Well, it isn't orgainized.

... but it isn't ugly, either.

Above is part of my garden last summer-- it's pretty typical of all the gardens I've kept. Sometimes, I look out over my garden and think "it's beautiful" -- in the same way that a forest, marsh or other natural ecosystem is. When everything is working together and producing life, that is the pinnacle of beauty. And while that may seem a little melodramatic, it's nothing compared to the gutter-sniping in the blogosphere these days over ugly gardens.

In the article that started it all, Robin Ripley says, "If gardeners are going to approach grocery gardening in that lackadaisical way, I suggest they find another hobby."

First of all, who decided to call it "grocery gardening" -- that makes it sound like food stamp collecting and frankly I find it condecending -- like Marie Antoinette suggesting cake to the hungry -- I'll take eggplants over orchids any day.

Secondly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, sweetheart, and order does not always equal beauty. When was the last time you saw a field of wildflowers in even rows? And did you think it was ugly? I guess Mother Nature needs a new hobby.

Which reminds me, much like the term "grocery gardening" calling gardening a "hobby" dismisses everyone who is gardening because of food security issues or out of the need to stretch a budget.

Mary Schier suggests that ugly gardens might be a feminist issue -- hell, yes it is! Ripley's article reminds me of 1950s postwar ideals of housekeeping that led to the proliferation of jellied salads among other atrocities. In my mind, laying down landscaping fabric is the equivalent of putting on pantyhose -- you are not likely to find me doing either.

Do I plunk and plant? Not entirely. Do I plot out one foot squares in grids and allow for perfect spacing? Not a chance. My method lands somewhere in the middle and I get a decent amount of food and enjoyment for my (minimal) efforts. I also cut corners; I use and reuse whatever I can to get the job done -- last year I used plastic forks as plant markers; I pull weeds only when it is necessary or convenient. I have a laissez-faire attitude to gardening and I am totally OK with that. I think if I were to fret over row placement and companion planting and soil acidity and balancing plant heights and colours and persistent weed control, I would never plant another thing.

Yes, there are some important issues that need to be considered, especially for first-time gardeners but Ripley's offhand comments only serve to add a layer of guilt to an otherwise relaxing activity and do nothing to encourage new gardeners to give it a shot.

Soapbox Moment

I get really tired of people thinking that free speech can be demanded and denied in the same breath. What got me on my soapbox this time is the UVic Student Society (UVSS) versus Youth Protecting Youth (YPY), a pro-life group whose opinions make me curl my nose in a funny way. While my own views on the abortion issue generally fall under the pro-choice banner, I stand firmly in the YPY courtyard in defending their right to have and make known their opinions.

However, the UVSS chose to deny club funding to this group because of their opinions. More precisely, it is because their posters are "offensive" and make women "feel guilty" for choosing abortion.

This is quite plainly bullshit and it makes me grumpy.

I feel guilty every time I see a poster for a yoga group -- and I am offended (as a "person of size") that the women pictured are usually very muscular and slim -- but I'm not deluded enough to think that I can crush their right to a campaign because I feel threatened by the messages implied by the posters.

-+-+-

Over the past few days, the students have been voting and it has been (at least from my vantage point), brisk. This subject is one of the issues dividing candidates and I hope there is some change in the board that will support a more reasonable application of the concept of free speech.

Not for a fistful of hundred dollar bills

I think I've already made this clear, but I am not a supporter of the big boondoggle set to kick off in a few days. After reading the list of items banned from venues (which will have airport-style security), I commented that you wouldn't be able to get me in a venue with a free ticket and a fistful of unmarked non-sequential $100 bills.

Included on the list

• Water balloon launchers (really? this happens often enough to need a separate listing?)
  
• Leaflets, pamphlets, non-approved publications and promotional material (this just plain angers my inner librarian -- what exactly is a non-approved publication?)
  
• Banners containing religious, political, provocative or obscene content and or visible branding and trademarks of sponsor and non-sponsor companies (guess what part of this annoys me? yup, that pesky branding and trademark stuff! What amuses me most is they don't even want logos of the participating sponsors visible -- my guess is they are paying for every reference)
  
• Flags of non-participating countries (non-participating in the games or non-participating at that event?)
  
• Strollers (because transportation is going to be a challenge but if you want to take your toddler to a once in a lifetime event, the kid is going to have to walk or be carried)
  
• Umbrellas (because it never rains in Vancouver)
  

Good old-fashioned Garden City rant.

To quote the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman, "This town needs an enema!"

Yeah, it's been said before but in trying to do our civic duty tonight -- just getting to the open house that City Hall was hosting on the ridiculously costly infrastructure project to replace the Johnson Street Bridge -- it took us about 4 minutes to get close to City Hall and 20 minutes to find a place to park. Even the nearby parkades were packed because of an event at the McPherson Theatre -- in fact one parkade was the biggest part of the delay as idiots blocked the road for no fewer than 5 traffic light signals trying to enter. We finally got around that mess and found a spot that was barely big enough to pull into but Hubby managed it.

The meeting itself was a mix of boosters, detractors, and people who wandered in off the street to get free coffee. Local media was there as were a few councillors (no sign of Mayor Fortin though. Too bad -- I'd have told him how hard it was to park on a Monday) watching a powerpoint presentation and looking at the same drawings that have been circulated for months -- all of which were drawn up by a UK based architect (what -- Victoria, BC, and even Canada didn't have an architecht available???). Council will vote this Thursday. I'd be tempted to go but they rammed through the funding issue at nearly midnight last time and frankly I don't have much faith in this council to do what its citizens want.

There has been NO consideration of repairs to the existing bridge, only talk of the $63 million (some of which may be a Federal Funding carrot) to build a new bridge (that may still be subject to a toll). We took Kiddo to put in her vote because she will likely still be paying for it when she is our age if she stays in the city.

After the open house, we decided to detour to Serious Coffee -- generally a great place to get a quick coffee. Unfortunately, it seems that their management does not pay staff long enough to allow them to properly clean up so they shut down the espresso machines and stop brewing coffee long before closing time -- tonight nearly 20 minutes before closing. To make matters worse, we had ordered a "child's hot chocolate" -- most places will steam this at a lower temperature or add cold milk to temper it. Instead it was scalding hot and Kiddo was brought to tears burning her tongue. At least when Hubby asked, they brought her some ice water. (She was still crying when she went to bed.)

On the way out there were four people headed in for coffee. Hubby told them, "They've already shut down" and they turned and left. While they might have put up with what the dregs left from the day's brew, we didn't think it was fair that anyone pay for that.

Further up the street, three bewildered tourists were trying to figure out where to eat. They were standing on Broad Street outside the fish and chips place that had closed for the night sometime between 7:30 when we walked past the first time and 7:50 when we returned. We directed them to the Irish Times Pub after explaining that the city kinda rolls up its sidewalks weeknights.

It comes down to this: if you can't find many businesses open and you still can't find a place to park in the city, something's broken and a new bridge is not going to fix it.

My pockets aren't that deep.

Earlier this week, our esteemed leaders sprung a new tax on us. Oh, sure, they said it will rejuvenate the economy but really it's just a poke in the eye for most British Columbians and virtually all tourists. What they are doing is "harmonizing" the provincial sales tax (PST, 7%) with the federal goods and services tax (GST, 5%). This harmonized sales tax (HST) will take effect next July 1st, post the glorious Olympic Games of course. While it makes some sense for those who have to collect the tax, it is problematic to blend two different systems. Here's just a few things that will be more expensive under the new tax (currently exempt from PST, they will be subject to the full 12% HST):

GOODS

• Residential fuels (electricity, natural gas) and heating.
• Basic cable TV and residential phones.
• All food products (only basic groceries will remain exempt under new tax).
• Non-prescription medication.
• Vitamins and dietary supplements.
• Bicycles.
• School supplies (books will continue to be exempt).
• Magazines and newspapers.
• Work-related safety equipment.
• Safety helmets, life jackets, first-aid kits.
• Smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.
• Energy conservation equipment (e.g., insulation, solar power equipment).

SERVICES

• Personal services such as hair care.
• Dry cleaning.
• Repair services for household appliances.
• Household maintenance such as renovations and painting.
• Real estate fees.
• Membership fees for health clubs.
• Movie and theatre tickets.
• Funeral services.
• Professional services such as accounting and home care.
• Airline fares within Canada.

All household energy prices have increased significantly in the past five years anyway; an added 7% on that item alone will be a huge burden for the average family but that is only one item on the list. Add up just the ones you can't avoid and it's going to get ugly uglier around here.

Thanks a lot Gordo.

Summer is not without rants

It is definitely summer. It's been warm again -- 26°C give or take; the house feels even warmer -- and leading up to my niece, nephew and sister-in-law visiting, I sucked it up and mowed the back lawn. I knew the kids would want to play in the back yard and I figured I should clear up the remaining cake.

...Ah, yes. The cake. Lunch time today, I witnessed a raccoon wander into the back yard (just after noon) and partake of the leftovers. Said raccoon was then harassed by crows (who nest in the Douglas Fir) for about two hours. Before mowing the lawn, I had a look at the remaining mess. It was decidedly cake-like; still spongy and fresh in appearance which, frankly, frightens me. Later, I found a stash of maraschino cherries in my lettuce patch. I wonder which creature was saving them?

Anyway, I was successful in cleaning up the lawn, helping to set up dinner and so forth. We had a good visit, the kids had a good tear through the place and everyone enjoyed dinner and dessert. After everyone had gone home/back to hotels I went out to grab a few groceries and therein lies the rant.

See, I decided to use the self-serve checkouts at Save-on-Foods, just to see how they worked. Right off the bat they got a low grade because, like a good citizen, the first thing I did was put my reusable bag in the bagging area and the first thing the checkout told me was that there was an "unexpected item in the bagging area." I tried again and got the same result. I looked at the bored staffer left to oversee the six self-checkouts and she informed me that she had to "key that in." Really? Shouldn't eco-bags be the rule and not the exception? Sigh. So, anyway. Aside from that, it worked out OK but I don't think I will use it again until they phase out the full serve completely.

On my return, I watered the front garden and beds and then, because it was impossibly stuffy inside, Hubby and I took one of the laptops out to the back deck and watched a movie. Ahhh, technology.

I hate my sinuses.

... but I am not going to bore you with my tales of Head Cold of Ought Nine Round Two, no sirreee. Instead, I am going to dump a bunch of links at you that have been cluttering up my brain of late:

First, some stupid ideas:

Rebranding the SciFi network as SyFy -- apparently to attract more women. UNLIKELY. However, it has given them a lot of press, even if most of it riducules them for the concept. Hopefully it will go down the same drain as New Coke.

VANOC's latest plan to f*#$ over the province: the 2010 Winter Games Integrated Transportation Plan. While I applaud any increase to transit options, I think having dedicated vehicle lanes for what boils down to VANOC cronies is a waste of resources. I also shudder at the burden of extra costs to any company that makes deliveries into Vancouver's downtown core and other "key areas" as these deliveries will have to be done during the graveyard shift during the 3 weeks around the Games. Oh, hey! I guess that means that any business getting a delivery will have to meet the trucks in the middle of the night, too. Way to go VANOC.

The latest in a string of stupid reactions to parents who trust their children was this poor kid in Mississippi who ended up in a cop car because neighbours thought he shouldn't be walking to the soccer field unattended. At age ten. In daylight. The woman rightfully stood up to police, asking them why her neighbourhood was deemed so unsafe that it was necessary to pick up her child, causing the police chief to backpedal.

Next, some fun news:

Kiddo, Hubby and I all added new stuff to our collective etsy store -- Hubby unearthed his Brains on Chains, I built some collage packs, and Kiddo created some Kids Fun Foam Book Kits. I photographed all of it and posted them yesterday.

We have a new toy. Hubby went out to get new tires yesterday and came home with a PS3 (specifically a Playstation 3 40GB Console). (He came home with the tires, too; it wasn't an either/or transaction). He scored the system second-hand at one of our fave haunts (Barclay's Exchange) and once it was clear that the system worked, he went out in search of new games. As a result I happily spent an hour last night getting acquainted with LittleBigPlanet. I expect a game review will follow.


And now, stuff you can win:

Win a powerful new shredder for your office by spring cleaning and sending before and after photos to LifeHacker. Contest ends tomorrow (!!) 19 March

Win a pillow decorated with a cover made from selvedge (the scrap ends of fabric that are all the rage with use-every-scrap crafters these days) just for commenting at the Selvedge Blog. Contest ends 23 March.

Win coffee for a year (or doughnuts, really, as the prize is awarded in Tim Hortons Gift Cards) by entering online at Tim Hortons RRRoll Up Fun. Contest ends 22 March.

Our province is so screwed.

If our esteemed leader had put the Winter Olympic bid to a province-wide vote, I am fairly certain it would have failed. Why? Because I know of no one who is deluded enough to think that any modern Olympics, now a bloated athletic circle-jerk run by crooks and cronies, can come in on-budget. And guess what? We are now hugely on the hook for cost-overruns for the Olympic Village (the overrun alone will cost nearly eight hundred thousand dollars per unit* by the time it's done -- are you effing kidding me?? You could buy 1100 otherwise empty condos on the Vancouver market right now for better value.)

When I say "we" I mean the province because the City of Vancouver has taken a page from the current corporate culture and stretched out its hand to government for a bailout. Harper is being all tough-love about it but Campbell will cave and we will all have to pay.

And if you think this is all Vancouver's problem, think again. The rocket scientists/flim-flam men running the Millennium Development Corporation that is behind the Olympic Village haven't been able to even begin construction on the other project bid they won -- a hotel complex adjacent to the new Nanaimo conference centre. The city council there has been trying to fine the corporation but in the meantime they are still screwed.

Meanwhile CBC is pointing out that two of the big sponsors for the Olympics are Nortel (which just filed for bankruptcy today) and General Motors (and I think we are all aware of how they're doing).

It's not just me crying foul:

• After the Olympics comes debt (Vancouver Sun, 13 Jan 09)
• Straight talk on Games costs (Victoria Times-Colonist, 14 Jan 09)
• Olympic Village may cost Vancouver taxpayers $875M (CBC online 9 Jan 09)
• and over at the Coffee Crew blog, Colin regularly raises his digital fist. He recently posted Olympic Rant #24.
  

Of course, part of this mess can be blamed on the current global economic situation but at the root of that is the very same thing that is at the root of the consistent cost overruns and scandals faced by both city and international Olympic committees: greed. There's a good reason it's one of the seven deadly sins.

---

*simple math: $875million overrun for 1,100 units.

If you want to show your disdain for the Olympic mess, how about a Vancouver 2011 bumper sticker? See the pile of rubble? Yeah.

Sunday night grumbles...

Grumble #1. There's an ad running in high rotation right now about climate change, paid for by LiveSmart BC. In the ad the woman states that,

"We just don't have the minus thirty, minus forty winters like we used to and that's what we need to get rid of the pine beetles. Everybody needs to do their part."

And I want to know what, exactly, I can do to make sure that Prince George gets a minus forty winter. (Oh, I know, there's a long domino effect implied but I really, really resent the oversimplification.)

Grumble #2. Yesterday I went downtown to try and pick up a gift card for our niece from Lululemon. I circled the area twice looking for parking -- there was none available on the street and the parkade on lower Yates was full with a 6 car lineup. The new furniture store across from the parkade was lined up out the door; they were actually letting just one or two people in at a time. I finally found somewhere to park on Fisgard, two and a half blocks away from our destination. Every store we passed was crowded and we had to wait in line to purchase the gift card. There is no way you can convince me that our economy is in the sh*tter.

Now, you kids, get off my lawwwwn!

Engage Maximum Rant Engine

OK. I get budget cuts, I do, but when you decide to turf a childrens' knitting group from a public library in return for running the odd Scrabble™ or video game night....???? That just makes me CRANKY.

One commenter (mykl44) said it best,

Hopefully one of their new video games will be Extreme Knitting 2008: Needle in the Eye Edition

Personally, I would be tempted to organize a knit-in at the next Library Board meeting. Grumble, grumble, rant, rant.....

How to cripple my city in three easy steps.

1. Bring a glitzy festival to the Inner Harbour -- in this case, the Tall Ships festival, which travels up and down the west coast annually. This had the effect this afternoon of clogging traffic from the Johnson Street Bridge to Fort Street along Wharf Street; we were moving at about 5 km/h and tempers were pretty high because once you make that turn, there's no easy way out.

2. Bomb threat! Well, at least a suspicious package -- found on a BC Transit bus during rush hour. This shut down part of Admirals road -- one of the major routes in and out of the dockyards and naval base plus a popular route to the Western Communities.

3. When all else fails, roadwork. This morning and into the afternoon the Bay Street bridge was reduced to a single alternating lane, blocking traffic a looooong way. I think I may have idled away as much as an eighth of a tank of gas while waiting. Adding to the congestion is that the nearby area is semi-industrial so there were more than the average number of dump-trucks, cement trucks, and 5-ton box trucks merging in and out of traffic.

I am starting to hate February.

I think next year I would like to skip straight from January into March, thanks.

This time last year I was very ill. This year, I have a nasty chest cold and Hubby has pneumonia.

Add to that the-renos-that-never-end and this afternoon's LONG wait for a plumber... and well it all adds up to 5 letters: S-U-C-K-S.

Now I am off to sulk a little more... and call the plumber's dispatch... again.

Sigh.

Two Acronyms and a Little Glimpse into my Psyche

As Valentine's Day looks to be derailed yet again in our household (this year it's sickness, just like last year but thankfully not quite as intense -- past years have also included post-op surgery watch and finding out someone close had died. Really I think we might have had one "good" Valentine's Day out of the last half dozen...) I give you instead a wee rant and some humour to temper said rant.

1. (The rant) Exactly when did our society decide it was acceptable to refer to Valentine's Day as VD?? I'm sorry but to me VD stands for venereal disease. Yes, I know the more up-to-date acronym is STD or sexually transmitted disease but nonetheless VD brings to mind nasty thoughts of itching and burning below the belt. This year, more than ever before, I have seen banner ads, etsy crafts, and countless other references to VD and it's starting to get under my skin. I can only guess it's the IM/txt generation getting it's way by boiling everything down to the lowest common denominator. Please be assured that if you see the letters V and D capitalized and adjacent to one another in this blog, I am referring to a disease and not the 14th of February.

2. (The humour) OK, so this is only somewhat funny... but it made me smile only after I realized that Singles' Awareness Day was abbreviated as SAD... (and that, following the above rant, should give you a window into the infinite patience Hubby requires on a daily basis in decoding my lexicon of what makes me laugh and what makes me growl). So anyway, here's a video:

This, that and the other.

Yesterday proved to be one of the most frustrating days of work in the time I have held my current position. All I will say is that working on projects which involve multi-institution collaboration have far too many opportunities to run off the rails or into walls. I left work so grumpy and annoyed that even an hour of transit travel didn't give me enough time to decompress.

This morning, I slept in. Hooray for sleep! (It's been difficult re-adjusting to the 6 a.m. alarm now that I am back to full time and my regular start time of 8 a.m.) It doesn't help that I am fighting a sinus cold. Bah.

In between doing some laundry, I made some pie pastry (and Kiddo helped me) so that Hubby could bake an apple pie. He used about a half dozen large apples; it's HUUUGE.

This afternoon, we went out to Glenwood meats -- we got turkey sausage, turkey & cranberry sausage, buffalo sausage (yes, we like sausage), beef bacon (mMMMmmm), Ayrshire bacon (a traditional Scottish cut of bacon, similar to back bacon or "Canadian" bacon), and some chicken thighs -- to round out what's in our freezer.

After grabbing some lunch, we drove out to deep Gordon Head to take some photos in this month's Grid -- it's likely that it will be our only chance to do so this month, so we tried to make the most of it.

Back home, kiddo helped Hubby make fresh pasta for dinner -- lasagna, her choice.

...And now I am about to settle in to making some more catnip mice!

$8 Billion Boondoggle?

That's what Seth Godin thinks people wasted last year buying gift cards. Here's the key argument:

"Along the way, we bought the story that giving someone a hundred dollar bill as a gift ("go buy what you want") is callous, insensitive, a crass shortcut. Buying them a $100 Best Buy card, on the other hand, is thoughtful. Even if they spend $92 and have to waste the rest."

That extra bit... that's the kicker isn't it? You total up what's in your basket and you're three dollars short of the magic number even after you've calculated the taxes and then you look around for an impulse buy to round it out.... batteries? candy bars? socks? the latest National Enquirer? Ooooh, a new ice scraper in a fleecy mitt! And then suddenly, you're $17 over the value of the "gift card" holding bags overflowing with unnecessary crap.

To be fair, if you choose not to spend to the limit of the card, some retailers will actually refund the difference; most will hand you back a card with a balance that may well sit in your wallet until it gradually expires -- a most weaselly trick. (I currently have a mall gift card in my wallet with a $5.14 balance that I continually forget even though I am in that mall probably twice a month. I should probably check the expiry date.)

Uniformity

I found a new blog recently, by repeatedly hitting "next blog" past a bunch in languages I couldn't read until I found KJ's Bulletin Board of the Brain. I knew I was going to blogroll it when I found her rant about an odd design trend -- turning books backward on the shelves (spine-side in) to create a uniform look for a room. Oh. My. God. One day, an intelligent race of beings is going to send along the equivalent of small-pox infected blankets to wipe out interior decorators; I hope I live to see it.

Further up the Blogger dial is Tim, over at derivative works. I was looking back at older posts when I came across his thoughts on FM Radio. For me, FM radio lives only in the van... I flip between a half dozen pre-programmed stations hoping one will refrain from pissing me off long enough to get me to my destination, or at least a traffic light. It seldom happens. Most mornings, I listen to Kool FM (107.3) which describes its sound as "hot adult contemporary." Their morning hosts are the least annoying without putting me to sleep (hello? CBC? I'm looking at you!), but eventually their promotional blather starts to build up crud on the dial and I flip to a Vancouver station 94.5 The Beat, which plays top 40 dance. I seldom get through an entire song before flipping away to 100.3 The Q (annoying guitar rock with fun DJs and decent news info) or 98.5 The Ocean (sometimes I luck into a half-decent 80s tune). By then, it's usually safe to flip back to Kool FM for the last few minutes of the drive in.

Home is a different story. Generally for the 4-4:30 drive, I listen to C-FAX 1070 on the AM dial (yeah, seriously old school). They call themselves "Victoria's News Authority"; I tend to call them "the angry old guy channel" because they have listener call-in shows where folks call in and give the guest their opinions. However, I can usually suffer the afternoon call-in show because it is liberally peppered with news, traffic and weather updates -- all of which are key for getting me the hell home.

If you read Tim's rant, you'll note there's one station not programmed into our radio: JACK FM. When they first started broadcasting, I really enjoyed the mix, but it has steadily narrowed to a blend of almost a perfct cocktail of The Q and Kool FM -- but those stations have real people; they take requests; and they are still passingly local. The Victoria JACK FM is no different than the Vancouver JACK FM or any of the other JACK stations all over North America. JACK FM is no different than McDonalds, The Gap, or WalMart in its mission of standardization, creating a sameness that keeps the masses from developing any kind of personality or opinion. Perfect for a nation that needs soldiers.

And yeah, I took my conspiracy theory meds today. How about you?

MORONS!!!

So, the brain trust that hangs out in the big building on the Inner Harbour have decided to close the BC Legislative Library, allegedly for seismic upgrading, but the scuttle says "renos for more offices."

Rattenbury is no doubt spinning in his grave end over end; the space was designed as a Capital-L Library, housing books and records that are rare if not unique.

From the Vancouver Sun:

It has existed for 144 years as one of B.C.’s great democratic institutions: The library housed inside the capital’s legislative buildings devoted to tirelessly researching and cataloguing the political events, laws and history of British Columbia.

But B.C.’s Speaker of the House is about to close the legislative library down for up to two years, and perhaps move it for good from its historic site, claiming it is in a wing of the legislature that needs to be seismically upgraded to make it safe in an earthquake.

The shittiest thing though is that over half the staff is getting the boot and most of the books and records will be boxed up and shoved into some dark warehouse. Seriously, these people are MORONS who have no concept of history or the value of knowledge and no respect for research. They should all be slapped with rotting salmon.

grrrr.

Daylight "Savings" Fracas.

I really want to point fingers today.... so I am picking what I thought was an easy target, the change to the longer Daylight Savings time.

First and foremost, I blame Gorge W. Bush and his Congress for enacting the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 110 of which reads in part as follows:

(a) Amendment- Section 3(a) of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 260a(a)) is amended--

(1) by striking `first Sunday of April' and inserting `second Sunday of March'; and

(2) by striking `last Sunday of October' and inserting `first Sunday of November'.

(b) Effective Date- Subsection (a) shall take effect 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act or March 1, 2007, whichever is later.

But then it gets trickier. Who can I blame in Canada? I want to blame Stephen Harper and his Parliament, but nOOOoooo. According to this Info Sheet provided by the Library of Parliament, in Canada it is up to the Provinces and Territories to set their time (which makes sense since Saskatchewan does not participate, nor do some regions in BC or Quebec).

"Great!" I thought, "Another reason to point fingers at Gordon Campbell."

But I was wrong again. Apparently, in BC, it's the Attourney General who gets to make that call,

"The Attorney General is responsible for the Interpretation Act, which includes reference to time and is the authority under which Daylight Saving Time is prescribed in the province."

or at least that's what it says in this press release from last March. So who was the Attourney General last March? Same as now, Wally Oppal.

So, thank you Mr. Oppal. Thank you for bowing to useless pressure and promoting a useless measure which should have been abandoned long, long ago.

There is no conclusive proof that the change will in fact save much energy. The report that formed the basis for the Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a 2001 Staff Report from the California Energy Commission. Interestingly, the report suggests savings from Double DST -- in other words, move forward an hour in March 2007, then don't shift back, but move forward again in March 2008, then shift back in November 2008.... oh I am glad they didn't choose that boneheaded plan.

Queen Rantypants (TM)

So I haven't blogged much the last few days, mostly because I have been grumpy, sleep-deprived, and pretty miserable to live with (sorry, family). Just a few points....

Re: Aqua Teen Boston Bullshit. Are you KIDDING me?? I can't believe a city is both that blind and that panicky but I blame the media for blowing it out of proportion. On one hand I think Turner was stupid to pay $2M in restitution ($1M to the City of Boston; $1M to Homeland Security), but OTOH, every television viewer in North America (and many around the world) now know what ATHF is and that there is a movie coming out. Talk about brilliant promotion.

Re: Local news disappearing. We have two local television stations. Last year, A-Channel Vancouver Island (formerly the New VI) abruptly ditched its morning news show. As of last Friday, CH-Victoria (formerly CHEK6) delivered its last noon newscast. So... now the only way to get local news before 5 pm, is to buy the paper (owned by the same people who own CH-Victoria) or listen to C-FAX ("Victoria's News Authority" -- owned by the same people who own A-Channel).

Re: Daily Show Jumping the Shark. Last night we consiously turned off the Daily Show. It pains me to say this, but we saw several punchlines coming from so far away that it was worse than a rerun. I think without Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell (each doing well in their own endeavours), Jon Stewart is starting to rely on staff writers with... less punch. Jokes are continuously recycled, and I only laugh when I'm so tired that I am almost drifting off to sleep. I'm calling it now, but I'm pretty sure that sometime around the start of September, the Daily Show officially Jumped the Shark.

I did get one BIG laugh this week; on Heroes last night, Christopher Eccleston's invisible man character delivered a line that perfectly summed up my mood:

"People suck, friend.
Every last one of 'em."

Indeed.

Pre-Christmas Madness

Between the storms (which closed school for kiddo), hubby being sick and being stupidly busy trying to track down a hacker on the server at work, last minute shopping, and the usual insanity that increases tenfold at this time of year, it's been a busy week. So... here's the highlights.

Storms -- wow. I have never seen so many trees down after a storm. I feel a bit bad for the BC Hydro crews who haven't had much time to rest all week with three windstorms in a row. Tens of thousands of households and businesses in the region were without power for at least part of the week. We managed to escape that fate (::knock wood::) though we had candles and flashlights at the ready. As I mentioned though, kiddo's school lost power twice. Once on Monday for just a couple of hours and on Friday -- no sooner had she been dropped off when hubby got a call to pick her up again due to having no heat. When we drove out to the Westshore yesterday, the whole area smelled like a Christmas Tree lot!!

Speaking of trees... Christmas Tree -- we had decided to get a cut tree this year, as we gave away our artificial one last year. I had spotted a little lot close to home, run by the Kiwanis Club, that had some nice, natural looking BC trees. We ran some other errands Friday evening, thinking we had plenty of time, then arrived at the lot around 6:30 only to find it closed!! I was soooooo frustrated. It meant we had to come back on Saturday without kiddo to get the tree, grrr, but I did find a nice, albeit wonky, tree. It's pretty much backless which means we can snug it up against the bookcase. However, it needs more than the 300 lights we put on there, so I have to go out this afternoon to get another 50 or so.

Errands -- yesterday, despite hubby being sick (very sick... I felt bad) he decided he wanted out of the house... so we headed out to the Westshore to run a number of errands: (1) Glenwood Meats -- about 20 lbs of meat (various forms of sausage, chicken, beef, and bacon) for $55. We have been totally spoiled by the quality and value of the meat from Glenwood, and we buy very little meat elsewhere any more. (2) Island Ink Jet -- drop off our printer cartridge for refil. They had some trouble because the blue tank had all but dried out. So they took a looooooong time. But they did eventually get it going again. (3) The Evil Retailer (yeah, they're all evil, but I hate even admitting I shop at the place with the Smiley logo) -- for a bunch of basic consumables which had run low -- paper products, kitchen wraps, bathroom personal stuff... you know. (4) The tree (see above) which we got on our way back home, along with fast-food lunch that disagreed with me terribly (urrrrrr).

And what would the holidays be without a rant? ... I've been annoyed by a host of little silly things... but this item really got me wanting to rant. Care of the Shopping Network, they suggest as a last minute gift, the Creative Kids Basket. I assure you there is NOTHING creative about this basket -- in fact, it isn't even pictured as a basket! It is a BAG full of CANDY. And not even good candy, just crappy sugary junk. To add insult to injury, the price is $36.49 PLUS $10 shipping!! There's no way the contents cost more than $15, and the bag maybe $2 -- in fact the whole thing could be pulled together from stock in any dollar store. Bah.

OK.. off to run more errands (We're out of coffee!! Oh the HORROR!).