I’ll be the first to admit you shouldn’t need a special day to set aside for the sole purpose of doing something with/for the person you love. And I’d even question that particular day’s actual validity to anyone who isn’t Christian–kinda like me, which is probably why I don’t see the point behind it. But even I haven’t gone so far as to say Valentine’s day should be outlawed. However, if you live in Iran, well, first, I’m sorry. And second, they did. Folks, it’s official. There is no love lost in Iran. None found, either. Somebody get this whackjob dictator a girlfriend. Like, now.
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No love lost in Iran. Valentine’s day’s now illegal.
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Hey, Ottawa? Don’t borrow this idea from Calgary. Kay?
Apparently, cab companies in the Calgary, Alberta area are considering the possibility of charging people a “late ride fee” for the need to get somewhere via taxi between 10:00 PM and 4:00 AM. They say it’s to pay for vehicle upkeep/maintenance etc. I think I’ll just call bullshit right about now. After about midnight, at least in Ottawa–note I’ve never lived in Calgary–bus routes tend to get themselves shut down for the night. After about 1:00 in the morning, if you ain’t got a ride home from a coworker, or a wickedly awesome family member who doesn’t mind coming to fish your ass from work and dumping you in your driveway at half past dark, you ain’t got a ride home. Unless you feel like coughing up the $30 or so to get yourself home at half past dark in the morning. They start thinking about increasing their fees just during those hours, and I’m going to once again start questioning why on God’s green and blue planet OC Transpo still doesn’t run 24 hours.
Now, granted I don’t know what the transit situation’s like in Calgary, but if it’s anything like Ottawa, the cab driver’s probably your best friend after about 11 in some places, 1:00 everywhere else. Or, if you’d prefer, no bus fair plus no driver’s license equals no real choice–whichever you rather. And you probably already have to get creative to be able to aford to get yourself home from work after the place closes down at 1:00 in the morning–oh yeah, that was fun. Really. And along comes a “late ride fee” of an indeterminate amount to be slapped on your bill along with whatever’s charged on the meter? Yeah, I think not.
Calgary, if you’re smart, you’ll give this idea a second thought. Then promptly toss it under the bus where it belongs. Ottawa, for the love of chese, pretend you don’t actually see this idea. Trust me, it’s not a very good one. Now if only that served to convince me you wouldn’t go on ahead and run with it. What I wouldn’t do for a 9:00-5:00 job now.
PS: This could also serve as a kick in the ass to make OC Transpo 24/7. Also not holding my breath on *that* idea, but it wouldn’t hurt.
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Maple Leafs 5, Senators 1.
I’m not sure what was more entertaining. That we actually won, convincingly, or that we did it against those bastards from Ottawa. *In* Ottawa. I’m gonna say nearer to both. And for a change, I actually managed to stomach the CBC website long enough to pull up the game replay. You may find me bitching slightly less about that network now. Slightly. And hey look, the suck factor’s a little less disgusting over there. Still nowhere near the playoffs, but I can accept this.
- Wins: 14
- Losses: 23
- Shootout Wins: 2
- Shootout Losses: 2
- Points: 32
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Rogers, you and I need to talk. Again.
Yes, I know it’s your mission in life to make dealing with you as overly confusing and all around draining as humanly possible. I get it. I can appreciate that. Hell, I don’t even mind being part of it–especially if it means you pay me and my cell phone bill goes down by roughly half. I like this idea. What I don’t like is the idea that a simple phone replacement ends up becoming way too convoluted for our own goddamn good, and on top of it, takes 9 phone calls and just about exactly a month to actually resolve. And that includes running over at least two managers to get it done. You sent us a phone we can’t use. We asked you to replace the phone. We told you what phone to replace it with. We were even more than willing to pay the $10 to buy the thing–even though that made me kind of cringe a little inside. So why’d it have to go and be all manner of difficult after that point?
You had to provision us a third line in order to send out the phone. Okay, we get that. You were more than willing to cancel one of the lines when we received the phone and let us return the old one. We get that, too–thanks for that, by the way. That was almost too easy. Which, I suppose, should have given me reason to start developing that nervous twitch I get right about the time things start going to shit. It didn’t. My mistake.
We sent back the phone, as agreed. We sent back the third line’s sim card as well, simply because you shipped it to Petawawa with an Ottawa number. Yeah, brilliant. Really. We then got the pleasure of playing hell for the month of December trying to get that line cancelled. By the way, do you have any idea how difficult it is to clue someone who doesn’t appear to be overly enthused about actually doing that whole listening thing? Neither did I until now.
Just this morning, after bouncing right over yet another customer service agent’s head and speaking to–and cluing once again–yet another manager, the Ottawa number is *finally*, I hope to hell, deader than dead. But that really didn’t need to take this much arm twisting to accomplish, Rogers. No, not even if the first 7 agents I spoke to were brainless. Work on this. For serious. Because the first time someone else comes out with a phone I don’t have to bastardise to get to actually speak to me, I’m running like hell anywhere else. I pay you guys way too much to have to do this dance.
PS: By the way, thanks for the $56 credit on the account. It’s the least you could do, considering I had to go chasing after my scheduled callback. Let’s not do this dance again.
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2010’s most read blog posts.
I started this latest incarnation of the blog in late 2009 and had absolutely no idea where it’d end up going. Over a year later, I still have absolutely no idea where it’s going. But I have a thousand or so posts to show for it. Here’s what caught people’s attention last year. Now I get to start reminding myself every 5 minutes to write 2011. I hate you, calendar.
- Last year was a continuation of the year of the geek, started at about the midway point of 2009. And in november, it culminated in the instalation of an OS inside an OS. I had some issues, but nothing a complete reinstall couldn’t fix. Perhaps this year I’ll get around to breaking it.
- I have the pleasure of having spent the last year on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). It took me not very long to figure out we’re not a whole lot less screwed over by this system than we were in 2006 when I left in favour of work. I wrote a few open letters to various political figures re: the current situation. I’ll probably write a few dozen more. You can find all of them I’ve sent so far over here.
- In 2008, Dell closed its Ottawa office, putting an end to several hundred jobs–including mine. The city of Ottawa didn’t do a whole lot to help us out back then. Neither did the provincial or federal governments. Flash forward to March of last year, when an outsourcing call center, convergys, did the same to its Ottawa office. This time, those employees got help. Nearly 9 months later and this post still made it into the top 5 reads. It’s a top 3 read on the year.
- H1N1 was declared dead in August of last year. And not 48 hours later, they’d picked a new one to replace it. And hey look, the H1N1 vaccination may not apply. Be scared, now. Except not really.
- American Airlines needs an education in the worst way. In October of this year, a blind traveller had to surrender his cane for fear it could be used as a weapon. Also in October, I asked what kind of crack they were smoking. To this day, people are still asking.
- Back to the ODSP theme for a second. In September, there was a brief episode of discussion on the blog after ODSP was ordered to make payments to two alcoholic recipients. The human rights tribunal had escentially declared an unwillingness to deal with alcoholism a disability. ODSP had been fighting it for years and, in my opinion, rightly so. Not everyone agreed with me. Fortunately, that’s why I do this.
- Clive Doucet doesn’t much like me. And with good reason. In 2009, I exchanged a brief series of emails with him over the OC Transpo strike that virtually shut down parts of the city. Since then, he’d been mailing me promotional material re: his position as city counsellor, and later, his platform as mayoral candidate. I asked him to stop. Then, I told him to stop. Then, I ranted. Fortunately he’s no longer a city counsellor. Bright side: he stopped.
- Everyone who knows me knows I haven’t legally purchased a CD in years. Nearly everyone I know can probably say the same. In May of 2010, with the help of another blog I frequently read, I explained why. I still haven’t heard very many, if any, opposing points of view. And even less of those that haven’t already been disproven 6 ways from Sunday.
- I’ve been using Linode for some of my interests for a few years. Now, it hosts a small portion of the professional endeavor I’m currently involved in setting up–more on that when we’ve got the groundwork laid out. A very nifty promotion in June nearly prompted me to move everything. Occasionally, I still consider doing so–though now, I may just move it to the afore mentioned professional endeavor. No, you’re not getting details yet.
- Technology hasn’t been very nice this year. Neither have the various cellular phone cariers. Wind Mobile, champions of the “we’re different” line of thinking, was a little extra naughty in October. I called their CEO out for it. Surprise, I still haven’t heard back. And neither has the customer who commented on that post. Different? Perhaps not.
- June was a busy, and surprising, month in the James household. Linode promotions, birthday cellebrations, time spent with family, and of course, getting engaged. I’m still not used to that last one. It’s a nice feeling, though.
- And lastly, my current web host is usually uber awesome. Largely part of why I have yet to pack up and move everything–see above. Sometimes, though, they’re awesome in ways not immediately noticeable to potential new customers. Like when they mistakenly send you an email offering customers who haven’t gone VPS a discount to do so after you’ve already done so. And then, because they can, giving you the discount. You made my year, DreamHost. Now please try not to break things–that’s my job.
That’s 2010 according to the blog. Sadly, or perhaps not so, the year’s been fairly uneventful otherwise–kind of how I like it. There are one or two things that didn’t get posted, or make the list. You’ll see those tonight. Or tomorrow. Or eventually. So how was your 2010?
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Because emergency rooms don’t require doors.
A British Columbia man, feeling he wasn’t getting seen by local ER staffers fast enough, decided to take matters into his own hands. Since part of the wait time between arival and being seen involves getting the patient through the emergency room door, he thought he’d be nice about it and solve part of that problem. So, after expressing his displeasure at being made to wait, he left the ER and got into his vehicle. Then he came back. In his vehicle. And there was no more emergency room door. There was also no more need for him to wait–the local police were more than happy to take him somewhere to get looked at. I guess you could say everybody wins. Except this guy–I don’t think he’s got a license at the moment.
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Popular posts (December, 2010).
Mayhem was apparently the name of the game this month. Non-stop fun–from roommates to financial creativity to parties to significant visits. And oh yeah I think there might have been a holiday or two in there somewhere. Holiday notwithstanding, though, you folks still found something interesting over here. I’m sorry. Still, here’s what brought you to me in december, as always, brought to you by Google Analytics.
- Sometimes, an iPhone is just an iPhone. Yes, even when it’s in the hands of a blind University of Ottawa student. And sometimes, people forget that. That’s why we have posts like this. No need to thank me–that’s why I’m here.
- Del.icio.us was scheduled to be shut down earlier this month. Then it wasn’t. Then it was scheduled to be sold. And now, who knows. Until recently, I didn’t know anyone who actually used the service. I’m still holding out for one of those alternatives.
- Back in 2008, I told Sympatico, my then ISP, to kindly jump off a bridge. I made the switch to TekSavvy based on several recommendations and my own research. Around the beginning of December, I cancelled them. And by the sounds of it, I’m probably not the only one–probably for similar reasons.
- You could almost call this a sequel to my TekSavvy experiences. In fact, when I wrote that particular entry, I very nearly did. Now, I know I’m not the only one who cancelled for similar reasons. Or at least thought about it. And this guy was new. I still don’t have a whole lot of faith in you over here, TekSavvy. Get with it.
- Windows Mobile and I don’t like each other. Okay, more adequately put, Windows Mobile makes a regular habbit of summarily flipping me off and I’d like nothing better than to push Windows Mobile off a cliff. It probably didn’t help that it was on one of freedom Scientific‘s Pacmates, but this month, I’m going to stick with blaming Windows Mobile. I mini-ranted about it this past week, after it escentially made checking Jessica‘s email a much more complicated afair than it really had to be. I still feel like ranting about it–perhaps it’ll hold itself over until February.
That’s the blog in December, in a nutshell. Yeah, a little more boring than usual–which in and of itself took some effort. Sorry. Stick around, though–it may or may not improve.
Randomly related: Google used to be my largest source of trafic. Now, it’s Twitter. Thanks, guys. I don’t know what you see over here, but thanks. Now just don’t go running in the other direction and we’ll both be happy.
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Ending 2010 with a splat.
As eventful for some as 2010 turned out to be, it all lead up to last night–at least as far as we were concerned. It was the last night Jessica would be spending here, and well, we were long overdue for a party. That meant pizza, beverages of choice–we did coke and coffee, music, and a thing that vaguely took the shape of a year-end radio show. Except for those parts where it fell all over the floor and kind of stayed there. Then, we somehow managed to survive long enough for today to get here and it was off to the bus station to return Jess to her side of the border, however unwillingly. From my own perspective, I started off 2011 much the same as I did 2010–Jessica hung out here, and we just did the laid back party type thing. The only difference was Shane saw fit to join us, and for the purpose of that mass amount of breakage that called itself a show, Byron drove the year-end countdown. It’s been easy since, what with the family taking the long way back via my aunt’s place from the bus station and then me subsequently flopping over and staying there for a few minutes. Still, after last night, and this past week, I think it’s deserved.
If you missed last night’s show because you actually had the good fortune to have a life, you’re lucky. But if you still want to experience that which we affectionately call brain breakage, it’s been rather haphazardly dumped over here. I’ll warn you now, this thing is definitely not fit for public consumption. But since when is anything else I’m involved in? Hope your New Years thinggy was as much fun as ours was. And I really hope this thing doesn’t break the archive system. I don’t even like doing tech support for our own crap for free.
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Blue Jackets 3, Maple Leafs 2.
Welcome to 1 step forward, 3 steps back. We played the hell out of that game yesterday. We even walked away with a lead or two. Of course, then we had to play the third period. Yeah, we played. Or rather, pretended to. And we uh, fell over. Yeah, it hurt. Now where’d we put .500 again?
- Wins: 13
- Losses: 23
- Shootout Wins: 2
- Shootout Losses: 2
- Points: 30
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It’s the most chaotic time of the year.
Whoever said the Christmas holidays were made for relaxing and taking it easy has clearly not met me, my fiance, or my family. busy is probably the understatement of the century–or at least the year. After Jessica showed herself on the 24th, it’s been pretty well non-stop. christmas morning at home, then with the parents for visiting, food, gifts, food, conversation, food, food, and food. Shane joined us for the food and we all gained 25 pounds overnight. Jess and I also tagged along to the grandparents beforehand. after the appropriate amount of stuffing ourselves, we took off downstairs for movies and were later visited by the brother and his beginning family. Then we came back here and were escentially useless until boxing day.
Next morning it was up and gone, and early. The parents needed a house sitter, and Jess and I needed something to do. So, we all got what we wanted. We stayed overnight at the parents’ place, and subsequently missed the first post-Christmas hockey game–hey, LeafsTV? Get yourselves on basic cable/satelite. I mean right now. Got back from that semi-late, so didn’t cause much more mayhem. We saved that for the next day.
Tuesday was the thinggy of doom, which according to certain people actually wasn’t entirely too broken. If you actually listened to the thinggy of doom, I’m very, very sorry. No, seriously. So sorry, in fact, that I may just throw another post up here once I’ve sufficiently blocked it out of my memory with the archive link. We may or may not do another thinggy and call it a year end show. We will, if we do, do it significantly less drunk than we did the last one. That incredibly broken one. I’m still sorry. No, really.
As a result of that thing that broke so horribly all over the place, yesterday does not exist. No. Not a chance. It’s gone. we were all pretty useless for most of the day. So useless, in fact, that we’ve done something that, in this house, has never happened–put on coffee at about noon. When most of us were semi-conscious. If by semi-conscious one means looking vaguely like a dress rehearsal of Dawn of the Dead. And then, after we thought we’d sufficiently blocked out that thinggy of doom from our memories, we listened to the archive. Yes, it really *is* that broken. There were parts of the archive in question all three of us had to listen to again just to make sure what actually happened actually happened. Yeah, it broke. Badly. We’ll never do that again. Until next time.
Today’s been easy. Playing catch-up after the holidays, getting things ready for stuff that may or may not happen at year’s end, and generally continuing the recovery process. That’ll probably continue right up until we end up sitting back and watching our poor hockey team get trampled on by Columbus. I forget exactly what we did at the end of 2009. With a little luck, I might remember pieces of what we did at the end of 2010. Say hello to the most chaotic time of the year. But damn if it isn’t wicked nifty cool. Now, excuse me while I go back to it.