jeff.hume.ca

This entry consists of two comments/rants on society which have no connection to each other except for the fact that I thought to write about them on the same day. So, into the breech.

First off, I was in an elevator going down from a hopefully successful job interview. Another man was in the elevator going down to ground floor as well. The elevator stopped at a floor somewhere in between and a courier got on pulling a cart with boxes on it. The conversation proceded as follows:

Elevator Man: How's it going?
Courier Man: Not bad, if I could have half an hour more in the day I'd be much better - not so much running around and stress.
Elevator Man: *noise of approval*

Elevator reaches ground floor and Courier Man rolls away with his cart.

Elevator Man: See ya later.

Why do people say "see ya later" to others when they will likely never see again in their lives? People seem to say it on reflex and don't even think about whether the expression is relevant or not for the situation at hand.

Next up we have the rant-worthy abomination known as the driving billboard. I think a lot of people who live in a big city know what I'm talking about when I say that, but I'll explain regardless. These are trucks which instead of having a place for cargo on the back, boast a giant obnoxious billboard. They proceed to drive around all day for the sake of advertising. The one which I have seen a few times driving around here is advertising a family pack Lasagna. I don't know what company is advertising this, but next time I see it I'll find out and never buy their product.

These driving billboards should be illegal. Not only as trucks, no less, do they unnecessarily pollute the air for the sake of obnoxious advertisements driving through your neighborhood, but they also needlessly clutter up the road with a big unnecessary vehicle. Now, I'm not talking about vans or cars which are painted with logos or advertisements -- that's fine. In those cases the vehicles are carrying people for purposes other than simply driving around to advertise. The painted advertisements are a secondary benefit for those vehicles.

If you want to advertise your product please do it in a way that isn't in the form of an obnoxious truck driving around, getting in people's way and polluting the air. That is the height of arrogance.

See ya later.

As of today I am four teeth less wise. The surgery went well and now I'm left with a painful jaw, some holes in my mouth and some bloody teeth and teeth fragments. Yes, they gave me the actual teeth. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them.

I was nervous about the procedure and I told the surgeon this when he asked how I was doing when he put the IV needle in my arm. He then said that they're giving me medicine to fix that. Moments later I felt calm and good. I hadn't a care in the world. I didn't care that there was a needle in my arm, my teeth were going to be cut and yanked out and that I had electrodes on my body. Nope, I just felt nice. I remember wanting to ask a question during this nice peaceful time while I was still awake, but I couldn't make my body actually form words and ask the question, I could just think about it on another plane. It was a weird experience

The next thing I remembered was two nurses walking me to another room to lie down. I don't remember actually waking up. For some time afterwards and still to some extent right now I felt kind of out of it both physically and mentally. It felt like my whole body was tired and I couldn't wake it up. Most of what I said was probably very stupid as well.

My Dad left me in the lobby of the building in a chair and went to get the car. When I got in the car he was putting some change away in the change bin. I then asked him, "did you pay for parking?" For some reason, my mind was thinking on one level that I was actually at the parking lot with him and he forgot to pay, when in reality I was sitting in the lobby.

Right now I'm taking T3s with codeine so I'm still a bit uncoordinated and light headed. The pain is relatively minor, just kind of an aching jaw, but I imagine it would be worse if I stopped the pain killers.

Back to eating soup and jello.

Matthew Good mBlog: Did You Just Push Me?

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they find themselves looking down at their shoes, off and laying upside down on the floor. Either the shoes are clean or they’re covered in crap. And if they are, and you spend some time trying scrape it off, it will only ever result in some of the crap being removed and some of it being imbedded further into the tread.

What if I started sneezing and never stopped?

This week I am at my grandparent's cottage for a nice little relaxing stay after finishing work for the summer. As I sat here tethered to a phone line, I thought I should write something on here. However, during the summer, writing just doesn't seem to flow for me and I'm pretty much fresh out of inspiration. So, I've decided to note a few random things that I am contemplating at the moment and see where that takes me (not very far I imagine.) So, get ready for some rambling

First of all what the hell is wrong with this summer? It is finally nice and sunny out, but it is cold. It can't be more than 20°C out and I feel like putting a sweater on. All this summer has been is cold and wet. What is going on?

I've been reading a lot. I've read Outlander and am in the middle of the sequel Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. These novels are quite enjoyable if not a bit too long and a bit too heavy-handed on the romance. Overall, however, I'm enjoying them greatly. Yesterday I also started reading Paris 1919 by Margaret MacMillan. I'll be studying this book this coming school year in a course, and thus far I can say that this course looks promising if the other reading material is of this quality. From what I've read, the book is quite captivating and addictive. Usually I find that I don't get addicted to non-fiction to nearly the same degree as with fiction, but this book may change things.

When I get home to broadband next week I'll post some pictures of my canoe trip to Algonquin Park.

The Winter Olympics are more interesting than their summer brother.

I want to visit Athens.

...actually, I want to visit Athens and Rome. Oh, and also England and Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands. I think a trip would be nice.

I think I am going to get a 12" Powerbook for school this coming year. The only question is should I get a superdrive (DVD burner) or not? I don't really know if I'd use it, but if I ever get a DV camera in the future it would be cool to use it with iDVD. Yet, $250 (CDN) extra is a lot to justify a possibility.

Starsky and Hutch was amusing, but it could have been better. By the way, what is the deal with Owen Wilson? I'm pretty sure that in every movie I've seen him in he plays the exact same character - himself.

Well, that's all for now. I think I better stop this post before it descends into even further levels of incoherence.

This summer I'm working with a house painting company. Although it can be, at times, hard work, it is not a bad job overall. Through this experience, I've learned a few lessons from painting that I've realized can apply to life in general. I'll probably learn many more over the summer

Firstly, when painting, unlike on a computer, there is no undo button. If you make a mistake, you're pretty much stuck with it. You can paint over it or quickly wipe it up, but it makes it more difficult and harder for you. Likewise, life has no undo button. If I make a mistake I can try and quickly cover it up or wipe it away, but then it can leave a mess behind.

Don't paint a wall that is falling apart. The other day I was painting a big cement wall with a roller. As I painted the wall pieces of it would come off and fall to the ground. Dust from the wall also came off and stuck in my roller, thus making it much harder to paint. Don't try and make something look pretty before fixing what is really there underneath. It will just be harder to do and will fall apart again.

Lastly, learn to tolerate the smell. This could be applied to a variety of situations...

Me: Does anyone actually follow the instructions "lather, rinse, repeat"? I don't think anyone does the repeat part.

Posté: I think the women do, one of my postulates to why they smell good all the time.

Tomorrow we leave for Fort Myers, Florida. It will be one and a half weeks without Internet access for me! Shocking!

I have come to realize that an unexpected lack of Internet access can really screw things up.

Why do they always put way too much lettuce on your hamburger? Half as much lettuce would be plenty and it wouldn't all fall out.

That is all.

Well, today is the day known as Valentines Day. I'd like to be bitter about it, but for some reason I'm not. Yet, I haven't been out yet today to see all the roses and chocolates and cards and whatnot being sold in vast quantities. In fact, the only reason I'm bitter at all today is because of all the homework I must do.

Yesterday at around lunch time, I was taken on a little bit of a dining adventure. I went to what is known as Dim Sum. A friend of mine, Brian who is of Chinese descent, took myself and two others down to Toronto's China Town. We took the streetcar down from Spadina station and got off pretty much right in the middle of China Town. Every sign as Chinese and some had english titles underneath, but not many. He took us into a medium sized shopping mall with all sorts of things in it, and up an elevator to the very top floor. Although, we did not get to the top floor before the eccentric elevator with a voice chip (it spoke in English) took us all the way to the basement and then up again.

When we got to the top, my friend was walking ahead of us at a pretty fast pace and we hurried after him, feeling quite out of place already. Entering the restaurant he spoke to the doorman and got us a table for four. Quickly, multiple servers came by and put down various things on our table - small plates, small bowls, chopsticks, a strange spoon each, and an even smaller bowl that turned out to be for the tea in the pot that was given to us. Almost before we could get settled servers were coming by with carts of various dishes. Brian ordered us a wide selection of various thing in Cantonese (it didn't seem like the servers could speak English) and they put them on the table. Each time they made a mark on a little card on the table that showed what we had taken. These carts were always going by with their servers calling out what I took to be the names of the dishes throughout the whole meal. Sometimes my friend would call out for something and then explain what it was after he ordered it, while other times he told us that we wouldn't like it. Looking around the restaurant we found that I and my other two friends were the only people there who were not Asian.

The various foods were really interesting and quite good tasting. Much to my surprise I actually enjoyed almost every dish we had. In the past, I have found myself to be a somewhat picky eater, so I was not expecting to really enjoy this meal. The dishes are served in small portions and the plates put in the middle of the table for us all to take what we wanted, so we had many different dishes. Almost every single thing had meat in it. If you were a vegetarian you would be lost there. There was a lot of pork and shrimp in particular. One of my favorites was a semi-sweet bun with pork inside in a spicy sauce. The tastes contrasted nicely. We also had a couple shrimp things which were quite good. There were a lot of purees-like items and things reminiscent of egg roles. I said that I liked 'almost" every dish we had. I had to say almost because there was one that Brian ordered which I could not make myself try - chicken's feet. They looked somewhat like chicken wings, but I didn't want to push my tastes too much and ruin the so-far excellent meal.

After we were done they tallied up the bill and we paid. It was only $33 (Canadian dollars for any Americans reading) for the four of us. Considering the amount and selection of food, it was rather inexpensive.. Overall, it was a great experience, that opened my eyes, or rather my mouth, to different foods. I would definitely have Dim Sum again, but I don't know about the chicken's feet.

Over the last little while I've been studying and writing exams. Stress has been abound while all my exams are packed right next to each other. However, my last exam, chemistry, is miles away - next Wednesday. Thus I have a week off to relax before it.

I'm planning to kick this site into gear again with a lot of new posts and a possible redesign.

This week has been incredibly busy. School work and other comitments have taken over almost all my time. I'm incredibly glad it's Friday. My friend Dave described his busy week by saying he'd been working "non-stop, commercial free" since Monday. I'd tend to agree with that statement in describing my own week.

Hopefully this weekend will bring some rest, yet I need to do a lot of stuff so as to prevent another busy week which is fast approaching.

Well my favorite time of year has come once again. This time of year is the Fall. Fall means that it's time to get out my sweaters, long pants and jackets out of the closet and enjoy the time we have left outside before winter arrives. In fall the temperature is always comfortable. Inside you can wear essentially anything you want and remain comfortable, while outside you just put on a light jacket and the temperature is nice, but refreshing.

The air is always so crisp and clean feeling during the fall. There is no heavy humidity weighing down on you as there is in the summer here and it doesn't feel damp like in the spring. In the fall the air is perfect.

OK, time for a silly, strange post. Have you ever noticed that you can drink almost limitless amounts of water without feeling full? Whereas you can't drink very much Coke (just as an example) without starting to feel full. I Guess the water just passes right through you. I'm trying to drink more water now after camping when I drank about three to four full Nalgene bottles a day (1 Litre each).

By the way, the title of this post is from a song by a famous band. Bonus points if anyone knows it. You aren't allowed to use Google or similar tools. Although I wont be able to tell, if you cheat you'll have to live with it the rest of your life... or something like that.

By the way, I'm back from Algonquin. It was a great trip. The weather was great except for a huge storm on the first night, but that was kind of cool in it's own way. Now I just want to go camping again!

I'm heading to Algonquin Park for a canoe trip over the next five days. This is going to be a great trip.

We've been experiencing blackouts up at the cottage here, just like the majority of Ontario and the North-East United States. The power is back on for now, but they warn it could go off again so they can send it somewhere else.

I can imagine it would be quite strange in Toronto or other big cities to be driving down the streets and having no lights around.

I'm heading up to the cottage again for a couple weeks. Internet connections and posting may be sparse.

So, this weblog is still alive, yet it has slowed down since I got off for the summer. It's rather strange that this happened, considering I now have more time to do everything (except school). Well, I hope to get back into writing now.

Summer has been treating me well overall. It is really hot and humid here, which is kind of annoying. I like heat, but when it gets humid and sticky it just makes you want to do nothing. Personally, I think 25 Celsius is the perfect temperature. Warm enough for shorts and swimming, but not too hot that it is uncomfortable.

Currently I'm working at a day-camp as a counsellor. Looking after kids all day is tiring work, but it's not a bad job. Today we took them swimming which is not the best thing in the world. Trying to keep track of them when a million other kids are swimming around is difficult. When I got home I flopped down on my bed and fell asleep.

For the next few weeks I'll be going to my grandparents' cottage on weekends which will be nice. It might be a little cooler there, and I can always jump in the lake. It will be nice to get away from the city and being busy.

I'll try and post more now. Errr hopefully.

Mike shares an interesting story:

Then out of the blue, like a black truck driving on a black road in a black town at midnight, she hits me with the question... You know, *the* question...

"So, do you have a church in the area?"

The question is, why do people do things like this? Isn't religion a personal thing?

Yet again, another roadblock has been placed in front of my iPod purchase. My order has been mysteriously cancelled. I called up Apple and they said that it had to do with payment information, but the payment people weren't there at those hours, so I couldn't find out specifically what went wrong. The representative said that I could call back tomorrow to find out more information.

I think at this point I'll just wait for the stores to get them in again. The wait time from the online store and the possiblity of further complications isn't worth it.

Well, I finally ordered an iPod tonight. I ordered it from the online Apple store after much inner debate. The local dealers don't have any in stock, and when they do get them in stock they sell out incredibly quickly. I figured that I'd just order it online and not worry about calling up these places all the time to see if they have them in. They can't even give a good timeframe for their arrival. Well I wont complain anymore. Now I just have to wait for a while until my 15 gig iPod arrives at my door!

My family is going to open up my grandparents' cottage today. I'll be away until Monday evening.

This is one of the most (if not the most) brilliant Onion article of all time.

Although it is refering to September 11th and is shrouded in humor, I think the message is timeless and true. Everyone in the world should understand this.

Well I survived today without getting sick! If I can stay healthy tomorrow I may be in the clear.

Mike Pinkerton asks one of the great questions of our time:

"Why does bottled water have an expiration date?"

This puzzle must be resolved! Along with:

What is the air-speed velocity of an un-laden swallow?

Puzzling.

There is a high possibility I'll be sick today. I was exposed to a flu type thing two days ago. All of those who had been exposed to it 2 days before that got sick that day. So it seems the incubation period is 2 days. My Mom and Sister have already got sick today, I suppose I might be next.

Wish me luck, I have a 10+ year vomit-free record. :)

Well, well, well, the Leafs have been busy at this years NHL trade deadline. Not only did we get Owen Nolan a few days ago, we also got Glen Wesley from Carolina, Phil Housely from Chicago, and Doug Gilmour from Montreal! Gilmour is a Leaf once again! I can't wait to see him play on Thursday.

These deals have really given the Leafs a lot of depth. I just hope they can use their talent in the playoffs. GO LEAFS GO!

I picked up a copy of Beowulf today, translated by Seamus Heaney. I haven't started reading yet, just the introduction. From what I've read about it, it should be really interesting. It's strange, however, seeing the Anglo-Saxon on one side of the page and then English on the other. There are some similarities that you can definately see, yet it is different.

So I was away on the weekend camping again. I was at the same place I went two weekends ago with the same friend. It was at his family's farm. We went to help out with a Cub camp that was being held there in addition to going just for fun. I took the camera along and took a bunch of pictures. I've posted them here

There are some good ones in there and some that aren't so good. I didn't include a few as well, since a lot were repeats or weren't good at all.

We finished off the quinzee (snow shelter) from two weekends ago. It really was big. We estimate it was about 5 feet high inside and quite wide. We fit 11 Cubs and the two of us in it with lots of room to spare.

So I didn't go camping this weekend afterall. The weather wasn't looking good for driving, so it got cancelled. Yesterday there was freezing rain then snow in the evening. Overnight we got a big dump of snow as well. Too bad. I wanted to work more on our snow shelter and take some pictures. Maybe some other time...

Well, I didn't freeze! Camping was great. Our snow shelter was huge, and it wasn't even completed. The pile of snow is about 7 feet high, or more. When we were almost done hollowing it out half of it collapsed on us. Although rebuilding the colapsed half meant a hell of a lot more work, we all laughed for a while. I was on the outside and the three other guys were burried up to their waists in snow, laughing.

I'll be going back next weekend. My friend and I are going to try and finish it. I'll try to take some pictures of the monster if it is still intact.

I'm going winter camping this weekend up at a friends farm. We'll be building snow shelters and doing everythign outside. It should be fun.... but freezing.

So it is Valentines day today. I'm not a big fan of this purely invented holiday. It seems to me that all it is good for is making the card, flower and chocolate companies money and making people who spend it alone, well alone. The part I hate the most is the ads you see that essentially say "buy her an expensive diamond ring to show that you care about her." This is essentially a corporate guilt trip. You don't need to spend that much money to show feelings.

So Happy Valentines Day everyone! I might be being unfair. Its a nice day for many people.

I think I'm bitter.

Well, Steve Stavero has sold the Leafs. CBC gives us the breakdown of ownership:

"Under a new ownership structure, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Fund now owns 58 per cent of MLSE, Bell Globemedia has 15 per cent, TD Capital increases its share to 14 per cent and Kilmer Sports, owned by Larry Tanenbaum, increases to 13 per cent. "

Stavero also assure us of the team staying in Canada. "This change in ownerships guarantees that Canada's team -- the Leafs and the Raptors, will remain in Canada, in Canadian hands." Well, thats a good thing, except I don't think anyone would expect the Leafs to leave anyways. The Leafs are extremely profitable and wouldn't make more money anywhere else. Toronto is the biggest hockey city in the world and the Leafs know it. Every Leafs game is sold out for huge amounts of money, and I think almost all Raptors games get sold out as well. It seems pretty obvious that the team is not going anywhere.

I watched the movie 12 Monkeys last night. It was a very interesting movie. It really makes you think. Bruce Willis played the character well. Even Brad Pitt played a good role. Terry Gilliam, the director, is great. There was something interesting about the style of the movie. Anyways, two thumbs up and I strongly recommend it.

Here's another article from The Smoking Gun on Pete Townshend I should have linked earlier. It includes an essay he wrote a year ago about how shocked he was at finding Child Porn on the Internet by accident and how a friend of his was sexually abused as a child and she recently committed suicide. This combined with his work for Children's charities and the article I posted earlier convince me of his innocence.

Here's an interesting article. It appears that Pete Townshend wasn't lying and is innocent. Supposedly he was in contact with the Internet Watch Foundation and was reporting these things. The IWF initially denied that they had been in contact with him, but now they have admitted they did and Pete has email evidence to back it up.

I really hope this is true, Townshend really doesn't seem like the kind of person who would do that kind of thing. At least I hope not.