The United Way irritates me. Everywhere I turn they're asking me for money. There's a campaign going at work, they send me propoganda at home, they've got their own column in the newspaper, there are announcements on the TTC - they're everywhere! I've never liked them, although I can't place my finger on why. It might be the way they set a "goal" and then announce to the world "We need to raise $10 million! Give us money!" as though they're entitled. I realize they're a charity, but why this amount and why is it so urgent that they have to show up in every sphere of my life? They're much too aggressive, like annoying panhandlers.

On a completely unrelated note, look, you can see the pope's shoes! I always wondered what kind of shoes he wore!

I was a good girl today. I was exhausted so I didn't get up early and work out, but I did have brekkie and I stayed at work all day instead of sneaking out early and I finished 2 projects despite my exhaustion (I should have also made progress on a 3rd, but to the outside world I'm right where I need to be). Then I bought groceries at Loblaws so I could donate money to a foodbank even though that means carrying groceries for longer and now I'm home and tired.

This is fun, addictive, and hard

I can't sleep! Every time I lie in bed I just start thinking evil thoughts and can't get to sleep. Times like this I wish I were still a student. Then, a) I wouldn't have to be in bed already, or b) if I did have to wake up for a class tomorrow, I could just skip class, or c) if I had to wake up for work, it wouldn't require as much minute concentration in a quiet room with white noise. I'm thinking lustfully about the days when I'd set the alarm for 10 am so I could hear BBC news and then roll over and go back to sleep. I'm going to be grumpy tomorrow, not be able to pry myself out of bed, skip brekkie, be running late, nod off in my office, kill my productivity times by staring at the same sentence all day...ugh, I hate this.

Fuck, grownups annoy me sometimes. When confronted with teenagers trying to plan their futures, they have really weird ways of "helping". They try to frighten them into responsibility by telling them that the decisions you make NOW will last THE REST OF YOUR LIFE as if changing careers isn't a possibility and even a reality as if stress will help instead of just stress them out! For reasons I cannot fathom they say that you'll hate every job you ever have no matter what so you may as well go for the money as if an extra 50 grand a year will ward off a heart attack and a nervous breakdown as if training towards what you love and thinking about what you wouldn't mind doing is pointless. Why smother all hope for your future being less than a living hell in 16 and 17 year olds whose only sin is the uncertainty and second-guessing that comes with that age? Why why why? WTF?

I have a suggestion for anyone planning to donate to this month's food bank drive: include among your cans one or two personal care items or household that are, strictly speaking, considered luxuries, but can greatly improve a person's quality of life and self-esteem.

For example: women's razors, acne medication, a really good pair of tweezers. A can of Raid, spray-on disinfectant, duct tape. A small toy, a bag of Halloween candy, a box of teabags. These are not strictly in the food bank's mandate, but they will distribute them to appropriate people, and then someone's life will be made a touch nicer for a little while.

Remember all those times I said I was logey? Now I really am. I can't concentrate on anything enough to read or game, TV is stupid, and I close my eyes but I can't fall asleep to take a nap. Basically I'm bored but nothing is worth the effort of doing it.

The Vatican's recent statement on condoms certainly isn't the first time this flawed logic has been used. I have heard other people say that you shouldn't teach kids about birth control, or you shouldn't call it safe sex, simply because no method is 100% effective. This logic even spun "Statistics show no correlation between teaching women how to do breast self-exams and [it was either surviving breast cancer or finding malignant tumours]" into "Breast self-exams are BAD!" But it's still a huge-ass logical fallacy, as can be proven by applying it to other areas of life.

Have you ever had your computer crash? You shouldn't use computers! They don't work!

Has your car ever stalled? Don't use cars, they're unreliable!

Remember that blackout a couple of months ago? We should stop using electricity!

Has you ever had to plunger your toilet? See, indoor plumbing doesn't work! Do away with it!

Has a vending machine ever refused your quarters? Has a debit machine ever refused to swipe your card? Better do away with the exchange of money for goods and services!

Have you ever eaten something that doesn't agree with you? Better stop eating!

I wonder if it's illegal for stores to put the price including sales tax on the pricetag (perhaps even alongside the pre-tax price: "$1 before tax, $1.15 after tax") or if they don't do it out of laziness and conformity.

Have you ever noticed that homeless people's dogs are surprisingly well-trained? They never run away or chase people or even bark. I wonder if they train them themselves or if they get them pre-trained.

Bad signage of the day: in Sheppard subway station, pointing to "Yonge trains and Sheppard subway". Yonge and Sheppard are both subway lines on which trains run, so they should either both be called trains or subway. STANDARDIZE STANDARDIZE STANDARDIZE!!!

Best headline of the day

Most people won't agree with me, but I'm very happy with the precedent this sets. The world would be a lot better if parents had to be responsible for doing everything possible to prevent their kids from being bullied

A week or two ago I got these kick-ass socks from Winners. They were plain black cotton, Alfred Sung, comfortable and tall enough to wear with boots, and only $2 per pair! I bought two pairs to try them out and they were perfect. So today I went back with the plan of buying about 10 more pairs. They had NONE! They didn't even have any plain black cotten socks at all, of any brand, of any price! WTF???

And to add insult to injury, or perhaps vice versa, I lost one of those socks in the dryer!

Someone once told me that there's a thing in Islam that says that once a certain area of land belongs to Muslims, it must always belong to Muslims. I don't know if this is true because I don't know where to look to confirm it. But if it is true, I wonder if they knew about this when they decided to put Israel where it is.

I had a dream that I was checking my mailbox in res. In this dream, I still had my apartment, but I had a mailbox in res that I checked regularly. In my mailbox there were three copies of Newsweek. It seems I had once gotten a copy of Newsweek, so I called to cancel my subscription, and then the next week they sent me two copies, so I called again, etc. One of these copies had handwritten notes from my mother instructing me on how to fill out the form so I could get more copies. So I asked everyone else in the mail room if they wanted a copy of Newsweek, but they all looked at me like I was stupid. So I asked them in French, but they didn't understand. So I just put them down on the ledge for anyone to take, wondering why I didn't think of this before. (IRL, there's a ledge in my apartment mailroom, but not in the res mailroom) There was also a note in my mailbox saying that I'd have to give up my mailbox at the end of fall term, and when I gave up my mailbox I'd have to move out of my IRL apartment. So I pondered other buildings in the neighbourhood where I could move to, and then I woke up. When I woke up I was quite happy to realize that I won't have to move until I choose to.

I have a conspiracy theory: right-wing governments tend to leave behind huge deficits to prevent their more liberal successors from making all the policy changes they want to.

I haven't read the newspaper yet today so I can't give you hard numbers yet, but I noticed there's remarkably low voter turnout in many riding. In my own riding, I'm ashamed to say, voter turnout was only about 45%!

Voting is not the only way to participate in the democratic process, but not voting if often interpreted as a sign of apathy. We can't have our new Liberal government thinking that we're apathetic, and, I admit, I have a vested interest in ensuring that my own demographic does not appear apathetic.

Therefore, if you did not vote, your homework is to either send a letter or email to your new MPP sharing with them your opinion on any issue within provincial jurisdiction, or to send a letter to the editor of any daily newspaper regarding any issue within provincial jurisdiction. I particularly encourage you to take this action if you and I share any demographic characteristics.

ARF!

Polls closed at 8:00. At 8:25 the CBC called it as a Liberal majority victory. Fastest election I've ever seen.

I was having audio problems with my TV and it was getting really annoying. I messed with settings and tightened all my connections, and it didn't help. So I emailed tech support, and they said to call and schedule an appointment for someone to come look at my receiver. I didn't really want a tech to come to my house, so I just ignored it and turned on the closed captions. But today the channel I wanted to watch didn't have closed captions. I stared at the TV pondering how to fix it, when it occured to me to reset the receiver. That seemed odd - how would that fix audio problems? - but I really didn't want to call a tech. So I unplugged and replugged the receiver and turned everything back on. Reception was up from 65% to 72%, and there were no noticeable sound problems! I'm very happy that I fixed it myself, but I can't believe that, after working in tech support for almost three years, it took me DAYS to think of doing what is essentially a hard reboot!

I want a hand-knitted scarf and I want my grandmother to make it for me, but I can't ask her because that would be rather an imposition. Especially since I want a scarf that's six feet long and in a very particular pattern and colour scheme. Maybe I should ask her to teach me how to knit, but it would take me all winter to make the scarf I want, and if I mess up there's no one around to help me, and tech supporting knitting over a long distance phone call and a language barrier isn't exactly feasible.

There was one of those obnoxious middle-aged ladies in front of me in the grocery store today. She was aggressive and demanding and terrorizing the poor cashier. She bought a terrifying quantity of food, and then when it's all in bags she says "So how am I supposed to get this out to my car?" and freaks out on the cashier because she can't carry all this food she bought, so the cashier calls a carry-out guy, and this obnoxious lady starts demanding the cashier tell her where to move her car to, and the cashier says that the carry-out guy will tell her, and the lady says "No, I want YOU to tell me!" and keeps insisting this cashier tell her where to move her car to even though the cashier has no idea where the carry-out guy wants the car and the carry-out guy is RIGHT THERE! How do people get this way????

When I lived in res, we had your typical school sand-toilet paper in the bathrooms. For a bit I lived in res and worked in the building where I work now, and I quickly noticed that the toilet paper in the office building was much nicer than in res - so much so that I adjusted my bathroom schedule so that more toilet paper-intensive activities would take place while I was at work. Time passed and I moved into my own apartment where I can buy whatever kind of toilet paper I want. I found that Charmin is really nice, so now I always have soft quilted toilet paper at home. But I've become spoiled by my taste for luxury toilet paper (SENTENCE!) and now I find the toilet paper at work rough and irritating.