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  • In which Ottawa would love it very much if you’d just call it Toronto.

    written by

    james

    I’ve always said toronto is not a place I’d like to live, but I’ll cheer for its sports teams–well, in baseball, anyway. Hockey as well, until this year’s lockout. Ottawa is the opposite. I love living here, but I’ll not be caught dead cheering for its hockey team–it still doesn’t have a baseball team. Now, though, it almost seems like Ottawa wouldn’t mind duplicating Toronto’s sports environment–complete with the fact playoff action’s a little sparse round these parts.

    Take, again, the hockey situation. There’s the Senators, who’ve managed to make it to the Stanley Cup finals in 2008 and then, uh, not really a whole lot else since then. Compared to Toronto, who’s team–well, yeah, we’ll not go there. Just don’t. As far as baseball goes, Ottawa has never had an MLB team. The minor league team they did have packed up and moved around the same time the Montreal Expos stopped being the Montreal Expos. They want to bring another minor league team to Ottawa, but last I’d heard signs were still hazy–I was told to try again later. They still don’t have an MLB team and I’m not entirely sure this city could support one. They made two attempts at a football team–again, to compete in the same league as that in Toronto. They both imploded and they’re going for a third. And now, apparently, they want to give soccer and basketball a shot.

    Ottawa is hardly a sports city. Even if at one point it could have been, I’m pretty sure after everything went bust at the start of the recession it probably can’t really aford to be now. But that doesn’t seem to be stopping the folks what have the money to burn from trying. Look, guys. You’re Ottawa, okay? You’re not Toronto. You can’t be Toronto–it just isn’t in you (see also: transit, efficiency of).

    You just can’t do it. And that’s part of what makes the city two times awesome. Don’t you be going off and ruining it over some obsession with being the big city next door, okay? Take it from a guy who frequented there (not by choice). It’s not worth the screwed factor. Tell ya what, though. If you’re going to insist on being called the little toronto, give me a bit of time before you start taking on some of its other characteristics, okay? I’m gonna need to find me a place to move. I wonder if there’s space free in Victoria–who has absolutely no problem with not being Toronto. Now, talking it out of being Vancouver might be a small problem–but hey, there’s awesome in Vancouver. I can work with that.

  • ODSP cuts costs again, figures you’ll make it up out of pocket.

    written by

    james

    It’s been a long time since I got to do one of these, largely because while things haven’t really improved a whole lot, they’ve not done much in the opposite direction either. That apparently changed at some point in January. I needed to hit the hospital this past week to bring May home after a minor procedure that required she be overnight. No big thing, really–I could get me there. The hospital wasn’t entirely too far away, to the tune of about a $25 drop each way. I’ve handled worse.

    Here’s the thing, though. The Ontario disability Support Program (ODSP) entitles the patient–note: not the one showing up at the hospital with the patient’s belongings–to a lift home from the hospital, or any other medical appointment, with the appropriate level of proof provided (usually confirmation from one of the medical staff that says you’ve been there, you’ve been seen, you need to get home). Because we’re not all Blindy McBlinderson with 24/7 access to a person with both a pair of working eyes and a driver’s license. Also I’m not sure I’d have wanted to wake mine up at 5:30 in the morning if I had that kind of 24/7 access–yes, they might be my sighted servant bitch, but I’m not that cruel.

    As I’ve mentioned before, ODSP doesn’t exactly shower us with cash over here. So while it can be afordable getting patient’s things to them, then getting patient home, more often than not it’s afordable at the expense of something else–like I really was hoping I didn’t have to pay to have the prescriptions we were sent home with filled (I didn’t, thank Christ). So I was a teeny tiny bit surprised when, while trying to make arangements to get May and myself home with ODSP’s help, I was informed that as of January of this year, ODSP has stopped offering that service. This according to the folks at the city of Ottawa line that handles requests for such foolery. Again, fortunately for us I didn’t end up needing to pay for prescriptions, but the creative mental tap dancing on the way home would have been impressive were it not to do with figuring out which bill wasn’t getting paid for a couple weeks.

    If you’ve been following the ODSP episodes since around 2010, or even if you’re yourself on ODSP, you’re probably very familiar with the extreme difference (note: 2010 figures used) between what folks on ODSP get versus what even folks making minimum wage get. That hasn’t changed much in 3 years–there’s still quite the gap between ODSP payments and minimum wage payments. But ODSP did, at least, have the supports for getting people home from the hospital who otherwise couldn’t get themselves home due to a lack of license, a lack of servant with license, and a lack of public transit service when the discharge order comes in at half past dawn going for it. As of January, they don’t anymore. And they figure it’s perfectly fine if you have to make up the difference out of pocket. Because really, you weren’t gonna buy groceries with that money anyway.

    I’ve always said if I had half a choice, I’d leave ODSP in the dust and never look back. I’m still staring down the prospect of giving me half a choice. I get the province is about $25 billion short insofar as the budget goes. I get that they need to trim expenses. I get that they figure we’ll manage to cover it if and when. But I’d be interested in seeing the mental gymnastics that lead to the conclusion that we actually can. Oh, of course–that’s for us to work out. They’re hands off now. Government cost cutting at work. So. About that next election.

    PS: You’d figure we’d have gotten a notice from ODSP insofar as they’ve made changes to the service we’re entitled to receive from them. So far as I’ve seen, not so much. Rumour has it that was caught in the cost cutting as well. Damn shame, that.

    Edited to add: I originally wrote this entry by email. Apparently when I did that, a link up and broke itself and didn’t get caught by my usual checking and rechecking of things. Go figure. Have a fixed link. Just in time for me to find something else to post about.

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  • Hi, there. I’d like to return my iNotepads.

    written by

    james

    Every so often, you’ll hear something about somebody somewhere going into a situation thinking they’re getting an iPad, and coming away from it with the iShaft. Most of the time, it’s because some fool with a lack of any kind of attention span decided to buy the thing from some other fool with a lack of morals–leading to the amusing, if supremely unfortunate, side-effect of fool numero uno walking away with a mirror for the low low price of the going rate for a used iPad. But what happens when the iScam goes corporate?

    If you answered something along the lines of Wall Mart gets conned into selling a box of notepads for the going rate of an iPad, then you’re probably the idiot what made it happen. Or your news and my news come from the same place. Whichever. As it happens, the box in question was supposed to be a returned iPad that was packaged in the proper box, professionally and everything, and apparently flagged to just fly right on past any quality control verification at the store in question–because it wouldn’t occur to a customer to maybe try getting a refund on their rather expensive electronic device while still sort of casually holding onto the offending electronic device. Wall Mart initially denied that there was a problem, but when the media decided to start poking around, they figured now might be a fine time to go seeing if maybe there was, you know, a problem. So now they’re reviewing surveylence video to see if they can find the guy what did the return–good luck, if the customer service desk at that Wall Mart’s anything like the ones in, uh, any Wall mart I’ve ever been in. Meanwhile, I’d be putting a rush on that exchange. The warranty on those iNotepads isn’t exactly iron clad.

  • $15 quadrillion, or the cell phone gets it.

    written by

    james

    I’ve seen–and, er, been responsible for–some wicked high cell phone bills. Mostly back in the days before unlimited northamerican long distance was a thing. And, uh, once when I moved and subsequently didn’t have internets for a few days. Oops. But it’s pretty safe to say none of my cell phone bills, on their own anyway, ever added up to approximately the amount required to bail out a solar system. Solenne San Jose, on the other hand, could probably do it twice with hers. She was originally told she’d be charged a termination fee for killing her contract before it was supposed to die, but what amounts to a breakdown in communications–and, quite probably, a bit of morons disease on the part of the phone company–meant the US could very easily stop borrowing from China and take out a “please save our asses” loan from Bouygues Telecom. They sorted it out, and the actual bill–after the curing of the afore mentioned morons disease–was at a much more reasonable, if still not entirely proportional, sub-$200 US. Or, in other words, John Q. Citizen’s monthly visa payment. Sorry, France. Looks like you’ll still be taxing the royal begeses outa the moderately wealthy. Oh, and, enter the snicker-worthy. The bill that would save the universe? Yeah, ’twas in France. The things they’ll do for a little budget balancing. Suddenly, the $1000 I legit worked up just doesn’t seem like quite so much fun.

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  • Popular posts (January, 2013).

    written by

    james

    So. Here it is the last week of February, when folks have up and given me a metric ton of things to sort through for this month’s popular posts, and I’m just now knitting together the same damn thing for January. I blame a move, a possible change in schooling, and general life is happening type goodness. Also known as actual, honest to goodness, justifiable excuses for procrastination. ‘Cuz that’s how I roll. Still, while life’s been happening, there’s been content. And somebody somewhere’s found some of that content interesting–to the tune of 1100 of you wasting about a minute and 25 seconds you’ll never get back. I’m incredibly sorry. Here, finally, is what caught your eye in January, courtesy Google Analytics.

    • Conspiracy theories interest me. Insofar as they give me a whole whack of things to be moderately amused at. From the 80 million of them surrounding 9/11, justification of which I still haven’t seen hide nor hair of (I’m looking at you, Faux Capitalist), to the run of the mill “it’s all a gigantic New World Order scam” paranoia that comes with just about any policy from just about any corner of just about any establishment that rubs your local nutcase even slightly the wrong way. Contemplate gun control? “New World Order!” Raise taxes? “New world order!” *Lower* taxes? “New world order!” Float a trial baloon that has a snowball’s chance in hell of being anything more than just a trial baloon? ” New world order!” Admittedly that last one kind of pins everyone and their dog with the NWO tag, but hey–it takes all kinds. Even nutbars with absolutely no firm grounding in reality. That’s one of the reasons I started this thing–and hell, it finally paid off.
    • Two years on, and people are still finding the letter I wrote to Wind Mobile with regards their fair usage policy that isn’t exactly fair. And some of what leads folks to that particular post leads me to start to wondering if maybe it’s gotten just a little bit more ridiculous. If this is what they’re calling competition these days, I’ll stick with Telus, thanks much.
    • The job market must be some kind of swamped. In the late summer of 2012, I fired off an application to TD Bank–hey, it’s not the most glorious thing to do, but it’d of paid the bills. I then gave it a few weeks and promptly forgot about it. In January 2013, I was reminded. Thanks for the follow-up, guys. But I kind of figured it was a no when, you know, I didn’t get a follow-up. Still, I guess it’s the thought that counts. But hey waitasec–I’m not sure I like that thought, either.
    • Bell Canada doesn’t very much like this whole standards thing. Actually, I believe once or twice I’ve called them the Microsoft of the ISP universe–if there’s a standard out there, Bell waves at it as it flies right past in the opposite direction. So I was both not very surprised and quite very annoyed when, yet again, Bell decided to blow by a standard–this one, in basic networking. And apparently they’re up to some wicked nifty little tricks with their older and, arguably, weaker modems on top of that. Just skim through the comments–what few there are. It’s fun.
    • for those of you what just joined the party, I can’t see my own hand in front of my face. I also, from time to time, can’t get from here to there without paying someone what drives me. Taxis, usually. And more often than not, I’m having to provide them with a less than free–for me, anyway–education on exactly what not to do if you’re a taxi driver and I’m a blind guy. It resulted in this handy dandy reference guide. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever if any of the folks what read this thing ended up being one of the ones what take my money to get me places, but damn if I didn’t notice some differences after I posted the thing. Kind of refreshing, if we’re being honest over here. Found a couple more things to add to the guide, but hey. I like me some work in progress every once in a while. Especially if it clues someone.

    And that’s how January happened, roughly estimated and minus a small implosion or six. There’s move and administrative related things to hit the site, just as soon as I’m positive the smoke from the fallout’s relatively behind us. And I’m sure it’ll make a list somewhere or other. But as for right now, I think I need to go find my brain. Rereading that Bell entry I think just voided its warranty.

  • Dear #EMI: I’m a pirate, and it’s all your fault.

    written by

    james

    Let me give you a bit of a refresher on how I work. I’m not one of these folks who’s first instinct is to find the nearest regulation and see in just how many pieces I can break it before it turns lunch time. Actually, where I can, I tend to do the exact opposite–then help folks who would like to do the same to be able to do so. But see, there’s a small problem at times with that logic. And you guys over at EMI just ran smack into it at full speed.

    There’s a song by country singer Dierks Bentley that’s apparently been out since October of last year. I only just heard it last week. I wanted to see if I could find the music video for it. Partly, because I’ve yet to see it, and partly because short of lining myself up for one of those “pay us $4000000000000000 and we won’t sue you for $100000000000000000” letters, that’s the only way I’d be hearing the song without deciding to park myself in earshot of the radio or TV until it comes on–for the record, when you’ve got things to do, that just doesn’t happen. Sorry, EMI. So I did what any legal-minded person with 10 minutes free to do it would do. I hit the interwebs for the official video. And what’d I find?

    This video contains content from EMI, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

    Yep. A music video, that I was perfectly willing to listen to legally, I’m not actually legally (by EMI’s definition of legally, anyway) allowed to listen to. So I did what any legal-minded person who doesn’t have the time or the spare brainmatter to park himself in front of the TV until the thing decides to come up in the rotation would do. I went to a few of those *other* sources on the interwebs. Yeah, you know the ones. And if you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know the rest. those *other* sources, in no uncertain terms, told me they had exactly what I was looking for, and I could have it in as long as it took for the thing to download. so, following my own logic, I thought about it for about 5 seconds, then tried a few more legal avenues. Got told in very diplomatic–appologetic, even–terms to please to be shoving off now, EMI doesn’t want me seeing it, and thanks kindly. So I went back to my other sources. And, hell, I hit download.

    In that very instant, and not for the first time, I became a statistic–the kind of statistic that companies like EMI hold up and wave around while all the while screaming “More copyright! More enforcement! Because piracy!”. And, like so many times before, it won’t trouble my sleep any. Why not, some back office executive’s likely wondering–assuming back office executives even read stuff like this, which is probably more evidence I should be considerably more awake–or caffinated–than I am at the moment before writing this. Because, to put it simply, I followed the law, and the law tried to lead me off a cliff.

    To be clear, I wasn’t even planning on downloading the bloody song. It’s good, but not so good that I just had to have it right the hell now. I’d of even, were I intent on grabbing the song for my own personal use, coughed up whatever the going rate for the thing is on iTunes–assuming 1: iTunes had it and 2: EMI let them sell it to me without the same brainless geographic restrictions (neither of which I checked, because again, wasn’t interested in *downloading* the song). I’d of listened once or twice, then poof, off to do whatever the hell else I was planning to do–like move nearly 1 TB of crap from one drive to the other so I can reuse the first one for fun things. EMI had other plans for me, clearly.

    So, as of this morning, also not for the first time, I am James, the pirate. And it’s all EMI’s fault. I should probably be expecting one of those letters soon.

  • In which there is a god. And he plays for the wrong damn team.

    written by

    james

    I take it all back. Every, single, goddamn word. I accept what the 80 million Christians who’ve been trying to convert me have been saying since the first time I asked one of them what the hell he was smoking. God does exist. There is physical proof. But does it seriously have to wear Senators colours? Hey–it came direct from Siri. How wrong can it be?

    Readers of the RSS or email variety will unfortunately need to click over to the website to have a listen–Youtube has yet to invent a technology that lets you play it from your client of choice. Blame Youtube. Or flash. Or both.

    There is a god. And if there is a god, it plays for the Ottawa Senators. And if worshipping God means worshipping the Senators, Christianity has just lost me forever. As in, I can’t even hear you now. That kind of following just is not physically possible if you’re me. Or any proper fan of anything that isn’t the Ottawa Senators. Divine intervension or not, just no. But hey, I’ll watch him and his team get stomped out of the playoffs any day.

    Semi-related: I have just answered why it is the Leafs haven’t seen playoff action since 2004. Damn you to hell, God. Just damn you to hell.

    Edited to add: So apparently the email utility I use strips flash content. Nifty. things to note for next time. Take 2, this time with flashy goodness.

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  • How I didn’t spend valentine’s day. Or, in which my brain takes the day off.

    written by

    james

    I never quite got the idea behind going out of your way to do something special/romantic/whatever for/with your significant other on one particular day of the year. But then, I’ve always been brought up that that’s kind of how it’s supposed to go pretty well all the time. So, partly because of that, partly because I’m just not good at being the romantic type and partly because May did only just this morning get back home from her own little personal time, I planned a very impressive absolutely nothing today. Actually if we’re being honest, I planned not to do any of the usual valentine’s day funness. Of course it doesn’t help matters much that it’s mid-month and well, who in their right mind has extra money to be flinging around on overly expensive dinners at a moderately decent quality restaurant when all that’s really gonna come of it is a need to shove yourself into a pair of track pants if and when you manage to squeeze yourself through the door and back home–again, the kind of thing you shouldn’t need a special day to go do. So I didn’t. Because hey, why go with the trend? Especially when the trend is, well, kind of the norm if you’re us.

    So today was escentially spent doing absolutely nothing. May slept in, hell–even I slept in, and we stuck close to home when we finally decided being awake was in our best interest–although, a small portion of that has to do with the fact we’re still–yes, still–waiting around for the folks what install our new internet service to show up, say hi, and give us service. It’s been probably the first actually low key day we’ve both had since we moved over here, what with repair folks, install folks, property managing folks, moving folks and familial folks dropping in to say hi how’s it going just because hey, new place.

    If we do decide to do something specificly valentinesy, it’ll probably be very last minute, very much a manner of relieving frustration with afore mentioned installer folks, and very, very late. Because hey, that’s how we roll, goddammit. Look at me, bucking the freaking trend and all that. And all because at end of day, I’m poor/cheap/broke/whatever, lazy, and needed an excuse to blog something or other on valentines day–and the mockery I’m constructing in my head just isn’t gonna do much to cut it.

    This is what happens when James logic is left unchecked for 10 seconds, kids. It does things that are bad for people who aren’t James and potentially assists James’s brain in the imploding department. Because it needs the help, really. And then you have pointless entries about pointlessness on a–in my opinion, relax–pointless day for pointless reasons. On second thought, no wonder my brain’s on vacation. I do believe I’ll join it.

    So how did you not spend valentines day?

    Added at the last second: snark at your future ISP in a blog post and wouldn’t you know, they show up. I aughta do that more often. But first, caffeine.

  • Happy pitcher catcher day!

    written by

    james

    I’ve given up on hockey this year. I gave up on baseball last year, but only because I didn’t exactly have the ability to watch it. That changed nearly a week after we moved into this house–I still need to rantblog about that one. So now, I get to take note of the important occasions leading up to the important occasion. Like… Today is the start of training camp if you’re a pitcher, or a pitcher’s catcher. And, like the Bluejays actually may do something besides fall apart right around, let’s say, July 15–and this time it’s not just the folks what get paid to say that saying that, so I’m slightly more inclined to buy it. I’m not holding out for a world series win this year–I’m a fan, not a fanatic. But good god damn if I won’t be ordering pizza and slamming back at least one vodrumoke on opening day. And for at least the month of March and what’s left of February, that’s about all that matters. So, happy pitcher catcher day, those of you cellebrating. And I swear if we blow one more starter before the actual start of the season, somebody somewhere’s fired.

    PS: I also happen to be an admittedly sometimes Braves fan. Hey–they’ve seen playoff action more recently and more often than my Jays. Plus they were a staple of TVS for an age, when there was such a thing as TVS and when TVS used to be decent. Now, I follow them in headlines only. But hey, it could also double as an excuse to blow money on an MLB online streaming package. If in 6 months I kick myself for saying that, somebody somewhere has the right to slap me. Anyway. I was gonna go do something. Oh, right–start the official baseball countdown. Going, going, going, there she goes!

  • More light rail talk. This time’s the real deal. They promise.

    written by

    james

    Ever since I started considering Ottawa home, somebody somewhere’s been nattering on about light rail transit (LRT). It was supposed to be up and running by now. Then it was still in the initial planning phase. Then it was cancelled. Then it was reborn with new management. then it was over budget. Now, a small age after it was first brought up, Ottawa says they’re ready to get underway. for sure, now. Promise. Step 1: redo the transitway. Wait–what?

    If OC Transpo has its way, and they’re figuring they will, most if not all of the transitway from the downtown core to pretty much the east end of the city will be rail line. For folks what exist in Ottawa and do the bus thing, that means there’s about to be a whole lotta shaking going on as they shuffle every route that even dips onto the transitway for 5 seconds onto the 417–which they’re also hoping to have widened by the time that becomes an issue. That means, if we’re doing our theoretical trip from this place to a college campus in the east end (more on that in another entry), rather than walk up to the mall that isn’t far from here and catch a direct route, we’ll be theoretically hopping at least one bus, to what I’m assuming will be the nearest train station in this end of the city, jumping a train to the east end, then hopping a bus from there–unless they really surprise me–and getting off at the campus location. Or, walking up to the mall in this end, grabbing a bus and taking a very indirect route to the east end and getting dropped off where we’re supposed to be. either way, they take a system that works fairly well–when their drivers don’t decide to go on strike for 3 months–and make it overly complicated. And they still have absolutely no idea how most of the thing’s going to work, or how much more they’ll be charging folks, when it’s all said and done.

    The transitway was designed so the major routes, particularly the ones stopping off at universities and the like, could get downtown from here without sifting through rush hour trafick to do so. The plan as it stands now will see those same routes, probably with several changes, heading downtown via the highway–and right along with rush hour trafick. Which, no big surprise, will take longer–not something OC Transpo needs when they’re trying to *increase* ridership.

    All of this is supposed to happen in early 2013. This time, they mean it. Pinky swear, even. So they’ve got about until 2016 to make a few more adjustments–or at least clarify the ones already made. In theory, it’s a cost saver. But in theory, we have it already. In 2025, in theory, we’ll know what it looks like. Of course by 2018, no one not in city council will actually care.

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