Line up, two by two.

This almost stopped me from getting to my interview.




We had a lot of flooding, but hey, we still have a sense of humour about it.

And she's back!

Well, that went extemely well. I didn't fuck up during the interview and afterwards they let me sit with one of the guys and listen to him take calls (to make sure it was something I would enjoy doing). He was halarious.

Everyone seemed to be having a ball. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. I really hope I get this job. I will know for sure by Monday, if not sooner.

T minus 20 minutes and counting.

I leave for my interview in 5 minutes. I am really starting to get nervous. It's raining like a son of a whore outside and I just know I will arrive looking like a fucking drowned rat.

God, help me.

Time's a wastin'.

This is a handy little utility, and Atomic clock.

You tell 'em Grandma!

Got this in an email today, not sure of the origin.

"This is from an Army captain stationed in DC.
To nobody's surprise there were protestors today in DC, they attempted to disrupt the metro system and block the Key Bridge, a leading artery into DC from Northern Virginia.

I got hosed twice because I come in from NoVA on the metro and it is raining hard which makes traffic worse anyway...to the point-- I got off my train in Rosslyn because I had to use the bathroom. When I was getting back on the train, there were protestors on the train platform handing out pamphlets on the evils of America. I politely declined to take one. An elderly woman was behind me getting off the escalator and a young (20ish) female protestor offered her a pamphlet, which she politely declined. The young protestor put her hand on the old woman's shoulder as a guesture of friendship and in a very soft voice said,

"Ma'am, don't you care about the children of Iraq?"

The old woman looked up at her and said,

"Honey, my first husband died in France during World War II so you could have the right to stand here and bad mouth your country. And if you touch me again, I'll stick this umbrella up your ass and open it." I'm glad to report that loud applause broke out among the onlookers and the young protestor was at a total loss for words."

The best things come in email.

I got this in an email the other day, I am still laughing.

"My husband bought me a mood ring the other day.
When I'm in a good mood, it turns green.
When I'm in a bad mood, it leaves a big fuckin' red mark on his
forehead. "

And another thing...

"Men are always whining about how we're suffocating them.

Personally, I thnk if you can hear them whining you're not pressing hard enough on the pillow!"

Tell me something I don't know.

This is a very useful tool, although I don't see anywhere on the site, suggestions on how to fix the problems. More than likely I am just too lazy to look. Anyway, it looks to me like the only people having real problems viewing my page are Mac users, and Win users who just won't upgrade their browser.

NOW who is the lazy one?

Any way take a look at my Public Project try it out for yourself. It's very informative....sort of.

I�m up, I�m up!

My friend, Kimmy, woke me up this morning to tell me I didn�t have to get up to drive her to work (how considerate).

So now I am up I spend a couple hours reading up on the war. It is looking like this is going to take longer than Bush expected. But it seems most people are worried about what will happen after the war is over. That will be the true test of it. As long as the US does it right I think all the nay-sayers will be silenced.

Some people I have spoken with have voiced concerns that Bush is just starting with Iraq. That he will soon move on to Iran, and Korea. I think if he is smart he will do just that. Use the success of the war to put the fear of God (figure of speech not religious) into oppressive regimes all over the world. I think it is about time that we drag the world kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Oppressed people in this world should know that there is someone out there that will stick up for them when their own leaders won�t, like (yes I will say it) a big brother.

People are saying Bush wants to rule the world. Come on people, he could only do it for 8 years, tops. At least he has the guts to do something, instead of worrying about his political career. People call him a bully, I say he is more like the kid who helps the little guy fight back. He will only have to do it a couple of times before the really bullies of this world realize that if they are going to pick on people he is going to have their backs. (to put it simplistically)

They say Iraq is second only to Syria in oil reserves. So I think that once Saddam is ousted, your going to see a much better quality of life there for all the people.

Who needs Tony Robbins?

Iraqi Soldiers Say It Was Fight or Die

A post from Blogs of War.

Finally someone asks an ativist the question everyone wants to know. This post is taken from Blogs of War.

"12:15am CST

An Iraqi exile confronts a "peace" activist. This is one of the best things I've ever heard: Listen (mp3)"

To spring or not to spring...

This is three days ago.



And this is today.

Geneva Convention

With all the recent talk about the Geneva Convention, I thought it might be informative if we all became familiar with the actual wording of it. There is also a PowerPoint presentation on it as well.

Geneva Convention: The Rules of War

Rule 1: Warring nations cannot use chemical weapons against each other.

Rule 2: The use of expanding bullets or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering is prohibited. An expanding bullet, upon impact, explodes within the body.

Rule 3: The discharge of projectiles (such as bullets or rockets) from balloons is prohibited. (Balloons?)

Rule 4: Prisoners of war must be humanely treated and protected from violence. Prisoners cannot be beaten or used for propaganda purposes (to try to change the way people think about something). (Saddam pretty much busted himself on that one.)

Rule 5: Prisoners of war must give their true name and rank or they will lose their prisoner of war protection.

Rule 6: Nations must follow procedures to identify the dead and wounded and to send information to their families.

Rule 7: Killing anyone who has surrendered is prohibited.

Rule 8: Zones must be set up in fighting areas to which the sick and injured can be taken for treatment.

Rule 9: Special protection from attack is granted to civilian hospitals marked with the Red Cross symbol.

Rule 10: The free passage of medical supplies is allowed.

Rule 11: Shipwrecked members of the armed forces at sea should be taken ashore to safety.

Rule 12: Any army that takes control of another country must provide food to the people in that country.

Rule 13: Attacks on civilians and undefended towns are prohibited.

Rule 14: Enemy submarines cannot sink merchant or business ships before passengers and crews have been saved.

Rule 15: A prisoner can be visited by a representative from his or her country. Prisoners have the right to talk privately without observers.

I guess we can all agree that Saddam has broken more than one of these rules.

A big shout out to Buffy

My son told me today that his BigBrother�s girlfriend, Tammy, reads this blog. I am quite upset, if that is true, that she has never commented. Either my son is a �big fat liar� or even people I know don�t even bother to comment.

Ok, I get the odd comment, but nothing like dooce does. She has to turn off the comments on each post after 2 days or she would get nothing done.

My son�s BigBrother, Chris, is heading off with Tammy to the Bahamas (or is it Bermuda? Something with a B) to get married.

My son described Tammy, upon first meeting her, as looking like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I hope she just �looks� like Buffy and doesn�t kick butt like her. With my luck Chris would say the wrong thing to her and I would be forced to wade thought the BigBrother pool once again looking for a replacement. Problem with that is, I wouldn�t find one. Chris is the best thing to happen to my son. I couldn�t have asked for a better match. He is going to make someone a very good dad.

So, Buffy, if you have to kick butt, aim high and spare the family jewels.

Don't like the weather? Just wait.

This morning it was so nice that I had my tea on the door step and listened to the birds sing. It was very nice, spring had sprung.

By noon, however, it was quite a different story. This was the view from the step.



Here in Canada, spring is aparently 3 hours long.

Wake up call for human sheilds.

I was just over at a small victory catching up on my reading. When I came accross this post entitled

Another human shield gets hit in the head with a reality brick:

This is a must read for anyone who is on the fence about the war.

Hmmm.

Ok, so its grey. I can work with this. I think.

If anyone out there sees a better eye graphic....let me know will ya. For some reason photoshop is fighting with me over the text overlay. It makes it fuzzy.

Can you smell the smoke comming out of my ears?

Mostly thinking out loud.

Well I got in contact with the person who designed this template. She of course wants to get paid for altering her original design. Well she made it sound so easy, I decided to investigate.

{Open Source Code}

Ah....what's this? femstyle.css? Looks like that is what is running this whole show.

{Search - css)

Says here I can make myself a template and change the style of the page at will by changing the style sheet. Hmmm. This is very cool. Why didn't anyone tell me about this? We'll talk later.

I am 2 hours into it and I have decided that I can learn how to do this and I will do this, myself. What I really need to know is if I can totally do my own blog template without using bloggers. Anyone? I think I can.

The only thing is, I really like the eye and lip graphic on the left. If I can only find something similar that I can tweak I will be all set. Again, anyone who see's one in their travels, let me know.

So basically I need to create an html document that is a table with two columns? First column is two rows in first row is graphic, second is links. the second column is my blogger content, with a background. Does that sound right? Hmmmm. I should open this is in front page to see how this is put together. Ok, wrong, three columns the third is empty except for the background (purple hazzy thing)

I think I can do this. Just have to remember to save old template. Just in case I totally fuck this whole thing up.

Wish me luck, or better yet, get off your ass and help me.

A change of scenery.

I am thinking it is time for a change in scenery. Namely, this blog. I have been browsing the various template sites but I am of the school of "less is more". Clearly most of these templates are not. I would like to keep it simple. Maybe even keep it the same but be able to change the color. I think I will contact the wonderful creator of this template and ask her if this is possible. I was never really crazy about purple.

Tension building.

Just got a call from the company I tested for. They have called me in for the final, face to face, interview. With any luck I will have a job by April.

Begin rant ... now.

My mother is about to drive me out of my mind. She is out of cereal and apparently that is cause for national concern. She has called 6 times already, �I thought you were coming up?�

�Ma, I will get there, keep your shirt on.�

�No rush, dear� (ya right!)

I realize she doesn�t get out much but Jesus H. Christ, give me a break and let go of the cereal obsession. If you don�t get it today you will not explode.

I love my mother, but I really don�t feel like going there every fucking day of my life. Why am I the only one she calls? She had six children, I�m sure of it, I have seen pictures.

Ok, call number 7 of the day. Before she gets a chance to harp about the f-ing cereal��Ma, I just got in the door. I had to take The Boy to the outdoor (emergency room to you Yanks out there), can you wait till tomorrow for the cereal?�

�Yes, dear, that�s fine. But I was actually calling to ask you to bring milk since I won�t have money to put out for the milk man in the morning�

This is another thing that baffles me. She makes me go up there every day but I am not allowed to bring milk, since the milkman brings it.

�Ma, you don�t need home delivery, I can pick up milk for you. This is not the North Pole, we have stores on every corner here.�

She somehow thinks that since she is living in a retirement community that she is paying for this service so she must take advantage of it.

�Ma, they deliver fish on my street, but you don�t see me out on the doorstep haggling for mackerel.�

I try to tell her that the milkman delivers all over town, not just to old people, and that the home delivered milk actually costs more. And to make matters worse, she has to get up at 5:30am to catch the milk man. She has a sign that she puts in the window but she won�t put the money outside in case it gets stolen.

�Mother of God!. I don�t think burglars will come way the hell out here on the off chance you have left $4 in a jar outside your door.� I am, of course, wasting my breath.

And the f-ing milkman never has the kind of milk she wants anyway. You can not reason with old people.

Ah...just .....eeewww.

San Francisco protesters stage a 'vomit in'

I thought evolution was supposed to weed out all the fucked up of this world. Aparently not.

A CNN Correspondent's personal blog from the front lines of war. Worth watching.

Kevin Sites Blog

First hand news from a blogger in Bagdad.


Where is Raed ?

Here are my two cents about the war with Iraq.

Celebrities should stay the hell out of it. They hold too much power over the weak-minded of this world.

Just because the guy played Moses a bazillion (that is actually a word) years ago, doesn�t mean that God thinks you all should be armed to the teeth. Or for that matter, just because he plays the president on tv, doesn't mean you should all take his advice on politics. There are some people, however, who can't make the distinction between actor and role. For this reason, celebrities should stick to make-believe and stay the hell out of politics.

Ok, so this next bit is not my 2 cents, but I couldn't have said it better myself.

You will notice, (if you aren't living under a rock) that the anti-war people don't seem to have an alternative plan. It's like they haven't really thought past the protest songs and peace marches. NO BLOOD FOR OIL? How about, NO OIL FOR PACIFISTS. I don�t think it is about oil, Iraq has had 12 years to comply with the United Nations, obviously diplomacy is NOT working. What is the point of having UN resolutions if there is no consequences to defying them? What is your solution if not war?

I think everyone is open for suggestions.


PS: In case of terrorist attacks, the US government has some duck and cover suggestions.

Bush fires the first shot.


CNN.com - White House: Military campaign has begun - Mar. 19, 2003

So far so good.

Had the test portion of the interview process today. I think I did pretty well. They wanted a typing speed of 30wpm and I got 55 so that's a relief.

Next there was a test "find these things on the internet, show how you got to them". 20 minutes to answer 10 questions and I knew 5 of the URL's off the top of my head, no search required.(so I finished in 5 min)

Finally, 45 min of simulated customer service calls (which I finished in 28 min, not sure if that is good or bad) All in all I think I did very well. Now I just have to wait.

Interview Anxiety

I hope like hell I don�t screw it up. The last interview I had was in �98 and before that it was�85, so I am not all that experienced at it.

The job in �85 was with a Japanese company and came complete with interpreter. Needless to say I didn�t get it. The one in '98 was a bit of a shoe in, that's 1 and 0, so my odds aren�t great either.

Fingers (and toes) crossed.

Woo Hoo!

Just had a phone interview with the company I want to work for. It went well. I go in for an onsite interview tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

And so the pissing contest begins.


CNN.com - Bush: Saddam has 48 hours to leave Iraq - Mar. 18, 2003

UPDATE TIME!

I haven�t posted in a while so here is the wrap up.

The bride�s f-ing dog is gone. It refused to shit anywhere but in the house. Here I was like a nut at 3am outside in the snow walking this fuckin� shit machine for an hour and it would do absolutely nothing. The second I get it back inside it shit on the floor. The second night I just let it out of the cage in the middle of the night and said �fill your boots dog, we�ll just eliminate the middle man�. After 2 days, all it did was make me want a cat. He was cute alright, but it got old really fast.

Still no job. I am really getting shack wacky. I have to say that you find out who your real friends are when you are hit with hard times. If it wasn�t for Kimmy, I don�t know what I would do. She is a pushy broad, and I love her. She calls me to take her for groceries (she doesn�t have a license) and says to me, �Do you need anything? Fuck that, (not waiting for an answer) your getting groceries too.�

I had to take my mother for a colonoscopy (don�t ask) today. Long story short, they couldn�t do it and she has to go back in a couple of weeks to try again. I wanted my sister to be there this time. You see after my mother has one of these procedures and is in recovery, she looks like she has been hit by a truck. I figured that my sister needed to see this. Slap her into reality. �Hello, your mother is 75, she has Parkinson's disease, high blood pressure, thyroid disease, etc, etc. GO VISIT HER!� My sister keeps saying that when my mother goes, she gets the china and her wedding ring. Well, I informed her that if she didn�t show up for the procedure she could pound sand. After my mother is gone, I will be the one deciding who gets what and depending on my mood she just might get the china. She showed up, but she was late and since the procedure was cancelled, she missed us. It�s the thought that counts I guess.

I am really into the whole �reality tv� thing. I am truly a junkie. My current favourite is of course Survivor. But I absolutely can�t miss an episode of The Family. This show pits family members, in this case an Italian family from New York, against each other for a million dollar trust. They are set up in a mansion where, every week, two of the members are put up for elimination by the �secret board of trustees�. What these people don�t know is that this board is made up of the servants. You know, the people you don�t pay any attention to. Makes for hilarious tv.

If its reality based, I watch it. Except for Bachelor and Bachelorette, I just think that�s sad. Oh, and Married by America, that�s just stupid. I think the success of some reality based programs are opening the door to a lot of crap.

What are your favourites? And don�t lie, I know you watch them.

The cat may need therapy.

I am babysitting "the bride's" dog for a couple of days.




It took me an hour to get my cat to come in the house and she wouldn't leave the doorway. After a while I went out to check on her and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere (which was simple since there was only one room she could be in) but couldn't find her. I was having a twilight zone moment when I decided to have a cup of tea.




Do you think she might need therapy after this?

Spill your guts.

Radmila posted these questions on her site and demanded answers. Since no one messes with Radmila, here are mine.

1. What was the last song you heard?
Vivo Per Lei - Andrea Bocelli (he�s an Italian tenor, I am a sucker for an Italian accent)

2. What are the last two movies you saw.
I hate the theatre, I never go. (you can�t smoke in �em) However, I don�t wait for the video, you do the math. The last two movies I saw were Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

3. What were the last three things you purchased?
Gas (I agree�.holy shit!), Cigarettes and a Tim Horton's medium double double.

4. What 4 things do you need to do this weekend?
Find a job, find a job, find a job. Oh and did I mention find a job?

5. Who are the last 5 people you talked to?
My career councillor, Ann. My friend Kim, My sister Adele, her husband Donny and my son.

If anyone else wants to spill their guts, you know what to do.

Happy Anniversary to me.

Today is the first anniversary of my blog.

Everybody sing.




I really didn't think I would make it this far and at first I was worried that no one would read it. Now I look back over the year and realize that even if no one reads it, it's out there. I made the effort even if sometimes it seems as if I phoned it in.

Blogging is an experiment. It is interesting (to me) to look back and see what it was that I felt was interesting enough in my life to blog about. It will be equally interesting, I think, to see what is to come.

Now take a trip down memory lane, with my first post ever.

That's my boy!

The boy had his final hockey game tonight and (you guessed it) he got a goal. They won the game 2-1. He finished the season as top goal scorer for his team and 5th in the league. I am so proud I could bust. Incidently, his father didn't see one game this year. (asshole!)

You have to see mothers at a hockey game to appreciate it. Normally sane, well adjusted women become bloodthirsty and obnoxious. The boy was struck in the arm with a slap shot and was taken off his feet. At that point his 75 year old Catholic granny stood up and screamed,

"Blow the damn whistle Ref!" (yes, she prays to God with that mouth)

The boy was then checked hard against the boards and fell like a rag doll, it was his sainted mother's turn to stand up and scream,

"Shake it off, boy, get after that puck!" (hey, at least I didn't curse)

I don't know what I will do now that hockey season is over. It was my only social life. I don't do bars and my friends are married and boring. Well, at least there is baseball to look forward to, but after a season of checking I am not sure baseball will do it for me. Maybe I can talk the boy into football, or rugby.

Tell her you'll give her the moon.....and mean it.

This nutbar is selling property on the moon. He actually owns it, just by saying so. Read all about the Lunar Embassy

While you are there, check out the CNN coverage.

What will they think of next?

?

Are they really your friend if, when you are at your lowest, they never say,

"Is there anything you need?"?