Month: April 2011

Sundry and various

Call centers in Indian jails, this should work out well.

One Life to Live and All My Children will be cancelled. And replaced by a celebrity cooking show.  Hey women and shift workers!  Stay home and get fat, it’s not like you do any good to our advertisers otherwise.

Why would narrowed neck circulation have anything to do with MS?  But apparently it does.

Get your hands off that peen, or, what eXACTly are you testing for?  BC cancels controversial test of young offenders which involves handling young men’s junk.

If you’re a cop and get involved with drugs… you can collect two paychecks!  Mind you you’re not reporting the second one, but o well.  Woot!

Teachers in BC get a say over class size and composition. This is very good news for BC kids and parents, not to mention the teachers.  If you’ve ever taught a kindergarten class which is 1/3 ESL and has two special needs kids and is 30 students (not making this up, I have a friend who was in this spot) you’ll know what I mean.  Just getting them to line up for the can is a challenge!

I don’t get it. Can somebody explain to me why this is funny?

I’m impressed!  Ba-dum kish!

Katie’s only been here two nights and already I am fidgetty.  9 pm last night she leaves, says she’ll be back late, doesn’t show, doesn’t text.  Is she in a ditch? Did she crash at Kashka’s? Is she where she probably is?  And why’n fuck do I care? (Apart from how, every time she doesn’t come home, I have to rehearse what I’ll say to the cops if they come to my door?)

I blearily and wearily looked out my back door this morning, and thought, “Spring and Vancouver… no longer BFFs?”  There’s like half an inch of hoarfrost on things.  I knew at the end of March we’d get more snow because I could smell it.  Sounds stupid, but it’s true.  Now I can’t smell the end of it.  Snow tires will remain on car until further notice.

The move at work is getting closer.  Sure would like to know when we’re getting training on the new phone system and how it interacts with the call center software, but I’ve been assured there will be training.

Our CEO is leaving, and our new CEO is younger and French.  Rumour has it he’s moving to Vancouver.  I’ve met him the once, and apart from observing that he has a George Hamilton grade tan and a sense of humour, I have no comment.

The cats have been extremely rangy.  Margot in particular has been up in Eddie’s grill.  Eddie came for a nice long hug last night.

I played Buzz for about half an hour last night.  He’s going to be my bed time snack.  He’s so quiet when unplugged, but he sounds great.  I was thinking of dragging the amp into my bedroom, and just said screw it and brought Buzz in.

I can hear Margot laboriously licking herself on the basement stairs.

 

 

Titanic scale GRRRRRRRRR

Ziva, o Ziva.  Her electrical system went snake when I touched the alarm fob when it started beeping (due to low battery) yesterday.  I removed the battery and didn’t think any more of it, but then all hell broke loose after I got it back from the shop – weird weird stuff!  I managed to get it to the shop, and the brake light and running lights were going on and off, and a horrific relay noise was coming from the dash, and the blue lights radiating from the alarm are triggering a migraine, and I’m scared out of my mind that she’s been possessed by Satan.

The brake light is an easy fix; the aftermarket alarm is getting yanked out today (I am morally opposed to car alarm systems and should have had it yanked from the outset) and Ziva continues to be a very, very temperamental hunk of purple ironmongery.  And somewhere, Loki is laughing.  Grr Grr Grr!

ack

Katie called up last night and knocked the one thing I had to do last night (call Chipper) out of my tiny pea brain.

Katie’s domestic sitch is very unpleasant.  We are being quietly supportive.  She came over last night.  Anybody following my facebook page will be putting it together.  I say some outrageous stuff on facebook… it’s one of the reasons my blog has gotten thinner actually….

Keith and Katie are thinking of moving in together.  I am having no public opinion on the subject, mostly because it’s none of my fucking business.

Ziva failed Aircare (I can hear my pOp smirking from here, and shaky fisty, buddy!) so she’s back in the shop today while I take the bus.

I am going to get up and tidy the kitchen, then throw on some clothes and head out the door.

A customer said something that made me very very very amused yesterday.  In brief, he called me on my private (unrecorded) line to roll his eyes over the customer service that somebody else had provided, and I provided him with a method of getting some service.  This isn’t about any of my worksiblings, because they are all godlike in their forbearance, intelligence and support skills.

Buzz is in da house (well, actually Paul’s ’cause that’s where the amp is).

With singing heart, I tell you that after a year long search, I have acquired an electric 12 string. He’s a solid body, glossy black, strung Rickenbacker style, and the action is so light I can play for an hour – bar chords even! – and his name is Buzz.  (The six string is Kehaar (cause it’s a Seagull, bonus points if you get the reference) and the mandolin is Edith).  Buzz sounds AWESOME and I’m very lucky that Craigslist Dude was downsizing his immense guitar collection.  Everything on board is super clean and all the bells and whistles work.

There are enough effects on board that I shouldn’t have to buy any additional gadgets for quite a while.  I followed Jim E’s advice about buying, and played for a while with the practice amp on, and once I had some volume, I got ze shivers.  I didn’t completely get into tune until I got it back to Paul’s so we could practice, and once it was completely tuned up, that was it, it’s love love love all the way down.

I left it at Paul’s ’cause he’s off today so he can mess around with it and I didn’t even let him touch it last night.  Mother’s Day SOUNDS VERY VERY DIFFERENT on an electric 12 string.  OMG.  I suspect I will be writing more tunes.

My transition to folk rocker is occurring!

Last night I dreamed I was at outdoor SF convention and the organizers had strung EVERY KNOWN SPACESHIP MODEL, some two meters long, above the audience at the bandshell.  I woke myself up going, Holy Ship!  where’s my cell phone camera!  and of course I was dreaming.

The TV show House came roaring back from it’s script battiness last night, and I’m very glad to see that.

Anyway, time for a shower and I’m off to work.  Oh, and I got a raise.  Yeah, this week’s turning out okay.

Fuck transparency

Hey, that’s not my feeling on the subject, it’s the Harper Governmentâ„¢’s.

Margot picked up a letter opener on Jeff’s desk in her mouth and then took it to the edge to drop it off to play with it.

She’s very slowly becoming more affectionate with me.  She’s learned to ask me to open the door, and she asks for treats and pets and to be played with (posturally – she doesn’t ‘talk’).  Eddie is also much more affectionate but he skitters away if he thinks I’m going to pick him up.

My dreams were cluttered and weird.

Seeing Katie this afternoon. I suspect I’ll be poorer by the time it’s over. but I only say that for humorous intent.  MSP says she owes them money, and maybe she does.

I sometimes wonder what John would think of these election shenanigans.

Birth and Death

I welcome Kaihan, born March 31, and a sweet little (my god, 9 lbs 5 oz) guy belonging to a coworker of mine.

I mourn the mysterious death of Debbie’s brother; I can’t provide any more details than that, but I really feel for the parents; losing a child is very, very hard.

I was sick yesterday.

Lulu becomes something else

Lulu is a traditional African American tune.  lulu

So now I’m gonna do what white folks do best and STEAL IT.  To write about a different minority (your mileage may vary) member.

I’ll sing of Chang Apana / who inspired Charlie Chan

He once took out his old bullwhip/and arrested 40 men x 2

He had a wife in China / in Honolulu too

But he supported both of them / as the honest thing to do x 2

(alternate verse –

Young wife in Honolulu / China wife was old

But he supported both of them / cause that was how he rolled x 2)

He never learned to read or write / but he was a mighty gent

And the only thing that could take him down / was an auto accident x 2

Houseboy and a cowboy / and a policeman too

I’m telling you there wasn’t much / Apana couldn’t do x 2

His loyalty a legend / and when he came to die

A woman that he once had served / was sitting by his side x 2

Hard and fierce and upright / he feared not work or pain

You know that we will never, ever/see his like again x 2