Someone called me during the day today and left a hang-up on my voicemail. That's weird. Everyone IRL knows my work hours and my office phone number, and telemarketer machines always hang up before voicemail kicks in, or leave one of those stupid recorded messages

FYI: If you're looking for short-term employment into November Toronto Election Services is also hiring. I assume the same thing might be true for other cities and municipalities that are having elections in November, but you'll have to search for those yourself.

I don't usually comment on this sort of thing but here it seems that all parties involved are missing the point. First of all, calling someone a disgrace, is not libel, and it isn't slander either which, unless I'm missing some subtle legal distinction, is what this case should be. Secondly, the issue SHOULD be that Mr. Derringer invoked the judge's child. He did so in a roundabout way "As much as I would like to see it, I could not bring myself to..." but he did invoke the judge's child. This is totally inappropriate, not only because the child is a child, but also because the child is an autonomous individual who has nothing to do with their father. The kid had nothing to do with the judge's ruling, but Mr. Derringer is basically saying to the kid (while remaining just barely hypothetical) "Someone should do unspeakable things to you because your father made a bad decision." This offends me simply because I am someone's kid and I don't want to be viewed as an extension of my parents, and no one is acting like there's anything wrong with the assumption that a kid is not an autonomous human being but merely an extension or even a chattel of their parents who could, even if in the hypothetical, rightfully be harmed to punish their parents. The lawsuit even seems to assume that since it's for damages to the judge and not to the kid. Mr. Derringer seemed to be trying to ask "How would you feel if this were your kid?" but the question he should have been asking is "How would you feel if this were you?" Kids have feelings too.

I dress girly out of rebellion. I wear a skirt and prissy blouse to work because when I was a kid my parents would rarely let me wear skirts because they were impractical, putting me in sweatpants instead. I wear heels because my parents would only buy me running shoes. My attention to hair removal comes from being a ten-year-old with hairy armpits and no idea that this was a natural part of puberty, and no idea how to go about rectifiying the situation. I maintain a fastidious manicure because I was always told it was a waste of time to do so. I've developed an intricate system of concealer and foundation to alter my skintone, because when I was younger I hated the dark skin around my eyes and when I complained about it I was told "You don't have dark skin around your eyes" (and then heard the grownups saying to each other in the background "Yep, she has that darkness around her eyes like insert relative here]"). I wear black eyeliner, curl my eyelashes, and wear heavy black mascara because I was forbidden from wearing mascara "because it will get in your eyes. Besides, you don't need it, you have long eyelashes already." I wear intricate-looking hairstyles because for the longest time I had to keep my hair in a braid if I wanted it long "so it doesn't get in the way".

They don't seem to mind that I dress this way. In fact, my mother helps me comparison shop for makeup and actually bought me my tall high-heeled boots. But dressing like a girl was prevented for so long, and then frowned upon when they couldn't actually stop me, that I strongly feel the need to do so now.

Makes me wonder if they did that on purpose so I'd turn out this way.

Why is being dull and boring considered a liability for a politician? Don't things get unpleasant whenever a politico gets TOO interesting?

Of course I might be biased because I'm boring and I LOVE it! Being boring is much better than having to be cool all the time.

My political policy wishlist:

1. Expand the scope of universal health care to include everything - dental, drugs, corrective lenses, wigs for chemo patients...
2. End the culture of student debt by making a year's full time tuition less than the earning's of a summer's full-time work at minimum wage, and provide a subsidy for students who do not live within a reasonable commute of any post-secondary institution.
3. Take economic measures to encourage businesses to create full-time permanent positions in favour of contract and on-call positions.

Mmmmm...rain! I love rainy weekends! There's nothing quite as cozy as watching and listening to the cold wet weather while being safe and dry inside. I've got two big newspapers and all the food in the world, and I think I'm going to stay indoors all weekend.

Suddenly I feel like I don't have enough clothes. I just bought a bunch of clothes, but they aren't enough. You see, for the last three years I lived in an overheated res room and worked in an overheated office. I wore t-shirts to work in the dead of winter and long sleeve tops (not sweaters) for just hanging around. Now I work in a very cold office. I've been wearing long-sleeved blouses, but I'm still cold even with that. I own one wear-alone sweater and a series of very light throw-on sweaters. I have a couple of turtlenecks but I'd been hoping to retire them because they aren't flattering. So it seems I'll have to buy some sweaters. I vaguely remember feeling like I had all the sweaters in the world at one point in high school, so maybe they're still lurking in some closet somewhere in my parents' house. If not, I'll have to go shopping, which is a pity because after that last credit card bill I felt like I had all the clothes in the world.

You know how countries and stuff have debts? Who lends them the money? Why do they continue to lend them money when every political jurisdiction is billions if not trillions of dollars in debt? What would happen if they just didn't repay their debt? - you can't foreclose a country, can you? Are there any countries that are actually debt-free?

What's up with tiny little streets whose houses have huge numbers? I can think of at least three instances of a one-block dead-end street whose houses have four-digit numbers. What is up with that?

This isn't a good quality picture (that's what happens when you have a Barbie digital camera), but the little square thing on top is my DVD player, and the big square thing on the bottom is the box that it was shipped in.

I was having this dream last night. It was a lucid dream. In the dream I was at my parents' house holding my new schedule for my next year of school at Parkside. It my classes were Music, OAC Super-Math, Religion, and Self-Esteem. I was grumpy because I'd have to bring a clarinet AND a calculator to school every day, not to mention that Self-Esteem was scheduled way early in the morning and the Religion teacher was a bitch. Then I thought for a bit: "I think I already have enough courses to graduate from high school" Then I thought some more: "Also, I think I have a degree." Then I thought some more: "Yeah, now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure I have a job and an apartment in Toronto." So I decided Screw IT! and dropped out of high school and woke up.

Two issues in the news today of Muslim women having to fight to wear headscarfs in schools. One was of a Pakistani teacher somewhere in Britain who finally gained this right, and another was of a student at a private school in Montreal, who transferred after they wouldn't let her wear her scarf.

I just wish some people would consider that these women might not be wearing the scarves as religious symbols, or as head coverings in the western sense (which tends to imply "outdoor clothes"), but rather out of personal modesty. If they had gone their entire lives covering their heads, or perhaps were raised to believe that hair can function as a secondary sexual feature, they might not be comfortable exposing their hair in public. There is no rule against wearing short skirts in any of the circles I frequent, but I don't wear skirts that are above the knee simply because I feel exposed showing so much leg. It doesn't mean I'm Orthodox Jewish, it just means I'm not comfortable showing that much leg. It is legal here for women to go topless in public, but most women don't because breasts are still considered a secondary sexual feature and we don't necessarily want any random person to be able to see our breasts. If I went to some school as a student or a teacher and they required me to wear a short skirt or forbade me to wear a shirt, we'd all think there's something really creepy about that school. It's quite likely that these women who were raised to cover their heads feel the same way about their headscarves.

There was an article in the newspaper saying that, with the retiring baby boomers, companies are now at a loss as to how to attract and retain young workers, who believe that they will never have job security.

Um, how about giving them job security.

Seriously.

If you can offer your new recruit a job for life (barring unforseen circumstances) with the possibility of advancement and a modest raise on a regular basis, you will have a huge advantage over most other employers.

And make the employee feel valued, right from the start of the hiring process. They'll be more likely to stick with a place where they are considered an asset instead of a liability.

More hints for employers, from the point of view of a recent job searcher who is now loyal to her employer:

- Do your own hiring. Agencies might be more convenient, but they are very annoying and tricky and employees are more likely to trust a company they can deal with directly.
- When interviewing a potential employee, act like you want to hire them and you think they'll be a great asset to the company. If they feel like you think the interview is a waste of time, and then you do end up hiring them, they probably won't take their resume off Workopolis. Besides, if you don't want to hire them and you don't think they'd be a great asset to the company, why did they get as far as the interview?
- Pay a reasonable salary - reasonable from the employee's perspective! Performance incentives are a great motivator, but the base salary before performance incentives should be perfectly reasonable itself.
- Provide enough benefits that they'll never have to worry. Drug, dental, disability, life insurance, pension, parental. This should be the minimum - anything above and beyond that is a true benefit.
- Team up new employees with a mentor who has been with the organization for a long time and can be their go-to person. The mentor-protege relationship should be confidential enough that the mentor can honestly answer questions such as "You know that thing where you get 3 hours off to vote? Do they really mean 3 hours or do they mean only as much time as you need?"
- "Fun" events like company picnics are cool, but the workplace environment should be such that no one's career would suffer if they never attended the company picnic.
- Only create contract positions if you truly foresee no possible need for someone in this position after the end of the contract term. If you will need someone in the position for the foreseeable future, make it a permanent position.

FYI: If anyone is looking to make a few bucks in the short term, I hear Elections Ontario is hiring

1. I saw this makeup advertised on TV and the thing about it was that it goes on like airbrushing. Anyone remember what it's called and who makes it?

2. Older men who do the "ladies first" thing are weird. Especially when we're all in an elevator - just everyone get out of the small confined space and then we can classify ourselves into a suitable hierarchy! Today an older man went way out of his way to hold the door open for me - like I was 6 paces away from the door! I don't like that - it obligates me to smile at him and say thank you, and I don't want any social obligations, no matter how small, to a creepy old man.

3. Walking home today was worse than in the hurricane. Go figure.

4. This is definitely a fall rain, by which I mean an autumn rain. Do you call it fall or autumn?

I have to go all the way to Jane & Steeles tomorrow after work during rush hour. Not looking forward to it.

Do be careful if you get any emails claiming to be from Microsoft or claiming to be undelivered mail. I've received 2 messages infected with this already and I very rarely receive any attempts at viruses.

Anyone know a really good cover of Build Me Up Buttercup? I'm looking for something that rocks as much as possible while eliminating as much of the pastel cheesiness of the original as possible. But feel free to suggest really good covers that don't fit this description