Election Reform

Yes, this is a big topic, but I would like to deal with a small part of it.

In watching the TedEd video on Does Your Vote Count I was reminded that a lot of states (and provinces etc) are often known to always vote for the same party. While reading my twitter feed, I was reminded that this past week the Google searches for "Who is running for President" spiked. Those two together speak to a population (global, I'm sure) that votes for the party, not the person.

Reading my Facebook feed, I came across a friend who at least gave a reason why she would not vote for one of the candidates. Not a reason I would consider a reason to vote for the other guy, but a reason she is passionate about and therefore, a valid reason.

Therefore, my proposal for election reform is to have a separate piece of paper that you have to fill out that says WHY you voted for the person you did. Not for the party. Not why you didn't vote for the other guy. But why you chose the person you voted for. I have determined that this can not determine if the vote will be counted (Florida has proved that in the past), and judging for validity would cause issues beyond belief. However, a suggested, second paper that is not counted as a vote that says: I voted for _______ because _____. This provides good feedback on why people are voting the way they are. In the future this would help all candidates campaign to what people are thinking (ok, I'm not sure if this is a good thing) and be a good classification system for what people actually care about. I propose these forms are classified by independent people who can tag them with key words like policies, economy, human rights, jerk, religion, good hair or whatever other underlying reason is given.

The outcomes should force people into thinking about the reason for their vote, as hopefully the answer "well (s)he belongs to (my party)" will make people realize that that is not the best reason to vote for someone as the parties have (apparently) evolved over time. As well, it would be quite interesting to see why people vote the way they do. I wonder how many people would say things that contradict what the candidate said or what they say their policies will be.

Customer Service

We ordered dinner from Boston Pizza today, delivery. The whole order arrived relatively quickly, but no one checked to make sure that what we received is what we ordered. By the time I finally got to my meal (feeding baby comes first), I realize that they have brought me the wrong sandwich. I also can't eat what they brought me because it is too spicy for my limited diet. We eventually call and complain and the manager says that he was waiting for our call. Now, it has been a year since I've worked in customer service, but isn't the first rule of making a mistake fixing it as soon as you realize that it has been made? The manager noticed that he had given us the wrong meal, but he did nothing to fix it until we complained. Clearly he had access to our address, so why not send a second delivery guy right away? Why wait for us to complain? Once we called, he offered to send out the sandwich, but that was an hour later. I had no desire to eat that late, the family meal was long over. Instead, he will mail us a gift card that is $2 more than the price of the meal we didn't receive. Right, so now we have to give them more business? I would rather not.

When did customer service become something you do after a complaint is made? Proactively fixing our (small) issue would have made a world of difference. Due to circumstances, if they had sent my food as soon as they noticed their error, the replacement food probably would have arrived before I had even sat down to eat. This would have given me an awesome story to tell. Instead, I got to eat a $13 side salad, the ingredients of which I already have in my fridge. Thank you Boston Pizza for making an already difficult day more difficult. Obviously they can't have known this, nor was this done on purpose, but not proactively fixing the problem was on purpose and therefore, I will do my best to not go to the restaurant chain again.

Kitty

About two and a half years ago, I got a cat. Her name is Tenny, she was from a rescue organization. She loves exploring and finding that small spot to hide. Normal cat stuff. Because she lived the first 8 months of her life in a shelter, I think she learned that making noise doesn't do anything. No human is going to come running if you complain, so when she first came to my house, she was silent. She purred, eventually, once she trusted us, but nothing else.

It took her a few weeks to warm up to us, and realize that we were going to keep her. Eventually she came out of the crawl space, and she started wanting attention. Still silently, and because of a birth defect, she couldn't jump on the couch, so we had to try to catch her to give her the attention she wanted.

Then, one day the husband left a dresser drawer open, no big deal, right? Well, Tenny decided to climb into that soft bed of clothes. Due to a shift in weight, the drawer then closed. She must have been stuck in there for hours, and we had no idea. Eventually, we realized that we hadn't seen her in a while (luckily it was a weekend, so we were home) and started searching the house. We found her and figured out that we couldn't leave things open.

When we went on holidays the next summer, we left her with my Aunt who has a very vocal cat. And, low and behold, when we came back, our dear silent Tenny was replaced with one that yowls exactly like my Aunt's cat. How I miss my silent Tenny.

The good news is that after a couple of years, she has gotten much stronger and can now jump onto our laps while we are sitting, but can not quite make the distance to the table or counter height. This is perfect as I would hate to have to try to train her to not go on the table or counter. We just have to have the chairs pushed in all the time, or she does go on the table and eats my plants. Tenny also runs around the house as quickly as she can. Now, I live in a three level split, with about 440 sq feet on each level, so her space is quite limited, and the stairs are relatively short. I can not wait to get a bigger house to give her more room to run around it. I just hope that it does not give her the extra strength needed to jump to counter level.

Changes to Come

For a while now, I have been meaning to cut back on the crappy diet and really work towards a healthier lifestyle. Having heard horror stories similar to this one I have cut out some pop, and all diet pop. However, I really have to cut out all caffeine, all refined foods, and most importantly increase healthy veggies. I realize that this should have started a year ago, before I tried to get pregnant, but better late than never I guess.

I am looking for simple, healthy and great tasting meals for my family. Simple because, so far, I have not been a fan of cooking. That is one thing that I will most definitely have to convince myself that I love and is worth doing. Ok, I know that it is worth doing, I just have to actually do it.

One small thing I started this week, and hope to be able to continue, is to have a frozen lemon in my freezer. That way, I can add a small bump of fresh Vitamin C to any meal with just a few passes over the grater, and basically no cleanup. I tried it on my homemade banana bread and it is wonderful. Now to test it on the pizza in the fridge and other foods as they pass through the house.

New Hampshire

I just read an article here about how in New Hampshire they want to make it legal to refuse to  "provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges to an individual if the request is related to the solemnization, celebration, or promotion of a marriage and providing such services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges would be a violation of the person’s conscience or religious faith." This opens up many other issues. Since it's not just about same sex marriages, it's about all of them. Can I move there and open up a wedding facility that only caters to same sex, interracial and other contested marriages? I refuse to marry a white man to a white woman as it is my belief that they get enough privileges and don't need any more. According to the law, no actions could be taken against me, as it is my conscience that is guiding my decision.

What ever happened to the US being the home of the free? Is there a little number next to that line that goes to a footnote that says As long as you are a straight, white person who enjoys the same past times as I do? You can have freedom, as long as it does not disrupt my outdated image of a perfect society? A society that is long gone, and has evolved into something containing many different colours and ideas.

Two other states are tabling laws that give school children a free pass on bullying, if they are making hateful statements about gays or being gay. What message does that send? I realize that in many ways to be successful in the US you have to at least appear to be a Christian, and that homosexuality is bad according to Christians. But, I know that the bible says a whole lot of other things that we ignore now. So, why do we keep this idea around? If it is illegal to discriminate based on other things, why is it still ok to discriminate against homosexuality (it being a choice or not is irrelevant )? You're not allowed to discriminate against me because I'm a woman, or because I choose to have a family (not-choice and choice respectively).

Land of the Free, so give your people their freedom. All of your people. You don't get to decide who is a worthy citizen and who is not, that ended with the civil rights movement, and women getting the vote. We are all equal under the law, so how can you make it legal to discriminate against homosexuality?

Convincing

I hear this all the time, people wanting to suppress ideas because the are 'dangerous'. I do not get it. Do they think that people buy into every new idea that crosses their path? Because if that were true, I would be in so much debt. I could not do anything without having to buy a new car, or drink beer, and I certainly could not work because I would have to go to Mexico and the Bahama's. Don't people realize that trying to suppress an idea can make it more dangerous? In that, young people will want to find out about it, and will think that it is an important idea because it is being suppressed?

Teenagers drink and smoke because they are not allowed to, because it is an 'adult' thing to do. (I am not suggesting to make it easier for teens to do those things, it is merely the easiest example.)

So, why ban books that are clearly fantasy because they promote witchcraft? People are smarter than that, kids are smarter than that. Give people the benefit of the doubt.

Tired, all the time

There was a time when I took some sort of sleeping pill almost every night. This was melatonin, anti-histamines or alcohol. At the same time, without realizing the irony of it all, I was tired all. the. time. Like, yawning all day, could not do anything I wanted to do. Always tired. I went to the doctor, he ordered tests, they were all normal. How could this be? I'm always tired, this is not normal. A friend told me that she got her antibodies tested and she has some auto immune disorder that sounded a lot like what I had, mostly irritable and tired all the time. I thought about going to get tested for that. I didn't, mostly because I was so tired all the time, I didn't want to deal with going to the doctor again.

For some reason, I'm not sure why, I stopped with the sleep aides. I went to sleep better. I slept better. I had energy. Of course, about that same time I also started taking Korean Red Ginseng, which is advertised to give you energy, keep you awake. It worked, magically. But, thinking back, it could have been that I stopped with the sleep aides once I found a way to stay awake. At about the same time I also started taking a multivitamin. This probably didn't hurt either. Last night, I did take a melatonin, I knew hubby would be coming home from work late, and I wanted to sleep through it. It worked, except all day, I was soo tired. I can't believe that it took this long to figure out that my being tired was only because I always had, what I call, a drug hangover. I knew that it was the drugs enough to give it a name, but not to make the connection that it lasted all day, or for days, or that the alcohol had more of an effect than I had though.

Of course, now I just started having a cup of coffee first thing in the morning while I check email. I'm not sure if this is any better, but at least I'm having my multivitamin and not my malatonin.

Why Apples Sell

I'm in the market for a new laptop. A small, cheap, powerful one. I've enlisted the help of my computer expert brother, and we've spent the last hour sifting through the various websites looking for the best deal. Prices vary widely and seemingly randomly, and the important details are hard to figure out. Things like battery life, screen resolution and weight matter when I'll be stuck at school for 8 hours on Saturday afternoon this fall, but you can't sort by that.

This is why Apples sell so well. They have (I think) three options, all logically priced based on obvious differences to the consumer. If I were a less patient and stubborn person, I probably would have bought one by now. Instead, I'll head over to asus.com and see what I can find.

Why the Justice system doesn't work (a thought)

When disciplining children and pets, it's well known that you have to catch them in the act and discipline right away, so they know exactly what they are being punished for. Why don't we do this for criminals? Maybe the system doesn't work because you speed, you get a letter in the mail two weeks later.

You rob a bank, you're put in holding for up to three years while you wait for trial.

If you get bail for your crime, you go on with life. For a few years anyway, until the trial.

Depending on your crime, you've either moved past that phase of your life so punishment is irrelevant, or you've kept going in your life of crime while waiting for your first punishment. This doesn't teach the criminal, or the kids. Justice should be swift, then maybe you'll learn why you are being punished. I realize that there needs to be time for an investigation, but due process is what makes the justice system fail to work.

Travel issues

One of my friends from work is traveling to Florida this weekend, so we were talking about flight plans and the issue of those body scanners came up. From what H heard from her friend, they don't really give you a choice on the matter. You get in a line, and if you're in the body scanner line, you have to go through. Even a pregnant lady went through because she was scared of not getting on the plane. And then, I realized something. I am much more uncomfortable with flying, especially into the US, because of the 'safety measures' than I am with the idea that someone will smuggle a bomb on board. Now, I'm not sure if that's because I'm Canadian, and I've never been robbed in any way (*knock on wood*) or even beat up (brother excluded). And, I fully support randomly testing the outside of my laptop for explosives residue, and I'm ok with putting my shoes through the x-ray machine. But keep your eyes outside my clothes.

I realize that as a small white girl, I'm low on the list of stereotypical bombers, so (fair or not) I'm probably low on the random cavity search list, but the idea of walking into a scanner and having a full body x-ray creeps me out. I know the person watching the x-rays does not get to see the people, and the security guards who see us, don't get to see the x-rays. Well, probably not. Maybe. Unless, they keep the x-ray pictures, for 'training purposes'. There's so much room for abuse, and it really creeps me out.

I can't find the link right now, but I'm sure I saw an article that said that behaviour screening is one of the more effective methods of screening. So, train up some airport security guards, make it a cool profession (come on, who doesn't want to be able to read people like the guy in Lie To Me), and make it public that you can not hide your intentions. How many people would try to get a bomb on board if some random guard at the airport would be able to see that you were anxious to get on the plane, not because you don't want to see your mother on the other end, not because you're scared of flying as such, but because you don't want to get caught. You're then pulled aside, for a conversation. Nothing intimidating, not an interrogation room, but a waiting room. This more trained guy or girl, then walks in and chats about where you're going, and the president, and how awesome this country is. And, if he sees that you are just nervous about flying, you're on your way. And, if he sees that you hate this country, well, then you get a trip through the full body scanner, and whatever other technology they can create. But, us normal travelers, us 99.9% of people who just want to go on vacation or to the conference in Vegas, why must we prove our innocence in such an invasive way? Apparently, because a handful of people every year decide they want to kill someone?

Thanks, I'll take my car.

Healthy Child, Healthy World

Healthy Child, Healthy World


Not that I'm planning on having children just yet, soon, but not next week, but the idea holds true for everyone. I want to live a long healthy life, and that includes trying to minimize the crap that goes into my body. As a society, we have become very complacent and trusting of major corporations (which I don't understand, but I'll save details for another day). Granted, there is a whole lot of science that we can't really understand without a PhD is chemical engineering, so it's hard to judge what is ok and what is not. My general rule is that if I can't pronounce it and/or understand what it is made of or how it is made, it's probably not good for me, and should not be in my food or clothing.
But, we run out of time, we have work, hobbies, social media, pets, and the green lawn with the white picket fence to take care of. We forget to take care of ourselves and have real relationships with those around us. I've lived in my house for almost a year and a half, I have said hi to my neighbours, but I don't know their names, what they do for fun or anything like that.
It's time to get back to basics, trust your neighbours, grow some of your own food, and stop buying pre-made everything (ok, so I'm not perfect, last night I bought ready to bake pumpkin pie filling).
I pledge to reclaim my house from chemicals before I start my family.

What's Cheating?

So, what is it?

Cheating is engaging in physical or emotional relations with someone other than the person you claim to have a monogamous relationship with.

Recently, I have met some guys who think that kissing someone, who you may or may not have feelings for, is not cheating. Or, at least, not enough to warrant the discussion with the significant other. This evening I was invited to a friends house for drinks and 'fun', this male friend told me three weeks ago that he has a girl friend. And yet he was perfectly ok with inviting me over with the casual phrase "want to go out for drinks?", and didn't understand my distaste for getting together. He said it would just be fun, no sex, as if that makes it all better. Do males not see that that is betrayal as well? Since when is kissing someone else not cheating?

I am reading the book "He's Just Not That Into You", and I have been watching "Lie to Me" and therefore am trying to see all the little things that people do that prove their real intentions. So, a drunk guy kissing a drunk girl, and a guy inviting a girl over for 'fun' both strike me as proving that they're not into their girl friends and have no problems cheating and lying, at least, in the female definition.

We are bombarded with what is 'right' and 'normal' day and night by TV, movies and advertising. These media outlets show teens and young adults engaging in behaviour that would get you ostracized 20 years ago; these actions are being promoted now. Being a teen mom and not knowing who the dad is, that's ok. Living at home being coddled by mom until you're 25, that's ok. Not knowing basic grammar and spelling going into High School, that's what spell check is for. Sleeping with anyone you fancy, perfectly acceptable. Giving up on your marriage because of a disagreement, expected. Taking responsibility for your actions, who does that anymore? No wonder we don't care about sleeping around, it's what is good, and expected, and rewarded.

Changes

As you can see, the site has changed. New hosting, new theme (I couldn’t find my old one),  new content. Ok, that last one is coming soon.

Calgary experiencing the wonderful phenomenon known as the chinook. It’s the middle of January and we’re expecting temperatures in the mid teens for the next few days. My neighbour just stopped by and mentioned that he saw people riding their motorbikes around today. If I was able to do that, I probably would.

Changing Priorities

How often is it that one comes across a situation that completely changes the way one looks at the world, and priorities? Until this week, I had given up on my seemingly dream job, was happy in my current job and wanted to work towards the husband and babies life plan. Then I got a heads up about the potential opportunity to go back to my home town and partake in my dream job. I’m at the top of this list, personally mentioned by the guy in charge. Suddenly I find myself forgetting about buying a house in Calgary, forgetting about finding the man for me and being happy with a man who I’ll leave here when I potentially go back home and do my dream job.
I once heard a man say that you always have time for your passions, and that you should find your passion and figure out how to make a living doing that. His personal example was landscaping, he had started a landscaping business in high school, eventually moving on to other business ventures, and being busy busy with those. Then he gets a call from a buddy asking if he wants to help make a dirt biking track and suddenly his schedule is empty and he flies home to do extreme landscaping. I remember thinking then that I didn’t have such a passion, there’s nothing that I would drop everything to do. Nothing I believed in, cared about, that much. This week has reminded me that I do have such a passion, but it’s in such a narrow field, that it’s hard to get into, and I don’t have the sufficient education that would normally allow me to pursue it, nor do I have the desire to go around the long way and hope and pray to get into my desired department. Which, would only last a few years because they move people around very quickly.
So, with a simple cross-country text message, my priorities changed, my passion became slightly plausible. Well, in a year or so after they get a new office, and after they get funding, but it’s there. But, what do I do while I wait for the time to pass? I hate being in limbo, and that’s exactly where I am.
So, here I am, waiting for a potential job offer if they ever get funding for enough investigators to actually want an analyst...

Private: Changing Priorities

How often is it that one comes across a situation that completely changes the way one looks at the world, and priorities? Until this week, I had given up on my seemingly dream job, was happy in my current job and wanted to work towards the husband and babies life plan. Then I got a heads up about the potential opportunity to go back to my home town and partake in my dream job. I'm at the top of this list, personally mentioned by the guy in charge. Suddenly I find myself forgetting about buying a house in Calgary, forgetting about finding the man for me and being happy with a man who I'll leave here when I potentially go back home and do my dream job.
I once heard a man say that you always have time for your passions, and that you should find your passion and figure out how to make a living doing that. His personal example was landscaping, he had started a landscaping business in high school, eventually moving on to other business ventures, and being busy busy with those. Then he gets a call from a buddy asking if he wants to help make a dirt biking track and suddenly his schedule is empty and he flies home to do extreme landscaping. I remember thinking then that I didn't have such a passion, there's nothing that I would drop everything to do. Nothing I believed in, cared about, that much. This week has reminded me that I do have such a passion, but it's in such a narrow field, that it's hard to get into, and I don't have the sufficient education that would normally allow me to pursue it, nor do I have the desire to go around the long way and hope and pray to get into my desired department. Which, would only last a few years because they move people around very quickly.
So, with a simple cross-country text message, my priorities changed, my passion became slightly plausible. Well, in a year or so after they get a new office, and after they get funding, but it's there. But, what do I do while I wait for the time to pass? I hate being in limbo, and that's exactly where I am.
So, here I am, in a quasi-relationship that may or may not go further than the bedroom and a potential job offer if they ever get funding for enough investigators to actually want an analyst. Who knew that I would actually miss my time in Edmonton with no life.

... I did... and yet, here I am.

The Gym

Many years ago an ex-boyfriend of mine decided that the only way we could be together was if I embraced his passion for working out. Granted, at the time I didn't have many hobbies, so I spent a lot of time at school, working or hanging out with a couple friends. But anyway, he often took me to the gym with him where he became my personal trainer. I learned technique for free weights, but never really pushed that hard because, well, I just didn't care that much.
Last week I joined a Woman's Gym, and have gone 4 times since. I've also been eating a little bit better in the evenings because the Gym is upstairs in a Superstore, so I'll have slightly higher gas bills, lower grocery bills and a gym bill. I think it will all even out because of how much I'll save shopping at Superstore instead of Safeway. It's also really hard to buy shitty food when you've JUST left the gym.
Today I did a class called Body Pump, you take weights, and lift them, to music. It's the first time I've ever really pushed myself when it comes to weights, and washing my hair was so difficult afterwards, even after a previous hot shower and 20 minutes in their dry sauna. I've also taken to running on the eliptical, today I did 2kms, and i plan to increase the distance until I get to 35 minutes of running, and then change to 35 minutes of running, and try increase the distance every time. There's a spot on the machine where you can put a USB Key and it will track your progress. So, I have a small key which I will keep with my gym stuff and track my time/distance.
Anyway, the point of this post was supposed to be that after class one of the ladies came up to me and commented on my form. At the start of class they asked if anyone was new, so I raised my hand as I had never been to that class before. The lady was apparently impressed at my form (there was another lady who didn't say she was new who appeared to not be able to do it properly to save her life).
So, I would like to thank Roch for teaching me good form, it is finally paying off, and I'm going to the gym three to four times a week and doing a variety of workouts, not just strength training. I will get lean and toned and I will stay that way.
I would also like to thank my cousin Petra whose own weight loss and stories of running 10kms three times a week inspired me to start to look into the gym.
And, the girls in the AP forum on Nexopia who started a discussion on various gyms and inspired me to actually go and look at the gym.
And, of course, my boy David who hasn't complained once (yet) about me taking my Saturday and Sunday mornings away from him so I can go to the gym instead. He has also been really good at letting me do with for me and being supportive and not pushy.

Plagiarism

I spent three and a half years at MacEwan, with a year of the University of Alberta in the middle. They both claimed to punish those who plagiarized. For some reason the U of A put the fear of god into me on that topic, more than anything anyone said to me while I was at MacEwan.
I remember staying after class one day to ask my TA if I was going to get in trouble for not citing a source from one of the movies we watched in class (it was a Film and Media Studies class). Boy was I nervous. I was hoping to all hell that they weren't going to kick me out of school for making a small mistake like that. The U made it clear that if they kicked you out, no other self-respecting school would allow you in either. Many of my classmates said that their professors made them submit papers through websites that had databases of papers and would check for plagiarism that way. This, of course, is really scary. What if, by pure chance and probability, you had the same sources as a student from last year? What if he highlighted parts of the book, so you noticed them, and used the same information? Is this plagiarism? Would you get expelled for it? These things seriously worried me. I made myself a system that, if followed precisely, would prevent me from inadvertently plagiarizing off of a website source.
Then, I get back to MacEwan, start a new program, get the ‘Don’t plagiaries’ speech at the start of each class, so I take it seriously. I use my same precautions, be extra careful. Then in my fourth year of post secondary, only a couple classes away from getting a Diploma and getting out of school, I’m in a group with three other people who are not from Canada. Their English is shitty at best. One of them disappears back to Mexico, I think someone died, but who knows. The other two are smart, but really, can’t put a proper English sentence together to save their lives. Obviously I’m in charge of putting the paper together because, well, I have a grasp on the language. So I’m reading, editing, trying to figure out what the hell this girl is trying to say and then magic. A perfect sentence. Not just perfect, extraordinary. Professionally written even. Hmm…. red flag much? So, I copy it into Google, I mean, what other choice do I have? And oh look. There it is.
I send an e-mail to the professor. I mean, I don’t want her kicked out, but I certainly want something done. When I talked to her she didn’t understand the seriousness of the issue, she didn’t care. Really, why should she? She fucks up she goes back to China, the world moves on, ok, no Canadian education, but it’s not like she’s going to integrate properly anyway. She fucked up, I get blamed, I just wasted $35,000, four years, and can’t get any more education because of the huge black mark on my folder. The professor never responded in any way. I don’t know if she ever spoke to the girl. The other students at MacEwan wondered why I was taking it so seriously.
I'm guessing the University makes you believe it because they believe it, while MacEwan just claims they do because they have to.

Body Type

Each type of person in my life tends to have a similar body type. My aunts are all short and a few extra pounds (good to know what I have to look forward to), my cousins are taller than the rest of the ladies in my family and mostly skinny, and my boyfriends tend to be large, solid guys. They're short or tall, but always solid. This makes me feel safe and protected. So, what happens when you meet someone by asking a seemingly harmless question, "What kind of motorbike do you ride?", without screening based on body type and other stated attributes? I had no intentions when I started this conversation, just saw a guy sitting on a bike that I couldn't place and wondered which bike it was.
Turns out that we have a lot in common and thoroughly enjoy each other’s company. He took me on my first motorcycle ride out of the city, we went to Bragg Creek and down Highway 66. It's absolutely gorgeous, and full of turns. It just feels weird giving him a hug because it's so out of the norm. Of course, it's not a big deal, it's not really worth mentioning, but, here I am, writing a post about it.
Have you ever put someone in a category, but then have them not fit the mold? Does it not throw you off? It's not going to change anything, but it will take some getting used to. On the plus side, he's much stronger than he looks.