And this time, the no contest nod goes to my ISP for taking for freaking ever to escentially flip a switch. I’d originally got told before I moved up here that I’d have everything activated by the 6th of this month. Okay, so that’s not bad. I can live with that. Except not really. Because when I got up here, it turns out I was handed a fair amount of wrong information. The phone number I was originally given when I signed up for phone service earlier last month was wrong. And I’d been handing that out to people getting other things set up. So I spent about a week or so fixing all *that* up. Then, apparently, because the phone number I got was wrong, certain activation of other things (see: long distance service, and quite probably internet) needed to be considerably pushed back a fair bit. And then, they decided to be incredibly nonspecific about when exactly I could expect certain things to be turned on. So, I ended up spending most of yesterday at home, waiting for people to figure out what they were trying to do, only to be told at about 6:00 last night that I didn’t actually have to stay home. Gee, that would have been nice to know before my day was pretty well shot in the ass. So, to be rather blunt, people suck royally. At least, the people I was forced to deal with suck royally. If I ever end up that bad at my job, someone please do me a favour and shoot me. Repeatedly.
-
My opinion of relying on other people remains uncontested.
-
I’m back, and mostly unpacked!
And it only took me a small eternity. Seeing as it’s now 5:00 in the morning and I’ve not yet been to bed, I’ll try not to make this entry too painfully long. That said, though, I do have one thing to say right quick. Being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, while living in Ottawa, is quite possibly the only bad thing about living in Ottawa. And only because I’ve yet to see the Leafs actually play a game since I moved here. Not that it matters really, since the games I missed seem to have been wasted efforts anyway–thanks loads, Mike, for briefly catching me up on the train wrecks that were the last 3 games or so. Hm. I start work in… not counting today, 3 days. And there is a chance I will freeze my ass off on my first day. This, compounded by a 4:30 wake-up call on said first day (by the way, uber le damn!), does not make for a truely wonderful beginning to my working experience. But, on the bright side, I get paid to sit there and listen to someone go on and on about things that probably won’t even need to be talked about for another month or so, when they actually, you know, become an issue. So, I’ll take it. Hmmm… I had more to say, but after banging my head against a wall dealing with my internet people, and staying up until now getting everything working the way it needs to be, I need sleep. And then, I need to go look over certain individuals’ blogs I have missed reading over the last week or so. There will be at least one rant later today, that’s a guarantee. But for now, I’m moved in, I’m mostly unpacked save the, like, one or two boxes sitting in my closet, and now I actually have my interweb. And now, sleep. Then cleaning. Then potentially laundry. Then ranting. Or maybe ranting then laundry. Or ranting then cleaning. I’ll figure it out later. G’night ‘n things!
-
Moving day.
In the span of two days, I have managed to get every single thing I needed out of the way, and in record time. Which… actually explains my rather lacking blogness for the majority of those two days. And now, paperwork is in the hands of the Dell folks, rental applications are secured, checks made out, final rounds made to make sure everything’s packed, and my parents’ computer nearly updated. As I write this, a moving van is outside being loaded, and in less than an hour, I shall be Ottawa bound, a one-way trip to a whole new level of oh my god I’ve lost my fucking mind. And, on that lovely note, I shall be back with a vengance in very nearly a week’s time. You are not allowed to miss me!
-
Writing tips, for the aspiring author in you.
Pilfered shamelessly from Alyson, but primarily because I’m too goddamn lazy to actually write anything.
Writing Tips
1. Do not get side-tracked. If onions are the most consumed vegetable in the world, why are fire engines red?
2. Avoid starting sentences with a non-specific pronoun. It is not a good way to begin.
3. Prepositions are words you should not end sentences with.
4. Avoid clichés like the plague. Now ain’t that the pot calling the kettle black.
5. Keep away from ampersands & abbreviations, etc. within the body of the text.
6. Parenthetical remarks are unnecessary (and should be avoided).
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions shouldn’t appear in your paper.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos or chic.
10. Like most people, one should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Mark Twain once said: ”Quoting the witticisms of others only shows the lack of quotable wit.”
12. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it is very excessive.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement.
18. Can I use one-word sentences? No.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid jargon or gibberish.
22 Who needs rhetorical questions?
23 Be careful to use apostrophe’s correctly.
24. Do not use them pronouns as modifiers.
25. And never start a sentence with a conjunction. And, but, and or will not get you very far. -
Things I can do.
I’d blame Pixie for this outright, butI probably owe her for apparently forcing her to do this some time ago. Which reminds me–remember when I said your turn’s coming, Stacie? 😛 And without further delay…
Things I can do, a list by me:
Play piano and
Attempt to play guitar and
Sing fairly decently and
Be a sounding board for just about anyone and
Not actually strangle the stupid people that interfere with my life and
Make potentially life-altering and long-term decisions and not get oerly stressed about it and
Find a song for just about any mood/situation and
Write a song for most occasions and
Tell a lot about a person before they say a thing and
Do all of this while the overall pace of my life seems to pick up two-fold…
Not much to the list, but my brain is currently not functional enough to think anymore. All are encouraged to toss this up on their own blogs if they have one, or leave it in a comment. Or even both! -
Buh bye Tellqvist!
Phoenix gets a dud, and we get another 4th-liner. But we no longer have a dud! I already opinionated about it on Mike’s blog, but it deserves to be said again. No more Tellqvist can only be a good thing. Which is more than I can probably say for mister Tellqvist…
-
Hey, there’s no more screaming kids…
Quebec must have gotten what they wanted, and ended up being recognised as a bloody nation in and of itself. Well, on the bright side, now that leaves the door open for the next government to take away any federal assistance they’ve been getting, just like any other province in Canada’s been getting. When I said I wouldn’t notice, I must not have taen into account there’d be all manner of cellebrating in the house of commons, the type of which apparently needs to be headlined. Hm… are they cellebrating because Quebec is finally a nation, or because Quebec is finally not Canada’s problem? Jurry’s still out…
-
Blah.
I can tell today is already going to be the day from hell, and it’s only coming up on 10:30. The obvious indicator of it should have been when the phone started ringing more often for my way too soon to be sister-in-law than for anyone who actually lives here. Not helped was it by the fact her damn dog reminds me very much of those kids you just wanna tie to a chair and inject with the heaviest sedative going until their parents come to collect them, which in and of itself is going to be still way too far away from now. I just hold my breath, count to 10, thank the gods I move in 4 days–starting to count hours, now, too–and wait for the inevitable screw-up that will no doubt result in my sister-in-law being given the choice of either finding that damn dog a home or having it shot. I love my family, but there are a few members I could stand not to see for a good long time. She’s becoming one of them.
And in other news… I officially kick myself for picking the apartment I did. There’s gonna be a fair bit of walking involved in finding my bus stop. Not good if you’re a lazy fuck, and well, I am. And it’s gonna be a uber bitch come the days of 20 below. Ah well, can’t have it all. Good job, good apartment, decent city, so of course the location’s gonna turn out crappier than it looks. Then again, that’s why they invented carpooling. Or I can always, you know, take my own advice and stop bitching, suck it up and walk, dammit. But, no. It’s my blog, I’ll bitch if I goddamn well wanna bitch. Then I’ll suck it up and walk.
This unusual combination of topics brought to you by boredom. Screwing people out of being distracted/entertained for longer than I care to guess at. -
This dog of my brothers…
Is really making me reconsider whether or not I want kids. It’s a good thing I don’t plan to sleep. Too bad same can’t be said for my parents, who planned to be on the road for Ottawa tomorrow by 5:30 tomorrow.
-
The 2006 Santa Clause parade.
As we do every year, a good portion of my family–that being a couple of my aunts, a few cousins, my mom, me, and now my future sister-in-law–took in the traditional Pembroke parade tonight, the first time in a long time they actually held the parade in the evening. Not that it was anything too noteworthy, other than the change in time… there was the occasional interesting float, but for the most part, the parade was a little bit on the meh side. I might have been better off going to the one in Ottawa, but of course, that was last week. And there was only one band to start off the thing. Even when compared to last year’s parade, this one was a bit disappointing. Also disappointing, though, was that it was the first or second time my sister-in-law had actually been to one of these, and she’s lived here as long as or longer than me. Although, I think it’s more disappointing that the first or second one she’s ever been to sucked so bad as this one. On the bright side, though, at least the parade’s suckage wasn’t compounded by a loss of feeling in the extremeties, as most often is the case. I just wish that did something for the actual enjoyment factor.