Unemployment

I need a job. Bad things happen when I spend my entire day sitting around by myself. I am still in a housecoat at two o’clock in the afternoon. I have determined that blogging is a good idea. (Again.) I have started talking to my cat as if I expect him to answer. In fact, I have reached the point where I start asking the cat questions. This actually just happened:

Me: (Noticing a gross smell) Cat, did you just barf everywhere, or is that just your natural perfume?
Cat: (Looking at me, most likely wondering why I am talking to an otherwise empty room)

That is the exact moment where I realized that sitting at home alone is bad for me.

On the other hand, the only reason that the place where I live is not a complete disgusting, squalorous hole is because I spend my entire day wondering what to do with myself. When faced with such a challenge, I will eventually resort to cleaning to keep myself amused. This leads inevitably to one question: Does my desire to live in a clean house outweigh my need to actually be able to afford food?

Up For Interpretation

So what do you think is going on here? I’m not telling the image I had in mind during its creation; how people interpret it on their own is too interesting. So, what’s behind her? (Or in front of her?)

Keep Broadband Competitive

These are not my own words, but the words of a friend of mine (Solstice_sings on LiveJournal). He has put things much more eloquently than I would have, and I feel the need to spread the word:



Unless you make your voice heard, a CRTC decision sets the stage for rapid increases
in prices for your telecommunications and broadband services. You can reverse this
decision, and making your voice heard takes only 30 seconds.

http://www.competitivebroadband.com

Very rarely do I feel strongly about an issue to send it to every single person I know. I really don't like spam in my inbox more than anything. But the truth is, unless people do something about this and lend their support to the campaign, the Internet in Canada will become a lot more expensive.

Simple fact is, the CRTC has recently ruled that Bell can force small ISPs to cap their internet at 60gb per customer, or they can levy a per-gigabyte cost. If Bell's infrastructure had been built on their own funds, this might NOT be an issue, but Canada's phone and internet systems were publically subsidized with tax money. This amounts to a private company imposing a tariff on all other companies using publically-funded phone lines and infrastructure, while THEY don't have to pay the same.

The only competitive advantage that small companies like Acanac, TekSavvy and MTS Allstream have right now is their ability to offer their internet at cheaper prices. As soon as they're forced to charge with UBB (usage-based billing) at the the same or higher rates as Bell and Rogers, they lose any chance of competing, as these two companies will temporarily lower their rates until the others are out of business, then jack up prices to astronomical levels.

It's actually already happening in BC for television. A local, smaller company
called Novus was recently granted the ability to sell television to 225 high-rise condo and apartment complexes. The local big-money competitor is offering their services at a price that is far below cost or anything that Novus could afford. What do you want to bet that as soon as Novus is out of business, Shaw will increase prices even higher than they were before. And this may even be on a private
network, not public infrastructure like DSL was built on.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/08/24/novus-shaw-television-predatory.html

What do you think Bell will do when THEIR competition is destroyed by the
foolishness of the CRTC?

Please, send this to the people you know. Do you really want a future where our internet is more expensive, lower quality, and with less choice than some 3rd world countries? Do you really want a future for the internet in Canada where doing something as simple as streaming a movie trailer or sending a family video of a child's first steps has to be weighed and measured as 'too expensive'?

Trombone Hate

So I am having a serious hate-on for life and my program and my professors right now. I don't really have any justification to be so enraged, because they are doing things by the system that they set out in the beginning, even if they consistently ignore it in every other case. (Even partially in this case.)

Here's the story:

I had my placement audition yesterday, and I was gunning for an orchestra placement. I had worked really hard to outplay those that I had to outplay, and to be generally competent. I was expecting that the guy who is a year ahead of me would get it, as he is hands-down a better player than me. Beth, the second player from last year, and I are on pretty level ground as far as playing ability goes, but I figured if I worked at it I could do better than her. I expected Brendan to be considered for bass trombone, because he is better than me at it. I accept that fact, but I thought I could maybe at least outdo him and get placed on bass. Earlier in the day I was talking to Brendan and he told me that he was not taking lessons. I was really surprised, knowing that he is a very good player. It turns out that he failed out of the program and is now an undeclared arts major. This made me incredibly happy, though I felt really cruel for it. Never in my life have I even heard of someone not in the music program being placed in the orchestra. It just doesn't happen. Ever. This got my hopes really high, and I was elated for the rest of the day. Until the auditions finished, of course. Heaven forbid I should actually get something that I had my hopes up for. The trombone prof came out of the audition room and talked a bit and proceeded to name off the people in the various ensembles. He numbered them off and pointed. "One..." He pointed to Tyler, like I expected. "Two..." He pointed to Beth. Oh well. There's always bass. "Three..." He looked around at the group assembled, hesitated for a minute, and Tyler said "Brandon left." It was at this point that I turned around and walked away.

Am I wrong for thinking that it is not right for a person in second year who failed out of their program to be given one of the three most coveted spaces in the ensembles, while someone who has worked their ass off to not fail out for three entrire years gets shafted to work with the newbies? I don't think I am.

Updates?

So here I am, still alive and still blog posting, if rarely. I guess I could give an update on my summer, as if everyone doesn't already know. I'm working at Swiss Chalet in the pantry, (and the joke about tossing salads all day stopped being funny a LONG time ago,) and still living with the same people plus Bryan. Living with Bryan is pretty wonderful, to be honest. I was worried that we wouldn't handle it well, but he and I have been handling it famously. He doesn't deal well with the roommates, but that is a temporary thing, and as long as he doesn't go berserk and try to break up because of the people that we live with, we should be able to move past the silly struggles that we have currently. (Which are few and far between, admittedly.) I have a few things that I need to work on in regards to the relationship, and he has his few at the same time. As that may imply, we have had a couple of good talks and sorted out the roots of our troubles and are working hard to get past them. Things are looking hopeful currently. (From my side of things at least.)

I am currently in the market for a second job, but I have not got my hopes up on that front. I am barely managing to afford my life currently, as I am only working part time really, and the income is not good enough to support me. Hopefully OSAP will be enough to live on for the school year, along with whatever I make at the Swiss. (Which will be minimal.)

I went back over that and realize that I really need to think as I'm writing about being coherent. I am sort of just doing a stream of consciousness kind of thing currently, and it comes out really babbly and not making a lot of sense. Here is me trying to make sense. Ready?

Life has been a bit of a struggle lately, between money troubles and relationship stresses, but I am working my way through both of those, and surviving. To be honest, that really sums up everything that I just said, in a nutshell. Oh well. I'll try and keep everyone posted when things actually happen in my life, which they almost never do.