Monday, May 7, 2001

I apologize to you, my loyal readers, for the lack of updates here.  I will write a longass update soon.  And believe you me, there will be many things to write about.  A preview of the forthcoming topics:

• Bosses who lie and the employees who take it.
• Suicidal employees.
• Bosses who lie.
• Stupid HR personnel
• People who don't want my business.
• People who accuse me of shit which I don't do.  (This is in addition to picture stealing person.)
• Mina
• And more :)

Comedy:

Well, in reality, the sampling rates differ in the 3rd decimal point, so it's not that funny.  But for the uninformed, it is.
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Happy Syncro De Mayo.  (VW joke)

May the fourth be with you.  (Star Wars joke)

Aww fuck.  As if life wasn't already complicated enough.  Two major recent developments:

• I may have the chance to have further schooling funded by someone close to me.  But I am afraid to accept the money, because I do not want to end up with another degree and no job.  While I realize that this time I am making a conscious decision about what area to study, and what degree/certificate to end up with, I am afraid of wasting money.  My parents paid for my university education, and I have nothing to show for it other than a diploma and a hood.  And 4 years gone from my life.  I am not regreeting having gone through the process to obtain my Honours B.A., but at the same time it is doing nothing for me.  I do not want to do the same thing to this person.  What do I do?  I really liked the fact that I will have slaved away at NG for over a year, saving money myself, and then spending my money on my future education;  this way, if I ended up with another bum degree, I would have only myself to blame.  I still haven't really accepted the offer of money, but I want to make a decision soon.
• Secondly, here's something I started, albeit without bad intentions.  I did a search on the Internet for "VW Fox" to see if anyone has come up with anything new.  My pages are pretty much the biggest source out there (I'm not bragging), but I know there are many others as crazy as I am about this forgotten car.  I came up with a page of pictures of various VW models, among them of the Fox.  Many, if not most of the pictures seemed familiar;  I had seen them on web pages before.  Within a few seconds, I realized that where I had seen them.  On my web pages!  I browsed a bit more, and noticed that none of the pictures from my pages were footnoted/written up as having been found on my pages.  They were just up there.  They even had the identical filenames!!  I know this, because I came up with the file-naming system myself!  Browsing that page some more, I noticed that many other pictures (of Golfs, etc.) had sources listed, and in some cases even a short write-up about the car pictured!  So I assumed just a little bit too much, and fired off 2 e-mails.  [Here's what I assumed:  1) the pictures were taken from my site, 2) they were taken without my knowledge/approval, 3) they were posted on someone else's page, 4) no "copyright"/source is listed for any of them, 5) since no pictures of my car were taken, I assumed that there was a conscious effort to conceal the pictures' true origins.]  I sent one e-mail to the web page's owner, just saying "Thanks for stealing my pictures!"  Blunt, yes.  But I figured if the person knew what I was talking about, they'd reply.  The second e-mail, sent within seconds of the first, was to the VWFOX mailing list, saying that I have found a Fox web site I've never seen before, and "...it looks like my site got raped of pictures..."  Now, on the mailing list, I got replies from people who know the owner of those pages, saying that their [sorry, trying to be gender-nonspecific] intentions are not bad, that they only want to assemble a collection of VW pictures.  Others, who do not know the person, agreed that it was a good cause, and that any exposure to the Fox is good, but agreed with me, that a source should have been listed.  The 2 e-mails from me were sent on Wednesday last week.  The replies trickled in Wed and Thurs.  By Thursday, I was also contacted by the owner of the pages, saying that they did not know what I was talking about.  I replied, in the exact manner of the person's e-mail to me, pointing out the facts (same file names, no source given, no pictures of my car, etc.), and also apologizing for my initial outburst.  I explained it in terms of me having started a site, spending lots of time on it, only to have it looted of content and posted on another site without credit given to me.  I mentioned that friends of this person had contacted me, telling me that the intentions were not evil at all.  The person offered to take down the pictures or whatever I chose;  I declined saying it was OK, and that I'd get back to them with links to my pages that contain the pictures (many of them are from my VW Fox Registry).  I got a reply back on Friday saying that we were in agreeance, and I assumed the matter was resolved.  Here's where it gets weird. Today I got another e-mail from this person, dissing me and telling me off for "spouting off against me in a public forum".  I don't have the e-mail in this Netscape profile, but it went on to say things like you talk behind my back, I thought this was resolved, this is bad for your credibility in my book, etc..  The person informed me that one of the friends told him I made accusations in a public forum, and the person went on to say that he resolved it and now I'm going back and telling people things.  I have a reply written up, but I want to re-read it a few more times to make sure nothing can be read into it.  Fuck, that's a long paragraph.  Maybe I shouldn't have accused the person of doing what they did;  but then again, when something is done against me where all of the evidence points towards something that is pretty obvious, how can I not draw a conclusion?  And get angry?  Oh yeah, the person's explanation for my pictures being on their site was that during the first year of the web site ("3+ years ago") they didn't verify the sources of pictures sent in to the site and assumed the pictures were of personal cars.  Funny, it was only 2+ years ago that I was able to obtain information about the VW Fox in South Africa, and in February 2000 that I got info about the Brazilian equivalents (proof).  This is fishy to me - the person's claim that the pictures were sent to him 2+ years ago.  Anyhow, why am I writing this?  Because it's on my mind.  Like I said (at least I think I did, somewhere above), aside from the assumption that the pictures were taken with the intent of posting them up on a site without giving me credit, all of my other assumptions were correct.  I guess this is what life is like;  try as I might, I still make mistakes, and will get accused of things I didn't do.

Lastly a note to my one loyal reader - I did get your e-mail and the package, and I will reply soon.  Lots of overtime at NG.  Plus the above.

Oh.  I don't know what's happening to me.  My job sucks and it seems that because of that, my life sucks.  Nearly every day after work all I feel like doing is sleeping.  And I do.  I don't go out anywhere.  I am afraid of who I am become.  I was up above it.  Now I'm down in it.

Again, a puzzlement.  Why are Good Days becoming more frequent in my life?  I am expecting to wake up and find out that the last 3 months or so have all been a dream.

Here are the reasons why today was good:

• I didn't work @ NG.  This always makes a day perfect.
• I worked on my car, and was able to fix something almost on my own!  Look at me, ladies!!  I replaced the driver's side driveshaft on the Adamobile IV.
• Highway Robbery makes a reappearance, 15 months and 9 days after the original incident (check the old plan if interested)!
• I got an e-mail from Mina!

I'll elaborate on Highway Robbery.  I've been thinking about a digital still camera.  Been looking around, found both a Mavica -85 and -88 for $899 CAD each.  An OK deal, but I waited.  Here's the history:
 

Where	Price	Comments
Sony Canada's Web site.	$1099 (MSRP)	Expensive.
Sony Store @ Square One	$899	Demo model.  "As is."  OK price.
FutureShop online.	$799.97	New.  Better price.
FutureShop Dundas/427 on Monday	$699.97	Used.  For a day.  Allegedly a real estate agent bought it, and didn't like that it used disks.
FutureShop Dundas/427 Today	$650.00	$30 extra discount because it has been opened.  $20 more off due to "scan and save" special. Plus I got my parents 1000 extra Aeroplan Miles for their credit card.  I am most happy.

I also picked up a PowerPuff Girls DVD.

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Happy White Day to all who know what it is.  ^_-

I am puzzled.  Why would someone actually want to hire me?  I got an "application package" from CSIS today.

Saw this on the news today:  Merck (a company that makes an AIDS treatment drug) will be cutting costs for their drugs to third world countries.  The news brief said that an AIDS treatment in the USA costs about $10,000 per year, and Merck will cut this cost to about $600 for the third world countries, making no profit on the drugs whatsoever.  What does this mean?  $10,000.00 - $600.00 = $9,400.00 in profit.  Nice.  This was on channel 37, CNN Headline News.

Has anyone ever seen this icon in Windows?

I haven't.  Weird.

First and foremost, for those counting, today is indeed the 69^th day of the year.  Celebrate it accordingly.

Secondly, I had a really good day today.  Here's why:

• I didn't work today
• I spent the morning at my friend's house just chillin' after the night before and Le Boss.
• In the morning and early afternoon I just lounged.  It was good for me.
• In the afternoon I met up with a good friend of mine for coffee and catching up on what's going on.  He's going back to Japan in May to see his girlfriend.
• Came home for dinner, and went out to the T-dot for a few drinks with another friend of mine.  We went to a really cool bar called NASA.  In addition to amazing music, we came to the conclusion that of Oriental girls Japanese are the cutest, and that looking for a job sucks ass.  He actually told me that he knows how I felt when I was looking for a job and got no replies despite faxing out many resumes.  Following this we went to his place and watched Sphere.  What a good and relaxing day!

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I hate @home almost as much as I hate NG.  The cocks over there are idiots!  Last week around this time (Thursday-Saturday) I was without service completely.  The first guy I called told me the DHCP server was down and actually took my word for the fact that I know my computer and that I didn't screw any settings up.  He just asked me "can you ping anything?  can you ping the gateway?" and stuff like that, and I answered;  he did not insist on guiding me through the reinstallation of my Windows network drivers or other crap like that.  He told me to call back later to get an update on the service outage.  When I called it had just started.  So when I called back, I was told that all of Mississauga was out, and that they didn't have an estimated time of completion.  They told me that "the technicians are performing server upgrades" which was BS.  And when consulting with my friend L.O.T.S. who lives a mere 15 minutes away in the same city, his service was fully operational.

Why am I writing this today?  Because service is out again today!  The tech support line (1-888-288-4663, 2) disconnects me right away.  I am currently on hold at the "info about purchasing @home" line (1-888-288-4663, 1).  Usually I dial up tech support directly, at 1-888-288-4663, 2-1-3-0.

After only about 5 minutes of holding I got hold of a guy in the sales department.  He told me that they are swamped with calls for outages in all of Ontario.  Apparently a fiber optic line got cut somewhere (Berkeley last week, anyone?), so all of ON is sans service.  Crap.  Time to play some video games.

Well, here are some updates:

• No calls from CSIS.
• Al's company is actually doing lay-offs before they get sold to a new owner, so no chance of employment for me there.
• MIR could post more of a threat than just falling on someone.
• The exchange rate USD-CAN sucks.  $530 USD cost me $825 CAD just for the conversion, no other charges!  The money is going towards a cylinder head.
• Car-wise, this summer should be awesome!
• The DC VGA adapter rules.
• I'm looking at the -88 Mavica for $899 CAD + taxes.
• Kingson is Kool.  More on this after the weekend.
• Go WGE!  I am #978 in Canada!!

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Today is what the French call Le Good Day.  I made the following purchases:

• Criterion Collection #100
• Clerks Animated Series DVD
• A Dreamcast RumblePack for $9.99
• A Dreamcast output adapter (has everything - RCA, S-Video, VGA-out and 2 headphone jacks with a volume control!) for $19.99!

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Talked to Mina today...  needless to say, I am much happier!

Faxed my resume in to CSIS today.  I hope they're not expecting me to have acquired a PhD in the last 3 months...  I am not getting my hopes up to get a call back.

Looked at Sorny Mavica digital still cameras.  $900 for the -88.  Hmmm...

I have to quit NG.

Well well well.  I got a call from CSIS today.  A while back I dropped off my resume at a 'carreer fair' with them, but was told that I had to be fluent in French to get a job with them.  So I said to myself "screw it".  Today a woman from CSIS's HR department called me and asked for an updated resume.  There is a job opening in Toronto for a Russian-to-English translator.  I'll clean up my resume and fire it their way!  I was only able to get a fax number and the standard "don't call us, we'll call you" treatment.  Oh well.

Fucking Americans.  I've been sick at home these past two days (yesterday called in sick to work, and today I already had the day off).  I had CNN Headline News on the tele quite a bit, because there was nothing else on.  I did sleep a ton due to being sick, but the TV provided a window into what is going on in the outside world.  Here are 3 stores that were presented back-to-back:

• The US submarine sinking the Japanese fishing boat.  This is not word for word, but close to it:  "The Japanese have demanded that those responsible be punished, that the sub commander apologize and that a joint US-Japanese team raise the Japanese boat from the bottom of the ocean.  It still has not been proven that the US submarine commander knew the Japanese fishing boat was above the sub."  Uhhh... if he didn't know, what the fuck was he doing piloting it?
• Immediately following was a story that was a few times longer than the one above.  It was about prez ClinTon pardoning people.  WTF?  Yes it's am American station, but how is the president's pardoning of people more important than the deaths of 9 innocenent Japanese fishermen and students?
• Cybiko.  I think this is how it's spelled.. it's some sort of handheld computing device aimed at teens.  It was designed by a Chinese-Armenian, is being tested and researched in Russia and sold in the USA for $100 USD a pop.  The story went to on explain that it is not being sold in Russia because it's too expensive, and also mentioned that the people working on it and the games for it are paid less than $1/hour and don't complain.  (The "don't complain" was said with a big inflection by the News Skank.)  WTF?  This reminds me of the news stories immediately following Princess Diana's death, and the reporter that said "Well, I guess Mercedes-Benz will have to rethink their safety designs, because their car failed to save Diana's life."  WTF bitch-klaats?

I know not all Americans are idiots and hung up on their nation and stuff, but if such drivel is allowed to air on the new stations, that does say something about those in charge.  Generalizing, Americans are full of themselves and think they can do no wrong.  Mina told me about an American army officer who hit and killed a young Japanese girl outside a US air force base in Japan while performing some drunk driving.  He sought shelter in the base, and to this day walks a free man, never having had to answer for his crime.  Have we heard about that on this continent?  No.  End rant for today, I'm getting a headache just thinking about this, and it's also time to blow my nose again.

Hooray for WGE!  We now have 3 members!!  What's everyone else waiting for?

Work sucks.  Life kinda sucks right now.  But not everything sucks.

Take yesterday, for example (I'm writing this at 0:14, so it's "tomorrow").  Anyway, here's what made yesterday good:

• I woke up early (8:00).
• I got fresh air (walked the dog).
• I bought myself:  a Sega DreamCast Smash Pack, a VMU and Chu Chu Rocket!
• I met up for lunch with my good friend L.O.T.S.
• I hauled EVERYTHING out of my room and rearranged my furniture!  So far, the furniture is back and my computer is hooked up and crunching SETI WUs.  Everything else is all over the upstairs of the house.
• Lastly, and lately most importantly to me, I heard from Mina again.  I cannot put into words how happy even the shortest e-mail or ICQ message from her makes me feel.  I know there is a very special friendship between the two of us, and I still can't believe we found each other on the Internet by chance.  I don't know whether anything more than a friendship will ever develop from it;  if it does I'll definitely give it a try, if not, I will maintain the friendship forever.  Mina wa boku no tomodachi desu yo.  Boku wa Nihon-go benkyoo shimasu.

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Work sucks ass.  I'm still glad I didn't go full time.  We had only 15,000 pieces to pick today.  That's a bit below average for a Saturday, and we had more than enough people.  So we should have been done early.  I asked for an Early Departure.  I was told that if we finished the pick early, which we would, everyone would go home early.  1pm-9pm shift.  At about 7:30pm a guy dropped his second skid at the wrapping machine (not his fault), and at the same time work ran out in dairy.  Those who were done and didn't have an order to do, including me, were asked to help clean up the mess.  That lasted about 15 minutes.  After that I was told (not asked) to go work in produce.  Since I'm a "nice guy" I didn't complain and just bent over and went.  Other guys started arguing with the supervisor (not the cool one from Thursday).  8:30 work ran out in produce.  I slowly finished my order, wrapped it, and put away my handheld and machine.  It was 8:45pm.  I was told to go home.  I ignored that advice and waited until the designated sign-out time so that I would get paid for 8 hours.  I was at 112% for the day at 8:45, but that dropped to about 105% because I waited to sign out.  I like NG.

Worst Group Ever.  Please join.  3090 WUs and counting...

In other news, the big chief in the warehouse was going around today and reasking those who said "maybe" to full-time employment.  I was asked whether I wanted full time.  I asked in which department.  I was told "produce", to which I replied, "I'll stay part-time then".  He went on asking me again whether I wanted full time.  I thanked and said I'd stay part-time.  Later on in the day a union brother of mine told me I was a "fucking moron" for turning down full-time.  Another guy called me a "fool" and the first guy came around again and remarked the old "fucking moron" quote again.  There are a handful of guys who are in my situation (either with an undergraduate degree and unemployable, or still going through post-secondary education), and all of them agreed that I made the right choice.  One guy I knew from daity went full time in produce, and when I ran into him and asked him how it is, he said "it sucks!".

Got a package from Mina today.  I assume it's something for Valentine's Day... I'll wait until I talk to her next to find out if I should open it now or later.  I spent over $100 today, when I planned on just spending about $20.  Bought something for Mina for V-Day, and something for her for a later date, a Ministry of Sound CD, Lola Rennt soundtrack, a car magazine, a cafe mocha, a medium chocolate-chip Blizzard, and ordered a Sega Dreamcast Smash Pack ($179.99).  Oh yeah, and the government cut me a cheque for $125.00!  Mint-ass-word.

What a weird day.  It was like Crazy Opposite Day or something.  Examples:

• I woke up at 8:00 am.  2 hours before I usually do.
• I woke up not dreading going to work.
• I met with Mina on ICQ.  This isn't weird.  The weird thing is that neither of us had anything to talk about.
• I was told that my numbers at work were "amazing".  (i.e. my percentage -- I'm at about 110% of the norm;  minimum before you get a warning is 92.5%)  The new supervisor (a really cool guy, actually) said that because my numbers are so good, and my attendance perfect, that I can have any days off I want, providing I give him at least a week's notice!  Looks like this summer won't be as bad as I had thought...
• I was tired at 10:30pm and went to sleep

End bizzaro day.

At NG today, my friend Brandon did something to his elbow and back.  He said he was hurting and it looked like it.  The supervisor wouldn't let him go home.  I am glad I work for mofo NG.

The guy who dropped the whole skid yesterday was back working today.  Doing the same thing, working on Raymond reach truck.  He didn't drop any skids today.

Last point of business, I went out for some beer n' nachos with the fellas tonight.  Among the funnier events were:

• Brown Martian
• Cleveland Steamer
• ... and something else that was really hilarious, that I can't remember

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At the request of my sole regular reader, this page has been split up into "current" and "old".

In interesting news, my friend Al is trying to get me a job where he works.  We'll see.

In other interesting news, I saw a complete skid of juice fall from the highest 'shelf'.  Had I been working faster, I could have been under it when it fell.  I would have died.

Today's Metric date is 03 / 02 / 01.

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of the demise of FutureSkills.  Seems like only yesterday that I was sitting on my ass for 8 hours a day, seeing no one, and getting paid for it.

In car news, I am about to spend more money on the Adamobile II, and the Adamobile IV might stay with me, get completely torn apart over the summer and restored only to the point that it'll last a long time (looks won't be that important).  Again with the function over form thing.

What good is life when you dread the day before it even begins?  Some days I am very close to just calling work and telling them I quit.  Yesterday I found out that the last supervisor I liked is leaving my department.  This has put my one step closer to quiiting the job, even if I don't have anything better lined up.  Yesterday, for example, the new supervisor let about 7 guys go home at 5:00pm (halfway through the shift), while the rest of us had to work until 9:00pm.  Yes I did get to make money, but I find that hardly fair.  Yes seniority was taken into account properly yesterday, but there have been days in the past when people with far less seniority than I got sent home, while I didn't even have the option presented to me.  Speaking of work, I better change and go.

Ahh credit cards, will I ever have one?  Here's today's developments.  A friend of my parents is a "Financial Services Officer" at Canada Trust.  She said she could help me get a credit card.  [For the unaware, I have been rejected for all credit cards I have applied for, including student ones, due to 'no credit record.']  So I drove to her branch today and she tried to get me a `card.  No luck.  For the Green TD Visa, apparently the most basic card I can apply for through Canada Trust, you need to meet the following criteria:

• Be employed full time (i.e. 30+ hours/week)
• Have an income of more than $20,000 per year
• Have been employed with the current employer at least 12 months
• Have a good credit record

I meet none of those.  I am guaranteed 24 hours/week, therefore my potential minimum income is too low.  I have been employed (if it can be called that) for 6 months only.  And no credit record = criminal.  And here's the "funniest" thing.  I can't remember whether I've ranted about OSAP here.  Bottom line: I had an OSAP loan totalling around $11,000 IIRC.  I paid it back right after the 3 month grace period following graduation.  This worked against me for my credit record.  At CT today, I saw my file.  There are only 2 entries in the credit record portion - both student loans (it is assumes one is the Canada- and the other the Ontario-portion of the OSAP loan).  Both don't list an amount or rating, because I didn't make any payments on it with interest.  I.e. if I had been delinquent with the loan, I would have had a better credit record versus having paid it back right away with no interest.  Nice.

Some people tell me it's my attitude towards life that is causing all the "problems".  I say nuts to that.

Oh and to make my day even happier I saw a pig do this:  northbound on Cawthra just north of Rathburn.  He had someone stopped in the center turning lane.  I don't think that's proper procedure, but I didn't see how it happened.  Anyway, I presume he finished because he turned his lights off, and then proceeded to speed away.  Spinning his tires and kicking the shit out of the engine.  I am not joking.  I was going southbound, and didn't catch the cruiser number.

Futurama last Sunday.  All I have to say is "Ball Room."

Fuck.  I got sent home 30 minutes early from work on Saturday.  I specifically asked to be assigned ANY job so I wouldn't miss out on 30 minutes' pay.  The supervisor's words were "yes, it is pretty silly, isn't it.  I mean to send you home 30 mintes early.  But you know, big guy, I don't have anything for you to do.  So sign out and enjoy the time off."  Fuck off, you donkey raping shit eater.

Here's why I hate giving software or even documents to friends of the family.  A friend of my parents asked to be e-mailed a Word document.  So my father sent it to him.  Guy says he didn't get it.  We send it again a few hours later.  Guy gets it.  Fine, @home lost an e-mail again.  Guy says he got only a screen shot from our computer.  He says the text is too small to read and we even sent him the buttons at the top, and all he wanted was the text.  I double-checked what my father sent, and both times he sent a .doc file.  So the guy calls me up, swearing and angry.  I say "what program did you use to open the file?"  "I didn't use one, I just have the file you sent, and you sent it with buttons and everything."  "OK, find 'help' near the top of the screen, then click on it, then click 'about'."  "... Microsoft Word 2000 Registered to ___ ___ [his name].  See, you even made it look like my computer.  I said all I wanted was the text!  But anyway, it's too small to read anyway, send me the text."  "OK, try this:  click on 'view' at the top then on 'normal'."  Silence.  Then "oh...".  No apology, no nothing.  People really annoy me.

Sigh.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.  Mono no aware.  Same shit, different millenium.  I won't even begin to explain what I'm talking about here.

What fucking good are friends who do spend time with you, but only doing what they like to do?  Or ones that make plans and then cancel them the day of, like 9 times out of 10?

On a better note I went on a bender last night.  Good for the system.  That and I've figured out that my ancient ATI TV Tuner (ISA) can capture video at 352x240 and compressed with DivX this results in some very nice videos.  And I finally found Keiner Liebt Mich!  W00p!

I got sent home after 1.5 hours of work today.  I hate my fucking job and I hate the fucking supervisors even more.

Today's metric date is  01 / 01 / 01 .  Neat.  I will scan something in with this date that makes me laugh.

I was not-so-secretly hoping the world would end so I all of my earthly worries would be no more... but no cigar.

Oh, and I worked today 1pm-9pm.  And they wanted us to stay overtime becuase 20+ people didn't show up to work.  Maybe if I was getting overtime-pay for the 8 hours I work, I would have stayed the hours beyond 8 if they were being paid at double-time or more.  But since I got regular pay for my 8 hours of forced labour today, I said "no".

Time for some sleep since I work tomorrow.