Pull yourself together, they’re just curtains.

In which I dive, possibly too deeply, into the world of drapery.

When I moved into my condo 11 years ago (I can't believe it’s been that long!), there were ugly, half-detached track rods across the windows, which I promptly removed.

Let me paint the picture: I have a West-facing unit (never the sunrise, but always the sunset, which I’m fine with), with one of those L-shaped living/dining rooms. As I’m on the top floor, I have extra-high structural ceilings (121.5" to be precise), but with dropped-ceiling tiles that bring it down to 93" (and no, I can’t remove the dropped ceilings as they cover lots of wiring and piping coming from the roof — that’s the drawback to ‘penthouse living’), which means I can’t really hang things heavier than paper from the ceiling unless I want to put a hole in a tile and hang an extra long pole/hook contraption from the concrete 28.5" farther up.

The windows along the wall go from the dropped ceiling to a windowsill a third of the way up the wall, and they span more than half of the width of wall. They’re broken into six separate panes, with three larger, almost square, panes above three smaller, rectangular, panes (the centre of which opens). All told (including framing), it’s over 472ft of light coming in — and that’s DIRECT sunlight from about 1pm until sundown, as there are no significant obstructions to the horizon for almost 5.5 kilometers (that’s over 3.3 miles*).

Emergency alert in the night

There was an amber alert lastnight at 11:36pm regarding the abduction of an 11 year old girl by her father. Woke me up. Not complaining about that, that's how it works.

A second emergency alert came in at 12:21am to cancel the amber alert saying 'child has been located.' Oh good, I thought, the little girl is safe. Not sure I needed to be woken up again, but then again it's good to know the emergency is over, and it meant anyone actively involved in searching for her could stand down, so it makes sense.

Sorry

Yes, Canadians say 'sorry' for a lot of things. This is a form of 'social lubricant' - a nicety we perform to keep everything ticking over nicely and avoid friction. Some non-Canadians see it as a weakness, like we're trying to belittle ourselves before others to make a less likely target of aggression, but we see it as just how you let people know they matter. We were raised to be nice people and think of others.

On being female at a bar

public signage via
This Japanese Life

So lastnight at darts we played a team of lovely people we always enjoy (they take way too long smoking between games, but that's a minor thing). We were at their pub.

There was a rather obnoxious drunkard at the bar who kept throwing coasters at us while we were playing - he was throwing them specifically at one of the other team's players and obviously thought he was being cute. I'd had enough and shouted across the bar at him to cut it out, he took offense and shouted he wasn't throwing them at me, I replied that I didn't care and would appreciate it if he'd just stop.

Choose your superpower

If I could choose one superpower, it would be the ability to make people feel the consequences of their own actions immediately. Instant Karma.

Terrible bargain

Woman Crying (Comic) #2
Photo by Anne Collier
Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery

This was every day with the Seven Year Jerk:

What the world owes you

Dear people who thinks the world owes them sex.

The world does not.

Less douchey ways

There are less douchey ways to disagree with someone. For example, if I say "I like [insert band name]" and you don't, you can always say "They're not to my taste" or "They're not for me" or "I can't get into them" instead of "They're stupid" or "Only idiots listen to them" - and I recognize that I have on occasion been guilty of this myself, but I always try not to be.

Scientific method

I just read a great post shared by a friend about the scientific method and how you can't be mad at the result if the method was sound. I fully agree.

Then why do I have tarot cards and crystals in my house? Because I also like them.

Esoteric opinions

If people could stop assuming that the way they do certain tasks is THE way to do them and everyone else is doing it wrong, that would be great. Thanks! Same goes for opinions on esoteric topics (such as 'best song').

I don't count tongue in cheek statements or just 'this song is the best' - it's more when people refuse to acknowledge someone else might hold a different opinion (not including horrible racist or anti-science things of course).

Get over it

People (not just men) who think 'so he grabbed your ass/complimented your shape/whistled as you walked past, it's not that bad, get over it' - the problem is not exactly what was done/said in these situations (although they're bad enough), it's what we believe might follow.

Attack ads

I don’t pretend to understand the nuances of politics. But when election time rolls around I review the policies of the candidates and watch a debate or two. And I pay attention to who actually answers the questions put to them, and to who runs ads that don’t talk about their own ideas.

Attack ads only tell me you don't have a plan - if you did, you would have spent the money to tell me why to vote for you, not why to not vote for the other guy. I'm looking at you, Ontario PC Party.

They’re just vain

So at my second-to-last show during JFL42 a young man with a charming English accent asked me "Why do people take photos at these shows? They're just vain and wanting to say 'look what I was at that you weren't' right?"

Coffee shop racism

Had coffee with Dad and two of our family friends earlier. All was well, then politics came up, and it came out that they believe Trump's tweets are the truth and Fox News is trustworthy. Ok, you can be blind if you like, go ahead. Then one of them (not my Dad but one of the couple) referred to President Obama at "the black devil" (in the context of 'that's what they call him down there' but without any clarification that they didn't share this opinion) - I was absolutely shocked, and ended the conversation. How can I ever speak to them again?

Giving up?

So I've had this goal in my life for my entire adulthood. It's something my Mother excelled at, that other people do all the time and seem to find easy, and logically it is, but I've just never been able to do it. I've struggled with it for years. I've tried to take it in baby steps, I've tried to go all in and immerse myself, I've tried scheduling it, and nothing works. I think I'm making progress, and then I just collapse and it was all for nothing.

I owe what now?

My internet/phone/cable bill is not due for another 10 days but I thought I'd pay it now. Just went into it and they've charged me an extra $90 for going over my data limit by 60GB between Oct 21-Nov 20! I never got a warning - up to now, I always have got a warning when I was at 80% of my limit and another at 100% of my limit, but nothing!

First time reporting someone to HR

In the elevator on the way up to the office just now, I mentioned to one of the assistants in the elevator with me 'can you believe it's almost Christmas?' and she said 'yes' which kind of threw me, so I said 'it just seems like the fall went by so fast' and she said 'the years go faster when you're older' not even joking, like I'm ancient or something. Whatever.

Jawbone lack-of-customer-support

Left today on Jawbone's site:

July 28 I contacted Jawbone as my UP2 had developed a crack. I crazy-glued it together while waiting for a response.

No spoilers damnit

About a month or so ago, while the show was still airing, I was talking to a lady at work who I'd never had a conversation with before and discovered we share a love of Doctor Who and of Blacklist. Was telling her how I don't like spoilers and try to completely avoid them - not directors or things like that but major plot points. She agreed. Then, within two minutes, she casually spoiled something that was coming up on Blacklist, after I'd told her I hadn't seen the new episode yet.

Haven't spoken to her since.

Outta my spot

Much as I love people named Jennifer, one I don't know has parked in my spot. They've been ticketed, and will be towed if they're still there in the morning. Gone are the days of letting strangers park in my spot for three days.