6561

I was just involved in my second car accident in a four week period. Both times I was at a dead stop in traffic and someone hit me, but I suspect my insurance is about to go up sharply anyway :(

6562

My child is starting to use her imagination and has just enough communication skills for me to get a slight understanding of what’s going on in her head.

This morning I was informed that she is Princess Spaceship. This involved wearing some of my costume jewelry and running around the house making rocket noises. After a nap and lunch, Princess Spaceship requested that we go outside. She took her trusty bucket and shovel and set herself to digging with a dwarf-like intensity. I tried to distract her with flowers and an offer to go down the street to see the chickens and berries, but she kept digging. Finally, I asked her why she was digging.

She paused thoughtfully and then replied, “Bunnies.”

“You are digging to find bunnies?”

“YES,” she said with firm resolve.

“I don’t think you’ll find bunnies by digging in the yard.”

“Go, mama, thankyou” she said, waving me away.

Of course, Princess Spaceship rejected this flimsy excuse for earth ‘logic’ and instead listened to the logic of the stars, which said “Dig more holes.” Sadly, her quest ended without bunnies, but I put two leaves on a pine cone so it looked like a bunny so she could be talked into taking a bath.

6563

Namby pamby parenting. What’s wrong with saying “Get in the bath you little shit before I beat you!”

6564

I don’t know, I think she had an idea. Who knows when you might just manage to open up into a burrow? Of course, what she’d do from there is anyone’s guess.

6565

Thursday I was eating lunch with some coworkers at our regular “eat bad food” lunch at Popeyes, when a crazy dude comes up behind me, leans over my shoulder and dumps a handful of cherries in my food.

6566

That’s not how I understand it. If you’re working 40 hours a week, you’re working full time whether or not you’re getting benefits. I’ve never heard part time used to describe a job that regularly provides 40 hours a week but no benefits. Normally, if you’re getting benefits, they’ll make the distinction by saying Full Time w/ Benefits.

Take this ad for the Halloween store, I can almost guarantee you that when they list Full/Part Time for their sales associates, they are not making a distinction between benefits or no benefits. Or take this customer service position, where the title says full time, but they make a point of saying they are the type of company that pays benefits. They wouldn’t have to make the latter distinction if it was just understood by saying full time.

Plus, I’ve never heard it used that way in my own job searching.

6567

Now, that’s interesting! Elaborate.

H.

6568

That was pretty much the whole story. He also dropped a handful of cherries on the counter, to which the person behind the till answered “I’m sorry we don’t accept cherries as payment.”

6569

Charles, your ability to attract strange and angry people never ceases to amaze me. Also amazing, the reaction of the poor bastard working retail.

6570

Our office is in the shittiest part of toronto and the eating options are… limited. Crazies and homeless are pretty much par for the course.

6571

Sure, but it’s not like this is a recent development from my understanding, nor does it make it any less impressive that you were the recipient of cherries.

6572

Dude, that officially sucks. Sorry to hear it man.

6573

I often pass a down-and-out bum in the mornings who camps miserably on the sidewalk by a giant Safeway near here, which is haunted by all kinds of drifters and derelicts. He makes a little shelter for himself by parking a shopping cart a foot away from the wall and squeezing behind it. He’s bedraggled and filthy — obviously been on the street for years.

This week I found him hunched over a piece of trash paper, working feverishly with a pen. Expecting a mad scrawl, I looked down as I passed. He was doing a sudoku he’d copied from the newspaper.

6574

Oh, like we’re going to believe that you didn’t want cherries in your food, Charles. Free cherries.

6575

Blew out my Achilles tendon playing squash. In splint and on crutches now. Going to specialist on Monday to determine next steps.

6576

This only sort of happened to me and it’s really just to tell the tale of a great business.

Ireland has terribly old phone wires. The internet connections here are expensive and kind of dodgy if you’re not in a very urban area. Four years ago our phone providers told us we were getting broadband in the next month, it only came on here at the start of the Summer. So we went with another crowd, a local company that does wireless internet.

Yesterday I rang up the ISP about a new package they were offering, with faster speeds. Currently I’m on 5 meg but I only get about 3.5 to locations outside Ireland. And this package was offering 7 meg, so I figured I’d go up to about 5 meg in effect. Unfortunately they told me that the new package was only available if you took the phone connection (some sort of Skype like package.) But if I didn’t want that they’d up the speeds a meg or so anyway. Quite happy with that, I said thanks and hung up. This morning I checked the speeds, and not only has it gone up a meg, but it’s now twice as fast as what it was this time last week. I’m getting a steady 7.5 hitting 8 megs, faster than what they were offering with the phone package. And all for the same low, low price.

I’m totally enthused about these guys. The guy who handles all the tech stuff for them, also appears to be the owner (well he’s the director of the company.) And he set up a fairly risky business, getting broadband to out of the way places when the government and national telecommunications businesses didn’t care a jot. Last Christmas, the day before Christmas Eve the power to the wireless receiver broke, and despite being closed he drove out of his way to deliver us the spare part, when he was taking his kid to the pantomime an hour or so later. And he gave me his personal mobile number in case there were any other problems. We’d never get help like that with a big international telecoms company.

I know I must sound like a stealth marketer here, but I think these guys are just so amazing that I have to say something about them. It really makes you want to support local, small businesses. I actually feel happy for giving them my custom.

So yeah, that’s my interesting happening. Support your local small guy.

6577

Part of shameless advertising is to provide a name, Buceph, I’ll recommend it to my Irish farmer friends.

6578

Which part of Toronto does that happen to me?

6579

You tell us.

6580

Ba-dum-tish? :)