aMMusing

I’m in a nearly insomniac phase these days as I’m working on a complicated module for my CMS, but as I hear Dr. Snake Oil Salesman upstairs playing his guitar with friends — which I must say is less annoying than when he plays whatever his sound system is that I’d like to smash to a million pieces — I just need to vent before getting back to work.

I found Dr. SOS on Facebook the other day. Last month he set up the following event, which he classified under type “Other – Carnival”:

A carnival of assorted modalities, skills and tools to improve your musculoskeletal function. I have an automated flexion-distraction table which does wonders. Also acupuncture, tissue stripping tools, TENS, etc. Lots in the toolbox.

I’m trying to build my chiro practice, make the world a less painful place and feed the hungry.

Guess it didn’t go too well, because he’s now set up another month-long event titled “Presenting – Your naughty spine,” which this time he classified under “Education – Workshop”:

I’m trying to get my chiropractic practice kicking a bit more in the bill paying respect.

Any one with work groups, etc who may be interested in an info session of some sort. I’m flexible. That’s my job.

I dunno… Maybe if he partied less, drank less, and little things like that, his business might stand a better chance of taking off? Not to mention the booze bill wouldn’t be as steep. Just sayin’…

The night before last, as I was trying to fall asleep, I was kept awake by very squeaky bedsprings that were definitely being made to work overtime. Such are the perils of living in an apartment building. However, I have to admit I was feeling a little sick to my stomach and hoping he was using something from his aforementioned toolbox in order to find a new masturbatory sensation, for too distressing is the thought that perhaps he was attempting to reproduce. I mean, a Cape Bretoner in the city without a steady job and already a 3-year-old depending on him, albeit part-time? Again, just sayin’…

Okay, I feel a bit better now. Back to work I go.

Addendum, 2:35 am: They’ve just stopped playing the guitar and tapping feet upstairs, not to mention walking heavily and dropping sundry heavy objects on the floor. I am SO making arrangements in the morning so that he gets his second letter of warning (assuming I wasn’t lied to about his receiving the first). I’m sick of putting up with him.

Had a lovely dinner tonight at BeeGoddessM and Stephanie‘s, who are entertaining the visiting BeeGoddessC. Two thoughts sprang to my mind as I was parking Junior in the garage.

(1) I looked up a term that was used tonight in conversation and realize now that it was used in a manner Wikipedia describes as a clinomorphism, which makes it more tolerable to me in that I wouldn’t dispute “describ[ing my] behavior [as] picky or pedantic.”

(2) By now I’ve mentioned my intentions to move to Montreal to so many people (including my boss, my mother, and in this blog) — all of whom agree that it would be the right thing for me — that I have to do it or else be prepared to live with being dismissed as someone who’s all talk but no action.

Regarding the first, it came up in the context of yours truly and “relationships,” the scare quotes being used here to refer to the fact the word was used in its narrow, euphemistic sense. Truth is, quite coincidentally, I’ve been giving this notion a lot of thought lately. In fact, several people have made remarks on the passage of my Facebook profile where I write, “I’m a lifelong bachelor who enjoys this status for the most part; I’m not sure I’m relationship material because I get bored of them easily.” Yet, a few weeks ago, I caught myself feeling disappointed that a “friend with benefit” I just made — how are we doing now on the euphemism front? — will never be anything more than that. I even went as far as to idly wonder if I’d be prepared to be the stepfather of two kids in order to have this funny and highly delicious character as a permanent fixture in my life! (Yeah, very scary.) And to add to the confusion, I do know myself well enough to know that I believe monogomy is a matter of the heart, a question of loyalty that for me — dawg that I am — doesn’t mean I would have to swear off everything else on the sexual menu. I realize that might come across to some as an excuse for lasciviousness, but for me it’s more complex than that. For there’s something else I know well about myself: when I choose to be loyal to someone — a partner, a friend, a colleague at work — that loyalty knows practically no bounds.

And that brings me to the second thought: Montreal. It is true that I’m bored with Halifax, and I think one sliver of that boredom stems from how this town is too small and not the kind of place where I’m likely to meet a life partner who’d understand the ideal I just described. But take me out of a wading pool and put my in an olympic-size pool, perhaps my chances would be a heck of a lot better, not to mention that I crave more than ever being in a place that is truly alive and diverse. I am, after all, an incorrigible people watcher, and frankly, the people in this town for the most part strike me as extremely monochromatic.

Anyway, I don’t need to talk myself into leaving this place more than I already have. But my worry at this point is that I may develop a case of cold feet and wouldn’t know how to live it down if I do. And I’m also wondering if I haven’t been completely honest with myself about my motives for wanting to move to a major city.

So yeah, I’ve neglected this blog again, but July has turned out quite busy. Because of the new role I’ll be playing soon at the day job, I suggested / agreed with very little lead time to go to Toronto from July 22 to 24. And two workdays before I was to head out there, I found out that the start date for my new role would be delayed by a week, thereby throwing off my August vacation plans once again. Hence we agreed that I should rescheduled my vacation so that I’ll be off the first two full weeks in August — in other words, I’ll be starting my vacation this coming Friday, the 3rd.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I appreciated Toronto more this time around. But as I told The Woman, she shouldn’t get the idea that I’d ever consider moving there, but at least now I don’t dread as much going to the Big Smoke. What’s more, I even told her about my plans of moving to Montreal if my employment at the bank should continue beyond the current contract, which looks increasingly likely these days. The very nature of my new assignment is one that desn’t have an end date, plus even if it doesn’t end up generating the kind of work volume we expect, it will allow me to make use of my other talents that could be useful in another assignment.

But coming back to Toronto: the dim-witted person I can sometimes be has learned something new while I was up there, namely that hotels charge you for making local calls. I’ve stayed with friends through much of my travels, so it never dawned on me that there would be such a charge, although my first clue should have been how I would have had to pay $6 for a bottle of Evian water from the mini bar. Another conclusion I’ve reached is that there must be a conspiracy to get rid of hotel rooms where smoking is allowed by making them as unpleasant as possible. As soon as I stepped into my room for the first time, I was overwhelmed by how it smelled like a massive dirty ashtray; even my own place is not nearly as bad. I would have been better off taking a non-smoking room and going outside to smoke. And while I always knew that hotel restaurants are always notoriously overpriced, I was floored when I ended up paying $30 (with taxes and tip) for a very underwhelming buffet breakfast the first morning I was there. I settled for an Egg McMuffin the next morning.

One the highlights of the trip was to finally meet CP [no longer in training] in person. On Monday night, my supervisor AnShe took us out to a modest East Indian restaurant off Spadina, along with the now re-retired Full Moon Margaret. But other highlights included seeing again the whole “8th floor crew” (too numerous to list them all) as well as The Daughter (a.k.a., The Woman’s daughter), of whom I’m particularly fond.

Any yet, despite having wonderful colleagues and being at this job for nearly a year and a half, I still find it hard to believe that I’m becoming entrenched in a little corner the corporate world……

This video is a total scream!

Because the whole gay marriage thing really is a slippery slope, eh!

I stumbled upon this link and got the following result.

Your Birthdate: August 19

You don’t just believe in love at first site – you’ve experienced it. You develop crushes pretty easily, but keeping your interest is another matter! You are very prone to love – hate relationships. Number of True Loves You’ll Have: 1 Number of Times You’ll Have Your Heart Broken: 1 You are most compatible with people born on the 1st, 10th, 19th, and 28th of the month.

Well then…

Didn’t I tell you I sucked at gambling? It was nice enough today, but when I saw the forecast for tomorrow calling for “Sunny with cloudy periods” and a high of 24C, I figured that was better and I should make tomorrow my weekend beach day. But now Environment Canada changed everything at 4:00

Cloudy with sunny periods. Showers beginning in the afternoon. Amount 2 to 4 mm. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h in the afternoon. High 18. UV index 6 or high.

I’m SUCH a loser!

Let’s be honest: no one likes getting a call from a telemarketer. It’s just irksome. The only thing that’s worse is getting a junk fax. In fact, I’ve gotten rid of my fax in part because the only faxes I’d receive would be junk faxes. (The other part is that a rep with one my clients abused my fax even though I implored her many times to stop, so finally I carried through my threat and disconnected my fax number.)

Anyway, I was pleased to learn from this article that we’re finally going to have a U.S.-style Canadian “No Call List.” I cheered as I read that “Companies that violate the list rules could face a $15,000 penalty, while individuals could be forced to pay $1,500.”

But as I read some more, my enthusiasm waned. “In its announcement on Tuesday, the CRTC said the list won’t take effect until an operator is selected, a process that could take several months.”

And then, the clincher that left me slackjawed.

Under the law, the following callers are exempt from do not call rules:

• Registered charities (calls made by them or on their behalf)
• Political parties
• Calls made for the purpose of public opinion surveys
• Newspapers of general circulation (for subscription solicitation)
• Businesses with whom you have an existing business relationship (e.g. businesses from which you have purchased goods or services within last 18 months)

Okay, I can see the point of allowing charities to go on, although that’ll do nothing to lessen my guilt whenever I decline giving to yet another good cause.

Political parties? Well, given that there’s not an election every day of every year and that I’m all for political engagement, I’ll let that one pass.

Public opinion surveys? Ah jeez! Because I spend so much time on the phone at my day job, I feel so sorry for the poor bastards who call me for surveys. I don’t see the value of public opinion surveys about brands and products, so I hope those aren’t included in the bunch. I’m more tolerant of surveys on issues and policies; however, I have a bone to pick with the publication of voter intention surveys during election campaigns because I believe that they DO influence the “soft” votes and absolves those voters from seriously considering the issues.

Newspapers? Fuck! Those probably account for half the telemarketing calls I get and least appreciate.

And the businesses with whom you have an existing business relationship? Absolutely not if it’s to “upsell” me something. Currently at my day job, I’m having to “cold call” clients because we’re getting rid of some old technology, so I don’t feel I’m engaging in marketing spin; I’m calling to prevent any service disruption.

I think I’m going to have to continue unplugging my personal phone during the daytime.

Just over 2 years ago, I confessed that I’m a closet TechnoBoi. I still listen some evenings (like tonight) and on a rotation basis some of the “stations” at Digitally Imported. It’s fine as long as I’m just reading, blogging or working on something that doesn’t require too much concentration, but I still can’t have anything playing while I’m doing some “heavy lifting” like programming.

For the last few months, the programming at DI has been interrupted by calls to action in view of the impending death of Internet radio. There’s little I can do since it’s a matter being fought in the United States, but if I still have readers living in the U.S. and you care about this issue, please do what you can before July 15.

I just stumbled on a webpage describing Canadian identity in one sentence, like “As American as apple pie.” I never knew about Peter Gzowski’s contest back in 1972 in which he tried to find the Canadian equivalent. And indeed, while the winning entry may make us seem timid and unassertive, it really does have a lot more nuance than meets the eye.

As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.

My gawd, when it comes to Sunday shopping, could Rodney MacDonald, Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative premier, have screwed it up even more?

Yeah, yeah… I was (and still am) among those who favour Sunday shopping on the grounds I don’t believe government should dictate when businesses can or cannot be opened. But when MacDonald threw the doors wide opened on Sunday shopping (except on Remembrance Day) after losing a court challenge by the province’s two major chains of grocery stores last November, he displayed for all to see his complete lack of imagination. So now that Canada Day this year fell on a Sunday, people in the retail sector ended up working reduced hours both yesterday and today (which in all other sectors is the equivalent of Canada Day).

Throughout my support for Sunday shopping, I have always stood on the premise that there should be adjunct legislation that would enshrine workers’ rights to refuse work on religious grounds without fear of retaliation from their employer, and that they could expect two consecutive days off work. Moreover, statutory holidays had to be respected. Those are little dicey, mind you, given that two of those holidays — Christmas and Easter — are ostensibly religious. But this government’s all-or-nothing (except Remembrance Day) approach is only giving opponents of Sunday shopping more reasons to oppose the notion.

Surely there’s a happy compromise that would accommodate all interests. It just takes some imagination to come up with the happy medium. And some balls, too.