Hrm.

I've got to say... I fucking hate Walmart. In fact, Walmart was responsible for me not wanting to go out this weekend. That shithole had random unsupervised kids running around, products knocked over into aisles, people scrambling to get some Hallowe'en crap before the world ended... and I still can't believe I waited 20 minutes in line at the checkout.

Bought some face paint. Things didn't go well with the face paint. The white face paint was uneven and would rub off while applying, but did a pretty good job of covering my hands. I washed my face clean at least three times, possibly four. I was about to go out as the guy who got fed up with Hallowe'en, but eventually gave up on the white and just went with black features. For those who couldn't figure out what was going on, it was a skull thing I was going for. Ignore the flesh-coloured bone, and the fact that the black shit that WAS on my face was... meh.

All in all though, I was amazed how well the Haunted Casino bit went. Joe and Emily out-did themselves. Well done. We've got to come up with excuses to get together more often for random gambling nights.

I didn't get to see Bubba Ho-Tep this weekend. ...which kind of sucked, but whatever. What I got instead was a whole lot of frustration with trying to burn some CDs, and a general feeling like my efforts and contributions are not only taken for granted but utterly unappreciated.

I'm really starting to believe that I've got some sort of energy field surrounding me that thoroughly fucks up technology. You guys know some of the problems that I'm having; how is it that no one else has this many defective or poorly designed products causing them grief?

I won't even get into great detail about the ordeal I went through trying to get something to burn somewhere. My computer wouldn't work, the people down the street not-so-much, among it all I'm running around doing random shit for other people 'cuz getting a computer to co-operate isn't challenging enough until you end up giving people you don't even know a ride to the train station.

Yeah, that happened to me today.

Oh, and I was narrowly t-boned by some dipshit in a Cavalier who didn't notice the red light nor me making my turn in the intersection as I left the station. Not until it was too late for him to do anything but cause me to swerve wide and punch the gas to get out of his way as he skidded through the lights anyway.

So then I was told that I had enough time to try driving over to Iza's to burn the CDs there. So I did. Shortly after arriving I got a phone call telling me that I didn't actually have enough time after-all, things had changed. So I threw my cellphone across the room, gathered up my shit and left.

I love wasting my time. And my fuel. I really do. Oh and I really like it when someone asks to borrow my car for an evening, but fails to tell me that they don't intend to bring it back until later the next day. That's okay, I didn't have any plans for my car in the morning. Not like I'm going to call the agency for work on a Monday morning. That'd be a silly time to start a work week.

I think it's time to cut the charity. I'm sick of being everyone's bitch and not getting shit in return. Better still, being someone's bitch and then having people inconvenience me further without regard for my needs or plans I may have. Hey, I love that shit!

Oh well. Bubba Ho-Tep had better fucking entertain me when I finally get around to watching it. It's the one thing I've been looking forward to doing lately. It'd be nice if I can use my own fucking car this week and not having people pestering me to do shit for them instead. Maybe then I could actually watch the thing and enjoy myself.

It'd better not disappoint.

...Art
(fuck spell checking and proof reading; DEAL WITH THE TYPOS, BITCHES)

This weekend...

So yeah. I'm going to a halloweenie Haunted Casino this weekend. Wager with candy. I hope to be not very sober.

Further, I want to see Bubba Ho-Tep. See, a while ago, Rhys dropped by and we chowed down on some steak and such. While doing so, I fired up the TV and... by the intervention of God, the guide was displaying "Bubba Ho-Tep". Really, any item in the guide containing either "Bubba" or "Ho" would be reason for me to click on it for more information. THIS baby had TWO key words. Reading the description was enough to make me giggle with glee; we simply had to watch this movie.

And watch we did.

...for a little while. Unfortunately we had to quit some 15 minutes into it, just enough time to find out that Elvis is alive, in a nursing home, and him and a old black guy who thinks he's JFK join forces to fight a uhm... evil mummy.

Rhys downloaded that bitch.

We're going to have to watch that.

...soon.

Maybe this weekend.

Bubba Ho-Tep. Give it a click. I'll let ya know what I think soon.

Take care, peeps.

...Art

Bubba Ho-Tep. Some day this'll make more sense. For now, I'm confused and excited. ...Art

...update!

My god, I've created ANOTHER monster:

[23:46] !tommy: im ready to find whoever made this shit of a program and fucking kill him
[23:46] Art: Hahahaha
[23:46] !tommy: i bet he was fucking korean too
[23:46] !tommy: mother fuckers

Indeed. ...and to all a good night.

Some people see the glass as half empty... others see dragons.

So I'm talking to Tom online, Fedex from the chatterbox, who's hunting for help with a website. Apparently there's some logic nonsense that goes on there, but the syntax is retarded and tough to follow. To quote from the log of our conversation:

[23:23] !tommy: its like binary true/false shit
[23:23] !tommy: except the syntax is like, Forall x (Circle[x]) blah

...right. I told him that was all Greek to me, and I honestly can't invest the effort to help the poor guy out; I've had a stupid headache all day and I'm quite sleepy. I started looking at the site, and looked at his syntax example again, and with the headache thought I'd add that it might as well be rocket science to me at this point.

But then I started thinking; rocket science is actually pretty basic stuff. Essentially it's all a matter of taking into account the weight of your projectile, calculating the thrust required from propellant to move your object at the speed required, then there's a consideration of nozzle size which dictates the speed of the exhaust thrust with the smaller nozzle size producing faster exhaust gases and a more sustained thrust... larger ones allowing more to escape but at a lower velocity.

So "Rocket Science" isn't really the scary thing people lead others to believe.

Then I thought, hey, brain surgery. This might as well be brain surgery! But then... isn't it really largely just a matter of taking an image of the brain with what essentially amounts to a really fancy camera that takes a bunch of pictures for a computer to make a 3D model of which helps guide the doctors to the parts that need hacking out... much like trimming fat off a steak with a steak knife?

This post only happened 'cuz in my uber-sleepy state, I'm talking to Iza on the phone who listened to me ramble on about these things and encouraged me to blog about it. Who was I in my state to disagree? So here it is. My retard-sleepy blog entry.

So who are the real brainers of the world? Who does the tough shit no one else understands? Really, Tom, if you can figure that shit out, you've got more of my respect than all the brain surgeons and rocket scientists on Earth.

And, if anyone cares, Iza's the one who discouraged me from proof-reading this post and suggested that I "just post it". On that note, have a good night all.

...Art
ZzzZzzZZzZZzzzZzzzzz....

I want... away.

Whine post. Feel free to skip.

Can I just say that I hate my old man? I can? Excellent. Can I carry on to say that things in my life largely suck ass? Shit, yeah, who's going to stop me? No one. So, done and done.

I'm not the only one who's had about enough of everything... my mom's pretty much at her wit's end. Actually, might even gone beyond her wits. Or something. I dunno. Blame my shit-for-brains dad for her life sucking. I'd love to see them get divorced already... She deserves better, and to be free of my dad's retardation; and he deserves to sit alone, separated from what little family he has this side of the ocean. As far as I can tell he has no actual friends left already, just some random work acquaintances. Although being a divorced woman at this stage of her life's not so cool, I mean my sister and I are adults so we're not reliant on her, to get cast out into the world alone sucks ass too. Meh, this is all rather depressing.

And shit, I really don't take emotional people well. Can't deal with them.

Can I also say that tire blowouts suck? I lost a tire this weekend. But, since I recently lost what crap-ass work I had, I'm not replacing it. Replacing it would mean replacing all of them since my tires are largely shot. I'd like to put my snow tires on early and ride them for the fall, and will do that if this fucking rain ever stops... actually, I don't want to do that 'cuz I hate the way winter tires howl and handle like shit, but I have no choice. Fuck this depressing weather. Five days until the cheaper Blue Mountain season's passes are over. I could find some cash to pay for it, but dunno if I'll be able to make it out much this season anyway. Gas to Blue costs money, and who knows how expensive gas'll be this winter? But if I don't get away for some snowboarding at least during this season... I'm going to be a real miserable asshole, aren't I? Stupid weather. Wonder if the skiing conditions are going to suck this year too as they have for most of the previous few seasons.

What else sucks is that I feel like I don't really have a place to live. This place is being sold, ASAP basically, which leaves me wondering about stuff. I mean, even things like rebates (god I fucking hate rebates) have me wondering if I'll be here to receive them when they arrive in the mail. Renting a mailbox costs money too, which sucks... Same with storage, which I'm going to need 'cuz I don't really feel like pitching what little good crap I have and furniture and such.

I'm having a very child-like response to everything. I want to run away. While this seems like a great idea for an angsty 15 year old, maybe not so much when you're twice as old. I need a vacation. Guess that's the adult version of running away. Oh, and a job. I need that too. To pay for the fucking vacation.

...ass.

I have some splendid stories to share about my last day of work, I just couldn't be bothered to go into them. They don't humour me today like they did yesterday. Yesterday I was quite pleased with myself. Today my take-no-shit stories seem irrelevant.

Is it time to talk to a doctor about making me happy? Do doctors even help people anymore? Is giving a shit about a patient covered under OHIP, or has that been cut too? What I need is some weed, and some new friends. Or to track down old friends. While there's not much wrong with the current friends, I'm really lacking any concert-going buddies. No one seems to listen to the stuff I enjoy. This weekend alone, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Hansel und Gretel, KMFDM, and Ministry rolled into town. I enjoyed my weekend, don't get me wrong, but considering my current mood... I really need to rock out. Get my mosh-on.

Fmeh. I'm cold, I'm tired, I'm pissed off and bummed... today is not a good day.

...Art

Hey, look, GOOD stuff!

Yeah, so, my blog is usually filled with companies I hate for crap that goes wrong. I have sort of a story like that.

As many of you know, I bought an XBOX recently. Yeah, the price finally dropped again, and I got a 15% discount before tax so 17.25%... anyway, I finally bought. I also bought a bunch of controllers for it, one of which had a problem; a manufacturing defect. Another was missing a little bag, and a cable strap.

I wrote them an email about my problems, and received a reply in no more than 20 minutes.

After a few more back and forth emails, I was not only happy with the resolution, but amazed at the speed of their replies. And, finally, today I got a package from the UPS guy, delivering on the promises the company made.

All in all, a rough start, but an amazing finish. So, it is my pleasure to recommend Intec to anyone looking for aftermarket accessories for video game consoles. Controllers, displays, whatever. I've only dealt with the XBOX controllers personally, but I'm quite confident that any problems anyone runs into with any of their products will be resolved all nice-like.

See people? I don't just bitch. I give props where props are due.

We need more Intecs in the world...

...Art

So Christina, Iza and myself went to Harvey's drive thru for some fries and onion rings. This idea's not blog worthy so far, I know. The turn in was really tight the way we were pointed, impossible in fact. I was going to turn around when Christina asked if we could go through backwards. Who am I to say no to such brilliance? Strangely enough, the drive thru people didn't seem to notice... Odd. ...Art

Okay, who wants to go to a concert or two? Tea Party on the 28th, Iza, myself, Christina, her boyfriend Patrick and her girlfriend Sonya are all confirmed. Also, on the 17th 28 the Phoenix Concert Theatre, none other than KMFDM, doing it again... I really want to go but it's only a week away, you people have to get back to me REALLY QUICK-LIKE. Give me a call or something if you're interested. Later, all. ...Art

Oh. Hey. Eye candy.

I finally updated my webcam. Look for it over there on the right under Links.

You know, if you care.

Which I know you don't. Or won't, after looking at it...

You know, whatever. Take a look and post a comment on the commenty thing, let me know someone other than my girlfriend actually visits here occasionally.

Later.

...Art

I have a date with Gordon!

Okay. I'm in a significantly better mood now that plans to visit Gordon Biersch in Whitby are getting closer and closer to being realized.

Is it worth the drive from Mississauga to Whitby? Yeah. Occasionally. I can't justify going as often as I'd like to, but every now and then I'll hop in the car and commute for an hour or so for some beer and such.

...and today happens to be Festbier's tapping party.

It comes in a one-litre mug.

I think I'm in heaven...

...Art

Well fuck. Fucking shit.

Today's not a good day for me. Indeed, today's very black. I've been laid off, again, found out more crap about relatives and other people overseas, and have yet another reason to hate my shithead father.

Incidentally, I hereby vow to be a hundred times better a human being than my father at all times. I'm sure at the moment that I'm well into the thousands, so that gives me a LOT of room to skid and still be a vastly superior human being. And that, my friends, is about all I'll say about that.

Work sucks. Seems like pretty much everyone I know is having difficulty making ends meet, so it's not just that I'm stuck in a rut of sorts, but even people working many hours in consistent jobs are behind on payments or are neglecting debts owed to others. So why's it so fucking difficult to get proper employment in Canada, or at the very least, the GTA? And more alarmingly, a little while ago, I heard that Canada's actually doing far better than elsewhere on the planet. Now that times aren't as tough here in Toronto as say in some third world nation comes as no surprise. That things appear to be better here than in some Eastern European nation is to be expected too. And, well, we're not all busy trying NOT to get ourselves bombed like in the Middle East, so I suppose it's to be expected that things are better here than over there.

But this report actually stated that we're not only doing better than every shit-hole nation on the planet, but we're also in better shape than the Scandinavian nations, Western Europeans, Asia, even the United States. What? I don't know that this holds true still now, several months later, but what the hell happened on the planet to make CANADA the world's economic rebound leader? And if that's the case, why is it that I can just barely make the peace sign on my right hand with the number of people I can think of who aren't doing all that badly? MAYBE, if I lower my standards, I can even flip someone off with my left hand. Three? And among those three, even then they don't seem to have anything to show for it, really. The bank owns what they're using, or they too are in debt to their eyes. Indeed, I only seem to know one person who isn't doing all that badly. The rest of us are in trouble.

Oh, wait, I think I just added a firm third, making my previous third person... well... I'll heap him in with the rest of us again.

So, if Canada's doing so damned well, where's this all happening?

Out east? Are the Newfies living high on the hog? Pfft.

Quebec's not doing too shabby, I guess, one of my three live out there, and while they're not exactly living large, they're not poverty stricken. But then, a couple of the worst off people I know live out that way. Even if that's where the goodness is happening, I can't speak French, so I'm pretty much SOL there anyway.

It's not happening here; looking around Ontario I can't remember things sucking this bad since I was old enough to notice such things.

Saskatchewan growing fields of platinum? No.

Is it BC? It's a nice enough province and all, but the dumpier parts of Vancouver make our bad 'hoods look like Club Med. And I'm still trying to forget what a fucking mess Nanaimo is. Sweet Mother O' Crap. But then, drug habits are expensive, so I guess there's got to be SOME kind of money being made in BC to support all them crackwhores. ...oh, wait, crack "whores". Never mind.

I'm pretty sure whoever researched that report had just pulled the needle out of their arm not 25 minutes before that piece was broadcast.

So my parents came back from overseas (fuck you, Polska), with a wonderful magical tale of a happy place where tech-savvy people actually make decent money. They were scouring Poland for the small handful of Poles who fit the bill. They're looking for people who speak English, which was easy enough as a LOT of youth apparently speak English now, and a whole lot of signs are in English. In fact, my mom had mentioned that it almost seemed as though there were more English signs on storefronts and other places than Polish ones. Anyway, they needed to be tech savvy, and I guess not inflicted with the Polish retardation and alcoholism that's gripped the country.

Well, hold on. I speak English, I know my way around electronic crap... I'm not an alcoholic... Tell me more!

Well, it turns out that my parents actually spent several hours there on both legs of their trip. The Dutch want techs. Holland. AMSTERDAM. How wicked would that be?

I've been staring at the ING Direct envelope that's by the computer here, thinking about how awesome that spokesperson's accent is. Thinking about the cute Dutch landscaping nonsense. The legalized pot.

"Join ING Direct, and save your money... money… money..."

But why up-and-leave the country that’s supposedly leading the way in goodness?

…guh.

I guess I’m just venting or something. I guess I want to believe there’s hope. If not here, maybe in far away Happy-Tokeyland. ‘Cuz, yeah, things here with the very rare exception, have been shit, and getting shittier. Problem is, if I zip off to la-la-land, I leave behind that which is not only not shit, but really damned good.

Someone tell me things’ll be better. Soon. And show me how to rewind to the way things were as recently as half a decade ago.

On a side note, Happy Birthday Marta. Twenty-seven years, eh? Damn. Good luck with that.

…Art

"Best Buy"

A funny few things happened to me recently. See, a while ago I returned a router because it was being a complete whore. I tried and tried to get it to co-operate, no dice. When tech support admitted that there was a problem, and they didn't know when it'd be resolved, I finally returned the router to Best Buy. Yes, it was outside the 30 day return period, but let's face it, when you've spent more than that time jumping through the hoops their tech support people set up for you (change channels, upgrade firmware... and again... and again to yet another flawed version), then finally saying "Yeah, thanks for entertaining us. Unfortunately, we know there's a problem with our shit, just sit tight and we might actually resolve it within the next two beta releases"... well, I think it's entirely cool to return shit outside those 30 days for reasons like that.

So I did.

I was issued an in-store credit for the amount of the router. $149.49. I didn't know exactly how much was on the card at the time I went, I just found that out after the fact.

I went in yesterday to use up that in-store credit on a new hard drive. The receipt's in the car at the moment and I'm too lazy to retrieve it for the sake of a blog, but it came out to something dollars and 84 cents. I think I had to pay up just over $50 in cash, and I reached into my back pocket for coins. I got up to 80 cents, but only had two pennies, so I dropped a nickel. For those of you struggling with math even more than the cashier at the teller, that means I gave her 85 cents, and am owed a penny in change. ...which is what I got.

So, where's the source of my anger and struggle?

Well, she also gave me my card with the in-store credit back. "There's your gift card back, there's forty-nine cents remaining on it."

I'm like, "What? What am I going to do with 49 cents?"

I mean, there's nothing in there almost worth getting for less than $20. Like, maybe a CD or something. But I'm not going to return to the store and get something more for the sake of a $.49 discount. That's retarded. She advised me that I could apply it to my next purchase another day.

I told her that I'm not going to carry around a FORTY-NINE CENT PIECE OF PLASTIC IN MY POCKET in case I want to return to Best Buy to pick something up. Why not put it all towards my current purchase and be done with it?

"Can't you just apply it to this purchase?"

I should have kept my mouth shut. I should have walked out with my silly forty-nine cent card and not looked back. Maybe used it as an ice scraper; the weather HAS been cooling off a bit. Or just pitched it in the trash. Those options would all have made me significantly less smashy-punchy feeling.

She pulled out a calculator. I can only imagine why. Some number poking later, 36 appears on the screen. She gives me 36 cents.

I'm not sure how that came out. I pointed out to her that it's wrong. She poked around some more. "No, it's 36 cents I owe you", she said, reaching out with her palm full of coins.

I pointed at the amount I gave her and told her that she owed me a penny change like it says on the receipt. That penny, plus the 49 pennies on the card means I get FIFTY FUCKING CENTS BACK. I wasn't nearly this vulgar though. That was all inside-my-head rage.

"Oh, uh, I don't think I can do that without voiding everything..."

WHAT?

She calls over another cashier. They talk for a bit, and the second cashier asks me if I'm sure I don't want to buy something else now.

"I didn't even really want to buy THIS here, but I had the credit so I needed to use it up. I'm not going to go grab a CD or something for the sake of 49 cents," I said.

She suggested that I buy some candy maybe.

I just about lost it.

I don't want to buy candy, I don't want to buy anything else here, and I really don't want a forty-nine cent gift card, why can't she just apply the whole thing to the purchase of the damned drive?

"She can't do that here, now. We have to void it. Can we void it? Yeah, um... come with me, we have to go over to customer service to void it."

I exhaled a loud breath of infant kicking baby seal clubbing stupid cashier bludgeoning frustration, and walked off to customer service.

There I was greeted by a customer service rep, the second cashier, and a new cashier who I guess was along for the ride. Or maybe a more senior cashier. I really don't know. Cashier #2 explained to Cashier #3 and the customer service rep what was going on. Exit stage left.

The customer service rep was pleasant enough, poked around the computer for a bit, scanned my gift card, then talked to the other cashier for a bit. They both turned towards the computer, flipped through some papers, and entered something into the computer.

It burped out three strips of paper from the receipt printer, I signed a bunch of crap, and finally I was left alone with the customer service rep.

...who proceeded to give me 49 cents.

Using dimes and pennies.

I'm like, no. "Two quarters, please."

She told me there was 49 cents left on the card. I pointed out the old receipt where it showed the amount I paid for shit, and that I was owed a penny there. "That one penny," I explained, "plus the 49 cents you're trying to give me from the card... is fifty cents. Two quarters."

She called someone else over. Cashier #2 and #3 returned.

They were all busy telling me that there's 49 cents on the card.

"I can't believe all this bullshit and trouble all over fifty cents. TWO QUARTERS. Look at the receipt. There's a penny I'm owed from the 85 cents I gave the girl at the cash. I don't know why she didn't take the entire value of the card towards the purchase, I don't know why the hell I have 49 cents on this card, I don't really care at this point either. I want to know why it's taking so much effort to get two god damned quarters out of you."

A supervisor comes along, asks what's going on. I started explaining to the supervisor when cashier #2 took over and talked to the person. She spun around, rolled her fucking eyes, and said "Just give him the fifty cents" in a Just-Get-Him-The-Fuck-Out-Of-The-Store kind of way.

But I'm right! I'm not in the wrong! At the end of the day, their cash will balance out, and it'll be all good! Actually, seeing the way shit ran yesterday leads me to believe not-so-much... but at least it won't be MY fault. I wanted to punch people for their dismissive rolling of the eyes. YOU guys are morons, I'M NOT AT FAULT. Is it really so hard to find non-retards to work retail? Or maybe some homegrown help? Between the accents and the Random Number Generator they're using as a calculator... is it any wonder people like me get upset over seemingly routine transactions?

Jesus, Best Buy. Get your shit together.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed yourselves at my expense... I'm going to go have me a rye and ginger and maybe play some video games or something.

Take care, all...

...Art

So apparently Depeche Mode redid Enjoy The Silence and it's on the radio now... it's a whole lot edgier. Didn't think they had it in them. Wow. Pretty good I'd say. Got to find out where it came from now, they're not releasing anything new, are they? ...Art

So, a retarded puppet keeps yelling at me to tell me I've got mail. I'm having an email conversation with my parents. They're in Amsterdam. It's interesting, my skin's picked up a green envious hue. Only saving grace is that I asked them for a pot related gift and was told they couldn't hook me up, that they had to stay at the airport. You shitting me? I'd SO hop in a cab and smoke myself retarded for several hours as I await my flight. Anyway, 4am here and I pulled an allnighter yesterday, I should probably get off the cell and get some sleep. Just thought I'd share my feelings of envy as though anyone actually reads my blog and gives a shit what I think. Heh, even my own girlfriend only skims through the stuff I write. Incidentally, things are still going really well on that front, thanks Iza. If only you'd listen when I speak, read when I write, smoked pot, and played Halo, everything would be perfect. Well, from my point of view. Iza would still be stuck with a potheaded gamer. :-) ...Art

Today's grandma's funeral. Would have been nice to be able to attend; I couldn't get out there while she was with us, it would have been good to at least have made the funeral. Unless someone with a fighter jet and some refueling planes over the ocean snags me up from work soon, I'll miss it. Anyone? No? Oh well. If anyone's religious here, give her a sendoff for me, would ya? You're sorely missed, Babcia Irena. Hope I spelled Babcia right. "Grandma Irene" doesn't have nearly the same cute factor, eh? ...Art