Category: my ramblings

Either the work internet proxy is just being persnickety again, or they’ve actually figured out the eeeevil browser I’m running, and my webmail server. Oh no! Repent! Repent!

Went and saw ESB on Friday night. They kicked ass, as usual. I took some photos with my S230 without a flash – the results are here. I think I’ve said this before, but I’m really happy with the S230’s low-light performance. It’s certainly a lot better than anything else I’ve ever used.

I’ve got a sinus infection. This sucks ass large. I hate sinus infections. My nose is like raw hamburger from all the tissues I’ve been through.

today’s diesel sweeties – I love diesel sweeties.

Kallisys website is closed – today Paul decided to close his site because of the war. I completely respect him and stand beside him. However, I think that my life and my site should not be stopped by an arrogant United States Government.

I think sleater-kinney has the best words for this time:

Combat Rock They tell us there are only two sides to be on If you are on our side you?re right if not you?re wrong But are we innocent, paragons of good? Is our guilt erased by the pain that we?ve endured?

Hey look it’s time to pledge allegiance Oh god I love my dirty Uncle Sam Our country’s marching to the beat now And we must learn to step in time

Where is the questioning where is the protest song? Since when is skepticism un-American? Dissent?s not treason but they talk like it?s the same Those who disagree are afraid to show their face

Let’s break out our old machines now It sure is good to see them run again Oh gentlemen start your engines And we know where we get the oil from

Are you feeling alright now – There are reasons to unite Paint myself all red white blue – Is this why we unite? Are you singing let’s fight now – If you hate this time Innocent people die, uh oh – Remember we are the time!

Show you love your country go out and spend some cash Red white blue hot pants doing it for Uncle Sam Flex our muscles show them we?re stronger than the rest Raise your hands up baby are you sure that we?re the best?

We’ll come out with our fists raised The good old boys are back on top again And if we let them lead us blindly The past becomes the future once again

as I’ve just introduced some people in my group to the wonders of Kettle Corn. So delicious.

My network port was down for an hour and a half this morning. Sucky.

Yesterday we took Oliver, the deaf pure white cat, to the College Royal Cat Show. We actually had a lot of fun there – I was a bit skeptical and had no idea what to expect, but it was very informal. At least they did have nice cages for all the cats to be in for a few hours. The judge was a vet and she talked quite a bit about each cat. There were some very neat and rare cats there – a male calico, and a white tabby, and some other pure-breeds. Oliver himself was definately the most active cat – he made lots of noise in his cage while the other cats were being judged. In the end he one a first place ribbon for best tail! His tail has a mind of its own, so this is only fitting.

Man, what a week. Work was hectic as ever. I finally rolled out some great tools for people only to have them blow up the server today. I don’t know exactly what happened, and I hate that feeling. My boss wasn’t mad at all, I mean we’re skipping a few development steps here 🙂 but I guess I take things like that personally – I want things that I create to work. I started the week off good because I was so well rested after being sick, now I feel like I’m back in that rut of sleep-deprivation and caffeine dependence. But hey, the weekend’s here, so its time to rest and not stress out. Maybe I should become a buddhist.

Anyways… sometimes I get ideas.

We sewed up our new apartment! We’re moving on May 1 back to Toronto. I’m excited. Sandy is excited and scared. We’ve already started to pack things up – we have a lot of stuff. I’ve begun eBaying things that we don’t need that other people might want. Especially electronics.

UPDATE: it looks like things are going to be okay. We might have to go pick them up and bring them to foster care somewhere in the Toronto-ish area, but I think they’ll be fine.

For the past half-hour I’ve been trying to find a no-kill animal shelter in Ontario, preferably in the Ottawa area. The deal is this: when my sister and her boyfriend husband, Sylvia and Daniel, left for their trip last year they left my sister’s two orange tabby brothers with one of Daniel’s relatives in Ottawa. They’ve since been moved and are living with his sister? I believe. Now apparently this person can’t take care of them anymore, and wants to get rid of them. So I’ve been helping my mom (who’s sick right now) to find a place where they can be put for adoption.

I’d take them in a second, but we tried that before they left and the larger tabby wouldn’t get along with our cats. We also now have three cats and both Sandy and I understand that this is the maximum number we can handle (we joked about naming our third cat Max instead of Oliver because he was the ‘Max’imum number we were going to have). My mom can’t take them because she has Emily, who is an FIV survivor and carrier, not to mention that Emily probably wouldn’t get along with them.

All this is choking me up inside… it’s hard to look at sites that just have pictures of cats up for adoption and not want to take them all in. I want to find these guys a good, permanent home – they don’t deserve to be shuttled around, and I’m kind of pissed off at my sister, but it wasn’t her fault – they were going to take them along but then all of the travel rules and their plans changed and they had to stay here in Canada. It just makes me want to cry. I’d go anywhere to make sure these two cats are alright, and they’re not even mine.

Right now I’m thinking about contacting Cats Anonymous as well as my friend Stan in Ottawa to see if he knows anyone who would make a good cat-bearing home. If anyone out there reads this and thinks they can help me in any way, please let me know – leave a comment or mail chuma@chuma.org.

Whenever I go out to get lunch and don’t bring my camera, I always see cool things that I want to take photos of! GRRR! Today in two minutes I saw a van parked outside the CBC building with “BREATHE” stenciled on the side, and also a guy driving down John St. on a Honda Elite scooter just like mine (but white)!!!