As I went about tedious household chores today, I found myself wondering why the contestants in the Triwizard Tournament couldn't just Accio the golden egg.

Because someone reading this must have taken psych at some point:

Yesterday I stumbled upon something called "Imature Personalty Dis-order". After a bit of background reading from Google, I realized that it might apply to more people in my life than I care to admit. Then I found myself wondering: at what age, or at what stage in one's life, is one's personality supposed to become "mature"?

[this post has been edited to insert intentional misspellings]

It occurs to me that a great deal of social and public discourse in our society is based on the presupposition that sex is The Best Thing Ever. (and the corollary (sp?) that if sex isn't The Best Thing Ever there must be something wrong with your sexual methodology).

I wonder if this is a universal presupposition, or if other societies have different concepts of what constitutes The Best Thing Ever.

I had no voice today, so I could only talk in a whisper. And I noticed something strange. When I'd say, in a whisper, "I have no voice", other people would instinctively respond to me in a whisper.

I'd been wondering for a while why it takes so much training to be a pharmacist. All I ever see pharmacists do is dispense the number and type of pills written on the prescription. Why should that require so much study, beyond a 4 year degree and with such stringent entry requirements?

The other day I saw a pharmacist display actual knowledge for the first time. I said that I was allergic to erythromycin, and the medication history she gave me said that I'm allergic to macrolide antibiotics. So she must have known that erythromycin was a macrolide antibiotic (I didn't know this). First time I've ever seen a demonstration of medical knowledge on the part of a pharmacist.

I just woke up for some reason, and I wandered into the living room to find that my computer had frozen in the middle of rebooting. Problem: I don't remember rebooting my computer! GAH! Shit, I hope it isn't doing that sponteneous rebooting thing again! I'd better up my credit limit just in case, because it isn't under warranty, so if this one dies I have to get a new one.

I'm going to stay home sick again today. Badly need several more hours of bedrest, and I can't get that at work, now can I?

I'm sick, I Have a fever, and I'm craving nachos. I don't think I've ever craved nachos before in my life.

Someone keeps calling and hanging up without leaving a message. Whoever that is, STOP IT! YOu're jsut waking me up!!!

Ear infection. Blerg. I'm going to go get antibiotics as soon as my hair dries. It's such a childish malady, an ear infection.

The Star did a pair of articles on the generation gap between baby-boomer workers and my generation of workers. I don't have much to say on the content of the articles themselves, but they brought up a peeve that has been festering in the back of my mind.

In my family, none of the boomer generation were affected by the downsizing of the 90s. They're all well into their third decade of continuous secure employment, with respectable pay, benefits and pension, with retirement just around the corner. And yet these people are advocating left and right policies such as outsourcing and contract work, which will rob the next generation of workers of the opportunity to also enjoy secure employment. Mind, they all have at least one kid who will be entering the workforce within the next few years, and I'm sure they all had at least a passing glimmer of worry during the recession of the 90s, but for reasons I cannot fathom they are all vehemently opposed to any policy under which workers are paid a respectable salary with a modest raise every reasonable interval, with basic benefits, a pension, and some semblance of security. All I can say is WTF?

I feel like I'm coming down with something, but I still need to go grocery shopping. I have no food. And even if someone else could do groceries for me, I have no idea the name of the soup I want (I only know what the box looks like and that it's in the kosher section).

I sponteously spent $50 on Amazon the other day, and I don't even feel guilty about it. I bought the Princess Bride on DVD since I was having so much trouble finding it, and the Sims since my copy isn't entirely legal and kind of doesn't work any more. My copy wouldn't uninstall, so I had to clean it out of the registry by hand, which I don't really like doing but I managed to do successfully. Then when I finished I found out that there's a utility to do that (It's called something like SimEraser and it's on the Maxis website). But anyway, I got a DVD and a game which is technically 2 games for $50, so that's fair.

I just finished reading Ten Lost Years by Barry Broadfoot. For those who haven't read it, it's a collection of oral histories of people who lived through the Depression in the 1930s. It was very interesting, although sometimes I found myself wondering if the stories were a wee bit exaggerated, but the storytellers lost all credibility to me in the last chapter. In the last chapter, they were discussing the long-term effects the Depression had on them, and some of them were mentioning how shocked and appalled they were about how people "today" ("today" is 1973 when the book was written) were so casual about spending money. They cited a parent who buys her son something that costs $25 and doesn't consider it a big deal when that was a month's income in the Depression, or the fact that a lobster dinner costs $8 (1973!) which could feed a family for over a week during the Depression. But don't these people understand the concept of inflation? I presume that at the time of the storytelling they were still living as functional adults in everyday society, so wouldn't they be aware that the value of a dollar is different? The mother who spent $25 on her son wasn't spending a month's income on him, she was spending $25 on him. Don't the storytellers ever go shopping? Shouldn't they be aware of what stuff costs? This one little thing changed the storytellers in my eyes from people with interesting stories about a historical event to whiny bitchy old people who are all grumpy because things aren't exactly like they were when they were young.

FYI à tous: I will be screening my calls this weekend, so anyone who wants to call me should just leave a message and they'll be called back soon.

Just realized I have to go to work tomorrow. GAH!

I was doing laundry today, and when I stripped my bed Boomer accidently got caught in the sheets and ended up in my hamper. Luckily I found him before he ended up in the washer, but then I had to proceed from the laundry room back up to my apartment carrying a stuffed aminal. And, of course, the one time I'm walking around the building carrying a stuffed aminal, about 14 people pile out of the elevator as I'm waiting to get in.

I also met a small child whose favourite toy was doors. That was interesting.

Note to self: You don't like Lindeman's Bin 65 Chardonnay. Yes it's highly-rated and reasonably priced and keeps turning up on lists and has a yummy-sounding description on the label. But you don't like it, so stop buying it!

My local Blockbuster does not have The Princess Bride! INCONCEIVABLE!

I need the following:

1. A hairdresser who has long hair herself (long means at LEAST past the shoulder blades, preferably past the waist).

2. Machine-washable black or charcoal pants with pockets, size 14, that can handle a 12-inch difference between waist and hip circumferences without gaping in the back and look more appropriate on a 23-year-old than on a 63-year-old.

3. Someone to explain to me how necessary it is to take Introductory Harmony before Grade 3 Harmony if you already have Grade 2 Rudiments.

An analogy, for the reference of anyone who might be able to use it:

Secularism is a religion to the same extent that abstinence is a sex act.

Speaking from personal experience, this story is not so much indicative of the Canadian experience as it is indicative of the Dundas experience.

I have made a decision. Until I tire of doing so, I will eat dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. The inspiration for this came this morning as I sipped my coffee, persued the Star, and pondered what to eat for breakfast. I came upon this article about a guy who eats pasta for breakfast every day. "Oooh, pasta! That sounds good!" my stomach said. Since it's the weekend and I already had some cooked pasta in the fridge, I figured why not? So I put some cooked pasta in a bowl and smothered it with cheese and tomato sauce as is my custom, and ate it for breakfast.

My digestive system handled it just fine even though it was the first thing I'd eaten that day (my digestive system is very picky about my first meal of the day), and it was quick and filling and yummy. Plus pasta has this strange talent for making me happy, so pasta for breakfast makes me much happier than my habitual breakfast. Perhaps I should do this more often?

Then I was reminded of a school of thought that it is preferable to eat your largest meal first thing in the morning and your smallest meal for dinner. I've never been able to do this because of morning time restraints and my digestive system's sensitivity to breakfast foods in the morning. But I habitually have a big bowl of pasta for dinner. So, I thought, what if I have my big bowl of pasta for brekkie (which gives me all day to metabolize it), my habitual lunch of two of soup, salad, and sandwich, and for dinner graze on fruit, eggs, and bread, which is my typical breakfast food?

Best case I might lose weight under this scenario. No heavy meal before bed, and fruit, eggs and bread are quick so I won't end up snacking while I make dinner because dinner will be right there, snack style. The only drawback is that I'll have to have cooked pasta prepared at all times, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Worst case I hate it and go back to eating like a normal person. We'll see what happens.

A favour? From anyone? Next time you go to see ROTK, glance at your watch when the spider scene is over. How long into the movie when it's over? 30 minutes? 1 hour? As accurately as possible please. Also, are there any other key plot points that happen before the spider?