tripathy

So the jackass didn't take the hint in my last message and replied.

( Sent down from the throne on top of his high horse )

Personally, I think I've been too nice. Facebook is one place on the internet where I'm not supposed to have to deal with this kind of bullshit.

Welcome to the world, Baby Alexa. ^_^

From the Trans-Siberian Orchestra website:

The long-awaited double album 'Night Castle' is being released on Tuesday, October 27th. Pre-order TSO's new double album 'Night Castle' in MP3 format for $7.99 and upon confirmation of your album purchase you will be directed to a page to download your 5 new songs.

On Tuesday, October 27th you will receive an email with a link to allow you to download the complete double album with an illustrated 56 page pdf booklet. Also available is TSO's entire catalog in digital format!

Unfortunately the pre-order + advance song download, like the free song a while back, is only available to people in the US (thanks a lot -_-), but I thought I'd make the announcement about when this album is AT LAST going to be released anyway. We've been waiting what, five years?

I guess I'll be buying the CD because the mp3 downloads never seem to be available in Canada. Sigh...CDs are such a useless product to me now. Once I rip the songs onto my computer and put them into my iPod, the CD is never touched again and becomes a waste of materials and space. I guess that at least with a TSO CD you get the nice booklet, so it's not quite as bad to have to buy a TSO CD as it is for other albums, but still.

Also, sadface: TSO will not be returning to Montreal this year. I've seen them three times already, but it was getting to be a yearly tradition so now I'm sad that I won't be going again. Instead, they appear to be doing two shows in Hamilton. WTF? How is Hamilton an important Canadian city (and important enough to have both a matinee and evening show), especially when they're already doing Toronto and Ottawa? Give me a break, Ontario doesn't deserve that much love :P.


ETA: In other album release news, Susan Boyle's album is now available for pre-order on amazon.com and will be released November 24. Apparently it's already at the top of the amazon.com bestseller list despite being only in pre-order!

Just wanting to draw attention to this story about US vs Canadian health care.

And idiot Americans can bleat all they want about the Canadian system being "socialist" and therefore no good, but what I know is this:

My brother has had juvenile diabetes since he was thirteen. He had some hospital stays when they first found out, plus he's had a few emergency room visits due to diabetic seizures over the years.

In 1994, when Da had a really bad bowel obstruction, he got the surgery he needed ASAP.

In 2003, when I first started having stomach problems, I had to see a specialist and then had loads of tests to try to figure out what was wrong. Unfortunately none of the tests could figure it out, but the point is that I could get these tests, they didn't cost me anything, and I didn't have to wait months and months for them either.

In 2004, Da took a bad fall on an icy sidewalk and ended up in intensive care for a day and in the hospital for three weeks.

In 2005, when my sister got bacterial meningitis, she was seen to quickly and basically had her life saved. She also had the experience of being a teaching case (since the Montreal General is a teaching hospital), which she found to be kind of fun ("just like on ER!"), and suffered no ill effects from the disease.

In January 2009, Da had a bad allergic reaction to something and had to be in intensive care for a few days with a breathing tube.

None of these hospital stays bankrupted us. In fact, none of them cost us a cent. My brother will never be denied anything medical because he has a pre-existing condition. Da will never have to worry about paying higher premiums because he seems to be unlucky enough to have his life threatened every few years. My family members are still alive because the Canadian system does take care of them, and does it just fine.

If we need to go to the doctor or the hospital at any time, we can damn well do so without fear of being denied, of exorbitant bills, or of insurance companies getting in the way. There is nothing between us and our doctors. We can go to any clinic and any hospital. I'm not saying that there aren't problems (one of the biggest is the long waits for elective surgeries like hip replacements), because no system is perfect, but your system ain't better, America.

I'm happy to pay for our system out of my taxes because I know that it will be there for me and my family. I feel bad and a bit scared for American friends who can't get good insurance and thus fear ever needing a hospital stay for any reason. FIX THIS, America. Your people shouldn't have to live in that kind of fear.

Oh, and STFU, Republicans, and stop spreading misinformation and outright lies about our system. You people disgust me, seriously.

Alberta: Truly Canada's Texas.

This is just bloody embarrassing. The fact that it's buried in a bill that extends rights to homosexuals is sickening. These assholes can't allow progress in one part of life without taking something away from another. And if they achieve this first step backwards, what next?

Note in the video that the kids are open-minded, but the old fogies are gonna put a stop to that, gosh darn it! We can't have kids believing different things from their parents, now, can we? Learning is bad.

I think we need to transplant that province down into the American south where it apparently belongs. Aren't there a couple of blue states down there who could benefit greatly from being up here in Alberta's place?

I knew that my previous message to the Pakistani kid wouldn't stop him. This morning I received this:

HI [MY NAME]
i can understand ur position but [my name] i expect from u that in near future when ever u got some suitable opportunity for me plz do contact with me , and plz keep on trying to find out some suitable place for me there.
thanks

You "expect"? You "EXPECT"?? Screw you, kid. I want so badly to tell him how utterly rude and presumptuous he's being. I want him to know that he's being offensive. I want to tell him that I will not be contacting him if anything comes up; that I will not be doing anything for him. Ever again.

Of course, responding in such a way would probably be unprofessional. Heh, I've just shown it to the Chair and he's disgusted and said it doesn't merit a reply. And I know it doesn't, but ARGH I just want him to KNOW what an asshole he is! Grrrr >_<.

~

Monday morning I got up, walked to the train, sat down and rode to work. When I got up to get off the train, my back suddenly started hurting, and got worse. I don't know what the hell just sitting on the train did to it, but I missed work yesterday. Today I had no choice but to come in because the once-per-year huge Grad Office info session was this morning, and I absolutely cannot miss that. So I sat through it, on an uncomfortable tiny folding chair, for 2 hours and 15 minutes. My back is very unhappy >_<.

Last night we had a random power failure from about 11:00-11:15pm, then another starting around midnight. After 45 minutes I gave up and went to bed, but was awoken after 1:30am by the noises of things turning back on and the desk lamp Paul had left on in the computer room, and I had to get up with my sore back and all to go turn it off. Bleh.

~

Saw Hairspray on Sunday, and it was fun, although I prefer the movie (in which they had removed the more ridiculous and/or creepy plot elements from the play). I really didn't like the woman playing Velma, but I preferred the play's Edna to John Travolta's one. This Edna at least sounded like a real person rather than an overdone Comic Book Guy. The woman playing Motormouth Maybelle had some set of pipes..."I Know Where I've Been" was the only song where the audience started cheering before the end of the song.

I did love how they got the audience to get up and dance at the very end. But what annoyed me was that I had two little boys sitting in front of me. Okay, parents? Don't you know anything about little boys? They are not interested in Broadway shows. Seriously. Don't giggle when you ask them what their favourite part was and they say "intermission". They're being serious!

And this isn't like a movie that I only paid $10 for and could go see again. I paid $85 for my ticket 6 months ago and have been waiting all this time to finally see the show. So leave your stupid little boys at home! A babysitter is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying for two seats! Argh. I mean, for two kids who were likely 5 and 7 years old, I suppose that they were mostly well-behaved, but I expect impeccable behaviour when I'm at a show like this. I had no problem tapping the kid's shoulder and telling him firmly to sit down. I wonder how come you couldn't?

General exposure to little boys has made me hate them. I swear, most boys between the ages of 5-15 should not be allowed out in public. Five is the age when their antics cease being cute and instead become bratty, and it's only around 15-16 that they seem to realize that there are people in the world other than them and their SO COOL friends. Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do if I ever have a son of my own. I don't want to end up having this kind of hostility towards my own kid.

Anyway. My back hurts and I want to go home.

If you haven't seen it already, let me introduce you to your feel-good moment of the day. This should make you smile, maybe even get a little teary. She's just so amazing. The idea that this voice has been hidden from the world for so long while undertalented teenagers get more exposure than they could ever deserve is sad, but maybe this mistake will at last be rectified and people will see that musical talent is its own beauty.

You go, Susan. IMO you sound better than most of the Fantines I've heard.

Seriously. Screw 2009. Not even two months in and already it's a giant mess for many reasons. This is just the latest one.

California isn't happening this year. I'm really upset. I needed/wanted that vacation, and I have nowhere else to go. Everything has been so sucky lately that having that to look forward to, even if it was only going to be in June, would have been a nice pick-me-up.

First the trip was on, and got my hopes up, and now it's off. And even if it were to go back on for some reason, I still wouldn't feel welcome, and it would be awkward and uncomfortable. At this point I wonder if I'll feel wholly welcome there again. I didn't realize my visits were such an inconvenience because I tried to stay as innocuous as possible. I paid for my own groceries, I didn't ask for anything, and I didn't want anyone else to have to spend money on or because of me. All I want is to spend time with my friends.

People tell me I should go somewhere else, but I can't afford to fly and pay for my place to stay, especially in the US when the exchange rate is so horrible. My only choice is to be able to stay with someone, and if I can't, then no trip.

This is a sacrifice on my part. I don't care that it saves me money. I sacrifice so that someone else won't be annoyed/mad, but in the end I'm going to suffer for it because I will be losing the joyous anticipation I get from this trip.

And a worse part: Kel is in Cuba this week. She wanted me to come along, and it was about $1000 all-inclusive. I told her no, because then I wouldn't be able to afford California. So she's having a blast right now, and I've got nothing to look forward to.

I am angry, upset, disappointed. This is probably because I'm selfish, because I know that getting my way would have put a strain on another relationship, but that's the way I feel. I'm also hurt, because I thought I was liked and instead I'm an inconvenience.

To add insult to injury, after not sleeping well last night this morning my train didn't come and we had to smoosh two trains worth of people into one train. Or at least we tried. It didn't really work.

I keep saying someday I'll make a real update so I can talk about everything that's been wrong with 2009 so far, but hell if I feel like it now or anytime soon. Screw 2009.

For those in need of some good lolz: Heywood returns to GAFF and he hasn't changed a bit. I have no idea if that post he's quoting was some kind of dig (if so, who did it? Fess up!), or if it was some innocent thing and he's just being his old uber-paranoid self.

In my last post here about GAFF I was recalling to someone how he had once told me that "your name means nothing here" when I dared, dared to not kiss his ass as most people were doing at the time. And now, after nearly 4 years, he's doing exactly the same thing to someone else.

Who do you guys figure he thinks it is? Me? Or a certain other person? (Neither of us were ever friends with Vanessa or on her side.) Either way, it's funny...and yet sad, because I had really hoped he had changed and grown up some. Ah, well.

(Unless it's not really Heywood and we're being played. But it's just so him that I have a hard time believing that it could be someone else.)

BTW, for those of you who remember all that, you may also remember the jammie penguins. Sad to say that at the end of 2008 I retired them, for after years of hot penguin lovin' they were just plain worn out (not to mention full of cat-claw holes). But never fear! I have a brand-new pair of jammie penguin pants...and they're fleecy. Ooooooh yeah.


ETA: Just copying the quote for future reference since GAFF will be lost soon.

QUOTE(Guest @ Jan 20 2009, 12:42 AM)
I have a secret I can finally confess. I have a crush on Vanessa.

QUOTE(Guest_Heywood_* @ Jan 21 2009, 12:57 PM)
That's the second time you've dropped the bait and the second time you've been completely ignored. Your obvious irrelevance to the people here must really burn. You always did hate being ignored. :D:D:D

As of yesterday afternoon, Da is awake and they've taken the tube out. They had put a scope down his throat but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. The swelling had gone down enough, though, so they removed the tube and let him wake up. Ma said he was actually starting to wake up before they removed it, and that watching him try to fight the tube (kind of a reflex) was really hard :(.

They kept him in intensive care last night, and plan to move him to a regular room tonight. He seems to be all right now, but nobody ever knew what was wrong with him, so I guess they're all still wary. It's generally assumed that it was some kind of bad allergic reaction, but the cause remains unknown.

Anyway, what matters is that he's all right and he even called me for a minute today. I don't know when he's going to be going home, but now I can't go visit him anyway because I seem to have started a cold >_o. Poop. Of course if I did go visit him I would just get wibbly all over him :P.

So thank you, everyone, for your hugs and good thoughts. ^_^ *hugs back*