Greetings and Salutations, peoples!

Well, I almost did it...I went 361 days without posting a blog entry here.

Just goes to show.  My life SUCKS!

And guess what? Yup.  It's that friggin' time of year again.  That time where you scour the crowded malls, pushing through the jostling, perspiring, smelly, insistent, rude crowd to get to the store that has what you think the people on your gift list want, only to find that they are sold out, or that it's $200 more than you expected...Me? I'm going gift certificates this year. 

That's right.

None of this: "Well, I got you what I thought you wanted...don't you like puce colored wool sweaters?" or "Oh! A...what is this again? No, no, no, really, I love it!" Screw that.  I'mg etting everyone gift certificates and gift cards to their favourite stores so I don't have to cudgel my poor addled brains to try to figure out what they want.  Nothing is more frustrating to me that trying to get my parents or my brother to tell me what they want for Christmas.  Seriously...I mean it's KILLING ME trying to figure out what my brother wants.  I know, I know, it should be easy.  After all, he's family, and he's only 4.5 years younger than me, but our lives have taken radically different paths.  I mean, he's experimented with drugs.  The strongest drugs I've ever done was maybe a little weed on New Years back in 1997.  He parties like a fiend.  I'm usually in bed by 11.  I mean, really what do I get for him? I can't get him nothing, that's just inconsiderate, but I figure a gift card to HMV might be just the thing.  I think he'll appreciate the fact that I'm completely out of touch, and a $50 Gift Card will let him know exactly how much I'm willing to spend on him so that in future, if he decides he wants a real gift instead of a gift certificate, he knows what sort of price range we're looking at here.

The parents are easy: wine.  South African, Chilean, Aussie.  Reds.  Whites give my mom headaches.  I have a few in mind, but I might go Vintages this year at the LCBO and surprise them.

The roommate? That's a little more difficult.  Anyone know where I can find a copy of Rammstein's Volkerball? Yeah...thought so...HMV is really not a help and anywhere I order from won't have it shipped by Christmas, so I'm up a certain creek without a paddle on that one...I'll figure something out...oh, and gifts for Martin, Pattie, Jason, Karen, Elsie, Rose, Calvin, Joe, Bonnie, Grandma and Grampa, Sylvia, Billy, Colene, Ron...*sigh* at $50 each, I'm looking at $1000 easy in gift certificates...maybe I'll just get 'em $25 gift certificates instead...yeah, that's the ticket...

See what I mean?

Merry Freakin' Merch-Mas everyone.

Well, it's almost that time of year when you dole out the gifts that you spent waaaaaay too much money on that no one appreciates.

Yup, it's Merch-mas.  That time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ by going out and blowing scads and scads of cash on useless trinkets and bibbledy-bobs that will get re-gifted anyways.  Seriously, how did three wise men bringing gold and frankincense and myrrh to the saviour of man kind turn into a jolly fat man giving away rocking horses and toy trains and gewgaws to kids screaming for iPods and Dells and that their parents don't love them if they don't get them...

Personally, I bought gifts I bought for the ones I love based on the thought taht  think they might like them, and if they dn't, there's ways around it.  They can always resell the gifts I bought them because the gifts are trasnferable.  They all got season tickets for the Toronto Rock.  That's right, I'm spreading the lacrosse love around, baby.  They now have tickets to the same insane sporting events I go to, and I think they might actually like it.  If not, hey, their resale value is about $200, so that should make 'em happy.  Turn the gift into cash and buy something for themselves that they actually want...and if they're internet savvy, they'll have found my blog by now and will know about the gifts, but at this point, I just don't care.

Merry Merchmas everyone! I'm off to the pub to get drunk!

Currently Listening Firefly (Original Television Soundtrack) see related

Meathead's Winter Driving Rule #1:

SLOW DOWN!

It's really easy, people. 

In the slush and sludge and snow and ice that is winter, you simply cannot go 70-80 kmh in a 60 zone, like in the summer. 

That little go-devil you have, that POS Honda Civic that you ricified, just will not corner on ice and snow the same way it corners on dry pavement.  As a matter of fact, that little rice-rocket will probably bend itself around the nearest pole on the outside of a curve through three lanes of opposing traffic if you let it.  It's that simple.

The same thing goes for all you idiots in SUVs and 4x4s and mini vans with All-Wheel Drive.  They don't corner like rally cars in the snow.  All-Wheel Drive is a friggin' gimmick unless you are doing some serious off-roading and hill climbing.  All that will do is spin you faster.  Why? Simple: You never took a course on defensive driving and winter driving, so every time you get a little squirrelly, the tendency is to lay on the gas and "power out" of the skid.

Let me tell you folks, that is pure-d wrong.  When in a skid, the WORST thing you can do is to try to power out of it.  Trust me.  As a witness first hand, and from my experience at Petro-Canada's Skid School, I can tell you that laying on the power to try to drag your car out of the skid is suicide at worst, and a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really stupid thing to do at best.

Here are a few basic things that you can do when your vehicle starts to skid:

1. DO NOT PANIC.  This goes for passengers as well.  The last thing a driver in a skidding car needs is some yobbo going "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! " in his ear.
2. Take your foot away from the brake and gas pedals IMMEDIATELY.  Slam your foot back against your seat.  This will prevent you from doing something stupid liek laying on the gas or smashing on the brakes.  By removing your foot from the gas and brake pedal area, you will allow your car's natural inertia to slow it dow to the point that it will be come controllable again.  Trust me, it WILL happen.  Not right away, but before the pantsload you just dropped seeps through your pants ind into your seat cushions.
3. Put the car in NEUTRAL.  On automatic cars, this is accomplished very easily.  If the shift lever is on the steering column, you can push the shift lever forwards and up to drop it into Neutral.  If the shift lever is on the centre console, simply push it forward and it will drop naturally into neutral.
4. Steer for a spot on the horizon in the direction you were originally going.  By this I mean pick a spot further down the street in the direction that traffic normally travels and try to get your car's nose aiming for it.  To do this, you steer as you normally would, and try to bring the car's nose in line with your target down the road.  If your car starts to spin, or has reached an unrecoverable angle, just enjoy the ride.  If it has not reached that point yet, continue trying to correct, with NO GAS and NO BRAKE applied.  Remember, look DOWN the road, not at the approaching curbs or trees or that bus shelter over there...

That's all for today, happy campers.  More soon! I promise...

James Cardinal McGuigan School students arrested for alleged molestation.  Parents cry racism and class-ism.
A few years ago a 16 year old Eastern European girl had immigrated to Canada with her family to avoid issues like bullying and molestation in schools.
She finally came forward last week with allegations of sexual molestation, forcible confinement, phyisical abuse and threats at the hands of students at her high school.  She told a teacher at the school of what had been happening to her both on school grounds and on properties off the grounds of the school, and as a result of her coming forward to a teacher, the teacher, as is their responsibility under Canadian law, told the police.  In response to these allegations of molestation, confinement, abuse and threats, the police acted on her story and proceeded to arrest 14 male students and 2 female students. 
As per standard police procedure, these students were taken from where they were arrested in handcuffs and marched out of the school to confinement.  The students were marched past teachers and other students in cuffs to waiting paddy wagons and their parents were contacted.  In some cases, however, the parents weren't contacted directly (for whatever reason...school records are only so accurate.  Heck, even my office gets bad contact information on pensioners and pension plan members, through no fault of our own) but found out through friends.  One family was contacted, not by the school, but by a friend of the family, who, coincidentally enough had the same last name as them.
However, that is not the issue here.
The parents are inflamed at these arrests, claiming that it is racially motivated and based on class as well.
Here's the 4-1-1:
The student who has made these allegations is white.
The students who were arrested were black.
The parents are crying that the Metropolitan Toronto Police Department is racist because the only students that are being arrested are black.  The parents are crying that the principal of James Cardinal McGuigan is racist.
The individuals in question were arrested based on the fact that this student gave their NAMES to police, suggesting that all the suspects are known to her.  Based on her identifications the students are arrested on various charges and this is where the fun starts.
At their arraignment hearing today, all the students who were arrested and charged were released on $1500 bail.
They are being placed under house arrest, being permitted to go to school and to work only.  No extra-curricular activities, no internet, no cell-phones.
The students are forbidden to contact one another, and forbidden to contact their accuser.
As a matter of fact, all of the students are required to remain at least 500m away from their accuser.
The City of Toronto has made the students and their families aware of other schools in the area where they live (the notoriously crime-ridden Jane and Finch area of Toronto) where there students can attend classes.

It's a no-win situation, any way you slice it...
I'm not sure about anyone else, but there is no way that the City of Toronto or the Toronto Police can come out of this without a scratch.
Had it been a black girl and white boys and girls that were arrested, there would have been accusations that in the 18 months the girl did NOT come forward, the city and police did nothing to protect their interests.
As it is, with a white accuser and black accused, the allegations of racism won't stop.
Had it been black on black, the parents would have been crying that not enough is being done to enforce laws. 
Had it had been white on white, we would have heard nothing.

Here's my take, and I'm sure it will raise eyebrows and start a whole bunch of post dredging, but here it is nonetheless:
I don't care if you are black, white, Puerto-Rican, Oriental or Haitian, if there have been allegations that you broke the law and the police have no way of knowing if you are armed or not, then it is necessary for them to take you from your location to central booking in cuffs for their safety, the safety of the people around them and your safety.  If they have your name and description, it's better to go along.  If you have been falsely accused (as almost all of the parents are claiming and as I am almost certain is not the case) better to avoid complicating matters and go along than resist and fuss.
I am reasonalby certain that there have been innocent individuals scooped up along with the guilty in this case, but as is the way with the Canadian justice system (HA!) you are innocent until proven guilty.  If any of these allegations are true, heads will roll, as well they should, Youth Justice Act or not.  If these are false allegations, then things will NOT go well for the girl who brought these allegations forward.

As it stands now, there is not enough evidence in the public domain for anyone to make a judgement at this point, but the majority of the fuel being throw on this fire is allegations of racism.  The parents are not making claims that their sons and dsughters were falsely arrested (at least not that I have read or heard to date) but that the arrests were race based.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If you break the law, I don't care what your skin colour is, you should be leaving in cuffs.

To be perfectly honest, it seems kind of hinky. 16 people are accused in this case, with the abuses happening over an 18 month period from April/May of 2004, and some of the accused were in the girl's homeroom.

Recent shot fired in this case from one of the mothers of the accused:

Explain to me how this makes sense.
I got caught blowing someone at school (let's say) so instead of 'fessing up and taking the blame for an act that may or may not have been voluntary (I don't have all the facts, I can't judge) I turn around and accuse 15 other people of abusing me and thus bringing more attention down on my head? Yeah, right. That makes sense.

A lot of the mother's are saying that their children don't know this girl at all. Now I don't know about you, but as a general rule I have found kids to be pretty good liars. My brother managed to hid his drug abuse from them for five yeaers before it got him kicked out of University. Heck, I've been smoking for the past 14 years and my parents don't know. They also think that I still go to the gym and taht Anubis and I are still together, but that's another story.

Long story short, we won't be able to make final judgement on the case in the court of public opinion until all the fact are known. And if there were some acts caught on videotape, as has been suggested by the accuser, this may go faster than we think.

Lasting mental image: One of the accused in this case smiled when he was told he'd be going home on $1500 bail, apparently looking like the cat that got the cream...at least that's what the papers say.

Some more dirt:
At a closed door meeting with parents of the accused last night a woman circulated a petition to have the principal of James Cardinal McGuigan fired because of "racial profiling, prejudice and discrimination: uttering racial slurs against the black students." When asked if she knoew who James Matthews was, the principal, she replied "Who's Mr. Matthews? He said nothing to me." and when asked why he should be fired, she repeated her allegations. The parents of the accused are calling for someone's head and they don't even know who that person is. Additionally, what really shocks me is the lack of concern for the accuser. All we are hearing from are the accused's parents, and nothing from the accuser...When did alleged perpetrators right supersede those of the alleged victim?

Have at it, people!

Currently Watching Firefly - The Complete Series By Nathan Fillion see related

Wow...it's been a while since I updated this puppy, hasn't it? Lot going on.  A heckuva lot going on...

First off, LaxyLady has left her place of employment.  OK, not voluntarily, she left because some of her co-workers were sabotaging her and sinking her deliberately (counts weren't done on time, merchandise was piling up in the aisles, ad-sets were not done, etc.) so that if Laxy wanted anything done, she had to be there herself.  Now her salary is based on 50 hours a week ($26 000/yr) but in order to keep those co-workers from sabotagin her completely she was pulling 60-70 hour weeks meaning she was actually losing money on the deal.

Head office, unfortunately, was unresponsive and didn't give Laxy the support she needed at her place of employment to get things done and as a result, due the the lack of performance of her employee team (OK, certain members of the employee team) Laxy, as coach, was terminated.

But that's OK.  She's got a new/old job again and it's going like clockwork.  She doesn't have bouts of nausea and heartburn every hour at her new/old job and doesn't have co-workers trying to fuck her over because they believe that they, with their limited experience, they should have been given the store as managers.  Instead, Laxy finds herself in the enviable position of being able to say "No, thanks, I don't want that promotion, I'm doing just fine."

The irony? We were all jazzed when Laxy got salary, but as it turns out, with her new salary at her new/old job, she will be making more than she was at her most recent place of employment.

As for me, well, things at my job are going well.  I have received a promotion of sorts (I'm now what's called a "Monitoring Coach") which mens waaaaaay more responsibilities, but no new money.  Our next "P-Day" isn't until March of 2006, so if I am to get more money, it won't eb for at least another 4 months, but that's OK, I'm ready for the disappointment.

The company that run things at my job seem to be in a bit of a haze when it comes to employee retention.  Unless they are planning on converting everyone to hourly employees, which I sincerely hope deos NOT happen, they will continue to lose employees at a shocking rate.  We have lost so many employees at this point that we cannot make our service levels and as a result, we are taking financial hits.  Of course, the solution is to hire more, but the reputation of this company is such that no-one is applying because employee compensation appears to be waaaay below market, and why work somewhere when you can get that much more somewhere else doing exactly the same job? I can point to two employees, friends of muine, who are doing EXACTLY the same jobs at another firm and getting almost 50% more than they were getting apid at my company.  50% more.  Imagine, if you wil, going from a $40K/yr job to a $60K/yr job.  Yeah.  That's what I thought...I would jump ship too, but as it stands now, I am positioned to make a grab for some pay of my own and I'm not going to jump ship simply for more money...or am I?

Anyhoo, the brood is growing, the pup is still annoying and I hope to have some more pics up soon so that all of my loyal and happy readers out there can Oooh! and Aaaah! over them.

Stay sane, and remember, when crosschecking, use the shaft!