I miss the CBC

The CBC lockout has affected me. I always listen to CBC radio in the morning, so I can hear the news, weather, some occasionally interesting features and when I'm running late, I can listen to the Current.
I want to support my friends at the CBC by not listening to management put on brutal radio, but then I'm stuck with the annoying DJs at the rock station in Kingston. I alternate between the two, when one drives me crazy I switch to the other. It sucks either way.
I'm not a big watcher of TV news, but when I do I put on the CBC and though I can get local news for Montreal, that's about it. The CTV station in Ottawa is bad, and then there's Global, which is well, Global but seems to be my alternative.
How much longer can those of us who enjoy decent news programming last? Not much. I also enjoy commentary with my sports programs, and I was looking forward to a new season of Rick Mercer.
Mostly, I miss good radio in the morning. In a land without a daily newspaper the CBC is all I have.

It's not the same

I just learned that Slash's real name is Saul Hudson. No wonder he changed it, the whole top hat and no shirt thing just doesn't work for a guy named Saul. It also wouldn't have worked for a guy named Morty, which is in the same category as Saul. It's sad, but Slash no longer seems as cool.

And I thought ringtones were annoying

Sure hearing 'In da Club' in the beeping sounds of a cell phone was bad enough. Apparently the latest way to make cell phones more annoying is to have a voice be your ring. That's right, you can download a line from a movie to play when your phone rings. According to this Toronto Star article one popular line is "Are you still alive, baby?" from Mr. and Mrs. Smith, yes, because I want to hear that every time my phone rings.
I don't have a ring tone, obviously I think they're kinda lame. The only ring tone that I enjoy at all is my brothers, that's because it rings the theme song of Rocky, or at least it used to. I'm going to stay old school and have my phone ring like a phone. Realistically, even your favourite movie line would get old after a few rings. I can only hear 'I was told there'd be no math on this exam' so many times.

What? No School?

Recently I remembered that I don't have to go back to school this September. For the first time in 20 years I'm not going back to school. I feel like a nerd when I say that but it's true. I always enjoyed going back to school, so it's wierd that September will come and will have no significance really.

Reasons I'm happy not to go back to school
I don't have to buy overpriced textbooks I'll never use
No 'get to know your classmates' games
No having to tell profs how to pronounce my last name, and where I'm from
No getting lost on campus

Reasons it's wierd not to go back to school
No back to school shopping
No new pens (stop laughing, I love new pens)
No Salad King or street meat
No 'we're back at school parties' even though we saw each other the weekend before

Things that don't change
I'll still have to pretend to be nice to some of the people I don't like
I'll still have to tell people, 'yes, I'm from Alberta. No I'm not a red-necked religious conservative.' and 'Yes, I'm still single'
Realistically I'll still have to tell people how to pronounce my last name and not to call me Nikki.

I'd rather be....

Smoking. That's right, I'd rather be smoking. I'm bored in Wellington and would rather be smoking. I'd also rather be in Toronto this Friday, it'd be great if I were in Toronto and smoking.

And Ralph dances in a pile of money

Thanks to rising oil prices and continually rising oil prices, Alberta is about to report a $7 billion surplus and the government has no idea what to do with it. Currently, Ralph Klein is sitting in a big pile of money in Edmonton saying 'weee.' Next week, he plans on coming to Queen's Park and saying 'na na na boo boo.' After that his government has to figure out what to do.
The Klein government could definitely still put some money back in the areas that he cut so drastically in the 90s, health care and education. The health care situation has been slowly improving it still needs an injection of money. I suggest Klein start by putting up the money to build a second hospital in Fort McMurray, mind you it would have to be a levitating hospital because there isn't anywhere to put a new one on the ground.
Education is a big one, the schools need money. Maybe Klein forgot this because he hasn't been to school since he was in the 8th grade. Schools in Alberta are by no means in the same state as inner city schools in the States or Toronto, but I don't think there is such a thing as spending too much money on education.
I think that one of the most practical solutions would be to write a big fat cheque to the city of Fort McMurray. The current issue of Saturday Night magazine is all about Alberta and contains a great article about my once home of Fort McMurray, which is unfortunately not online), and how cash strapped it is. The city has been exploding for years and has literally started to run out of space. The schools are overflowing, the hospital is jammed, there is serious traffic congestion -- my fond memories of McMurray's rush minute traffic are apparently now memories to everyone-- and basically nothing in the city has enough money except the people. Everything is expensive in the city in the middle of nowhere (really look on a map), but the city itself seems to be short on cash, if help doesn't arrive soon the city will probably implode due to lack of infastructure.
That's my suggestion for King Ralph. Send some money to Fort McMurray, that's where all your money is coming from in the first place.

If I can make it through today....

Pardon my previous post, actually enjoy it. I'm going a little more nuts than usual. I'm making another attempt to quit smoking. I figure if I can make it through today I should be out of the woods. Tuesday sucks and I typically hate everyone and everything, which is when I enjoy smoking the most.
Whenever I quit smoking my thought process goes a little fuzzy, making writing in a coherent way quite difficult, I'm worried that my stories for this week are terrible and don't make a lot of sense. Mind you, my editor didn't notice, but that doesn't really mean much.
This post is apologizing for any crappy posts in the recent past or near future. I hope I get my brain back soon or I'll be forced to start smoking again. Wish me luck and send pizza.

Life is a Guns and Roses Song

I can relate almost anything to a song lyrics, it's a game I often play and it makes the day go a little faster. As I sit still waiting to start laying out pages (which I normally would've done an hour ago) I have Guns and Roses running through my head. I highly recommend singing/blasting G&R while reading this post.
Patience- I constantly have to remind myself that all you need is just a little patience, yeah yeah. I don't have the patience to sit here and wait for the pages to be ready, I really don't have the patience to go through the whole job hunting process again.
Paradise City- If you replace Paradise with the word Any, I'd be more than happy. Won't you please take me home - I don't actually know where home is, but it sure as hell isn't here.
Welcome to the Jungle- This is really just a good song. I'm singing it in my head, and hey I like fun and games, I've been really bored.
I'll stop because I'm starting to stretch things just a little bit because I'm trying to decide if I can make my life relate to November Rain.

WTF moment of the day - Christmas in August?

There are plenty of people who plan ahead for Christmas. They start Christmas shopping in early fall and I think that's wierd, but I understand. One of my coworkers already has a large tupperware container full of gifts. Um, it's August.
Today they also started talking about the time we'd get off at Christmas. Um, it's August. They were bitching that they might not get more than a week off for Christmas, um at most newspapers you'd be lucky to get a couple days. Oh, and it's August.
My other coworker said that she talk to the last reporter about her Christmas shopping every day. I felt like a scrooge when I said I don't enjoy Christmas shopping, it felt great. I think it's ok to be a scrooge in August. This is obviously not the kind of place that follows the no Christmas until December rule, or at least be like the mall and wait until Halloween is over.
If I'm still here when it gets close to Christmas, please, shoot me.

Bike rides and rubber bracelets

Over the weekend there were several discussions about how there are trends for everything; clothing, hair, music, even food. I have also noticed trends in how organizations raise awareness for various causes, and they both come back to Lance Armstrong.

First is the rubber bracelet. First there were the yellow 'livestrong' bracelets showing up on famous wrists, then every third person on the street wore one to help raise money for cancer research. Now these come in every colour of the rainbow, for every cause imaginable. I've seen red (for AIDS), green (for Darfur), lime green (for transplant research), pink (breast cancer) and every other colour imaginable for unknown causes. Bracelets have apparently replaced the once ubiquitous button, pin, or ribbon. I've never been one to wear my cause on my chest, bag or wrist but I was given one of these bracelets and tried to wear it. It was hot and uncomfortable so it now sits on my desk, so I can't imagine wearing one all day let alone several different bracelets as I have seen. You can order them custom made on the internet by literally Googleing rubber bracelets.

The other trend in awareness raising is the bike rally. I have covered four bike rallies to raise money/awarenes for various causes, and there has been the possibility to cover more. I'm still not sure how well a lot of these work but the thing to do is to get a whole bunch of people to bike from one city to another and get the word out. Most of these bike rallies are long, from Montreal to London, ON, from Vancouver to Halifax and the list on, sure these are no Tour de France, but contrary to the belief of these trends, not everyone is Lance Armstrong.

It is highly recommended that during the bike rally participants wear rubber bracelets.

If this is the case I think we should all get together to support the locked out CBC staff. We'll get the bracelets and we'll get onto bikes and ride from say the CBC building in Toronto to the nearest bar. When we get to the bar we can tell people how much we miss CBC personalities like Peter Mansbridge and Evan Soloman. Then we'll buy a round of drinks for our friends who are locked out then we'll forget our bikes, lose the bracelets and go home. The really important question is, what colour should the bracelets be?

Sometimes Soldiers Die

I'm not pro-war and I'm definitely not pro-Bush, but it drives me crazy when anyone linked to the military complains about the risks involved.
Jeremy Hinzman abandoned his unit before they were sent to Iraq because he didn't want to kill anyone. It's the American Army when you join up, for whatever reason, you should be prepared for the fact that you might have to kill someone.
In today's Globe, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq was out protesting the war and she wants to talk to Bush. Her son was awar of the consequences of joining the army and going to Iraq, 'Mom, I have to go. It's my duty. My buddies are going.' Unfortunatey, her son Casey Sheehan was killed after only five days in Iraq. The question she would like to ask President Bush, "I want him to tell me why my son died." She says she doesn't believe Bush's excuses for the war.
Regardless of whether or not she agrees with the war her son was in the army. He was prepared to go overseas and be involved in an active conflict. There is no draft. The American Military is strictly voluntary and her son would have known the risks when he joined and didn't want to avoid his agreement to the military. This is something his mother obviously could not accept.
I have great sympathy for Ms. Sheehan, but her son signed up for this and while the war itself is questionable, and though she may be against the war her son was obviously alright with fulfilling his duty.
This is a weird thing for me to blog about, but people like Jeremy Hinzman drive me nuts. I understand how expensive education, especially in the U.S., is and that joining the military can help with costs. But, you're stilling joining the military and have to understand that it comes with consequences. The military isn't a place for cheap education it's an organization with a long history of killing people and having people killed.
Draft dodgers were smart, when the military wouldn't have let them out of service they left. But if, like Hinzman, you join the army and decide shortly before you are to get shipped to Iraq you can't go because you don't want to kill anyone -- you were stupid to join the army anyways.
Pardon my ranting, I'm done.

Appearances

As I listen to annoying office banter I start to wonder about the age old question, why does appearance matter so much?

One coworker was shown pictures from the gay pride parade where two gay men were wearing leather bondage gear (leather speedos ect.). She commented, "See, if they didn't dress like that." Does she think that they dress like that to go to work or out for dinner? Does it matter? She mentioned that it helps to perpetuate the stereotype (those are my big words, not hers), I responded that they were just having fun with the stereotype and shouldn't matter. She said that picture is what people -- like the ones who work at the meat-packing plant -- would expect gay men to look like. I responded "that that's why they don't have a gay pride event here."

There was also a discussion of how young people dress. We all talked about the way we dressed in high school, and I received a strange look when I mentioned that I didn't dress the way everyone else did, on purpose. Apparently individuality is a problem.

The final strange discussion was of a local business owner, who one coworker said doesn't look like someone who goes out drinking all the time and smokes, but he does. What does a drinker/smoker look like? Does everyone who leads that lifestyle have to look a certain way?
It's an old frustration of mine that people are judged so much by the way they look. I'm not without fault, I judge people, but I judge people who are stupid, I don't care what they look like.

How to screw up NHL style...

Draft Lindros. I don't know a lot about the NHL but I know enough that the Leafs draft Lindros shouldn't be thinking about drafting Lindros. Fellow bloggers have talked about the ways that the Leafs will screw up any chances they have under the new system somehow, and I think this might be what they were talking about.

Why I love Raffi /WTF moment of the day

You remember Raffi don't you? He's the popular Canadian children's song singer. Everybody now! "Baby Baluga in the deep blue sea you swim so wild and you swim so free..."
That's not the topic, but Raffi was on The Current this morning talking about why children shouldn't have cell phones marketed to them.
The idea of selling cell phones to kids under 10 is absurd to me. A spokesperson from Rogers was on the show as well, talking about the features on its new phone to make it kid friendly. Sure the phone will only dial or accept calls from certain numbers, up to 22. There are 10-year-olds who need 22 people on speed dial! There are also express dial numbers for 'mommy' and 'daddy,' how handy.
I can't vouch for the rest of you, but I didn't go to very many places without my parents before I was at least 12. So why would I need to call them? Kids have apparently changed a lot that they're making plans without their parents. I'm aware of the defense that they can be used for safety, and let parents know that they've arrived safely at school or a friend's house. But last time I checked there are phones at school, and at friend's houses.
An 8-year-old doesn't need a cell phone. It was nice to agree with Raffi, who is not following the trends in children's entertainment and creating video games, videos, or internet materials. Raffi says kids should be playing and not stuck to electronic devices, except the stereo I'm assuming. I agree. I find it troubling that kids spend more time inside on computers or in front of televisions instead of outside playing or reading. So if one entertainer is willing to not market to those areas I think it's a great thing. Sure, this might mean that Raffi's career will slowly fade into oblivion but at least he'll go down making a statement. Go Raffi!

Help! I'm bored

It's a Tuesday at 3:30 and I'm bored. Those not familiar with my normal work schedule are probably thinking 'so what,' but others are thinking 'huh?'
Normally by 3:30 I have a large number of pages fully laid out on computer and I'm starting on corrections. Sometimes I have a couple pages waiting for something, but this is normally a time where I have work to do. Today, not so much.
I'm only paid to be here until 5 p.m., but on Tuesday I'm normally here until 7 or 7:30 and I'm ok with that if there is work to do. Why is the ad sales person still trying to get ads? Why aren't they here? Oh right, because people here don't seem to understand my favourity journalist concept, deadlines. The work I have left to do will take me about 2 hours, but I can't start it yet. It's going to be a loong night.
I'm often bored at work, unfortunately, so I spend a lot of time randomly surfing the internet, trying to stay awake (admitedly sometimes I do take a mini nap) are there any suggestions of things to look at that aren't porn, and don't make any noise.

My favourite festival

I enjoy a good theatre or musical festival like most people, some more than others, but this year I'm missing one of my favourite weekends in Toronto. Today marks the start of the Beer Festival . Pete and Kara introduced me to this last year and it was so much fun. It's not a cheap event, but it's not crazy expensive and you get to try all sorts of different beer from all over the world. An added bonus is that there is all sorts of food on sticks. As a fairly adventurous beer drinker it's nice to try something new and to easily avoid Canadian, Budweiser, or Keith's. The yummy discovery of last year was Camerons, and one gross discovery was Dogsbody -- it really tasted like a wet dog, there was also one that tasted like fire -- not smoke but fire.
I hope someone goes this year and finds a new beer. Don't forget to pay homage to the beer of my homeland the Big Rock Brewery and raise a glass of Traditional Ale for me.

Governor Journalist?

What makes journalists common candidates to become Governor General? If three of the last four GG's were journalists there must be a reason. My first instict is that journalists are supposed to be politically impartial, so won't try to swing the government. Maybe it's because journalists, especiallly broadcast journalists, are articulate and so able to give speeches at ribbon cutting ceremonies all over the world. Since the GG goes to a lot of social events, maybe journalists are selected because we have been known to enjoy a good party, especially if we're not paying for it.
So if the last GG was a journalist and the next GG is a journalist, maybe that means someone I know will become GG and I can be invited to the parties. I know Pete is pulling for the job, but even if the job often goes to journalists his chances probably go down because he's a white guy. Here's hoping. Maybe Andrea, our own affirmative action gold mine (her words) could be the GG.

One reason Alberta is great

I've been back in Ontario for barely 12 hours and realize what I miss the most about Alberta, it's weather. As I sit here in the direct air flow of my super fan I'm dripping sweat and the weather network says that here in Picton it feels like 38 degrees Celsius. This is one of the few times where I say send me back to Alberta.
It was humid while I was in Calgary. But a humid day in Calgary is a normal, not too humid day here. It was hot, but I didn't think my skin was going to melt off. The best thing is that at the end of the day, when the sun goes down, the temperature changes and it becomes cool. I love cool evenings because then I'm not sleeping naked in a pool of sweat.
Sure Alberta winters suck, but they suck in Ontario too, at least there's really good skiing in Alberta. So say what you will about the politics, the weather is great.

Crazy Feminist? Um, No.

I was having an over-priced lunch with an old friend yesterday. She's getting married in the spring and we were discussing many wedding-related things. After talking about locations, dresses, and colours, I asked a what I thought was a normal question.

Me: So are you going to change your name?
My friend: (scoffs) Yes, I'm not a crazy feminist. I believe in marriage.

Me: Oh, ok. (returns to eating expensive pizza)

My dear friend is fairly traditional, obviously, but I didn't think that changing your name was all about feminism anymore. Some women don't change their name because of their career, for family reasons, or because it's simply a pain in the ass. So I ran a little poll. I asked my mom, who's pretty traditional, and she thought it was a logical question to ask and not at all offensive. I asked my best friend, and her mom -- neither of them were surprised either, my dad said the same thing. Then the real test. I asked my brother's fiance if she was going to change her name, she is, and had no problem with my question.
Needless to say, this exchange with my friend made me hesitant to ask questions that would be cause for a similar reaction. When we discussed kids I didn't dare ask if she would return to work.
I'm still quite taken aback by this conversation. And I wonder if she really thinks that every woman who doesn't change her name is a crazy feminist who doesn't believe in marriage. For the record I will not change my name, I would consider a hyphenate but only if it sounded right. This doesn't mean I don't believe in marriage, it means that my entire career is based on my name so it would screw things up to change it. But I don't have to explain that to most people now do I.
This March wedding will be interesting, I'm sure to be that hethen feminist from Ontario, then I'll have to explain I'm not from Ontario. Have I ever written the rant about how I'm sick of justifying all my life choices?

Alberta Bound

Pardon my lack of blogging, but I'm in Alberta for a short visit and have been to tired (hungover) to do much blogging. I'm enjoying the visits with everyone out here and relishing the lack of provincial tax and smoky bars.
I even went to a nightclub for the first time in a while. I'm not much of a dancer, and I really don't dig hip hop or R&B so clubs have never been my scene. But in the SW corner of the city there is this trashy bar called the Back Alley, and they play rock and roll. It's always a great time and dancing is more or less jumping up and down and shaking my hair, with some actual dancing now and again. It's always a great time, even if it is kinda dirty and it's so loud that I'm still slightly deaf two days later.