I've been using the Reach Access flosser for a couple of weeks now, and it works in that I actually do floss with it.  BUT but but . . . since I started flossing, I've noticed that the gap between my two front teeth, which I got orthodontically removed in high school, has started to return!  Right now it's not too big, it's maybe one third of a millimetre, it's the smallest possible gap that could be there and look like a gap, but it's there!  GAH!  I thought flossing was supposed to be good for you!  So now I don't know what to do.  I still wear my retainer for about 15 hours per week, but maybe it isn't working any more.  I'll have to find an orthodontist and see about getting my retainer adjusted, because I'm sure as hell not going to start wearing braces again!  I get mistaken for a student enough as it is!

Swans!  That is so cool, all animals should carry their young like that!

Where are the stairs at the end of the Oral B Brush-ups commercial? I know I've seen them before, I know I've walked up or down them before, I know they're in Toronto, but I can't place them for the life of me!

There's a doggie in my building with whom I'm vaguely acquainted. He's a big doggie, white with brown spots. He likes bananas, is afraid of elevators, and always takes the time to thoroughly sniff my shopping bags, even when they contain nothing but clothing or household cleaning products.

Today, as I headed from the mailroom to the elevators, I heard frantic barking interspersed with whimpering. Doggie was scared of something, but trying to frighten it away with his big dog status. I went to see what was going on, and saw Doggie being walked into the building while someone else carried a houseplant into the building. Doggie didn't like the houseplant and somehow felt threatened by it, so he was trying to scare it away before it got him, while his humans tried to explain that it's only a plant.

This always always happens: It's evening. I'm starting to nod off while reading. I figure this is a sign I should just go straight to bed, get an hour or two extra sleep, and feel bright and fresh the next morning. I drag myself off the couch and set about doing the most necessary aspects of my bedtime routine. But somehow, doing these few necessary tasks wakes me up. And gives me a sudden craving for soup. And makes me think of something to write that I really should get down before bed. And isn't the internet interesting today! And, oh, look, MASH is on! And let's just get this game to a point where we can save it and pick up easily next time...and suddenly it's midnight and I have to get up in 5.5 hours.

The Stowaway by Robert Hough is, in a word, amazing. Some stowaways are found on board a container ship, and, to the crew's shock and horror, the officers respond by setting them adrift in a makeshift raft, sending them to certain death. When another stowaway is found, the crew is compelled to keep him alive and hidden from the officers, knowing full well that if their plan is found out they will be the next ones thrown overboard. The result is a dark, tense, dramatic thriller that has you holding your breath every time you turn a page, and would be the perfect candidate for the next thriller-on-a-boat movie.

When I came to the end of the book, I was surprised to find out that it was based on a true story, the Maersk Dubai! Everything actually happened, only the character of the stowaway was changed because the author couldn't get an interview with the real stowaway.

The author also gets bonus points for accurately portraying language gaps and conversations between two people for whom English is a second language, which many authors seem to have trouble with.

Today was not a good day. I kept getting flirted with for some reason. Three times. In the building where I work. In the elevator. By men in their 30s and 40s. Some of whom were wearing wedding rings.

I am so not impressed.

A way to add a bit more surreality to your blogging experience:

1. Log into Blogger
2. Click on the link on the right that says "Edit Profile".
3. Click on the checkbox at the top that says "Share my profile".
4. Fill out the profile however you want.
5. The very last item in the profile is "Random Question". Answer this question.
6. Check the box beneath the random question that says "Give me a new question".
7. Click on Save Profile.
8. You should get a green message that says "Your setting have been saved." Click on the "View Updated Profile" link next to this message.

If all goes well, the Random Question was replaced with a new question when you saved your profile, and the new question appears on your profile with the answer that your provided to the old question.

On TV they happened to show some Fisher Price toys. The animals in the barn are over twice the size of the animals in the Fisher Price barn I had as a child. I wonder if this means that I was playing with choking hazards for my entire childhood?

As I waited in line at the ATM at Yonge & Eg., I overheard a passing child:

"Mommy, how much more walking until we get to the CN Tower?"

The kid couldn't have been more than five. Fuck, I hope he was misunderstanding the situation and they weren't making him walk from Eg. down to the CN Tower! That's the kind of parenting that produces people like me who absolutely dread summer!

An interesting philosophical and moral exercise: think about activities that are illegal and/or generally considered to be "wrong". Think about the activities from this list that you do not engage in. Now try to figure out why, exactly, you do not engage in these activities. Try to get beyond "it's wrong" or "it's illegal", try to get down to the core essential reason(s), the factors that are dealbreakers. If these factors were eliminated, you would not hesitate to engage in these activites. Is the punishment meted out by the law the real deterrent, or is it something else?

Is a Sgt. Major a kind of Sergeant or a kind of Major?

My Harmony book currently has me working on Classical ornaments. It
discusses, in practically mathematical terms, how exactly an ornament is
supposed to be played, and the exercises consist of showing me an ornament
and having me write it out in full, or showing me a big mess of black note
and having me write it with ornament symbols.

For some reason I find this terribly interesting. In my formal music
education I was always taught how to play ornaments on a case-by-case basis,
and I never realized they had such a precise meaning. Plus there's a lot of
subdividing involved, as you try to fit a sextuplet of thirty-second notes*
into an existing measure. It's amazing how mentally relaxing subdividing
can be after eight hours of translation!

*If I'd only been taught music using British terminology, I could have said
"a sextuplet of demisemiquavers" here. Curse RCM for denying me the
opportunity to use the word demisemiquaver in my daily life!

Minority Governing for Dummies Canadian Political Parties:

1. Think of the one single reason why voters who vote against your party are likely to vote against your party. Then make a pledge to address that issue, and stick to that pledge for at least one year. For example, the Liberals could commit to massive transparency, the Conservatives could commit to not actively pursuing any policy that would limit existing rights, the Bloc could commit to not actively pursuing separatism, and the NDP could commit to not actively pursuing any policy that would put Canada into deficit.

2. Look at all the policies in your platform, find the policy that is furthest away from anything any of the other parties have in their platforms, and put it on hold for a period of one year.

3. Compare the platforms of all four parties, and find the one policy on which you agree the most closely, in principle if not in quantitative details. Pursue that policy with a mind to finding a happy medium rather than stubbornly getting your way.

4. Repeat step 3 as needed.

I am now on MSN instead of ICQ. My MSN username can be found in my ICQ profile, or you can contact me at my personal email address to get it. If you don't know my personal email address, this message is not intended for you.

I want to make it perfectly clear that this was NOT my idea. I'm not the kind of person to abandon a perfectly good instant messenging platform, especially a pioneer like ICQ, just because some corporate behemoth has become trendier. However, all the most important people, the ones who merited alerts when they came online and who got to see me when I was in invisible mode, they all abandoned me and went to MSN, so I must either begrudgingly follow them or spend my days staring at a dead contact list.

Old School by Tobias Wolff is the story of a student at a New England boarding school. The school has writing competitions where the winner gets to meet a famous writer, and the story follows his entries in these competitions and the consequences thereof.

I really enjoyed this book. Part of the reason is doubtless because books about boarding schools have always, inexplicably, appealed to me. Part of the reason is that the kids in this book acted like kids. No angst, no drama, no unrealistic gratuitous sex just so the author can write a sex scene, no "look at me, I'm smoking and drinking, I'm so fucking edgy" (They did smoke and drink, they were just reasonable and unpretentious about it).

The plot itself is small, nothing huge and earth-shattering, but I think this adds to the quality of the novel. Huge and earthshattering things don't happen when you're 17, and the book doesn't pretend otherwise. Robert Frost, Ayn Rand and Ernest Hemmingway all show up, and the protagonist has little to no interaction with them. (Although the book does do me the favour of explaining through its first-person point of view why reading Ayn Rand tends to turn people into assholes, if sometimes only temporarily). It's refreshing to have a protagonist who DOESN'T get to become personally acquainted with the famous personages who pass through his life. There is a decent story arc with a bit of a twist at the end, but nothing superlative happens at all. That's why I enjoyed it, it felt realistic. (As realistic as a period piece in an era and location that I've never been in can be).

The best thing to do about the whole Speaker debacle would be to make Independent MP Chuck Cadman speaker of the house, and give him the right to vote freely. As a normal MP his vote would only be useful in case of a tie, so this is a way to appoint a speaker without putting anyone at an actual or perceived disadvantage. I suppose the only problem would occur when he wants to present a private member's bill, but perhaps they could have someone else as acting speaker while he presents the bill, and then put them all back in their normal places when they vote?

How do they know that dog treats are yummier for dogs than normal dog food?

A Game to Play on the Tracks by Lorna Jackson was unanimously well-reviewed,
but I didn't enjoy it. The author deliberately under-informs the reader in
a way that doesn't contribute to the overall novel and leaves the reader
paging backwards to see whose viewpoint we're reading now. The recurring
imagery seems deliberate and there for its own sake (Look ma, recurring
imagery!), and the characters aren't deep enough to make me care about them.
The overall impression I get is that of an amateur writer using devices that
she's seen other authors use, without actually knowing when and why to use
them. It seems that she had some great epic saga in her head, but she
couldn't get it through to me.