Crappy Customer Service

OK Internet, Cough Up

I'm trying to buy more handmade gifts than I bought last year but I think I've reached a limit.  It is HARD to buy handmade for men.  Or at least, it is for the men in my life.  They don't wear knitted things, don't really care for notebooks and the like, aren't jewelry wearers.  I'm thinking something turned out on a wood lathe but I'm still having trouble.  They aren't the kind of men who want kitschy stuff or knick-knacks, so it has to be practical.  Fuck a duck!!

I've boiled my eyeballs out of my head searching thousands of Etsy posts, so you'll excuse my absence.  Looking at a monitor all day at work, playing Warhammer with Mr. W and friends on the weekends, online Christmas shopping and reading piles of Amazon junk mail make me tired of the computer.

True Graphjam Graphs Part 1

How to Start A Riot in Alberta

1.  Stand in a crowded place.

2.  Yell HEY SCOTTY!  GET OVER HERE!

3.  Duck.

If everyone whose first name or last name is Scott, or who is known to be a Scotsman/woman, came running, you could empty out a large building within seconds.  Maybe we should use this instead of a fire alarm.

Kick Your Face's Ass

Didja notice how everyone's trying to get men to moisturize these days?  Although they're not calling it that, I guess it sounds too twee.  Gillette et al. want you to "defend" your skin, put up a "barrier" or "shield" to block water loss.  I do know men who admit to moisturizing, but let's face it, I know a lot of gay men.  I can't think of a straight one who'd own up to it.

I think there are a lot of things I'd like Mr. W to do before moisturizing, sorry defending his skin, like maybe picking up his dirty clothes.  Plus I don't want him hogging up my valuable beauty dollars.  It's bad enough with his extensive purchases of Neutrogena and Irish Spring!

Aw, You Guys! Part II *Disgusted Look*

I read 48 RSS feeds of blogs regularly and I surf to plenty more through blog comments.  Not a single person has owned up to voting Yes on any of the propositions against gay marriage on the ballots in the American election.  That's right, everyone I read is for gay marriage.

So is my sample size off?  'Cause don't look now, but those propositions passed and I was thinking they probably wouldn't, so I was heartbroken to hear the results.  Several bloggers I read actually campaigned against the props and they passed.  Maybe I read a lot of "white" liberal bloggers because I'm a "white" liberal.  Anyway, I'm disgusted by the whole thing.

We have gay marriage here, and look around, no giant pit of fire and brimstone has opened up.  Six months after the bill passed, people forgot about it.  Nothing has changed for the worse because of gay marriage in Canada, except maybe the ability to book a reception hall in August. 

If anyone is reading this who voted in favour of those propositions, I'd like to take a moment to say you suck.

Stay In School, Don't Do Drugs and Only Watch Paid Cable Television

Mr. W discovered a provocative British TV show while on his usual illegal-TV-watching-meanderings.  It's called Miss Naked Beauty and it's on Surf the Channel (I didn't tell you how to get there, so keep yer yap shut kid).  Now, I don't watch reality TV and Mr. W knows this, so he practically had to tie me to a chair to watch the first ten minutes.  This time, however, I stayed until the credits ran.  What do you think of the concept?

The show's website doesn't really give you a firm idea of what's going on.  This guy Gok is running a beauty contest to find a woman who can be a role model for natural beauty and personal acceptance.  She will have to write about the dark side of the beauty industry as well, so she needs looks and brains.   He recruits 200 women from the streets of London and asks them to show up at a local pier where he makes all of them walk together down the boardwalk in their bikinis.  At the end of the walk, the women seem to get that it was about seeing a bunch of different female body types in one place and seeing others being confident.

The part that interested me the most is when they asked the women to take off their makeup, piercings, jewelry, hairstyle and clothing and just look at themselves in their natural state.  European women in general are more "done" than around here and they found themselves the real doozies in the interest of drama.  A few women freaked out.  One girl refused to uncover her unmade face.

Personally I am one of the least "done" women around.  I don't wear makeup on the weekends and have natural unvarnished nails.  I have my own hair colour, my own untanned skin colour and wear flats.  Most of this is out of laziness or indifference because I'm just annoyed by all the maintenance beauty requires.  But I also tend to think less of a woman who's clearly been at it for hours in front of the mirror.  Is this a reverse form of beauty prejudice?

Comfort

I didn't go to work today because I was pissed off.  I had a really bad day on Wednesday, you know, the kind where you question the purpose of your job and your place in the company?  Sure you do.  There are the shitty aspects of everyone's job that add up to a grind and then there's another level.  I reached the other level yesterday and when I woke up this morning I sat on the edge of the bed and said to Mr. W, "I don't want to go to work today".

"So don't go", he said.

"I'm not that person, am I?  The one who fakes sick?"

"No, you're just sick of work.  Take the day off."

I'm not at the point where I would quit but I am at the point where I fake sick - which is something I've never done.  I wasn't raised that way.  It wasn't fun either; I just stayed home and felt guilty about it.  But I did get something accomplished! 

The picture above is a quilt my mother made for us.  It's beyond king-size and extremely soft.  My mom put in some fabrics from my old clothes, her old clothes, beloved old blankets and stuff so it has great sentimental value.  I use it on my bed inside a duvet cover because it's a little fragile.  Each square you see is a tiny pillow and they are all hand-sewn together.  The good thing about its construction is that it never loses batting.  Each "pillow" contains its own piece.  The weak spots are the threads that join the pillows, which lose integrity when I wash it.  Today I repaired a big rent and shored up the defences for two hours while watching old movies in my PJ's.  I'm still pissed off at certain people at work but at least I wasn't marinating in it.

Aw, You Guys! *Arm Punch*

"...and I will be your President too."

Obama said this about the Republicans and people who don't support him, but let's face it, Obama is the President-Elect of the world, so he's saying it to all of us.  Too bad we don't all get to vote on the matter.

I, and many other Canadians I know, were a little verklemt watching the American election last night.  You guys sure looked good.  It's so refreshing to see the citizenry caring about their electoral process.  We need some of your enthusiasm to creep Northward.

Call Me Crazy (& Happy)

This weekend Mr. W brought a five-year-long project to its culmination by installing a TV in our kitchen.  Actually it's a 22" monitor hooked to my old Dell computer, which is tucked out of sight.  We have a Slingbox Pro that is, at long last, being used to sling some TV into other parts of our house.  We've told a number of people about installing a computer in our kitchen and there seem to be two responses:  The first is from our fellow technophiles, who nod sagely and say "cool".  The second group says, "Why on earth would you put a computer in your kitchen, of all places?"

1.  We both cook and spend time in our tiny kitchen every day.

2.  Our kitchen has no sight-line to our main TV, and you had to turn the sound up to ear-shattering levels to listen in.

3.  Installing a computer there has made use of a formerly unused old appliance.

4.  We hooked up my old Harmon Kardon speakers and now have access to all my MP3's, as well as a CD and DVD player.

5.  The screen saver works just like a digital picture frame, showing fancy photos and the like.

6.  The monitor has Blu-Ray levels of resolution so everything looks great.

Even with multiple reasons some people just don't get it.  It seems extravagant and weird to them.