My knitting blog is now located at the Needle Exchange!
So apparently Resident Evil 4 is being filmed at my school. When I didn’t know what the movie was going to be about, I assumed it was a zombie movie or something like Cube with lots of people without heads or with some sort of crazy disease, because the only reason they’d be filming inside our university is because it’s the gloomiest structure in Canada. And I was right! Actually, I was hoping they were going to be filming the Portal movie. Because really, no movie is more fit for my school than Portal. Or avatar. But I think they filmed that already. Too bad. It would have been cool to meet James Cameron.
So anyhoo, it’s being filmed on a weekend, so I think I will “accidentally” work late on Friday so I can see it. It’s going to be in 3D! They have a fancy lighting structure just for the 3D-ness. I wonder what it looks like?
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I’m off to Queen’s Homecoming today. There will be pancakes and beer in the morning, then football and beer in the afternoon, then Rock Band and beer in the evening. Hopefully. Currently our pancake plans have fallen through and that is pretty much the highlight of homecoming, so if anyone reading this knows the whereabouts of pancakes, message me via my phone or send me an email.
There’s a bunch of sod lying around unclaimed on the corner of Steeles and Keele. It’s getting run over by cars at the moment but I’m sure it’s still good. Get it while it’s hot.
I opted to take the GO bus yesterday because the TTC is uncomfortable and the buses don’t have any shocks. When I got there I discovered that the bus they provided is basically a TTC bus painted green. The seats are more comfy but the wind was whistling through the chasis and it was bumpy as hell. An interesting experience, to be sure.
I had a dream last that I was robbed. Worse, I was in my underpants! (I was not actually in my underpants.)
The conservatives are gerrymandering themselves a bunch of new seats in “underrepresented ridings,” aka new conservative strongholds. They are hoping this will bring them a majority next year. Amusingly, the people they’re betting will vote for them are new Canadians. OMG, are you serious, new Canadians?? You do know that the tories are crazy racists, don’t you? You’ll vote for them, and then you’ll get stuck in Syria at some point through no fault of your own, and because your name is Muhammad they’ll pretend you don’t exist or actively fight against you returning to your home because your passport “looks a little fishy.” When that happens, you will be sorry you voted conservative. And we’ll all lose our health care, and I won’t be able to abort my baby, and everyone will be sad. Because the tories are stupid jerks.
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Because I can’t find the part of their website where you can complain to them.
Dear Apple,
Two weeks ago, I decided to buy another computer from you. I had two options: to buy the computer over the internet and wait for 2 weeks for it to be delivered, or to drive to my local apple store and get it straight away. Because my current mac was getting sicker and sicker by the day, I decided to expediate the process and buy it in person.
I called the store to make sure the computer I wanted was in stock, and I was told it was. So I drove for 40 minutes to get to the store. When I got there, I found a line-up half an hour long, but I calmly waited because I knew that once I got to the front of the line, I would have my computer right away and my drive would not be wasted.
After half an hour (at this point with almost 2 hours invested into this product, counting the inevitably long drive home), I was at the front of the line and being told that while the *computer* was technically available, the operating system was not. I had specifically waited for Snow Leopard to be available before I purchased the computer, but they had run out of drop-in discs for their Macs. I would have to buy Snow Leopard online, something I’d just driven 40 minutes and waited half an hour to avoid doing.
They’d also run out of iPods, so I couldn’t buy the iPod Touch that would come with my education discount. I would have to drive all the way back on the day after Labour Day (the very last day I could buy it) in order to receive my iPod. My time investment suddenly jumped to 4 hours, and the time I’d have to wait for my new computer to be in full operation jumped to however many days it would take Snow Leopard to arrive by mail.
But I was polite. It was not this kid’s fault. I bought my computer and agreed to come back on the Tuesday to buy my iPod, which I was assured would be in the store by then.
I called the store long-distance from Peterborough on the Sunday before Labour Day to place a hold on an iPod. After struggling to connect on my non-touch-tone phone as you do not provide services for them, I was forced to make yet another call with my cell, which has an egregious long-distance plan. After listening to a seemingly endless ad telling me to buy Snow Leopard (the irony), I was told the iPods hadn’t been reordered. I had to go through the entire process again to place a hold at another store.
Two days later, I found myself waiting at the front of a line of frustrated customers for half an hour, while Genius after Genius walked over to the cashier area, helped someone who’d walked in off the street, and then leave without giving us a second glance. You’d think they’d be eager to take our money!
Needless to say, by the end of this process I’d spend around $10 in long-distance fees, another $20 in gas and lost several years of my life in frustration. The irony is not lost on me that a recent Mac ad shows a PC making frantic calls to customer service in a way reminiscent of my last experience calling Apple, during which I yelled such things as “5! 5! 5! I do not have a touch-tone phone! 5!”
Nearly every aspect of my current purchase with Apple has gone awry. I decided to buy my computer in person, and was still forced to buy online and wait for a package to arrive. I had to buy everything separately and at different stores, because nothing was available. And I am still in the process of waiting for my Snow Leopard CD to arrive, which was due yesterday. When I check Order Status, it tells me nothing.
I am seriously considering never buying a mac again. This company is too smug for its own good, and it needs to be taken down a peg.
Sincerely,
Eve
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Went to the Apple store today to buy a new computer. I could have bought the computer online, but I wanted to get everything today so I could have it in my hands right away instead of following a package for a week. I drove for an hour to get to Yorkdale mall and waited in a line for over half an hour. I then was told that they had the computer, but not the iPod touch that came with it, nor the Snow Leopard CD that for some reason did not come automatically installed on the computer. So I just bought Snow Leopard online and I’m not going to get it until the 15th of September, almost two weeks from now. And I’m going to have to call tomorrow to reserve an iPod and then drive to Yorkdale *again* in order to buy it and have the receipt updated with proof that I bought the computer and iPod together. After that, I will have to send off my receipts and cross my fingers that the iPod rebate will actually go through. I’m not looking forward to that headache. So much for time savings.
Side note for anyone who’s interested: I will have an iPod touch for sale on Tuesday! Never used, never out of its package! Comment if you’re interested.
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Ugh. Medical and dental fees are giving me a headache at the moment. I just got a description of the fees I’m going to have to pay to my orthodontist, and it’s going to be at least $5000 over the next year or so.
This is my second orthodontist; the first, a Dr. Altuna, ended up slanting my teeth quite seriously by the end of treatment. I came to him because my bottom front teeth were crowded and I couldn’t chew with them, and his treatment made it worse. When I came back to him to fix it, he quoted me $3500; my new orthodontist (the one I trust) was shocked to hear this, saying he should have quoted me $0. Either way, I’m now stuck with a $5000 price tag and another painful year of braces.
I am currently looking at the various dental plans I have to see what I can and can’t pay for. I have a mandatory plan with UHIP, which is generally useless and doesn’t cover anything I wouldn’t already get for free from OHIP, and which costs over $700. I also have a plan with my graduate students’ union, which has a smaller premium (around $350) and which I can use to pay my UHIP fees. So… I’m pretty much screwed. I’m going to have to eat that whole $5000 because apparently being able to chew properly is not a medical right in Ontario. And having a baby is?
I’m all for limiting premature births by controlling the number of embryos implanted with IVF (my mother can tell you first hand what a strain that puts on the public school system), but I’d like to think that getting regular eye check-ups and having your mangled teeth fixed are just as much a right as having a kid.
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Took a break from work this evening to read this little tidbit about Spencer and Heidi Montag from 2 months ago. You see, Spencer Pratt is changing his name to King Spencer Pratt, which led me to google news to confirm, which lead me to this hilarious article about their “research” into the New World Order. You can watch it here. Make sure to watch the commercial. Solutions from Science!
Apparently, microchips are in the Bible and they are a mark of the beast. The Pill devalues women and “most women are suicidal sometimes on it.” And of course, 9/11 was an inside job. I hear they did it using microchips.
First of all, watching 5 minute trailers about conspiracy theories on YouTube is not research. Let me make that clear.
Secondly, if you don’t trust American news like CNN or Fox (which you shouldn’t, I agree), your primary alternative should not be Infowars. For Pete’s sake.
I guess I’m a little spoiled because Canadian news is quite good. But all we talk about up here is igloos and maple syrup, so you might feel a little dirty relying on our awareness of the outside world. So I will offer another option: THERE IS A LITTLE THING CALLED THE BBC. FOR REALZ. I AM TELLING YOU. If you want news that is not coloured by American politics, there is a little island a few thousand km away that does some really good news. Their citizens pay an extra tax that’s specifically for television, and some of that money goes to high quality news that does not have to pander to sponsors. And they don’t care about Obama. (Well, okay, they do, but not as much.)
So let’s wrap this up in a little bow as follows:
YouTube is where you watch dogs licking their balls while cats nearby play a piano.
For both international and domestic news, go to the BBC. And if you must watch American television, you have PBS.
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