Work, work, work

Well, if you couldn't tell where I've been lately, you're not alone. I've sort of been in this beginner's limbo at work. I started the reception training, but it's basically been phones. I haven't been allowed much time to get to know the programs on the computer, because I haven't been on the computer much. I think I logged in once. I did the incoming mail a couple of times, and I handed out the pay stubs. I don't get to start the Data Management Assistant work until next week, and I'm sort of hoping that I can settle into a groove by then.

I'm getting a sense of an organization in a little bit of chaos right now...lots of senior staff are on vacation, and there seems to be a number of staff who are fairly new either to the organization, or to new positions, so the flow of organization is so messed up right now. Most of the Seniors are due back next week, so I'll get to see what the place is like normally, so here's hoping.

Life goes on?

Today, the Edmonton Police confirmed that a body found in a field Northeast of the city is that of Missing pregnant mother Liana White. Her husband, Michael White, is charged with 2nd degree Murder and Indignity to Human Remains, after he was the one who organized the search party that found her. The couple already have a 2 year old daughter, and now sadly, she is without both of her parents.

Almost immediately after this news was broadcast at 3 o'clock MDT, I got a call from The United Way of the Capital Region offering me the position of receptionist/data management assistant. Nothing says "Life goes on" like the promise of new starts after tragic events I guess. I didn't know the Whites, but like anyone else, I feel sad for that family, especially that little girl.

Brief update

Well, dad's lump is confirmed to be benign, as we figured, so that's good. But the stress of everything got to mom and she went to the ER today with pain and tingling in her feet and hands. The irregular heartbeat had become the focus now that Dad's lump is in the clear. She's fine now, but we're still waiting on results from bloodwork, so we'll see I guess.

Fun with Words

From time to time I like to play with words:

(this one I came up with a few minutes ago and posted on a messageboard discussion about religion and sinning)

You'd rather Pray,
and I'd rather Play,
Just let me be,
and we will soon see,
what happens in the end,
when we go 'round the bend.

Written by your friendly neighbourhood atheist (me)

Rough Road or Easy Street?

Dad's home sick today.

Last week, my mother started an MSN conversation with me, and what I thought would be the average conversation talking about her constant ironing, laundry and bathroom cleaning, but when mom said the Dad had an appointment with his doctor to discuss the results of an ultrasound done on a lump on his neck, she mentioned the word Lymph, and I knew it wasn't going to be the run-of-the-mill conservation. She said daddy thought the doctor said something about Lymphoma, but he's not sure he heard right, so it's anyone's guess what's going on.

Dad's had some symptoms similar to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, but without the proper tests, it's anyone's guess what's going on. Dad's a diabetic, but he's not watching his diet or monitoring his blood sugars very closely, so many of his symptoms can be attributed to that. The doctor did take two needle samples from the lump, but the results have not come back yet as far as I know. He's got an appointment on Thursday, and regardless of what the results indicate, the doctor has expressed a view that the lump needs to be removed. Once that's happened, they'll know better what they are dealing with.

And while this is going on, Mom told me that she's being sent to two specialists for her own problems. She's got cysts in her breasts, and they'll be removed, and she's got an irregular heartbeat as well, which is fairly common, but we're going to wait and see what's going on in that respect.

So currently, my parents are on track for adventures in surgery, and true to form, they are downplaying the possibilities, which is the best thing to do until we really know what's going on. No point in getting worked up.

Do you have any idea what's out there?

I decided to spend some time this morning hitting the "next blog" button, just to see what's going on in Blogspotland. And I think I came across hundreds of "webcorp" sites, which are insanely annoying, and various blogs of little teenieweenies who are just "da bomb" in their little worlds. But every once in a while, I'd stop at a blog that just happened to catch my jaded eye.

And it's the fault of my perphiral vision that I'm blogging about my journey now. Because a click of the mouse led me to a site titled "Manifestation of Faith" and the corner of my eye told my brain is was "Manifestation of Fish"

I didn't know Fish had Manifestations.

More clicks, and I came across a blog for Anglican/Episcopalians, which had just posted a news item titled "Christian priest on trial in China for Printing Bibles" or something like that, and I couldn't stop myself from thinking, "so?" My first reaction stems from my belief that Christian Fundamentalists (and I'm not saying the purveyors of the subject blog are fundamentalists, I'm just following my reasoning through) lately are the first to claim that the non-xtian world is persecuting them, and it seems to me that said fundamentalists have been the first to persecute others. So, yes, I'm a callous person, but in my defense...nah, no defense. Sucks for Mr. Preacher man, hope justice prevails, so on and so forth.

But proselytizing is still bad.

Moving on, I came across a chick's blog, and it's evident that she thinks extremely highly of herself, and she's pretty shallow. Even in a post about how just tries to make everyone around her happy, she reeks of self-grandizing (OH ME! I'm Such a GIVER! Praise Me!). And her comments about obese air travellers lead me to believe that this barstar and I would likely trade bad words or worse if we ever came face to two-face.

No room in my life for divas.

Next, I came across a blog that was cutesy, and came with those cute little animated characters that the Asian population love, and that's all cool, but one of those characters was wearing a plunger on it's head. Huh? Is this character a plumber? Does it belong to a union?

Can cartoon's have plumber's cracks?

Near the end, I came across "the Art of the Rant", at http://billerands.blogspot.com whose blog "dominion day?" caught my attention for its curious blend of facts and sarcasm. It's the kind of post I would write in my attempts to infuriate people I argue with on the Yahoo!Canada news messageboards. Little Miss Pedantic strikes again!

I recommend it.

and finally, a rant. It seems that this morning, there was a news story that the Sir Bob Geldof, yes, Bob bloody Geldof is now a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, which tells you how desperate the state of affairs has gotten when a bossy little ass like him is what we have to model ourselves after in trying to achieve World Peace. Must be a tough year for Peacebrokers when they spend all their time trying to bring peace to strife-ridden regions and get little or no recognition for their efforts, and Bob bloody Geldof comes in, organizes a few concerts, talks tough to cameras ABOUT world leaders, and joins a chorus of "We Shall Overcome" while marching a dozen kilometres away from the G8 Summit, and he gets a Nobel nod.

Did the Boomtown Rats even produce any record single of note?

London Bombs

I woke up this morning to the news that while I slept, the London transit system was targetted by 4 bombs. Yesterday at this time, the city was jubilant, having just won the bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

This is such maddening news. I was in London 10 years ago, and one of my favourite things about the city was the Underground, which I thought was amusingly British. I hadn't had the opportunity to ride on a Double Decker, but it was not for lack of interest. It's heartbreaking to get this news, but I'm glad to hear that the city was quick to react in a timely and responsible manner. At this point, there are 33 confirmed dead, with an undetermined number of fatalities in the Double Decker blast, plus nearly 400 people suffering various injuries.

My heart goes out to the families of the dead, and my wishes for a safe and speedy recovery go out to the injured.

Live-G-8-octopus-sea-monkey-evolution

First of all, if you scroll down to my links, you'll find a new one, leading you to Rick Mercer's blog, which is worthy of mention for many reasons, not the least of which that it's funny. It's some good old fashioned lampooning by a professional Lampoon.

Now on to my personal business...

Live 8. Good idea in the sense that I really support throwing the spotlight on the issues of poverty, but after watching a few hours of the concerts on TV and online, I was less than impressed with the efforts by organizers to really make this issue sink in. A lot of people there cared...a lot more were just there for the bands, and this I understand. There are just people who never will care. And I also believe that those celebrities who were there to promote addressing the issues of global poverty truly have the right to voice their opinions. If I can blog, or write letters to editors and so on, then celebs have the right to voice their say. But I digress...trying to sell the message in a "hip and cool" format (ie. "Hey man, you know it's pretty sad that a person dies every, like, 3 seconds because of extreme poverty") is dumbing it down to it's most absurd point. It's mocking the issue. Those folks who are only there for the bands don't give a crap, so don't bother trying to sell them the message.

Sir Bob Geldof, and to a much lesser degree, Bono, have also piqued my ire. Bono, bless his heart, he's out there campaigning and he's been very successful thus far, so when he decided to go after Paul Martin, I was a little leery, but supported him. And to his credit, he's come out and said that he understands Canada's position, even if he doesn't agree with it. But Bob bloody Geldof telling us if we don't play by his rules, Canada should just stay home? In the immortal words of Bob and Doug Mackenzie, "Take off, eh!" Seriously...he's not even a player at the G8 Summit, since when does he get to invite/uninvite people? The movement to reduce/eliminate global poverty needs a less Prickish self-appointed Spokesperson.

Now, on to those frigging Anarchist "protesters" in Scotland. I wish I had the ability to put valium in their water. The debt-ridden poor countries on the planet aren't being done any service by these bloody hooligans who seem to have left their behavioural medications at home. The disaffected anarchists who truly believe that the current "self-help" system of world politics needs to be toppled...I have no idea what to say about them besides 'different strokes' and so on, but those dumbasses who just want to get lubed up and throw rocks or attack cops because they aren't emotionally equipped to deal with their own lives, those folks are getting in the way of a damn good protest by the rest of the anti-global poverty advocates.

On the other hand, the cynic in me has to ponder the effectiveness of peacefully marching through fields some distance away from the leaders who need to hear the message. Protest can work as an effective tool. Protests spurred on the G-77 to effectively stop the last WTO round in Cancun, and rightfully so, but the leaders of the 8 most powerful countries are basically rich enough to flip everyone the bird with one hand and smile and wave with the other. This is a class of people whose gentle admonishments of "Oh no, poor poverty stricken countries is so terrible!" just looks down on the protesters as misguided fools. Hurray for reality. I know, I'm a hypocrite, because with the right finances, I'd be there right now protesting too, but I'm not idealistic enough to think that some significant moves will be made on the part of those 8 men.

Who told Rick Mercer about my CPAC addiction?

Moving on. I truly believe that it's time I step into the role I was born for...this world is crying out for my fair but Iron-fisted dictatorial leadership. I can't get any other job, so I think fate is telling me that it's time to assume my birthright.

and to the morons who decided to party it up on the street at 4 am this morning, I don't care if you are going to call Trish and tell her to come over, and I don't care who you are dating or what brand of smokes you like. Shut up, or next time I'll blare Paul Anka tunes at 8 am directly at your apartments.

Webbing my Life

Okay, so it's been like, nearly a year since I started my webpage, and it's only like, a third of the way finished, but today I was struck with an overwhelming urge I guess to get a move on. I know I've only hastily thrown up the Education and Favourites sections, and they need some serious work, but I'd rather have a skeleton up to work with then leave it bare. So here's where the progress stands:

• The Poetry section is proceeding slowly because my attention span is pretty pathetic and I type up like, 5 or 10 poems and then run off to chase my metaphorical butterflies.
• I haven't bothered to look for a new counter, though I should.
• I've not bothered to start my links list, even though I have some idea of what I'd like to link to.
• Photos, well here, I've run into a pretty huge snag. I'll refer you back to the dead harddrive incident last year, where Rod forgot to transfer over the shared photos from the digital camera, and most were lost. So there's going to be some stalling while I *take* new pictures.
• My Life Story is unwritten. Besides being an ongoing story, there are a few milestones that need proper tribute, side stories to sort through, pictures, permission, etc.
• As for the Family Page, I've spent a few hours digging out pictures and dealing with cropping and stuff, and once that's done, I'll get to work on the family tree portion of the page, so in the next few days, I hope to have that section up and running. So stay tuned.

So yeah, there it is, an update on the page. As for on update on my life, well, there's Canada Day (Parade, Bike races [yay Chris], fireworks); The day after (Austin's Birfday, Jette's Whyte pub crawl [lots of drinks, smoke-free bars]); and yesterday (cleaning).

yadda yadda yadda, so on and so forth.