-ly

Quick one, because I need to get back to work:

Has anyone else noticed that the suffix -ly is disappearing from our speech? How often have you felt bad(ly) about something? Have you taken someone's comments literal(ly)?

Languages evolve and it may turn out that -ly isn't all that necessary in our multicultural world these days, but I'm old-fashioned enough to find myself putting the suffix back on mentally (or even out loud, if I'm alone) when I'm noticing the missing bits on news broadcasts and things like that. Or, yes, in casual conversation with someone. I'm not saying that I never omit -ly myself, of course, but it does seem interesting to find language change in progress like that.

To me, at least. But then I'm a proud nerd, so there you go.

----------

In other news, my dad's cats are huge. They had to go to the vet recently, and Tom weighed in at 6.4 kg. That's about 14 lbs. Bob? I knew he was tubby, but I wasn't expecting to hear 6.8 kg (15 lbs). That's heavier than the Christmas turkeys Dad buys.

Less tasty, though.



I'm assuming.

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Last(ly): Courtesy of Donald Trump's embarrassing attempt at being religious during his speech at Liberty College University, some really needs to write me a 2 Corinthians joke. You know, two Corinthians walk into a bar...

Assored swearwords

I've had assorted swearwords in my brain lately. It was a phrase I used frequently on the blog, since although it's not marked PG or anything I knew that some of my friends let their kids read it (yeah, I know. But I'm not a parent). Assorted swearwords, though, seems to be a big part of the world just now.

First, Donald Trump. WTF America? The man's not the idiot some mainstream press believe, but too many people believe the idiocy he's spewing. Well done, if you were planning to be seen as an uneducated, unknowing mass. You did that just right.

Next, let's tackle our fearless pretty leader. Well done with your face welcoming a few Syrian refugees. Not so well done with your face being all voguey in Vogue. Hands up all Canadians who really needed to see that. Just run the effing government already.

Let take a break to mention the Syrian refugees, though. You're welcome here. You should be welcome. And if any stupid Canadian tells you that a refugee isn't welcome, he or she needs to examine the family history. Sorry about winter, though.

Ok, who's next besides half-ton drivers? I may not need more, to be honest. It's winter. Forget you're an arsehole for a moment and drive like it's winter.

Think I'm done for the moment. Don't worry; there'll be more assorted swearwords. Life always supplies them.

Ok, shut up now

Red-osier Dogwood leaves, if anyone wondered.

----------

I took the time today to wait in line (and boy, it was a wait. Two polling stations at that location, and everyone who came in seemed to have to go to the same one) at the advanced poll today and vote in the federal election.

The interminable federal election.

You know, the one that Just. Won't. Go. Away.

The one where the "official" campaign started way too early, the unofficial one has been going on forever, and the electorate is groaning go away, already.

I should explain to the non-Canadians out there that normal practise here is to have a federal election within about a month after the election's officially called (and right now the long-suffering Americans are saying Seriously?), but not so this time. Whoever decided that it would be a fantastic idea to force us to watch those annoying nits natter on for so many weeks ought to have his (generic his, there. Sorry, gender-neutral folks. Until the structure of English drastically changes, there's always going to be a verbal gender bias) ears boxed, frankly. And if they get lower voter turn-out yet again, they only have themselves to blame for going on and on and on and on...

I wouldn't vote for the Energizer Bunny, either.

It didn't help that out of the three major party leaders, there's really not one of them that I want to see running the country. That's counting personality and platform, by the way. I do my research, even if I hate the politics.

Personality-wise, leaving the other stuff aside for now, Justin's pretty and seems to say whatever his advisers tell him to even if it's contradictory, Mulcair is the angry Cheshire Cat (really. In all of those photo ops with his candidates I expected him to disappear slowly, leaving only the creepy smile and the beard), and I just can't ever trust Harper after watching his government try to kill the ELA, muzzle their scientists, needlessly destroy decades of archived research... and that's just on the science side. This government's priorities are so effed up that it makes a person want to say sorry to the rest of the world.

Being good Canadians, of course.

And being a good Canadian, sorry for bringing in the politics even when I said I wouldn't.





Anyway, I've voted so in my world they have all shut up now. Ads will be muted, sponsored tweets will be blocked as much as possible, and they can all get into the handbasket right now if they'd be so kind.

And I'll shut up too.



Ok, I may grind my teeth a time or two on Twitter (thanks for the new follows, by the way), but only to scream silently about the impossibility of escape.

I voted, though.

Now leave me alone.

Quick photo of the day:

Sorry, all -- it's training week for the summer staff and I've been busy.

I did want to say quickly, though, that I thought it was too bad on Tuesday night that Rachel Notley isn't the type of person who would start a speech with holy fuck, Alberta. What just happened?

That's certainly what it felt like. Back to work for me, now.

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.

----------

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.

Pictorial essay of the day:

First, congratulations to the Cambridges on the new baby sister for Prince George. I imagine that he'll like her.

Eventually.

Second, I voted in the advance poll yesterday for the provincial election, which means that a) my vote won't count yet again since I refuse to vote for a conservative party (more on that tomorrow, maybe. And uncharacteristically), and b) I'm already sick of political ads. Tuesday can't come soon enough, boys and girls.

I spend part of the morning at the local Royal Canadian Legion garage sale (my dad's a member) and part of the afternoon taking and editing some new photos (yes, finally), so you're not getting much of a post. In lieu of that, I thought I'd present How to Feed A Tom. The feeder comes from my uncle. His cats didn't like it, but Tom prefers it to a regular dish. More of a challenge, I suppose. Ready? Here we go...

Good job, Tom. And what was Bob up to while all of this was going on? Let's see...

Somebody had to keep that mat from leaving, you see. Later, folks. I'll try for an actual post later.

Quick pointless bad cat of the day:

No time for anything else today. Maybe tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up.

Too bad, because I did have one or two things to say about politics and stupidity. Or I could have just said stupidity to avoid being redundant...



Bet everyone's sorry they missed that particular post.

So now what? Oh, that sounds more final than I meant.

The what is more cat, it appears.

I just wasn't in the mood for my other photos, that's all.

----------

Ok what I really meant by the post title is what do I blather about, not what about life or anything like that. Yesterday has me down, obviously, but what do I do with it? Do I go on a rant about radicalism, or the complete and utter pointlessness of some types of belief? Do I complain about the lack of class some local tweeters showed yesterday by ignoring the fact that much of the country was in shock and instead tweeting inanities about hoping that they'd win a prize at the local Chamber of Commerce's banquet? That's not even mentioning the local radio stations (who are all supposed to have Les Nessmans, aren't they?) who chose to forget the news and instead spent the afternoon tweeting about which oldie mouldie they were planning to play next.

Twitter both enthralled and frustrated me yesterday, as I think you can tell.

Or should I instead type about how corn nuts are evil because if they are anywhere in the vicinity of my desk they will be devoured, even if I've just eaten lunch?



I'm kind of leaning towards the corn nuts, to be honest. Or telling you that the apple I had with lunch was big enough to be three apples. 

To put it another way, I don't want to go on a rant, and I don't want this to be a current events or politics blog. I also don't want to be angry. I'm sad, not angry. Angry and scared just gives those misguided/brainwashed/unstable/idiotic shooters (or those who choose to run over people with cars, don't forget)  too much validation. If it were possible -- which it isn't -- the best thing would be to never even release their names. No recognition; no glory. And no fear. No fear would give them no point.

It's not possible, unfortunately, and so to keep from compounding things (at least in my own mind), I'm going to choose pointless over relevant.





Um, tomorrow, that is. Today I have to stop typing and do work things.

Enjoy the Bob.



And corn nuts, if you're into that.

Pointless cat photo of the day:

Dressers are fun.

These shots have been from two weeks ago. I'll be seeing them tonight. I imagine that at the rate that kittens grow, they'll have a little trouble fitting in that narrow space under my dresser now.

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Another short workday post, but I do have a couple of things to say. First, to the follower tools who waited in line for a day for an iphone whatever (yes, I know what it is, but if you only knew the depths of my uncaring...), jeeeeesus. Really? We haven't got over this crap yet? And I'm certainly not going to apologise for calling you follower tools. You're followers, and you're tools. Well, I suppose I am sorry -- that you're follower tools. The world certainly doesn't need more follower tools. Especially ones who will line up for a phone.

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Now to something more serious. I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the Scottish referendum. That makes it sound like I was against Scottish independence, but I really don't have a horse in the race. I can't even claim Scottish heritage, unless you go way back into antiquity when the tiny fraction of my ancestry that's Irish was probably going back and forth trading, invading, and most likely procreating. What I don't really get is the idea of nationalism coming before economic stability.

I mean, yeah, sure, be proud -- within reason -- of where you were born. I'm happy to have been born in Canada. I'm happy to be Canadian. But the reality is, if I'd been born in Scotland I'd be happy to be Scottish. If I'd been born in Croatia I'd be happy to be Croatian. None of us have any control of where we were born, and putting pride of accidental place over the fact that the (Western, at least) world is moving towards less trade barriers and trying its damnedest to avoid another financial collapse just makes me think that you're not really considering things.

Quebec has thought about separating (and by the way, big hearty boos to those PQ members who thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of the Scottish referendum and show up there, say a bunch of stupid things, and start planning their next attempt). Texas talks about separating. Heck, even here in Alberta we have separatists. None of it would be of ANY advantage to any of us. Nous vivons ensemble, if you want to put it a bit more romantically. Which I honestly don't, actually. Romance shouldn't have anything to do with it at this point in our history.

Sigh. So much for a short post. Back to work, then. And if you want to hear rather than read Gordon Lightfoot, try this link.

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Edited to add: arrrr. Sorry I fergot, me scurvy mates. Hope ya be havin' a fine Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Pointless non-cat photo of the day:

I forgot my nerdstick at home. This is a random shot from work.

That's right, I work in a tree.

Actually, this morning I was working at a pond. Pond studies in the fall aren't my favourite, but it was a good group of kids and they found enough for it it be interesting.

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I'm kind of busy so this will have to be short, but I had to mention that our new Premier has just announced that he's killing the move to a new licence plate. Apparently Albertans didn't want one. Personally, I didn't want one designed by Americans and featuring mountains (do you know how much of Alberta has mountains? Not as much as you'd think if you were judging from our tourism advertising), but I wouldn't mind if they'd change the print colour on the existing plate. That orange is just too hard to read from any sort of distance.

And, of course, it's the PC colours. They're not going anywhere soon, I suppose.

Anyway, that's it for today. Probably more kittens tomorrow.



Because the internet needs more kittens.

Politics, both snitty and frightening versions

I couldn't remember what today's pointless photo was from the thumbnail preview.

I still don't remember taking it.

Ah well. It's here now.

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So, a couple of quick political comments before I get back to work. First, if anyone from outside Alberta (hell, if anyone INside Alberta) wants to know what the really frightening part about Premier Alison Redford is, it's that Premier Alison Redford is going to lead to Premier Danielle Smith.

Whomever help us all.

In other political news, anyone who thinks that Justin Prettyboy is going to somehow save Canada (by... um... being pretty? Seriously. What of substance has he actually done?) is as delusional as all those who voted for Obama's first term thinking that he was going to save everything. Is he the saviour after all? Yeah, Justin won't be either.

I'm not a conservative (or even a Conservative), by the way. I just think that people actually need to think more when choosing leaders rather than merely reacting. That kind of thing is what makes you end up with a Danielle Smith.

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And lastly, the Ukraine. This whole thing more or less scares the crap out of me. Anyone much younger than me won't remember, but when I was growing up Soviet aggression + nuclear missiles (and US aggression + nuclear missiles) pretty much meant we spent most of our time -- even if it was a background thought, the thought was still there -- wondering who was going to kill us first. It sounds cliche and old fashioned to those of you born after about 1985 (sigh. You're damned near thirty now. How on earth did that happen?), but it was very real. Any international incident could set off another and another in a great big chain of OMG. And OMG would have been very, very bad.

And the Ukraine events just sound way too familiar.

Figure yourself out, world. We don't need to go back there again.

Cute

Today's pointless photo isn't all that bad, by the way, when you consider that I was taking it handheld through a window in fairly low light conditions.

Anyway.

I'm hoping to keep this rant brief, but we'll see how it goes.

I've been watching Anthony Bourdain on twitter taking on a group of chefs who've signed a petition boycotting Canadian seafood until the government bans the seal hunt. It's been interesting. There's pros and cons on both sides, of course. I can't deny that the way the seal hunt is done is cruel, but I also can't deny that the hunt is sustainable and that seal overpopulation has a huge effect on everything from cod stocks to the number of sharks that are draw in towards human-frequented beaches. Bourdain's taking the First Nations approach, in that banning the seal hunt directly affects the lives and livelihood of Inuit families who depend on it. He should know, and better than those chefs who signed the petition without doing any research. He's at least seen an Inuit hunt. And eaten the meat, to boot.

All of that's neither here nor there for me, though. As I said, pros and cons on both sides. What gets my back up more than anything is the fact that 95% (well, ok, I'm guessing on the number) of the people who protest the seal hunt are only protesting it because baby seals are cute.

Seriously.

Can you honestly say that people around the (Western) world would even care about this if baby seals looked like flounders? Or even if they looked like baby pigeons, which have to be some of the homeliest babies out there.

I get so tired of the cute factor in popular conservation. It appeals to the instinctual need to save babies, yes, and obviously gets a response, but it sends the wrong message. Pandas are cute; let's save them. Polar bears are cute (and deadly); let's save them. Sharks aren't cute; let's let people continue to overharvest them for their fins (fins only, mind. The rest of the shark isn't used) until we suddenly realise that it's almost too late for several species...

Cute isn't going to save anything in the end, folks. It makes people spend too much time and too much money trying to save cute things that in the end may not even be able to be saved (see: polar bears). In the meantime, while we run around saving the cute posterchildren we're losing habitat all over the world. Rain forest, grassland, ocean reefs; it's all kind of depressing to me that well-meaning people are working so hard to save cute while the places that cute AND ugly can actually live are disappearing.

I've thought for years -- and I'm not the only one in the environment business that thinks this -- that unless we can get people to realise that saving whole systems is what's important and that they need to drop the SAVE THE *insert cute animal here* rallying cry, no one's going to understand that the cute, apparently petable things can't live in isolation. They're all part of a web of interdependence. The cute things are important, the ugly things are important, the inoffensive-but-sort-of-boring things are important, the places they live are important, and until the whole thing goes tits up we'll never realise just how important the whole thing -- not just the cute part of it -- is to us.

So am I saying you shouldn't care about cute things? Well, no. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that a cute thing is all there is to care about. Get educated. Don't go off half-cocked. Understand that there may be more to an issue than the cute things before you put your name to a petition and get a pat on the back from a lobbying organisation whose agenda is to get money from people who like to protect cute things.

Don't fall for the cuteness. The rest of issue's important too.

No post again...

I just don't have a lot on my mind to blather about at the moment, I guess. I will say a couple of things, though.

Thing 1: The mayoral race in my hometown was just decided by one vote after a recount. Another town's mayor was decided by sixteen votes. And another town's final council member was decided by drawing a name from a hat because the race was too close to call. Still think that the old excuse my vote doesn't count anyway rings true?

Thing 2: There's a trial currently going on in Edmonton about severe pet abuse that is going a long way to confirming my increasing belief that human beings shouldn't be trusted with animals' welfare. A dog is a pack animal and will do almost anything its owner wants it to do, and the owner repays that... well, I don't want to call it loyalty because it's instinct, but think loyalty if you want to... by beating the animal until its hips are fractured and then shoots it a couple of times besides? Yeah, the human animal is definitely superior, isn't it? Superior scum. The prosecutors are asking for jail time; I hope the judge grants it.

Ok, enough rant. I need to get back to work anyway. Enjoy your out-of-season flower, since I wasn't in the mood to post a picture of brown things.

 ----------

Update to Thing 2: 14 month jail term, 2 years probation after, no pet ownership for 15 years. Now what do we do about the rest of the sick so-called humans out there, eh? Ah well, at least it's a little something.

Who cares headline of the day:

Justin Trudeau Smoked Pot

Ok, maybe it was yesterday's headline, but I had other things on my lack-of-mind then.

This headline has as much relevance to me as Justin Bieber is a Douchbag or Ben Affleck is Playing Batman. I couldn't care less if I tried. Maybe it would do the rest of parliament good if they all took a 4:20 some day. And it's not like I'll be voting for the phony little weasel anyway, right?



Nah, I'll be voting for some other phony little weasel.

Incidentally, and not that you should care about this any more than I care about most Justins, but I'm actually in favour of legalisation of marijuana. Legalise it, regulate it, tax it (especially the tax it part. Just think of the returns on a pot tax)... that certainly has to make more sense than having the court systems spending so much time sending people to jail for carrying a spliff or two.

Anyway. I've totally forgotten what this post was going to be about now.



Hmmm.

Oh yeah, selling out.

I just finished reading an article by someone (doesn't matter who) that I really admire. I admire his talent, I admire the skill and uniqueness with which he expresses himself, and I got a good deal of enjoyment out of the column.

That is, until I got to the bottom and found out that it was a sponsored article. Sponsored by a company directly interested in the subject matter.



Well, great. Way to lose all of your credibility in one sentence, writer.

Now, I'm not saying that professional writers shouldn't be paid. Hell, technically even I get paid to write in my job (definitely not for this pointless blog, though). But as soon as you're paid by a company to write about something that they're concerned with, you're a shill. A well-expressed shill, but a shill nonetheless. And this guy already makes enough money that he had no need to be a shill.

Sigh.

I'm not going to say I'm disillusioned by this because the world's the world and famous people sell out all the time. I'm also not going to say that I want all art to be pure, since that's pretentious bulltwaddle. Nah, all I'm going to say is why don't we all just forget that this ever happened and watch a spider dance? No, seriously. It's absolutely fantastic. Please watch it even if you don't like spiders. And it's a pretty spider, to boot.

Besides, spider dancing has to be the purest of art, right? It's not like they're getting paid or anything.

----------

Ignorant truck update:

When I got home from work, the floor was already thumping. It thumped all evening, and was still thumping when I went to bed. Luckily, my brain was finally tired enough that it managed to ignore what was going on (a very weird thing for my too easily distracted brain to do) and go to sleep. Slept until 6 am, too, which would be like sleeping 'til noon for most of you.

The floor wasn't thumping at 6. It will be when I get home, though.



Sigh.

Pigeon art

I guess the pigeon was a bit of an unwilling participant, however.

Yes, what you're looking at is a pigeon skull painted purple. The plastic canvas box is one I made ages (as in, probably twenty years) ago, but it happens to be a pretty perfect fit for the skull so it'll probably become a full-time skull box now.

I got the skull at a local trade show that my dad and I went to yesterday. The trade show was the usual mix of local businesses, bigger businesses with professional trade show people, unwanted political parties (yes, I'm talking to you, Wild Rose. I didn't think that it was possible for anything to make Albertans look even more redneck to the rest of the country, but you and that walking blunder Danielle Smith managed it. And honestly? When you asked me if I wanted a balloon or a brochure you're lucky I only said neither. I could have said sooo much more...), farmers' market, and local talent on the entertainment stage. Same thing I've seen (and collected a lot of pens at) many, many times in my hometown.

I'd never seen a skull booth, though.

Seems that one of the local tradesman has a side business cleaning and preparing skulls. He uses dermestids to clean the skulls -- one of the best ways to do it, I think, and much less labour-intensive than maceration -- and then seals them and, if you want, mounts them. His work is good. Good enough that I'm hoping that we might be able to have him do skull preps for us at work, rather than ordering skulls from the scientific supply companies (which is massively expensive).

Some of you right now are completely weirded out. That's too bad. And I'm not being sarcastic when I say that.

I like skulls. Not in the death's-head-clothing-and-skull-chains-around-the-neck way, no. I can't be bothered pretending to be emo or goth. I like skulls in a bit more of a professional way, I guess. I like what they can teach.

My two fans already know that I'm a bit of a comparative anatomy freak. It was one of my favourite subjects in school; even with all of that icky dissection stuff, yes. Knowing that you can look at an animal's structures and how they work and then learn about its life just by comparing it to other animals' structures and workings? Come on, that's pretty cool. And if you're truly disgusted by the thought of poking around an animal's muscles and innards, you at least have to admit that looking at skulls is a much cleaner option. Cranial size, length of nasal cavity, areas of muscle attachment, size and type of teeth... yeah, you can learn a lot from skulls.

I won't have to worry about the size and type of the teeth of the pigeon, you'll notice.

Painting skulls purple isn't normal in scientific prep, by the way. The vendor was just selling painted pigeon and rodent skulls as a novelty. It obviously worked on me, but it also gave me a chance to see his more serious work. And, as I said above, I guess that worked on me too because I fully intend to give him some business if I can.

Oh, and if you're wondering, I only collected one giveaway pen this year. It's kind of neat, though. Bet some of you wish I'd posted a photo of it instead. That's too bad... sarcastically, this time. And for those of you scratching your heads at the fact that I've managed to blather on so long about one purple pigeon skull (isn't there a song about that?), it could have been worse. As well as seeing the trade show yesterday, I also did my taxes.

Which would you have rather heard about: my taxes, or my pigeon skull?





Maybe don't answer that.

Aaanyway, off for lunch now. Busy week ahead so posting might be patchy, but it's been so patchy anyway lately that you probably won't even notice.

At least the flowers are pretty

This'll probably be short because I don't really feel like blogging, I definitely don't feel like typing, and I'm a bit lacking in the sleep department. Not badly, but just enough to make me a little grumpy.

As I said above, at least the flowers are pretty... or will be, when they're fully opened. It's Early Blue Violets (Viola adunca), one of the first wildflowers to open around here, and one of my personal signs that allows me to believe that spring is really here and not just faking us out.

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On this Earth Day, I really have just one thing to say: we can't destroy this planet. As in, it's physically impossible to destroy the planet without taking unbelievably massive measures to do it. This planet will be here long after humanity isn't. Anyone who tells you that we can destroy the planet is wrong.

We can't destroy this planet.

We can, however, make it unlivable for our species. Ours, and many others besides.

Anyone else feel that maybe we should be thinking twice before we do that?

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In other news, I fulfilled my civic duty yesterday by going to the advance poll to vote in our provincial election. Here's hoping that everyone else does the same. And here's hoping that they put more than the usual Alberta-style thought into their choices when they make them.

I voted. For an MLA, that is. I didn't vote in the Senate election. I don't know any of those people or what they stand for, so I declined the ballot. Besides which, as important as it is to make your voice heard in a democratic system, it's completely pointless to vote for a... what do they call them here? senator-elect, or something stupid like that?... when the Senate in Canada is still an appointed body and all we in Alberta are doing is saying that this is who we think you should appoint. It's a complete exercise in pointlessness, and I suppose that means that it should have been explored more thoroughly on this blog.

It wasn't. I hate politics, especially the pointless kind.

Oh, and for anyone not in Canada who's wondering what I'm on about, the quick version: the Senate is the federal equivalent of the British House of Lords (there's no such thing as a provincial senate), and its members are appointed. My province likes to waste money by electing potential nominees which are almost always ignored by the federal government. Pointless politics at its most pointless.

And you're welcome to google for any further information if you're actually interested in any of this stuff. You'll not get more from me. This is about as much political talk as I'm willing to bother typing, what with the stupid wrist brace continually hitting the ALT key and all.

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Speaking of which, I think I've about lost my patience on the typing front. The wrist is achy and doesn't like to have any weight put on it, but I'm pretty sure that my hand isn't going to fall off so it's all good.

Type at you later.

At some point after tomorrow's political Festival Of Pointlessness, maybe.

It gets old, you know

We got more snow yesterday and into this morning. Oh, it'll easily be melted off the roads by time I go home, yes, but I'm really, really getting tired of clearing off my car in the morning. I'm so tired. Tired of waiting. Tired of waiting for you...

Well, ok. For spring. Tired of waiting for spring.

Just as an aside, I should tell you that normally I wear my flash drive on a lanyard around my neck. The past few days I've been wearing pendants instead (don't worry, this isn't going to be another jewellery post. We'll give you at least a day's rest on those, I think) so the flash drive's been in my pocket instead. And just now, when I went to grab the flash drive to find a pointless photo for today? I very nearly tried to plug my grandma's blue topaz (check yesterday's photo if you're desperate) into the USB port.

Old habits die hard, as they say.

It just occurred to me that I should have made that story longer. I haven't come up with a topic yet today, and the extra typing might have brought something to mind. Ah well.

I'll wrap it up quickly today, then, with a bit of information. We're having a provincial election here on April 23rd. That would be equivalent to a state election, for any of my two fans who are American. And when did we officially find out that we were having an election?

Yesterday.

That's right, less than a month's (official) campaigning before an election.

Would you like to know something else?

That's normal in Canada.



I think I can feel my American readers, who've been suffering through what seems like years of primaries and haven't even got to the actual presidential campaigning yet, staring at the screen in stunned disbelief.

Honestly, I don't know how you folks tolerate your system. There's never been a time when I've visited the States that there hasn't been political signage out on people's lawn for some election. Don't you burn out? And the attack ads. Geez, don't get me started on the attack ads. The little bit we get here drive me nuts. I'd never be able to survive yours. I've said it before here, but I'll say it again: the quickest way to make me NOT vote for you is to attack your opponent rather than telling me what your policies are. Prove to me that you can do the job, not that you think the other guy is a weenie (or incompetent or a crook or a communist or a terrorist or a -- gasp -- liberal or whatever the latest slur is). Anything not to do with how you'd do the job just gets tuned out. By me, anyway. And if I don't vote for people who run attack ads? In the States I guess I'd just never vote.

It may come to that here, unfortunately, but I hope it won't.

And don't worry about this blog turning all political in the next month. I hate politics. If anything completely effed up happens I might bring it up, but other than that this may well be the last mention of our rapid-fire election that you have here at the Home of Pointlessness.

And good thing, too.

Did I mention that I hate politics?

Pretty odd that I had an extant label for it, then. If you click it, you'll probably just find another blather with me telling you I hate politics. Maybe I'll try it after I post.

Posting... now.

Chapter 1410: Wherein Dee wastes an entire morning

Well, maybe not an entire morning. I have been doing the laundry. Or at least I've been loading the machine so that it can do the laundry.

Hmmm. This is already on it's way to getting silly, so before that happens I'd like to put on my serious face and say that I was sorry to hear that Jack Layton died this morning. Whether or not you agreed with the man's politics, you just had to admire his drive, his spirit, his passion, and his accomplishments.

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Ok, back to silly. Or back to nothing, more likely, since I've spent most of the non-laundry portion of the morning looking at random things on the internet and it's meant that I haven't bother to come up with anything for the blog. Heck, I haven't even opened up my drawing stuff (which is currently sitting all accusatory-looking on top of the scanner), so I don't have anything for the other blog either. Sad, that. I'd been doing not too badly lately at being blathery. Sometimes even with a topic, you'll notice.

Streak broken, I guess. As I've said before, sometimes when I haven't got much I can come up with something just by typing for a bit, but I can already feel that it's not going to happen today. So... um... Oh, I know:

This is my current favourite thing on the internet. Don't worry -- I'll get over it soon. For now, though, it makes me laugh.

Maybe I should look for something else that makes me laugh, since I haven't done a pointless sketch comedy link for a while. Ok, give me a bit...

You know, I was about to link to some Wayne and Shuster, but I'm almost afraid to watch them. I grew up loving their stuff; what if it doesn't wear well and I'm disappointed? Ah well, in for a penny. I should explain for those unfamiliar with Canadian parliament that "desk thumping" is the traditional way to show approval for something rather than applause. Oh, and if you know that this sketch came out back when they were first considering putting cameras in the House of Commons it makes more sense, especially since the first part of the sketch is cut off in the video. The concept was about how to make people actually watch something as boring as Question Period. Incidentally, the main reason I'm posting this particular sketch is that the chorus has stuck in my head since I was a kid. No, really. To this day I'll sing it in my head when politicians are saying the usual stupid stuff in the Commons.

I should end with something a little less specifically Canadian, I suppose. All right, back to the vault one more time, and then I need to go find some lunch. Ok. This'll do. Apparently I'm in the mood for Canadian comedy earworms today. Think of it this way, I suppose: at least I managed to get almost a post out of this nonsense.

Later, all.

Tired

That's all. Just tired. It's been a really rough few days for Yours Exhaustedly and sleep, to the point where I'm having trouble eating at the moment because I just feel nauseous.

Geez, is insomnia ever fun.

So, what else? Oh, I guess there was an election yesterday, wasn't there?

I have nothing to say about it.

In fact, I more or less stopped thinking about it after I voted at the advance poll.

Baaad Canadian. Bad.

But at least I did vote, so that's... good? I guess?

I'm tired, remember?

I have done a little bit of news surfing around the 'net today, though, and I find it interesting to see the myriad of opinions about the election results showing up in the UK media, and the absolutely nothing in the US sources. I'm not surprised about that, mind. They find it odd enough down south that it only takes us a little over a month to have an election in the first place, and at the moment they're still too busy with their celebratory death-hangovers to notice that our very short election is already over.

Ah well. Sometimes it pays to be a little under the radar, you know?





I'm going to stop typing now in case I accidentally start making sense, ok?

Ok then.

Pointless thought of the day:

Does a Nyquil sleep count as sleep or as "sleep"?

So here I sit with a head full of mucous and the beginnings of a raw throat (no more programs today, though. Thank goodness). I am, however, more rested than I've been in a while thanks to the magic of good old OTC. You know, that sort of thing could really leave a person wondering if drug dependency would be such a bad thing after all...

Oh, relax. I'm not about to become a Nyquil junkie.

As tempting as it sounds.

I'm afraid I don't really have anything worth blathering about today other than sleeping the sleep of the stoned, unfortunately. I didn't watch either our debate or the American one (although I understand that the Vice Presidential debate made a pretty good drinking game. Maverick? Have a shot), and before anyone suggests that I'm planning to vote in ignorance I'll just say what I said (or at least texted) to the Toronto office last night: I stopped listening to any of this sh garbage as soon as I figured out which party's policies I disliked the least.

That's right. I actually prefer to read about the policies rather than listen to the garbage.

And I will vote. This weekend at an advance poll, most likely, which means that I'll be completely tuning out the last few days of the campaign.

Yay me.

And incidentally, considering that I wasn't watching either debate, how is it that I managed to be flipping channels (while there was a commercial on the Food Network) exactly in time to catch Palin talking about nukular weapons?

Ah well. If it hadn't been that, there would have been something else to make me scratch my head. The woman is a walking caricature.

And thus endeth the politics on the blog.

I hate politics.

And I hate colds.

And with that, this blather has officially become five times longer than I was intending it to be. Catch you later, all.