
• Drop into UPS/Purolator, fire the offending package across the border
• Stop somewhere to grab something to take with me for supper
• Also optionally grab lunch
• Confirm the presence of the card I need to secure my bus ticket
• Probably, misplace that card at least once–it’s not a complete trip without it
• Run past the bank, deposit a money order
• Take out US cash
• Pray to God I have enough Canadian cash left over after the taking of US cash to shovel into my mother’s gas tank
• If we’re not pressed, and we shouldn’t be, drop in for a haircut and an excuse to sit on something that isn’t moving umpteen miles an hour
• Get in to the station in just enough time to grab my ticket and run
• Barely make the bus–hi, Ottawa lunch hour traffick, nice to not see you
• Breathe

Okay, I’ve had a full day just looking at this. Now to actually go do it. Catch you all in Rochester, unless I’m bored. Then it’s roadmail posting. Behave. Or, if you absolutely must avoid behaving, go hang out with these two for the day. Probably enough mockery between them to make up for my absense. If not, I have enough saved. Catch you tomorrow!

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Back in 2006, before I had much of an idea I’d be getting into this whole regular blogging thing, I thought it’d be kinda neat to try out this whole having your own web address thing. I did the registration process, the configuring, and after a while, I even started shoving my email over there. Hey, I was 22–that was a big thing for me. Then later on came the first incarnation of the blog, and I actually got into a sort of semi-regular habbit of at least throwing, er, something up there. Even if it wasn’t overly entertaining–it was considered my very own answer to Blogger and LiveJournal. I’d throw something at it, and maybe it’d stick. Or maybe it’d be one of the myriad useless little quizzes I’d post out of boredom. That was what it was here for. Then I got serious about it.

I still didn’t do it with the expectation of milions of readers and thousands of comments–good thing, as I think I managed maybe half a dozen at one time, but I did it because it was there for something to do. 5 years later, I still post whatever comes to mind–or across my desk via RSS feeds. And I still do it for something to do. I’m not expecting 80 million readers, though when I write something that catches on I don’t exactly shake my head at it. I do it because. And hey, sometimes, I actually offer something up that other people don’t know. And sometimes, other people drop by and I learn a thing or two. Okay, so maybe that’s why I do it.

I keep trying to invent something inciteful/witty/whatever, but I got nothin’. Not a very impressive showing for 5 years. So instead, have 5 of my favourite posts from all 3 incarnations of the blog.

• You know you’re from Pembroke when…
• The best pitcher in baseball is perfect–just not in Toronto.
• Technical support rules, the dummy’s version.
• You know when you’re from ottawa when…
• This kid trumps any 2 of yours. And she’s not even related to me. (this post gets a follow-up later today or tomorrow.)

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It just randomly occured to me, as I was plowing through various things that have been piling up while life was busy throwing us curve balls, it’s been exactly, as in to the day, two weeks since I’ve actually posted anything up here. And probably longer than that since the anything had actual content. Oops. Publishing don’t number 1, and I did it. Oh well, you’ll have that. And the worst part of it is, the two weeks in question actually stood a chance at being somewhat exciting. If by exciting you mean a small rolercoaster of fun.

Where to start. Big news in the nowheresville household, we had our eye on a larger apartment and moving back to Ottawa. Well, back to Ottawa for me–Shane has never actually had the good fortune of living there, specificly. So we had the apartment lined up–the lady showing it to us had us sold within the first 10 minutes. We filled out the application. Then, we sat around here and waited. The application ended up not going through, which made things very interesting–note to readers, if you’re looking to make a major move like this and you’ve already gone ahead and set things in motion to have services moved/activated on your moving day, watch out for that quick 180. It’s real hard to hit the off switch when they come back and say you can’t actually have the apartment. Or maybe that’s just a Rogers thing–anything’s possible. We ran into that problem when the phone call came in that we didn’t actually land the apartment. We have a pretty good idea *why* we didn’t land the apartment, and while yeah it sucks, we know for next time. Too bad, too–it was a wicked awesome apartment.

Fortunately, since we look for bright sides on this here blog when we can, the apartment falling through means it doesn’t complicate our return from yet more planned events in the past two weeks. Shane had originally planned to drop in on his girlfriend at the beginning of February, but situations ended up coming up that sort of necessitated he be down there now. I’m still on schedule for bothering Jessica, who has actually managed to update her blog more than once this month, at the beginning of the month as initially planned. We were originally going to come back from our respective vacations on the second of March and promptly pack the place up for moving, but now we have a little bit of flexibility re: when we come back, just in case things decide that falling sideways while we’re down there is the order of the day. It also gives me a bit more time, if necessary, to help Jess with her own move at the end of February without having to worry about shooting back up here for mine. And, since I like not being attached to a deadline, I can presently put a questionmark on my return date–we shall have to see how things play out.

The fun doesn’t stop there, however. In list format, with explanatory posts to come when I have more brain power. Because presently, this caffeine thing isn’t working for me anymore.

• Life decides at the worst possible time to throw one hell of a curve ball. We got smacked with one this past weekend–and are still recovering. Which reminds me, I need to move a few more things over to the replacement external HD.
• Related: Hey Dell? You can ship Shane’s laptop any freaking time, now. Seriously.
• Those guys from Toronto actually one a game or two. That should be posted about before I forget. Again.
• Sadly, they also lost a shitload. That, I wish I could forget about posting about.

Related: Mixed in with the last couple weeks’ fun helping of funness were multiple large doses of snow. And yes, an extra side order of snow. I’m selling it for cheap. Want some? Please?

Now, let’s see how many of these hockey posts I can crank out before I go fall over. And later today, or tomorrow, a metric ton of mockery. No, I’m not kidding. I’m looking at two pages of blog material over here. And now I actually have time to post it. This might get very unpretty.

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the last couple days have been, well, oh my god busy in the extreme. Hence the lack of anything vaguely resembling a post in that time. Yeah, that includes hockey posts–but oh well. In really quick, list format. because I’ve only got a couple minutes and then it’s off to see the wizard. Or rather, collect my fiance. Whichever.

• Christmas shopping. Done. that only took creativity and money. Thank God that’s in short supply–oh wait, that’s a bad thing. Nevermind.
• Finalizing plans for Christmas at the parents’, as we usually have it every hear. Insane will probably be the word of the day.
• Mass amounts of grocery shopping. Jessica wants to do a Christmas breakfast, and dammit she’ll have her stuff for a Christmas breakfast. Even if it kills me. Or breaks the bank account. Thank God it did neither.
• As said, off to grab Jess from the bus station in a few. She’s up for Christmas, and then a somewhat shortened new years. Welcome to the one time New Years day ends up on a Saturday and she’s gotta work the Sunday.
• And in completely unrelated news: the blog may or may not be moving away from DreamHost, as part of a venture I’m currently a part of setting up. More details when I’m not trying to condense everything into bullet points.

That’s me this week. So how’s your holiday going?

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It being that time of year again, and me being insanely busy–as I very usually am when this time of year shows up, there hasn’t been a whole lot in the way of actual content up here that wasn’t something vaguely resembling mockery. Or something thrown at me from relatives via email–hello, previous entry. In compensation, have a list of some of my favourite posts from Christmas seasons past, over the blog’s 3 incarnations. And who knows, I may find time later on to do one or two to add to the list.

• They sure don’t do Christmas like we do Christmas.
• Christmas in the valley.
• I will never look at Christmas the same again.
• Best of the season to you and yours.
• And last but not least, My kind of cake recipe.

Enjoy your holidays, and try not to do anything I wouldn’t do. It’s probably bad for you.

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I have the good fortune, or not–depending on your perspective, to be in posession of a creditcard. Up until last week, the card worked pretty well flawlessly for anything from ordering pizza to paying the occasional bill online, in the event I’m too damn inpatient and/or lazy to bother with the slightly more traditional internet banking transfer. However, the last week or so, it’s decided to rather summarily flip me off. Randomly, it decided the CVV code I was using since I got the card–I only got the thing maybe last year or the year before–the code I’ve been using to make 90% of those purchases was no longer as valid as it was 5 minutes before I decided to use it. So I’ve been going through a pretty interesting little roundabout dance with Royal Bank, also known as them what issued my card. Their system, as much as they won’t actually admit it, appears to have ate my CVV code. This is more of a record of what’s going on for my own purposes, and well, in the event some other poor fool winds up with a similar problem. As things happen, I’ll probably come back to this post. My 7 days of fail started pretty much exactly a week ago. In list format, because. Lazy.

• After much arm twisting, teeth pulling, and generally screaming at folks, I got the fundage to purchase the screenreader I need from Frontier Computing
• Called them up and, after a bit of phone dancing, landed the purchase $1100 and some change later
• Fast forward to last Friday, we’re trying to throw money at things down on that other side of the border, requiring I change the address on the card temporarily to a US one–a thing I’ve done a few times before
• Change the address, go to make the payment, get declined due to CVV issues
• CVV is correct, and was entered multiple times by both myself and Shane just to be on the damn sure side
• Call up the bank, WTF at them for a few minutes, get told the CVV’s correct–well, yes, I had a feeling–and to call the merchant
• Rather than beat our heads against that right then, we try throwing a payment in the general direction of AT&T
• Once again, incorrect CVV, once again, we call the bank, once again, CVV is correct
• Make that payment to AT&T via a telephone rep, who *didn’t* ask for the CVV, and it goes through no problem
• Try to find a payment for our first attempted US payment over the phone, no luck
• Try online again, get summarily flipped off, call the bank and, yep, everything’s correct–it’s the merchant’s fault
• Switch back to the Canadian address, and we decide to finally find a use for one of my Tim Hortons gift cards–why in the hell I had two of them, I’ll never know–so it gets handed off to Shane, and we try to throw a few dollars at it via the card
• Once again, we get summarily flipped off because of the CVV, and once again, RBC blames the merchant–this is the third one who’s flipped us off re: the CVV, so now I’m a little less open to that possibility than I was before
• Saturday, we escentially get into hockey mode–which, of course, means pizza, which means ordering via creditcard on account of the bank machine’s over there and we’re not
• That, of course, goes through no problem–of course, they also don’t ask for the CVV either (Hey, I thought they should; not doing so was their idea.)
• Monday, we find out we have approximately 4 days to get paperwork into government offices, and not exactly world’s likeliest chance at being able to physically deliver it to the offending office–sometimes, not being able to drive and living in a small town gets to sucking hardcore
• We decide on a whim, since most if not all of what’s needed is available online, we’ll pull it to the local machine, sign up for a fax number (hello, MyFax), and fire it off to the office that way
• Assuming, since we know it can’t be the merchants all at once having issues it must be RBC that’s broken, and hoping against hope they’ve fixed it, we give signing up for it a try–and, once again, are summarily flipped off
• Now, I’m about irritated and decide screw it I’m going to bed–this was kind of squeezed in between and around various phone and other exchanges with people who generally couldn’t seem to find their way to a clue
• I give MyFax a try again several hours later, no go, Idaho–so again, decide to put it on the back burner until I figure out where the problem’s hiding out
• Rogers, in its infinite wisdom, decides to then pick this morning as the absolute perfect time to decide the money I threw in their general direction isn’t getting to them fast enough, so they flip the switch what puts an end to our phone service
• Not thinking, because why would I want to do that at 5:00 in the morning, I decide–hey, James, let’s just take care of what they say you owe them now and when their money catches up to them, they can just count that towards your next bill
• Of course, the broken that is my creditcard escapes me at this point, so I call in, go through the routine, get summarily flipped off again thanks to bad CVV
• Once again, call the bank, go a few rounds with the phone rep, who promptly blames the merchant–also, once again
• Walk all over this rep, then summarily flip him off
• Take a break from dealing with this, call Rogers directly, apply the appropriate clue that says they will get their money when I have it and not a minute before, then take care of some highly unrelated business before tackling this again
• Call back to RBC, get a rep who’s first response isn’t quite so much to blame the merchant or, for that matter, RBC’s second favourite thing to blame throughout this issue–me
• He does, at least, confirm no, the $1100 and change purchase didn’t likely set off alarms that, in simplest of terms, broke my card
• Go a round or two with him, he also confirms the CVV does what it’s supposed to, decides something about the card’s dead–no, really?
• Sends me out a replacement card, different card number, different CVV, same lovely little creditcard balance–but at least I got a shiny new interest rate out of it

So far, we still have absolutely no freaking idea what made my card go sideways. RBC blames the people I’m giving the info to, or me for entering the wrong info. Everyone I give the info to blames the bank for not confirming it, or me for giving them the wrong info. The bank is able to varify my info, shooting holes in half of both their theories. And I still sit here confused. This thing, whatever it is, isn’t over yet–not, I suspect, by any means. The post will probably be added to as things develop. I should have the new card in about a week or so, and if it’s just as broken, RBC and me will go yet another round. Sometimes, I love banking breakage. Only not really.

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And, surprise surprise, it reminds me why it is I wouldn’t lose too much sleep over not getting out to vote next week. In list format, because I’m lazy.

• Andrew Hayden: spending most of the debate picking at the other candidates, and interjecting his 0.5 cents where it’s not welcome–like, say, when someone else is supposed to have the floor. Go away, Andrew.
• Clive Doucet: Pro-LRT, anti-tunnel, no idea what he’ll do with municipal taxes to compensate–or if he knows, he sure as hell isn’t saying. Also: Really? You’ll criticise O’Brien on how he handled the OC Transpo strike, but you’ll give me the stink eye for criticising the same? And yeah, I’m still not a fan of spam. You go somewhere else, too. Just not the same place as Andy–I don’t think he likes you. Or anyone.
• Jim Watson/Larry O’Brien: Where’s the difference? One taxed us municipally, one taxed us provincially. Both are pro-LRT, pro-tunnel, anti-clue. And they spent the debate sniping back and forth at each other more than Andrew Hayden did at any of them. But aside from the fact Watson actually answered a question re: how much the LRT system would cost, whereas Larry well, um, did the exact opposite, they look very much the same to me.

I asked the candidates in the debate to maybe knock off the bickering and actually answer the questions being asked. I don’t particularly think they came close to doing that. If I didn’t one day plan to rmove back to the city, I might be inclined to view this more comically. As it is, though? I think I’m actually kind of scared. That’s not an easy accomplishment. Nice work, guys.

PS: Andy, the biggest criticism we had about Larry O’Brien is he wouldn’t work with city council. You didn’t even work with the moderators of the debate. You fail. That is all.

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In list format, because I’m just smashing these things together while one of the books are playing. And, for the record, Salvation In death? All of these observations rolled into one nifty little package.

• Eve Dallas is one hell of a snarky, sarcastic, bitchy bitch. I’d have a beer with her if she wasn’t fictional.
• Her husband’s very nearly as snarky sarcastic. Not quite as–Eve’s the main character, after all. But hey, if she was to wind up in a coma or something, the series might very well do just fine without her–so long as he didn’t end up in a coma right next to her.
• Some of the witnesses in this series? To call them airheads would be an insult to airheads everywhere.
• Some of the recurring supporting characters? See my commentary re: witnesses.
• The only female character who doesn’t have legs up to her very nice boobs is, once again, Eve. Who doesn’t even have the very nice boobs.
• Bright side: she’s got some pretty wicked social issues. Watching her work through them is kind of interesting.
• Holy royal hell. Just how many different and overly exagerated sexual positions can two people physically get tangled up in? Is she a bloody featherweight or something?
• Again with the flying cars. So 1960′s. At least these ones have GPS and autopilot. Now when can I drive one?

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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.

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Calling the last week or so busy would probably be an insult to busy weeks everywhere, but in a lot of ways, that’s exactly what it was. After the assessment of doom, I took it easy the rest of monday and did absolutely nothing. I needed the relaxation for the rest of the week. Tuesday night was pretty much the start of insanity. Small, relatively contained, but insanity.

Somehow, my nephew managed to be 10 months old without my knowing it. Which means if there’s something he could possibly get his hands on, he’s probably already done so. On tuesday, I went to give the mother a hand with minding him plus the two dogs. Fortunately for both of us, when I got there he was in bed and sleeping. Not fortunately for either one of us, by 7:00 the next morning he was up and ready to go, no questions asked. And go he did–all over the place whether we wanted to chase him there or not. We took him in to see the grandparents, and he was no less energetic when we got him there. This continued pretty much all day, with the exception of maybe an hour in the afternoon when we managed to actually convince him that it wasn’t, in fact, dangerous to his health to actually spend some time immobile for a few minutes. Right up until I think it might have been 9:00 or so, it was pretty nearly non-stop. We even took him for a short walk that afternoon–mostly because we could use the break, and then he’d pretty much just go where we pushed him. By the time we finally got him down for the night, we were more than ready to fall into bed shortly behind him. And, well, we did. And got just enough sleep that the 6:30 wake-up call he’d had in mind for thursday wasn’t quite as painful as I expected. As you could probably guess, most of thursday was spent–yep, doing the exact same thing. And taking turns trying to convince him to go down for a nap so we could get things done around the house that needed to get done–that to do list tends to get pretty long when the majority of your attention’s focused on one very adoreable, but very exhausting, kid. Of course, that didn’t actually end up happening; although between the two of us I think we might have managed to scratch one or two things off that list. Kevin dropped in to kidnap him back at about noonish or so, which gave us just enough time to try clearing off the rest of that list before we hit the floor from simple lack of energy. I don’t even remember most of what happened the rest of thursday beyond the usual routine, which is almost a safe bet for any day that isn’t overly filled with chaos. Of course, the couple days I just managed to survive meant I was pretty much a zombie for most of friday. I slept like the dead thursday night, and was the walking dead pretty well up until friday night.

While I was in recovery, and probably while I was less than conscious, Meka was doing her thing for the karaoke world championships. She’d made it to the state finals as of friday, and was competing there saturday night. My origional intent was to watch the event online, but technical difficulties–for once, not on my end–quickly put the breaks on that notion. I would learn later on that night that I ended up missing an awesome performance, giving her second place and a spot at the regional competition in August.

Yesterday was more time of the familial variety, with a meetup for breakfast then another run into the grandparents’ to kill a couple hours. Then it was back to taking it relatively easy for the evening.

This morning, I got my hands on the audio portion of Meka’s performances. And, with her permission, once she makes them available in video form on Youtube, they’ll make their way here. Now, I go chase after a couple dogs while the mother unit makes her way to work. She had a job interview this morning–glad one of us still gets those, so I’ve been over here since about 10:30. And will probably still be here at about 9:30 tonight. It’s gonna be a long ass day.

Busy or not, this week’s been surprisingly educational. A small sampling of things I learned, in list format. Because, really, who doesn’t like lists?

• Just because the kid’s not walking yet does not, in fact, mean he’s easy to catch.
• Or slow down.
• Or stop.
• Or keep track of if you’re not right behind him.
• When they decide they are not going down for a nap, you are not putting them there.
• Nor are you going to trick them into going for one. Don’t even try it.
• This includes playing with him even while he’s within an inch of falling asleep. He knows.
• This also includes his grandma sneaking off to the kitchen while his uncle plays with him even though he’s an inch from falling asleep. Again, he knows.
• This also includes his grandma sneaking off to the kitchen after he’s already asleep. I still can’t wrap my head around how, but he knows.
• I am apparently not the only one with a periodically screwed up sleep schedule. By the way, kid? This whole 6:30 thing is not healthy.
• The face kids that age make when you let them sample your coke? Awesome. Sorry, no video–I didn’t have my cell phone handy right then.
• Discovered by the nephew at breakfast: your food is good, but someone else’s food is always better.
• Yes, a 10-month-old can, in fact, get on top of your end table if he wants to bad enough.
• Or pull something off it.
• Or pull out the end table’s drawer if you aren’t presently leaning against it.
• Rules are meant to be broken. And gates that block off stairs to prevent infant head trauma are meant to be opened.
• Related: The fact you’ve just wedged the afore mentioned gate against the wall so you’d practically need a sledgehammer to remove it? That’s not discouragement. That’s a challenge.
• The second worst possible thing you could ever do is say no. The worst possible thing is mean it.
• Of course, he’ll probably do it anyway.
• Twice, just because you said no.
• And once more just for spite, I swear.
• 10 months old is not too young to start messing with people’s heads. Either that or this kid’s wickedly gifted.
• If and when I ever get around to having one, I’m investing in a goddamn leash. At least.

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I haven’t been keeping up on my usual sources of entertainment this week, primarily on account of having catching up to do in other areas. I kick myself for it now. In list format, because I can, things I could have, and should have, soundly mocked this week. You may feel free to mock one or all of them in the comments on my behalf. I won’t be upset.

• What’s the first thing you do if you’ve just been caught in an afair, and your significant other decides to up and leave you? If you’re this chick, you sue the cell company. Because, you know, there’s just no way he would have found out anyway.
• If in doubt, just nuke it. That’s a solution being tossed forward by an apparent expert for stopping the oil spill in the gulf. I’ll have my shrimp with a side order of radiation, please. I always thought “Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” was just a movie quote. Clearly, I don’t get out much.
• Ways not to impress the Afghanistan president, number 54761: call him a weirdo and predict he could trigger a civil war. Yes, even if he did say, supposedly jokingly, he might as well join the dark side. Yes, even if he’s not doing a whole lot better in charge of that country than the dark side. And yes, even if you are–as I think you would be–absolutely and completely 100% in the right. That’s just not cool–especially if you used to work in that country for the UN.
• When even actors are downloading their own movies because it’s more convenient and less annoying than paying for them, you know there’s a problem. Question is, what’s the industry planning to do about it? Answer: probably not much–that would actually require effort.
• And, in the political arena, because I can’t go on a mocking spree without it, we have this wonderful piece of I’m not sure what. Liberal party of Canada leader Michael Ignatieff would just like you to know that, if you didn’t spend all that much time outside of Canada and living as varied a life as he has, you’re not as Canadian as he is. Might I ask, exactly from what planet was he exiled before landing in Ottawa? I didn’t know spending 30+ years in the US and/or the UK–he did both–made anyone more Canadian than the next. Boy have I been set straight.
• And in unrelated news, Montreal won tonight. I thought I told folks to fix the playoffs. They’re still broken.

See what happens when I stay away from news sources? People don’t get mocked. Clearly, we can’t have that.

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Because the few major problems it has need no explanation, have an increasingly rare list format rant. The target? That thing Microsoft would like to call an improved browser.

• The browser crashes more in one day than Windows ME ever did in a week. I’d know–I’ve used both.
• Websites I can access just fine in IE 7, or in firefox, break IE 8. Badly.
• IE 8′s ability to restore tabs on a crash? Absolutely useless–it fails more than it succeeds, leading me to need to fight with it to get back to where I was and pray it doesn’t crash again anyway.
• Its “fast search” functionality? Yeah, crashes at least once per restart. Fail.
• It really makes me wish my parents’ computer, which is currently running IE 8–I’m fixing that the next time I’m over there, wouldn’t threaten to fall over every time I want to install something new. I’d be going Firefox in a real hurry over there if it didn’t.

Yes, IE 8 is on my parents’ computer. I have no idea who put it there–this one’s at least running 7, and it’s actually more stable. When next I have a couple hours, IE 8 is going to find itself taken out back, sat in the middle of the lawn, and shot. Call it a mercy killing–my mercy. There are rumours IE 9′s around the corner. I hope to God it handles itself better than 8. For its own sake.

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And, because you can probably figure out why on your own without elabouration, list format. Because it’s good.

• Sarah Palin joins up with Fox News? Who didn’t see that one coming from a mile away? Really.
• Simon Cowell to say goodbye after this season of Idol? I’m surprised he lasted this long. And considering there’s already tension between him and Paula’s new, non-musically inclined replacement, come on. You didn’t miss this did you?
• One child per family is going to end up being bad news for China, but who didn’t figure on that. By 2020, they’re projecting 24000000 single men. I wonder if Canada and the US would consider a woman shortage criteria for refugee status.
• And, the well duh award of 2010 goes to? Mark McGwire bulked up with the help of steroids during his record breaking year. And finally admits it. Not that the admission was required–he hasn’t come close to being that good since, and if he was naturally that good he’d of managed to pull it off. Nope, no surprises here.

If stuff gets any more obvious it’s probably going to put news reporters out of business. Which some would argue might not be a bad thing. Oh well, at least we’re not hearing about Stephen Harper and the non-parliament again. I’ll take it.

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It’s been a relatively quiet year, all things considering, with the majority of the excitement coming in the last few months. In fact, so little has happened that I do believe I’ll pull out one of my rare list format entries. So, without further delay, my year, in a nutshell.

• Nothing professionally to speak of, save for a few interviews that didn’t actually lead anywhere
• Spent plenty of time on both sides of the border with Jessica, getting even closer to her than we were already
• Got to watch my cousin Stephen get married, the third in this bracket of our family to do so
• Had to return to disability against my will after unemployment insurance ran out, what with the nonexistent professional life at the moment as mentioned above
• Moved back to the Petawawa/Pembroke area as a result of having lost said unemployment insurance
• And, in and around all of this, became an uncle to a potential future quarterback

All in all, a few bumps and scrapes but an otherwise fairly average, bordering on dull, year. I’d like to say I hope 2010 turns out the same way, but really, I like a little more excitement than that. And I wouldn’t say no to a job. But, that was 2009. One of these days I’ll actually come up with a resolution for the next year. But it won’t be today.

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Being outside of Canada for a month, and used to the American way of doing things, these just hit me as true facts–mostly because I think I’ve done most of them since I’ve been back. And, because they probably need no elabouration, you get them in list format. Enjoy.

• Regardless where you are, or for how long you’re there, the return trip–and, optionally, the trip there–almost always includes a stop for coffee.
• The said coffee stop, almost every time, is at your local neighbourhood Tim Hortons–of which every community has at least one.
• It’s not a complete day until, whether you’re home or not, you’ve checked on the score for your local hockey team.
• A sudden change from virtually snow free to pretty well drowning in snow provokes little more than a thought of “Yep, it’s Christmas.”.
• The said sudden change in snow, instead of making you consider that maybe your hat and gloves shouldn’t have stayed in your suitcase, makes you contemplate how best to introduce the nearest person to you to the nearest snowbank to you.
• If not a snowbank, the idea of a snowball fight comes as both a very appealing prospect and, to most, a very natural one.
• A visit with relatives isn’t a visit with relatives until at least 1 of you has at least 1 beer.
• Similarly, beer is not beer if it’s watered down. Canadians don’t drink that other crap.
• Perhaps the most puzzling but not the most surprising of the observations. We don’t usually make them about ourselves. Who would like this post in their name?

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I have no idea why, but sometimes, just for random amusement or because I’m way too lazy to do much of anything else, the best way I find to get my point(s) across on here is in list format. I actually started it while I was still using LJ–and, in fact, probably picked it up from Michelle–as a way of writing things down that I either don’t want to, or don’t plan to right now, go into further detail on. Probably also explains why I’m starting to get back into Twitter at about the same time I considered getting back into blogging. I’m probably just as likely to release a brief blurb about something as I am to go into elaborate detail about it, so they kind of fit rather well together, I think. What I’m likely to go into list format about–in list format:

• Random, possibly unrelated points with little to no explanation behind them
• Thoughts of the day, as they happen and as I remember to write them
• To do lists–I occasionally make those
• Recaps of possibly related posts, where appropriate
• Ideas for a project that I haven’t fully fleshed out yet
• Entries not unlike this one

Of course, there’s just a lot of things that make it to Twitter that don’t really need any further explanation–or, for that matter, belong on a blog. Or if they do, they belong there after events have happened that actually give them context. That’s also why my Twitter feed’s in the sidebar, and why you can follow it here. I may also make 2 or 3 obscure mentions of something, either on Twitter or on the blog, that don’t get expanded upon for a couple days. That’s generally what happens when I get particularly lazy. And, possibly, it may be a semi-good reason to not be so quick to switch to bullet points/list format/whatever you want to call it. But, it’s worked for me. If it ever stops working for me, then I’ll think about changing my ways. If it doesn’t take too much effort–see the lazyness claim above.

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In list format, because lazy is me.

• Microsoft can, in fact, make a program that doesn’t die horribly when you try to add something extra to it. They just don’t do it very often.
• Clearly, some people’s definition of accessibility is far different from mine. This is why we have issues, folks.
• I have incredible patience for technology that doesn’t want to cooperate.
• I have no patience for people who don’t want to cooperate.
• even greyhound.ca works sometimes. Now hopefully it’ll work when I want to actually buy the ticket.
• Even when I have plenty of energy, list format is still for the win.
• PS: Job market, I still hate you.

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