Faux Green vs. Faux Green

Alright already.

Conservatives: You mocked anyone who tried to give a damn about the environment but changed your tune just a few months ago when public opinion shifted against you on the environment file.

Liberals: You had the chance to try to change our behaviour towards the environment and you barely lifted a finger.

Conclusion: YOU'VE BOTH SUCKED since 1993 on this issue. Can you all now admit your mistakes, quit your sniping, and move on to doing something actually constructive?

"I will do the next best thing...block it out..."

"Since the beginning of time man has yearned to destroy the sun."

When real policy imitates the Simpsons, you know it's a bad idea...

A law for every household; a helmet on every head

I was going to comment at length about the excessiveness of calling for mandatory helmets for tobogganing kids, to be enforced by law (?!), because of recent tragic children deaths from head injuries. The fact that half of the unfortunate deaths were car-related (DON'T TOBOGGAN ONTO OPEN ROADS!) and the very low-risk activity that it actually is seem to have been lost to the discussion.

If each parent talked to their kids a bit more about personal responsibility and playing safely, I'm sure this issue will go away, along with the ridiculous government overreach.

The up and downsides to reading well-written blogs daily is that they often beat you to the punch, and usually respond better to the issue.

Little Mosque back-patting

As I noted in the comments here, I expected that the second week of "Little Mosque on the Prairie" would draw in about 1.2 million viewers. What was the magical number that the CBC reported?

1.2 million viewers.

If only guessing right actually got me anything but a smidgen of honour and glory. Oh well. I must say though, the second episode did improve, except for the 'hit-over-your-head' blatant jokes about hockey and such. Those were still really bad.

I'm looking forward to the third episode, except it gets pre-empted tonight by the NHL All-Star Game and returns on Jan. 31. With the novelty wearing off and a missed week, the question is whether it will keep consistent viewership numbers from next week onward.

Tales from the Bookstore I: So we've narrowed it down to...it was signed.

Customer: I'm looking for a book.

Me: Okay.

Customer: It's a novel. I don't remember the name of the author or the title. It's kinda scary. I saw it in one of your other stores and the author had signed it...

Me: Okay...so it's either Mystery or Horror.

Customer: That's all I know about it.

Me: Right...Do you recall anything about the plot?

Customer: Umm, I think it had to do with some murder and they were trying to solve it. The author had signed the book.

Me: (*Thinking* So that's pretty much every Mystery novel ever written...good.)

Customer: The author's only written this book and nothing else.

Me: Okay, so is it a hardcover.

Customer: No, it wasn't that but bigger than these ones.

Me: So it was a trade paperback.

Customer: Yeah, maybe. I remember the cover was shiny. I just remember seeing signed copies in the other store.

Me: (*Thinking* I give up. I've officially lost interest.)

Winter's arrived...

Photo courtesy Torontoist

...and it took its sweet time! I definitely missed the sound of snow crunching beneath my feet.

The iPhone: Everyone's talking about it...

...but not everyone will be able to talk with it. If you haven't heard about the iPhone, then you must have NO (or very, very little) access to mass media whatsoever.

A nice, comprehensive review of it can be found from Chrominance.

Little Mosque on the Prairie review

eh. it was okay. Some jokes were well-delivered...some weren't. As I told my friend Elaine, it has potential, but I hope they don't run out of jokes after this episode. I guess we'll all find out if the next few episodes get better, or whether they'll end up re-hashing the same territory.

Between 6.5 and 7 out of 10.

First (substantive) snowfall!

Hopefully it will last, but I doubt it with the weather we've been having.

Who falls for these things anyways?

via Kottke

This link is somewhat old, so bear with me. You know those emails from various African countries claiming to want to smuggle out millions of dollars and they need YOUR help to do it, which you will be handsomely compensated? Aside from the complete immorality of helping some corrupt official impoverish an already impoverished nation, you could smell the stink of scam coming off these emails from a mile away. I didn't think anyone could fall for these things.

Oh, How I'm SO wrong. (Of course, I understand that these scams wouldn't exist if no one fell for it, but still...)

Little Mosque on the Prairie

There've been a lot of press coverage on a new CBC half-hour comedy debuting next Tuesday (Jan. 9) at 830pm EST. Why? Because it's a show starring Muslims about Muslims in Canada.

Titled, "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (get it?), one of the actors commented that it may be getting a lot of press solely because the title might make people think it's going to be overtly political and controversial, while the actors and those involved say it's just a simple sitcom: think "Corner Gas", but with a mosque and not a gas station.

Hopefully, it'll be just as funny. And if it is as funny as hyped, that'll be TWO comedies set in the Prairies...who said there was nothing worthwhile out there.

I'll be watching it. I hope you will too.

Crazy Bookshoppers, a series?

So Angela had noticed that I hadn't posted in a very long time and wanted stories about crazy bookshoppers.

There have been some...interesting shoppers, and few come to mind, but I want to save those for the next few posts, since they deserve their own. No names, no locations. Nothing. If I get fired from Chapters because of this blog, it'd be funny, sad and lame all at the same time.

Suffice it to say, shoppers are messy. Chapters encourage this because we allow people to browse. During the holiday season, it just becomes worse. People are more demanding about wanting the material but at the same time other people are inconsiderate with the way they handle the material. They work against themselves. When I have to pick up coffee cups and used tissues from the shelves, that just frustrates me. Thus, people on my MSN lists have been on the receiving end of very terse messages about Chapters customers as part of my name.

I'm glad it's slowly returning to normal volumes of customers. Though It also means that employees have to once again be a bit more persuasive about making that sale, so back to something that I know is part of my job that I'm okay at but uncomfortable with at times.

Gives me one more reason to finish my thesis more quickly.

Filler Material

The novelty of working at Chapters has definitely worn off with the end of the holiday retail season. Much has happened and less is happening.

Now that my work hours are being reduced, I can work on my thesis again. That also means time for my side-project on a rails-to-trails report. It also means less time for blogging. Lot of interesting things are happening but nothing blog-worthy. I'll have to keep a more vigilant eye.

I also noticed less personal blogging about me, hence this post. Being in a constant state of fatigue isn't fun, but after reading "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures", I realize of course, that this is nothing. Though the story about Dr. Chen falling asleep while driving and the things he does to keep himself awake resonated with me because I do the exact same things (pinch self, slap face, sing loudly and badly)...maybe it's universal.

One thing about Chapters though. It's forced me to read more, which is great. Being introduced to so many new books, but it also means there are many I want to buy, but can't, many I want to read, but don't have time to. There's always a catch.

But of the books I've read that I want to recommend, it's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan and "The Dodecahedron or A Frame for Frames" by Paul Glennon. I've read at least seven books since I started and those two are by far my favourite. The former a non-fiction and the latter a fiction, so a recommendation for both sides of the aisle, I guess