I'm pondering whether it would be an effective political statement to list myself on my municipal assessment as Catholic by religion, but as a supporter of the public school board. Do they keep stats that would show the number of Catholics voting public? I do have the right to identify as Catholic since I was baptized, but I'd rather not do so unless it would be an effective political statement.

So I've been doing a bit of math. Ernie Eves wants to give tax refunds on mortgage interest, to a maximum of $500 per year.

Okay, this might concern me, since I'm looking at taking on ownership within the next 10 years. Let's see - I make paying off debts a high priority, I'll probably be in a 2 income situation when I start owning, so we'd probably get the mortgage paid off within 10 years. 10 * 500 = 5000. So I'd have an overall savings of $5000.

But, you know, these tories have also made my life quite a bit more expensive. For example, university tuition went way up on their watch. If they had continued to fund universities properly and regulate tuition, I would have saved at least $1000 a year, or $4000.

And I would be saving $1000-$3000 per year if they hadn't nuked all the rent controls. Even if I rented for just one year, that and the tuition already obliterate any savings on mortgage interest.

But wait - the tories also cut funding to public transit, pushing fares way up! The cost of a metropass has gone up $15 per month since I moved to Toronto, and there were 4 years of tory rule before that! And they haven't increased minimum wage to account for inflation, and I had 5 years where my pay was minimum wage or based on minimum wage! If they had increased minimum wage for inflation, a full-time minimum wage earner would be making $3500 more per year now than in 1995! (I, personally, would have earned about $5000 more over the last 5 years). Now if I had all this money back in my pocket, I could save up a down payment faster and/or come into ownership with a larger down payment, which would do far more to reduce my overall interest payments than a measly $500 per year.

The moral of the story? Use your calculator before you let the tories bribe you.

Just past midnight last night, and I have to go to the bathroom. I go, do my business, and push down on the lever that flushes the toilet. The toilet begins flushing, the water flowing down and carrying the contents of the toilet with it. As I'm washing my hands, it fills back up just like it always does. As I'm about to leave the bathroom, I notice the toilet hasn't stopped making toilet noises. I look, and the water is swirling back down again? WTF? As I open up the toilet tank to see what's going on , it fills back up again. Then it starts swirling down again, flushing for a third time. Inside the toilet tank everything looks fine. The water level is a bit low because it just flushed, but the thingy that lets the water flow out of the tank is closed like normal and the tank is filling back up like it should be. As the toilet fills up for a third time, I start panicking. How do I make it stop? Should I call my parents or my supers? It's late at night for grownups - is this enough of an emergency to wake people up?

Then the toilet stops and sits there normally like nothing ever happened.

I back away slowly and hide under the covers.

Toronto police are taking DNA samples from everyone in the target demographic who lives in Holly Jones' neighbourhood. This doesn't strike me as good police work. To me, it give the impression that they have no leads whatsoever. Don't get me wrong, I have no objection to any action that results in the capture of a pedophile rapist murderer, but it does seem rather haphazard for your strategy to be "Okay, we'll test EVERYONE!."

Meanwhile, Time magazine is asking if anyone would notice if Canada disappeared. (This isn't a link to the Time article, but rather to an article in the Star refuting it. I'll get to this in a moment.) First of all, I hope that no one would notice if Canada disappeared. I see no shame in not being a major player on the global scene, and I would much rather be a minor player. Look what happens to superpower: they get enemies. Meanwhile, can you think of anyone who would declare war on Canada, other than the US?

Which brings me to my second point: as mentioned in the Star article, Canada will never be invisible as long as we don't blindly follow the US, because the US will always notice what they perceive as dissent. Some might say that we should toe the American line because we require them as defensive allies.

But think for a moment about if Canada was attacked. Canada has a lot of land mass, more land mass than most countries can conceptualize. Who could conceivably conquer Canada and keep the entire country under control? Russia, China, and the US. And I would find it very hard to believe that the US would welcome Russia or China as their new neighbour. And it is certainly to the US's advantage not to have to actively defend their borders, so making a military enemy of Canada would be stupid (which, judging from the current administration isn't to say it wouldn't happen).

But I digress. My point is that it is to Canada's advantage not to be perceived as a global player (because look what happened to the US), but if anyone is feeling particularly emasculated by the idea of not being noticed, the best way to be noticed is to continue with policies that are slightly at odds with what the US would like.

However, it looks bad for the Star to refute this issue in print. It would be so much classier for the nation to just collectively shrug and say "Globally irrelevant? So?" and continue decriminalizing marijuana and controlling firearms and providing universal medicare while pretending not to notice the US jumping around like Yosemite Sam.

Seen on the curb outside an apartment building: An old couch, ugly as hell, broken, rotting, water-damaged, missing its legs, with "DON'T THROW OUT!" written on it.

Seen outside the mall: a wheelchair chained to a bike rack.

Seen on the cover of Cosmo: "99 sexy ways to touch him." (Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the appropriate context isn't any kind of touching sexy?)

Meanwhile, I've (temporarily) abandoned Cancer Ward for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. So much for this "intellectual" thing.

I am so good at creating angst where there is no reason to be any. I should have no angst whatsoever right now, and yet I still find a reason to angst. And it's such a stupid reason that you'd smack me if I were in the same room as you.

For example: I need to travel for my job. The travel arrangements are all made, I have an allowance, all I need to do is pack and go. On the train they serve a meal. So I'm angsting that I have to call and ask for a vegetarian meal. Why? Because I feel like it's only a 4 hour trip, so I shouldn't NEED a meal, and by requesting a special meal I'm acting as though I'm entitled to one. Even though it would be wasting good food for me not to get a veggie meal, because then I'd have this meal I can't eat.

Quelle brat suis-je.

I'm walking down the street, and this old babushka-like lady stops me and starts talking to me in Russian. I protest slowly and clearly in English that I don't speak Russian, but she continues to talk and talk in Russian!

WTF? I know I do have a bit of the dark slavic look (as opposed to the blonde slavic look), but I wasn't making any effort to look ethnic today - I was dressed like a teenager in oversized jeans and an undersized t-shirt, with my hair long and tangled. I can maybe see how someone could make that mistake, but you'd think once I replied in confused English that I didn't understand (and surely most immigrants and tourists know how to say "I don't understand" in the local lingua franca) she'd get that I don't understand. Weird. Maybe she had alzheimer's or something

Le Chateau has a collection of clothing from the movie Down With Love

I want it all! I would so wear one of those retro suits to work every once in a while, with ridiculously high heels, an elaborate-looking updo, and my old cats-eye glasses.

Then the next day I'd wear my flowered tiered skirt, a scoop-necked t-shirt, platform sandals, and curl my hair like Jackie from That 70s Show.

Not that I should be going to work in costumes...

If anyone is reading this, has anyone out there every used Look digital cable? Good, bad, any feedback? I'm considering it because I can get my favourite channels for cheaper than with Rogers, but I don't know anyone who has actually tried it.

An advantage to living on the 14th floor: I am currently watching six or seven fireworks displays simultaneously, while sitting on a relatively comfy chair, without having to swat a single mosquito, and being able to attend to nature's call whenever necessary.

(My digestive system wasn't like this before I started university - a good thing, since public school schedules and classroom rules do not seem to consider the possibility that a person may need to eliminate several times a day. Luckily this came about in uni, where I could slip out of the classroom whenever necessary, and then I walke dright into a job where no one will notice if I slip out of the office a few times a day. I don't even consider it a problem - I rather enjoy the "ahhhhh" experience of a really good dump)

Anyway, TMI aside, why am I not out enjoying the fireworks? I certainly could be - it looks like the nearest one is but a block away - but it seems more appropriate to watch from my window. For some reason, Victoria Day has always been a holiday for other people. Other people go to cottages and drink beer, other people have barbeques with all their friends, other people go to fireworks or set off fireworks. My whole life I've been on the sidelines of this holiday. For the first half of my life I always had to go to bed before the fireworks even started, then came many years of not being allowed to go to the fireworks without my parents, and now that I can do whatever I want it didn't occur to me to engage in celebratory activities until I saw this plethora of fireworks outside my window.

I wonder where everyone else is right now...

There is a huge difference between reading Solzhenitsyn lying on the narrow lumpy bed in my large, cold, not-quite-bright-enough room in my parents' house and reading Solzhenitsyn lying in the soft comfy conjugal bed in my tiny, sunset-flooded apartment.

Either way it is educational. I am learning things I wish I didn't know but I should know.

I've also been sad lately. First it was something Solzhenitsyn said, then it was my upgefukt TV. But I was sad today too and I don't know why. Hopefully mi cielito can make me feel better.

My TV doesn't work! The fugly cable hanging into my living room didn't provide me with cable, and the antenna doesn't pick up an channels well enough for me to see them! I am not happy!

The woman on the subway is about my age. She is talking about a child. After a while, I realize she is talking about her own child. My first thought is "She doesn't look like a mother!"

Then I realize that I tend to assume by default that people aren't parents unless I know for certain that they are. This doesn't just apply to young people. I met my future co-workers yesterday. They range in age from my age to my parents' age, and I found myself assuming that everyone is childfree except for those whom I already know have children.

This makes me wonder if people who do have children assume everyone has children. Are there people seeing me on the subway in passing, especially when I'm all dressed up like a grownup, thinking I might be going home to a small child of some sort?

I had a dream where I was going to visit my parents, and they were driving me home from the GO station (but for some reason we were actually driving west along Main St. TOWARDS the GO station - probably for plot purposes.)

Then they decided to go visit their old house. So we went to their old house in Westdale, where they lived before they had kids, walked in, sat down in the basement, and watched TV. I was like "Why are we here? You don't own this house, do you? And other people live here now, right?" They said "Yeah, other people do live here, but we owned it first!"

Okay, here's the plan for getting same-sex marriage legalized. As anyone whom this affects knows, Jack Layton is the new leader of the NDP, making for an NDP that, on paper at least, is much more appealing to the urban left than the party's previous incarnations of this party have been. We also know that the federal Liberals are going to win the next election as a lame duck, and if we are very lucky we will have an NDP opposition but the opposition is really up for grabs. However, this new, vital, urban NDP could pull voters away from the Liberals by being more proactive on the most important left-wing issues of the day, namely the legalization of same-sex marriage.

So here's how to use this to our advantage:

1. Write to your Liberal MP stating that you will not vote Liberal until same-sex marriage is legalized. If you don't have a Liberal MP, write to Mr. Chr�tien and to all the Liberal leadership candidates you can think of.



2. Include additional helpful information. For example:
   
   • If you have voted Liberal in the past, be sure to mention that. If you frequently or always vote Liberal, be sure to make this clear.
   
   
   • If you have made donations to the Liberal party, be sure to mention this (and mention that you will no longer be donating time or money until the legislation is passed).
   
   
   • If you are a member of a demographic group that might be more likely to move towards the right, be sure to mention this because it would be very helpful to give the impression that even the rightmost Liberal voters want same-sex marriage legalized.
   
   
   • If you are a member of a demographic group that is more likely to skew left, don't mention your demographic. Subtly giving the impression that you might be further right is helpful. For example, when writing my letter I didn't mention my demos at all, but I did channel an grumpy British matron writing a letter of complaint, so perhaps they might read me as middle-aged.
   
   
   • If you are queer, it would be more effective not to mention your queerness. Why? Because those who have been blocking this legislation obviously don't care about their queer consitutents, so it is likely that they would just dismiss you as another queer. Also, since these people are more closed-minded, they are more likely to assume that someone is straight unless otherwise specified, so not mentioning sexual orientation would give the impression of more straights wanting same-sex marriage, which legislators would be more likely to pay attention to.



3. Inform anyone who might be interested of this plan.

Please, no form letters for people to fill in the blanks of. We want intelligent letters, written in the voters' own words. If enough of these get sent, we may have legal same-sex marriage by the next election.

I just realized I never see the moon any more. I don't know if it's because I face directly west, or if there are buildings in the way, or if it's because of all the lights or what, but I never see it. It's weird not knowing what phase the moon is in. The view isn't all bad - I can watch thunderstorms and clouds and I see every warm or cold front that comes in - but I miss my moon.

Okay, so it's a bit off, but it's good enough.

So this is me trying extrapolate comment code from old source code

Blogging will commence shortly after I've gotten my shit together. Need to track down and import various elements from my old template, but first I need to finish the paperwork for my EI claim and then go visit my mommy for a few days.

I'm looking for a particular blog template and I can't find it. In this template, the text is on a white or off-white background, and behind that is a coloured background. The cool thing it the coloured background changes colours all by itself - as you're reading it morphs through the whole rainbow. Any ideas?

If you know where to find this but I don't have the comments back up yet, contact me by email or ICQ. My new email address is firstnamelastname at ontario's largest DSL provider. If this is too oblique, it's also in my ICQ profile.