How to ensure that politicans raise salaries for the greater good only

When politicians vote themselves a salary increase, there should be a sort of backwards grandfather clause: the salary increase will apply to anyone elected to that position in the future, but will not apply to any of the current members involved in voting in the increase. That way, they have nothing to gain from it either way.

The problem with academic projects

Thoughts from the shower: One thing I've always hated in school is when we had to think of our own projects. If the teacher told me to write an essay or do a presentation on a specific topic, I was fine. If they told me to pick something from a limited list of specific topics, I was fine. The problem was when they told me to do just anything, or something from an extremely broad category. "Do an ISU on some element of French or Francophone culture." "Write a computer program." "Document a technology." Except in the rare cases when I was especially interested in something, I found it brutal to pick a topic. It was even worse when the choice of topic was ridiculously broad, but the project requirements were ridiculously specific. "Pick a subject, any subject. Now make a bibliography on that subject. You have to include X encyclopedia articles, Y articles from academic journals, Z articles from the media, and N monographs." "Pick a topic, any topic. Now read three fictional novels on that topic, write a comparative essay, and do a class presentation." I could never tell whether my topic was suitable to meet all those specific project requirements, and half the time the teacher didn't even give the specific project requirements until we'd picked the topic. Assuming the assignment reasonably reflects the course material, I can do a good assignment on any appropriate topic. But I just suck at thinking of appropriate topics!

That just doesn't reflect reality. In every job I've ever had, I was given specific duties. My clients say "Translate this text," not "Find something to translate and then try to sell it to me. Oh, and by the way, the end result needs to be a 12,000 word annual report." When I did tech support, it was "Solve my problem," or "Pick a problem from the queue and solve it," not "Think of any problem in the world, then solve it and implement the solution for all affected users. Oh, and by the way, it needs to affect at least 50 users and not require any hardware upgrades."

I think this is the main reason why I'm hesitant to do my MA. I've been looking at course outlines, and there seems to be a lot of "Pick something and do a big-ass project on it" type work. Want me to research something? Tell me what it is! Want me to translate something? Tell me what it is! I'm not always actively interested in any topics that are relevant to the course, so sometimes I just can't think of anything to do an assignment on, but I can do good work on any suitable topic that you care to assign, even if I'm not interested in it. That should be an asset, not a liability - especially for a translator!

Elected representatives' salaries: factors to consider

Ontario MPPs recently voted themselves a raise. Some factions think this is important so that they can continue to attract quality people. Others think it's reprehensible since they already make far more money than the average Ontarian.

I don't feel particularly qualified to comment on the appropriateness or lack thereof of this raise, but I have noticed that a few factors are missing from public debate on this issue, so I'm just going to list those factors here and allow people to do what they want with them:

- Running for office represents a gap in your regular career. Most employers require that employees take an unpaid leave of absence to run for political office, and they probably have to resign from their normal job if they win. There are ethical rules that prevent politicians from networking effectively for personal gain while in office. They can't do a bit of part-time work on the side. They have to put their business in a blind trust. While you can apply for several normal jobs concurrently and there's very little wrong with rejecting a job offer, if you're elected to public office you have to accept; this means that it's very difficult, if not impossible, for a politician to apply for other jobs as a backup while running for re-election. Conflict of interest rules probably also limit what kinds of work a politician can accept for a period of time after they have been defeated for re-election.

- Politicians (and their families) have to live in the public eye. I don't know about you, but if the make of my shoes, the quality of my dye job, the size of my gut, the stylishness of my glasses, and the way in which I greet my loved ones in public were all subject to media scrutiny, I would expect to be compensated accordingly. If I had children who would be also be subject to this scrutiny, I would expect to be paid even more.

- Elected officials don't work only when Parliament/legislature/whatever is sitting. They also sit on committees, do constituency work, deal with the media and have to attend all manner of public events. Which brings me to...

- Politicians can't just refuse an invitation. If I am invited to a civic event, I can just say no.
Friend: "Hey, want to go to Pride?"
Me: "Nah, it's too hot out and I'm not that into parades."
See, no problem.
But if a politician declines to go to Pride, it's seen as an anti-gay gesture. Multiply that by every event at all ever, all of which they can possibly decline for a prior commitment, but not just to stay at home with a good book and a glass of wine.

So do they already get paid in a way that reflects all these things? Maybe, maybe not. I couldn't tell you. I just want people to take these things into account when calculating how much politicians should get paid.

Dirty old people

The bad: on the subway today, this extremely frail old man sat next to me. By my best assessment, he was 100 years old and Chinese. He sat way too close to me. It was odd, because he appeared to be properly centred in his seat, but he was WAY closer to me than necessary. I'm a bit above average size-wise, as women go, but well within the range of normal for the general population. And this guy was tiny. I've sat next to thousands of people on the subway, and I assure you there was no excuse for him to be that close to me! Then the train pulled into a stop, and he stood up early so that he could "accidentally" fall into my lap as the train slowed down. I've lost my balance the subway dozens of times, and this was definitely on purpose - even the lady across from me could tell. I had to change clothes when I got home, because my clothes were psychologically tainted. What's odd is this is the second time a 100-year-old Chinese man has invaded my personal space on the subway while acting completely innocent about it.

The not-bad: my upstairs neighbour has a wobbly bed. Today I saw my upstairs neighbour in the mailroom. She's well over 80 years old! I want to be her when I grow up!

An observation

Suppose I'm sitting somewhere where there's music and dancing. (I know, I don't belong in that kind of place and I don't know how to dance anyway, but bear with me for plot purposes.)

Guy 1: Would you like to dance?
Me: No thanks, I'm taken.

***pause***

Society as a whole: that has nothing to do with it! Dancing is a simple, innocent social activity and in no way implies the promise of anything romantic or sexual! You're free to dance with anyone regardless of your relationship status.
Me: But I don't want to dance with random strangers! I'm not comfortable with that degree of physical contact or implied intimacy with any strange man who happens to walk up to me.
Society as a whole: PRUDE! Dancing with a lot of different people is a standard part of social interaction at places where there is dancing! If you're not comfortable with that, you should go home!
Me: I will in a minute, just let me finish this skit and make my point.

***play***

Guy 2: Hi, would you like to dance?
Me: No thanks, but Guy 1 here is looking for someone to dance with.
Guys 1 & 2: OMG, no, we're not gay!
Me: that has nothing to do with it! Dancing is a simple, innocent social activity and in no way implies the promise of anything romantic or sexual! You're free to dance with anyone regardless of your relationship status.

***pause***


Society as a whole: You know full well that isn't the point! Stop being so disingenuous!

***stop***

It's true. According to general etiquette (Miss Manners), if you're in a dancing-type place you should be willing to dance with just about anyone, just to be polite and sociable. Miss Manners is very emphatic that it's not to be considered romantic or sexual at all. But just try taking one of those people who insists that it's not romantic or sexual, and pairing them up with a partner of their non-target gender!

Happy birthday to me

All I want for my birthday is world peace.

PMS

WAAAH! I hate all my clothes!
WAAAH! After years of lobbying for women's pants with pockets, I can't find any without pockets!
WAAAH! My old size 13 pants from Smart Set are too big!
WAAAH! Current size 13 pants in-store at Smart Set are too small!
WAAAH! There's no single item of clothing available that, once purchased, will solve all my problems in the world forever!
WAAAH! And when I do buy clothes, they cost money!
WAAAH! The magical stain remover only removed about 1/3 of the impossible-to-remove stains!
WAAAH! And there's lint on my black shirt!
WAAAH! And there's lint on my lint brush!
WAAAH! And my clothes are wrinkled!
WAAAH! But I don't want to iron!
WAAAH! And my body hair is growing too fast and too dark!
WAAAH! And my head hear is growing too slow and too light!
WAAAH! And I can't find any white chocolate!
WAAAH! And the white chocolate I did find smells too chocolatey!
WAAAH! My work is boring!
WAAAH! My clients keep interrupting my boring work to send hard work!
WAAAH! I want some time off!
WAAAH! But I don't want to use up my vacation days on something so frivolous as time off!
WAAAH! I don't want my statutory holidays to occur during xmas season!
WAAAH! But I want everything to smell like pine trees in the middle of winter!
WAAAH! I'm tired!
WAAAH! I don't want to go to bed!
WAAAH! But I want to sleep forever!

Someone explain science to me?

I have some wet clothes hanging to dry. They appear to be drying from the top down - i.e. currently the top part is dry, but the bottom is still damp. This would imply that the water is dripping out of them, which would makes sense because water tends to do that.

BUT BUT BUT...

They stopped dripping a long time ago! When they stopped dripping, they were still uniformly damp (as far as I could perceive by sight and touch). Since they aren't dripping, that would imply that the water should be evaporating uniformly. But it's evaporating from the top down! Why is this happening when they aren't dripping???

Things They Should Invent: self-declared two-tier citizenship

With all the silly fuss about Stéphane Dion's inherited dual citizenship, it occurs to me that it would be helpful to have the option of two-tier citizenship.

Don't worry, I don't mean that the government declares some citizens to be more equal than others.

I mean that individuals who possess dual (or triple - is that possible? If two people with different hereditary citizenships have a baby in a third country?) citizenship can optionally declare one of their citizenships to be their primary citizenship. Perhaps there could be minor consequences (can't vote in your country of secondary citizenship? must travel on your primary passport?) but the general idea is to symbolically favour one country without the symbolic slight of renouncing your other citizenship.

Why not just renounce your secondary citizenship? Apart from the fact that some countries don't allow you to renounce citizenship, renunciation tends to imply that you seriously disapprove of the other country. Remember all the fuss when Conrad Black renounced his Canadian citizenship so that he could be given a British peerage? And then when he was apparently considering taking up Canadian citizenship again, people were all offended because he's already renounced us? Not everyone wants to give their other country such a slap in the face. (Aside: wouldn't it be ironic if Stéphane Dion renounced his French citizenship, then became PM, then it leaked into France that the PM of Canada had renounced his French citizenship, and it caused an international incident because they got all offended?)

I somewhat identify with dual citizenship dilemmas because I'm second-and-a-half generation; if circumstances had been different, I could have inherited a second citizenship myself - my mother's country of birth just happened to assign citizenship differently at the time that her family left. I've never even been to my mother's country of birth. I was born in Canada, I've lived in Canada all my life, English is my first language and French is my second. I can stumble through a few words of my mother's mother tongue, but that's only because I'm the family language geek. I am Canadian - there is simply nothing else for me to be. I experience my second culture as an academic elective and a few family quirks.

If I had inherited citizenship from my mother's country of birth, I might feel the need to make it clear that my Canadian citizenship is predominant. To the casual observer this is obvious, but some people read quite a lot into dual citizenship, and some countries like to exert a stronger claim on their citizens. I might feel the need to explicitly state: "Canada, you're #1. Old Country, you're #2." But at the same time, I don't have anything against the Old Country. It's just that they're not my country. If I found myself renouncing an Old Country citizenship, it wouldn't be anything against that country, it would just be the only mechanism I have to assert the fact that Canada is #1. But the Old Country might consider that something of a slight. "What on earth does she have against us?" And I wouldn't have anything against them, it's just that I am Canadian.

So I propose that dual citizens be able to declare one of their citizenships to be primary. This wouldn't be mandatory - you could walk around with two equal citizenships if that better reflects your needs - but it would give people who fell into dual citizenship through no fault of their own the option of asserting their "loyalty" (I still don't know exactly what's intended by that word) without deliberately dissing the other country. Then we can save renunciation of citizenship for when you actively disapprove of the other country, rather than reducing such a drastic negative measure to a necessity of administrative convenience.

Officially sick of xmas

Note: I have officially become sick of xmas for the year. I would like the stores to go back to normal so I can shop for clothes for myself (and maybe glasses frames) under normal shopping conditions. I would like the statutory holidays to be meaningless to my family rather than the traditional "get the family all together under one roof" day, so I can enjoy actual time off rather than simply exchanging professional obligations for family obligations. I'm officially sick of hearing carols whenever I go to buy laundry detergent or pasta sauce. And I want my white chocolate back! It seems to have been completely displaced on store shelves by xmas chocolate! Can we please go back to real life now?

Wherein the United States of America makes a simple task much harder than it needs to be

One of the stores I was shopping at today accidentally gave me a Cuban coin ("cinco centavos") in my change instead of a dime, so I decided to see how much it's worth.

First I googled 5 Cuban centavos in Canadian dollars, but Google didn't convert like it usually does.

So I thought that maybe Google only knows the basic units, not the centavos. So I googled Cuban currency to find out what it's called. It's called the Peso. That part was fine.

Then I googled 0.05 Cuban pesos in Canadian dollars. But again, Google didn't convert!

So I googled currency converter, and got xe.com, which I used to use before Google started converting automatically. But I couldn't find Cuban pesos!

So then I googled Cuban peso conversion and got Yahoo Finance, which does have Cuban pesos.

Turns out my little coin is worth $0.06 Canadian. So I was inadvertently cheated 4 cents, but I did get a new coin I've never seen out of the deal. But it shouldn't have taken that many steps for me to find out what it's worth! I should have been able to find out in my first Google! Unless someone has a better explanation, I'm going to blame the US embargo on Cuba in combination with American domination of the internet.

Invisibility, or politeness?

A Toronto Star reporter wears the same outfit for a month to see if anyone notices. Then she feels invisible because no one noticed.

Maybe they were just too polite to say anything?

I once had a prof who wore the same thing every time we saw her (we saw her twice a week.) It was occasionally mentioned behind her back ("You have Prof. X? Is she still wearing that purple thing?") but no one was so crude as to mention it to her face. In middle school or high school I'd expect someone to say something, but in adult life if I wore the same outfit two days in a row (which I'd only do with a laundry cycle in between) and someone commented, I'd just find that rather...not becoming a grownup. If I saw one of my co-workers wearing the same thing several days in a row, I wouldn't dare comment (and would probably graciously assume they like it so they bought several copies, or they're changing their undershirt or something).

Also, I think I'd find it rather comforting to learn that my wardrobe choices aren't subject to scrutiny.

The problem with Dear Prudence

Every since Emily Yoffe took over Slate's Dear Prudence column, I've felt the quality of the advice has declined. I think I've figured out why: When the letter-writer is in a situation that Prudie has been in before, but Prudie felt differently in that situation, she is completely incapable of empathizing with the letter-writer. When Prudie and the letter-writer feel the same way in the same situation, it's fine. When Prudie has no first-hand experience with the LW's situation, it's generally decent. But when Prudie felt differently in the same situation, she essentially tells the LW that they should be feeling differently.

The most prominent example I can think of is when a childfree LW asked for advice on dealing with people who nag her to have children. Prudie responded essentially by bingoing her. In a later article, she then confessed that she initially didn't want children, but had them because it was a dealbreaker for her husband. (I wonder how her children feel about that?) It seems she's completely unable to see beyond this and give her reader some practical advice on how to stop the bingoing.

Then today, someone wrote asking how to deal with her boyfriend's family, and Prudie said that her family is just like that and she loves it, so the reader should just sit back and enjoy it. She can't see beyond her own enjoyment of the situation and put herself in the shoes of someone who hates it.

So, Prudie, if you'd react differently in the reader's situation and can't put yourself in their shoes, don't use that letter. Use letters where you can identify with the reader. Don't tell the reader to feel differently, take what they do feel as a given, and give them some practical advice.

Highrises vs. street life

Public space advocates tend to say that residents of highrises are removed from street life. I just don't get that. Now it's possible I'm missing something - I've lived in a highrise in a neighbourhood that has street life, and I've lived in houses or lowrises in areas without street life - I've never experienced the lowrise + street life combination. But where I am now, in a highrise in a vibrant neighbourhood, I don't feel removed from street life. I experience it whenever I go out. Every day I walk down busy streets filled with pedestrians and bars and cafes and shops and people walking dogs and babies - everything that public space should be. The fact that my home is 14 storeys off the ground doesn't affect that.

Actually, living in a highrise helps me enjoy living in a busy neighbourhood. I feel safer higher up. I can sleep with an open window at little risk, I don't have all that street life parading right past my door, and if people leave litter or vandalize it doesn't affect me. The summertime last-call crowd is a distant buzz, not a mob of rabble milling about right outside my bedroom window. If I lived in a house, or a ground floor or second floor apartment, I might feel less safe, less welcoming of the busy street life. I might want to move to a quieter neighbourhood. But as it stands, I get to enjoy the safety and vibrancy of robust public space when I'm out in public, and I get to enjoy the safety and privacy of a certain degree of isolation when I'm in my private space.

Random thoughts for today

1. Yet another reason why it's a good thing I'm childfree: There was a little baby in a stroller. The baby was lying on her back, and several brightly-coloured toys were dangling above her. The baby reached up one chubby little arm and grabbed one of the toys with her impossibly-tiny hand, turning it back and forth as though she were inspecting it. The first thought that pops into my head: "Awwww, that's just like a real person!"

2. Whenever I see a floppy-eared dog, I find myself saying "Hello Mr. Floppy-Ears!" (Without even first checking whether the dog is, in fact, male!) The problem is that this might result in any dog I adopting ending up with the name Mr. Floppy-Ears, which is hardly a dignified name for a dog. Maybe I should get a floppy-eared bunny first, just to get the Mr. Floppy-Ears name out of my system. I think a bunny could handle such an undignified name more than a dog.

3. Stéphane Dion thinks his knapsack is just neato, with all the nifty pockets and everything (unfortunately I can't seem to google up a picture of said knapsack:

"Have I ever shown you what a great knapsack this is?" Dion asked Wilfert about a year ago. The two men were having a meeting and Dion simply had to extol the virtues of the carry-all, with all its neat pockets and compartments. "This is the best knapsack I've ever had."

I try very hard not to judge politicans on their superficial image, but there's just something terribly endearing about a political leader who's so dorky that I can identify with him. I don't much like those "Which party leader would you most like to have a beer with?" polls, but I think I'd actually enjoy sitting down and having a drink with this guy.

4. There's also a bit of a "Dion needs a makeover" thing going around, and one thing people keep citing is his glasses. But they're rimless! Isn't that supposed to be fashionable? I know it's not the very most latest fashion ever, but it's really quite recent. Does this mean they're on the way out? Should I rethink my plan of splurging on rimless when I get new glasses in January?

FBORFW plot hole

General consensus is now that For Better or For Worse is pointing towards Elizabeth and Anthony ending up together. But there's a big question about that: why did Lynn Johnston introduce the Paul character if she wanted Liz and Anthony together? If Paul wasn't there, Liz could come back south and she and Anthony could end up together with hardly any contrived-ness (apart from the fact that Anthony was inexplicably married and had a kid and divorced all while he was allegedly still in love with Liz, which makes him look far less sympathetic. And Anthony's mustache which...the only time I've ever seen a mustache on a man his age is in the most wanted list.)

But with Paul around, the whole thing comes across as looking contrived. I've already blogged about how the set-up with Paul was completely contrived and borderline creepy. I've already blogged about how Liz coming back south doesn't look good on her. And now the recent strip where the parents dis Paul and try to push Liz towards Anthony just makes them look stupid. Anthony is there because he's a witness. Paul is not there because he lives over 1,000 km away, the trial has been stretching on for months, Paul is one of very few cops in a very small town so getting time off isn't that easy, and he just transferred there and has just applied to transfer again (because of Liz). Dissing him because he can't drop everything and come south makes the parents look clueless.

But if Paul didn't exist, Liz could be made lonely and that could be spun as a compelling excuse to come back south (rather than Paul being a compelling excuse to stay up north.) Anthony's presence could be spun into romance without making Liz into a cheater (or making Paul cheat on her). The parents wouldn't have to look totally clueless. All the characters would get to be far more sympathetic than they are now - now they look thoroughly unsympathetic.

I'm hoping Lynn Johnston will still surprise us and end the strip in a way I totally can't see coming. It would be a shame to see such a venerable comic strip end with all the characters looking like idiots.

I did something cool

I just realized that I did something cool a few days ago. I was attending a presentation by a senior executive in the organization for which I work. As he was talking, I noticed something was missing from a particular point that he made, so I raised my hand, spoke up, and contributed something fruitful to the discussion. I did this twice, without hesitation, and it didn't even occur to me that this was anything special until just now, several days later, when I remembered that one of my much more senior colleagues was nervous and stuttering when doing the same thing.

An enormous part of the credit goes to my employer for creating an environment in which my contributions feel welcome, but still, I couldn't do this three years ago!

Poison Control

Why isn't Poison Control part of 911? When you have to call Poison Control it's an emergency, but it's this random 7/10 digit number that no one knows offhand.

Why would anyone buy an 8 gig iPod?

The 8 gig iPod Nano costs the same as the 30 gig iPod video. So why would anyone buy the 8 gig? I want a red one and I was happy to see it's now available in 8 gigs because 4 might be too small for me, but a pretty pretty colour and $10 to AIDS isn't enough to make me buy 22 fewer gigs for the same price!