More power!

They always advertise cars based on how much power they have. Do cars ever not have enough power for normal, real-life driving?

Things They Should Invent: don't consider others overpaid

The TTC strike has raised the usual complaints about TTC workers being overpaid. Personally I don't think they are, but that's not the point today. My point today is that almost all of us, with the exception of the independently wealthy, are workers. We all are or would be dependent on wages or salary to support ourselves. Therefore, it is not in our best interest to lobby for wages or salary to be lower anywhere, at all. In this economy where no one can expect to have a job for life, we should look upon all jobs in existence as potential employment opportunities for ourselves.

Do you think you could do a TTC job easily? If so, then it's a good thing that they exist and they are paid a decent wage, because when you lose your job, that's one more potential employer you can apply to. If you lobby for the TTC people to be paid less, that will simply result in more low-paying and fewer well-paying jobs available when you next need to look for work. Unable or unwilling to do a TTC job? Then you should still be glad they exist, because every TTC employee and would-be TTC employee is one person who isn't looking for work in the pool of jobs you are able and willing to do. If they suddenly started earning less, some of them might leave the TTC and wander onto your turf, making it more difficult for you to find work.

If you're thinking "Look what these TTC people are earning! I'm not earning nearly as much and my job is harder!" then you should be lobbying for your job to pay you more, not for the TTC people to be paid less. As workers, we should all be pushing for improved compensation in all jobs, not lesser compensation.

Not as bad as it could be

I wasn't closely following the news yesterday, and I woke up this morning at the latest hour possible because the heat was making it difficult to sleep, so I had no forewarning that the TTC was on strike. However, thanks to the leet organizational skills of our admin team head, as well as the fact that one of my fellow English translators lives close enough to walk to work, I am working from home today. Good thing too - the last time there was the threat of a TTC strike, I had the crazy idea of walking two hours to work, but given today's heat and the fact that my right foot has easily gotten cranky ever since I injured it last summer, it doesn't seem like such a good idea to walk four hours roundtrip today. I'm sure my parents would find that a failing of character, but that's their problem.

My air conditioning isn't on yet (hopefully the supers will have mercy and turn it on today, even though they aren't required to do so until June), but with a fan blowing at me and an icepack on my lap, it's certainly bearable.

As Poodle would say, life is good.

Brilliant Ideas that will Never Work: mandatory Nationstates for all politicans

Everyone in the world who is or wants to be a politican should be required to have a Nationstate that they run in accordance with their own politcial beliefs. The Nationstate should be named with the politician's own name, so people can find it easily, and then everyone could see what kind of country they want to run.

Moping

Sometimes people complain that other people are "moping around".

Seems a strange thing to complain about if you think about it. Moping is not deliberate. It is the result of being sad/pensive/upset about something. It seems weird to complain that someone else is sad, especially to complain like they're doing intentionally for the express purpose of making your life less pleasant.

I don't like where For Better or For Worse is going

The latest arc in FBOFW has Liz uncertain about living in the North and wanting to move back down south into a nice suburban existence (it has been mentioned before that she'll be working in Mississauga in the summer, that's where I'm getting suburban from).

I don't like this. I'll be the first to admit that, as an individual, Liz totally has the right to be uncertain or change her life direcction whenever she wants. I would not hesitate to advise any of my peers that none of the career decisions they make now need to be permanent.

However, I've always perceived Elizabeth as an everywoman. She's my precise age and demographic - when I was little, I called the comic strip "Elizabeth" - so I've always taken her to be somewhat representative of me. My own life has been plagued with people treating my major life choices like they're "just a phase" [insert smiling knowingly over my head]. I strongly feel that what I do and where I live are perfectly right for me - and I have been striving to live and earn my living this way for the past almost 10 years - so it's very tiresome and even a wee bit dehumanizing when people assume that one day I'm going to wake up, find a nice engineer or MBA, move to a big house in the suburbs, and start squeezing out kids and spending my weekends doing home maintenance. Similarly, Elizabeth has always been passionate about teaching in the North, and by having her suddenly, apropos of nothing, want to go back to 905, it feels like Lynn Johnston is dismissing her passion for the North as "just a phase - she went off and had her little adventure and now she's back to normal life." And, by emotional extrapolation, it feels like she's being similarly dismissive of all my and my peers' life choices that don't follow the exact path she would have set out herself.

It feels almost judgemental of the fact that different people have different needs from their career and their lives, it feels like the author is sitting there with a smug, superior smile passing judgement on anyone who dares make different life choices than their parents. I grew up with this comic strip, it's always the first one I look at when I open the paper or go online, when I create SimPattersons I always play the Elizabeth character. I don't like getting these feelings from a comic strip that has always figured so strongly in my psyche.

Razors

It seems they no longer make blades for my razor (which I guess is to be expected, since I've been using the same one for almost 15 years). So now I need a new one.

My choices are Schick Quattro and Gilette Venus. The Quattro has four blades, but has protective wires over the blades. In my experience, protective wires result in a lower-quality shave, although I have no way of knowing if the extra blade will make up for that. Venus has three blades and no protective wires.

I'm looking for a good-quality shave that will last as long as possible, but also for blades that last as long as possible.

Thoughts?

Pope joke

An old joke:

The Pope and one of his top cardinals were taking a long train ride one day. The Pope was doing a crossword puzzle, and the cardinal was reading the Bible. Suddenly the Pope asked the cardinal, "What's a four letter word for `woman' ending in ..u..n..t?"

The startled cardinal stammered for a bit, then said, "Uh.. er.. aunt! Yes, aunt!"

"Oh, of course. Got an eraser?"

Now: is this joke funnier when you picture Ratzinger in the Pope role, or was it funnier with Pan Wojtyla?

My very most favourite Sesame Street ever!

One two three, FOUR five, six seven eight, NINE ten, eleven twelve!

I was well into my twenties before I realized this was supposed to be pinball.

Half-Formed Theory: Child social development

Let's think for a moment about the social life of children. Think back to your school days, and remember what it was like to have a bunch of three/six/nine/twelve/fifteen-year-olds all in one room. Now think about the social life of adults. In fact, think about an ideal version of the social life of adults - an office where everyone is perfectly professional in their interpersonal dealings, a cocktail party full of sparkling conversation, a mutually-supportive friendship, a healthly romantic relationship.

There are so many aspects of the social life of children that do not seem to lead to any of the skills necessary for a healthy adult social life. I think the main problem is that children's brains are generally not fully developed, so they generally are not able to perform interpersonal interaction at an adult level. And when you get a bunch of children together in the room, they all have the same flaws in their interpersonal interaction, so the society they create is going to include components that are simply not present in a mature adult society (c.f. the middle-school cafeteria).

Now imagine if a child somehow emerged from the womb with adult social skills, but no knowledge of child development. They show up at school and attempt to interact with their peers like you or I would attempt to interact with our classmates at night school.

That wouldn't work so well, would it?

Therefore, my half-formed theory is that children do not necessarily need to be able to socialize well with their peers to become fully competent at adult socialization. Certainly the inability to get along with one's peers could be indicative of problems, but it isn't that difficult to imagine how a person could be unable to navigate nine-year-olds' recess cliques or enjoy twelve year olds' school-bus antics, but could still get along perfectly well in adult society.

Pet Peeve of the Moment: "You'll survive"/"You survived"

Sometimes people trivialize other people's concerns about an upcoming situation, or their baggage about a past situation, by saying "You'll survive" or "You survived" respectively.

That's silly. The fact that a person is physically alive does not negate the fact that a situation was or would be traumatic or emotionally devastating or extremely unpleasant or whatever.

I've also seen the fact that a person has survived something more difficult used to counter their desire not to do something less difficult.
"I don't want to [get in a certain situation]. The potential benefits aren't worth the unpleasantness involved."
"So? You were [in a far more unpleasant situation] and you survived! This is nothing!"

That doesn't even make sense. "Let's not repaint the livingroom. Moving all the furniture and dealing with the smell of paint isn't worth it just to get rid of this ugly colour." "So? You survived being lost in the woods for three days! This is nothing!" Just because a person survived a completely unrelated, more difficult situation doesn't mean that this other, less difficult situation is worth doing.

Analogy for natalist culture

Suppose you're in decent, functional, serviceable physical condition. You have full use of both your arms and both your legs, and your body does what you need it to do in everyday life. However, you don't particularly enjoy pushing yourself physically. Sure, you don't mind the occasional casual swim or bike ride, but you have no interest in working out every day - you'd much rather be at home with a good book or enjoying the bounties of the internet.

But everyone in the world assumes that you're going to do a triathlon one day.

Sure, you think triathlon is a decent sporting event. You'll watch it when the Olympics are on TV and you appreciate the athleticism involved, but you have no interest in doing it yourself.

However, elderly relatives and nosey acquaintances keep asking you when you're going to do a triathlon, and when you say you're not, they smile smugly and mutter knowingly among themselves that it's just a phase - soon you'll grow up and start doing a triathlon every couple of years.

Random people that who run into, who know nothing about your physical condition - even people you've met in passing on the internet who have know way of knowing if you even have legs - tell you that you should totally do a triathlon because you would make SUCH a good triathlete!

Even though you have mentioned at work that you have no interest in doing a triathlon, your boss's long term HR planning takes into account that you'll need some time off to train for a triathlon or two within the next five or ten years.

While your doctor is quite willing to treat you in a way that allows you to sit at home with a good book or spend time on the computer right now, she insists upon a long-term treatment plan that will ensure that you are in prime condition to do a triathlon any time you want to. When you undergo a minor medical procedures that requires that you don't exert yourself, she keeps emphasizing to you that it's VERY VERY IMPORTANT that you don't do any triathlons within the next month, completely disregarding the fact that you have told her you don't want to do any at all ever, and the fact that you've already decided that if you ever happen to wander into a triathlon course, you would just leave the area rather than completing the race.

Wouldn't that get annoying after a while? Well, that's how I feel when people assume that I'm going to be a mother some day.

Things They Should Invent: Uppercase Numbers

When I'm IMing, I'm use capital letters to show emphasis and stress. For example: "OMG, I SO want to do THAT!" Also when I'm IMing, I use numerals to designate numbers rather than writing them out in words, due to the nature of the medium.

However, this is problematic when I want to emphasize or stress number. "Oh, you meant 4:30, not 5:30." The way I said in my head is "Oh, you meant FOUR thirty, not FIVE thirty." But realistically, I'm not going to type out all those letters in a rapid-fire conversation.

Therefore, I propose that we use the shift key plus the number in question to designate capital numbers used to emphasize or stress. "Oh, you meant $:30, not %:30!" It will take some getting used to, but we all have keyboards in front of us with the appropriate shift keys, so we can all look down and see what is meant by $ or %. And, being intelligent people, I'm sure we can all take responsibility for making sure not to use capital numbers in a context where they can be mixed up with symbols and punctuation.

Census

The current census raises many issues about privacy and equality and other important things.

But I didn't notice.

I was too excited about filling out forms.

You see, when I was a little girl, I liked to play at filling out forms. My parents would give me the subscription cards from their magazines, and I'd have fun writing in my name and address and telephone number. Sometimes I'd even get one of those product registration cards that asks for all your demographic information, and that would keep me amused for a terribly long time.

It turns out the part of my brain that was satisfied by filling out those subscription cards is still there and active, and it was made very happy when I got the long form census. So yeah, there are issues, but I just can't deny my inner little girl who's all excited about this great big form to fill out.

"What if?" of the moment

What if you were offered a sufficient salary for life - enough that you never have to worry about money - on the condition that you never contribute productively to society again? You can do what is necessary to take care of yourself and your household, and indulge yourself hedonistically as much as you want, but you cannot, at all, ever contribute to society or the economy or the greater good. Would you take the offer?

My first thought is that I would, because I don't have any grand abstract need to contribute to society. But then I think of the specific things I wouldn't be able to do. Would that mean I couldn't walk dogs at the Human Society? Would that mean I can't engage in political activism? Would that mean I couldn't do little informational translations for family and friends?

Would giving up these things be worth lifetime financial security? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know.

All statements can be interpreted as accurate, except "silver". Silver? WTF?

Your Birthdate: December 22

You tend to be understated and under appreciated. You have a hidden force to do amazing things, doing them your own way. People may see you as strange and shy, but they know little. Your unconventional ways have more power than they (and even you) know. Your strength: Standing up for what you know is true Your weakness: You tend to be picky and rigid Your power color: Silver Your power symbol: Square Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Rules

The following rules are effective immediately:

1. Anyone who says anything to the effect of "Wassa matter, you scared?" in a political debate (in the broadest sense of the term) automatically and instantly loses the debate.

2. Anyone who uses a reference to participation in a sex act as an insult or a synonym or metaphor for humiliation is henceforth forbidden to receive pleasure from said sex act.

3. Anyone who says anything to the effect of "Can't you take a joke?" is henceforth deemed to have no sense of humour. Those present also have the option of interpreting any joke the offender makes from that moment forth as being intended as serious, with all the appropraite consequences.

4. Anyone who utters the phrase "No offence, but..." is henceforth deemed to have no communication skills, and should therefore not be trusted with communicating anything important, the reasoning being that anyone with communication skills should be able to present any necessary statement in a non-offensive manner. Those present also have the option of interpreting any statement the offender makes from that moment forth in the most offensive manner possible.

Movie scene bunny, free for the taking

In big movie musicals, people often burst into song in a busy city street, and dance through the street in perfectly choreographed precision.

I want to see a musical where people burst into song in the typical cliched manner, perhaps sing the first verse without dancing, sing the first chorus dancing in place, then attempt to dance down the street. However, all the street traffic keeps getting in their way, and their valiant efforts to complete their song and dance are increasingly hindered by pedestrians and dogs and streetcars and hot dog carts.

Thoughts for today

1. The deli where I buy my breakfast was giving out candies to its female customers for Mother's Day. They offered me one, and I said "No thanks, I'm not a mother." The deli manager said "Oh, you don't have kids yet?" I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just took my breakfast and went back to work.

Obviously the problem with his statement is the "yet". I'm childfree, so there is no yet. Of course, the deli manager clearly has no way of knowing that. However, by not finding a way to politely clarify that I'm childfree, I missed an opportunity to correct the common misconception that all women intend to have children.

Given that the manager knew nothing about my private life, the offer of candy was not inappropriate, but the "yet" was. I wish I'd found some way to politely address that.

2. Fun fact: the word ptak is an epithet in Klingon, but it means "bird" in Polish.

Signs I've been working too hard

Last night I dreamed that I was charged with a violation of the Official Languages Act because the brand name on my running shoes was in English only.

Then I went to Radio Shack to buy something, and I handed over enough cash to pay for it, but then the cashier (who may have been Klingon) insisted that I tell her my account number. I asked her which account - bank? credit card? Air Miles? - but she refused to tell me, just insisting more and more forcefully that I tell her the account number.

Then the universe exploded, and I woke up.

Look at me, I'm a human!

A long time ago - I think it was almost five years ago, based on where I was living at the time - mi cielito thought up this scenario of aliens who are spying on Earth doing a mocking imitation of the planet's inhabitant's. "Look at me! I'm a human! I'm walking aroud! I'm wearing a hat!" It doesn't translate very well to this medium, but it was hilarious.

So naturally, I was very amused when I stumbled upon this Pooch Cafe:

Changes I would make to Sims 2

1. I would like the option of giving all my Sims full autonomy, including major life events. I want them, when left to their own devices, to be able to find and quit jobs, move in and out of household, marry, divorce, have children, buy things etc. whenever they are so inclined.

2. I want to be able to make non-nuclear families in the family creator. For example, a married couple who each has children from their first marriage, or adult siblings living in different households. I know you can make this happen by playing the game, but it's time consuming. I want to be able to define as a given that one adult in household A and one adult in household B are siblings, rather than having to go through all the steps of creating the parental family, moving the adult children out, and having them each form their own nuclear families all BEFORE I can start playing the scenario I want to play.

3. When creating a family, I want to be able to precisely define each Sim's age. Right now you can define them as toddler, child, teen, adult or elder. If I have a household with three teens, I want to be able to make them all different ages instead of having them all be in the first year of the teen stage.

I'm going to be all gauche and talk about my google hits

Apparently someone got here by googling "How to convince your parents to let you be in a band". That's odd, because when I google that phrase I get no results whatsoever. I cannot recall writing about bands, so I have no idea how that search brought someone to my blog.

In any case, if you actually want to convince your parents to let you be in a band, it's my sister you want to talk to for advice, not me. If she's reading this, she's welcome to post her advice on convincing your parents to let you be in a band in the comments. GAH! Too many prepositions.

In other TMI news, it's quite possible that triphasic pills affect my mood, but I'm not entirely sure. So if I'm unbelievably cranky exactly four weeks from now, please bear with me and placate me with puppies and funny stories, and I will definitely get a prescription change.

My inner adolescent just won't die

I get nervous around people who are cooler than me. But not cooler than me by adult standards - most people I know are cooler than me by adult standards and I get along with them just fine. No, I get nervous around adults who are cooler than me by adolescent standards. Someone who comes across as the kind of person who would have been terribly cool and confident in high school - the kind of person on whom my adolescent self would have had a distant crush (even though my adult self doesn't really develop crushes, having a consistent outlet for those energies). And the thing is, when I get into this weird mental place where I'm assessing other adults by adolescent standards, I'm comparing them with my adolescent self. Any cool points that I may have gained in the past seven or so years simply don't count in this bizarre exercise. I'm essentially feeling nervous or intimidated by the lady in the store or the guy who works at the LCBO because I perceive that they were cool adolescents, and their adult selves are cooler than my adolescent self was.

This is so not cool.

Lookit me, I'm famous

The Unorthodox Tips for Riding the TTC printed two, or possibly three, of my submissions. (One of them was the same idea, but worded differently. I can't tell if they edited it or if someone else just submitted something similar). I submitted anonymously, so don't bother looking for me, I'm just amused that they actually accepted my stuff. I'm also amused to see several submissions by this random guy I went to elementary and high school with.

Lessons learned from exhibitionist Sims

1. If your Sim is male, wants to have a baby, and doesn't have a female lover living in the same house, he can still "Try for Baby" with a female Sim by doing a Public Woohoo. I don't know yet if the birth of this baby on another lot will satisfy his "Have a Baby" need or not.

2. A Public Woohoo with a certain Sim counts separately from a Woohoo done in the home. So if your Sim wants to Woohoo with a large number of Sims, doing one Public Woohoo and one at-home Woohoo with the same Sim will count as Woohooing with two separate Sims

From the No Shit Sherlock school of science

A University of Missouri psychologist found that women said they'd be more likely to have sex with a man shown in a photograph giving a cookie to a baby than with a man shown taking a cookie away from a baby.

Source: The Washington Post

Attn: Sympatico customers

Frequent disconnects? Is your internet connection dropping every 1/2 hour to hour?

Lots of people are having that problem, as you can see on dslreports.com or on the Sympatico forums.

If you're having this problem, we NEED you to call 310-SURF and report it. Yes, it's annoying to have to convince the techs that you have a problem (although I got a really good tech - YAY John!). But until 100 people call in and report it, their tracking system doesn't consider it a widespread problem, so they'll consider you a one-off unless 100 people call.

So if you're having this problem CALL! They seem to be open 24/7, although I can't guarantee that.

Brilliant Ideas that will Never Work: Stop Networking!

Attention everyone: stop networking right now! Just stop it! Don't try to make friends unless you're interested in social friendship. Don't try to make contacts who can get you a secret unadvertised job. Apply for and pursue only advertised jobs (although you can accept any unadvertised job that lands in your lap with no effort on your part - I'm not an ogre here!)

If everyone does this, then employers will have to actually advertise their jobs, and the whole employment market will become far more reasonable.

Coffins

Really, it isn't my intention to talk military every day, it's just that these issues keep coming up.

Now the federal government has banned photographing flag-draped coffins of soldiers, which is really odd because, while the US government did implement a similar ban recently, I hadn't heard anything about it being an issue in Canada.

I have opinions on this, but they don't matter.

The opinions of only two groups of people matter:

1. Families and other survivors of deceased soldiers
2. Soldiers themselves

Does it bother the survivors if their deceased loved-one's coffin is photographed? Would it bother the soldiers if their coffin were photographed after their death?

If so, they shouldn't photograph them. If not, it's fair game as much as any other occurrence.

Some rhetoric is equating photographing the coffin with photographing the mourners. This is not an apt comparison. Consenting to photographs of one is not equal to consenting to photographs of the other.

I can tell you that I would not want my picture taken while mourning, but I would not mind if a picture were taken of my coffin, or if a picture were taken of a loved one's coffin. If the casket were open, I might feel differently, but a flag-draped casket obviously isn't open.

But that's just my opinion, and it counts for nothing here. The issue should be left up to soldiers themselves and their survivors. Not elected officials, not military policymakers, not voters. Just the people directly affected.

Westside Red

This is a California wine, but apparently it was designed to imitate certain European reds of impenetrable geographic names. To my untrained palate, it does this quite well. It's a very attractive bottle, and certainly worth seeking out if you don't feel like remembering the ridiculous names of Rhone wines. Which, I do realize, is quite possibly the stupidest reason ever for choosing a particular wine.

Half mast or not half mast

Apparently the government declared that the flag would no longer be lowered to half mast each time a soldier is killed (instead having all fallen soldiers be memorialized on Remembrance Day), then apparently reversed that proclamation.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

I like half-masting because it's noticeable. I like the idea of it being very in-your-face every time someone dies - it keeps the debate alive on whether what they're doing is worth doing rather than having our soldiers shipped off places to warmonger to various degrees while the public sits by complacent. On a personal level, I like it because it's a reminder of when I've been derelict in my keeping-informed duties. If I see a half-mast flag and don't promptly know what it's for, then I know that I should read my newspaper more closely.

On the other hand, I am opposed to anything that glamourizes soldiering. I am of the highly-unpopular "What if they had a war and nobody came?" school of pacifism - I firmly believe that it is every human being's duty to reject all forms of military involvement (Yes, I am aware of the arguments against this position. No, that's not the point right now), and I think that any action that makes people think they'll be Great Big Glamourous Heroes if they get involved in the military is ill-advised in the long term. (This is why I've always been uncomfortable with Remembrance Day ceremonies).

I'm not sure whether a half-mast flag glamourizes combat deaths. I'm not sure whether the good achieved by keeping "OMG! People are dying!" in the forefront of the public mind outweighs any potential glamourization. Personally, based purely on intuition, I think I'd rather have a half-masting for every death and no Remembrance Day, but obviously that isn't feasible.

I don't presume to have any answers today - just a few good questions at best.

Helpful Hint: Cover Girl makeup shades

In Cover Girl makeup colours, if you find that Classic Ivory is too pale, and Natural Ivory is too pale and too pink, and Creamy Natural is a bit too dark, Buff Beige just might be the perfect colour for you.

I must admit, after years of blending multiple shades together for effect, it's rather odd to have just one shade that works perfectly.

Fun fact of the day

The "freshly updated" version of Miss Manner's Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior contains the word "sluts".

Finding the location and context of this word is left as an exercise for the reader.

Not dead or homeless

Please note that there have been no fires whatsoever in my apartment building, and everything is fine over here.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just carry on as normal.

Thoughts from the comics

1. This is how I feel about parents

2. This is how I feel about children

3. "Goodness, Curtis, you've already had three helpings! This is a problem why? Your kid asks for food, you have food, you give your kid food. He's 11 years old! Of course he's going to eat ridiculously!

4. B.D. left a leg on the battlefield. Literally? Are there all kinds of limbs lying around on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and Sudan and wherever else battles occur, or do they clean up afterwards?

The This and The That

This one word from this one Seinfeld episode has been bothering me for some time. I just couldn't hear it clearly, and the online scripts didn't seem to get it either. Today I watched that episode with the captions on, and I GOT IT!

Jerry: Now here's another little rule. When we see each other now, we retire to our separate quarters. But sometimes, when people get invloved with that, they feel pressure to sleep over. When that is not really sleep. Sleep is separate from that. And I don't see why sleep got all tied up and connected with that.


Elaine: Okay, okay. Spending the night is optional!


Jerry: Well now we're gettin' somewhere.


Elaine: What about the kiss goodnight?


Jerry: Tough one. You're call.


Elaine: It's brug-wa (?).

According to the closed captions, and I agree with this upon hearing it "brug-wa" = BOURGEOIS! Mystery solved!

Property taxes

The federal and provincial governments can collect income taxes and sales taxes. However, municipal governments cannot do this. They can only collect property taxes. (Yes, I realize there are other, smaller, revenue streams at all three levels, but I'm sure you'll agree that these are the main sources that affect our daily lives).

Why are municipal governments stuck with this annoying revenue source that is not at all tied to the taxpayers' ability to pay and is very difficult to change when new revenue is required? I know it's some kind of law, but what were they thinking when they made it law?

Headline of the day

This is one of the strangest things I've ever heard.

Things They Should Invent: sealed recycle container for apartments

I recycle the vast majority of my recyclables. Newspapers, cardboard, fine paper that does not contain personal information, wine bottles, plastics, coffee cans, and any food container that has a lid. However, I do not recycle cans that contained food.

Why? Because my building doesn't have a chute for recyclables. We have to take our recyclabes out to the dumpsters in the back of the building. I have a blue box (acquired through unofficial channels - apartments are not issued blue boxes) in my front hall, and I dump all my recyclables in there. When it gets full, about once a week, I take it out back and sort the stuff into dumpsters. Obviously, I don't want food cans, still containing food residue, just sitting there for days, practically in my living room. So instead I throw the cans away with my usual food garbage, which goes in a plastic bag in a lidded garbage can, and is thrown down the chute every night before I go to bed.

Why not wash the cans? Because the edges are too sharp to wash them thoroughly enough for my satisfaction. Why not take the recyclables out every day? Apart from my innate laziness, it is not always feasible to go to the back dumpsters every single day. Sometimes it is too dark and late to be hanging around dumpsters behind buildings, sometimes the weather is not suitable (putting paper and light, empty containers in tall dumpsters in 70 km/h winds = bad idea), sometimes the dumpsters are overflowing and nothing else will fit in. Yes, if I were the very most perfectest being in the world I'd go way out of my way and the cans would get recycled, but I'm not, I'm only human, as are most people. So here's what they need to invent to address this problem:

It's a resealing sort of container. You open the top, put your recyclables in, and then it closes and seals itself again. It keeps the smell in so your apartment doesn't get smelly and bugs don't come following the smell of food. When the time comes to empty it, you open it somehow, take out an inner bag, and dispose of the contents throught environmentally correct channels. I was once informed that a device very much like this exists for baby diapers, so it shouldn't be that hard to adapt it for recyclables. They could even use a similar device for organics once they've perfected organic waste collection for large, multi-unit buildings. The technology exists, let's get it adapted.

Bad advice of the day

This lady writes into Dear Margo with an alcoholic 16 year old son. Margo ends her advice with "Tell your son he is going to A.A. for young people or he can live on his own."

Is that supposed to help? If I were the kid, that would be a no brainer. "I can move out? COOL!" I've never been an alcoholic, but I have been 16 and had my parents getting on my case about the stuff that I most wanted to do. If given the choice between living with my parents and having to stop drinking (and probably being subject to constant, annoying supervision), and moving out on my own where I can drink all I want without anyone nagging me, I would move out in an instant! I don't know about this kid, but at 16 it never occurred to me that moving out was an option, but if someone presented it to me as an option I would have been all "Brilliant idea!" At 16, especially considering the kind of political rhetoric I was exposed to as a child, I fully believed that it was perfectly possible to support oneself flipping burgers or scrubbing floors if one only budgeted properly, and I was sick of being guilt-tripped about being spoiled. I would have jumped at the chance to live away from my parents in bohemian poverty, feeding my addition without anyone getting on my case. I seriously doubt the so-called "threat" of having to move out would get a 16 year old to say "No, I think I'll live with my parents and stop drinking and be a good little boy."

Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner

This book could do with more in the way of plot, but it's certainly worth reading because of the sheer exoticness of the subject matter. It follows the story of a boy living in the wilds of Alaska, to an aboriginal village (the book uses the word Eskimo, but as a 21st century Canadian I don't feel right using that word, and I don't know if the Inuit classification extends to Alaska), to an Alaskan city, and back to the wilds where he grew up, all while dealing with the whole world changing around him (late 20th century setting) and being from the only white family in the area.

I know that this description makes it sounds like one of those horrid coming of age novels with a boy and his dog and he's considered a loner even though he has a loyal best friend and he somehow has the freedom to run around wherever he wants without parental supervision, but it isn't like that at all. There are coming of age elements, there is a boy, but his dogs pull his sled instead of being his best friend, he is an actual loner without a close friend, and the reason he has the freedom to run around wherever he wants is because there is, quite literally, no one out there. It is so far removed from my urban life, but it doesn't feel like it's trying to make me feel guilty for it. It's simply different, and quite interestingly so.

I'd recommend any urbanite get this book from the library, just for a taste of a completely different life, but I wouldn't say it's worth buying because it doesn't have very much extraordinary in the way of plot.

Things They Should Invent: comprehensive comparison of all the ways of dying

I want someone to make a website with the pros and cons of every possible way of dying - how painful they are, how long they take, how long they cramp your style for, how undignified they are - so that the general public can make an informed decision of whether they want to reduce the risk of a particular illness or accident.

This idea came about when I realized that the vast majority of health advice out there has the ultimate aim of reducing the risk of heart disease (i.e. you should exercise, you should reduce salt, fat and cholesterol, you should watch your weight, etc.), but I don't actually know anything about how bad heart disease is. I'd imagine a heart attack involves pain, but then what? Either you have some pain and you die, or you live, and...what? If you've survived a heart attack, are you still able to live normally? Can you go back home? Can you go to the bathroom by yourself? Google tells me that there are certain medications or lifestyle restrictions, but are those just to stop you from having another heart attack, or are they for something else? It seems to me that a heart attack is not the worst possible way of dying - Alzheimer's or MS would certainly be worse, and cancer might be worse but I don't have enough information to know for sure. If I had a family history of Alzheimer's, maybe I wouldn't want to reduce my risk of heart disease, so I could die of a heart attack at 60 in a quick burst of pain rather than literally lose my mind at 80.

But there are lots more ways of dying, most of which I know very little about. That's why I want someone to put all this information together in one place - so people can make informed decisions. It seems a bit over-optimistic for everyone in the world to forego life's pleasures to achieve the goal of dying in their sleep at age 100. That will certainly work for some people, but we can't reasonably expect it to be applicable to everyone. The rest of the world should have the information they need to make an informed decision, if they choose, so they don't have to give up their favourite foods or activities or whatnot to prevent a less-unpleasant death, only to die a more-unpleasant death later.

Brilliant Ideas That Will Never Work: if you don't use your vote, you have to give it away

Some people don't vote because they believe their vote will not make a difference.

People who feel that way should be forced to cast their vote for whichever candidate the first person who asks them on election day wants them to vote for. After all, if your vote will not make a difference, it wouldn't matter who you'd give it to, right?

This rule would only apply to people who aren't voting because they think they're vote won't make a difference. It doesn't apply to situations where the would-be voter has a good reason for not voting. Examples of good reasons include: the voter is eligible to vote on paper, but no longer considers themselves a member of the community having the vote (e.g.: Italy); the platforms of the candidates are not available to the voter; the voter considers themselves incompetent; the voter is unexpectedly indisposed on election day.

Enough rain to make your hair curl

I got caught in the rain today. For the most part I looked like a drowned rat, but those little pieces of hair around my face - you know, the first ones to fall down as a hairdo loses structural integrity - seem to be curling in a quite graceful and attractive manner.

This has literally never happened before in my life. I wonder why? My hair has never been one to respond to humidity in any way except by looking limp and flat. If getting wet in the rain and then air-drying causes curls, then, logically, showering and air-drying, like I do every day, should also cause curls. But it doesn't! Maybe there's hair perm chemicals in the rain?

Best commercial ever!

Mmmmm...bibliothèque!

I love Google! I typed French baguette commercial into Google, and not only did the first result find the video I was looking for, but the it found it from a website run by someone with the same birthday as me.

I AM SO SMRT!

Harry Potter fans may be interested to know that I got an O on my W.O.M.B.A.T.! YAY!

Everyone else will probably have no idea what I'm talking about.

Crossing the floor analogy

My MP's weekly chat touched on whether a by-election should be required after an MP crosses the floor. One participant proposed that having a by-election every time someone crossed the floor is like requiring a referendum on every single issue. His logic was that you choose the individual to represent you, and they should represent their constitutents no matter what. Moments after the chat ended, I thought of a mostly-apt analogy to counter this point. It's a bit weak in places, but it communicates the general point.

Affiliation with a political party is giving a pre-arranged set of positions on issues. When a candidate is affiliated with a particular party, you don't have to find out their position on every issue on an ad-hoc basis - you can just look at their party platform. For some people, the individual representative may be more important, but others consider this set of positions on issues to be more important.

Think of a cable TV company. The party's position is like a channel bundle. It shows you the kind of messages you can expect to receive. Obviously you don't know the exact shows you'll get because TV lineups are changing all the time, but it gives you a general idea. The TV company also offers regular and high-definition broadcasting.* The type of broadcasting is like the individual you vote for. It is the medium through which the message is communicated.

Now imagine you call up your TV company.

"I would like to subscribe to the News and Documentary bundle, so I can get all the latest current events, and documentaries on all kinds of interesting subjects," you say. "And I just got a brand new high-definition TV, so I would like to get a high-definition signal, so I can see terrorist attacks and lions eating zebras in vivid detail."

The TV company says, "Yes, that's perfectly fine, we can do that. You will have the News and Documentary bundle in high definition."

Then, a few days later, you turn on the TV and your news and documentary channels are gone. In there place, you have all kinds of sports channels. You call up your cable company and ask what's up.
"Oh, we decided to switch you to the Sports bundle. It's far more popular," they tell you.

"But I specifically requested the News and Documentary bundle!" you say.

"I know," they say, "But with the Sports bundle you can get all the hockey and baseball games, plus World Cup soccer and even cricket matches from India!"

"But I don't want to watch those things, I want to watch news and documentaries!"

"But the Sports bundle will make much better use you for HDTV. More sports are broadcast in HDTV, so you can enjoy the colour and clarity of your brand new set. After all, you watch TV for its technical quality, not for its content."

Now I know some people do prioritize technical quality over content, but you can at least see why content is important. Similarly, while some people do vote for an individual, you should be able to see why party platform is important, and it's disrespectful to the voters for their elected representatives to go switching on them, as though party affiliation is negligible.

*(I know broadcasting isn't the correct word for distribution of high-definition TV signals, but I forget the correct term and it's really beside the point. Feel free to give me the correct term in comments)

Why is cynicism sad?

I read some article yesterday (I forget where), where a teenager said that everyone lies sometimes, and an adult said that it was sad to see such cynicism in someone so young.

But why is that sad? It seems to me that it would make for a more enjoyable life to expect things to be suboptimal and then possibly be pleasantly surprised if it turns out it isn't than to wander around being a wide-eyed naif only to be harshly disillusioned. I've seen that many times - grownups want to shelter children from certain aspects of reality and then get sad when the children see how the world really is. But doesn't that seem like they're being set up for a huge disappointment? And why would you be sad that your child is aware of reality? Why would you have a child if you didn't want them to be exposed to reality?

Silly poll of the moment

A person whom you do not find at all attractive tells you that they do not find you at all attractive.

Are you insulted or relieved?