commenting

I’ve received some e-mails from people saying they can’t comment.

I have everything unclicked in my settings, so you don’t have to have a WordPress account to comment, however, WordPress changed their comment policy and isn’t letting anyone comment without logging in first. I know a few of you are using fake emails to comment and it seems to be working, but not all the time. Update: I tried that out a few times and it seems to work. See comment section.

So, what to do? There is no way I’m moving back to Blogger.

Anyone know of any other web hosting sites?

but i thought you loved music?

How do you not know that song? I thought you loved music? 

Someone said this to me yesterday when referencing the song, which I had to Google, Moves Like Jagger.

Audiophiles reading this might wince at the mention of that song, or if you’re like me and had never heard it (now I wince as I listened), it will be met with a blank stare. And I say this not to be a music snob, it’s merely that I do not listen to radio outside of the stations here in Vancouver/Seattle or my own music collection. I don’t have cable, so I don’t watch a lot of television on networks either. Some may call this a bubble, but hey, it’s well insulated and I serve lots of tea.

I dislike statements or questions like the one posed to me; which is essentially saying because you’re a fan of something means you should know everything about that one thing. Same thing used to happen with me when I was a film student; How have you not seen that? I thought you studied film? What do you mean you don’t like so and so – it made Xillion dollars at the box office.

Hey, there is a lot of art out there and I’m a firm believer that it comes into your life when you’re ready for it.  Also, if one spent their days just watching films or listening to music non-stop, it would actually make living your life a bit difficult and if you can’t do the latter it’s going to make your appreciation and understanding of all that art suffer.*

But it’s so popular, how do you not like it?

To me this is the difference between carrots and asparagus. I can never go back to just normal carrots when I’m cooking veggies. I’ve been ruined by the good stuff. I will add carrots, or dip them in hummus when I’m lazing on the couch on a Saturday afternoon, but I will never just steam carrots as a side when asparagus is out there.

This is how I feel about music and film.

Sometimes I wish I could watch a film without the lense of a film student, or listen to music without the ear of having been a lifelong fan of many different genres, it’s very hard to shut those voices off.  They can be subdued in the right moment, to a whisper, and you know, sometimes they need to be. Yet, they are always crawling their way back up.

And man, do they hate carrots.

*My rationale for why I waited so long to watch Star Wars and Lord of the Rings.

ipad wielding wankjackets

I had an extremely unsatisfactory experience at the Apple store this past weekend.

Not only was the Mac “Expert” I dealt with horribly condescending, two other customers next to me where literally laughed at while making their complaints, by not only the representative they were speaking with, but by the whole “genius bar” staff. If they hadn’t asked to speak with a manager on their own behalf, I was going to say something. I didn’t want to start two arguments, as I was already butting heads with my own “Expert” as we ran tests on my computer. I just could not believe the outright rudeness. It’s one thing to poke fun at someone in private, but in public and in front of other customers? Inexcusable. I’m not talking about a little laughter either.

After spending 90 minutes in the store, essentially the “Expert” told me that my computer was “so powerful, it’s natural to overheat this much” and “it’s the power cord that’s making it heat up.”

Now, I’m certainly not a computer expert, but I’m also not an idiot. Yes, the power cord adds a bit of heat, but considering the machine itself shuts off when it reaches 100 degrees…how can 90-95 temperatures be normal? So, burning my legs through a cooling pad is normal?

Answer: No, it’s not normal. Which is essentially what the customer service rep told me over the phone. They can’t tell you that at the Apple store though, because that would mean they made a mistake. So now I have to take my machine to a third-party retailer, who can open it up, without voiding the warranty.

I’m not annoyed that there is a problem (as it can be fixed), I’m frustrated that I was given bogus reasons for its malfunctioning. I have been an Apple fan for a long time, and have many products from them, and when stuff literally breaks they are great about fixing it…however when it’s a grey area problem they do not like to take responsibility.

I still love my Apple products, but I shall never set foot in another store.

/rant

but we’re doing you a favour

Today at work I had an unannounced caller.

At first I thought he was trying to sell me something, which happens from time to time, normally it’s over the phone, but sometimes it’s in person. I’m a pretty patient person, much more than my boss, which is why she’ll usually have me deal with advertising.

The unannounced caller came in just after lunch, and caught me completely off guard. Gave me a cryptic sales pitch, only for me to figure out he wasn’t looking for paid advertising, he was looking for me to write content. Free content.

I tried to explain providing content to a publication, even if it promotes our organisation, still costs money (my time) and it’s something we already do a lot of, so I’d need to see examples of said publication, distribution lists, other organisations involved, etc.

At the mere mention of other publications we already provide content for and the idea that we should be paid for our articles this man went off on me. The bubble of personal space invaded, hand waving, expletives thrown about.

I stood gobsmacked.

It literally took me a full minute to compose myself, not have my voice shake before I threw him out.

The funny thing is, I do a lot of writing for “free” to advertise events, etc. Yet if you expect me to write 500+ word articles for free, when you speak to me like that, I’m sorry, not bloody likely!

People getting paid for what they write?

What a concept!

things that baffle

When I see people parked like this it makes me want to kick something.

I wish I had business sized cards that I could place on the windshield that read:

Thank-you for giving me the opportunity to use the word wankjacket today.

voter burn-out

Canadians go to the election polls on May 2.

During the 80 and 90s voter turn-out rates were between 70-75%. In the last election they were 59%. The lowest in history.

The Conservatives got 37% of the vote. Going on to form a minority government.

However, when you factor that into with the turn-out rate it means that the current ruling party in Canada got only 22% of the vote. So fewer than a quarter of the eligible vote went onto to form our current government.

To me, this is scary. Extremely scary.

People all over the world are dying for the right to vote, and we’re pissing it away. I think it should be mandatory. I really do.

I hope I don’t have to ask you what you’re doing 19 days from now.

bound to happen eventually

on open days i tend to stick with tasks i can pick up and leave if i get interrupted. this usually means catching up on data entry for the collection.

at noon stephen fry comes on, with the harry potter.

i just noticed that not once, not twice, but three times i’ve typed in the word “gryffindor” into the  database, unconsciously, when tying to type in this donor’s name who starts with a “g”.

i think this is cause to make and official gryffindor grievance.

any words that keep repeatedly popping up in your vocabulary recently?

the old new thing

I’ve been at this particular job for over a year and a half.

Not a significant amount of time, but long enough to have learned the ropes, etc.

So I think I have the right to be a bit pissed when I was introduced today by my boss as, “The new (insert old curator’s name).”

She had a bad habit of doing that in the first few months of my employment, and it irked me then; not the new part, obviously, just attaching me to someone else’s name. I spent the greater part of last year re-working things and trying to clean up messes I was left with, so I don’t particularly care for that name.

I am overreacting, or would this make you a bit miffed, too?

Perhaps I need to get a name-tag.

apartment living

So I figured out the mystery behind the upstairs neighbour and the microphone.

He’s a gamer who doesn’t believe in using a headset.

I figured this out Saturday morning when I was awoken in the early hours to a long discussion about the difference between World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy. He did not hear my cry of please put on your headset, you wankjacket!

Surprising, as it was rather bloodcurdling.

I accept that I have to hear one side of the conversation, but I really don’t want to have to hear the other. Especially at all hours of the night. He must work shift work.

In an attempt to be neighbourly, instead of just making a complaint, I went to try and reason with him, and ask kindly if he could at least use a headset, or if he didn’t have one then to please turn the volume down.

He got really defensive and told me he had no idea what I was talking about, and then shut the door.

Okay.

I wasn’t rude, and honestly just asked him to turn down the volume, so I’m a bit confused and also miffed at his response. Even as I type this now I can hear him talking into the bloody microphone, which happens to be right above my bed. I’d put in my earplugs, but I’m a bit leery of leaving them in to sleep.

It’s a shame that the average house price in Vancouver is $700,000 to $1 million. I do believe I will forever be a renter. Next flat, I need to be on the top floor.

Any interesting apartment living stories?

muppets

Managed to make it back to Londontown, although the journey took about 5 hours. It normally takes an hour.

We are not heading to France, as Eurostar ques are about 8 hours long.

Heathrow’s main terminals are no longer accepting travelers. Although I am hopeful, I do not think I will be home for Xmas. At least I am in good company, and more things are opening now. Most things were closed this weekend.

Britain, especially the south are incredibly unprepared for any type of weather change. It’s actually quite appalling how things are being handled. I don’t feel like going into full on rant mode at the moment, but I will say I had a laugh when on the train today back from Oxford and we were literally packed in like sardines and the bloody rail service managed to push on a tea trolley (which took up about 5 spots) instead of more passengers.

I’ve never heard more people yell obscenities at once.

I guess someone thought that even though the rail cars had no heat, one might fancy lamb and mint crisps.