Smack the smug off his face

 No, the flower isn't smug; rather the opposite, actually. It's Pasqueflower or Prairie Crocus (not a crocus at all, but just named that for the early blooming), and I'm sorry that I didn't get a better picture of this one but I won't be around when it fully opens. Colour's nice, though, isn't it? I'm a big fan of pasqueflower.

I'm not, however, a big fan of Jim Prentice, as you may have gathered from some not-so-veiled hints in yesterday's post. In fact... well, go back and read the post title again. It's a standing phrase with me, I'm afraid. When someone -- usually in the entertainment business -- tends to spend too much time looking like the cat that got the cream, I have a pretty low tolerance for it. Not that I want anyone to really be smacked, mind you. It's just a phrase. A phrase that it's hard to get out of my head when it comes to some people.

Like our dear premier. Or his far-too-long-ruling party.

I just can't stand the sense of entitlement. We're the PCs. Of course you're going to vote for us because you're Albertans (baaaaah. Sigh. I wish my province wasn't so full of sheep impersonators). We run things. And if we don't run things you know what? HELL IN A HANDBASKET, EVERYONE. Want proof? Well, let's get a bunch of CEOs (um, Jim? You do realise that plenty of people are already upset that corporate taxes are far too low in a province where you've told the average taxpayer to suck it up, right?) to tell you that if the PCs don't run things,  HELL IN A HANDBASKET. And if you're actually thinking of voting in another party to govern? We'll fix that with attack ads and scary robocalls. Hell in a handbasket, people. Hell in a handbasket.

My two fans know that I'm not very political, but this kind of garbage campaigning pisses me off. Not just from the PCs, of course, although they're the masters of it. The moment that any party leader spends more time telling me how crap his/her opponent is than what s/he (can we please have a way of being inclusive without all of this s/he stuff, English? That kind of pisses me off too) is about, my vote is gone even if I might have considered that party. We're not Americans and we shouldn't have to put up with American campaigning.

Um, I have problems with their platform too, if anyone wondered. It just doesn't piss me off as much as the smugness and the childish campaign strategy.

And yes, I'm going to stop typing piss me off soon.

Anyway, if we have to have a PC government (and for a change it's not a certainty), I hope that it's a minority. That'd smack some smug right there. And Santa? It'd be all right if Entitled Jim lost his seat as well. I promise I'll be good 'til Christmas.

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I was on Internet Book-And-Everything-Else Giant yesterday. Yes, on Independent Bookstore Day. Sorry for the blasphemy, but the fact is that as much as I like a good bookstore (and I really do), there just aren't many around here unless you count used book stores. Add in the part where someone like me who's on a fairly limited budget can get a helluva lot more for their money on the internet these days, and I can understand why in areas where there actually are independent bookstores those stores are hurting. I'd help if I could, folks, but they'd have to move here.

The reason that I was shopping yesterday was that courtesy of my personal job inertia I had a healthy VISA gift card to spend. Years ago when we used to do service awards the award was whatever wasn't selling in the local museum's gift store (that could be good or really wretched. I have one of each), but since the current board decided to revive service awards they went with the money (well, credit) instead, which was a nice surprise. And fun, since I have a personal rule that when given a gift card I treat it like a gift and buy at least one thing that I might not have bought otherwise. Yes, I do have moments of thinking that I reeeally should buy that thing I need that's much more useful, but they're short-lived. If you can't have fun with a gift card, then why bother being given one?

Erm, or something like that. You know what I mean.

Anyway, now the anticipation sets in because I told the free shipping bot (yes, I know that I'm spending someone else's money. Still doesn't mean that I should pay for shipping) to group my shipment in as few boxes as possible, and one of the things that I ordered takes a while to come in. As a result, I'm waiting semi-patiently on three books, a bone folder (because... project-thingy that I still haven't fully explained to you people), some art supplies because for whatever reason both Derwent and Prismacolor products had some pretty deep discounts going on, and... a tea infuser. Yep. Shaped like a... well, I'll show you when I get it.



And since that won't be for a while, I suppose I'd better get to work FOR work with the art supplies that I have with me at the moment. Eventually. Doodling for work always takes a bit of procrastination to get to.

I should be done by next year.